Dr. Old Bill

Well, there's some solace to be found in knowing that it's largely a crapshoot. So long as you're a reasonable candidate, nine applications should probably bring about at least one acceptance. It's anyone's guess, of course, and it's mostly subjective...subject to the combination of analysis and whim of the adcomms. You know this, of course, but it's worth saying it again regardless! No, not crippling anxiety. But I do have moments (and sometimes hours) where I explore worst case scenarios...and they're all very bleak. I don't have a plan B. That's by design, of course, but still...working without a net is daunting. And I'm too old to just give it another year. Even as I write this, I was trying to think of some temporary plan B to put in this post as a placeholder, but nope...there isn't one. I really don't know what I'm going to do if I don't get in. So...I'd better get in somewhere! I think my application is strong in most areas, and the weakest part (the GRE subject score) only applies to seven of the seventeen programs I applied to. And it's not so bad as to make me a "cull candidate." I'm a bit concerned about how my state of mind will be after the holidays, however. When I've got things to keep me occupied, moments of despair are just that -- moments. But when I've got a couple of dead weeks, as nice as it will be to have a break, I just know that my mind will be reeling from the impending decisions. Again, I think I'm a strong candidate and should get in somewhere...but the sheer subjectivity of it all is what adds to the stress. A great GPA, excellent LORs, clear and engaging WS, interesting SOP, great undergrad institution, unique background etc...none of it is a guarantee of getting in anywhere. Like...NONE of it is. Not even all those things combined! There's just no way of knowing. I guess there's some solace in that too, however!

Congrats!

Alright, maybe I'm reading too much into things, but does this suggest to anyone else that applications in general might be down this year? I keep getting that feeling, whether from the comparatively small number of active users on this site, or other indications like this one. Hmm... Either way, thanks for the update, Metaellipses!

I hear you. It's always tough when logic says one thing but the emotional response says something quite the opposite... Easy for me to say, but...don't fret about it! At this point, there's nothing you can do, and if you DID already make the changes he suggested, there's nothing to worry about.

Well, a couple of thoughts here. First of all, it's a bit late in the game to be overhauling a WS, and you probably don't need to. This is one POI, after all, and not every adcomm member of every school you're applying to. It IS a good thing that the POI took the time to read and respond. The only POI who asked me for my WS didn't reply after I had sent it (which I don't interpret in any way, mind you). Secondly, there's always something to improve. Truly. Always. And sometimes those things will be utterly subjective. But if you think about it -- and I mean really think about it -- even the best works of literature we all know and love have room for improvement. It's one of the simultaneously frustrating and beautiful things about the humanities: you can only ever get close to perfection. What I'm getting at is that any critical comments are indeed better than a simple "Yep, great as is!" gloss. It doesn't mean that you have to take any of those proffered suggestions, of course, and since in this instance the POI had an early draft, you can probably take them or leave them...except for on the WS you send to his institution...if he might be on the adcomm, that is. Long story short, I don't think a professor will beat around the bush about telling you you're not a good candidate for a program. I suspect that constructive comments on your POI are what they are and nothing more.

I've decided that I'm going to read some more Flannery O'Connor over the break, as well as Auden's The Dyer's Hand. I was quite captivated by "A Good Man is Hard to Find" when I read it this past summer, and I figure that since I'll have a couple of long flights in the next two weeks, short stories might be perfect. As for the Auden, it's just something I want to read, given how much I love the man's poetry as well as his non-fiction insights. The Dyer's Hand is basically a book about poetry, and while I've dipped into it a few times to pull out pertinent quotes for papers etc., I haven't read it straight through.

That's a great list, Hesse! I've been meaning to read Dead Souls for years now, and I will be reading "Winesburg, Ohio" for a class in the spring. One of my big literary gaps is mid-20th century (and later) American literature, which is odd, since I love a lot of early 20th century American lit...

Wonderful! And unlike a lot of poets, doesn't he have a great voice for reading his own work?

Ahhhhh. Done with finals. I still have some revisions to do to my independent study paper, but that shouldn't take more than a day...so I'm happy. And relieved. Now it's just "hurry up and wait" for acceptances and rejections to trickle in...

Breathe! It should be fine. Trust me -- you won't be the only one who submits on the 15th, thinking that's the end of it. In fact, I'm willing to bet that the majority of applicants do the same thing. Rutgers isn't going to turn away a chunk of applicants because of this unusual "day-after" policy.

Alright, so now that finals and applications are almost behind us, I figure it's time for another lighthearted thread. A companion piece, if you will, to Queennight's "What Are You Reading." Sometimes our proposed specialization takes us in a different direction from the literature that we truly love, while sometimes we have the fortune of having the two work together. I'm much more of a "generalist" than a "specialist" when it comes to literature, even though I'm happy to carve out my own narrow niche. So with this in mind, I'm curious: what are your favorite books, and who are your favorite authors and/or poets? Admit it, you enjoy talking about this stuff...and where better than on a forum for graduate English hopefuls? My favorite poet is W. H. Auden. By far. Seriously, no other poet comes close. Even though I'm planning on specializing in prosody and will likely be grounded in early modern studies, my interest in poetry truly starts with coming across Auden about twenty years ago. There's something about the topics he chooses, the tone he adopts, and simply how he writes that appeals to me. He can discuss some really heavy subjects, yet his tone is always slightly wry. I don't have one favorite author. Some of my favorites include Steinbeck, Orwell, Nabokov, Hemingway, Vonnegut, Fitzgerald, Rushdie, and...Stephenson. I mentioned Neal Stephenson in another thread recently, and while he's not a "literary" writer, all of his works are extremely intelligent. I wasn't a big fan of his last novel, REAMDE, but everything else he's written has been gold, in my view. In fact, I'm looking forward to re-reading some of it when I get a chunk of free time. As for my other favorites, it's so weird for me to look at that list and notice that almost all of those authors are from the first half of the 20th century. I'm not sure what that means. As for favorite books, I can't claim a single one of those either, though a few works by the above authors are certainly right up there (East of Eden, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Midnight's Children, Mother Night, Cryptonomicon etc.). Beyond those, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is near the top of my list, and I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany (my wife's favorite novel) and The Count of Monte Cristo. Also a few great science fiction novels like Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama, Card's Ender's Game, Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and a wide assortment of Heinlein. Oh, and Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, of course. Maybe not "high literature," but they've all contributed to my love of literature in some way. So...how about the rest of you?

I'm thinking of proposing a reciprocal agreement with Visa: I'll name my first-born child after them if they forgive the $3500 of grad-school-application-related expenses I've charged. The bonus is that "Visa" can be a boy's name or a girl's name!

Thanks, Bat! This is helpful. Yeah, my overall combined GPA prior to this semester is 3.94. The only B on my record was in Greek Archaeology and Art, but in my defense it was truly a class that required "rote" learning -- the entire grade was based on three multiple choice exams, each worth 33.3%, and it was all about identifying what scene was depicted on what pediment of what stoa in what town in what country etc. It was an interesting course, but had I known at the time that I could have taken it pass/fail without penalty, I would have. Everything else on my record is in the "A" range. I suppose that means that an A- won't really hurt me, but then again, I wonder if there's a good reason to send updated grades anyhow... I am glad that much of the decision hinges on the WS and SOP though. I think / hope my writing speaks for itself, after all.

Also, bear in mind that Harvard's deadline isn't technically until January 2nd. Apparently some emails have gone out warning people that the admin offices are closed for the holidays, but from what I can tell, Jan. 2 is still the ultimate due date.

Hmm. I'm not exactly sure what you mean. You have to order the GRE score report for every program (which is annoying and expensive, but still...) In other words, all programs receive them by mail. From what I can recall, no programs allow you to upload an unofficial score report, though most want you to type in your unofficial scores regardless. You'll have to officially submit your application before any admin personnel can check on it, I think, but so long as you've ordered all your score reports from ETS, you should be fine. Most programs will allow a bit of leeway with regard to when the official GRE reports come in.

Apologies for bumping up this old thread, but even with the great advice above, I'm still torn on the question of whether to send my fall semester grades to the programs that will accept them. My dilemma is this: all five of my courses this semester were English courses, meaning that they are all pertinent to my GPA etc., and will probably (hopefully?) bring my GPA up a bit, even though my GPA is already fairly high. The cause of my dilemma is twofold.I took one course pass/fail this semester -- Intro to Literary Theory -- and as a result it's going to show up as just a "P" on my transcript. I wonder if that will bring up the question of why I took an important course like this pass/fail, when the reality is...well...exactly what would cause the question! Theory is a "weakness" of mine, and while I wanted to get a solid grounding in it, I wasn't at all confident that I'd get a grade in the "A" range. When all is said and done, I probably did get an A or A-, but that's beside the point. My other concern is that I'm right on the cusp of A and A- for a course that is extremely pertinent to my proposed field of study. I wonder if an A- on such a course would hurt my application if the adcomm had it right in front of them. I recognize that there is a sizable element of "splitting hairs" here, but honestly, I'm still really torn about whether to send my fall semester grades or not. I suspect many of you are (or will soon be) in a similar boat...

I definitely hear you on that. I was starting to get concerned about one of my letter-writers for awhile there, though he pulled through with three days to spare. Fortunately most programs (though definitely not all) allow for letters to come in after the rest of the application is officially submitted. The reality is that pre-Christmas deadlines are typically for administrative personnel to collate everything and chase down misplaced items etc. Adcomms usually don't look at applications until after the break. That's probably why certain programs are rather forgiving about late letters: it doesn't matter if they're a little late, because they won't be read for weeks afterward.

Being medievalists and all, I think you should have to joust for it.

Huzzah, Bat! And good luck! I, too, would be surprised if you didn't get into at least some of these programs. And all you need is one, of course (but yeah, all would be kinda awesome, wouldn't it?) I just finished writing a 4500 word paper from scratch about an hour ago, worth 50% of the grade for one of my courses. SUCH a relief to finally finish it off. Now I just have one exam and some revisions to another large paper, and I'm done! Feels great. And I'm actually looking kind of forward to visiting my family in Vancouver for Christmas. It will be my first time back there in nearly five years, so hopefully it will be enjoyable. My college starts up again on January 21st, so like you, I'll have at least a few weeks to decompress before the frantic email checking begins. (Oh, who am I kidding. I'm a frantic email checker all the time to begin with...)

This past semester I read an essay by her about homosexual themes in Henry James' The Pupil. I was initially shocked (in a bad way) by the brutal frankness of her language, but realized after the fact that it's so damn memorable that it is worthy of admiration. I'm not a big fan of theory to begin with (in that I don't like the tendency to retroactively apply new theoretical constructs to old works), but Stockton's breakdown of The Pupil was so bold and stark that it's impossible to look at the novella without thinking of some of her assertions.

Off-topic, but...have you read any Kathryn Bond Stockton? I think she has a few essays in that ballpark.

Yeah, it's one of those good-yet-bad situations. It's good in that there will theoretically be more slots available for the rest of us, but bad in that it is for legitimate reasons: the job market is quite bad. Not as bad as in other fields, mind you...but still bad. I'm glad that I've had a fair amount of life and work experience already. It has given me the valuable skill of being able to adapt quite well. The way I see it, I'll be in grad school for five or six years, getting paid to study the whole time, and will come out with a Ph.D. This makes the process sound simplistic, but at the core of it, barring poor performance or other program-affecting issues, it really is a "secure job" for five or so years. Sure, the "pay" isn't great, but it's a job...in a field I love, no less. And when I come out of it, I will have a Ph.D. Whether this degree allows me to get a job in academia is a blend of luck, patience, and a personal willingness to adapt to and/or accept something below what might be preferable. And I can do that. But if there simply aren't any jobs in academia? I figure that having a Ph.D. in English can be used in a variety of fields, whether for arts organizations, non-profits, think groups, consultancy groups, publishing houses, journals, prep schools, various administrative organizations... It will sure as hell put me ahead of where I'd be with just a B.A., and possibly / probably with just a M.A. So yes. The job market sucks. And as usual, each of us has had to decide whether or not going down this path is worthwhile. I do believe that an awareness of market considerations when going into the process should promote a spirit of adaptability all the way through, however. Statistically speaking, even among those of us who manage to get accepted to a Ph.D. program and also manage to complete it, only around half of us will wind up getting a tenure track job. Strangely enough, I don't find those odds too daunting though, especially when I'm open to a wider range of possibilities than just a career in academia (though that is, by far, my first preference at this time).

^ What Fancypants said. I suspect that publications from other fields can help an application. Getting stuff published (even if it's poetry or lower-level writing) shows that you've been through the publication cycle, so to speak: you've assembled something for submission, sent it off, bore the waiting period, and (probably) experienced rejection. Usually more than once. It demonstrates a unique kind of experience that, frankly, some people are just not cut out for. Some people take rejection really hard...as in "questioning one's self-worth" hard. For an adcomm to see that you have, in fact, gone through the cycle and are still soldiering on goes some way toward confirming your resiliency. I don't think a C.V. matters too much, but for my own part I'm glad I had the opportunity to list a bunch of non-academic publications. There's a solid chance that it won't have any effect on an adcomm's decision about me as an applicant, but there's also a chance that it could. And that latter chance makes it worthwhile.

I would venture to guess (with the usual "blind leading the blind" caveat) that a manuscript in circulation doesn't carry a lot of weight. After all, even bad manuscripts can be in circulation. Yet I would mention it on your C.V., simply with "in circulation" in brackets above any of your other publications. That's just what I would do though. Two cents and all that.