KeelyMK

Hey! I thought I'd catch up. it's so awesome to hear/read what everyone has been up to , and SUPER congrats again and again for how crazy far we've all come this year - in most cases literally school for me doesnt start until the last week of Sept, so I've just been hanging out by the pool, going to comedy shows and FINALLY watching Battlestar Galactica (in the "just one more" mode obvs). soon i'll be moving into a 3bd on Irvine campus with, uh, 2 other girls. and i'm incredibly nervous because i've only ever lived with guys before and have only had like maybe 2 female friends, ever. OH and i finally finished my undergrad thesis and turned it in like 2 weeks ago! - yay i can actually earn my BA 4 weeks before starting PhD :/ Oh well, a month of vaca is enough. basically, just like everyone else, i'm very, very anxious in a positive way about starting classes, moving in, and meeting my cohort. AND it seems as though out of 9 people in my class, i am the oldest one. i'm pretty ramped up about taking on the crazy older sister role oh, and in a couple weeks hopefully i get a new tattoo of a passage from Gatsby. Anyhoo, i love creeping on threads to see how everyone's doin. Good luck to all in your moves, orientations, and Fall sessions!!

Wow, get out of my head. Unfortunately I don't have any advice as of yet, because aside from the application season, I think literally every other thing you said applies to me too right now. I'm legitimately afraid I won't even graduate. I'd appreciate words other people would have to offer too, so thanks for this honest post.

Hi! I'll be entering the PhD in English program and moving in September. Even though I'm in the Humanities, my specialization demands that I keep close quarters with CogSci, Psych and Neuroscience people too, so maybe I will cross paths with a few of you at some point I'm wondering a bit more about roommate assignment as well - do they tend to group people by year, or program, or what?

yessss Sebastianteddy that's so awesome! Too bad your decision will have to come down to the wire but I'm very happy for you!

Woohoo so stoked for you!

Dude SOO many congrats on Yale, I'm sure you'll have a fantastic experience! and yeah Berkeley's package was pretty stellar, but Irvine raised it by a bunch - 6yr guaranteed funding, fee remission with >30k stipend most of the years. I'm going to have to work my behind off to feel like I've earned it, and if any of you find yourselves nearby, drinks are on me lol.

UCLA and UC Berkeley officially declined. Thank you to everyone on the forum for your support of me and of each other! I am so happy for all the good news I've read on here in these past few months, and thoroughly impressed by everyone's intelligence and determination, even/especially those who may not have received good news (yet!). I am SO excited for all of our futures and I will be sending plenty of happy thoughts and good luck wishes to everyone from Irvine this fall!

I decided on Irvine but I still need to submit my travel reimbursement to LA so I wanted to do that before I officially decline. I'll do both of those things today I promise. Good luck!

Totally dude! Lets keep in touch on fb or something if you want. You were one of the coolest people there for sure

I know :/ I feel like sort of a wishy-washy jerk in some ways but in the end it's the people in irvine that make it impossible to pass up. Theyre not offering as much money as either LA or Cal, and they're not as highly ranked, but that seemed to make the faculty even more driven to excel. They all talked about how their recent hires ad selection process was sort of specifically focused on becoming one of the top national programs in poetics, like they did before for creative writing. Instead of being jaded by already ranking highly, everyone was really motivated both to collaborate and to challenge one another in order to do rise to the top. The faculty and students were all just infathomably sweet and brilliant and fun and grounded. Sorry that was a lot. But for anyone thinking of applying in the future, I have nothing but awesome things to say about UCI and the only reason I thought to apply in the first place was that many of my professors at Cal lauded it so strongly. Looking forward to meeting my cohort! and happy decision-making to everyone!

Hooray I was like 95% sure that I would go to LA a couple months ago, then had my heart set on staying at Cal, and never really thought until the past few weeks that I'd end up picking Irvine, but at this point it's almost a lock. Almost.

I've been feeling more stigmatized the more I talk to my school's faculty about staying for my PhD. A couple profs that I've worked with before and would love to work with again are very excited at the prospect of me staying and say that it is the best fit both academically and socially, but when I speak to faculty I haven't yet met or worked with, I'm not met with nearly as warm of a reception. So I'm bummed out at the mixed messages I'm getting- all the professors (except for those excited 2 or 3) have basically, if not explicitly, said "we'd be happy if you stayed, but it's not generally advised". To which my unspoken reply is, well if I'm not supposed to come then why did I get accepted? Blah, I is frustrateds.

How about a commute from LB to Irvine? I'm considering a PhD program at UCI but I'm not sure if I want to leave beautifully-diverse Oakland for a planned city that's completely different demographically. The internet tells me LB is the closest I might find to an urban atmosphere near there? does anyone have other suggestions? thanks!

Aw man I feel like the actual debate about canon itself is what's the *most* interesting to explore. I love reading criticism and opinionated pieces from centuries ago that rail against the supposed artlessness of texts that are perhaps considered 'fine art' to a different generation, because it allows us to think critically about the forces behind the evolution of popular opinion itself. I chose the revised canon option out of a 'more is better' logic, but I like the first choice as well, because I feel like if we maintain the canon as a constant, then the variables that arise in each time period and genre can be examined more empirically.

So great to meet some of you guys tonight! I had to leave early but I hope to see you around at the various things this weekend. I also hope that the faculty and students have made a good impression and have been welcoming thus far ill prob go to the grad student party tomorrow so see you then!

On the continued subject of LoR writers, I don't know how "famous" my reccommenders were, but I was lucky enough to have my faculty mentor for a multi-year independent research project also happen to be the Asst Dean of Humanities, so even if they didn't recognize the name (which they probably did anyway) the title may have helped too. Generally I made a huge point for myself to always go to office hours and really make myself known to potential letter-writers so they would have personal things to say about me. It's a challenge to get enough rapport with people in 2 years as a transfer student so my advice would just be to network early and often, but we all know that for the most part. I also purposely got 4 LoRs instead of 3, and submitted them even when the apps advised against it. I just wanted to hedge my bets in case somebody turned theirs in late (which happened) or not at all.

Uh oh, ok. I interpreted the email as 1 night hotel stay and the rest staying w/grad students just cause that's how the rest of my visits are set up. But I'll contact Mike about it tmw, thanks so much

Wait so, I assume we're being housed with grad students for sun-tues? Has anyone else heard any more info since the initial email from Mike Lambert?

yay, thanks peeps. yeah I'm pretty darned excited about it. Trying not to think about the word "taxable"...lol

I think so. I WAS planning on UCLA until I heard the funding offer from Berkeley last week. That played a huge part in reversing my decision because it was far more money than everyone else offered. #1 funding + #1 department + convos with several profs saying they personally really wanted me to stay (not just recruitment talk) won me back over.

hm cafe gratitude? idk never been there :/ Cafe Mezzo and Raleigh's burned down last year, and that was my fav bar in the area but mostly I do my studying in Oakland. Commonwealth is an amazing pub to study or eat at (coincidentally ALSO burned down last year but reopened recently lol). I don't mind sharing my funding info, since it's interdepartmental and not entirely through English, so it wouldn't "take away" from anyone else's offers or factor into them. Actually, if anything it might have meant MORE money available to others, since the department doesn't have to dole out nearly as much as DGS does for my offer. Years 1 through 5: $26,500 stipend for living expenses($22,500 for Fall and Spring, and $4000 for Summer), plus payment of tuition and registration fees. No teaching required for years 1, 2, and 5. Funding of years 3 and 4 combined stipend and teaching. Edit: I received the Eugene V. Cota Robles fellowship, which is a UC-wide thing and I think something like 10-20 candidates from all departments (combined) at each school get the award. I know that the rest of the English PhDs are "fully funded" - I was told that a few years back they started taking on smaller cohorts in order to reduce the disparity between offers and make sure everyone gets decent funding.

Ugh, just notified UCSB that I will not be attending :/ and one of their professors who sent me an email last week was a perfect fit, too. Sucks but I tried to remain professional, respectful and grateful for the opportunity when I sent them my decision. Hope that was the right way to go. So, anybody who was waiting for them, good luck ps - Irvine and LA will most likely be hearing from me in the coming weeks about the same issue, so good luck also to those waitlisted for them.

I know I know, garsh! lol. It sucks because honestly the lower 2 schools have the profs that would personally be the best to work with and have specialization in my prospective fields...ugh mo money mo problems.

Yeah this is my question too. I keep getting such awesome funding details/notifications lf awards and emails from fantastic professors expressing interest to work with me :/ I already know I don't want to go to these schools but I don't know how to express it while still being professional and assuring profs that I respect their work and would still love to meet and collaborate in the future if possible...any tips?

Hey cougarstigers. I don't know if it's the same across cohorts...I got an interdepartmental fellowship from the Humanities Grad Division in general so that's prob a bit more...No teaching for the first 2 years or the 5th. I think there's a baseline funding that everyone gets and then they put you up for whatever fellowships you qualify for. But as to the environment here, at least as an undergrad it's been great. All of my profs are BRILLIANT. like stunningly brilliant, but also very approachable and fun and receptive to students' ideas. I feel like it's probably a bit more collaborative and cooperative than the private schools might be. Whats your field of interest? For me, I know that Blanton, and Donna Jones, and Altieri are all really delightful both during lecture and outside of it. The grad students all seem WAY smarter than me, so I'm a bit intimidated :/ But it's a fun, relaxed (as in informal and welcoming feel in class) and intellectually challenging environment overall. I'm not a huge fan of our campus or the city of Berkeley - I think it's pretty dirty and run-down, so I wouldn't really advise living here unless you find a really great deal - which you probably won't lol. Oakland, however, is a totally different story. It's vibrant, fun, beautiful...there's always something to do whether it's nightlife or artsy stuff or outdoorsy stuff. I know people who have gotten robbed but I've never personally had any trouble - I mean it is the ghetto, but people are just trying to get by, they're not crazy or unpredictable like I feel their counterparts in Berkeley are. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing everybody, and thanks to the ridiculously generous package they've offered, plus my profs saying that they honestly think I'm a perfect fit and are hoping I'll accept, I think I changed my mind to stay here rather than go to LA. PS - Welcome weekend is over St Pattty's day YAY we can go to all the Irish pubs in town and maybe go to the city too!