DontHate

I hear this perspective so often: "I can't afford to take time off from school/explore/find myself." But it's not entirely true. You can find teaching positions and other kinds of opportunities that would allow you to travel for free or very cheaply. Regardless of whether or not you end up travelling, you can "find yourself" in any number of circumstances. You don't have to be taking a luxury tour of Europe to explore what it is that you want out of life. I feel like sometimes the economic argument is a bit of an excuse to stay within one's comfort zone. There are a million jobs out there and a million ways to support yourself -- some just involve bigger risks than others.

is it dead yet? Or is its soul still dancing?

yellow.wallpaper, why was your CUNY interview such a bad experience? Was it with Aciman? I thought he was pretty nice.

If you want, I can kill your hope for you.

to be fair, plenty of people well out of undergrad still don't know what they want to do.

I'm pretty sure Cornell is just for grad students and junior faculty. But you might as well give it a shot. The deadline is March 1 I believe.

And it also seems like transferring is a better bet than sitting out a whole year. You can re-apply just the same either way but you'd be getting paid a stipend while working on your SoP and retaking your subject test. There's no guarantee that you'd get into your dream programs round two either, why gamble away the offers you already have in hand?

Wow, jazzy, where is it that you want to go so badly that you'd turn down Brown? I seriously would LOVE to go to Brown, they not only have an amazing English department but they also have one of the best creative writing programs in the country and you can take classes or even earn a degree from any of their other departments through their open enrollment policy. Also it's a really lovely campus. I've kind of always wanted to go to Brown, ever since high school.

It seems like everyone is getting in someplace -- which is a hopeful sign that the self-selection process of choosing to apply for a lit phd is a good indicator that one can feasibly get a lit phd.

Congrats Two Espressos! I hope it works out for you with UNC. It sounds like the odds are good.

Hot jams? Old cats? What year is it and how did I get here

Marie-luise, why did you only apply to one program? Do you not really want to study anymore if you can't study at harvard?

nope not me

harvard yale nyu & brown

I just had a freak-out moment where I realized that not hearing back from my last 4 schools may mean that I have already been rejected, because they sent acceptances to other people who just aren't registering them on grad cafe. Ahhh. I know we're all going through this, I just hope that my assumption is wrong.

It's sad watching this thread. It's also sad that I am vicariously waiting for news, since I know my own news is so far off. Sad sad sad.

Columbia doesn't actually have a Comp Lit department. It has a Comp Lit "Program" which you can participate in through any number of departments.

I don't think I could do my best work in a location that makes me feel sad face

I'm not in English but I'm seriously considering attending CUNY. I had an interview with them a few days ago. It seems like a pretty great school, and the funding package is as good as any of the Ivies. Also they participate in a consortium with Columbia, Rutgers, NYU and some other places that I'm now forgetting.

February and March are also pretty damn cruel

Here's bare for ya: I have NO conference presentations and NO essay awards (not since high school, my friends), and NO academic publications and not even a research assistantship. That's an actual bare CV. The rest of you don't even know the meaning of bare.

^ If your friend has an external fellowship, that's not really Notre Dame's incredible funding as much as it is incredible total funding from a variety of sources.

Ivies will fund all incoming students at the same level (as I stated above). I've heard of very few exceptions to this, mostly having to do with students coming off of the waitlist.