Dr. Old Bill

HUZZAH!!! Way to go, @JessicaLange! This is huge news, and you've officially kicked off acceptance season here at GC! For now, you're going to have a rapt audience of graduate hopefuls living vicariously through you. Well done, and congratulations!!

Ooh! Yes! @JessicaLange -- it looks like you're the first acceptance on the board this cycle, so by GradCafe tradition, you get to start the 2017 Acceptances Thread! Go for it!

You just have to poke around on the program websites. Some list them (Rutgers, for instance, which is having theirs on March 20th/21st), and some don't. Yeah, Trudeau's not all he's cracked up to be. I'm a tad biased, as I was a Harper supporter for the most part (funny to think that Harper would be considered a centrist liberal in this country...), but Trudeau doesn't have much beyond the name, the good looks, and the heaps of money that his fiscally responsible forebears left in the national kitty... Having said all of that, I'm rather rueful that funding is such an issue with Canadian institutions. I seriously considered U of T, but I probably wouldn't have been able to get a tuition grant since I haven't been a Canadian resident for seven years. When I visited my parents in Vancouver a few weeks ago, I realized -- for the first time -- that I rather miss my home and native land. I'm glad I have dual citizenship (technically triple, as I'm a New Zealand citizen as well), but a return to Canada may well be a "plan B" for me...

53. Go to the National Gallery of Art and revel in the mastery of bygone geniuses 54. Go to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and realize that the struggles of current or aspiring grad students aren't really struggles at all... Seriously, I did both yesterday, and after the NMAAHC I was simultaneously heartened by the resilience after oppression, and nauseated by the inescapable sensation of history repeating... The exhibit ends with the inauguration of Obama, and like I said to the friend I was with, they might as well have just had an open pit to throw ourselves into afterward, rather than a traditional exit...

Lovely, Warelin! What's funny is that I made this list for my own programs and pinned it to the wall just yesterday... C'mon OSU!

...University of Phoenix?

Yes, I have heard this several times -- that a large proportion of applicants simply miss the boat entirely. Incidentally, I was recently sent an email in error from one of the programs I applied to. The body of the email referred me to an attachment, which was addressed to someone else (just their name), and listed all the components of the application that were missing. Among those were letters of recommendation, GRE scores, undergraduate transcript, and graduate transcript -- this is from two weeks after the application date for this particular program. I'd love to know just how many applications are "dashed off" or otherwise incomplete. On the latter front, even for the most meticulous among us, it's easy to accidentally miss some element of an application. That usually won't mean immediate disqualification...but it can. Ultimately, the numbers remain daunting, but it's safe to say that the percentages for appropriate applicants is probably in the double digits for most programs. It's also worth pointing out that if you look at past seasons of Grad Cafe posts, relatively few members get shut out. That might be too small of a sample size to be meaningful, but it suggests that informed applicants don't do as poorly as the raw numbers might otherwise indicate. This shouldn't get anyone's hopes up, of course, but it's worth considering.

Don't worry! There's still a couple of weeks before the first major literature program typically notifies (Ohio State), and three weeks before the trickle of decisions becomes a flood throughout February. Having gone through the process a couple of years ago, I assert that this is the easier part of the waiting -- the pre-decision period. Once you start seeing others get accepted to and rejected by programs in your area, things get very real, very quickly. And if your first response is a rejection, while you see other members get accepted to the same program? An odd dichotomy occurs: you are simultaneously happy for the others while dejected about your own lot. It's not an easy process, but if there's any solace to be found, it's that it's truly out of your hands at this point. You did your best, submitted your apps, and you just have to let go. Small consolation, I know...but it's something.

Those are some interesting circumstances, to say the least. There's certainly nothing wrong with being a "non-traditional" student -- I'm one myself, and didn't even start on a B.A. until I was already in my thirties. I do wonder, however, why you're looking at M.F.A. and M.A.T. degrees instead of an M.A. in English, if your end goal is to teach literature at the university level. Going the M.F.A. / M.A.T. route won't make it impossible, I suppose, but it's far less intuitive than going from B.A. to M.A. to Ph.D. like most applicants. I think it's fair to say that you wouldn't be able to go straight from B.A. to Ph.D. with your current GPA -- it can be explained, but it's still a fairly sizable hurdle to overcome -- so you are wise to consider an intermediate degree first. But why not M.A.? Is it just because you have a good shot at getting into your current university's M.F.A. program? That's a good thing, to be sure, but might not translate into an obvious "middle step" in your trajectory. Like it or not, M.F.A. degrees aren't seen in the same way as M.A.s. Creative writing and academic research have a bit of overlap, but they're often viewed even within an English program as separate and unequal. Frankly, if both creative writing and the critical study of literature (and related research) appeal to you, you're probably far better served by vying for an M.A. than an M.F.A. I don't have any hard numbers to back this up, unfortunately, since there are no hard numbers for this sort of thing: you only really get a sense of academic culture and trends by being immersed in it and reading attitudes and trends. All of this is a highly hedged, roundabout way of saying that I doubt that either the M.F.A. or the M.A.T. will be good stepping stones for you to reach a Ph.D. program with a focus in modernist / postmodernist or Russian literature. Your best option may be to apply to several 2nd or 3rd tier institutions to get a Master's (while focusing on one or two of the four areas you are interested in), do really well (i.e. close to a 4.0), and then apply to top Ph.D. programs. By then, your graduate record should mostly eclipse your undergraduate record, and you can focus on producing an excellent writing sample and an engaging, highly focused statement of purpose. As you certainly already know, it's an arduous road. Fortunately, NOW is a good time to start planning for applications for Fall 2018 admissions. If that works out, then you'd be looking at Ph.D. applications for admission in Fall of 2020, and should be done in 2024 or 2025 if everything stays on track. None of this is meant to dissuade you in any way, but realistically speaking, it's a long haul, and requires a lot of due diligence and strategizing at every step along the way. There are few absolutes along this path, meaning that there are examples of people from every kind of background and level of preparation in Ph.D. programs...but your best bet, in my estimation, is to focus on getting an M.A. in a field that closely resembles what you currently see as your long-term goal. That field can change along the way, as can your goal, but moving in a direction that mirrors your current ideal is far better than moving in a direction that is ostensibly quite far afield.

Are you talking about a Ph.D. in English / English literature / rhet-comp, or creative writing? If the latter, you might be better served by the literary arts forum, though it doesn't get nearly as much action. If the former...it's really all about your end goals. Remember that you'll need to spend at least five years dealing with high-level literary (and/or rhetorical etc.) study, which is not always emphasized in either M.F.A. or M.A.T. programs. I'm not trying to dissuade you from either path (truly!), but I guess we just need to know what your long-term objectives are before anyone can give you significant advice. And bear in mind that this is just a forum of "wannabes and soon-to-bes," basically -- if your professors are steering you in a certain direction, and that direction meshes with your interests, take their advice over ours. One thing I will say is that you can usually take creative writing courses while you're getting your M.A. or Ph.D. That way you can still enjoy the creative writing process while studying, say, Faulkner on the way to an advanced degree. ETA: cross-posted with @tvethiopia

Okay, so... 43. Order and read Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities. This should arrive on my doorstep on Saturday. Thanks, Amazon! And thanks for your recommendations, @lesabendio and @Ramus! I've got three books on my nightstand that I keep pretending I'm going to read during the break, but this one I actually will.

Mere anarchy is loosed upon your world!

Twiddle your thumbs Binge-watch a show on Netflix / AmazonPrime / Hulu Check GradCafe once an hour Do distance searches on GoogleMaps between your current residence and each of your desired programs Find out when your desired programs' Admitted Students days are and check flight or drive options Get super invested in a video game (online or otherwise) Re-read the Harry Potter series (because of course we've all read it at least once) Take up knitting Take up jogging Take up mud wrestling Get a massage Buy a crossword or sudoku book and immerse yourself in words or numbers Make mix CDs or playlists, and really think about how songs can go together Buy a cheap musical instrument and teach yourself to play Spend quality time with a dog, whether it's a friend's, a neighbor's, a family member's, or your own Do the above with a cat and pretend it's reciprocal Make lists of favorites - favorite books, movies, TV shows, songs, albums, potato chips - and share them with friends Create spreadsheet inventories of your books and other media Do a serious top-to-bottom cleaning of your room / apartment / home Go to a local coffee shop for an hour a day and imagine yourself as someone from a different walk of life each time ... By no means an exhaustive list, and mostly tongue-in-cheek...but feel free to add to it!

Deeeep breaths! First of all, I would go against conventional wisdom and suggest that you don't start thinking about plan Bs just yet. Give yourself until March 1st -- you should have a very good idea about whether you will or won't get into a program (or multiple) by then. Yes, some programs can notify late, and there's always the waitlist factor...but I'm personally giving myself until this date before I start to seriously look at alt-ac options. The way I see it, March 1st will give you at least 2.5 months to seriously focus on what's available before you graduate. I've got a paying gig at my program until July 1st, so it gives me four months. That should be enough time to truly gauge the lay of the land. Secondly, there is a prevailing rhetoric that there are no jobs for people with Master's degrees in English. In my experience, that's simply not the case. I'll admit that there aren't as many obvious jobs (i.e. not the well-earning, dime-a-dozen jobs you can get with a Master's in a STEM field), but you can do well for yourself if you keep an open mind. Non-profit organizations are often quite open to people with humanities degrees. A quick search on idealist.org reveals a plenitude of options. To wit: I just did a quick search for jobs in D.C. and immediately saw a Deputy Director for the National Council for Traditional Arts position that I would be well-qualified for, given my education and experience. And that's literally on the first page of a general search. I'll admit that there's typically not as much money in NPOs as in other employment, but you can make a decent living and do good work. Most arts organizations are NPOs, and you'd be surprised at the range of employment possibilities within. Teaching high school is always an option, and prep schools are possibilities as well. Publishing / editing jobs are pretty scarce (and highly competitive), but many non-humanities jobs need good writers and editors as well. The Chronicle has featured a few articles recently that emphasize how businesses are targeting individuals with humanities degrees. This is nothing new...but perhaps there's more of an uptick. Ultimately, there are definitely options. You might have to be more creative with your approach, and think outside of traditional avenues of employment, but take solace in knowing that you're far more employable with an M.A. in English than without. But seriously -- don't think about this stuff for another month or two, as it will just cause more undue stress!

I can't speak to the "positive results" aspect just yet, but seven of the thirteen programs I'm applying to are places I applied to two years ago. On the one hand, this worries me a little bit -- part of me wonders whether adcomms will see me as a repeat customer who didn't meet their standards before, so why would I meet them now? On the other hand, it's doubtful that they'll remember much, if anything, about my last application (the only reason they might is because the specific work I am interested in remains the same), and even if they do, my approach and methodology are far different, and arguably more developed. It's hard to know how people will react to such things -- you can't discount the human factor of the admissions process, after all. Regarding the GRE... I had a good (but not great) score when I took it in May of 2014, and I figured that after a couple more years of schooling, it would naturally improve. So I retook it this summer, and -- surprise, surprise -- I scored lower on the verbal. I did slightly better on the AW section, but the verbal is key. I'm simply not good at standardized testing. I have a demonstrably strong vocabulary, but whenever I take the GRE (actual or practice tests), I'm always distracted by the nuances of words. I can use almost all of the test words correctly in a sentence of my own, but when it comes to plugging them in to a pre-fab sentence, I can't stop imagining how the other options could work. I bet I would have done better if I rushed through it and didn't give myself time to think, but that's a tough risk during a long, expensive, and (unfortunately) essential test. What I'm getting at, however, is that retaking it doesn't necessarily mean you'll do better, even if you've become a better scholar. I'm quite certain that many high-profile professors would do well, but not really well, were they forced to take it right now...

"One of the candidates with the exact same interests as yours walked in here wearing a bomb jacket and threatened to blow us all up if we didn't admit him! We're really sorry, but we had no choice!"

I refuse to reread my materials for this very reason. My WS went through several rounds of revision (and was read by several sets of eyes) which should weed out any typos, but they always manage to creep in. That said, I wouldn't worry too much about a typo like this -- there's a decent chance that it won't be caught, and if it is, it will probably be seen as just a typo (i.e., a typing error as opposed to a conceptual error). Chin up!

Yeah, me too. Those "you are out of upvotes!" warnings are rather dramatic. I imagine that's the kind of warning that happens when you try to access restricted files at the CIA, only with more beeping and sirens.

Ah, fair enough. It's really hard to say just how important they are, and there are probably several answers that would all be correct. Different programs will place different weight on different application elements, and some things (like good-not-great GRE scores) are likely mitigated by things like strong SOPs, WSs, LORs, GPA etc... But who knows? When you look at the results page for many top programs, most of those who add their GRE scores have scores that are quite high (i.e. >90%)...but how much can you infer from partial responses? In other words, you really have to do the best you can with all elements and just hope for the best.

Is this a serious question? I'm honestly asking.

I'm assuming this is for next year's cycle, since it's almost certainly too late to be thinking about that for this year. The WS is arguably the most important aspect of your application, so selecting it with a deadline mere days away would be an interesting choice... So if this is indeed for next year's cycle, you should have time to trim down your papers or write something new over the course of the year. In fact, thinking about your programs this far in advance should give you an advantage, as you will have time to hone it and put it through as many rounds of revision as needed, and show it to as many sets of eyes that will look at it, for it to be successful. This year at least eight people -- six of them professors -- read my writing sample at least once, and commented at length. It went through seven or eight rounds of revision over the span of a month, and I'm already thinking of ways I can expand it in the future. As to your main question, however, the advice I've heard most often from professors on this topic is that it's better to be under than over. Ten pages seems rather short, even for MA-only programs, but you should really make sure that it's no more than that (not including works cited and any endnotes, of course). But again, you've got lots of time to make this happen, unless you are talking about this application cycle, in which case I don't really know what to say...

That just means that they've received all of your documents and scores etc. Nothing to get excited over yet.

Ah, Richardson's great. I've taken two courses with him, and have nothing but positive things to say. PM me if you have any specific questions about him. As for UMD's comp lit program, I don't know too much other than that it's now run by Jerry Passannante, who is also great. If you get accepted, let me know and I'll put you in touch with one of the Ph.D. students I know. Nah, despite my earlier comment about gut instinct etc., lots of people get accepted after February. There are a few programs that don't begin to notify until March (I can't remember exactly which ones they are, but there are definitely some), but March is when much of the waitlist movement starts to happen. Think of it this way: anyone who receives more than one acceptance has to drop at least one of those acceptances, leading to a waitlist spot freeing up. So while news is typically not as good after February, it really "ain't over till it's over," as the saying goes...and "over" usually means April 15th.

Oh yes. Most definitely. I have a list of when the thirteen programs I applied to typically notify etc. For literature programs, OSU is typically the first of the top programs, making their first decisions in the fourth week of January. I'm guessing they like to make their decisions before the semester starts, which seems pretty sensible to me. Last time I had a gut feeling that after I got my M.A. offer at UMD (which was on February 14th), I wouldn't get any more offers...and I was right. In other words, I'm hoping that if I am to get an acceptance, it's by mid-February...

I would normally agree with you, @angel_kaye13, but it looks like there's also a MSU rhet/comp rejection from this year, and acceptances and rejections from mid-December last year as well. It's not my field, and I don't know their process, but it looks like MSU does indeed make its rhet/comp decisions around this time. I believe she's referring to the results boards. (If you haven't searched these yet, the easiest way is to type in a school and a program, e.g. Berkeley Comp Lit, Berkeley Literature, Berkeley English etc.).