Origin=Goal

Two Espressos: Dokkey's post is correct for two reasons. The first being that one should certainly not make decisions solely off factors such as how "elite" the institution appears or via relatively uninformed a prioris based on either a welcome reception or projections concerning a school based on its location (although location should certainly be a factor). The second point he makes (although without at all being aware of it) is that every discipline is filled with pretentious jerks, in fact some of the most egregiously unselfconscious cretins you'll likely encounter. This is important. It should go to show that the academy (like the individual institution) should not be romanticized, as it is not abstracted from many of the petty, undesirable features of normal jobs (quite the contrary) and is becoming increasingly less secure and more competitive. In applying, you'll be fighting tooth and nail for a slightly-better-than-subsistence financial allowance, in order to be more overwork than you've ever been and write scholarship that only a handful of people will read or care about-- still all the while have to deal with bloated egos such as our model one (qua departmental politics, rivalries, administrators who will do everything in their powers to incinerate your budget/funding, etc). You have been warned, good luck next year.

Learn what interests you more and where you think you'll write more inspired scholarship/read better literature. Hope I'm not breaking any news here, but in terms of careers, academia (especially the humanities) is never very safe, practical, or stable. Your work should not be tailored towards some ideal of professional utility, or else, 90% of the time, you'll end up working on something that either you don't enjoy or that you don't excel in and just barely able to scrape by in all other aspects of life. I was in a similar spot to yours a couple years ago, between German and another Romance language for relatively similar reasons. German was much, much more theoretically useful and at the time I was excited for a challenge; but ultimately, given my limited time, I chose the language which would benefit my research more directly (and was also the easier to learn). I don't necessarily feel cheated for needing translations of Hegel, Marx, Freud, et al, and the ad comms will admit you based foremost on your field of interest, rather then methodological/theoretical loyalties (unless its a trendier, theory-centric program).

I was curious if anyone had some thoughts on the advantages of a more cross-disciplinary, theoretical program like NYU compared to a comp lit program more rigorously tied to traditional languages and literary studies-- especially with regard to job placement possibilities.

I'll fucking... I'll fucking stick... [...]

I'd say Columbia as well (Duke has been sliding into strange areas as of late). If you're into poststructuralist Marxism then it is definitely the place for you; if you don't accept Derrida's critique of "the ontology of value" you will have some good debates ahead of you. Either way it is a very solid program.

Congratulations takethiswaltz, looks like you have some great options to chose from!

In a similar boat myself, vordhosbtwin, congratulations again on the great acceptances! For me, I think department fit (and maybe the greater university fit--especially for more interdisciplinary fields like ours) is paramount; but lifestyle and living considerations are also important. Have you thought much about living in B-more versus New Haven? Out of curiosity, who do you want to work with at Hopkins? I almost applied to work with Lsi, but felt it wasn't a very strong match for me personally. Hent de Vries also has some great research, but not much that relates to my interests.

Go to the right parties. Congrats by the way!

Herc, did you make it into HisCon? Heard from a student in the department that they only accepted two this year (!); dope profile icon by the way.

No problem, Bayo. Actually, believe it or not I've totally heard of Reinaldo Arenas. I have a copy of La loma del Angel sitting in my ever-growing "to read" stack!

No, that's actually pretty fucking cool. Looks like it paid off too!

I'm probably going to pay my recommenders visits (even the one who was two weeks late on some schools ), as I'm sure they are going to want to share in the good news and excitement. On another note, isn't it weird to find yourself speaking so optimistically for once?

Ugh, I'll already have done two visits by then and was hoping to have things narrowed down a little more. Wonder why the wait is so long with them...

As concerns Chicago, I emailed the department to ask when decisions would be out, this is what I got: We expect to finish finalizing decisions in the next week if everything remains on schedule. So, you can reasonably expect to hear from us regarding your application by the end of February. You will receive a notification email with a link to your online application status page (the same place where you checked to make sure recommendation letters and such were received on time at ) when additional information regarding the status of your application becomes available. Though I'm aware at this point that (in the case of Chicago specifically) they have almost certainly sent out acceptances. and come next week will dole out the rejections and the invites to their cash cow masters program. Anyone know the status of Princeton? Last year they sent most of theirs out at the end of Feb, but just wanted to check.

It's best not to jerk a program around and jump through all the hoops-- as well as spend their diminishing recruitment, tie up the admission spot for someone else, etc--if you're SURE you aren't going there...it was strange, but I declined two offers already. One of which was from a faculty member I was close with, hinting that, since I had gotten a much better offer elsewhere, I should consider declining early; his ability to recommend someone else was tied up by my admission, and I had no intentions of going there. So it might not be easy (its actually quite difficult), but you really are doing more harm than necessary by waiting til the 15th of April on a decision that is for you already made. The department and the DGS at the rejected school will live, don't worry; in fact you'll be helping them more by giving them some time to find the best replacement possible. Of course, don't prematurely decline if the choice is not so easy, but we all really should be more inclined to do so. The second school's recruitment weekend I couldn't make (due to work), and simply told them I declined when I declined the visit (I imagine they kind of got the point anyway).