Tomoe

I'm torn between UCLA and Berkeley...

I still haven't decided, but UCLA is top of my list at the moment. I'm hoping to do a round of campus visits before making a final decision. But it would be great to end up at the same place kindkw, if that's what you'll be choosing. And if anyone wants any information on the Columbia MA, I'd be happy to oblige. Congrats, everyone!

The acceptance that was posted today was mine but it was an email from my POI. He said I won't get the official response until possibly next week so don't worry if you haven't heard anything yet!

I did my undergraduate degree in Japanese at Edinburgh. I can't say anything about the South Asia Studies Program, but I absolutely loved living there. It's a wonderful city!

Thanks drfuzz and saltome, and congratulations Quyuan!

Has anyone else been invited to the Stanford interview thing on February 6th and 7th?

Haha, oh I see ^.^;; I'm doing premodern lit for my MA, but I want to do something a bit more ambitious for my PhD. Basically, I want to examine the ways in which certain warrior narratives, in Japan and the Middle East, undergo politically motivated alteration and adaptation from the pre-modern period till the early 20th century. What are you interested in?

Thanks, yatto! As for the pre-modern, early modern, and modern breakdown, do you mean at Columbia?

Yes, I'd exchanged emails with him during the application process and then he called to clarify a few things about my background and interests after I'd sent in the application. I hope it's a good sign but I don't want to get too excited yet in case it doesn't work out. I think it means that he's interested in working with me, but my understanding of the process is that the final stage is a kind of trading cards exchange between the entire department where they work out how many people each side can field... So I'm cautiously excited ^.^;;

I'm not sure, I know that they didn't interview me for Columbia. But I hope you get in, I know tons of amazing people in the Korean Studies Department! And good luck to you too, MastersHoping!!

I certainly did with mine. My undergrad grades were solid but not brilliant because I was so focused on getting out into the "real world" and doing something worthwhile. Ironically, it was my work in Japan after undergrad that inspired me to return to academia ^.^;; But the US system is very different from the one in the UK, and I needed time to figure out the lay of the land and decide what I really wanted to do with my PhD, so I went with an MA first and I couldn't be happier. I've learned a lot and will now, hopefully, be going into a PhD with the linguistic and methodological background necessary to produce something meaningful.

I think it stands for Person of Interest (or Professor, I suppose) and it basically means the people you've indicated you'd like to work with at the schools to which you're applying. So, yes, they'd be the people you contacted. I think the interaction you get back depends greatly on the department and POI, though. And I was lucky to have PhD friends who made sure I contacted professors early in the application process, which might have helped.

I received an email from Princeton a week or so ago saying that they wanted to transfer my application to the Comparative Lit Department. And I had a phone interview with my POI from UCLA last week, he said that the department is meeting at the end of the month and I should hear by then. I think we won't start hearing until the end of next week/beginning of February at the earliest... I know what you mean though, the wait is killing me too!

I'm actually quite torn, as there are incredible professors at each school. I think my top choices so far are Yale, Berkeley, UBC, and UCLA... but that might change with campus visits!

My mom has asked me at least seven times, "So what's the topic you want to study, again?"