bdon19

Mark McGurl's essay "The Posthuman Comedy" (and the following conversation between him and Wai-Chee Dimock) is worth looking into. Plus, McGurl is a rock star who knows how to wear a pair of black skinny jeans.

Thanks, Phil Sparrow! I had UNC and Northwestern on my list last year, too. So at least I wasn't totally off! I'll definitely look into Columbia and Rutgers.

 

UNC would be great for another reason: Any other basketball fans here?

 

Definitely UNC!  (I'm not biased or anything...)  But, in all seriousness, UNC is really strong for early modern.  Let me re-state that: REALLY strong.  I came from a similar-sounding liberal arts institution for my B.A., and while I don't think that any graduate program will ever be able to offer (at least/especially on the administrative level), the exact type of environment that I had there, I definitely enjoyed my first year there greatly.  In terms of religion and literature, UNC offers the option of taking courses at Duke as well, and they have at least one or two cross-listed literature/religion courses every semester offered through the divinity school.  I am only on GradCafe sporadically now that I'm not applying myself (like now, it's usually when I'm procrastinating writing), but do feel free to PM me with any questions you might have about the program, and I'll try to get back to you!  Good luck with your applications!

One of my favorite human rights related texts is Human Rights, Inc.:  The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law by Joseph Slaughter (oh, the irony in that name).  

No, it's not their job. It's a single component of their job, which includes a bunch of other things that take priority over getting admissions decisions out on the applicants' schedules. It is completely normal to send graduate applicants a response on the application anytime between January and April. Professional courtesy includes courtesy from us.

 

Ditto.  I happened to see the grad admissions director in the student union today, meeting with undergraduate students. These are professors who are still teaching both undergrad and grad courses, getting their students through major/minor exams, mentoring students, planning the visitation weekend for students who do get accepted, and doing a whole bunch of other things.. I don't envy them, as I can barely get my work done as is!

 Do you happen to have any more insider information on UNC's admissions process that you might be willing to divulge? I don't want to pry, but UNC is my top choice and has been my "dream school" for years, so I'm a bit of a nervous wreck here.

Unfortunately, I only heard this from a friend, who heard it from a faculty member he passed on the staircase today.  Other than that, I don't know much at all.  I don't even know who's on the committee, minus the admissions director, DGS, and such.  Good luck to you though!  UNC is a great place to be!

 

Hey bdon19!  My application season thus far has been very dismal, and though your news terrifies me, I'm grateful for it.  Hopefully UNC sends good news my way!

 

Good luck to you, Two Espressos! You've been working so hard at this; I really hope it works out for you!!

Hey friends! Just wanted to throw out there, I heard rumors today that the adcomm here at UNC is finalizing decisions basically as we speak and will be starting to notify soon! I know I got my e-mail last year at about 8 pm, so keep your eyes out! I am crpssing my fingers for all of you!!

Haha, as someone who went through all of this last year at this time, I can remember how awful this all was.  Keep in mind, you're almost definitely not going to hear anything for another month (I think my earliest notification was early(ish) February.  And you are going to keep getting those "we have received your application" e-mails the entire time and it's going to give you a heart attack each and every time.  One school (I think it was Duke) sent me one like every three days for over a month!  Good luck to you all!  Maybe I will see some of you around my neck of the woods in a few months!

The ending WAS very melodramatic, but, for some reason, that is what I LOVED about it. I think it's because I just spent the past term writing my senior thesis about whether or not the novel is "dead," and then there's this amazing novel that uses the 19th-century novel form and brilliantly transposes it onto the twenty-first century.  I don't know, it was just kind of refreshing for me, in the way that Victorian novels can be refreshing.  And in the way that, at least formalistically, it's not trying to DO anything other than be a novel (unlike something like Eugenides's The Marriage Plot).  I haven't read The Corrections yet, but I'd be interested to do so now!

In the time after graduating, I finally got around to reading Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, and am now resisting the urge to specialize in contemporary lit. I've decided, in a final act of young rebellion against the academy, that my summer will mainly consist of me holing myself up in my room with Netflix, catching up on TV that I always was too busy reading to watch.  I have all next year to read that theory stuff, anyway.

In response to some of the points brought up by Two Espressos, I want to voice an opinion of mine that I wish I had more clearly formulated and been able to articulate pre-applying to grad school. Recently, I've been working on a project for my English major capstone course that takes up questions about the future of the novel.  I have been discovering more and more that my (admittedly amateur) training in creative writing has prepared me to a huge extent to talk about a number of issues related to both the contemporary novel as well as the novel more generally throughout its history that I never would have gotten through my strictly literary education. I had the opportunity to attend the AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) conference a few months ago, and the experiences I've had with people who are active writers has really allowed me to open myself up to looking at literature outside strictly a theoretical or scholarly lens.  I never in a thousand years would want to attend an MFA program (nor would my writing be up to par anyway), but learning the kinds of things that an MFA program teaches and participating in writing workshops has really expanded my views on the field of literature more generally.

Well, it's official.  I just accepted my offer at UNC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO EXCITED!

bdon, I know what you mean. At this point, I'm not in love with either school. We'll see if Austin is beguiling enough to make me turn down IU's much better funding... Good luck at UNC. Too bad I won't see you at either of the others. It's my personal goal to go to school with at least one GCer. Kidding. Sort of.

Have you visited IU? I couldn't make it for the official visit day, but I was able to take a visit a few weeks ago. I did get a really great sense of the program and felt like I would have been really happy there.  It just happened that UNC had all that and more to offer.

Side note: at both of my visit weekends I talked with fellow prospective students and current students about the insanity that is the GradCafe. Even if none of the regulars end up together, rest assured that just about everyone has been on here at some point or another.

One thing I haven't seen so far on this thread is simply that weird, elusive thing called the gut.  I'm a big proponent of going with your gut, and already I'm leaning towards making a decision based on mine (though of course I'm waiting until after visits to do so). It's always worked out with me so far...hopefully it will this time, too.

Why on earth would your roommate resist the coolest idea for a party ever??

Sidenote: have you seen Midnight in Paris? When I read your post, that was all I could think about.

Haha I came up with the idea to have a party like this last year, but after I saw Midnight in Paris, I knew it had to happen.  I've already called dibs on Anais Nin (and am trying to get a guy friend to agree to be Henry Miller).  Sadly, my roommate would prefer having an American historical figures party...she's big on Presidents. Hahahaha

"Love is to me that you are the knife which I turn within myself." -- Franz Kafka

So encouraging, ComeBack.

One of my favorites, especially in terms of literary studies:

"That would be a glorious life, to addict oneself to perfection; to follow the curve of the sentence wherever it might lead, into deserts, under drifts of sand, regardless of lures, of seductions; to be poor always and unkempt; to be ridiculous in Piccadilly."
--Neville from Virginia Woolf's The Waves