CastineGrrl

Best of luck, morristr! Hopefully I'll get to meet you in the fall. My fingers are crossed for you.

Philly is indeed a great city, and I'm sorry to hear that the fit wasn't right for you. My TAship funding is actually $16,400--$16,391 to be exact. And FWIW, I was told that the 5th year's funding is always granted to students in good standing (meaning the student has made it past the comp. exam stage). Carnegie Mellon and U of Kentucky are great, KTownCubbie; best wishes for your decision! It's so good to have choices.

Good luck with your visit, morristr! I had a really great visit and am pleased with my offer, so I have just accepted. I'm so excited to go to Temple. Who else out there is accepting or probably accepting? I can't wait to meet everyone!

It's official: I'm going to Temple! So excited!

Info on Nebraska is now up. This is such a great resource!

Nada.am, would you mind giving a few more specifics? Was your offer for the English PhD or Comp. Lit.? And, generally speaking (if you don't want to be specific), what qualifies as a "very well-funded offer" from Temple? I've heard their funding can be pretty limited, so I'm curious. I'm actually still waiting on my funding decision, but all my POIs there have been very encouraging about my chances of getting funded. Apparently I've been nominated for a university-wide fellowship, the results of which won't be announced until the end of the month. Perhaps they're waiting to make my funding offer based on whether or not I win the fellowship.... Ah, I wish I could just know. I really like Temple's program. Best of luck to everyone!

I went ahead and contacted two grad students today from one of the programs that accepted me. I introduced myself/my interests and asked them each a handful of questions about the department's culture and the livability of their stipends. When I visit in a few weeks, I hope to meet up with one or both of them for coffee. I, too, am waiting on word for funding, so when the DGS encouraged me, in two separate emails, to let her know if I had any questions, I finally caved and asked her (in as polite a way as I could) whether it was reasonable for me to expect some kind of funding package. It would give me so much peace of mind to know that I'd probably be getting SOMETHING, even I can't know how much, that I decided to risk impropriety in asking. I haven't heard back yet, but I wrote late on a Friday. I don't expect she'll be able to tell me much, but you never know. To answer your question about how to respond, I initially responded by saying I was "thrilled" to be accepted, I was interested in visiting later this month, and that I would keep my eye out for the official acceptance and funding notification. The DGS wrote back a warm email, encouraging me to visit and connecting me with a few grad students. I haven't contacted my POIs yet, but I will do so later today/tomorrow. I wanted to wait for my initial excitement to calm down a little bit so that I could more successfully craft emails to them that would convey a sense of cool composure instead of immature squealing.

Thanks, bluecheese! My acceptance e-mail says, "Financial awards are still in process. We hope to have completed this process in 2-3 weeks and will be sending out separate notices about funding." Though it's a pretty neutral statement, it seems to imply the likelihood of funding. Or maybe that's just hopeful thinking on my part.

Bump for 2013. I'm very excited about my Temple admit--despite their lower rankings, the program is a great fit for me, and I'd be psyched to lived in Philly. I'm nervous about funding, though, and am wondering if anyone has any inside information on their funding practices or capabilities for 2013. Also, I'm just curious: who else got in, and who else is considering accepting?

Just found out I'm in at Temple, which has been a top choice from the beginning! Anyone else here get that news today? Congratulations to everyone on all their recent acceptances!

Silas, I appreciate the clarity of your distinction between the programs and their respective career purposes. It's obvious now that some of my professors secretly wanted me to become versions of them--Lit professors--which is why they discouraged me from the CW PhD. Others were (are) against the CW PhD because it seems redundant to the MFA, a claim that has less power behind it now that more and more departments seek candidates with doctorates instead of simply "terminal degrees." Anyway, thank you. This thread has certainly made me feel less worried and more convinced by my choices and intuition. And hey, congratulations on your Nebraska acceptance! Maybe we'll both end up there if funding comes through for us! I, too, am waiting on Ohio U, and the anticipation is killing me. I wish all programs had to report on the same date. Best of luck with your remaining notifications!

I'm glad funding is included--that's the bottom line! Yay! Hopefully Nebraska will come through with the same for me. And thanks for the good words about UNL and Lincoln; it seems like a really great program and a cool city. As soon as I hear about funding, I plan to visit. I know poets with the CW PhD, and they're certainly taken seriously. I've encountered the attitude I was speaking of from a few of my former profesors and current colleagues who chose not to pursue the CW PhD. I've heard either that more doors will open for me with a "standard" English PhD or that my MFA plus books published should be enough, since the MFA is still techincally considered terminal. Nobody has told me not to pursue it, but I've been warned (I think lovingly) that some departments that require a PhD of job applicants look down on the CW degree as if it doesn't "count" because it doesn't look like the degrees held by the people who would be hiring me. The idea being that if I didn't have to go through the exact same hoops to get my degree as they did for theirs, my degree might be perceived as less than. The attitude, I think, grows out of the assumption that a manuscript of creative writing couldn't possibly be as rigorous or important to the field of English as a standard dissertation. I've also heard it insinuated that the CW PhD is superflous after an MFA or somehow indulgent. Obviously I decided to apply for CW PhD programs anyway--and enthusastically. However, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about some of these attitudes I've encountered. Whether or not my degree is respected, I will grow as a writer, learner, teacher, and person. I know this. But I'd also like it to be respected! I'm heartened by the fact that you haven't encountered these attitudes, Squideesha. Hopefully they're not as pervasive as I'd thought.

Thank you, Post-It Poet, for your insights and well wishes, and congratulations on finding the right career to complement your writing life! Public health is a fascinating and important field. I am sure at this point that teaching/academia is where I want to be, but I agree (and thank goodness, really!) that writing can happen in any life context, and successfully. Squideesha, a big and hearty congratulations on your Cincinnati acceptance!! Yay! If you don't mind my asking, what kind of funding were you offered? Like both of you, I am excited to be in school again, learning and teaching and yes, writing and manuscripting. I, too, Squideesha, am worried about post-PhD job prospects. I would be happy teaching in a community college or lower tiered school after my studies (genuinely so), but my long-term location really does matter to me, and there are some places that are just too far from loved ones to be acceptable. I plan to work steadily to continue to publish and, ultimately, put a book out, present as often as possible at conferences, and take full advantage of my future program's career services. My hope is that steady work in all three areas will prepare me for the right job in the right place. I may be overly optimistic, but all poets are dreamers, right? One of my other worries is that a creative writing PhD will not be taken seriously by future colleagues/departments I'd like to work in. It's something I keep hearing. But if my ambition is to teach writing, especially creative writing, I don't see why it shouldn't be looked on as further preparation for the job. Have you heard these rumors, too? I hope we get more acceptances soon!!!

Thank you, dazedandbemused. I like that attitude and share it. It's not over 'til it's over!

I'm a PhD applicant, alas. Knowing that they had to accept fewer people makes me feel slightly better. Very slightly. Thank you for the helpful info!