aaascootboy101

I don't think they are going to start limiting MA students in the Comp Lit part of the department. At the very least, I heard nothing about it. I also wasn't aware of the changing situation in the English department, but I can tell you that this year, more than half of the potential English students who attended the visiting weekend already had Masters degrees. Of course quite a few of these were MFAs, so maybe those aren't the type of Masters they are looking to exclude?

I am the counter to Nightingalesing as I will be attending UNC-CH for Comp Lit next year. Like that poster, I would more than willing to answer any questions you had about the program. Ultimately, attending an MA program at Dartmouth versus either of the PhD programs is a personal choice, but I would only recommend it if (1) you weren't sure if you wanted to go on for a PhD in general, (2) if you weren't sure if you wanted to go on for a PhD in Comp Lit, or (3) you were facing some pretty dire PhD choices. I am biased, but I don't think number 3 is quite the case. If however, you feel that your chances at admission at "better programs" (however you choose to define them) would be improved by receiving a master's degree, then by all means go for it. There have been a lot of postings around here about the benefits/negatives of doing a master's first, so I would read up on them before I was too distracted by the Dartmouth name! That being said, I did know someone who did an MA at Dartmouth and is now getting a PhD from Oxford and oddly enough, if you did decide to attend UNC, you would most likely be the only incoming student without a Masters.

I used Peterson's extensively this application season and I wish I hadn't. The numbers they give for acceptances and acceptance rates bear no relation to any I've found on any university website. The numbers game is fraught with difficulties, often from the departments themselves. There are many departments who give their own admissions statistics with their own flaws, for example making the difference between those accepted and those matriculated unclear. "We receive 100 applications for a class of 5 students" does not a 5% acceptance rate make. It could be as low as 5 or theoretically as high as 100%. Tricky. But checking official university data (WashU, for example is very forthcoming about its admissions data), you'll find that Peterson's rarely if ever matches this information. I would be very cautious therefore about using it. As an additional side note, this year would have been hard to predict even without all the statistical red herrings. One program I applied to cut its admits in half and received slightly more applicants than last year. I would estimate that acceptance rates in the humanities could be 50% lower than last year across the board. I did get into a program I found through Peterson's, which funnily enough I probably wouldn't have applied to otherwise. The actual acceptance rate last year was roughly 1/3 of what Peterson's said. If I had known it was so hard to get into, I wouldn't have applied!

Does anyone know anything about Hillmont apartmentsin Carrboro? The descriptions of their apartments seem good and the prices also seem fine and not worringly low. I haven't been able to find any reviews of these apartments. Also, does anyone know anything about Dunlap Lilley properties(aka Jim Lilley properties) which has rentals all over Chapel Hill? They have interesting things for rent (a cottage!) but I only found one review online and it was pretty negative.

I already posted this in the Chapel Hill topic, but maybe I'll have better luck here. Does anyone have funding info for UNC?

Well, that was fast! Going back to look at the file again, it does appear that 30 pages or so have suspiciously disappeared. For those of you that missed it, I can explain what was there. It was a list of all of those who matriculated in the biology program at the University of Iowa from 2000 - 2009 complete with: first and last name; GRE Verbal, Quantitative, and Writing Scores; and Undergraduate GPA. Appalling stuff, to say the least. The rest of the document is an interesting read as well, basically departments defending their programs so they won't get cut. The list of programs which 'need to be evaluated further' skews heavily toward the humanities. Looking at the departments of those on the committee which made this decision, you can see that none of their departments made the 'need to be evaluated' list. Also, the university announced that no program on the list would receive university fellowship funds. No funds means less of a chance at an incoming class. I think they are trying to smoke these programs out. It all seems very fishy to me!

Ebaranov is correct, I meant page 206 of the PDF. Shocking, isn't it?

I found this information in a document released by the Provost at the University of Iowa. It is the report of a strategic task force to determine which graduate departments should be cut. Those in the natural sciences need not worry, the programs on the chopping block are mostly in the humanities. I did however find some information which should be of interest to biology students: http://provost.uiowa.edu/work/strategic-initiatives/docs/tfreports/SITF_GraduatePlusAppendices.pdf I won't ruin the surprise, but go to page 206 and be prepared to be shocked. My apologies to those affected, I have never seen a mishandling of data like this in Graduate admissions before!

To those of you who have been accepted, what does your funding package look like? I am wondering specifically about the stipend...

"This week" has unfortunately come and gone, with no new results posted. Has anyone heard anything?

I was wondering the same thing. It seems all acceptances were sent out at the same time in past years, then a few days later rejections were mailed out. Not to worry anyone, but when I saw that first acceptance and checked my email and found nothing, I definately put that information in the "not a good sign" category. Good luck to all those (like myself) still waiting!