kayrabbit

Thanks, that's a great idea! I received an official decision letter from the Graduate School itself, which included an ID number and suggested that I should be able to register, but I don't think our accounts have been set up to do so yet, so emailing is probably the best alternative until that's worked out. Now I just have to narrow down the five classes I want to take to three before they start filling up. You make a good point about at least reserving the two I'm sure about taking, though. Perhaps my third class will simply be decided for me as seats fill up.

I can understand why you'd feel that way. If you visited and still aren't feeling excited, that says something in itself. For me, the initial excitement of getting into a top program like Cornell or Yale would have been greater, but after learning more about all the programs I applied to and visiting, I think I'm just as excited about where I'm going now as I would have been to go anywhere else. But then, perhaps if you are offered funding you'll feel that way too? Even if there's a good chance of receiving it, I imagine I probably wouldn't allow myself to feel the same excitement until it was certain. The fact that you got in somewhere seems like it would indicate that you at least have a chance to do well in another application season, especially if you had any other wait lists/MA offers. I feel like I learned so much just going through this process that, were I to apply next year, my application would be much stronger. I think how you feel is important in determining the question of whether to try again. If you have no idea how you would improve your application or feel like you've done all you can, your chances may not be as good, but if you can identify aspects that you would like to and know how to improve, I would feel more confident about giving it another shot.

Is it a fully funded offer? How do their placement records look? I mean ideally you want to be excited about where you're going and feel good about the job prospects it's going to help you reach, but I don't think ranking alone should keep you from attending.

Thanks for describing your experience, hopefulscribbler. It's interesting to see how others have navigated passions for critical and creative work. Yes, I found it extremely funny to walk around the English department to talk to several of my professors and come away with opposite advice from those on the lit and the creative sides. Both made me feel a bit like I would waste my talent in one area if I chose the other. It was flattering to see that they all felt strongly about my continuing to work in their field, but it added a lot of pressure to the choice because it felt like I had to risk betraying a pursuit that I care about either way. I completely agree with you — teaching creative writing would be much harder than teaching literature. That was part of my decision to pursue a PhD; usually I feel enthusiastic to take on a challenge, but the challenge of teaching craft and judging students' creative work was one that dissuaded rather than excited me. I have had some wonderful creative writing professors, and I admire them for finding a way to refine students' work, engage their creativity and remain sane after reading countless workshop stories over the years that have the same problems. I don't think I would stand up to it very well!

I can't give you the perspective you asked for of going from an MFA to a PhD, but I was interested to learn a little more about what led you to be in that position. When I began looking into graduate programs, I was really torn between MFA and PhD programs at first, particularly because advice from my lit professors made me feel like I needed to suppress my interest in creative writing to be successful as a PhD applicant, and I wondered whether my creative writing would always be pushed down if I took that path. I looked into pursuing options such as a PhD in creative writing or a dual MFA/PhD, but much of the feedback I got back from professors on both the lit and the creative writing sides was that such a path might make me less marketable as a university would ultimately want to hire me to teach and publish in one field or the other. For me, it came down to the fact that while I am equally passionate about writing critically and creatively, I don't have very much interest in teaching creative writing. I also think it is easier to be a strong creative writer without an MFA program than it is to be a successful literary scholar without a PhD program and a connection to current research in the field. Then again, I suppose there is really no substitute for two years spent focused entirely on your writing, but that's the side of things I came down on. I think the fact that you're looking to do a PhD following an MFA program AND a master's is ambitious and awesome, and I agree with you that the two perspectives enhance each other (hence my desire to progress with both). Are you hoping to eventually teach one or the other?

That's good to hear, I was worried I may have missed something. I'm also anxiously awaiting class registration! Moving to evening classes is going to be a change for me, so I'm eager to figure it all out.

Thanks, that is good information to have — the offer letter I received suggested to me that consortium courses would be covered in tuition remission. Incidentally, after accepting your offer at Maryland, have you received any information about next steps or official documentation? I haven't asked additional questions since accepting, but I was a little surprised not to hear back after being contacted about whether I had reached a decision, and am wondering if I should send another email (though I suppose I could just wait and combine it with an email asking about more program details).

I am entering Maryland's PhD program straight out of undergrad.

That would be fantastic if you get the chance! If you happened to be near any of the units I'm hoping to inquire about through craigslist, it would be great to have some idea of what they actually look like and where they are located. I had time to visit one apartment complex in Greenbelt before flying back after the visit day, and it was nice but in a complex that has almost 3,000 units in 3-story buildings, so the stacked on top of each other apartment situation is definitely a drawback. I don't think it would be that bad — you could hire an undergrad to do it so it's less awkward than trying to arrange it with a current grad student (well, I would feel awkward about asking someone in the program to do it, but maybe that's just me). I feel the same way about finding something on craigslist — until you have seen the apartment in person, you really don't know what you're getting. The one apartment I did visit in Greenbelt had some bad reviews about mildew and maintenance issues. While I was being shown units by someone from their office, I simply brought up those reviews in a polite, straightforward manner and asked whether those were issues I should expect to encounter. They can of course lie to you, but I feel like just hearing how they react to the question and what they say about the problems reviewers mentioned tells you a lot.

Right? I live less than 2 miles from campus in a pretty small town, so it's never more than a five to seven minute drive. The worst traffic I've driven in is Portland... so venturing into DC is probably going to be scarring.

I'm moving from Oregon to Maryland and have been using Craiglist, ForRent.com and Rent.com to at least find places. If you're looking for an apartment complex, these can be good resources to guide you to the community's website or to get in touch with them about units that may be available when you're planning to move. I'm hoping to get a duplex or townhouse that is more independently situated, and unfortunately Craigslist has been the only place I've seen places like that. In a month or two when I feel more reasonable inquiring about August availability, I plan to make contact with landlords through Craigslist, but I'm still less than comfortable with the idea of choosing a place without physically visiting it. We can't really afford an apartment-hunting trip either, but I'm starting to feel that it may be necessary unless we just move into a community of apartment buildings.

Thanks for the insight on the area, bfat. I'm looking for a rental and trying to stay out of the DC area. I definitely want to live either close to campus or somewhere I can take the metro rather than battle traffic, but I wasn't sure whether traffic coming from places like Severn or Bethesda would be as bad. Directions from those places to the university seem to avoid the evil highways you mentioned. Some of the current graduate students said living in Baltimore and commuting works for them, but I can't imagine a 45-minute to 1 1/2-hour drive between school and home working well for me. But I suppose I've been spoiled by living in low-traffic areas.

That's great, buying a house would definitely make for a more desirable living situation, but it would be hard to make such a big decision without knowing more about the area. I'm looking in Takoma Park, Silver Spring and Greenbelt primarily, though I've seen some good options in Bethesda too. We really don't want to get stuck with an apartment complex, but it's a bit early now to find a townhouse or duplex that will be available in August, when we plan to move. I'm torn between the convenience of places like Greenbelt, where I could get to the university by shuttle or metro without any driving required, and the nicer housing options that are 30-40 minutes out. Ideally, I'd like to find a duplex or townhouse between 10 and 20 minutes from campus, but I feel like it's harder to find privately owned, smaller units like that in advance and from across the country.

Congratulations! Are you planning to head back there to look for a place? I was hoping not to have to make another trip back, but I'm starting to feel it may be necessary.

Yes I got the same thing.

Mine are pretty similar to yours, bluecheese. I would have not applied to some programs that I did apply to and would have applied to some other programs if I had known more about their funding packages and taken even more time to find programs that fit my interests really well. I think I'm ending up at the perfect place for me, but I wish every school I had applied to had been a near-perfect fit, and that definitely wasn't the case. I also would have worked harder on the fit paragraphs for my statement of purpose. With some schools, I felt like I was looking for a connection to talk about there, a good indication that some of the programs weren't right for me. If I had made sure I didn't apply to any program for which I couldn't give a really strong explanation of fit in my SOP, I may have made better application decisions in general, as well as had stronger, more detailed school-specific paragraphs in my SOP.

Yeah, I didn't mind declining because I knew I needed to contact them anyway, but it was kind of weird to be asked for the final decision over the phone.

In other news, I received a call from NYU to basically get a decision from me on their MA program. The professor was very nice and, once I told him I had a PhD offer, he suggested I might want to give a firm decline so someone else could receive the funding I was offered. Happy to oblige!

OK, I take my suggestion back. Definitely study the math enough that you can at least land somewhere around the 40ish or higher percentile. Math is my least favorite subject, but I think I'm underestimating the effects of taking it throughout high school through calculus and tutoring a high school student in algebra and geometry during my sophomore year of college. That made a huge difference for me, I'm sure, because the material was much fresher than it otherwise would have been, and teaching something is the best way to fully comprehend it. I was in the 74th percentile and figured there was no need to really do better than 40-50 if you're applying to an English program. But girl who wears glasses makes a good point about overall numbers. I definitely wanted everything to be as high as it could be, for any good it might be able to do me.

I agree. I didn't study for the GRE general. The GRE lit was a different story, but on the general, I received very high scores in the verbal and writing sections without any study other than thinking a little bit about how I might approach the essays the night before (which didn't help at all because my issue topic was completely out of left field). I scored pretty well on the math section, but I agree with MissHavishslam that the math section really doesn't matter. If you can earn a college degree, you can probably perform well enough on the math section to get by. I also think that how you scored on the SAT (unless maybe if you have taken a long break at some point in your education and have scores that are more than 10 years old) is probably a good indication of how you'll do on the GRE. I found the tests incredibly similar and I think my percentages in each section of the GRE were almost identical to those on my SAT. Edit: I think SAT scores are a good indication of how you might do on the GRE without much studying. You could perhaps use that as a base to determine how much effort you may need to put into studying.

Yeah, even though the part about my interests didn't seem particularly genuine, the letter itself did make me think about the advantages of the MAPH. If I didn't have offers to any PhD programs, I might have considered taking on the financial burden of the program. But I'm glad that's not the case, because that kind of debt just to get placed in a PhD program in a year or two is a really scary thought for me. Not that I don't think anyone should do it. The program sounds great and I feel like it would almost guarantee (almost because there are no guarantees in this process) admission to a PhD program for a promising student who completed it. But it's definitely not a viable option given my situation. I should probably let them know that, ha. This whole process has made me so paranoid that I've been afraid to decline anything.

Yeah, exactly. It was like a very, very long advertisement for the program with some personal bits thrown in to make it seem as if it had purpose beyond selling the MAPH.

Haha I did. It was almost nice, but the way the writer described my writing sample was "on what thing theory illuminates about 'Prufrock.'" My sample was on "Preludes," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Waste Land," and "The Waste Land" dominates a lot of the discussion, so that was kind of weird.

I think what you said here makes it clear what the best choice for you is. I'm not Rhet/Comp, but I've always felt that the program that is right for you and will shape you into the most successful scholar you can be is not necessarily the program that has the best reputation or even the highest concentration of faculty and resources in a specific area, but the best combination of resources, environment and opportunities that you're looking for. One thing I came away from Maryland with was the feeling that there is real freedom to shape your study and draw on their resources to make the program meet your needs. But I can completely understand your anxiety about the decision. The other offers I have so far aren't even viable options, and I had nothing bad to say about Maryland after the visit day, but I still went home feeling anxious about deciding to attend, even though it's pretty much a given. This process is stressful even when things are working out perfectly! Good luck, and I'm happy we might be seeing each other at UMD again in the fall

I found this to be a really helpful approach, too. The app I used was called GRE Vocab, though now it looks like it's called GRE Vocab Genius for the full set of flashcards.