silentskye

Going to Boston University! Admittedly it was my only option, but who cares, it was also my top choice (discounting reach schools).

Thanks Ipbuck09 Mine is a Romanticism/Victorian novel hybrid (more like Romantic influence on the Victorian novel).

Ah, that makes sense. I guess I should've assumed that.

I've more of a lurker but I'm also starting the MA/PhD in BU. Stately plump, are you sure the open day is on March 8th? My acceptance letter said that its on March 23rd and you have to RSVP by March 8th. It would be rather annoying to come to Boston on the wrong day! Anyway, hopefully I'll see you there :-)

All the clothing recommendations are spot on, I'd like to add my strange little experience here, as well... I moved to Boston in August as my husband started his PhD in BU. We got here too late rent-wise (all the good apartments are taken by the end of July) so we had to settle for something slightly more expensive. However, it's owned by a management company who pays for heat and hot water. And I'm telling you, I wasn't cold once indoors. On the contrary, it sometimes gets overheated at night and I sweat in bed. I suffered from the cold much more in my native Israel, where no one has good heating or real winter clothes. So if you can get a management company apartment, I highly recommend it.

4. You're so smart, of course you'll get in! 3. You'll get in because everyone knows the average American is an uneducated redneck, so there'll be no competition (hurrah for feel-good foreigner philosophy) 2. What's your Plan B? And my personal favorite... 1. You know you can always teach highschool when you finish your English PhD. Yup. I'm disturbed. Thank you for this thread.

I've just had a similar thought (sort of). If the two professors I talk about in my fit paragraph are both on sabbatical that year, does that necessarily mean that they will not see my application and/or that I am reducing my chances of acceptance from the get-go? Yeah. Hurrah for over thinking it.

Found it in tiny font: "* In addition to the standard Graduate School admissions forms, applicants to the MA program should submit a scholarly writing sample (7–15 pages is sufficient). Applicants holding the MA who are applying to the PhD program should submit a scholarly writing sample (15–25 pages) in their area of interest." I'm assuming then that if you're an applicant holding a BA who is applying to the PhD program, they won't beat you up if your writing sample is 20 pages. I think. I'm also applying to BU. Good luck to us

Coming from a CW program in Israel, where I also assisted the coordinator for a few years, I have to say that in my experience different age groups only help make the class more interesting. The more diverse (and we've had people in their 20s and their 70s) the better. We even had someone who at your age decided to take a BA just so he could then go on to take the CW program, and he was a highly valued member of the group. So if I were you I wouldn't feel bad about your age - on the contrary, I think it's the perfect time to delve into writing. That's my 2 cents!

Better than Duke's 8, definitely better than BU's 6(!!!).

Really. My alma mater is in Israel and I currently reside in Boston, so any and all communications with them take place through my mother at best, or on the phone at 4 am, at worst. I ask them to send copies of my transcript, including graduate work. They say it'll take two weeks. It takes more. They send it out and I discover the transcripts do not include my graduate work. I explain the mistake to the universities to which I'm applying. They understand, and request that I send the completed transcripts when I have them. My mother finally received the new transcripts yesterday, and sent them all off. However she only received 7, when there were supposed to be 8 (one for me, to scan and upload to websites). She returns to the university today where they tell her, apologetically, that the transcripts they translated only included my undergraduate work. She had already sent the new transcripts to all the universities that required a hard copy. That means more emails, having to apologize for my alma mater's apparent inability to include my graduate courses in the transcripts. It also means that all in all, I would've sent 3(!!) copies of my transcripts to all these universities by the time this is over. If I were them, I would throw my application in the trash out of sheer annoyance. OK. Rant over. Thank you for coming

Ha! I got the same thing from my mom in a roundabout Polish way when I accused her of being unsupportive: "Of course I'm supportive of everything you do. Even if you join the circus I'll be supportive."

WellSpring, you just made my day.

They're trying to drive us crazy, aren't they. Might be an initial weeding process.