Dr. Old Bill

Same for me -- I'm assuming the SOP is one of the "Other" documents listed.

Yes, congrats Allplaideverything! Like the others, I also think this can only be a good sign. I suspect you are correct in that they just want to see more evidence of your critical writing abilities...which is understandable. Fingers crossed for you! I lived in Riverside for about a month, and the area around the campus is lovely...plus being an hour or so away from L.A proper is such a delight.

Bravo!!!

Thanks for this, REOSlowdeath. It mostly confirms my suspicion that I didn't make the cut. Alas. Well, I have one more Chicago option on the table at least...

Congrats to you both! 1Q84, I know how much you've been hoping for USC. Sending positive thoughts your way!

I'm on FB, and have been since 2007...but honestly, I've never known how to use it. Not technically speaking, but socially. My posts are probably the most boring and mundane you can imagine, because I just have small chunks of friends from disparate walks of life with little commonality between them. I have a few poet friends, a few music friends, a few long-ago high school friends, a few of my wife's friends...it's such a melting pot that I don't ever really know what to post that will appeal to everyone. I'm probably overthinking it.

Well that answers that question!

Hmm. Is it bad that I don't have an academia.edu profile?

Oh good. Game of Thrones .gifs. My wife and I are in the midst of a rewatch right now, so... What I'll feel like if I get an acceptance. Oh hell. What I'll feel like if I even get waitlisted at this point:

Really great posts here, folks. I'm out of upvotes, but you have a bunch of head-nods from me. I'm going into this with eyes wide open (sorry Kubrick) as well. I've had a few "careers," and a hell of a lot of jobs... I've had to relegate my passions to avocations, and have had to suck up my dislike of the mundane. Bearing all of that in mind, I have many reasons for pursuing a Ph.D. in English, and all of them are at least quasi realistic. The ideal is a TT job at a prestigious SLAC, but in my pre-Ph.D. heart of hearts, I suspect I'll be happy with a steady job at a low-prestige CC. Or at a non-profit doing work that involves writing. Or at a publishing house. Options, you know. The point is that I'm willing to be flexible when all is said and done, and I think that's sort of vital for graduate English hopefuls these days.

Someone with the user name of KGB being subtly nosey? You don't say! But seriously...thanks for the info! I've applied to two of those three programs, so it's great to know.

If so...they've failed!

Congrats! I agree that it's all very confusing (especially to us UC applicants who never got an email...), but either way, an interview is great news! Good luck to you, Omensetter!

Ooh la la! Congrats again, Hypervodka! 28.6% of the way to a clean sweep!

Well, whether you do or not, congrats on the outcome of your complaint!

I empathize. Truly. The mind automatically turns to the weakest part(s) of one's application at this point, and for me, the weakest part is almost certainly my GRE scores. They're not BAD, per se -- in a vacuum, my verbal is "good" -- but they're not reflective of my abilities...yet because they are numbers, and because numbers are far easier to compare and contrast than 20-page essays, I can't help but worry a little that my application could be judged too much on this one seemingly insignificant metric, because it's a very easy way to whittle down the overall number of applicants. Adcomms consist of a bunch of smart humans, yet it's hard to deny that knocking off a large swath of potential applicants by an easy means must be appealing... Of course, these worries are probably all stupid, paranoid, psyche-produced bunk...but so it goes!

^ For what it's worth, I would certainly contribute to that.

Way to go!

Agreed wholeheartedly! As appreciative as I am of people uploading any results at all, I'm always a bit flummoxed by the number of folks who neglect to post their GRE / GPA info. I will definitely be doing so, should I get an acceptance, as well as any details that might be helpful to future GC cohorts..."pay it forward" and all that.

I'm out of upvotes for the day (what else is new), but I just want to say thanks to you and a few others who were accepted in previous years and have stuck around. It's hugely helpful to those of us going through it all for the first time. Even though we can assume much of what you say, it's something else entirely to hear it from someone who has been through it and has lived to tell about it. So thanks!

Thanks, Angel_kaye! I'm actually in good spirits, personally, thanks in large part to this forum in general, and to a trio of members in particular who have truly been my "rocks" behind the scenes throughout this whole process. And I certainly never hold any ill-will whatsoever toward the program(s) that reject me, nor the folks who get accepted in my stead. It's just a big process, largely subjective, and there are invariably far more strong candidates than a program can ever reasonably take. In the end, it's really "just business," so the only moping I will ever do is over the simple fact of rejection, and not the circumstances surrounding it.

The existence of the No Fear Shakespeare series makes me die a little inside. And man, I really feel for you in that situation. Doing that to Othello is particularly egregious. But yes...Pericles is enjoyable so far. The "prologue" of each Act does seem a bit ham-fisted and unShakespearian, but the content / language / tropes all feel firmly Shakespeare to me. Oh, and I just discovered that the play is the origin of our fellow graduate English applicant In Hac Spe Vivo's user name. Bonus!

One of those things I never dare to admit in academic circles is that I listen to a lot of metal. Some punk...but a lot of metal. I suppose I should be listening to Brahms and Mahler instead, but... Okay, this has gone WAY off-topic. I'm currently reading Pericles and am surprisingly quite enjoying it! I read a critical essay on it yesterday, talking about how its reception has been mixed at best, with many, if not most scholars believing that the first two acts were not written by Shakespeare. Having just finished Act I, I find I completely disagree...to the point that I might feel compelled to write a paper on it. I see a lot of earmarks of Shakespeare's style, and a lot of the more subtle Shakespearianisms, like using certain words (such as "seem" etc.) multiple times in a short space. If I see the word "peep" pop up in Act II, I'll be convinced.

Yeah, I was just mashing up punk stereotypes. I'm more of a Converge fan myself.