DontHate

I just want an excuse to talk about girls. Tonight's episode was TERRIBLE

What do you think of the show Girls on HBO? I think it might be like an under-achiever version of grad school in the city...

This week!

It probably depends. I know that Maryland, for example, only gives 4-year fellowships, so they expect all their incoming PhD candidates to have a Master's degree and teaching experience.

Location is pretty moot for me right now, because all the schools I have left are relatively near each other. And ranking is also pretty even between them, since I only applied to very highly ranked programs -- this also means that the funding packages are relatively the same. So it's all about fit and vibes for me, assuming I have any choices to make. I want to feel like I get along with the place, intellectually and socially -- basically I want to feel like I'll be able to spend 5-7 very productive years there, having great conversations with faculty and other students. I don't need my department to be my best friends (though that would be nice) but I need to feel some sort of immediate connection on my visit, or I won't be inspired and excited to hand my future over to them. Kind of like a first date, right? I want to feel some chemistry.

Can anyone explain how to write an abstract, or direct me to websites that explain the rules? I'm pretty clueless in this department.

Generally I think it looks "better" to go elsewhere for your MA. But it also looks better, in the same sense, to go to well-known and highly-ranked programs for both BA and MA. At this point you have no control over that, so if there's nothing you can do about it now I suppose there's no point worrying about it.

Swagato, therein lies the subjective nature of the process. It's not just that you have to look coachable, you have to be the kind of student that THEY want to coach. Maybe you remind them of a younger version of themselves... Maybe you are just exactly who they think could help them take their department in a new direction... A lot of it is about the projected fantasies of the adcomm that year.

The truth is, in response to your concerns Stephanie, I've heard from a bunch of my professors that publications are absolutely not expected from applicants before they enter the program. It may very well be that having too much professionalization on your CV looks somewhat bad at this level. You want to look prepared for graduate-level work, but as you already said, "malleable," coachable, trainable, open to new ideas, etc. Though I can't help but assume that having presented your writing sample at a conference makes it a much stronger piece of work than mine could possibly be (I would never want to present this piece of crap anywhere at this point).

My epiphany came when I started reading The Man Without Qualities. It was just one of those books that's so full, it made me think "I could dedicate my whole life to reading and analyzing this."

Vampire Weekend is totally rep'ing CU

Speaking of artisanal hobbies:

Just be careful with this, and don't go to a place that isn't funded.

It would be really beneficial to my studies, since I'm very interested in Brazilian literature. A few of my professors have connections down there and they've agreed to write some letters and hook me up at a university in Rio. So it's not a pipe dream, it could really happen.

I've never faced rejection? You must think quite highly of me, thanks

It's not a non-sequitur. I think you aren't actually taking an issue with my post, you're just angry because you've convinced yourself that I have an acceptance and you don't. So I can't possibly understand what you're going through anymore, and am not allowing you to fully wallow in your feelings. I don't think it's by definition fake to feel happy for other people's acceptances, I just think the anonymous acceptances don't necessarily fill me with joy. I can feel happy for other people I actually know, but anonymous statistics? Not so much.

Who is invalidating anyone's angst? Giving constructive advice about orienting yourself around the (very realistic, for everyone) possibility of being rejected across the board is not the same as "invalidating" someone's emotional response. I'm still operating under the assumption that I will very likely be rejected from all my schools this round, and I'm making plans for what I'll do when that happens. It doesn't mean I won't feel very sad and angry and frustrated if/when that happens. Maybe what you should really be saying is that you feel upset simply being in the presence of other people who are getting good news when you yourself aren't getting any news? I doubt it really matters what the people are saying, you'll probably interpret it in a way that you can find offensive. The act of upvoting and downvoting on posts is not a passive-aggressive act. It's just a meaningless, yet somewhat irrationally satisfying allocation of internet points.

I can't wait to see the valuable scholarship you'll contribute someday to the burgeoning field of Passive-Aggression Studies.

Everyone has a right to be sad and stressed out. I never said that wasn't the case. I thought that was such an obvious fact that it needed no defending. 1Q84, if you are really so insecure about your own emotions that you need to be TOLD you are allowed to have them in order to feel okay, then you have more serious problems than an internet forum is qualified to deal with. What you're basically saying is that because I am interviewing somewhere, I'm no longer allowed to speak to the general angst and uncertainty of the process we're all going through together. Talk about being "condescending" and "paternalistic." You think you have the monopoly on stress right now? We're all living relatively nice lives when you compare them to the life-threatening stress of being homeless, say, or having a terminal disease. Does that mean none of us are allowed to talk about a negative feeling? No, because there is ALWAYS someone who has it worse than you. Nobody should ever be disqualified from discourse based on their perceived situation. That's the definition of discrimination.

no sé, el medio de marzo?

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It certainly helps though

I feel like so much of these threads are about reasons why we think we won't get into school. Silly reasons, like our GRE scores or a handful of poor grades when we were 18. How about we discuss, instead, reasons why we know that we're supposed to be doing this. Signs that we have a vocation. The feeling of "vocation" is definitely something to hold onto if any of us have to re-apply or consider other unconventional routes to professorships and scholarship in general. When did you realize you loved literature? How did you know it was going to be your life? Why do you need it to be your life? What would you like to see in your obituary, if you achieve all your career goals?