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I know this isn't your point, and it's not to say that it should be the case (it definitely shouldn't), but I think we greatly underestimate the enemy if we think teaching in the modern university--whether adjunct or tenure track; whether at an elite private university or a public community college--is somehow vastly different from working for a corporation.

Look, I don't mean to be a downer, really. But for every one person on a faculty webpage there are a dozens (hundreds, really) from schools of all calibers and ranks who didn't get that job, who are adjuncting, or who left academia entirely. I'm not saying people shouldn't pursue graduate education, I'm not trying to make one more post about how soul-crushing the job market is right now, and I'm not trying to take ComeBackZinc's job from him. I mean, hell, I know how awful the job market is, and I'm still about to enter a PhD program in the fall! But still, I don't think it does anyone a service to hold up these success stories as proof that it can happen. Of course it can happen. No one says it can't happen. It's not a discussion about possibility; it's a discussion about likelihood.

I started formally declining because the deadline for the RSVP for visit weekend was coming up, and I wouldn't have felt right not being upfront about why I wasn't now going, given how obviously excited I'd been for it previously. I also knew that, as much as I really, really loved the program and the people (and it's one of my absolute top choices in terms of pure research fit), given some of my other acceptances and the job market, there was no realistic way I would have chosen them over a couple of other equally-fitting choices I have. I've heard from all of my schools at this point, and I've been lucky enough to have seven acceptances; while I would have been absolutely thrilled to attend any one of those schools, there are naturally some I'm more excited about than others. I won't formally accept an offer until the latter half of March, though (when my visits are complete), and I think that's far too long for me to be tying up the resources of a couple of other places I'm pretty sure I won't attend, so, for me at least, yes: it's time. Here's hoping somebody got a call off the wait list!

YEEEEEESSSSSSS.

Yes, very much so! I have one school that's one of my top choices that is incredibly hardcore about their welcome--I got four different emails from four different people in the course of one day, and they're rolling out their faculty emails in what must be (I've compared notes with another applicant, and they're getting emails from the same profs on the same days) military precision. A couple of my other programs have been positively tight-lipped in comparison!

Has anyone else turned down any programs yet? I'm very conscious of the fact that other people are still waiting on good news, and so I know that in the grand scheme of things, it's a good problem to have, it'll open up a spot/money for others, they don't take it personally, etc etc etc, but that doesn't change the fact that it feels like it sucks, and that you're tuning someone down. Especially when it's a program you really like, and that has been so incredibly warm and welcoming. Ugh. Unpleasant.

Ack, yes--I tried to make it clear that I was just picking those things as examples, not implying that you were providing advice. I'm sorry if I didn't quite succeed!

In re "felt I wasn't in the same league" and "SO behind my peers": forgive my language, but that's horsepoo. Everybody's got strengths, everybody's got weaknesses, everybody's got different experiences and backgrounds that shape them and their scholarship. You're a peer, period! The ND visit was sort of amazing--the program is just as rigorous/intense/interdisciplinary/cool as you'd imagine (or more so, even!), but the community was extraordinarily warm, welcoming, and supportive (of each other, and the interviewees), and the OE grad students there (both at the MI, and in the English dept) are doing some really, really cool work. And yes: coming from a state school background myself, the sheer amount of financial resources available to fund research there is jaw-dropping. It felt like very other meeting was some (delightful) variation of "let me tell you about all the money I get for my students"!

Oh, hey, wow another Anglo-Saxonist--hello! I know you've been posting; did I just completely miss you're an OE person? We (and hreaðemus and hannalore) should chat! I was just at ND's interview weekend for the Medieval Institute, and one of the grad students in Old English there was a South Carolina MA, in fact! And working with Gwara--you're a lucky duck. ETA: and another had come straight from USC undergrad, so that's a transition that happens--there's a USC-ND pipeline!

Congrats! And I think South Carolina does really well placing their people in PhD programs, don't they? I at least know three medievalists who did MAs there who are in great PhD programs now.

There are indeed plenty of places that still take people straight to PhD from BA, and even in programs that don't grant an "MA along the way"; I've been accepted to a few this cycle (as have plenty of other people in this year's GC cohort), and in the interview weekend I was just at, only two of the six candidates being interviewed for the spots in a PhD program had MAs. Both "people can go straight from undergrad to a phd program" and "MAs provide valuable training and professionalization" can be true at the same time. (And this is field dependent, too, right? I hear that in rhet/comp the MA first is much more the standard path, but I'm not in the field, so ProfLorax and comebackzinc would know better than I.) I think it's hard to generalize about what makes an applicant successful, and while these discussions are interesting, I'm not sure how useful it is to extrapolate from personal experience to recommendation, to go from description to prescription. It's easy to say "I did this, and I was successful," and so it's tempting to slide from that to "this is what works," when it's really just "this is what worked for me, a sample of one." Pace fancypants, I didn't contact POIs; pace goldfinch, while I did work on it some over the summer, my writing sample was indeed just a reworked course paper, not a thesis at all (honors or otherwise). I don't bring up those examples because either was implying that those things are required; I just bring them up to show that there is really an awful lot of diversity in what people do in terms of what yields acceptances (and rejections). Unfortunately, that makes useful generalizations--at least ones that aren't so broad to be meaningless (i.e., "have a good writing sample!")--about the process so hard to come by. ETA: Especially when those generalizations so obscure the parts of the process that really are out of an applicant's control, as a bunch of others have pointed out.

Congrats!!! She pitched a perfect game, folks!

I'm normally a big fan of assuming that an "implied" rejection is just a regular old rejection--I've scoffed at those who say "wait until the paper's in your hand," etc etc etc. I squash my own hopes. Crush my own dreams. But I just got an email from a professor at a school I'd applied to, casually letting me know about this opportunity for extra study/funding I could take advantage of, were I to attend. It surprised me, since I'd assumed the school was an implied rejection when the acceptances went out a while ago and I didn't receive one. But nope--I write back to clarify, and turns out my notification emails must just never have been sent!

WOOT!

Thank you all! I am also a medievalist who'll be at the Berkeley and Yale weekends; so count me in for a round, too!

Congrats to all the recent admits!!! I'd write more, but I'm at an interview weekend now, and, holy s---: Stanford!

Knowing ETS, they probably only give you store credit.

YAY!!!!!

WOOT! Congratulations! I was just there for a manuscript studies conference, and the community of medievalists is amazing. Plus--word on the street is that Liuzza is coming back from Toronto, which means you'll be working with one of the absolute best Anglo-Saxonists around!

Yes! Both I and Hreaðemus (the fora's other Anglo-Saxonist) will be there. I'll PM you in re deets; it'd be cool to say hi/have a friendly face among what I can only imagine will be a ridiculously intimidating crowd!

Ugh, that sucks. This is the Milton one? In re being "unsure if you can hack it in a PhD program": rejections aren't dispositive; people get rejected for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to due with their abilities or whether or not they're suited to graduate studies. Acceptances and wait lists (since you don't wait list someone you don't want to attend), though, are. You may be unsure, and I don't mean to downplay the very real self-doubt that can plague us all, but both UCR and USC not only think you can hack it--they want you to hack it with them.

You. Congratulations, to you and to all!

Ugggghhhhh--upvotes! I need more damn upvotes!

I've been rejected (or at least am assuming rejection, given that acceptances have gone out) from two programs, SO THERE!

I know! And now Cornell's is a Wednesday, too. We shouldn't complain--it's a lovely problem to have!--but the number of times I've had to email teachers to say "Um, so, about attendance in this course…" And what about people coming from MA programs, who have to be teaching during that time? I get why they do it, but still.