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marquisb

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Everything posted by marquisb

  1. My thoughts exactly! I'll keep my fingers crossed extra tight (it's an Ivy school!).
  2. Thank you for sharing your experience. It'll keep me humbled at least! Humility is always good.
  3. I applied to a school's African American Studies program. I received this email yesterday evening: "I'm one of the readers of graduate applications at [the university], and I'm very impressed with your high seriousness and high achievement. As you no doubt know, the positions we have are very competitive--I think some four hundered applicants for some ten slots. I don't know what your fate will be, since I'm only one of quite a few readers, but I have a piece of advice I think you might find useful should things not work out as you would wish here: It seems to me that both your preparation and your interests make you a better fit for a program in American Studies than one in English Literature. . . .Good luck, in any case. You deserve the best!" I contacted the chair of the department and got this email: "Thank you for writing and for calling our attention to your situation. I have copied [another professor], the DGS in African American Studies to this e-mail so that he is up to speed on the exchange. [The other professor] and I will confer with English and American Studies to see what may be possible with your application. I do want to point out, however, that you have the academic units incorrectly labeled. African American Studies is a department while American Studies is a program. Normally, this is a substantive difference that one would have to take into consideration when applying for graduate school or jobs. However, due to a quirk in [the school’s] history and nomenclature, American Studies at [this university] essentially has all of the authority that one normally associates with a program. Granted, there’s no way for an outsider to know that, but this is the state of affairs. In the meantime, we will explore the options in the coming days so that we can make a proper decision about how to read your file." I would think that if I had no chance in getting in, they wouldn't bother working with me; however, them being so helpful and willing to work through this seems to intimate that I at least have a shot, especially the first professor who emailed me. What do you all think? Am I overthinking this? I guess waiting days on end can cause your mind to think farfetched things!
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