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Shaky Premise

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    Farmington
  • Interests
    Medieval literature
  • Program
    English Lit

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  1. This is probably a topic for another thread (if it doesn't have one already), but are there resources you're using to find out about these placement rates? I realize some schools post this information and others don't; others offer up a vague list of schools where they've placed people but don't give any specific information about when or who. Where might I look for more information?
  2. Yes, I applied to ASU too, but I haven't heard anything from them. I saw that one person was accepted by telephone a while back, but I'm assuming it was either an internal candidate or someone who's been offered a fellowship. Now that Indiana has sent out acceptances (and I didn't get one!), ASU is the last school I'm waiting to hear back from. It shouldn't be much longer now before this whole business is over once and for all.
  3. I think it depends entirely on what your goals are. If your plan is to eventually teach at a top 50 university, then you should probably apply primarily to those top-tier schools you mentioned. The vast majority of positions at such places are occupied by people who earned their PhDs at top 20 universities. If you would be comfortable teaching at a smaller, lesser-known university or satellite campus, a liberal arts college, or a community college, then you should absolutely apply to any university with faculty members, programs, and resources that fit your interests. However, you also want to consider how realistic your goals are (this has NOTHING to do with the stats you listed by the way; your writing sample and SoP are going to factor most heavily, as I'm sure you know). Keep in mind that top 20 schools receive applications from every English major with a pulse, including those who have 4.0 GPAs from top-tier universities, soaring GRE scores, *and* good writing samples. But if your long-term goal is to teach at a top university, you may as well throw your hat in and see what happens. You should also be prepared for the possibility of coming up 0/10 or 0/15. "Competitive" is not a strong enough word to describe these schools. I always feel bad when I hear from people who are crushed by their rejections, but I can't help but wonder why they *only* applied to top 20 schools. Cruisin' for a bruisin'. If you fall into the group of folks who would be comfortable teaching at a smaller and/or less prestigious university or community college, your best bet is to apply broadly. Sure, pick out a few top 20 programs that *really* fit your interests, make your SoPs for those universities as strong as they can be, and let 'er rip. There's a fair enough chance you've wasted the $60 to $100 application fees, but what is that in the long run? And then send out the rest of your applications to universities that aren't maybe as highly regarded but that have people you'd like to work with and programs that will help you to succeed. I followed this method this year, and, as you can see from my results, if I had only applied to the top 20 programs, I would be in a sad way right now. But the universities I've been accepted to have very strong faculty members and amazing programs for my particular field of interest, so I'm ecstatic about the results. When I finish my PhD I might not have the same opportunities in front of me that someone with an Ivy League PhD would, but I believe that any one of these schools will provide me with the resources to become a fine instructor and scholar so that there will be opportunities in my field that I have a realistic shot at taking advantage of. The key, I think, is to be realistic about your goals and to soberly decide where you would be happiest down the road.
  4. Yes, it's on the apply yourself page. If you've been rejected, the admission decision will show up *below* the message about your status, at the very bottom of the page. If I remember correctly, it was in a red font. Emergency, you've been rejected! And I definitely wouldn't be paranoid. It seems to me they're moving through the rejections slowly but surely. And if you don't hear anything in the next day or so, you might have made a wait list. No reason to panic.
  5. Sure enough, the decision has shown up on the website. I didn't receive an email prompting me to check, although I assume I will at some point. Those of you who are still waiting might check again. The decision link is at the very bottom, under the verification of your application materials. This is not a surprise at all, and I'm glad to have closure! Good luck to those of you who got in!
  6. Just so's you all know, I haven't received any word yet either, which would lead me to agree with madhousefluent's "too many of us to still be in the running" assessment. I'm guessing there's *some* method behind the madness. Then again I was rejected by UT-Austin a full two weeks before anyone else was (I think it was about 15 seconds after I submitted my application), so maybe some of these schools determine rejections in rounds. Or maybe they're just taking handfulls of rejections, sending off the bad news emails, taking a coffee break, and then repeating the process. I've heard they had loads of applications this year, so it's bound to take time to get back to everyone. I'm anticipating that the inevitable will arrive later this evening or early tomorrow...
  7. Thank you very much for the information! Fordham appears to be a quirky place in a lot of respects (Graduate Assistants work for a good chunk of the Christmas Break and all of Spring Break, even when classes are out?), but the moving to the city part is still the most formidable. I've since found more information about housing via the Fordham website, but I thank you for adding your perspective. Big decisions ahead...
  8. I would have to second (or is it third?) that motion. I heard long ago that UVA had already accepted an applicant who focused on the Anglo-Saxon period, but I was holding out to the last. Now that another round of acceptances has seemingly gone out, I'm fairly certain the jig is up! Congrats to those who got in; I'm sure you'll prosper in Charlottesville!
  9. Any chance of reviving this thread? I notice the New York City thread is pretty active, but it seems to be directed in the main to those considering NYU and Columbia. I've just been admitted to the English PhD program at Fordham and would love to attend. My biggest concerns are being able to survive on the stipend, finding a decent enough place to live, and the general transistion from the south to the northeast. Where do Fordham's grad students generally live? Is it insane to consider bringing a vehicle? I'm admittedly entirely unfamiliar with NYC, so really any information would be helpful.
  10. These two posts represent *exactly* my path to graduate school in English, following an undergraduate degree in a completely different field. Some schools (like the one I attended) have programs specifically designed to transition non-English majors into the graduate program in English. You'll take a number of upper-division English courses to "level" your record; along the way you post high grades, establish relationships with faculty members, and improve your writing and interpretive skills. In the end you've got proof that you can succeed in upper-division English courses, willing recommenders, and, ideally, a solid writing sample culled from one of the courses you took. It certainly can be done; it just takes time and effort.
  11. Thank you for the congrats! I'm overjoyed...I was accepted to both programs on the same day (UT-Knoxville, to clarify)! I assume from your post that you've worked with Dr. Treharne? I'm already very much torn between these two programs, so any insider info about the faculty or program at FSU would be most welcome.
  12. This is a tricky subject. I hold an MA, so this topic is one that I've researched pretty thoroughly. Like so many other aspects of the application process, the value of an MA varies widely from school to school. Some programs, like Ohio State, pretty much require that you have an MA in hand to be seriously considered for the PhD program. Others like Virginia and Indiana do accept applicants who have earned MAs but seem to hold such students' application packages to a much higher standard than the others (As they should! Two years of extra work is considerable!). Further, they generally accept far fewer applicants from the MA pool than from the BA pool. I doubt many programs view students who hold MAs as "those who couldn't cut it in a PhD program," but they probably do want to be able to clearly see the advances you've made while earning the degree. Did you work on foreign languages? Did you hone in on your research interests more so than you had as an undergrad? Do you present yourself as someone who's already immersed in the scholarship? Basically you're not so much proving your potential as a scholar (as those do who are moving directly from the BA to the PhD) as you are proving that you already know what being a graduate student is about and already have a pretty good handle on the discourse and the requirements. In sum, I don't see it as a handicap at all, but substantially more is expected of you. Finally, I've known loads of people who completed their MAs at different universities than they did their PhDs, including many if not most of my professors, so doing so can't be *too* detrimental. Of course the more substantial downside is that very few (if any) schools will allow all of the coursework you completed for your MA to count towards your PhD. Which equals more time in graduate school. That's why for many of us, the best possible outcome is continuing on at the programs where we earned our MAs.
  13. Yes, it does seem a bit early to be giving up hope altogether! Even if UVA has made all of their initial offers, I'm almost positive they haven't disclosed any information about their wait list. Keep in mind that such lists are a BIG part of the process. Until you receive an official rejection, or at the very least see that the school your waiting on has notified its wait-listers (as Chicago has), it's far too early to count yourself out. Of course I do understand your take; it's much easier to just give up and count on the rejection than to hold out hope, only to catch the bad news later. In the immortal words of Lloyd Dobler, "If you start out depressed, everything's kind of a pleasant surprise."
  14. While I tend to agree and generally have very little interest in the "stats" of the folks that have been accepted, I can't help but wonder how the numbers are actually weighted. When I hear that schools are receiving anywhere from 300 to *700* application packages, I can't help but guess that a certain percentage of "low-stats" packages are tossed away outright. Do the committees really closely read 500 or more writing samples at 15 to 20 pages a pop? I guess it's possible, but it doesn't seem all that likely. On the other hand, I have a friend who was accepted into a top 50 school with full funding in spite of an undergraduate GPA below 2.5 and only modest GRE scores. Who knows?!? I'm not convinced that adcoms don't just wad the applications up, toss them into a hopper, and make their decisions lottery-style. It would certainly explain some of the people I've met in graduate school...
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