pdh12

(i have nothing beneficial to add but am vicariously loving this convo)

ok y’all—actual nightmare just came to life. Turns out I left alllll the letter references on my Penn State app BLANK! but...I was informed of this oversight by a POI, rather than an admin person...could this be a good omen?! am i clinging to this morsel delusionally? ehhahdbaldhisjejdosi

@WildeThing omg You Get Iiiiiit. Yes, I 2nd/3rd/4th the sentiment re: everyone should just spew on here because it feels safe-productive. To contribute to the ''here's what happened'' offerings: A few years ago (senior year undergrad) I applied to a motley handful of programs (a few comp lit/english PhDs, a few creative writing MFAs), and was ostensibly naive re: how 'grad admissions' really worked. The results were mostly rejections with a few half-//unfunded acceptances (and 1 horrifyingly botched interview). I waited it out and, long-story-short, ended up getting 2 Masters. So now I feel more ready // more equipped to take on PhDs this year...I might be able to help field questions about the process or hash-out plan Bs if anyone's interested. Rumor has it that PhD apps are less a crapshoot than their MFA counterparts...here's hoping. Love reading everyone's comments! It's gonna be Hella exciting when y'all actually get accepted (let us know!) edit: and if those "survey" results are to be believed, it seems like some of our collectively applied-to programs start notifying as early as mid-Jan!! (??). has anyone gone down the deep end and spreadsheeted anticipated notification times?

yesss, not to mention the huge subjectivity factor that goes into admin decisions —with STEM you get your quantifiable scores and know where you’ll ‘rank’, but humanities is a different animal. there’s really no knowing til the end.

Among us, I wonder what the average number of schools applied-to might be---I think I capped at 15 o.o .....seems like Too many, but it was like a tin of pringles...

yay convo distractions!!! i'm definitely in the any-acceptance-is-a-dream boat, but if i were in a rare and particularly worthy mood, maybe I'd dare say Harvard housed my dream program--literally most of the scholars I love are sitting over there. (also Columbia's got some dope Comp Lit stuff going on--not to mention their institute founded by none other than Gayatri herself) I Can't Believe We Have To Wait Two(-ish?) more months for signs of liiiiiiiife.

yea, that there is no ‘safety’ school in this process feels like a deprivation. also, wow! some of you applied to 10+ schools—i’m so curious to know if there are any stats on success rates proportional to number of schools applied to...i applied to too many this time around, and think it might’ve had a watering-down effect (toward the end, i was giving many less Fs than perhaps was requisite). has anyone ever been accepted to more than 5 at a time? must feel cray.

..anyone else feeling the weight of the odds pressing against their soul? i dread coming to notification time barraged by rejection. all that app money for nada! D;

@jadeisokay @kef5 is it too late to join this bandwagon??

oh man, hello fellow commiserators! I'm applying to Comp Lit PhDs, and saw a couple others in a similar boat on this thread. Ah! re: SOPs---out of curiosity, how detailed are y'all getting with your particular interests? I feel a tension between pigeon-holing my application too much vs. seeming too unfocused...not to mention every adcom is slightly different. also @comp lit applicants: are you submitting papers written in other languages? Good Luck!!!!

@romola re: Newark and UVA, both schools told me that notifications would start coming out in "a week or so" from now. hold on there!

Wow, that sounds really exciting! Do they offer funding? How will you pay for it? Get a job at the school so they'll remit tuition?

Why did you apply to Canadian schools?. It seemed like none of them offered full funding :/

@Sallyj Yea! They accept their cohort number, then if any of those candidates decline their offer passes to a waitlist peep

@Sleam Is it possible to look into employment at the school you might attend? Maybe if you're able to get a job, the tuition would forgiven. Then you could have your cake (or pizza?) and eat it. also..are you debt free now? i mean, i've got a heap of debt from undergrad, which is why I only applied to fully funded places. But if your credit is good and you're debt free, taking a loan out might be Do-able. But I tend to think of money as imaginary so...

I've heard about that good ol' boys stuff too with lsu. Regressive/unwoke/backwards writing faculties are a paradox. how do they write with screwed up tunnel vision!? the stories from students are way too common

Just got a waitlist email from NYU--check your emails!

@manandcamel Interesting! I'm surprised it just started, you'd think writerly folk would've gotten together to rant long ago.

@Elliephant3 have you seen this: https://readtheworkshop.com/2015/09/01/first-days-in-alabama/

@cccmmm charles simic is there which is pretty cool and Durham is a fantastic place to be--so close to the ocean and mountains! If you can get full funding that would be an amazing place to write.

for low-res debt-dealing funsies: i had a friend who paid off all their loans on credit cards, then declared bankruptcy. After 7 years, they were a free human! in all seriousness though, avoiding debt at all cost (heh) is a worthy pursuit. I'll be carrying mine around for a long time to come, and it's surely far from ideal. There are LOADS of ways you can cultivate an 'mfa-esque' experience outside of the institution--whether it be in lieu of a program or while you wait to enter one. I wouldn't discount the plentitude of benefits that can come from organizing/facilitating a little writing/reading group in your town, or doing online stuff, or locking yourself in a shed for hours everyday (or night)...all of it's possible, and in some ways maybe even better than an mfa, since you have more agency over shaping the trajectory of whatever it is... ------ totally hypothetically/generally, what do y'all think of UC-Irvine's program? Did anyone else apply there?

@slouching, @Hortense, thank you so much for your generous thought-sharing! It's great to hear (albeit strangers') outside perspectives on a perplexion that feels impossible. And keep us up-to-date on your news/decisions/musings! We gotta see this shiz through to the end.

If this isn't too self-indulgent, I'd love to hear your perspectives on a decision quandary.... I've been granted a scholarship to study Urdu in India for a year. I could defer the MFA program (poetry) for one year to do this fellowship, or I could go straight into the MFA and forego the language study. But two years ago I picked a language program (translation) over the mfa, and told myself I would finally get to work on my own poetry this year. Waiting a whole other year makes me feel a little weary, but should I do it anyway? They'll even pay for the plane ticket + a living stipend.....gehhhhh (sorry for the woe-is-me rantish thing)

@BLeonard dang that's a whole new level of wtf. it's still early, y'all! I'm banking on all of us getting some good news to share--mfa or not. although i feel like we should pre-plan a Brown mourning vigil; they tend to announce eveything all on one, fateful day.

Yes, all of this. and fwiw, it looks like just fiction notifications have gone out from nyu (?)