thepriorwalter

I have officially turned down offers from Alberta, Florida, and Ohio State this weekend, which I hope is helpful to some people here.

Visited a department that was my dream program. Had wanted to go there for years. I honestly didn't like very much about it (not the right place for me personally or professionally). But it was still the single most helpful thing I could've done, because none of the things I learned were things I would've known from a website or phone conversation, and I would've always wondered if I was making the right choice to turn them down. Now I know.

Thoughts on Pittsburgh and Ann Arbor?

Here's a question: I'm on a department visit right now. The department-hosted dinner with grad students was tonight and I am up with a brutal case of food poisoning. My meeting with the DGS is at 9:00 am tomorrow. Am I allowed to explain the situation and, if so, at what time should I do this?

If this is a Canadian program, many don't cover tuition and fees. Alberta, UBC, and Calgary, for example, do not. Your negotiating is better spent on guaranteeing funding, I think.

Unofficially, afaik, only 1 MA is sticking around and it may be 0 (I haven't been in contact with that person but I know they were applying out).

Checked Penn's website and my rejection letter was there waiting for me! Decision time!

Congratulations, Caroline! Just a reminder that Florida tends to spread their calls out over a few days. And we're on spring break right now, so they might be extra slow.

I don't believe I'm entitled to much during the application season but I do believe paying an application fee entitles me to a notification of the final status of my application. When I was applying before my MA, I had more than one school reject me via radio silence.

Have you asked school B where their MA students are getting into PhD programs? I found out late in my program that the university largely rolls students over into their PhD program, so most were not applying out and, when they were, most were only applying to 3-4 top 10 schools (unsuccessfully), because they liked the offer they had from our program. In the end, it meant people were surprised when I was applying out and committed to leaving the program. We've only had 2 other people do it in the last 4 years. It's caused a little strain between me and one of my advisers, and I have been asked on more than one occasion what I don't like about the department so much that I would leave. Just some things to think about asking!

Florida hasn't notified anyone except internal candidates!

Official NYU rejection.

I taught (voluntarily) a 3-2-1 this year, and it was okay. Manageable.

A teaching load that expects you to teach two classes in the fall and two classes in the spring.

Other people can probably speak more to this than I can but from past years, it seems like OSU's wait list is based on area groups? They can let in a certain number in each group and then they wait list a small number of candidates for each as well.

While I'm going through and editing the document for programs I know about, I figured I'd bump the thread in case anyone else wanted to update the information for the schools they have offers at. This was a really valuable resource for me, and I know many others as well, so I'm doing my part to keep it current.

Oh my gosh, congratulations, kurayamino!

What's your area of interest, if you don't mind the question?

My sample was on children's literature and Quentin Tarantino, through the lens of queer theory, and I feel I've had a pretty successful application season. If it's your best piece of writing, and there are faculty in the department with whom your work fits (this can be methodological; Michigan, for example, has no children's lit professors but a few whose work theoretically intersects with mine), I don't think you should necessarily consider writing a whole new sample. It's simply too time consuming, especially if you don't pursue the MA. Just my two cents. ETA: If you do pursue the MA, there are many opportunities for your work to grow or change direction over time, and you might then consider using a paper written during the MA for your sample (and even then, I don't think it's necessarily a change you have to make).

I am so grateful for a thread of people who understand the feeling of doing nothing but fretting over the decisions they're making. I did land a cushy fellowship and it doesn't feel decisive. What if it doesn't allow for enough teaching?? What if that prevents me from getting a job?? Yes, I am playing the world's tiniest violin as I type this. Loving everyone's perspective. Keep it coming. It's soothing and helpful. Can't wait to see where everyone ends up.

Hey thirty_birds! I read your other thread too, and I feel like I'm in a really similar situation. I've been accepted to one school more highly ranked than the others (Michigan), who is offering a ridiculous funding package; one school that feels like the best faculty fit but has the lowest funding (Pitt); and one school that is good for me overall and will let me transfer a huge number of credits from my MA (Ohio State). I thought that this decision was going to feel easy, or like I would know what to do (and certainly other people in my life are acting like I should know), but I just don't. I've heard a lot of people suggest that I follow the best stipend. Others say best fit. I am going to visit all the schools and, in the absence of feeling like Michigan is The One, if I feel the most pull toward Pitt, I'm gonna ask if they can come any closer to Michigan's offer. I am certain matching is out of the question, but I think what to do would feel more clear if the funding offers weren't quite so disparate. So I guess my suggestion is: any chance you can negotiate the offer with either of the other two?

Today was an incredibly active day! Congrats, y'all!

Has anyone heard from Penn? Did I miss that entirely?

UF started notifying already? When did you hear, if I may ask? (I'm in the English department at UF currently and can answer questions over PM if you'd like.)

This information is from 2012, which one could make a note of on the spreadsheet, but Michigan received 408 applicants for 12 spots. I was wait listed there for the F13 cohort, and based on my experience on the waitlist and my acceptance this year, I don't think they over admit much at all. I know that the cohort size remains 12 this year, but that said, the number of applicants could be down--I haven't heard a number. ~500 for Columbia (which I believe I read earlier in this thread) would be less than the ~700 applicants they've seen in the past.