downtownchick

I got into 3 schools (2 UCs and 1 good east coast school) with an off-topic undergrad paper (completely irrelevant, like Renaissance and hip-hop music). It doesn't matter. It's just an evidence to prove that you are able to write well enough. Remember, it's a writing sample. It's not an expertise sample. Contrary to the common belief, you are not required to know your proposed field of study well enough to produce a full-blown paper. You just need to know why you want to do that and how you plan to do that.

It always means money in my case because when I didn't do an MA, I was making money to pay off debts from undergrad and from another very wrong financial decision, to support my parents, to pay vet bills for my sick pet and to have a comfortable lifestyle. If I did not have all those good reasons not to do an MA, I might have done one funded or unfunded. I guess it boils down to if you were not enrolled to a program, are you going to be able to make a lot more money doing something else? If you compare a funded MA with working as a clerk in the county library making $10/hour, then of course, no, your MA doesn't mean money. If you are able to make 5-figure a month selling houses/doing stunts/freelancing/whatever odd jobs you can think of to make money, you might have a different thought. I have been in a financial mess before so my take is as much as an MA helps application sometimes, it also feels nice seeing cash coming in every month without worrying how to pay bills and to put food on the table, especially sooner or later you most likely will have the opportunity to worry about them when you're doing your PhD anyway.

Because I moved to another country and haven't talked to these people for many years.

My partner is a lot more successful than I am financially, and he always will be even if one day I become a rockstar scholar because he is not an academic. Success differentials have never been an issue in our relationship because we both know whatever he offers me, I will offer him exactly the same way if we have to exchange roles. I don't understand how you dare think of maintaining a functional relationship if you don't plan on treating your partner as equal (or bigger) regardless of intellectual/career/financial success. That's very odd to me.

I'm not sure if I leave the year blank, it looks like I have already completed it.

Hey guys. I noticed people put something like “USC 11’” if you know which year you are graduating. But how do you do it if you are just attending without knowing which year you will be done? Is something like this acceptable? [A Great School] [PhD (currently attending)][Rocket Science] Yeah I know I’m bordeline lame here but it’s a useful tool to keep in touch with people, especially other undergrad classmates who went to other grad schools in my field.

Without an MA. Went straight to a PhD after working full-time for about 10 years. I see much better results from others with an MA generally speaking but I don't have money for it.

Declined U Conn unfunded MA (Comp Lit) today. It's a decline although I don't see it's really a spot per se. Good luck everybody.

Good question! I think it's the later. I'm pathetic as a negotiator in general anyway. It was a pretty big gathering with lots of people attending (faculty, other joint departments' faculty, grad students, staff, etc). So I pretty much just mingled as much as I could and showed them my strength. That's about it. But you're probably quite right on their checking to see if you can work well with others. It probably differs from school to school but I don't think you will go very far if everybody hates you or says they don't know much about you after that. You just have to give a clear idea to them in very limited time what you are there for, what kind of a person you will be like among them and blend in.

Just want to report the result of overcoming partial funding: I had done exactly what sciencegal told me together with other "standard actions" for campus visits which other fellows filled me in on this forum and here-and-there, and soon after my visit, I got full funding.

I put a ton of Crabtree & Evelyn lotion all over myself and had a perfect pedicure like a housewife from Orange Country. - Nah, not quite. I started reading another good novel. It doesn't take much for me, another literature girl, to cope with anything. I get high with words promiscuously. Thank God!

Back to your original Q: same as sibil; admitted to another UC's Comp Lit here while no interview whatsoever. Actually if you're just wondering about Emory, I can tell you more: I emailed the sec and Prof White emailed back saying if you didn't get invited for interview, you're not the top candidates and might found yourself somewhere on the wait list. Hope this helps.

Nice topic! And I totally agree! I have a Comp Lit department who always answered my email like, I swear, in less than 15 minutes the max the entire time since I started inquiring about the program/meeting them in person last summer. And then after I had seen an acceptance posted here, I just emailed and asked because I needed to decide on an offer from another school. It was really just a very laid-back/pressure-free "I'd like to know the status of my application" type of question but I never got any answer. I'm like, chill out, it's all cool; I'm not gonna burn down your department; I just want to know...!

Hasn't Emory already handed out offers?

Seriously? The best part of the result page is the Notes column. Sense of humor is good for health. Where're the proctology results? I couldn't find them.

Getting to know the people, very nice. Haggling, not so nice...

Thank you for the advice, sciencegal. The prof has already sent me a schedule of the visit. It says specifically there's one-on-one time with faculty. Oh gosh, what a process. How'd you guys go through all these? This is worse than a colonoscopy!

I’m in humanities. It's a Ph.D. program. I have just gotten a 1-year tuition remission plus 1-year stipend of still-an-unknown-amount from a UC. It was said that I might get the rest of the years with TAship but the current status of that was “unknown” and the school would not know until “maybe in the following months when a spot was freed up”. (I already assume they won't know by April.) What’s worse? I was also told that if I didn’t get TAship after the 1st year, I wouldn’t get fee remission either. Guess they come as a “bundle” or some sort in the system? The school is very tenacious to “talk to me in person about how they can find something for me” when they tell me about the details of their visitation day for admitted students. I don’t know it includes some haggling or is solely a show-you-around type of thing. Feeling a bit worried now. What might help a little is this school is reasonably close to home so little/no support for living expenses may still be a feasible option for me since I have a few thousand in the bank, live with an employed boyfriend and may be able to live on student loan and freelance work. I think I have some money on an IRA too but I don't know if I can take it out; haven't gotten to that yet. But no tuition fee remission? I can't imagine how that will work. What’s your opinion on this? Am I digging a hole to bury myself if I take it? I am still waiting to hear from other schools but so far this is the only solid “offer” I have gotten. Plus, that way, my boyfriend doesn't have to move/change job and may be able to support me more. Am I just crying over nothing in this kind of economy?

How did they get your old work email address?

I truly appreciate rising_star's and fuzzylogician's advice. I'm going to one in 2 weeks and I have absolutely no clue how it's gonna be like.

The bearer of bad news here. I remember my prof did tell me that she used to sit in the adcom in one of the UCs years ago. She said yes, ethnicity/ethnicity-related research definitely played a part in the decision-making process. Just like I and many other people, she personally didn’t agree with that rationale but it’s more of a way to get funding/keep the department afloat. I would imagine maybe it means it differs from school to school, depending on who/what funds the school and what philosophy their source of funding is based on then?