wildeisonmine

I'm about to graduate from a college that's included median grades on our transcripts for quite some time (it's a small ivy in Northern New England--you can probably guess what it is.) I don't really think it affected my graduate applications in any substantial way, though I am in English, where the subjective parts of the application are more important. The median grades in my English classes tend to be As or A-'s--while getting an A in those courses isn't anything to phone home about, getting an A in an English class with a B+ average is pretty impressive, just because it shows that the professor is grading a bit more difficultly. Those more "difficult" classes were also the ones in which I achieved citations--which professors will occasionally give to a student from whom a mere letter grade is not sufficient, and they're allowed to include a few sentences that will be attached to any official transcripts that get sent out--and whom I eventually asked to write my LORs. Personally, I think median grades are more helpful when selecting courses while still an undergrad--it's nice to be able to tell, for instance, which sections of a large lecture course have more difficult professors (a good thing if you're just trying to fulfill a distrib) or, if you're one of the more lazy students that populate my college, it also helps you figure out which courses are going to be the "easiest."

Not on the website, I don't think--I found out by calling the Fin Aid office!

I graduate from undergrad in the beginning of June and will be heading back "home" for two months, hopefully seeing if my old bosses at Panera will hire me on for the summer and let me earn some extra cash doing dishes in the past like I used to do. It was actually a great job--never had to deal with finicky customers, was allowed to read or listen to music when things were slow...

Just wanted to let all the other incoming Yale grad students (English here!) know that apparently when you get to New Haven you can go to the financial aid office and they'll give you a $500 advance on your stipend. They'll just take that $500 out of your first four months' pay, so a bit more than $100/month. Very helpful for things like the first month's rent, groceries, etc. Maybe this is common knowledge, but I just found out today!

This is definitely how he looked during the seminar I sat in on during my visit--can't say whether it was affected or not, but he definitely has his "I am deep in contemplation and thinking very, very hard" face.

Declined offers from Michigan (joint in English and WS) and Cornell.

Queer theory and performance studies (depending on the school I might also be classified as a modernist, I don't quite know how schools divide up their applicant pools by specialty!)

Thanks guys I'm also the English/WS admit at Michigan on the results board, so I'm balancing 3 choices at this point! I only applied to a handful of programs (just waiting on Penn now, though they weren't a top choice for me), but it's still going to be such a difficult, difficult decision.

FYI -- I'm one of the admits on the results board! This is going to be such a difficult decision--I'm in at my top two choices.

I just want to say that I mentioned that my GRE was sub-700 because I thought it would be helpful to current (and future) applicants who are worried that they need outstanding scores to get into top schools. In fact, I know of plenty of grad students in great programs with scores lower than mine (which were mid-600s). Reading through those comments on GC (and WGI over at LJ) was really reassuring for me in the fall, and I wanted to add to the chorus in hope that it might help reassure someone else down the line! I do think my LORs helped me, but because of what they said, not who said them. As spectacular and brilliant as my mentors are, they're not "superstars". The feedback that I've received on my SOP and WS assures me that those things really matter. And thanks for the congrats, everyone! Good luck to everyone as they wait to hear back from the rest of their schools (for me, Yale was tied as my top choice with another program that hasn't released decisions yet, so I'm still anxious myself!), and congrats to those who have received offers already.

I don't want to divulge my exact numbers for privacy reasons, but I have a high GPA (from an ivy league school, though I can't say that made any difference) with only average GRE scores--definitely not in the 700s range that people aim for. No MA--in fact, I'm still finishing undergrad. But I don't think those things really matter. I really do think it's all about the SOP and WS, as people have articulated so many times before. Yale was also great fit for my research interests!

I've been lurking on GC forever (this is my first post!), but I was one of the Yale acceptees--and the one who posted about the stipend! My work is in the area of 20th c. queer performance, with a particular emphasis on issues of temporality and intertextuality.