Dr. Old Bill

When people ask me: "Have you heard back from anywhere yet?" When people question the logic of a potential career in academia: When I'm feeling particularly existential about the process... ...And when I just plain want to see an acceptance or two in my inbox (a.k.a. right about now):

Seriously! I run out every day.

I was thinking the same thing! I know that common GC wisdom is that GRE scores don't matter too much, but small sample size aside, it IS interesting to see such high figures in that regard... Of course, my (good-but-not-great) GRE scores are the weakest part of my application, so it stands to reason that this would start to worry me ever so slightly...

Awesome, MM! Major kudos!

Congrats! You make Evgeni Malkin proud!

Yep, like Jhefflol I read lying down most of the time as well. Sometimes I'll read on the couch or in my armchair, but about 80% of the time, I read lying down in bed, with an extra-fine Pilot G-2 in hand for marginalia.

So I've been systematically reading through the Fall 2014 Applicants thread, starting with posts from the It's kind of amazing to read what many former (and some current!) members were going through at that time.

Thanks. Don't tell my wife.

Personally, I'm just doing it to get chicks.

Woo hoo!! Details, details!

Sorry to hear it folks...though I'm also a little relieved. Yes, it seems that the significance is far more personal than I would have guessed. People care, of course, but they just have no frame of reference. I shouldn't be surprised, as it was quite similar to when I went through the immigration process (for which I also leaned heavily on the support of an Internet forum. Hmm...) I think once you get past the application / acceptance part, and are finally able to say "I'm pursuing my Ph.D. at X" things will be different. Then again, I remember mentioning to my semi-literate, anti-intellectual father a few months ago that I probably wouldn't graduate until 2020 at the earliest. "2020!?!?!?" He was incredulous. I must admit that I got a small kick out of it, however...

Ah yes, I remember reading that article when it first came out as well. It is indeed quite on point.

Ha! Indeed, Dr. Izenberg is the second POI I mentioned in my SOP for UCI (that's a lot of acronyms...) Those excellent scholars, combined with the fact that I love SoCal, mean that I would be utterly thrilled to get in there. The same goes for all the programs I applied to, of course, but what Jackson, Izenberg and others are trying to do with the poetics program at Irvine is exciting, to say the least...and dovetails perfectly with my proposed course of study. Sadly, Irvine tends to be one of the late announcing schools when it comes to acceptances / rejections...but one well worth waiting for, I suspect.

Welcome, Perdita! Wow, that sounds like a hell of a class! I just got a copy of The Lyric Theory Reader a few weeks ago, and I am indeed a VJ fan. She's the main reason I applied to UC-Irvine. I haven't read Dickinson's Misery, as I have to admit that, despite having some basic familiarity with Dickinson and her high points, I've somehow managed to miss out on studying her in any kind of depth...despite having taken a couple of courses that dealt with American literature during her time frame! It will likely have to wait for graduate study, I'm afraid...but I do like the Dickinson I've read, and I'll be sure to add Dickinson's Misery to my wish list.

So I'm curious: is anyone else having a hard time talking to friends and family about this process? It's something that is obviously huge to all of our lives, and will have a profound effect on pretty much everything we do from this point forward...yet for me, when I try to talk to friends about it (friends who have never experienced the process, at least), there seems to be an awkwardness or reticence on their part. I suppose I can understand it, but given how monumental this is to me, I'm left wishing I could have a bit more interest from others. Perhaps that's a little megalomaniacal of me? I even feel reluctant to post Facebook status updates about it, as I suspect that not many people either understand or care about the process. Anyone else running across something similar? Or do I just need new and better friends?

One thing that's worth remembering is that professors generally think the GRE (both general and subject) is ridiculous as well. The GRE is almost completely in place for administrative reasons for many / most disciplines. I find this to be a little comforting, really.

Pleased to virtually meet you! What are your academic interests? Is there any particular specialization common across your applications?

Thanks! What worries me a little bit is that I think I'm a fairly eligible candidate too. The problem is that so are dozens, scores, or hundreds of others (in a subjective process it's hard to know which of those numerical categories best applies...).

As we edge closer and closer to rampant-acceptance-and-rejection time, I can't help but start to dwell on the weakest part of my applications...which is, without question, my GRE subject score. I still believe that an otherwise great application won't be brought down by an average subject test score, but I really can't help but worry about it regardless. Figures, of course, are easy ways to make quick judgments. In most cases, adcomms won't want to make quick judgments, but in a competitive field, a swift and easy way to make a cull is indeed with things like GRE scores or GPA. I have nothing to worry about with my GPA, but if my application is buried because of the mediocre number on that subject test...well, no Ivy for me.

Thanks guys!

This doesn't have much to do with anything application-wise, but I found out yesterday that I'll be getting an academic paper published. I've had lots of poetry published in the past bunch of years, but this will be my first academic paper, so I'm pretty happy about it. What's funny is that I sent it out for publication within around 48 hours of having written it. I was quite happy with how it turned out, so I'm particularly glad to see it get picked up by my school's journal of comparative humanities. It may not have the most cache, but hey...it's an academic publication!

About the extent of my self-talk right now...

I'm just going to go ahead and hide all of my responses. I just don't think anything about this thread is particularly productive, and indeed, the central notion is more divisive than anything. I love GC and our cohort. I don't want to foster resentment from anyone here over our respective decisions about what schools we applied to and why.

Probably the most sensible thing said on this thread so far.

There are no definitive dates, I'm afraid. There may be tendencies and trends, but a program can notify whenever they'd like (within reason).