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meowmeow

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  1. First of all, a huge thank you to each of you for your responses. You all made the point that there are good, albeit different, arguments for each school. I just needed to figure out which considerations were most important to me. Last Friday, I was almost positive I was going to go with School A. I was ready to send the DGS an email to accept, but I thought I should go ahead and decline School B (not Villanova, but it also has good placement rates) first. Close the door permanently and all of that. But I couldn't send that email. These comments were especially helpful in reminding myself to stop thinking of this as a strictly financial decision, which is pretty much what I had reduced it down to ... I'd be very grateful for the financial support at School A, but I am far more excited about the courses and program at School B and I think I will ultimately do better work there. Once again, thank you. (I am so excited!)
  2. I am waiting to hear anything at all from three schools (Colorado-Boulder, Purdue and UConn). I'm also waiting to hear the final word from UFL, where the secretary told me I was on the wait list when I called. I haven't heard back from my query to the DGS on where my position is, though. I've seen several people get accepted and rejected from Purdue, so I'm guessing there are silent wait lists in place?
  3. I declined funded spots at Virginia Tech and Miami University. I saw someone was wait-listed for a GTA, which I had, so I hope you get it!
  4. All, After a lot of thought, I have narrowed my choices down to just two MA programs. My goal is to go on to a top Ph.D. program School A: Public, offers MA and PhD, ranked in the 75-100 range on US News, offered me a top first year fellowship + TA stipend (total funding is almost double the funding of School B!), work load is co-teaching 1 Comp class/semester in first year and teaching my choice of 2:1 or 1:2 load of Comp in second year, health insurance is subsidized and will cost about $600 a year, classes are exclusively grad seminars, no thesis option, liked the students, has one very respected and well-known faculty member related to my secondary interests who met with me and emailed me several times about the program, liked the seminar I visited, DGS arranged a great visit for me so that I could meet a lot of people, could be happy here School B: Private, MA only (no grad ranking), offered TA position with stipend under 10K (Writing Center only, so no Comp), work load is about 12 hours a week, mix of grad seminars, requires MA thesis or an alternative, LOVED the students, liked the faculty, liked the seminar I visited, could be very happy here School B reminded me a lot of my undergrad campus in terms of the students, the discussions in the class I visited, the beautiful campus, etc. I wanted to say yes on the spot. However, I am several years older than someone right out of undergrad and I am very concerned with finances (especially since I have existing student loans). My spouse will be looking for a job wherever we go, so the security of School A seems like it would be the best because I know we could afford to live until my spouse finds some kind of employment. I have no idea how we would survive at School B without loans. A trusted professor who is familiar with both schools also recommends School B due to the outstanding professors. Is there a clear winner from an objective point of view?
  5. I have been out of town for several days, but just returned to find an acceptance letter from AU! Anyone else heard from them lately? Fingers crossed for those of you still waiting.
  6. Same here! This is one of the last schools I am waiting on to notify me for the MA. I was out of town this past week and was sure I would come home to find some news in the mail, but I was wrong.
  7. I agree with you that the first part sounds like she has been admitted, but then he follows it up less ambiguously with the statement that he doesn't know when admissions decisions will be made. So it sounds like the first part is just being very polite - opting to say, "See you again if you choose us" as opposed to "See you again if we first choose you and THEN you choose us" ... even though it seems to be the latter. Good luck to the OP!
  8. I've had a hard time figuring this out myself. Some of the schools I have looked at, such as Wake Forest, include at least a sampling of their graduates' PhD placement information on their websites. Others don't mention it at all (not sure if that is because there is no "good news" to broadcast or if there is another reason). Unfortunately, more of the schools I applied to fall in the latter category. In my case, though, the primary factor in whether or not I applied to a school (besides requiring that the school offered funding to at least some candidates) was fit. I am going to visit all of the schools that have accepted me, so where students go for the PhD is something I will ask about in person. By the way, good luck to you this year! I hope you don't need a second year of applications.
  9. No problem! I did the same thing at first – I was pretty bewildered that one of my top choices wasn't ranked at all.
  10. I received it as well, but have yet to hear anything about an admissions decision. Do schools with only terminal MAs even get ranked? I'm thinking they don't, but I could be mistaken. None of the MA-only schools I applied to are ranked, even though some of them are very competitive and send their grads on to highly ranked PhD programs.
  11. I feel exactly the same way. I think I can handle the overwhelming likelihood of rejection, but I don't know if I can handle having to share the news with everyone else who has supported me through the process. I hope this is the year for you, OP and others!
  12. I just mailed off my last application today and had the exact same feeling for a moment -- as though the whole process was all over. Then I remembered that I had merely progressed to one of the most painful phases.
  13. My GPA is not quite what some graduate schools want (thanks to poor, decade-old grades), so I have been in contact with various schools to see if there is ever any leniency in the graduate school guidelines. In my case, every department replied that they can ask the graduate school to consider accepting a student who does not meet the graduate school's minimum requirements if they feel that circumstances warrant it. I got the impression that the graduate school could still say no, but that it was unlikely if the department was on your side.
  14. That is fabulous! If I lost a spot in an English program to Ben, it would make the rejection more palatable. I do love Ben. Somewhat tangentially related - I comfort myself in the knowledge that soon Lost will be back to distract me during this waiting period.
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