hypervodka

I haven't thought carefully about the logistics... but I was planning on either subletting or AirBnbing (as long as there's Wifi) for about a month during the summer while looking for a place. I'm going to be one of those two suitcase and a carry-on people, and buy some furniture when I find a place.

That's utterly ridiculous, and bound to backfire.

If you weren't invited to an interview, I think it's safe to assume an implicit rejection. Other than that, I don't know. The DGS would actually be a really great person to ask.

This is mentioned in the Professor is In link someone posted awhile ago, but going into debt for an education was considered "good debt" until fairly recently, when people began to realize that many jobs graduates can expect to receive don't actually allow debtors the financial stability to pay off the substantial debts that often come from student loans, and there's no reprieve for those unable to pay these loans off. It used to be considered an "investment," but the pay-off just isn't worth the buy-in.

There are only a few things that I would add: I'm another one of those no-name B.A.-only and it didn't hurt me, but that isn't to say that a Masters would hurt you. However, pretty much all of the programs you applied to strongly prefer candidates with only a BA (particularly Harvard and Yale). Even though I don't think applying with a Masters is a bad thing, and it could give you the necessary opportunity to assess and refocus your research goals in a structured environment (which I think is the more important part of an application), but, to my knowledge, NYU's MA program doesn't have a particularly solid placement record in PhD programs (this is just what some professor at Rutgers obliquely told me in the past couple of days) and even "full funding" at NYU in general is actually difficult to maintain with New York's substantial cost of living. It may be stressful (especially in regards to trying to make ends meet), but it is a good program and may be a good opportunity. I just... I really just don't want you to feel like you have to continue school at this point. You really can just... stop for a second. You've graduated from a prestigious university: you can get a job--an internship, at a non-profit, overseas--you can get a part-time job with no direction. NYU is not the only option, and it may not be the best option. I honestly think you will just benefit from time. I think that your undergrad was ample preparation, and you just need a little time for the ideas you're entertaining to percolate. You have the benefit of being rejected from the school you actually went to, so that's a great opportunity to work with people in your department to assess what parts of your application need to be improved. I was shut-out the first time I applied, I stepped away, got a job I loved and had fun with. Then, at the last minute (like September), I wrote the writing sample I used to submit. My real world experiences made my research goal far more focused than they would have been otherwise. I realized how lofty (and, worse, amorphous) my original goals were and made sure to be more specific. I also had more time, because I wasn't simultaneously studying for ETS's gibberish standardized tests and my undergraduate actual tests. Even with a job, I had more time to devote to my applications, because it didn't feel like I was going straight from working on schoolwork to working on MORE SCHOOLWORK to back to working on real schoolwork. I was exhausted and shaken. I didn't enjoy the experience of applying my first time around. Still, I'm extremely biased against undergraduates applying right out of UG, especially so young (I say as if I'm not a pesky whipper-snapper myself) because there's just so much we can do that does not involve stressing about school, so, please, others chime in...

I was accepted to Rutgers as well! This is all so unnerving.

My God!!! Congratulations everyone! You're all absolutely amazing and deserve to make some difficult choices.

I should note that the reason the NRC varies so hugely is because it uses a completely different set of criteria. For the S-Rank in particular, they survey a bunch of professors and students about what sort of qualities they would value in graduate programs in general, and then the surveying body (can't remember who) goes through and examines all graduate programs for those specific qualities. US News and Report pays much more attention to reputation, which, honestly, is a huge deciding factor in job placement (but not the hugest factor--one of my acceptee institutions is Top 40 and has an 90% placement record in my field, to schools like Northwestern and Princeton). Your target university has all of the traits associated with successful institutions (diversity, helpful faculty, publishing faculty, collegiality atmosphere, or whatever was on that survey, which is half a decade old)--it's just not a "name." That's fine. The NRC thinks your target university has all of the best qualities an English department can possibly have. I think you can assess those qualities for yourself. If you're worried about going national or international, look at the school's placement record: if people have consistently had success doing just that despite coming from a "no-name" school, throw that worry out of the window.

The DGS will definitely be able to get you exact statistics, but what MM says is fairly true--but changing in recent years. Part of the reason for slow completion time was due to funding, because people spent way too much time trying to find external fellowships to pay for their education, or were, worse, working part-time. A lot of schools that used to tier funding (a lot of R1s used to follow this model) have recently rejected large cohorts in favor of guaranteed funding for all of a smaller group of students. And, again, longer completion times isn't exclusive to the UCs, but it has been lowering a lot across the board in recent years (literally the only positive to the collapsing job market--structured pragmatism). It used to be almost nine years on average, now it's less than seven years. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/11/25/analysis-says-humanities-phds-get-take-longer-coursework-dissertations

Thanks a lot, you guys! I've filled in all of this information and opened up the document so that anyone can edit. It looks pretty good so far, but I know we'll know a whole lot more come March.

It's not going to be formal at all. My advice: Wear a blouse if it makes you comfortable, but there'll be plenty of people donning t-shirts as well. Wear jeans rather than trousers, and wear comfortable shoes.

It's a good idea to ask for statistics, and to ask why the stats are so high or low. What does or doesn't the program as a whole do in order to drive their current placement record? When asking for statistics, make sure to ask for specifics about your area group--across the board, placement records are different depending upon your specialty.

I think that is a reasonable one. You've been "struggling to make ends meet making 16K per year" and are now "worried about making less money in a decidedly more expensive location." I think that they'd be very responsive to your situation, as long as long as you don't frame it as "I just want two grand because so want more money, to be honest."

Emory I actually found out about from the Results Search. They wrote as much in the rejection letter sent to applicants. Vanderbilt volunteered that info (which is 350 applicants, not 300) when I inquired about the status of my application a couple of months ago.

I'd love for us all to work together to demystify the acceptance rates of these universities for this application season. Rejection letters and acceptance letters often use the same language. "Congratulations! From a qualified pool of 240 applicants, you were selected..." or "Unfortunately, we received over 240 applications, rendering the decision process extremely competitive..." "You were one of eight applicants selected!" or "We were only able to offer admission to eight applicants this season..." If you feel comfortable, I would appreciate it if we used this thread to compile as much information as you've been able to gather regarding how many applicants (for example, 300 at Vanderbilt) and how many offers (4 at Syracuse) each of your target institutions entertained, whether it be for a position in a PhD program or an MA program. Here are mine: Emory (PhD): 7 accepted, 170 applied. Vanderbilt (PhD): 300 applied. As the decision process winds to a close, I'll begin compiling them in an openly editable Google document (closed for now). By April 15th, we'll have a PDF version (hosted on pdf.ly or a similar website), that is infinitely share-able for the next generation of prospective applicants!

YES YES YES YES YEAAAAAAAAHHH. And you have a promising side career as an alchemist (or conjurer of any kind, if you're not too picky).

The process for deciding on the order for the waitlist involves so many different people--everyone who served on the admissions committee, which can be up to 15 people, all of whom were aggressively advocating for different applicants and then finally, possibly tersely, after a weeks-long process, decided on a final list they were happy with. It's just not something I can see you feasibly renegotiating after the fact.

I don't think it's useful leverage in any context. I don't think you can successfully negotiate yourself into an acceptance this way, if that makes sense.

It happens a lot. You can just write another little submission as an addendum and, as your note, write "Previous poster. Q and V switched." That's what a lot of people seem to do. CONGRATULATIONS on your acceptance!

I think that when they ask you to keep them posted, they are really just asking you to update them if you've decided to attend elsewhere, so they can remove you from the waitlist. I don't think this is something they want to know, unless you've decided to attend. It's not leverage that will convince them to bump you up in the waitlist or anything.

UCLA's the same way. Getting time off from work to go to all of these humpday open houses in March has been such a hurdle.

Very good!! Congratulations all you lucky-dog Cornell and Chapel Hill and Princeton admits! Gnossienne, your accepted/waitlisted/rejected school list is really throwing me for a loop: this really is a crapshoot, isn't it? I was just accepted to UConn, which really surprised me, actually. I was worried the fit was a stretch.

Oh, good. I saw how little base reimbursement they were giving to internationals and I just thought, "...how?"

My career goals are very flexible. I'd love to be a professor, but I also wouldn't mind working in a museum or as an archivist or as a strategic marketer or as a private school secretary or whatever. (This is actually an existential crisis that I'm working through atm while I'm making a decision... work in progress.) But I should ask for specifics, because I think the placement rate is different among different area groups. I REALLY don't know anything about disability studies, but I'd love to talk about it, if you're free sometime this coming week. Garland-Thompson is amazing.