Kamisha

Hi all! I’m looking for ideas and am hoping you’ll share your brilliance with me. Seriously....can you imagine how much brain power we have on this forum? We could start a revolution. My question is this: what topics or issues do you think current graduate students or aspiring academics need to be aware of, mindful of, or educated about? Also, as grad students, what sorts of things would you like to be more educated about? I’ve started what I call a “literary lifestyle blog” wherein I’m planning to post about being an aspiring academic in the Humanities. Thus far I am thinking of anything from academic professionalism and the nature of the current job market to how to feed and dress yourself on a grad student stipend. Wanna help a sister out and offer up post suggestions? I’m also open to guest posts

Anyone want to claim those Oregon acceptances and share a little info?? Congrats on your success!

I honestly don’t know how to answer questions 1 and 2. Obviously having the language requirements and publications make you a more competitive applicant, but plenty of students get it without them. As far as question 3 goes, most schools in English admit you without interviewing you. Statistically, very few programs actually do interviews.

The university granted me a partial scholarship, which is great. I actually was accepted to a few UK schools before I did my current master’s degree, but couldn’t go because of the expense. I have some money saved now and this scholarship is pretty decent, so I’m hoping to just supplement a little bit and then work as an online adjunct for my current university while I’m over there.

You guys are absolutely wonderful. Thanks for the info! Any advice on scholarships/funding options to consider?

Any applicants here who did an MA in the United Kingdom? Though I am currently finishing my Master’s (MS) in English, I’m very seriously considering an offer to complete an MA in Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. The catch? Their program runs from September-September, which means when I apply for PhD programs again in the Fall, there would be a couple of weeks overlap between when my second MA finished and when a potential PhD program would start. Have any of you done it? Is it possible to submit your MA dissertation (I don’t know why they don’t call them a ‘thesis’ over there) early and be done a couple of weeks ahead of schedule?

Congrats to the FSU acceptance!

I emailed Vanderbilt and got the most lovely and wonderful email back from Dr. Wollaeger. His reply was nine paragraphs long (wow!) and very complementary. He thanked me for taking the initiative to send the email and learn more about their process (I specifically asked him what I might do to become a more competitive applicant in the future. For those Vanderbilt applicants who are curious, all admits and wait list notifications have been sent out. Here is a short excerpt from the email I received back: "Some brief background: we reviewed about 350 applications to our PhD program this spring. We're planning to enroll 8 new students in 2014-15...Our pool was exceptionally strong this year, which meant that the final decision often came to down to fit with our program..." I’ve omitted the info about my application, which is where you see ellipses. I hope this is informative/helpful to those individuals waiting to hear back.

I totally see what you’re saying here and I’m not at all offended. This is sound advice and I promise that I won’t be making any rash decisions! Thanks for weighing in--I appreciate it. I’d up vote your post, but GradCafe seems to have a limit on positivity

I’m trying to up vote your post, but I just ran out of positives! Thanks for this!

Don’t let it get you down. Like you said, you still have four schools to hear from. And, if worse comes to worse this year, you’ve got eight wonderful months to revise your packet and resubmit. Based on what you’ve mentioned about your qualifications, I have no doubt you’ll find success somewhere wonderful, whether that be this year or next year Though I still have a chance at five or six schools and am lucky enough to have one acceptance (finally!), I actually am going to reapply in August no matter what. Based on the advice I received from the Directors’ of Graduate study at the universities where I’ve been rejected thus far (they are usually very kind in giving you pointers on your application if you email them after receiving your rejection), I’m going to revise and reapply to a few of the same programs and quite a few different programs that I hadn’t even thought of before. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. If you don’t get admitted this year, it is because you are supposed to have this year to do something else and then start your PhD next year. Try not to let the blues get you down. I’ve fallen victim to it, as well. It helps to keep it all in perspective: one year isn’t going to make a world of difference in the grand scheme of things. Who knows--maybe there will be a change in the market that you benefit from by adding one additional year. Don’t lose faith in your work. Most especially, though, don’t lose faith in yourself.

Also, just googled “Bathtub desks.” I’ll let everyone know what I find.

Wendy (I’m assuming), The journals in which you seek to publish should be directly related to your field of interest (ideally, anyway). If your school library has access, check out the MLA Directory of Periodicals (http://www.mla.org/bib_periodicals) for journals related to the topics you write about. You should look for peer-reviewed, scholarly journals of strong repute. I hope that helps! EDITED: Blasted commas always get me.

Also, guess how much work I’ve gotten done today? Haha...none.

Does anyone know of any really good/influential academic blogs?

I think 2-2 is pretty standard.

I hope they don’t! They’d be stupid. But if they do, I recommend Keebler Deluxe Grahams.

Oh, my feels. I’m eating them all away.

I suppose I’m assuming rejection from Chapel Hill and Boulder now. Congrats to those who were accepted! Sounds like it was some tough competition!

There’s just so much I wish I had done differently on my applications. I’m not sure I’m going to be happy this year where I’ve been admitted (or could potentially be admitted). We’ll see!

Am I crazy? I still have 10 schools to hear back from, but I have essentially decided that I’m going to reapply next year no matter what. Is that insane?

To all those who were rejected from Austin: I didn’t apply to Austin (though I contemplated it last year), but I am here for the night. For what it’s worth, I really, really hate the city. Haha. It’s far too large and obnoxious. What’s more, people don’t know how to drive. If the speed limit is 70, they go 65. Just saying, you wouldn’t want to be here anyway For all those who have been accepted to Austin: I’m sure you will love it I’m a small city girl, so the sheer size of Austin is terrifying.

Do you guys ever feel like just scraping this year and trying again next year? Haha I still have like 10 schools to hear back from (though I’m counting three additional assumed rejections), but there is so much stuff that I’d like to change on my application that I’m honestly considering calling “Mulligan!” no matter if I am accepted to a couple this year.

I really hope that you guys are right. I haven’t heard anything from Boulder yet either and it really does seem to break the historical pattern. I noticed that they’ve accepted in the past as early as February 15th, but like you say, it’s typically all at once.