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I don't have any exact stats, but I do have a conversation with the DGS. They placed most of last year's class, across a wide variety of universities. Traditionally Vanderbilt has been sort of a factory for producing professors for many of the big schools in the Southeast--think of all of the large public u's down there, LSU, UGA, etc--but that has changed in the past few years. The program has changed dramatically within the last decade. Seemed pretty clear in the conversation that I had that Vanderbilt is working very hard to "improve" its standing, and become one of THE places to go for English.

I wanted to quickly throw my hat into this discussion. This year was my first, and thankfully, only time taking part in this process of pure randomness. I applied to 10 schools, and, somewhat unintentionally, all of them were top-tier programs. I was rejected from 8, accepted to one with an additional 'honors' fellowship, and still haven't heard from UVA (seems like most others have heard from them? what's the deal...but i guess that's neither here nor there). Towards application deadline time when I realized that I was truly shooting for the top, I started to panic. I thought I should add some schools that I thought I would have a better chance of getting in, but as I tried to do some last minute research, I recognized that doing so would be silly for two reasons. One, as several have already stated, there are no 'safeties' in graduate admissions. As Woolfie mentioned Ohio State and Penn State both received a huge number of applications--while those are still exceptional programs, I would venture to say that pretty much any school in the "top 75" would yield similar numbers of applicants. Perhaps because of this, I remembered a sort of promise that I had made to myself, I should not apply anywhere that I would not be floored to attend. I didn't want to choose a school that I wouldn't have been pleased for the simple fact that they were the only one that admitted me--a very definite possibility in this climate. The thing about top tier schools, or this whole process, is that all you really need is one acceptance. Just one. Why waste the time to apply to others just to accrue acceptances that you wouldn't be satisfied with? I am incredibly fortunate that I got my "one," as I know many others don't. This process is random. Many say it. Few truly believe it. Why does it seem that I'm a top applicant at one program, when I didn't even make the waitlist at 9 similar places? Its incredibly difficult to say, other than I don't know. I want to share an anecdote with everyone, that I've probably shared before, that may give you a window into the process. I went to Penn for undergrad (graduated last year) and one of my mentors there was on the Admissions Committee. Before I continue, a quick non-sequitur. I know a lot of people on this board are very angry at Penn because of the incredibly small incoming class size for this year. I doubt that they intentionally hid this information from applicants, and if they did so meant to do it maliciously. Funding is a complicated game, and the department may have hoped to receive a greater allocation of funds than they actually did. And in fact, the insider line was that they only had enough money for 5 slots, and they only expected to admit 5--instead, they admitted 6 and have a short waitlist. Obviously not the size of the usual cohort, but still pushing their funds as far as they can to bring as many students as they possibly can to the program. Not only does Penn's department have some of the best scholars in the country, it also has some of the nicest faculty around who truly care about the well-being of their students, and those who hope to be their students--at least, in my experience. Please try to cut them a small amount of slack. (Full disclosure: I applied and was rejected this year.) Anyhow, my mentor had told me that the process started by shaving the applicant pool down to about 100-200 candidates. They did look at every application, but I imagine there was some sort of statistical criteria that helped them do this. From that point the pool was narrowed again, after the AdCom read the entirety of all of these applications. At this point, the number is more around 50-75 applicants. According to my mentor, those 50-75 applicants are all incredibly capable of succeeding in the program, which, more or less, is a careful way of saying that they all would be admitted if the conditions were right--i.e., a world of no money, no limits on enrollment etc... But, we do not live in that world. So how do they choose from those students? One student had written in his/her statement about a rather obscure play that she was interested in that a faculty member had just been doing work on. He/she was in. What if that student had applied a year earlier before that faculty member was doing work on that particular play? He/She may have not been accepted. Even at the best programs in the country, admissions decisions are arbitrary (to a point...) at best. This incredibly long post has all been to say that you should most certainly apply to a top school if it fits for you. You may not get in, but you shouldn't sell yourself short just because the odds are stacked so heavily against you. Be mindful of the acceptance rates when applying, but find the programs that you would die to go to, and apply to those, regardless of the ranking.

I, too, was told by the DGS that they're aiming for 6-8 (more towards 8). She said that because of the climate this year, they may actually have a couple more than 8, though at most about 10. That says to me they admitted 10 people, maybe one or two more. I don't know if they're done making offers--I will say that visit weekend is a little over a week away, if that gives you any sort of indication. Continued good luck to you!

I went to Penn for undergrad and am close with a couple faculty members there. The department is both front-loaded and back-loaded period wise, in other words, incredibly strong early modernists, and incredibly strong modernist faculty. There a few stellar people in between, but for the most part the department sort of lacks any large Victorian cohort. There was a lot of talk of changing that when I was there, by bringing in both new faculty and grad students in that particular field. Of course this is sort of a catch 22 because if there are not a ton of victorian professors why would incoming victorianists want to study at Penn and vice versa. If I had to venture a guess I think they'd try for a few more 18th/19th Century folks than any others--the program seems strong on both ends, and is by no means weak in that area, just lacking the number of resources and people as the others.

Anyone know anything about when we might hear from Brown? Judging from last year seems they notified last week in February--just wondering if anyone has any insider information...

I, too, independently have heard of the five offers at Penn. From what I've heard, it will be five offers, not five slots.

Early this morning I received an unofficial acceptance from Kathryn Schwarz. She indicated that official letters will be going out later next week (Wednesday or Thursday--they don't have direct control over the release). Best of luck to you!

I know this is not necessarily in the spirit of this thread, but don't give up total hope on UVA. A few had mentioned in the UVA thread, and rightly so I think, that the best marker of a program done with sending out offers are waitlist spots. Of course, UVA may not have a waitlist, but we've only seen two acceptances (and heard of a third) and NO waitlist activity. Limbo, what a place.

Judging from the results last year, Vanderbilt seems to make decisions all on the same day. It seems like a lot of people on this board applied to Vanderbilt, so I think we would have seen more than one admit. I wouldn't give up hope yet. At least I hope we shouldn't have to...

I know an acquaintance who was admitted to Berkeley in late January, if that helps add to the mystique at all.

Really hard to say. From what I remember from looking through the results search, Chicago seems to move in a couple waves, but that could always change. From what we know on the board, which is all I know, is that they haven't rejected anyone yet, nor have they notified any waitlisters. Does that mean they may admit more? I don't know. I would assume that until we see rejections, its pretty safe to say that a program may still admit additional applicants. Different schools handle admissions in different ways, so while its discouraging to see offers made, I wouldn't lose total hope until you get an actual rejection.

I think this depends on the schools/programs of course, but on several of my ApplyYourself applications it explicitly states that even after materials are received and collected your application status may still say "incomplete." I don't know much about the ApplyYourself software, but I imagine that some schools may use it as a way to access the materials from remote computers, and as such they probably upload material that they've received in the mail. Others probably just print the full PDF application form that you see before submitting and put it in your file and just add your mailed materials to that file, never updating the website. If you are missing something, the program will email/call letting you know that they haven't received a piece of your application. This happened to me, so this is something that actually happens. If you haven't heard from them, don't worry!

I don't know about the exact size of the cohort at UVA the way Pamphilia would, but a good indicator would be how many students are in last year's admissions class. Because of the current economic situation, funding for this year is going to be heavily based on last year's class size, which unfortunately for us, UVA doesn't post their graduate students on their website (at least I couldn't find it, while quickly doing a little research for this post.) We can already see this at Penn, who underestimated their yield for last year, and because of this, can only admit 5 students this year. I imagine they'll accept in rounds with a large wait list. In other words, they'll probably initially accept five students, and if they get any rejections, will fill that slot with a wait-list student, so that they don't end up with the same problem they did last year. I would predict, and this is really just a gut feeling and not based on any conversation with anyone of any significance, that most schools will be using that same model for acceptance this year, because they simply can't afford for too many admits to matriculate. If inextrovert's friend was in last year's cohort, which sounds like a class that is a little larger than usual, I'd expect that somewhere between 8 and 12 sounds about right, though probably leaning on the bottom half of that range. What does that mean for us eagerly waiting? Well, hard to say since most departments haven't made decisions yet, but I get the feeling we will see very small groups admitted (probably just enough to fill a class size--i.e. assuming a 100% yield) in the next few weeks. Because of this, there will be large waitlists, and they will be doing a lot of waiting. When one student turns down an offer, another will receive their offer and the process will continue until all the allotted spots are filled. This leads to a very long drawn out decisions season, but after thinking about it for awhile, it seems like this is what we should expect. Though this is all total speculation, and I'm just trying to think this through. The idle, waiting mind...

I wouldn't be so quick to assume that choosing where you'd like to be location wise is a poor criteria for 'fit' when seeking a graduate school. When I told my mentor that I was applying to graduate school, his first response was something along the lines of, "What part of the country do you want to live in? City or not?" We then sort of culled through all of the options related to my particular field based on that. You don't want to end up at University of MiddleofNowhere if you love living in a major city; you'll be living there for 5-7 years and your displeasure with your adopted home will effect your work and ability to study. Columbia, of course, is not the only school in New York. I'd be curious to see what the numbers are for NYU, Fordham, and the like, and how they compare to Columbia. I will say, though, that location is probably not something I'd mention in a Statement of Purpose (I'd love to go to Columbia, because I WANT TO LIVE IN NYC!!!!), but is still an important consideration.

I went to Penn undergrad and know that last year they did not have an interview weekend for English, nor did they conduct any interviews. They did have a weekend for accepted students, but if I recall it wasn't until mid-March/early-April. The late February notification to accepted students sounds about right, also.

Well, if you're concerned about whether or not the email is a rejection when you receive it, I think the best way to be prepared is to keep up with the results as people post them here on the forum. Now that they're available as an RSS feed its easy to check in your favorite internet reading tool what the latest acceptances and rejections have been. If you look at last year's data you'll see that the acceptances almost always pop up prior to the rejections. So if you see your school and program on the list and you see acceptances and you get an email that same day, you may have good news. If you don't see a note for a few weeks afterward, probably bad news. Schools hold off on rejections just in case they get rejected by all of their admits and their wait list. For a school like Yale though, the likelihood of that happening is pretty low... Best of luck. If anyone is like me, they've gotten over the cool calm of being done with their apps and are already getting impatient. It isn't even February yet!

From the little I know about the process of being accepted--ideally, I'll know a little more about it in a month or so --I think the phone call seems to be par for the course. However, the phone call is often just a friendly courtesy to let you know that you've been accepted. Details on your financial package, etc usually come to you via mail soon after they've made their decision. Yale seems really devoted to cutting down on paper these days; if you were like me, they were the only school adamant about only submitting an electronic transcript, instead of paper. Maybe the acceptance email, if it exists, will contain all of the additional information that they do not mention on the phone call. Or maybe they just bring that by carrier pigeon...

I know this is a little off topic, and probably the wrong place for it in the forum, but I thought I'd thrown in my two cents about Ann Arbor. I recently moved here in the fall after graduating from a school on the east coast. Ann Arbor is far from dangerous--the kind of town where people don't lock their doors, though that doesn't mean that their is the occasional robbery. As others have said, this is a really vibrant town, tons of cultural activities, great sports, and restaurants for a city of its size. Probably because of this, and U of M, its also more expensive than the typical city of its size is as well. Before I moved here, I was a little bit skeptical about applying to Michigan--I'm more attuned to city life, and thought that living in a smaller town for 6 years or so while working on graduate study would be stifling--but, now, A2 seems like it would be one of the most attractive places to study! If you have any more questions about Ann Arbor, I'd love to answer them. I don't know everything (I've only been here a few months), but can definitely give you some perspective.

Some of the super-competitive schools will do interviews in late February. A close friend of mine, now at Stanford, had to do a short phone interview. Don't worry, they'll call and tell you what to expect when they schedule it. Relatively painless from what he told me. That's the only place I've heard about doing phone interviews. The invitation to visit campus is a way for you to meet the faculty and see the facilities of a program to which you've been accepted. These weekends can be pretty swanky as they're trying to lure you over other programs, although are getting a little less so because of dwindling economic resources. You will meet with faculty on these visits, but they won't be evaluating you to accept or reject you, they'll just be trying to get a better sense of you and give you a better sense of the department.

I think this is one of those things that depends on the program. I've received emails from a few schools who basically said, we know that the server gets jammed on the night the applications are due, turn them early, because late applicants will not be accepted. The question is, what does late mean? No one can say for sure, but I think you'll be fine--especially considering you probably paid the app fee. I don't think applications sent two weeks late will be considered, even if the AdCom hasn't yet convened. From what I understand, the only real grace periods are given to materials mailed in (preferably postmarked by the deadline), GRE test scores coming from ETS for a date in late November (subject scores, mostly), and Letters of Rec (to give colleagues a few weeks of extra time). I think you'll be fine.

Back to the original poster. I had a really similar experiences, was scoring really well on practice tests--including the powerprep, and the CBTs that some test prep companies now provide--but when I took the actual test my verbal score was much lower. I'm of the belief that your verbal score can fluctuate up to 100 points or so on test day, because vocabulary isn't really a skill set like math is. Sure you can know origins of roots, etc and be equipped to deal with some words that you don't know, but oftentimes even that can backfire. No one can know all of the GRE vocabulary, and on test day you could either get a test that features mostly words you know, or mostly ones you don't, significantly changing your score. I opted to take the test again and got a score in my practice test range the second time. All of that to say: if you really feel like your score isn't representative of what you can do on the GRE (based on practice test performance) opt to retake it. Chances are you'll do much better.

I think AdComs will always be aware that the only thing the GRE measures is your ability to take the GRE, new or old. They will treat the scores the way they always have: with serious reservations.

This is another one of those things that I think really depends on your field. I'm applying for an English PhD and the only real utility of that degree is in becoming a professor. It just doesn't have any value in anything else--at least, you don't try to go into marketing after getting your PhD, unless you only wanted to do it for the vanity of it. Other fields though, I imagine some in science probably are more applicable in the job market outside of academia. Do you want to do lab research somewhere, do you want to be a professor, do you want to work for a major corporation? If you're in one of those fields, you're probably going to need to address the question more than someone in a field where there really aren't any options.

I think its hard to say, because I think a lot of schools are starting to have a hard time figuring out what the Subject Test even says about students. This is pretty clear by the rate at which programs seem to be dropping the Subject Tests as a requirement. Of course we're stuck with it until they all decide to get rid of it. I remember some school talking about subject scores averaging in the 700s, it was a top program but seems almost unrealistic. Here's my own personal somewhat-informed belief/gut instinct about the Subject Test's role: If you have an incredible Subject Test score, it won't get you in. If you have a horrible Subject Test score, it won't keep you out. I think if you have a strong application in almost every other aspect, I wouldn't worry too much about a mediocre performance. I think it is designed to give those who studied a field other than English an opportunity to display some familiarity with the field or to give more weight to a lower tier undergraduate performance. Maybe, though, all of this is just wishful thinking.

If a subject test is recommended, but not required that signals to me immediately that not every applicant will turn in their scores (even though most have probably taken it, given the large number of programs that do require it.) This means, at least what I think it means, is that programs cannot hold your Subject test score against you. Say your clone applies to one of these recommended programs and turns in the same exact material as you do with the exception of the subject test scores. I don't think they would grant admission to your clone just because your score wasn't exceptionally high and the clone didn't report a score. All of the faculty that I've talked to about the subject test are aware of how arbitrary that test is, which is probably why many more schools no longer require the exam. The only way they would use the test in the case where it is recommended is likely to help you. Say you went to lower tier school for undergrad, or majored in a field that was not English, and you did really well on the Subject Test. Your subject test score may make up the difference in your undergrad education--in other words, they may give more weight to your 4.0 even if it was at a lower tier school. It can also display that you have a solid grip on the field, even if you're background is in another. Does this make sense? I submitted my score to my school that recommended (but not required) Subject Test scores. I don't know my score yet, but I don't think its going to be particularly exceptional. I'm also sending the score to some schools that don't require the Subject Test, but only because of a flub with ETS that they want me to pay for to change (I can only pay so many $20 fees, and you would think that they shouldn't charge to send less information somewhere, but ETS does defy logic...). I'm not too worried about it now, but may be in March if I don't get into any programs who saw my subject test score. All of this to say that if you're application is strong in all other respects, I think you'll be fine with a mid-range Subject Test score, even at schools where the test is required.