Cactus Ed

This. Boulder for sure.

Hashslinger, you make valid points. My points to the contrary above assume that the OP would be racking up a small amount of debt as I did (28K for undergrad and grad combined, which was six years of school in-state). Now that I have a fully-funded PhD in my future, my total debt will be under 30K, which I consider good. 30-40k for an MA is, as you point out, very steep. I guess the only feasible unfunded MA is one which is in-state and costs very little to attend, meaning there are instances in which an unfunded MA makes sense, albeit rare.

Bahaha. Indeed. Also, thanks for linking to this, comebackzinc. I'm reading it right now in my cubicle at my corporate job, where my colleagues don't yet know I'll be leaving in two months to go pursue the vaunted humanities PhD

It is annoying. I don't want to email Vickie either, since I did 2 weeks ago. But yeesh, I have to make decisions by next week, pretty much, so I'm anxious to know! I might have to email her again at the risk of being the irritating applicant. It seems this late response thing might be a systemic thing across CU Boulder. I know for a fact that PhD applicants to the English department also haven't heard anything yet for the most part...

Yep, I think the concept of an unfunded MA should be considered on a case by case basis for the exact reasons you state here. An unfunded MA at NYU when the entirety of one's family lives out of state or with limited means should obviously be avoided. But in my case (in state tuition, family to live with, etc), I got my MA, took a couple years off and got work experience/loans paid off. Albeit, I did work in a monolithic, "Office Space" corporate setting, but I learned valuable skills and whittled my debt. So that's always an option for you. Grad degrees in the humanities are more transferable to private sector jobs than people give them credit for.

Still nothing on your end, lindse? This is driving me nuts. I have other offers but really want to know about this program. AGH.

This is great advice from proflorax. I, too, did an unfunded MA at the same institution from which I earned my BA. It was in-state so the loans weren't bad, but it was great taking out just what I needed. I had a 20/hr a week job with a static schedule and I found it just right for the workload. Over winter/summer break, I piled up as many hours as possible to supplement my income. It was a great experience, and though I was poor, I was able to do better quality work than some of my overworked, underfunded TA classmates (some of whom took 3 years to graduate and were ultimately paid less by the hour than I was for my job), and now I've got a couple of fully funded PhD offers. I think not teaching as an MA student probably helped me more than a funded MA with a 1/1 teaching load would've in that I emerged with more polished work in a shorter amount of time. Good luck to ya!

I'm pretty sure no one other than a handful of acceptees have heard from CU. I sure as hell haven't heard anything. I'm going elsewhere anyway, but it would be nice to know my application fee wasn't just wasted beer money.

Thoughts on leaving a 55k per year corporate gig for an english PhD?

Exactly. Makes no sense. No jealousy, as fishbucket asserts. Just puzzlement.

Their website, if you look, suggests 12k per year to the best of applicants. So hey, troll, GTFO.

Troll.

Gah, still waiting! It's the last program I need to hear from and I'm interested enough to wait it out. Hopefully results come soon. Interesting about the funding... I wonder if it is at any point contingent on grant fundage? I would imagine...

I'm pretty happy with my application season. I applied to five programs I deemed good fits, got into one with great funding, am waitlisted at two others, and was rejected by two (one of which was a reach school because it was a top 20). After being out of academia for three years and applying to so few schools, I would be thrilled to have 2/5 or 3/5 acceptances to schools in locations I would love living and in programs I would love studying. Sure, I could have studied more for the GRE, taken the subject test again, rewritten my SOP another dozen times, corresponded with (groveled at the feet of...?) more POIs, etc. But I'm not in the game of second guessing. I will at the very least be working towards my PhD this fall at one of several programs I deemed perfect for my interests and my life situation. I would, however, have worried less and smiled more

Yeah, I'm officially unimpressed with CU Boulder. I emailed the DGS two days ago and haven't heard a peep. At this point I wouldn't accept any offer anyway, however unlikely that offer is. I'm in and and wait listed at my other top choices. But it would be nice to hear, anyway...

Can anyone claim to posting the CU Boulder update on the boards? Are they seriously not doing anything with offers/notifications until after April 15th? Because if so, screw 'em... I'll just remove them from my consideration. I had been hoping for a waitlist so I could at least consider them, but their horrendous communication with applicants making me less interested. I mean, are they expecting to only pick up students after the 15th that haven't gotten in anywhere else?

Wow, sounds like we have very different backgrounds! Mine is in English Lit, but with a special focus on globalization and new media. I also have some background in UX from a corporate, software development perspective (I work as a copywriter and social media manager for a corporation right now and have recently done a lot of work with UX). My specific interest in ATLAS is the prospect of studying social media's impact on social and political movements (protests, revolutions, etc) around the world. I'm interested in some of the crisis informatics work being done in the program, so that's why I applied. That being said, I also applied to five English PhD programs (and ATLAS was my wild card) and have been accepted to ASU with five years full funding and waitlisted at Tufts, so if the ATLAS app comes through with some funding, it will be a helluva decision and a real fork-in-the-road situation! I'm anxious to hear, though. Do you have any idea how many are accepted, etc? Also, best of luck to you seeing as it is the only program you applied to!

I'm wondering as well since I was under the impression we'd all hear by March 15th. I just emailed Paul Youngquist (DGS) so I'll let you know what I find out.

I agree with Zinc. Unfunded is no way to enter a PhD program. That being said, after my first acceptance to ASU, I was put on the funding waitlist. A spot opened three weeks later and I got a TAship. So it does happen. I look at a funding waitlist the same as a regular waitlist because I've been told virtually none but the independently wealthy pay their own way.

I'm in the same situation. I have a great TAship offer at one of my top choices, am waitlisted at another top choice and suspect I'm wait listed at another program that could be a great fit. Some days I'm ready to throw in the towel and accept my TAship offer, but then I think about how much effort I put into each app and feel like I owe it to myself to wait it out for the absolute best situation. The thing is, I am freaked out about waiting it out until the 15th! Argh, what a process.

Not to invade the MA-only space, but I sure would like to know what's up with their PhD applications. From what I can tell on the results board from past seasons, they sort of notify sporadically, never officially waitlist anyone, and keep some people waiting for their rejections right up until the 15th. I'm trying to make decisions here and CU is one of my top choices, so... sure would like to know. Email correspondence with Cynthia Ocken has produced no meaningful insight.

I find the range of rankings comforting, too. I was accepted to ASU, who's high S ranking is 5

I'm curious to hear opinions on the Chronicle's NRC rankings, which appear to be more rigorous (although date to 2009) and do, apparently, solicit opinions from academics (apologies if there's some thread around already where this conversation has been had): http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-English/124728/ I, for one, would like to see an update of this survey-based rankings system, especially because it could reflect some hidden attitudes about certain institutions that may impact job prospects, etc.

Don't we all live "precarious lives" in the panopticon that is the Grad Cafe? Sigh.