Reputation from hypervodka - The GradCafe Forums

hypervodka got a reaction from BlinkedyLight in English Literature Acceptance Rates - March 2015 Update January 17, 2017

Below is all of the data that we've been able to collect about acceptance rates at English programs this season. The document is still open, so please post any additional information you've been able to uncover.

Please note that, sometimes, there's a slight difference between a university's acceptance rate and their matriculation rate. UVA's acceptance rate is around 11.66%, but they have a target class of about 12, so their matriculation rate is about half of their acceptance rate. A lot of schools, like UCLA, for example, post their matriculation rate on their website rather than their acceptance rate, which makes the program look slightly more competitive. (Other schools, like Emory and USCalifornia, admit only as many students as they expect to enroll.)

In past years, Columbia has had upwards of 700 applicants; this year, the university had 543. For that reason, I think some other universities that historically receive a large number of applicants (Berkeley, U of Michigan, UT-Austin, Harvard, UCLA, Yale, NYU) have also experienced similar downturns this year.

In general, English literature programs are pretty competitive, with very few programs accepting more that 15% of applicants.

University: accepted/matriculated, applied, acceptance rate/matriculation rate

U of Toronto: 18, 125, 14.40%
UC-Berkeley: ~20, ~400, 5.00%
Harvard U: 10**, 300**, 3.33%
Columbia U: 19, 543, 3.50%
Yale U: ~14, ~300, 4.67%
Cornell U: 11, unknown, unknown
Duke U: 15*, 309*, 4.85%
UCLA: 20, 350**, 5.71%
UVA: 26, 223, 11.66%
U of Michigan-Ann Arbor: 12, 408*, 2.94%
UNC-Chapel Hill: 15, 266, 5.64%
UT-Austin: 41, 357, 11.48%
UW-Madison: unknown, unknown, 12%
CUNY Graduate School and University Center: 21, 197, 10.66%
UC-Irvine: 10, unknown, unknown
Emory U: 7, 170, 4.12%
OSU: 20, unknown, unknown
Vanderbilt U: 12, 350, 3.43%
U of Maryland-College Park: 9, 200, 4.50%
Rice U: 8, 120, 6.66%
U of Southern California: 8, unknown, unknown
Tufts U: 8, 120, 6.67%
U of Minnesota, Twin Cities: 12, 135, 8.89%
Boston U: 5, 200, 2.50%
U of Colorado-Boulder: 4, 200, 2.00%
Boston College: 5, unknown, unknown
Texas A&M U: 12, unknown, unknown
George Washington U: 3, 63, 4.76%
Michigan State U: 20, 61, 32.79%
Syracuse U: 4, unknown, unknown
UCONN: 15, unknown, unknown
U of South Carolina: 10, 100, 10.00%
Texas Tech U: 5, unknown, unknown

*:recent application cycle, **: from website

hypervodka got a reaction from Kathy Song in English Literature Acceptance Rates - March 2015 Update April 3, 2016

Below is all of the data that we've been able to collect about acceptance rates at English programs this season. The document is still open, so please post any additional information you've been able to uncover.

Please note that, sometimes, there's a slight difference between a university's acceptance rate and their matriculation rate. UVA's acceptance rate is around 11.66%, but they have a target class of about 12, so their matriculation rate is about half of their acceptance rate. A lot of schools, like UCLA, for example, post their matriculation rate on their website rather than their acceptance rate, which makes the program look slightly more competitive. (Other schools, like Emory and USCalifornia, admit only as many students as they expect to enroll.)

In past years, Columbia has had upwards of 700 applicants; this year, the university had 543. For that reason, I think some other universities that historically receive a large number of applicants (Berkeley, U of Michigan, UT-Austin, Harvard, UCLA, Yale, NYU) have also experienced similar downturns this year.

In general, English literature programs are pretty competitive, with very few programs accepting more that 15% of applicants.

University: accepted/matriculated, applied, acceptance rate/matriculation rate

U of Toronto: 18, 125, 14.40%
UC-Berkeley: ~20, ~400, 5.00%
Harvard U: 10**, 300**, 3.33%
Columbia U: 19, 543, 3.50%
Yale U: ~14, ~300, 4.67%
Cornell U: 11, unknown, unknown
Duke U: 15*, 309*, 4.85%
UCLA: 20, 350**, 5.71%
UVA: 26, 223, 11.66%
U of Michigan-Ann Arbor: 12, 408*, 2.94%
UNC-Chapel Hill: 15, 266, 5.64%
UT-Austin: 41, 357, 11.48%
UW-Madison: unknown, unknown, 12%
CUNY Graduate School and University Center: 21, 197, 10.66%
UC-Irvine: 10, unknown, unknown
Emory U: 7, 170, 4.12%
OSU: 20, unknown, unknown
Vanderbilt U: 12, 350, 3.43%
U of Maryland-College Park: 9, 200, 4.50%
Rice U: 8, 120, 6.66%
U of Southern California: 8, unknown, unknown
Tufts U: 8, 120, 6.67%
U of Minnesota, Twin Cities: 12, 135, 8.89%
Boston U: 5, 200, 2.50%
U of Colorado-Boulder: 4, 200, 2.00%
Boston College: 5, unknown, unknown
Texas A&M U: 12, unknown, unknown
George Washington U: 3, 63, 4.76%
Michigan State U: 20, 61, 32.79%
Syracuse U: 4, unknown, unknown
UCONN: 15, unknown, unknown
U of South Carolina: 10, 100, 10.00%
Texas Tech U: 5, unknown, unknown

*:recent application cycle, **: from website

hypervodka got a reaction from KappaRoss in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme February 28, 2016

Can I say, as one of those newly entering graduate students this thread is nominally directed at guiding, that nothing about this thread has actually been at all helpful?

hypervodka got a reaction from ToldAgain in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme May 11, 2015

Can I say, as one of those newly entering graduate students this thread is nominally directed at guiding, that nothing about this thread has actually been at all helpful?

hypervodka got a reaction from goldfinch1880 in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 19, 2015

Can I say, as one of those newly entering graduate students this thread is nominally directed at guiding, that nothing about this thread has actually been at all helpful?

hypervodka got a reaction from __________________________ in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 18, 2015

Can I say, as one of those newly entering graduate students this thread is nominally directed at guiding, that nothing about this thread has actually been at all helpful?

hypervodka got a reaction from MonicaBang in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 18, 2015

Can I say, as one of those newly entering graduate students this thread is nominally directed at guiding, that nothing about this thread has actually been at all helpful?

hypervodka got a reaction from bhr in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 18, 2015

Can I say, as one of those newly entering graduate students this thread is nominally directed at guiding, that nothing about this thread has actually been at all helpful?

hypervodka got a reaction from Katla in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 17, 2015

Can I say, as one of those newly entering graduate students this thread is nominally directed at guiding, that nothing about this thread has actually been at all helpful?

hypervodka got a reaction from silenus_thescribe in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 17, 2015

Can I say, as one of those newly entering graduate students this thread is nominally directed at guiding, that nothing about this thread has actually been at all helpful?

hypervodka got a reaction from ComeBackZinc in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 17, 2015

Even if all participants perform perfectly within a capitalist system, some of those participants will absolutely always be unsuccessful in a free market. Professionalization MAY help, but only individually--and VirtualMessage played the game, had the publications, had the networking, had the Top 6 degree, and still did not succeed in this market. Professionalization, even if it helps you individually, will do nothing to change the fact that three-quarters of the hopefuls scrambling through grad school right now will definitively not get the job that they have been training for nearly a decade in order to do, whether they are thoroughly professionalized or not. What do you DO when you wind up in VM's position, jobless or virtually jobless, 30 to 40 years old with no savings and a **Liam Neeson voice ** very particular set of skills? What do we do then? It's the question that seems to be driving VM's posts, and it's one that no one has moved to answer very well.

http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/03/20/the-be-yourself-myth-performing-the-academic-self-on-the-job-market/
http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/29/the-facepalm-fails-of-the-academic-interview/
http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/02/21/be-professorial/for tips on professionalization

http://www.selloutyoursoul.com/for when the system does not work with you in it.

hypervodka got a reaction from echo449 in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 17, 2015

Even if all participants perform perfectly within a capitalist system, some of those participants will absolutely always be unsuccessful in a free market. Professionalization MAY help, but only individually--and VirtualMessage played the game, had the publications, had the networking, had the Top 6 degree, and still did not succeed in this market. Professionalization, even if it helps you individually, will do nothing to change the fact that three-quarters of the hopefuls scrambling through grad school right now will definitively not get the job that they have been training for nearly a decade in order to do, whether they are thoroughly professionalized or not. What do you DO when you wind up in VM's position, jobless or virtually jobless, 30 to 40 years old with no savings and a **Liam Neeson voice ** very particular set of skills? What do we do then? It's the question that seems to be driving VM's posts, and it's one that no one has moved to answer very well.

http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/03/20/the-be-yourself-myth-performing-the-academic-self-on-the-job-market/
http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/29/the-facepalm-fails-of-the-academic-interview/
http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/02/21/be-professorial/for tips on professionalization

http://www.selloutyoursoul.com/for when the system does not work with you in it.

hypervodka reacted to TonyB in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 15, 2015

The zombie gif is an apt one... we all think, on some level, that WE are the ones who will be able to get one of those "good jobs" in academia that are supposedly so (increasingly) few and far between, just as we all think we'd be one of the survivors adventuring our way through the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. Every overweight person thinks they're going to be the one to lose all the weight one day. Every poor capitalism-loving Republican thinks they're the one who's going to one day strike it rich.

The bottom line is that there are more people in grad school than there are substantive jobs in academia. Academics don't retire, and new hires are overwhelmingly being brought on part-time. This is not a system that can sustain itself. To my mind, any institution that avoids hiring tenure-track faculty, while admitting grad students on anything other than a fully (and generously) funded basis, is ethically suspect. In fact I'd go so far as to say that they shouldn't admit any more non-funded grad students than they'd be willing to hire on a full-time basis themselves.

Now, of course, there will always be those who will STILL go to grad school, just as there will always be folks who pursue useless liberal arts degrees when they'd be better off getting an HVAC certification (or something), from an employability perspective. But that doesn't mean "the system" is thereby obligated to give these people enough rope to hang themselves. It also does no good to put the problem down to nebulous concerns of economic and political philosophy -- capitalism vs. socialism, etc. -- or to excuse the policies of school administrators based on the flimsy notion that "all organizations in a capitalist economy inevitably exploit their workers," however true that might be.

hypervodka got a reaction from EnfantTerrible in Waiting to Exhale (the wait list thread) April 13, 2015

I think it's a great idea. And be sure to mention that someone had told you that you'd hear by the end of last week (which is a good excuse).

hypervodka reacted to ComeBackZinc in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 12, 2015

1. I see literally no one in this thread who questions that there's a labor crisis in the contemporary university.
2. I see literally no one in this thread who questions that there's exploitation in the contemporary university.
3. I see literally no one in this thread who questions the deprofessionalization of the professoriate in this thread.
4. "The faculty" is not a monolithic bloc and describing them as such does not help us in the structural or in the particular.
5. Yes, it's important to describe and criticize the labor crisis in the university; in fact, many faculty members are among the most strident and vocal in doing so. Sure, there's also faculty members who are part of the problem, and they deserve criticism, and I have made that criticism, publicly, many times. But there is no question that the ultimate culpability lies in the hands of politicians and administrators. That's not displacement; that's a fact, a plain fact about who holds power in the contemporary university. It just doesn't fit in your ongoing psychodrama, which you are busily inflicting on the people here every da y.
6. People who are entering the profession (and I'm not sure what your scare quotes prove, other than that you escalate meaninglessly when pushed back against) are having that conversation. We have it all over the internet, and have, for years. We have it here all the time. The fact that you don't get to dictate every aspect of that conversation does not mean it doesn't happen. We are not here to serve the needs of your ego.
7. Putting capitalism in scare quotes does not diminish the plain reality that I'm describing, which is that almost every aspect of the academic labor situation you deride is a product of the system in which it is embedded and is not reducible to a morality play which pits those mean faculty members against our hero VirtualMessage.
8. No one is "theorizing" anything; we are talking about the real world, and many of us are doing so in a profoundly less romantic and more concrete manner than you are.
9. Labor issues are political issues and structural issues and material issues. Reducing them to a meaningless whinge about personal morality and the naivete you are so addicted to observing in others does nothing for anyone.
10. Things are bleak. Progress is possible. Both of those things are true. What is necessary is for people to formulate a plan to try to secure that progress. I see some of that from some faculty members. I see some of that from the people here. I see nothing resembling a plan from you. I just see bitterness and recrimination that plays out in the most emotional, least constructive terms possible.
11. I don't mind naivete. I don't mind cynicism. But your brand of naive cynicism is tiresome and narcissistic and personally I've had quite enough of it.

hypervodka reacted to VirtualMessage in The Graduate School Ponzi Scheme April 12, 2015

Generalizing the problem as the woes of "capitalism" abstracts the exploitation of labor and obfuscates the specific structural problems found in the academy. Again, what we need is an honest, open, and probing conversation about the details of this exploitation. However, more often than not I find the faculty trying to displace culpability for decisions that implicate them (as much as we like to blame politicians, administrators, etc.), including the decision to remain silent in the face of these problems in spite of the protections they enjoy with tenure. Instead, we see the kind of offended responses that populate this thread. You want to talk about naiveté? Let's talk about "theorizing" a labor problem that regards the exploitation of actual people—many people. You would think that people on the verge of entering the "profession" would want to have a pointed conversation about these systemic problems that threaten the entire enterprise of higher education. Instead, what I see here is a recurrent effort to deflate and diffuse these concerns, using rhetoric usually promulgated by the University President's Office. The fact of the matter is that nearly 75% of labor in the academy is contingent, that tenure is actively being eliminated, and that various disciplines such as English are in real jeopardy. You need to address the particular labor problems in order to move to the universal-- not the other way around. I know it's difficult to confront these realities, but one way or the other your work at the University is going to either exploit labor or suffer from it.