Vavasor

About University of Oregon, I don't know who it was that was rude to you on the phone, but in general U. Oregon is great in terms of the atmosphere and in terms of professors being really dedicated to their students (I did my undergraduate work there).

1) I would recommend investing some time reading renaissance and restoration era texts if that's not an era you have a lot of experience with. For one reason. A lot of questions will give you a passage and ask you what a word means in it's given context. Sometimes it's something as simple as knowing that the word "want" used to mean "lack" and not "desire" Other times it can be more complicated. Anyway, they could take a toll on a test-taker who doesn't have much experience reading in that era. 2) Don't put too much stake on what any strategy guide tells you. I get the impression the testmakers are good at staying one step ahead of that stuff.

Yeah, I admit I was refreshing the results board pretty compulsively for the last three days. With my email opened next to it! But I got my admissions offer email from University of Rochester this morning before the results started pouring in. Its the best feeling in the world to relieve all that tension at once. The crazy part was I was keeping such a constant watch on the email inbox, but the second the mail from Rochester appeared I was too terrified to open it. It took me like fifteen minutes. Maybe a lot of us are torn like that, we want to know but we're afraid to look!

I'd be shocked if they made much of the Writing section of the GRE. They have a 10 to 25 page sample of the kind of writing that matters (research writing) which by comparrison should have a lot more weight for obvious reasons. As to the subject test, my undergraduate advisor said that if I applied there for graduate work (I didn't) my score could be an advantage just because so few of their applicants have a decent one.

Some Henrick Ibsen, some Elizabeth Gaskell, may dip into some of Robert Browning's more complicated poems. Probably a good deal of Hawthorne. Lots of Cambridge Companion Chapters, some articles from the journal Nineteenth-Century Literature, Mill's Utilitarianism, possibly some Strindberg. George Eliot's Felix Holt. John Ruskin's Praeterita. Probably Tourgenev's On the Eve, among other things.

I'm having something like that with one of the schools I applied to (though not one of the ones on your list). The impression that I get is that some schools are just lazy about informing rejectees while others rather than (or before) doing an actual waitlist will call accepted applicants and if anyone declines call the next person down on the list.

Congratulations! With any luck maybe I'll get something like that by the end of the week!

Am I the only one who woke up from a nightmare this morning about another rejection?

Thanks!

I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question.

Well, I'm looking at the board and several people have gotten acceptance phone calls from WUSTL. I'm afraid to step away from my phone! I'm on the west coast so naturally I'd expect to get the call later than someone a little further east. Still, with every passing minute it's seeming less and less likely.

That's awesome that you're reading some Carson McCullers. Of all her books I remember really liking The Member of the Wedding.

I'm not pissed off. Sorry if you got that impression. I really am happy for the info (as you say, it's better to know now). I've got some exciting places that I still have to hear back from (including a few where I was wait-listed last year) and it only takes one! So I'm still in pretty high spirits.

I hear you! At any rate. It looks like you've already been accepted at some impressive programs, so congratulations on that!

Lots of Rutgers on the board, but no English department acceptees or rejects.