allzumenschlich

Any word from NYU yet?

Congratulations on Columbia--though of course I am not surprised! You may be compelled to accept Columbia's offer in any case, because if you do get off of the waitlist at NYU, it might not be until after April 15th (and in this case you are allowed to switch even after saying 'yes' to Columbia). But I would DEFINITELY suggest staying on the waitlist--NYU has a phenomenal program both for your interests and for general literary/theoretical training, is generally better regarded than Columbia for CompLit (unless you're doing postcolonial studies w/ Spivak or something similar), has shorter time-to-degree averages, better teaching opportunities, and from everything I hear, is generally a friendlier and happier place to be. Not to mention the fact that Freccero is there. But of course Columbia has a great program and is a very highly regarded institution as well, and you'll still have total access to NYU through the IUDC, so you really can't lose. I would suggest visiting as much as possible, meeting with/sitting in on the classes of people who you would want to advise your dissertation, talking to graduate students in each phase of the program, and (if this is something you might want) seeing if Freccero would be up for advising your dissertation even if you were at Columbia, and if there would be any administrative barriers there to his being on your committee. It may turn out after doing this research that Columbia becomes your top choice, or it may become clear that you'd still prefer NYU. But this way you'll be able to make the most informed decision possible if you get off of NYU's waitlist, which at this point must still be considered a distinct possibility. Good luck with your pleasantly tough decision and again, congratulations!

Hmmm...that is strange. I know that they informed waitlisted applicants of their ranking up through last year, but maybe they've changed their system. I don't think it would hurt to ask--I know John Hamilton only by reputation and a couple of very brief exchanges, but I doubt he would be offended by the question. Just say something like: you've heard that the department has ranked its waitlist in the past, and wonder if they're doing that this year and if so whether he is able to divulge what your ranking is, because of course NYU is still your top choice, etc.. Even in the case that they've changed their system and/or aren't inclined to tell you anything about it, this would be a legitimate opportunity to reiterate that you would be very likely to accept an offer if you get one (and moreover to the most important person in the admissions process) without seeming like a pest, which could very well work to your advantage if they've abandoned the ranking system. But I would expect that he'd reply with _something_ worth knowing, either your ranking or an explanation of what they're doing in lieu of rankings--they want people on the waitlist to say 'yes' if they get an offer, so it's in their interest to be as informative as possible. Also, "Thank you...my bruised ego has healed somewhat" Glad I could help--the simultaneously necessary and patently false premise on which this whole process is based (i.e. that the 'quality' of individual applications/applicants taken in isolation is what ultimately determines their fate) gives rise to far too much undeserved pain.

Coming from inside this department, I must respectfully disagree with Ondine--basically, there's nothing more you can do at this point but wait. Hopefully they told you your ranking on the waitlist (right?), and this is not something you can change, insofar as it was designated by the whole admissions committee (which putatively won't be meeting again). Historically, I think the first, second, and often third person on this particular waitlist can pretty much expect to get in, albeit sometimes not until maddeningly late (i.e., after April 15); beyond those, it becomes more a matter of luck. And speaking of luck, I wouldn't attribute this result to any deficiency in your application, problem with your interview, etc.. The fact that you got to the final round means your application was very, very good, and if you thought the interview went well and got a nice response to your thank-you email, I seriously doubt that it had any negative impact--although this is the first year that NYU used them, these things tend to be more about weeding people out than making fine distinctions among those who survive them, so as long as you seemed minimally cogent, mentally stable, etc., I doubt it had anything to do with the eventual outcome. When only the top 4-5% of an enormous applicant pool gets an offer, it often comes down to completely stupid factors over which you have no control. Maybe they had someone else who wanted to work on Dante and who they liked slightly better because s/he already had several publications, maybe there were several finalists with a background similar to yours in some other salient way (languages, home-country/region, education...), etc.. Whatever it was that tilted things against you, it certainly was *not* that your interviewers returned to the committee and said "ah, he looks good on paper, but such an accent!", and almost certainly *was* something about the constitution of the final applicant pool that has nothing to do with their judgment of your qualifications. And if your app is half as good as your English, I bet you'll get into Columbia no problem. So, as Ondine said, don't despair. And depending on your waitlist ranking, you are more or less likely to end up with a very difficult choice sometime in April--there are ALWAYS people who say 'no' to these offers.