Katzenmusik

Good for you, czesc! I've been following your travails, so it's good to know a top program is interested. Keep the hope alive!

Coming to this site is a sheer act of masochism for me at this point. Rage, rage against the dying of the light! (Okay, yeah, I'm being needlessly pessimistic. I have seven good prospects pending, and two of those have expressed strong interest. But I wish I could receive an official acceptance and be able to breathe a sigh of relief!)

I think you just answered your own question. You have to shell out loads of cash, and while a one-year program may "save time," it might not position you very well. For instance, you may intend to enter a PhD program directly after the MA. But applying in the fall of a one-year program hardly gives you any chance to improve your work, forge relationships with professors, or build up your CV. So then you'll want to take a year off between programs, and at that point, you might as well have been enrolled in a funded, two-year MA. That said, I have a friend who did a one-year MA in the UK so he'd have better access to the archives he needed for his research. He ended up at a top-notch PhD program after taking a year or so off, but he had to take out tons of loans, and he worked himself basically to the bone while he was there to make the experience worthwhile. And I would agree that an unfunded one-year program is better an unfunded two-year program, assuming it would cost about half as much.

I agree with everyone who says to take at least a year or two off between undergrad and grad school -- whether you're living and traveling abroad or out working a regular job. Otherwise you risk spending your entire life either as a student or as a professor, without any other perspective. As great as university life is, it's good to get out of the system for a while and experience other things.

Funded MA programs ROCK in my experience. A couple years ago I applied to grad schools with a mediocre undergrad GPA, no academic accomplishments to speak of, and only a low-level understanding my my current discipline because I hadn't studied it in college. Unsurprisingly I was rejected by all the PhD programs I applied to, save one unfunded offer at a very low-ranked program. But I was offered admission to a funded MA, so I went for it. Once in the program, I put my whole heart into my work. I made an effort to get to know professors. I submitted my papers to prize competitions and devoured a million books and learned how to do original research in my field. My understanding of the discipline evolved from a"yay, I like old stuff" sort of attitude to actual participation in the scholarly conversation. This round I reapply with an excellent graduate GPA, sterling recommendations from well-connected professors, multiple awards for my work, experience presenting at conferences, a solid writing sample, an article in the publishing pipeline, and something of a vision for my dissertation. I only applied to PhD programs ranked in the top 20, and while I'm still waiting to hear back from most of them, I've received strong expressions of interest from two. So I know I'm competitive at a high level now. The MA is what made the difference. As for age -- I'm about the same age as you (late 20's). Among MA students I was maybe 2 or 3 years older than the average. A bunch of them were fresh out of undergrad (and some just seemed to be killing time because they didn't know what else to do -- which meant they didn't really value the resources being offered and didn't capitalize on opportunities the way I did). But the doctoral students ranged in age, including many in their 30's. So I don't think it's at all unusual to finish in that decade of life. And while, yeah, it would be great to magically not have to have spent an extra two years doing an MA, it's been worth it to have a shot at the best PhD programs, which will then lead to the best job prospects. So I'd say go for the funded MA, but don't let yourself sail through -- make the most of it!! Edited to add: sorry that was a bit TL;DR. I just really really got a lot out of my MA program and needed to rave about it for a second.

This is strange but amusing -- a program at a university where I applied just started following me on Twitter! I did not apply to this particular program, which is completely unrelated to my field. My Twitter account is quasi-anonymous and (I thought) not easily connected to my full name. So this is most likely an odd coincidence, but it was somewhat surprising, and of course I immediately started wondering what I should read into it. Luckily I keep my account pretty professional, just in case... Ohhhhhh, social media.

A graduate assistantship (as opposed to a teaching assistantship) often involves some sort of administrative work or helping with whatever random tasks the professor you're assigned to needs help with. It's rare for most programs to offer assistantships to masters students, but I had one coupled with free tuition at my MA institution, and so did a few others in the department. In my experience, the GA-ship was pretty low-key and flexible; for instance, if I had a paper due, I could take a few days off and make up the hours at some later point with no questions asked. In general, it was a huge relief to be paid by the university instead of having to take out loans to attend.

George Mason has a top-notch digital humanities center: http://chnm.gmu.edu/ I think it's based in the history department, though it seems quite interdisciplinary in its scope.

Congrats to all being accepted to great programs! Wish I could join in the happy exclamations, but my agonizing wait continues...

Art History results give me heart attacks every time I check the board! I think I need to go for a walk and calm my nerves...

For those who might not have seen this before, Peterson's offers profiles of different graduate programs, including their past acceptance rates and numbers of applicants. http://www.petersons.com/ Note that masters degrees are often included in Peterson's calculations, but it can still give you a general idea.

It sounds like your advisor might not have your best interests at heart, since even after that conversation, you're back at square one. In my opinion, you should apply next round to different PhD programs. In the spring, you'll hopefully have the option to move somewhere that is more up your alley. Or you could take the masters and be done. It could be interesting to explore non-academic career options, like working in science museums/state parks/nature centers/wildlife refuges or being a science journalist. If you stay where you are now, you'll be spending years away from your significant other, doing something you don't even want to do. You'd end up with a degree which could be flexible at the end, as your advisor says, but could just as easily channel you into similarly dislikable positions in the future. It doesn't seem like the sacrifice is worth it.

My program had what you might refer to as a "casual plus" style. Most people would dress comfortably, but instead of T-shirts, they'd put on blouses or button-downs, and instead of sneakers they'd wear flats. Some of the hipper guys would go in for ankle boots or chukka shoes. Some women were really into cosmetics and fancy nail polish, and others weren't at all. There was one guy who was always incredibly casual, wearing sweaty undershirts and such to class. In general he presented as being a bit eccentric and as a result could get away with pretty much anything. I had to admire him.

It might have been a professor getting in touch with a potential advisee to winnow down his or her personal short-list -- so the interview would not be part of the department's official admissions process. No need to worry just yet!

I sent them all thank you letters shortly after my apps were in. A heartfelt expression of gratitude is meaningful and significant on its own. No need to add extras, which might be appreciated but could (worst case scenario) seem inappropriate. If I were closer to my campus, I might have thrown in some nicely wrapped homemade cookies or something, but nothing that would say "I spent real money on this."

A couple of schools had a required "personal statement" where you were supposed to talk about obstacles you had overcome to gain access to higher education or your life journey to studying what you were applying to study. I struggled to write something that wasn't cheesy, extremely personal, or redundant alongside my SOP. To be honest, it felt a little invasive -- like I was being forced to "out" myself and my whole life story to a bunch of professors I'd never met when I really just wanted the focus to be on my work. Perhaps that sort of essay could be optional? From a technical standpoint, my least favorite was a certain mid-Atlantic university that I'll leave unnamed. Everything to do with the application was about 1,000 times more complicated than it had to be. For example, they asked for official transcripts to be mailed. If you thought your transcripts might not make it by the deadline, you were supposed to upload PDFs. Your application status might not reflect whether or not the official transcripts had arrived until after the deadline. Even so, you were not supposed to upload PDFs just to be on the safe side. You had to hope your transcripts had arrived even if the application said they hadn't...unless, as originally stated, you really really thought they hadn't in which case you should upload a PDF. (If PDFs are okay in a pinch, why not just accept PDFs and ask for official transcripts later like most of the other schools do?) Another dislike: text-boxes that are hyper-sensitive about formatting and give you an error screen until you figure out what the system's problem with your text is. The worst is when the error screen results in loss of all the data you entered in a huge field of tiny boxes! Ahhhhh. Looking back, none of these things are really a big deal. But when you're in the moment, filling out these applications with deadlines looming and anxiety levels rising, a poorly designed web form can really make a stressful experience worse.

Yeah, it's a strange balance. In my MA program the students fresh out of undergrad seemed to bond together more than we who had been out for a few years. The older students treated the program more like a job, we were already rooted in the area where we chose to do our degree, and we were often involved in long-term relationships or were starting families. Meanwhile the very recent college graduates tended to have moved from further away to attend, they didn't quite think of themselves as "adults" yet (their words, not mine), and they relied more on each other to build a social life. I really liked a lot of my cohort-mates, and I hung out with them outside of class quite a bit. But at the end of the day, I was there to do the program and advance in my career, not to make new best friends like I did in college.

Don't worry about it. The MA is a good time to explore different topics. You can switch, and it's not the end of the world -- your advisor won't be supervising a dissertation in the new topic anyway.

OP: Right now there's a danger that you're falling into "grass is greener on the other side" thinking -- so before you give up your secure position, you could test the waters a bit. You haven't said anything about wanting to do research, but you have said you want to teach. It seems to me like there are paths aside from the PhD to getting to teach at the college level -- like maybe doing that MA you mentioned, then picking up a few courses in the English Department? Or perhaps you could teach some sort of library-oriented, research and writing course? It might be a good idea to talk to the people in the English department about your ideas.

@annieca: Hmm, well, if your application is otherwise strong, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's just one, weird outlier letter from someone who should have declined to write a rec. @Sio68 : Good to know British LORs wouldn't be quite that blunt! Re-reading discussions I had come across about British LORs, the specific comments made were that they were "under-stated," "bland" and "low key" compared to American LORs. (See: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,29127.msg393762.html#msg393762 and http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,43914.msg736674.html#msg736674) But yeah, maybe saying one's student is better at cleaning than at writing history is going too far for anyone who promised to write a "strong recommendation."

annieca: If you're doing your thesis in the UK, was this LOR-writer British? British academics have a reputation for writing bluntly honest LOR assessments of their students, while American academics focus on their students' strengths. So cultural differences could be part of the issue.

"Wow, this is very exciting news! I'm still waiting to hear back from some of the other programs I applied to, but Dreamsville U is one of my top choices, so I'm thrilled to be accepted." Then you can ask whether there will be an accepted students visit organized, whether there are grad students in the program who might be open to answering questions by email, etc.

My advice is to distance yourself from the gossip by avoiding the unsympathetic people who heard the story, never talking about it with academic colleagues again unless they ask you about it directly, studying something completely unrelated, and excelling in your work. Go on making friends with others in your program. Once they get to know you, they'll hopefully be more likely to defend you than tear you down behind your back. And obviously, avoid doing anything that could even remotely be construed as sketchy behavior. Most importantly, just act like that conversation didn't happen and hold your head high. Most likely no one else will actually care about the whole thing as much as you do. In time people will see that gossip isn't affecting you, and they'll forget about it and move on to something else.

I looked over my writing sample and realized that I had misused a word. It's one of those words that sounds like it could mean one thing but actually has almost the opposite definition. I keep imagining the people on the admissions committee reading my essay with enthusiasm, then coming to that word, shaking their heads, and putting my file in the "NO" heap. Fortunately I think the word only appeared in a few of my applications, since I had to send shortened versions to some schools and had edited that paragraph out. But ouch. Super-embarrassing.

Calm thoughts! You haven't been rejected yet. Indeed, they called you for an interview, and it went well! That's a good sign. It's still a good idea to pursue academic accomplishments that you can add to your CV. So if you have a decent seminar paper or thesis excerpt (your writing sample?), go ahead and spruce it up and send it to a journal for review. Submit proposals for a big conference or two. Independent (unaffiliated) scholars do this, and it can't hurt to try. Maybe also work on language skills. Don't worry about having an actual research job at this stage, just continue on in your free time as you can. If you have apply again next year, you can focus on revising your SOP, perhaps going over it with a professor who knows your work and who can suggest changes. Good luck!!