Samux

I'm headed to ND in the fall and am looking to rent a room in a house. I've been scouring Craigslist but it's slim-pickings on there. I can't figure out whether the problem is that it's too early to look for a room or that South Benders(?) prefer other sites for posting room ads. Does anyone know?

In my response to diehtcOke I tried to argue (though not very clearly) against a conception of “privilege” as a necessarily tainted category. (Putting forward the assumption that the majority of applicants enjoy the kind of advantages that diehtcOke did was in retrospect not the right way to go about making my point).I want to highlight that I am not trying to deemphasize the adkvantages of privilege. Attending a solid undergraduate institution, having the opportunity to connect with established professors, having free time to work on applications and so on are advantages that undoubtedly give a person a leg up on those who do not have them. But, nevertheless, in the context under discussion (getting into grad school), merely possessing certain privileges is not a guarantee of success. Socio-economic advantages can be instrumental in getting you into a prestigious undergrad institution but unless you work hard and do well you will not get into grad school. Again, I understand that for the privileged doing well is not solely a function of working hard, but it is a major component, proven by the fact that tons of privileged people who apply to grad school don’t get in. Needless to say, none of this is put forward to suggest that “anybody who does not have the privileges to devote themselves [to the application] is somehow less deserving” of acceptance. It takes some real imaginative work to see my argument as bearing such a viewpoint. Academia is a capitalist institution and as such it is grounded in economic prejudice. Having the right pedigree of course gives you certain advantages, but these are not so instrumental as they are in other systems. Treating academia as though it were no different from any other capitalist institution leads to simplistic conclusions about the nature of the place – that top programs are filled with people who attained their success merely through privilege that they refuse to acknowledge. Surveying any top program will reveal that there are plenty of students who have not enjoyed significant class privileges and that those who have did not float in on a cloud of money. Academia is a system in motion, more so than others. Ignoring this fact makes it impossible to understand the dynamics of privilege in the context of academia and inspires unfortunate knee-jerk reactions. An example is the characterization of this thread, which is rife with self-awareness, and demonstrates that its participants don’t shy away from analyzing the particularities of the system they are about to join, as insidious and willfully ignorant.

I think the advantages you mention are exactly the sort of things I meant when I wrote, "a reasonable amount of assistance." Not having to work full-time and having the option to live at home are definitely privileges, but there's nothing obscene about them, and you obviously proved yourself deserving by devoting yourself to your application. If resentment were based on the kind ofprivileges you list there’d be few of us (and by us I mean people who apply to grad school) who could escape its taint. This is not to say that there aren’t exceptions. There are, but for the most part people applying to grad school are privileged, in the way you have defined it, to one extent or another. (I don’t know that I would include your example of academic incest with the other ones,since it is as much a matter of capacity as it is of fortune. I’m sure your mentor had a lot of advisees, but did he pay equal attention to all of them?Probably not. Would he really go out of his way to assist a student unless that student had demonstrated a capacity for academic success?). I’m all for being aware and grateful for your privileges and proving yourself deserving of them, but I think it is possible to take it too far. I hope you won’t be offended, but I think beginning a conversation with the apology you cite just may be taking it too far. I say this because in such scenarios awareness is transformed into a performance, a humble one for sure but also unpleasantly prideful (an example in another context is those couples who love to proclaim their love in front of their friends – even if it’s genuine, the impression one gets is that the display of love is more important for them then the love itself).It’s possible, I think, to display awareness of privilege, and demonstrate that you deserve it, just by detailing what your experience has been. As they say in creative writing classes, show don’t tell.

I wanted to jump into the fray to add my two cents about the concept that appears to undergird this discussion, namely, elitism. As I see it, one of the offensive characteristics it is informed by is undeserved privilege that the elitist refuses to acknowledge. Proclamations of superiority are always obnoxious, but they are especially so when it is apparent that success was not achieved solely through a person's brains, hard work and a reasonable amount of assistance. But if there is truth to this definition of elitism it becomes hard to apply it to ivy-leaguers. A fat-cat dad may get his sub-par son into college, but as far as graduate school goes the son is out of luck. All the people that get into the top schools are smart, accomplished, and hard-working and truly deserve their success. Moreover, having Harvard on your resume surely helps when you're job-hunting, but unless you've worked your ass off in school you're just not going to get very far. Having said all that, I would be the last person to argue that academe is ruled by a meritocracy. It's not, again, that some of us have an unfair advantage over others, but that, at least as far as applying goes, the process is somewhat irrational. Reading the results page on this site I've come across excerpts from rejection letters that talk about how there were too many qualified applicants for too few spots. It's easy to write this off as a feathery put-down, but as we all know it's the pure truth. I've never sat in on an ad-com meeting but I'd bet my savings that at a certain point the committee is down to 50 applicants and would be truly happy with any of them. God knows what the decision making process is like. I'm sure that some arguments are based on small differences in merit, but there must also be pure hunches that no applicant could have prepared for. What this means is that a person who's been accepted at Harvard, say, is not necessarily better suited for the program than everyone but the other 8 or 9 people that got in. Hell, there are probably dozens of rejectees who are just as smart and would do just as well. This fact is easily ignored by some of the lucky ones, those obnoxious people who are the source of the resentment against the ivies and other top schools. Unlike elitists as I've defined them, these folks deserve their success but have the gall to deny that it's infused with a bit of luck. So is it reasonable to resent the Ivies? I don’t think so, but it is, to my mind, reasonable to resent those leaguers who willfully ignore how the system works.

Thanks for the response. Yesterday I bit the bullet and emailed the DGS to reiterate my serious interest in the school. I got a response an hour later telling me that, as expected, there's nothing for me to do but wait and that I will be offered a spot as soon as an acceptee declines. The email implied (or I hope it did) that there is at least one person whom the DGS thinks will not accept. I really hope someone declines, and soon! This is for Notre Dame, and if anyone out there has been accepted but doesn't intend to go please let the school know as soon as you can. And now, I will return to that bloodsport of waiting!

I'm looking for some advice. Over three weeks ago I was put on a waitlist. I had an encouraging email exchange with the DGS - in which he referred to specifics in my app and told me I'm at the top of the list - but since then there's been nothing but silence. I know that that isn't unusual but I was wondering whether it wasn't too late for me to do something to help my case or at least calm my nerves. I was thinking of sending an email indicating that I was still really interested in the program. Should I do this? If so, what else can I or should I say? Should I volunteer to provide him with additional information? Should I briefly reiterate why his institution is a good fit for me? Should I ask to visit the department (something that would be useful for me but maybe also awkward)? Or should I just sit on my thumbs since putting them to use in writing an email would just be pointless exercise? Any help with this would be really appreciated.

I got an email today from the director of the English dept.

Unlike other schools I'm applying to, at Notre Dame there seems to be a strict division between American and British poetry. Faculty do either one or the other, and the same appears to be true for students. This is a problem for me as my project encompasses both American and British poets. On the application you can indicate two specializations, which makes me think that a combination such as the one I propose would be acceptable. But all the other information on the website makes me think otherwise. Does anyone out there - who's applying or already admitted - have any insight on how they view candidates interested in more than one area?