grubyczarnykot

I applied to the Culture and Theory program. I hope re: Davis, but I'm sure it's probably a rejection. ><

I am so confused as to why Davis hasn't rejected me yet. I finally got my Irvine rejection though, so that's fun. Last year my first rejection came right as I landed at the Vienna airport. This year, I was on break at Barnes and Noble. I can't decide which was worse. Also, congrats to whoever got the Cincinnati acceptance. I went to UC for undergrad and the faculty are great

Hahahahaha. What a perfect plan. I think I'll do the same with my email, just to be safe. Either that or I'll make someone babysit my phone and computer for me until Monday. Eesh.

Oh I'm so close to doing the exact same thing.

Also, congrats to people who have been accepted to UCI! Did anyone else apply to Culture and Theory at UCI as opposed to English/Comp Lit?

Off-topic a bit, but I just had my phone interview for the Erasmus Mundus category A scholarship for the GEMMA (women's/gender studies) program. Apparently there are three people on the list, only one scholarship available, and I'm number two on that list. So, I'll only get it if the other person doesn't accept. But like. Who in their right mind wouldn't accept that. I'm going to assume I am second best, once again (post-traumatic UChicago unfunded MAPH disorder?).

I feel exactly the same. I have an almost perfect GPA, have studied abroad twice (once on a scholarship award), my GRE verbal is 96th percentile, and I have won just about every award that one can win at my university. But my university is one that no one cares about. Oops.

Oof. This makes me feel kind of better about NOT being over-eager about contacting departments. Sometimes I think I'm not showing enough initiative, but I always feel pest-y or presumptuous about the idea of too much communication.

Megeen - I actually participated in ERASMUS during my undergrad. Well, I was the fake American ERASMUS student who just took the classes with everybody else. I had previously been unaware of the joint MA programs, though, and if this one doesn't work out, I'm looking to also apply to the IMESS, which is based at UCL and (I would choose) University of Belgrade, as I'm interested in Slavic lit. I'm hopeful about the GEMMA program, though, and the Gender Studies dept at Utrecht looks pretty stellar. Shortstack - Thanks!! Utrecht seems to be a really great university. Also, looking for programs in the EU can be kind of daunting and funding is I guess kind of hidden. According to my friend who is currently doing an MA in history in Berlin, there's a lot of funding available, but you kind of have to dig for it, apply for external scholarships, etc. But another upside to EU programs is that many of them do not require tuition fees!

Hi all, I have tried to stay away from this place this time around, but now that we're getting into February I have to join in. Really, refreshing the results board is an addiction. I applied last year at 9 programs, was rejected from all except for UChicago's MAPH (without funding, of course, so I did not accept it). This time, I intended to apply to around 12 programs, but had some unexpected circumstances that prevented me from doing so. So, I only finished 5 apps. Although, the 5 were the best fits I could imagine. Seriously though it's looking grim; I'm assuming Davis is a rejection, and I also applied to CSLC at USC, but it looks like those acceptances have already gone out too. 2 implied rejections? I have an interview with the director of the graduate gender program at Utrecht on Friday, though, and if that goes well I could get a category A scholarship for the Erasmus Mundus GEMMA program. I think it'll be funny if the only acceptance I get is the FREE application. Does anyone else have experience with these Erasmus programs? I kind of applied on a whim, didn't expect anything from it. Now I'll go back to refreshing my email and the results page obsessively.

Greetings everyone, in the midst of another application season (it's my second). I applied to several PhD programs in English Lit departments last year without any acceptances (besides, of course, the MAPH at UChicago with absolutely no funding). After discussing everything with my professors and reviewing my application materials, I've decided to focus more on interdisciplinary/theory-based programs as I think they would be better suited for me than traditional English departments. Unfortunately, a lot of these are at extremely selective schools: for example, the programs I'm seriously interested in applying to are Berkeley's Rhetoric program, Stanford's MTL, UCSC's History of Consciousness, Duke Literature, and Brown's Modern Culture and Media program. UCLA's English dept with the prospect of the certificate in "Experimental Critical Theory" looks perfect as well, but (especially because of last year), I'm hesitant to even try. I'm trying to find some safer schools with similar programs, and one that I've come across was Stony Brook's PhD in Cultural Analysis and Theory. I was pleasantly surprised by the program - especially because of a POI who works with Polish/Soviet film and I have interests in this area. Does anyone know anything/have experience with Stony Brook - this program or just the school in general? Also, any other suggestions for similar programs would be awesome.

So, after this unsuccessful round of applications to PhD programs, I've decided to focus on applying to funded MA programs (and maybe one or two extremely-good-fit PhD programs another time around). My first round of applications was a bit messy, I think, and my research interests were not well-define. My writing sample was great (an award-winning essay, etc) but it didn't really match with my SOPs because I kind of wanted to stray a bit from what exactly that paper focused on. It was about Hedwig and the Angry Inch and its relation to performativity, although I stretched the application of performativity to political culture and not just sex/gender politics. So basically, my first round of apps were focused on gender/sexuality studies, new media, performativity, and how desire functions in late capitalism in relation to gender/sexuality/performativity. Okay that's a horrible summary but whatever. I applied to programs I thought fit my interests pretty perfectly - obviously UPenn was my dream school, and my professors all told me to definitely definitely apply there, but to no avail. However, having had some time since writing my last sample, I think 1) it could use updating (at the least) and/or 2) I should write a whole new sample altogether - one that is more tailored to my most recent research interests. I haven't actually tried to put this into a coherent description, but I've been interested in the way that feminine subjects relate to material objects and a sort of feminine alienation that results from having always to be quite external objects as opposed to internal subjects. Many of Jean Rhys's characters , especially Julia in After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, I believe, exemplify this. I also think Anais Nin's fiction would be relevant to this. So I guess I'm leaning towards a more psychoanalytical approach, and my interests have switched from film/new media to Modernism? As you can see, I'm really confused. And I have no idea where to look for faculty/programs relevant to this stuff. I know exactly where to look for gender/performativity studies, as my closest professor is in this field and I've basically learned everything I know from her. I just don't know if I should be searching for people who focus on Modernism/women in Modernism/that time period or the more theoretical stuff. Obviously, in the past, I've researched programs based on theoretical fields, but now I'm just lost. Sorry for the essay. I hope someone can help me with program suggestions that have ANYTHING to do with ANYTHING I mentioned above? Even if you could suggest some literature/theory that pertains to that mess I just wrote up there, I'd be super grateful. I just don't know where to look.

Awesome, thank you for the advice! Yes, Jagiellonian is great, I've studied abroad here twice now and I would love to stay for an MA.

There are a lot (well, maybe not a LOT, but a good few) of PhD programs that are interdisciplinary in nature, or at least the departments themselves have an interdisciplinary edge. The poetics program at SUNY Buffalo is great for this (I regret not finishing my application for them :/), UPenn has a lot of faculty that do both creative and critical work and from what my professors that have gone there and/or work for Penn have told me, it's a good "fit" for people who are interested in both critical and creative work. Additionally, there are some interdisciplinary PhD programs that focus on cultural studies, theory, media, etc, I don't know how interested you are in media studies at all but Brown has a "Modern Culture and Media" PhD that seems pretty flexible. I'm sure there are tons of other options, it's just a matter of researching and really looking into the faculty that would allow for some sort of creative leeway in your research. However, I'm of the opinion that critical work can often be (at least for me necessarily is) creative in itself, especially if you also write creatively "on the side" or whatever. There's also the option to pursue a critical degree and work closely with faculty/peers to produce creative work that perhaps doesn't directly apply to your degree. Anyway, good luck

Hi everybody, after my -fail- at this round of PhD apps, I'm now considering my other options, preferably ones that will boost my chances of getting accepted the next time around (still bitter about the fact that my only acceptance was MAPH, unfunded ><). I'm currently finishing my undergrad with a semester in Kraków studying Polish language and I've decided to stay for another year to continue with intensive language courses in order to attain at least something resembling fluency. I was going to just go ahead and apply to some American and Canadian funded MA programs while in Kraków next year, but now I'm looking at programs at Jagiellonian University, and I've found an MA program in Polish Studies, Jewish Studies, and History. You basically choose one focus, and the two options I am interested in are (obviously) Polish literature, or theatre studies. The program itself looks really good, includes a lot of lit/cultural theory courses as part of the core curriculum, and is a two-year program. I'm just wondering if attaining an MA from a university in Poland would actually help at all when I decide to re-apply for PhDs back in the states? The first time around I went for English Literature but if I end up becoming better with Polish, I guess I'd be applying for Comp Lit programs with an interest in Slavic literatures/cultures (I also have a base knowledge of Russian). Would it be more advisable to attend perhaps a comp lit program in the states? Wow, sorry for the essay. Any advice would be awesome

Let me know if they respond! I'm still waiting to hear and I'm terrified to ask. Better not to know, maybe. They're the last school I'm waiting on.

We can only hope it's the latter.

Well, a post on the results board says that Columbia's done sending out acceptances and is still in the process of notifying the rest of the applicants? I don't understand if this means there's a waitlist or if they're just annoyingly slow with rejections. I just want to know

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I'm going out of my mind waiting for Columbia to just reject me already. I applied to seven programs, was rejected from six unless you want to count that offer for the MAPH from UChicago, unfunded of course. I had assumed Chicago was a rejection since I hadn't heard from them, and I see that Columbia has already sent out a lot of rejections. Any chance they might offer people MAs later in March or something? The website says you have to write a letter to be considered for the MA AFTER being rejected from the MA-PhD program, but that's hard to do if you don't have a stupid rejection letter. Blah. I keep checking the website but no news at all. Anyone else waiting for a Columbia decision?