DontHate

Thestage, I appreciate your acerbic and maudlin perspective on things. You're a lad after my own heart. While others may shout, do not doubt, you have fans about.

I wish I could unlearn about the existence of gradcafe

Sounds like a fun and fattening class

I'm just generally embarrassed to be who I am. So everything I do/think/say/feel is embarrassing. Sigh. It's so hard being an emo teen

I personally do think everyone in all paid occupations is a lying liar who lies.

Well start with reading some things in the field that seem to align with what you want to study. Then when you contact the professor, you can have something to say to them related to their work (and the work you want to do, and how it relates to their work). Introduce yourself and let them know why you are a potentially valuable young scholar -- try and demonstrate, very briefly, an idea that has caught your attention and that you think could lead to new scholarly pathways. Keep it very short, but don't just say "hi my name is X and I want to study comp lit." Show them some evidence that you've gotten into the field in some depth and you know what you're talking about. Sound like a sophisticated and engaging student. Now, the second question makes me think you need to do some more research into the application process (don't worry, you have plenty of time. You're applying for Fall 2014, right?) You will have to explain very explicitly in your Statement of Purpose what your research focus will be when you apply. The Statement will be your chance to tell the admissions committee why you are getting a PhD, why you have chosen their program in particular, and also which professors in their program you would like to work with. You can describe any contact with the professors that you've had up to then, but it's not necessary to do that. More importantly, you will just explain why you're interested in professor A's work on B, and how it relates to the research you plan to do on B in relation to C. If you start researching topics in the field right now, you will be able to write a truly excellent Statement by next fall. Start talking to your potential recommenders now about wanting to apply, and they will be able to explain the statement of purpose and perhaps even connect you with professors in departments that may interest you.

It terrifies me that this is all happening so quickly. Within two weeks, a bunch of schools will start notifying. Berkeley tends to make phone calls by the end of January. It's not technically the most bling-bling school on my list, but I've dreamed of going to Berkeley for a really long time. I'm so nervous.

I love cheesy American poetry. Billy Collins, ee cummings, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, even Emily Dickinson. Even Robert Frost! I seriously love that stuff. But I don't study it, I just read it for pleasure. Such pleasure.

Publishing a paper in a recognized journal would definitely look great on your applications. But it's totally not necessary or expected for an applicant, particularly someone who has not yet entered graduate studies, to have any publications. I would suggest that you try to get in touch with faculty in your area of interest at prospective programs. Judging from your languages, you probably have a very unique project -- I've never heard of any research combining german and asian languages. So contacting a potential mentor could not only help your chances of getting into a program, it could also help you figure out which programs you want to apply to.

Yay! This makes me happy. But hopefully this will simply be the first of many acceptances for you and you and you and you and ALL OF YOU

The Future Is Now!

Do you think it will help my chances that Wishbone wrote one of my reference letters?

I think this is probably how it goes: If a person talks/meets with you and really likes you, and thinks you'd add something to their department, OF COURSE it will help your application. But most of the time (in applications, and in life) there isn't such an immediate spark between a professor and a student. So they will either immediately forget about you, or find you annoying. Both of those things probably won't drastically hurt your chances. If, on the other hand, you do something SO awful that they not only strongly dislike you, but remember the fact that they disliked you when your name comes up in the pile, then yes it will hurt. I don't think anyone should be afraid of reaching out to a professor whose work they truly admire. Also, if you have even a vague and obscure connection to a member of faculty (through your undergrad faculty, for example) it's definitely not a bad idea to try and pull on those strings. But don't bank on a personal connection to get you in. Of course your work will speak much more loudly, and widely, than an email or a 10 minute meeting with one member of an adcomm ever could. For future applicants: Don't be afraid to get in touch with faculty! But also don't worry if you haven't done so. Most people who get into humanities PhD programs never contacted the faculty.

This is truly a terrible confession: I've never read all of Don Quijote

I emailed 4 profs (got responses from all of them), and me with 2 of the 4. Plus I'm applying to one school that I'm already attending, so I meet with 4 of the profs here constantly. I hope some of that will help!

Stanford will be in early early feb

Ssshhhhh yes but I don't like saying identifying details online

Well it's not like there's a southern studies board for you to post on.

I just got an email from my department, directed to the faculty in my department, giving the dates and times for the meetings to discuss grad admissions. Apparently the final decisions are due Jan 31. I guess if I really want to I could ambush them at their meeting and beg for admittance. OMG OMG OMG I'm freaking out.

But suicide is so cliché. There must be a better solution. Like maybe insane jealousy?

I called them about this. They said that the GRE scores go to the general graduate admissions, so the departments don't register them as received for a good long while. They told me not to worry about it.

Another point in Austen's favor: she wrote Pride & Prejudice when she was 21. I can't even... I'm a loser.

“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” ― Jane Austen

I feel like Melville just needed a good editor who understood him