Swagato

I wanted to write a little note supporting my position. I believe in a canon as a foundation, as a precursor. I think a canon is an immensely useful tool to introduce students to the field in a historical sense, to provide them a basis. To say: "This is what was, this is what happened afterward. From homogeneity to heterogeneity, from Renaissance to Modernism, from one to many." The canon that I support is a canon that has been conceptually repositioned to serve such a foundational basis, rather than the classical definition of the canon. Therefore, this canon does include the great works that ruptured the classical notion; it is a revised canon.

Great work! Which one did you go with in the end, if you don't mind? Feel free to PM if that's more convenient.

You know, this process has been very illuminating for me this year in particular. I have to say I'm really surprised that so many places that I thought were in the respectable/upper tiers in various fields seem to not fund the first year, or fund partially, and so on. Perhaps naively, I used to think most places wouldn't bother admitting PhD students if they could not be fully funded + a minimum stipend awarded. It's disturbing how many times I've seen offers being reported that don't carry even a tuition waiver. Is it common for many people to accept such offers? I could imagine coughing up $$ for an MA that can power you into a good PhD, but I can't imagine doing that for the PhD itself...

USNWR rankings were based on a 21% response rate? My sides, they hurt.

I agree with what thestage says here. I've observed this thread with some fascination. I don't think any of us are in a position to mock the Emory poster, and I'm honestly a bit surprised that so many of you are basically piling on them. Do you know what the scenario is over there? All we have is this person reeling off tale after tale of dysfunction. The simplest explanation may well be that they have an axe to grind against the department and are either airing dirty laundry in public, or are simply slandering the department. On the other hand, it's very well known that departments suffer from weirdness (to put it lightly) at many, many institutions. At least part or all of what the Emory poster alleges may quite well be true.

My ineptitude with "Cloud"-stuff prevents me from being able to open up a public Google Doc, but I would definitely be interested in seeing how this goes.

Oh, I definitely agree that HYPS-star-factor continues to play a role in public perception. This is a problem of ignorance, since the public at large cannot be expected to know the sort of inside information that we, even at this early stage, have gathered. But, as you note, this plays a role even within academia. What concerns me--selfishly, I suppose--is the perception of the program within academia, within my fields. That's where I feel that the weight of a "traditionalist" program may matter much more.

This is interesting, thank you. If I have any concerns about Yale, it actually is their traditionalist approach, which I have heard is shared across departments. I view myself as rooted in fairly conservative theoretical grounding, but my interests are definitely a blend of the historical and the contemporary. A program like Chicago's is almost sexy, in comparison. But, as you note, theory is a core component of any program (this is common to English and art history/film), so I'm hoping that I won't really lack for resources. Interestingly, if you look at the NRC S- and R-rankings on CHE, Yale English is still rated quite highly (#5 and #2 respectively).

I recall being in the middle of a ~50 person waitlist at Florida back in the 2009-10 admission cycle, for English (film studies track). I also recall Florida being quite terrible with communications. Ultimately, I actually never received any final word from them, via email or post. Not that it mattered by then since I had already decided to go with the Chicago MAPH (this was around May), but it certainly did not leave me with a favourable impression of Florida.

I'm fairly sure everything for History of Art+Film has been sent out. I can't say as much for the other combinations, but based both on past years and the fact that it is now Spring Break at Yale, I *think* everything else has been settled as well. After Spring Break, there really are just three weeks until the April 15 deadline, so it seems unlikely that they'll be that late.

Putting it off until at least after my visit to New Haven at the end of March. I may give it a week into April to see if either of my two waitlists make any move, but I don't really see myself picking any of them.

I find the S- and R-ratings the most relevant. I think perception within the academic community is rather important, so a big disparity between those two rankings would be cause for concern.

Late-2010-and-onward Macbook Air (13", not 11"). I was going to upgrade to a Retina Macbook Pro, ditching my old 2008 MBPro, but an emergency with my cats made me buy a late-2010 Air. It's fantastic. So much lighter, the screen is not at all tiresome, the resolution is actually higher (15" 1440x900 versus 13" 1440x900), the battery life is phenomenal, and I don't miss the backlit keyboard at all. I'm actually disinclined to go for that Retina now, since I know it will be heavier, bulkier, etc.

For obvious reasons, I'm very interested in your comment re: Yale/lit crit+theory. What has changed, which are the go-to programs, and where is Yale English today, in your opinion? Of course, I don't really give much credence to USNWR rankings, but I am interested in what those in the field think.

It's fine to contact them, certainly, but I would stay away from pestering them. Bear in mind that they are dealing with waitlists, new admits and coordinating their visits, as well as updating systems and notifying all other applicants.

I basically ended up doing what Grev wrote earlier in this thread. Back in April, I solicited feedback from a professor who turned out to be incredibly generous with his time and critiques. Their support basically helped me develop my new project, writing sample, and just my entire approach. I'm 99% sure that, without their intervention, I would likely not have been as successful this time around. For Yale, I knew I had a good fit because my project fit so neatly between film and art history. I stressed that (my writing sample makes it obvious). Interestingly, I had no idea that Yale was, at that very time, moving strongly toward the kind of research I specifically outlined in my SOP. In fact, just last month they convened a conference on the exact sub-areas I pitched. And, when I heard the word from Yale, a professor I hadn't even mentioned in my SOP pointed out how closely our research overlaps. I was unaware that their current interests are shifting in a way that is very, very compatible with my own. In retrospect, I can definitely say that my research, knowingly and (to an extent) unknowingly, found its best fit at Yale. It was just a happy convergence of good forces. For Rochester, I have no earthly clue how I was accepted. I actually didn't think it was such a good fit. But, the program is excellent--if a bit underrated--so it was just as well. For Pitt, I strongly suspect having my POI there helped land me my first waitlist. For USC, I have no idea. It was a horrible early draft of my SOP and writing sample that they received, so I simply don't know how I ended up 'high' on their waitlist.

When I emailed my POI, and was informed that I had a very good chance of being receiving an offer, my stated research interests and writing sample were specifically singled out. I've been reading over that crap carefully, as I fully expect those to be brought up in specifics when I visit. @_@

Yep, Chicago is fantastic. I suspect I will be a bit dazed during my Yale visit, but I think I'll always have a soft spot for Chicago. Who'd you meet with?

^ Re the above, I would stress the importance of reading the department's own statement(s). For example, conventional wisdom is that the GRE is fairly inconsequential. However, take a look at this, quoted from Yale's website:

We live in NYC, and we're doing our research now via the Web. Padmapper, Craigslist, and talking to past/current students are all very helpful. We've identified some good spots (East Rock, Downtown for humanities folks, but I believe the science facilities are somewhere else so you may find it more convenient to be elsewhere), and during our visit during the last week of March, will try to scope out some spots. Ideally we'll pick out our apartment and have it ready to move into by late July/early August, and will then move. I've lived out of a few suitcases since 2005 (when I first came to the U.S. as an international student) so I actually don't have that much; my SO has way more, but her folks are willing to drive us up there.

There have to be more people moving to New Haven this year...where are you all?!

Any idea how many they admitted? I saw that I'd been rejected from Iowa some days back. I suppose I had some curiosity about that since I'd been waitlisted last year. If anyone here was admitted, I'd love to talk to them.

I will echo this rather strongly. I recently learnt that one of my professors had an extensive talk with one of my POIs. I have no idea what went on there, but I can't imagine that it had no influence (one way or another) whatsoever. Also, yes undergraduate (and MA-granting, if you are entering with an MA) do matter. As does the names of the people writing your letter (though an exceptionally personal/insightful letter from a lesser-"known" professor could work too).

Hate to be the dimwit, but what's LSU?

I do want to expand a little bit on what I said earlier. The choice to attend an unfunded MA (or partially funded, etc.) is, of course, dependent on individual circumstances. As far as Chicago's program is concerned, there is a sustained (and very successful) effort to place graduates both to academic and non-academic positions, the latter including so-called "alt-academic" and industrial positions. By no means am I saying that it is a guarantee that you will find yourself in any of those categories, but, well, a funded MA is no guarantee of that either. It basically comes down to cost/benefit, and how you define costs and benefits is wholly up to you. My own experiences, and what I've observed of others' though, have convinced me that it can be worth doing an unfunded MA, but that these tend to be the exceptions rather than the norm.