Gwendolyn

Just wanted to add The University of Alabama to the list which now stands as:
 
Arizona State University
Auburn University
Boston College
Bowling Green State University
Depaul University--Chicago
Georgetown
Kent State University
Lehigh University
Louisiana State University
Marquette University
Miami University of Ohio
Michigan State University
Minnesota State
Ohio University--Athens
Penn State - feeder to PhD
Purdue University
Texas A&M
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
University of Alberta (Canada)
University of Delaware
University of Colorado--Boulder
University of Connecticut
University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Illinois--Urbana Champaign
University of Kansas
University of Kentucky
University of Maine
University of Massachussetts--Boston
University of Minnesota--Duluth
University of Missouri
University of Nebraska
University of New Mexico
University of Oklahoma
University of Oregon
University of South Carolina
University of Tennessee
University of Vermont
University of Washington
University of Western Ontario (Canada)
University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee
Villanova University
Wake Forest University
Washington State

I hope not to sound redundant, but I firmly believe it's important to write about program fit. 
 
For what it's worth, I have to attend an annual conference for one of my undergrad programs (although there are several optional events throughout the year) and the majority of fellows in this region are from emory, rice, and wustl so we'll typically have graduate admission counselors from those schools, but we'll also have graduate admissions counselors come from other prominent fellow schools from other regions sometimes  (when I say "prominent" I mean schools who produce a large number of fellows) to speak and answer questions about admissions as well (mainly ucla, university of chicago and northwestern, but I've seen harvard, dartmouth, and stanford and a few others). Over the course of two or so years it's been explicitly stressed over and over again from admissions counselors from these schools to make sure to write about how you fit into a program, but here's where some people might err. Don't just pick out professors blindsighted -- ASK if professors are willing to work with more students during the next school year. ASK if professors are interested in your research. ASK if professors think your research aligns with theirs before you apply.
 
Writing about your fit means absolutely nothing if your POI can't work with you (they might already be advising more students than they can manage or  they might be on a sabbatical by the time you enter etc.), if your POI doesn't have interest in what you're doing (their research interests do change - one professor at OSU told me he wasn't doing something I inquired about anymore, BUT he was interested in working with some of my other interest areas).
 
This is why it helps to list 3-4 people you can work with in your letter (hopefully you've at least contacted the primary 1 or 2). If you can only name one person you want to work with and he's not taking any more students, then you're out. If you've convincingly written in two or three others you can see yourself working with then, if admitted, you'll have access to Professor of Choice and you'll prove that if something happens to Professor of Choice (they leave the school, they retire, they die... all realities), you'll still have other people in the program who can guide you. Appealing to 1 professor is like applying to the professor. Picking a few reveals your interest in the department rather than just one POI. 
 
A few other things I've taken away:
 
1. Write about why you want to study at the school; what resources does the school have that will contribute to your research? Is there a special collection or a special institute? Is the location particularly beneficial to your research? Are there local off campus resources?
2. Explicitly state what you want to contribute to the academy as a whole. What conversations can you join? What new are you adding?
3. Tell what academic experiences prepare you for graduate study (avoid too much extraneous personal information unless requested). 
4. Know what you want to research, but be sure to indicate that you are a young scholar so your interests are evolving (this illustrates your flexibility and makes those professors with changing interests more inclined to work with you). 

Yay! I'm going to The Ohio State University in the fall!

How/Why? My undergraduate school funnels people into a particular nearby program at a larger university. Although the program is not extremely highly ranked or competitive (typically placed in the 90s on USNWR), it has regional name recognition, gives full funding (to MA and PhD students) and thus serves its graduates well. With a foreknowledge of the students from my undergraduate department who have been admitted (their grades, test scores, interests, writing abilities, graduate advisors etc.), I was certain I (as well as my professors) I would get in. Guess what. I got in (I immediately rejected the offer). Nonetheless, for my very specific situation, it was my "safety school." I don't  think there is no such thing as a safety school, but safety schools are extremely relative to one's personal situation/standing. If you have enough knowledge of a program and it's admits, etc. I think you can pretty much gauge your ability to get accepted. Trying to gauge your chances at Harvard, or UVA, or UC Berkeley etc. are far more difficult than Regional State University. Call it arrogant. Fine. It still stands that sometimes "safe schools" exist. 

I think we need to he careful about panning certain schools just because they aren't in the top fifty.

As far as the safety school debate goes, I know I have some schools about which I feel much more confident of my chances. For example, I feel better about my chances at Nebraska than I do about my chances at Berkeley. That doesn't mean Nebraska isn't a fab school and that it is "safe" by any means, but it is "safer" for me to be excited about and I won't be as disappointed when I'm rejected. I guess that's what I mean by a "safety" school, if I were to refer to one as such.

As a side note, I am a first round applicant and I know how unlikely it is to be accepted to a PhD program. That being said, I feel confident in my chances. I don't think that others should view me negatively for that. Let us be confident and feel good about ourselves. We haven't yet been around for a couple of application rounds, but that doesn't necessary mean that those who have somehow know better than us how we should feel about our chances. Maybe we are confident for a reason. There is a good chance that won't translate to acceptances, but it doesn't hurt you any for us to be positive about ourselves.

Congrats as well!

Congrats!

"Things run we; we don’t run things"
 - Art History, Theory, and Criticism, Stony Brook University   Hi-lar-ious

Have y'all seen this yet? http://lolmythesis.com/ Because it's golden. 
 
People sum up their theses in one sentence. Some examples:
 
Fake science sounds an awful lot like real science, except it’s fake. --Archaeology
 
Rats like cocaine. --Psychology
 
Toni Morrison just really kills it. --English

I've officially moved into my new apartment!  I've only been here for a few days, but I can already tell that I'm going to love it here: lots of great restaurants and bars, a plethora of both chain and local stores, awesome locally sourced food, tons of opportunities for intellectual collaboration both at UNC and at peer institutions like Duke-- not to mention the gorgeous NC weather.
 
I don't know about you guys, but with classes starting in less than two weeks, I can barely contain my excitement.  We're really going to be Ph.D. students!  Just think about how stressed/nervous/self-conscious we were about our abilities and grad applications a year ago... and here we are.  
 
Best of luck to those who are in the process of moving or are yet to move!

Less than two weeks... ha, I wish. Classes don't start at Chicago until September 30th!
 
So more thumb twiddling to do, it seems like. But at least I'll have more than enough to time to home-ify my apartment and explore the neighborhood beforehand.

We finally have a place to live! So now I can join the "Oh crap, now I have to move my stuff" party.
 
It took us forever to find a place. Rentals in the area were kind of a nightmare, all geared toward undergrads, and moving with a family and pets made it really tough. But what we ended up with is something out of a fairy tale: a stone cottage 7 miles from campus, backed by woods and next to an organic farm. I had goosebumps when we drove to look at it.
 
A little worried about paying for living expenses before hubs has a job in the area. A lot worried, really. But still riding the high of finding the best house EVAR.

I'm skeptical.
 
This article doesn't actually share any consumer data about the average moscato drinker.  The only "data" it has to support the idea that moscato drinkers are primarily African American and younger is that it's big in hip-hop music.  Well, that's silly, because anyone who listens to hip hop knows that artists often rap about things their listeners can't afford (like Cristal).  Also, most African Americans don't run out and buy something just because Nicki Minaj or Drake mentions it.  Sounds like old-fashioned stereotyping wrapped in the guise of economic "research."
 
If he had actually presented some market research data that would be a different story.
 
Secondly I am so tired of the wine industry.  I love wine - many different kinds of wine, including moscato, although it certainly wasn't my introduction to wine.  I do tend to prefer sweeter wines to dry wines, although not too sweet (I don't like most moscatos).  But I hate this idea that there are some wines more "sophisticated" than others.  It's been shown time and again that wine-tasting is pure bullshit and that even master wine tasters can't really taste the differences between different wines reliably - and that sometimes they can't even tell the difference between reds and whites, if the whites are colored with food coloring.  It's all a shill to sell bottles.  Why is dry wine "more mature" and somehow less ghetto, and require "graduating" to, than a sweet moscato or a Riesling or something?  I don't understand why people have to be so snobby about wine.  If people are buying your bottles, wineries, why the hell do you care?

The place I found is about 2.5 miles from campus. My housing search was tricky. I wanted to be outside of undergraduate areas immediately surrounding campus, but I also need to be somewhat close because my university does not offer parking, so grad students have to walk, bike, or take public transportation. The bus lines are really good in some areas and really bad in others (mostly because buses stop running to those areas around 5 p.m. and we all know graduate schedules do not work like that) so that factored into my search. Anything easily walkable (1.5 miles or less) was in undergrad central, and since I'm a few years out of undergrad that didn't appeal to me. Many of the outer apartments were out of my price range because they cater to medical residents (3 hospitals nearby) and professors.
 
In the end, I went with a one bedroom that was farther away than I wanted to be (but nicely finished and well within my price range). It is near several bus lines and on a dedicated bike path that gets me to my office in about 3 miles/15 minutes. I plan on biking to work most days, and using the bus when the weather is bad. If I had to, I think I could do the walk in about 45 minutes. 
 
If my school had parking for graduate students, I would probably live about 12 miles out from campus, where a lot of really nice apartments and townhomes are being built. But alas...maybe in years 4-5 when I have to be on campus less frequently. Until then, I'm thrilled to be on the bike path so that I can cyclo-commute without battling traffic.

The U.S. could use a better introduction to the awesome works created in Spain during the Renaissance. Lope de Vega was ten times the playwright that William Shakespeare was. Go into a straight Literature MA or PhD and have your area be Spanish Ren Lit. Not only will you carve out a less common niche for yourself academically (a boon when looking for jobs), you will also have the edge of already being very well acquainted with the language of the original texts. No text-in-translation for you! Not to mention the grant-funded research trips to Spain....

I'm moving soon as well: less than a month, actually.  Grad school will be upon us before we know it.  

I also don't have any experience with those schools, but I highly recommend that you search this forum for threads about each school. I know they exist, and you can find out lots about others' experiences there and the application process. Doing this will cost you many hours of your life (I've been down the gradcafe rabbit hole, and so have many others), but I'd say that it is totally worth it. 

Preparing for Fall 2013 damn near killed me. I wish you all the best at any rate! 

Sure thing!
 
Unfortunately, our first offer didn't go through. Fortunately, we had a second house we really liked, so we are waiting to hear back. Turns out, obsessively watching HGTV doth not a real estate expert make. 
 
Edit: WE GOT A HOUSE! In Washington DC! Wow. Just, wow. 
 

I have an apartment and the kitchen is magnificent. (As is the pizza place around the corner.)

Hi everyone. I'm also trying to spend less time here, but it's so hard to quit! I know this is probably a real nerd move, but I'd love to keep in touch with some of the people I met here and follow their academic careers. In case anyone feels the same, I go by Ruthie O on facebook (whoa! Identity revealed!).
 
I'll probably come back towards the Fall when the crazy really ramps up! Until then, good luck ya'll! 

Here's a few suggestions that you might like:
 
http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/
http://emilyjanuary.wordpress.com/
http://101books.net/2013/05/14/why-i-disagree-with-critics-of-the-new-gatsby-film/
 
http://persephonewrites.wordpress.com/
http://helpfromcyranette.wordpress.com/
 

Take hope, future academicians! There's always being a cat lady.
 

I go about six times a year - once every two months. It's a 5-hour drive, and most of my closest friends and family still live in my hometown.

I think I kind of understand all the vitriol being directed at swagato (the original post did seem have a undercurrent of "pity the old folk," intentional or not) but I think it's also a legitimate concern.
 
No, the interviewers won't ask for your birth date. But they can take one look at your undergraduate dates and know how old you are. Easy as that.
 
I think age discrimination does and will exist on hiring committees, unfortunately enough, and that's why I'm riddling with anxiety about finishing my Ph.D at 35-36. In a perfect world, the 58 year old hiree would be seen exactly the same way as the 28 year old but I really don't think that's the case.
 
Either way, I think it should be something that older candidates should be prepared to face. The responses I've seen so far have ranged from willfully ignorant ("Who do they think they are? They can't judge me!") to naive at best ("I am a scholar and nothing else in the world matters!")
 
I was reading through and most responses bordered on "follow your dreams" pixie dust fluff. I mean, a certain level of passion is certainly required but I think a few years of crushingly awful teaching for a few bucks will quickly resolve that. I don't see the need to be so overly rosy about a situation that will clearly be extremely, extremely difficult, and as swagato rightly points out, probably much more so with age.