dmmar

hahahaha, I like the lingering question mark. Congratulations to you too! You have a nice pile of acceptances there.

Some of my programs are funding visits, some aren't. But I'm getting married in June, so, you know, most of my money is going toward that, haha.

Not sure if anyone else on here has been wait-listed at U Pittsburgh, but I contacted the DGS about prospects of being accepted off the waitlist and figured I'd share that information. She said that, although it's highly variable, last year more people than expected accepted their offer, so they were told to accept fewer students this year—16 instead of 20. She wrote: "We are not allowed to go to the wait list until our number of acceptances is clearly going to be less than 11, but 16 is closer to 11 than 20 was."

Does anyone else have a March that looks totally insane? All the schools want us to visit at the same time! I originally wanted to go on a lot more visits, but there's no way I can be out of state every weekend and keep up on my current course work. Are you all planning visits? How many? How on earth are you finding time to go on them? Besides fondness for the program, what other determining factors influence your decision to visit or not (like expenses, especially if the programs can't fund visits)?

Thank you! I don't mind nosiness. I'm pretty sure that I'll be attending U Michigan. The only reason I'm really holding off on declaring it is because my fiance applied to MFA programs this season and, given that he hasn't heard back from a particular school in an area where we could have an overlap of acceptances, I haven't made my final decision yet (although I don't really want to go to the school in the overlap area anyway (psst: it's U Illinois Chicago)). We're both from Ann Arbor, so U of M is attractive for a lot of reasons. I also feel a strange sense of obligation to keep an open mind until I've made some visits, though, and since U Iowa has a really good program (and would be a good fit for my research interests), I've planned a visit out that way toward the end of March. I've already declined U Wisconsin Milwaukee and Illinois State, and hoping I can decline more soon—both so I can just feel good about making a formal decision, and so people on the waitlists can hear some good news. I see you're waitlisted at Rochester, and while I'm not absolutely certain, you can probably expect at least one spot to open up there. (I actually need to call the DGS tomorrow—I've missed two of her calls already, and talking to her might give me a better idea of things). I'll definitely update here as I continue to decline offers.

Oh, I know you were joking, but I figured you'd still probably be interested in knowing if people are declining if it improves your chances of getting off the waitlist!

I saw someone on here a while ago asking if anyone ever got into grad programs without taking the GRE Subject Test—the answer is yes. Last application season, I applied to Comparative Literature programs, for which there is no subject test. This time around, I totally forgot that that was even a thing for English programs until the fall semester was about to start (I'm in a MA program), and then felt I didn't have enough time to properly study for it. So, this season I only applied to programs that didn't require the subject test. There were enough programs that I really liked that I didn't feel that it was that big of a loss, and I was accepted to plenty of PhD programs without it.

I've seen two people on the forums indicate that they're planning on declining U Michigan (can't remember who, sorry). I'm fairly certain that I'm going to accept their offer, though.

This varies by school. I asked one of my professors the same question, and his response was that most PhD programs don't allow that many transfer credits because they want you to go through their program. I can't imagine getting out of anything more than a year of course work from MA transfer credits, at the very most. I've seen programs that don't allow any at all. I'm actually in the opposite position—I have a MA, but I don't want to transfer any of my credits. This is partly because I did my undergraduate work in Philosophy and French (and took zero literature courses), and so I feel like I would really benefit from the extra courses. I think I've encountered at least one school who has accepted me that assumes that I'll want to transfer credits and that I'll only be in the program four years, though (they haven't been totally clear about this and I haven't figured out a graceful way of asking yet). So, I'm basically wondering how they'll respond if I don't want to transfer credits, and how that might affect my funding.

If anyone is on the wait lists at U Wisconsin Milwaukee or Illinois State, I just sent them notices that I'm declining their offer. Planning on declining the offer from University of Illinois Chicago, as well. Hopefully this means good news for some people!

I recently asked one of my professors how academics marry/have relationships, and his answer was basically: very carefully/it's always difficult. He's in a good situation because his wife is a graphic designer who works from home, and thus isn't anchored to any particular location. My fiance and I are getting married this summer, and this season we both applied to graduate programs. I'm going for a PhD in English; he's going for a MFA in play writing. We tried to do what other people here have tried—applying to the same schools, or schools in the same areas. Our acceptances haven't really lined up that way, though. Before we applied anywhere, we talked about it, and tried to think of some worst case scenario options. Living apart wasn't a consideration. Since I'm finishing up my MA right now, he was wonderful enough to say that if we couldn't go to school at the same time, that I could go first, and he would follow me wherever we ended up, and maybe apply to programs again later. We live in Ann Arbor, and since I received an acceptance from U of M, our considerations in this decision have changed a bit, because now we can actually include factors like staying where we are, being close to family and friends, etc. This seems like a better position than moving somewhere new so I can do a PhD, and him not having anything in whatever the new place is—here, he can keep his job, stay in his theater group, and maintain all the other things he has here and won't be totally uprooted. I haven't made my final decision yet—I'm still going on campus visits because I want to make sure U of M is the right choice for my studies (although I'm kind of sure it is anyway), but the option to stay here for both of us is really strong.

Today I mailed in my response to decline the offer from UW Milwaukee—so hopefully that means good news for anyone on the waitlists!

Anyone know what the deal with NYU is? On the board, it looks like there's only two acceptances and three on the waitlist. Has anyone heard anything else?

I sent an email inquiring about visit days, which may give an indication about when more acceptances will go out.

Received a response from the DGS—I was accepted to the PhD program (not the MA); not sure if that affects my funding status, though.

Literature and Cultural Theory.

I'm also wait-listed for funding (TAship) and "have been ranked highly and placed in a top spot on our TAship waiting list." The English Grad website there has some info about what the TAship includes (I think something like $13,500, tuition remission, etc.). My letter says: "I sincerely hope that you will enroll in our program, but I also want to inform you of the financial aid situation at UWM. Teaching assistantship and fellowship funding will continue to be available for students enrolled in our programs, but competition for these resources is likely to intensify." Also, I just realized something weird about the letter: the first acceptance letter I received from the Dean of the Graduate School says I was admitted to the "English PhD program," but the letter from the DGS says "admission to the MA program in English." Why are these conflicting?? Also, I already HAVE a MA! Anyway, I've received much better offers, so I'm going to decline UWM—which will make the wait-list shorter!

So a few people posted acceptances or wait-lists from WashU during the last week of January; has anyone else heard since then? Are they just sitting on a big pile of rejections?

It's no bother! I just recently received the Rochester acceptance—on the 19th. The website sent an automated email first, and then about an hour later, I received an email from the DGS, who said she would also call me sometime in the next few days. (And that she was also mailing a copy. They're really hitting on all avenues of communication!)

@Katia_chan and @thatjewishgirl— Here's some hope: when Iowa called me, he said that I was in their "first round of acceptances." If there is a first round, there must be subsequent rounds, right?! And I haven't seen another wave of acceptances on the board yet.

No idea. I didn't apply to Iowa in previous years. However, it is possible that they're running later than usual. Although the director of the program called me pretty early (Feb 1st), he said said they would working out my financial package in the "near future," and I haven't heard back yet. I'm planning on sending an email tomorrow, and maybe their response will shed some light on how things are going for you all, too.

Modernist and contemporary American poetry.

@Porridge, Iowa called me on February 1st to tell me the news.

So I just now checked the SUNY Buffalo website, and my status has now changed to "under committee review." Posting since the Buffalo website is so enigmatic about application statuses! There's a few schools I'm still waiting to hear from—although according to the board, most of these schools already sent out acceptances notices. Do some schools do more than one round of acceptances? Or, like Purdue, a kind of rolling-waitlist (instead of telling you that you're on the waitlist, they just don't tell you anything until they have a final answer)? Just trying to figure out why else they might be sitting on a pile of rejections instead of sending them out and putting us out of our misery!

Recent article in the Economist on the singular "they": http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/01/grammar?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/singularthey I don't use it really, but I like the idea of using the singular "they" as a gender neutral alternative precisely because it's plural, as it seems to point to the plurality of gender identities. Grammatically it still sounds a bit awkward to me, but I do like the idea of it.