Swagato

Yup, likewise. I've nothing against Don'tHate--their comments typically are smart, if not the most tactful. However as we all know, this is a game in which luck plays a large part, so if (I hope not!) they do not have a successful round, I would expect them to play fair.

I assume you mean Aug. 19-28? It looks like that's going to be universal for all graduate students. My SO and I are definitely aiming to move to New Haven by the end of July. I don't want to show up a day or two before Orientation, and we think being there for a few weeks before will ease the transition.

Yale has an MA program in history? Interesting. We will probably try for East Rock or the downtown area, as that's where most of the graduate students seem to congregate.

Sub-3.0 (significantly so) BA GPA. 3.70 in the MA. Will be attending a program that's both a personal 'dream' choice as well as extremely well-regarded in the field. I don't have any conference presentations or publications. Obviously I do not want to beat my own drum, but at one point, I was among those wondering if I'll ever "make it." So, I hope some of you read this and take heart. You can do it.

Represent. Edit: Seriously, though. I was so worried this round would be a repeat of last year. And then things fell into place. Given how my applications progressed (I remember commenting on how my later applications were my strongest), I actually had a fairly decent season overall--still pending one final uni. I would not freak out and give up if your first round did not go well. Go back to the drawing board, there is plenty that can be improved. Really, really work on your stuff. And, like everyone said, apply widely.

This is not what was implied, nor, to my knowledge is it the case in American academia. What matters is that the applicant for a 2nd PhD have an extremely compelling reason, whereby they can demonstrate how the 2nd PhD will provide additional training for future scholarship that the first PhD does not already provide. International differences are all but irrelevant here--plenty of American PhD students have done their BA/Baccalaureate/MA/equivalent abroad. Being urged to apply by faculty is no guarantor of success (whether admission or waitlisting). It simply indicates that the faculty member(s) view your profile as nominally worth exploring further. I don't know if they read your writing sample and statement of purpose, or if their comments were based simply off your preliminary meetings. In either case, prior faculty encouragement is not a signifier of much at all. And, really, when it comes to Harvard and similar institutions, I'm of the opinion that "Is this good enough?" is simply the wrong question.

By the way, since the Film Studies Program at Yale is associated with several departments, I'm hoping that there are (there should be...) other admits too. I will be visiting campus in the last week of March, and would love to meet up with any of the other admits. Please PM!

^ This is actually something I thought about, but did not comment on earlier. That "two PhDs" may indeed be a cause for concern, especially at places like Harvard where, let's face it, the priority is on producing the next generation of scholars. There would have to be very compelling arguments for the second PhD in order to convince an adcom to take the risk.

t1racyjacks: Again, I don't know your profile, but since you said that you hope to apply to Comp Lit programs next year, I thought I'd share something I learnt this round myself. Unless you are already fluent in at least several languages (relevant to your interests) as well as English, it's practically not worth it to apply to Comp Lit programs. That, at least, is what a POI of mine at Yale informed me. The sheer number of applicants means they receive many applications from people already perfectly fluent, meaning those with intermediate language acquisition often do not stand a chance. Your mileage may vary of course.

Honestly, Yale and Brown have the only cinema/media studies programs amongst the Ivies that I'd kill for. I'm just really, really happy at how good the fit is with Yale. You have some great acceptances, considering your interests. However, over in the English threads I heard some things about the funding/TA situation at Austin that, to my mind at least, offered cause for consternation. You want the best fit, certainly, but you also want to be able to keep your own work moving along--not be bogged down by low funding, heavy TA duties, and the like. Having to consider the joint PhD at Yale is making me really think about these things, so I guess they're foremost on my mind these days. We spend months working out the fit issue, but now that we have acceptances, we also have to look at the other stuff. I would be very attracted to UC-SB out of your three, with IU coming up second and Austin a distant third. Eeedit: By the way, does anyone know anything about UIowa?

Finally! It always only takes one. Is this for an MA or PhD?

Received the official notification from Yale's GSAS. Yup, still a shock.

To be perfectly honest, t1racyjacks, I have serious reservations about an English applicant applying to a mere four places, at least 3 of which are quite competitive, one supremely so. I have a good friend from my Chicago MA who is in English; he has an admirable applicant profile--last cycle, he applied to at least 15 places, I believe, finally getting into two of the top places for his specialties. I don't remember if he had other admits. Columbia clearly states that they get 700+ applications. My impression is that English is a seriously hard field to get into, especially if you are gunning for the very top. I don't know if you have an MA, or in general anything else about your profile, but I'm of the opinion that feeling down after being rejected from four places is outright irrational, simply given the numbers involved. And, to top it all off, you're an international applicant applying to a public institution in California. In 2012/13. If I were you, the first thing I'd do next year is make sure I'm applying to at least more than a dozen places, at any of which I could see myself.

Well, why's this thread so quiet? Surely there are more of us?

Holy wow, this makes me wonder what the average age for entering PhDs is these days, across disciplines. I'll be 26 when I begin this year, and I thought that was older... Anyway. SoP, SoP, SoP. Writing Sample, Writing Sample, Writing Sample. Letters, Letters, Letters. That's all I have to say. I changed nothing from last year except the first two--the letters were (I assume) partially amended by my professors based on my conversations with them, reflecting my new focus etc. I don't think they were radically changed. However, I did focus almost completely on the SoP and the writing sample. Get faculty to read them if possible. Get anyone--advanced students, faculty, graduate placement services--to read them. Get as much feedback as you can. It needn't be repeated, but--obviously, make sure you are presenting an attractive proposal; it should be timely, forward-looking, and just a worthwhile investment opportunity for the department. And apply widely.

^ Are you aiming for an academic career? I assume you are.

I asked about the gap year issue specifically. I was told that, since (in all reality) it is a question of a few months between one application and the next, it is not expected that you have to address it somehow. Let your writing sample, SOP, etc. speak for themselves to "show" your progress. Obviously, if you've bagged some publications or presentations, send them over to the CV or drop a line on them in your SOP. As for "what I did": I honestly did not do much. Without getting too field-specific, I repositioned myself to try and come up with a research proposal and interests (and writing sample) that a 2012 adcom would find attractive and worth the investment. This doesn't mean I gave up my "passions"...rather it just means I delved deeper into my field to try and understand what's going on, where things are going. By fortune or, I suppose, by being smart (to an extent? no? okay then.) I managed to develop a project at once timely, forward-looking, and rigorous enough to merit doctoral studies. In developing the project I reached out widely to professors who I felt may have something to say, something to offer. More often than not I encountered great generosity from them, and their feedback/comments definitely helped me in this construction phase. Edit: I do want to add, however, that I don't think any better of my project now than I did a week or two ago when I was uncertain about this cycle. But that's where the numbers game comes in. I applied widely, yet I applied choosing places at which I could readily see myself. I think, if the legwork is there and you apply widely, at some point or other you're bound to strike gold.

t1racyjacks: I am a second-round applicant (see my signature for details). Like you, I felt quite crushed after my first round. True, I had one waitlist, but at the time I felt it was a fluke, and that I should just give up my ambitions. But as the song goes, I got by with a little help from my friends (and partner). I reached out to faculty not only at my MA institution but also other departments that I really felt kinship with, soliciting feedback. One professor was especially generous, and it was in those exchanges that the embryo of my new project began to form. I developed a plan for reorienting myself, and stuck to it. Stayed up nights reading, used commute-time to work to read more, and just really poured myself into working on my application. I didn't go for conferences or publications, though I sent abstracts to a few lower-level conferences. When I found my Chicago professors and the other professor who I'd been in contact with would be attending a conference here in NYC, I made sure to attend. I did all I could to work at my stuff. This year, things started out a bit rocky, but...as my signature indicates...it worked out. All you need is one. Don't give up. Detach yourself from all this for a few weeks. Think. Try to shrug off the theory and the jargon, go right to the heart of your burning questions. Then, come back and get in touch with faculty members. Do it widely. Develop a fresh approach. We'll see what happens next year.

Ah, I see. I trust I did not come off as too arch in my comment earlier. Not getting accepted to Harvard (a possibility) is definitely no reflection on your merits. For what it's worth, I am (was) an international student as well, in 2005. I've since changed residency status, but when I took the GRE in 2009, it was still as an international student. I don't know where you're from, but I found that the GRE rewards simply playing by the GRE rulebook. You're discouraged from writing in your own voice and it works best if you simply spit out a rather banal essay in the GRE style. You may want to take it again, if you decide to reapply. As far as publications go, I can't really help you there--I'd suggest speaking to any faculty member you've been in contact with. I'm sure Harvard, like any top department, has international representation in their student body, so it may be worth reaching out to them.

You applied to Harvard Comp Lit with 69% V 27% Q and AW 4.0? I'm not at all saying that you're a bad applicant or anything, but those numbers would raise eyebrows at much lesser places. Also, why are you at the end of your PhD and not a single publication? I know that the humanities do not require publications as frequently as is common in the sciences--still, it is common to have at least one or two by the time you are finishing up. I imagine Harvard and the like will expect this. Anything else is intrinsic to your application and you will only discover this by asking them candidly for feedback.

Oh, I wasn't arguing against you. Naturally, different criteria for different people and all that. And I may indeed be romanticizing things a bit in my perception of how I want the next years to be.

This could just be me, but I've always felt that the program I attend will inevitably be a part of my life (stating the obvious, in a way). But what this means for me is that I could not feel comfortable in my skin without feeling comfortable in my program, and vice versa. Perhaps this is a romanticized perspective, but I'd like to think of my future department and institution as an extended family in a way, with all the degrees of separation that implies. I want to make it my home for the next 5-7 years. That is why I think fit definitely includes more than intellectual fodder. It includes funding, because what I am doing is work. I'd like a decent level of appreciation for that, please. I don't think that's unreasonable. I may have a perfectly wonderful fit at another place, but unless that place is somehow near the top of the totem pole yet is offering me peanuts, I would not consider it. We may talk about "fit" all day long, but ultimately if we got into 2-3 places, then it's because those places believe we will fit in with them. And first-year teaching? No.

This post is half my own musings and half directed to dazedandbemused (actually, at anyone who shares their position). Recently, I somehow got accepted to two superb programs. One is a dream program, while the other--though underrated--also has a very good program, if not what I envision as the perfect fit for me. One of them funds me (there's no other way to put this) handsomely. It offers a reasonable teaching load, curatorial program options, TA in selected years rather than all, etc. The other provides $15k for 4 years, requires TA'ing in every year. There's simply no way I could choose the latter. Quite aside from the fact that I'd be moving with my SO and all that, the two just do not compare. I'm not in this for the rest of my life. I want to go to the place that puts up the best package overall...and that definitely includes funding and the opportunity to focus on my work rather than be consumed with teaching responsibilities every year. At the same time it should offer me ample teaching options so that I may end up a well-rounded job applicant. (This part is directed solely at dazedandbemused.) I don't know Austin, but I seriously would have trouble going to place that doesn't offer, at minimum, a full tuition waiver. Especially so, if my other option is at a place that has just offered me a big fellowship.

As the past results will have shown you, Harvard tends to notify either all at once or very closely grouped together. I would give it a week before contacting anyone you may have been in touch with. Even then, a reply is by no means guaranteed. I would not bother anyone with feedback requests until at least late April. Departments will be occupied with sorting out the incoming cohort.

I, too, am likely going to visit after spring break rather than before. Right now I'm awaiting the official materials so further planning can be undertaken. I'm a bit unsure whether to reach out to my POIs in film now, or wait a bit...