general.enthusiast

This bit is really interesting! I'd like to hear more about what type of research you might do on this. I'm in the PhD program at Indiana U Bloomington. I mostly do Anglo-Saxon/Old English studies and I'm always fascinated by how much OE Tolkien puts in his writing. In my program start out teaching Intro to Composition but we can apply in later years to teach a lit class based on our own research, and I've always thought Tolkien and his medieval sources would make an awesome class that might get undergrads interested in Medieval Lit.

Anyone presenting at Kalamazoo or attending? Cause you should definitely check out the 1:30pm sessions on Sat (I'm presenting on Beowulf)

Thank you!  Apology totally accepted  We all say and do things that come out wrong, especially on the internet.

It sounds like a good sign. Also, please accept my apology for the dickish comment I made the other day. The tone came out wrong. Best of luck!

I applied twice before being successful this round. A lot of this has been covered in previous discussions, but here's how I handled it.
 
1) Take the time in between to take classes, apply to and present at conferences, polish your writing samples, raise your GRE scores, or do anything else that will improve your application and fulfill that scholarly desire.
 
2) Apply to more schools, and if at all possible, make sure you are researching schools well and applying to the ones where your work will fit, not just those that are nearby or obvious for other reasons.
 
3) Apply to outside scholarships and fellowships, such as the Fulbright. This, like the first, helps in more than one way. It might help you to be a more competitive applicant, but it will also teach you how to manage multiple fronts and write in a more clear and concise manner.
 
4) Contact POI's. This is iffy, but if there is a good reason to do it .. like you have read your POI's work and want to know more or have a (reasonable) request, it might help. I was really nervous and uncertain, but it helped me to gain confidence and communicate my work.

Don't just feel sorry for yourself and coast til next application season. To maintain confidence you have to work to improve your application, even in small ways. so that you know that you are a strong(er) applicant by next fall.

Who could be angry with you? We're thrilled that your parents have decided to make your tuition money available in a competitive scholarship right here on Grad Cafe!

I hear the adcomm includes those aunts you still haven't mailed thank-you notes to...

Better start polishing that SOP!

Just a thought.. maybe we should be more concerned with all the people who come on Gradcafe and talk about the prestige of their undergraduate school, or its lack of prestige, or how the ranking of a school doesn't matter.. except it really does matter.. and those of us who didn't know any of this before leaving undergrad were sort of at a disadvantage. 
 
I realize the above isn't written very clearly, but I think it's important to remember that we are all just following our dreams and doing what we can to reach them, hopefully without hurting people. Just because someone's parents can pay for an M.A. doesn't mean that the standards are NECESSARILY lower, and I'm not sure I see how it's all that different from someone getting into a certain undergraduate institution (that will adequately prepare them for grad school) by virtue of who their parents were, or where they live, or whatever. 

Just wanted to add that when I was applying, my professors really tended to emphasize the "produce excellent work" part over the rankings.  (Although, to be clear, they still thought it was important to take rank into account.)  If you want to land a position that involves research, a killer dissertation in a hot area from a top-100 school can trump a more boring one from the top 10.  

My research is on the rhetoric of social movements, and while working as a professor is my ultimate goal, I constantly think about how I could explain my work to make it appealing to non-profits, progressive think-tanks, and political organizations. I also have this fantasy of teaming up with my partner, a software engineer, to design literacy software for adults.