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Thanks, y'all! HesseBunuel90: acceptance was for NYU English

The NYU acceptance was me! Thank you! Don't think I've posted my stats before, but you were right anyway. I'm at the recruitment weekend for Emory comp lit, so this news was totally overwhelming to receive right now, but in the best possible way. I keep checking my phone to make sure the number is still there in my recent calls because I am in such shock.

Awesome. Thanks for the input, everyone. I got a more detailed itinerary yesterday, and I'm also doing 7 short interviews with lots of different professors. I noticed that they have me scheduled to speak to a professor who is fluent in one the two languages I know but not with any professor that is fluent in the other. I'm assuming that if they were planning on testing me in these interviews, they wouldn't have done that. I do have the coursework and travel to back up my claims, I just don't know if I could have a spur of the moment conversation in Russian, as I haven't had a reason to speak it in a while. But you're right, hypervodka, that reading and writing are much more important for their purposes anyway. Very, very glad to hear that you found the experience fun. I could definitely enjoy talking about my academic passions for hours. Starting to look forward to it!

Thanks to both of you for reporting back! hypervodka: I saw you mentioned on another thread that your interview was at Emory - is that right? You were interviewing for the English program? Just asking because my interview is there also (for comp lit), so I'm hoping that means our experiences will be similar. Although they might be more likely to ask about language proficiency for comp lit.

Wow congrats!!!!

I'm in the same boat, and my interviews are in a week. Thinking I should contact the department coordinator if I haven't heard anything by tomorrow. Is it standard practice for them to let you know who you'll be interviewing with ahead of time?

Yes, definitely. I was curious about the same thing - mostly because my language skills are rusty and I'm nervous about having to prove my proficiency. I asked the same friend's sister and she said they didn't test them at all when she went. But I'll let you know!

t1racyjacks, I think there were 2 of us that posted Emory interviews - one was under "comparative literature" and one was "comp lit," so they might not be showing up together. I posted earlier on this thread but it kind of got buried. Happy to answer any questions!

Yes, thank you, I need this thread! Preparing for an on-campus interview, too. I talked to a friend's sister who went through the interview process for the same program at the same school two years ago. Gonna copy her response here in case it's helpful for others: "The most important thing is just that you have a clear sense of your project, and how you’re going to make use of your time in grad school. Having a sense of the kind of classes you want to take, what areas you need to work on, your methodology, etc. is a good idea. It’s also good to have a sense of the kind of work the faculty does there, so you can tailor your answers to their particular way of doing things. Beyond that it’s really not that intense, they’ll just ask you to elaborate on parts of your personal statement, classes you took, and papers you wrote, and where you see yourself going in the future. Just make sure you can talk freely about all those things! The biggest thing is to be relaxed, and think of it as a time to have fun talking to people about the stuff you like." So it seems like the main point of these interviews is to make sure you can articulate your goals well and you're not a sociopath (or at least visibly a sociopath). Easy enough, I hope. & I told my LORs too, and they were happy to hear about any good news.

I got my invitation to Emory comp lit recruitment weekend/interview bonanza on Jan 14. They're flying us out Feb 5, so I would probably expect to have heard from them by now if they were going to extend an invitation. Dunno if they make any offers without interviews. I hope that is helpful and minimally depressing

Thanks, all! I don't have an MA. Just applying with my Bachelor's. From what I've heard from current students in a few different English PhD programs, it's usually an even split between those coming in with BAs/MAs. Also loving all the Russian-inspired usernames here. I applied with a sample on Bely last year

Sure, happy to share any info! My interests are all over the place, but I applied this year to do contemporary postcolonial lit/international feminisms. I'm interested more broadly in critical theory, especially human geography/spatial studies as they relate to lit theory. My writing sample this year was on Nadine Gordimer's Burger's Daughter -- I talked about how Gordimer uses a series of transgressive domestic spaces in the novel to critique the patriarchal assumptions of Marxist anti-apartheid activism in South Africa. I dig pretty much anything about intersectional or poststructural feminisms. Big critical touchstones for me are Foucault, Derrida, Lefebvre, Said, Spivak, Butler, etc. and more contemporary critics who deal with these guys. I also struggled to decide which programs to apply to. I'm comfortable in both Spanish and Russian, which sort of qualifies me for comp lit, but as you can see most of my critical interests right now are French or Anglophone, so neither language helps me a ton. Last year I applied exclusively to English programs, which I think was part of why I didn't get in anywhere. This year I applied to a combination of English/Comp Lit/Cultural Studies, and I tried to find more hybrid programs like Emory's that blend all three disciplines or interpret "comp lit" more flexibly. Other programs I found like this were at U Minnesota ("comparative studies in discourse and society"), Duke Lit, Carnegie Mellon ("literary and cultural studies"), and there were some more liberal English programs that I applied to as well. I hope that helped. Did you have any specific questions that you wanted me to address?

Hey y'all, I've been staying away from the forums this year because they made me SO anxious last year, but I wanted to speak up and claim one of the Emory comp lit interview invitations. I don't know for sure that they sent out all the invitations at once, but I can tell you that they wanted us to all book flights ASAP and seem to be in kind of a hurry, as the recruitment weekend is in 3 weeks. So I would assume they're at least sending them all out this week. Also not sure if you necessarily have to be invited to interview in order to be accepted, but I think probably? Thanks for the congrats I had a really tough round last year that ended with me getting rejected off of a wait list at the very last minute, so it's such a relief to get some good news this early. Good luck to everyone else who's waiting!

Yep, it was indeed for English. Their comp lit program is incredible, though. My POI is a joint faculty member in both. It was a tough choice for me deciding which program to apply to.

Woooo joining the waitlist train! Just heard back from NYU. I'm so excited to still be in the running but also v nervous about the prospect of dragging this process out until mid-April. My email didn't mention anything about visiting. Did you guys ask specifically about it or did they invite you?