skgarcia

What a nasty person you are.  I know how to add and subtract.  I just feel sorry for people who are so elitist, and unhappy, as you are.  Your attitude will find you nothing but money in life.  I hope you feel better now that you've power tripped.  Congrats!  You're good at math AND English!  You must be of superior genetics.

Thank you!  Apology totally accepted  We all say and do things that come out wrong, especially on the internet.

What a nasty person you are.  I know how to add and subtract.  I just feel sorry for people who are so elitist, and unhappy, as you are.  Your attitude will find you nothing but money in life.  I hope you feel better now that you've power tripped.  Congrats!  You're good at math AND English!  You must be of superior genetics.

What a nasty person you are.  I know how to add and subtract.  I just feel sorry for people who are so elitist, and unhappy, as you are.  Your attitude will find you nothing but money in life.  I hope you feel better now that you've power tripped.  Congrats!  You're good at math AND English!  You must be of superior genetics.

Thank you!  Apology totally accepted  We all say and do things that come out wrong, especially on the internet.

Congratulations!  That's awesome!  The gif above pretty much perfectly describes what my reaction would be.

Thank you!  Apology totally accepted  We all say and do things that come out wrong, especially on the internet.

It sounds like a good sign. Also, please accept my apology for the dickish comment I made the other day. The tone came out wrong. Best of luck!

Well, then, you get a gif too! Congrats!
 

Hey guys,
 
I have some news for UChicago hopefuls. I just called their English Grad Admissions staff (and there are some very lovely, very polite folks over there, by the way).
 
Having seen the four admits posted on our forums, I asked them if they had contacted all admits. They informed me that not all decisions have been made, and that they're contacting admits and rejections as decisions are made. More specifically, they told me that they're evaluating "groups" of applications and sending out decisions when they finish a group.
 
TL;DR?
 
If you haven't heard from Chicago yet, don't give up hope! 

Accepted into Brown. Still can't believe it.

"Several houses" is quite an exaggeration.  Several houses.. where?  Mississippi? A trailor park?  MAPH is somewhere around 50-60k, before taxes, if I'm remembering correctly.  That won't buy you much of a house in any state.  Even if you multiplied that times four, to include cost of living, it wouldn't buy more than one home.  Why use such comparisons hurtfully?  You're obviously stretching the truth--why?  Don't judge or belittle what other people want to spend their money on.

I find your response somewhat hurtful?  No one should judge what the best use of a person's time is other than that person.  Students who have parents capable of paying their tuition can look at a large variety of programs without anything holding them back--if money were an issue, why would their parents offer to pay for it?  If their parents are willing, and capable of, paying whatever amount for whatever degree, why bash them?  I may be incorrect for feeling this way, but I'm interpreting your response quite hurtfully.  In your opinion, I should stay home and pay myself to do nothing rather than attend a program I'm highly interested in because it's an unfunded MA?

Correction: All you said was that you could afford to go without funding AND you believed it would be a "win/win". 

I'm not really concerned with what you put on your application. I'm concerned with what you've written here and the built in assumptions you're making.


 

Whether or not a given person has the money available, it's honestly a terrible investment. There is no PhD in any field worth the many hundreds of thousands of debt nor is there an MA that should cost at least 6 figures, especially after you factor in your living expenses. If you have the money, it might make sense to eat a short-term cost (maybe in-state tuition to get an MA) but to do something like the MAPH completely out of pocket is lunacy IMO. I believe there is no better use of your time than learning, but there are better ways to do it when you could buy several houses with the same expenditure. Why not just pay yourself to hang out at home or work some enjoyable, but low-paying job if you're going to drop that much money? 

I think at the end of the day you have to do what is best for you. Whatever that is. You live with the decisions, no one else on a forum does.

I don't think they were purposefully trying to be hurtful, I just know their response was directed towards me and it was hurtful when I read it.  I do want to be a competitive PhD applicant in the future, and I feel Chicago's MAPH program is a great stepping stone to that goal.  Like you said, desp, I'll do whatever I need to do in order to get there.  I'm only somewhat different from the norm in that my parents are capable of supporting me and I'm an only child.  We aren't rich, but they're willing to do anything they can to help.

My MA was unfunded, and I paid for it via Cal Grants, a small fellowship, some part-time jobs, and loans. Fortunately, it was at SFSU, and I am a California resident. I came out of the program with $20,000 in debt. I have no regrets; I taught for three years at a community college (a job I absolutely LOVED) and am now quite happy at a great program. That being said, I hear what JLRC is saying. Debt should not be taken lightly.
 
There are lots of conflicting ideas about how to succeed in academia. I try to listen to various opinions, weigh all the options, then make the best decision for me. 

As I've argued elsewhere, there are immense benefits to being in an unfunded MA program. At least half my professors were in debt from their MA programs. I'm not from a wealthy family at all--my parents couldn't afford to have me live at home and I couldn't find work with a BA in English. When I was offered an unfunded MA at a top 50 school, I jumped at the chance. It has helped advance me a lot as a scholar and should help me get into a better program for PhD (theoretically). I'm currently working with my school's adcomm head to possibly publish. There's a decent chance I'll get into my current school's PhD program, which is fully funded at $20k a year and has an 80% placement rate. I was told I'd be insane not to take it by my undergraduate advisors.

There are plenty of benefits to an unfunded MA. It depends on your circumstance. No one should declare that any circumstance is never an option for others.

And yes, I have a ridiculous amount of debt. But I think it's worth it.

Congrats to all the acceptances on the boards today! It’s great to see. I hope that they keep coming (for all of us)! 

I hear this. I don't think anyone was trying to be hurtful, but if an unfunded MA is what makes me a successful PhD candidate in the future, that's what I'm going after. And if it STILL doesn't get me into a PhD program, it will get me a job adjuncting, or in administration, or SOMETHING. It'll make me money someday, which is really very necessary whether I get into a PhD program or not. It's a matter of situations.

Thanks everyone for your responses.
 
I'm definitely prepared for, and expecting, a rejection from University of Chicago.  I applied to other schools I feel more hopeful about, but this school would've been my dream acceptence. 
 
As far as the importance of test scores.. I do adamantly believe I am much more intelligent, creative, and capable of research/abstract reasoning than my test scores give me credit for.  I'm a strong visual-spatial learner, and generally, visual-spatial learners have a harder time with memorization (vocabulary) and mathematics computation, but are especially skilled at the "whole picture," identifying the underlying purpose, and understanding abstract concepts.  I can only hope my letters and writing sample shine.

What a nasty person you are.  I know how to add and subtract.  I just feel sorry for people who are so elitist, and unhappy, as you are.  Your attitude will find you nothing but money in life.  I hope you feel better now that you've power tripped.  Congrats!  You're good at math AND English!  You must be of superior genetics.

What a nasty person you are.  I know how to add and subtract.  I just feel sorry for people who are so elitist, and unhappy, as you are.  Your attitude will find you nothing but money in life.  I hope you feel better now that you've power tripped.  Congrats!  You're good at math AND English!  You must be of superior genetics.

What a nasty person you are.  I know how to add and subtract.  I just feel sorry for people who are so elitist, and unhappy, as you are.  Your attitude will find you nothing but money in life.  I hope you feel better now that you've power tripped.  Congrats!  You're good at math AND English!  You must be of superior genetics.