allplaideverything

Waitlisted at USC (creative writing PhD, poetry). It seems to me that they've accepted their 6 candidates already, and contacted waitlistees tonight.

Dude, Fred Moten is a boss though! My mentor, Guggenheim-ed poet Ross Gay, told me when I got the acceptance letter that he wanted to email Fred and ask if he (Ross) could come study with him (Fred). Rdsull, do you know / have you heard anything about Emma? I don't really know her work yet, and I imagine she's who I'd be studying with as an early Americanist.

Like dudes on OKCupid, lol.

Dope! I think Riverside is especially interested in this kind of methodology--looking at their current students on the website, etc, I suspect most of us admits are going to be on this side of things.

I'm interested in radicalism in 19th C America(s)--methodologically, a mix of Marxism, queer theory, critical race theory, etc. I'm not sure about specific texts I want to look at, but I'm currently wrapped up in John Brown the abolitionist, Lincoln's surprising critiques of capitalism & his support for European revolutions, etc. I did an MFA in poetry, so am also interested in 20th-21st C poetics, but putting that on the back burner. Question: is funding only guaranteed for 4 years? The email I got is kind of confusing.

I do wonder, though, about the influence of collective decision making vs. individual decision making (with regards to admission). I've read arguments that prizes and awards, in creative writing, more frequently go to "mainstream" or less polarizing writers, as they're more likely to win consensus in committee-decisions. I wonder if there's a similar function in PhD admissions which are made by committee--if conservative-ish or less risky scholars win out more often in collective decisions, whereas radical or polarizing scholars have a better chance at schools that let individual faculty members choose their own admits. Sorry if that makes anybody more anxious. I just think it's interesting, would love to hear people's thoughts.

UGH BLACKMAIL! WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT.

I think this is important to remember, and I think we know more than we think we do about the process: it's likely the same kind of decision for them as it is for us. Why did I cut Emory [or whatever awesome school] from my application list at the last minute? Well, because I had to cut somebody and that felt like the best move. If we're all lucky enough to be admitted to multiple programs, how will we decide which one to attend? Not necessarily because one is objectively better than the other. GRE scores might be similar to "milder winter" or whatever. Ultimately we're talking about individual humans taking risks and making decisions based on their feelings.

Congrats to all the new admits! Big day!! Has anybody been accepted to CUNY yet? Or only waitlists (as far as we know)?

I haven't heard from Tina or Heidi yet! I definitely don't wanna be "that person" who pesters them while they're super busy, but I'm so excited!!

Hi! Has anybody heard directly from the English Dept. yet? I found out about my acceptance from a sort of weird email about funding from the Grad School.

Thanks for the congrats, all! This is one of those "good problems to have" situations--I love both programs, so it's hard to say yet which way I'm leaning. I'm going to try to get more information about the programs in the coming weeks. And thanks everybody for the advice re: negotiations! I appreciate it!

Professional etiquette question: When talking with faculty, is it standard / acceptable to mention that you have other offers? To discuss where those offers are, or to discuss the details? Talking with a DGS tomorrow, any advice would be dope!

Congrats 1Q84!!! I apparently don't get to up-vote things anymore, but so happy for you! I, too, got accepted to UC Riverside today! When another 19th C Americanist reported an acceptance this weekend, I thought I was out of the game, but today I got an email from the grad school detailing my offer (still haven't heard from the English folks yet).

I, for one, am kinda stoked about the job market! When I finished my MFA, a terminal degree, with a book published and 5 years of college teaching experience, there were about 20 TT jobs in the country in CW-Poetry, most of which eventually hired poets with MFAs & PhDs, multiple books, and 5+ years on me. It was pretty rough. But now I've learned there are more than twice as many jobs in Early American, with a different kind of competitive pool. It's still an insane market, overall, but just a little more welcoming than I'd thought. I think another thing to think about while doing a PhD, if we're all so lucky, is how to make ourselves more adaptable and versatile as job candidates. If I can apply to both Creative Writing and Early American jobs, that expands my chances. Look for ways that your research overlaps into multiple disciplines, and emphasize that kind of work. A SLAC is probably more likely to hire a person that can do 20th Century British and Gender Studies and Postcolonial Lit (or whatever) than someone who only specializes (and frames their specialization) in one of those areas. Ultimately, WT's post makes so many awesome points. All the up-votes!

sooo, do we think UCR has room for two queer 19th C. Americanists or nah?

We could give Updog instead of up-votes?

I've run out of up-votes or whatever, but congratulations!! That's so great! Their program is super cool.

Not that I think anybody should be despairing yet, but I want to drop a recommendation for the funded M.A. at Kansas State University. Back when I was finishing my B.A., with a low-ish GPA & not much professionalization or idea about what I wanted to do other than "write," I missed lots of grad school deadlines by taking the GRE too late. I ended up applying to M.A. programs with late app deadlines: Creighton, K-State, and my first college (Univ. of St. Thomas in Minnesota). Got into K-State with funding & teaching opportunities on the "strength" of my creative writing sample (which, looking back, is pretty embarrassing). K-State is a radical, feminist, queer, Marxist English Dept. in an otherwise pretty conservative place and institution. I loved my time there, was given so much opportunity, and I feel that they provide amazing preparation for folks hoping to go for the PhD afterwards. There are five tracks--Lit, Comp/Rhet, Children's Lit, Cultural Studies, & Creative Writing--and everybody works together across these disciplinary lines. While there's intellectual diversity there, it always felt to me like we were always working on different parts of the same general project. One of my friends from the M.A. there is doing her PhD at Fordham now, and feels she was very well prepared by her time at K-State. I was able to attend a top-20 MFA program afterwards, did well, and now have at least one PhD acceptance under my belt. Anyway, I can't praise K-State highly enough. I know the M.A. is not an ideal choice for many of us, but it gave me the time and support I needed to adjust to the habits and work of academia, and the teaching training & experience is invaluable in our tough job market. They have rolling admission deadlines, and a few weeks ago the Chair told me they still have some funded spots available. Here's a link: http://www.k-state.edu/english/programs/graduatestudies/ If anybody has any questions about it, please feel free to message me!

CarolineKS, I saw your post on the results board and was hoping you'd post here! I also got into UC Davis yesterday, am doing 19th C Am. & queer theory & critical race theory, and I got my M.A. at K-State! I'd love to chat with you about Davis (which is among my top choices) and stuff!

Congrats for all the good news from last night! Let's have another big day today GC!

I don't know about Stanford, but I've been anxiety-ing about this, too--I only sent official transcripts to a few schools, and one of my schools has a hold on my record so I didn't send that one out to anybody. Indeed, I've been wondering for the past few days if UC Davis in particular would consider my app, because their team contacted me about a missing letter of rec, and then said my file was complete despite me not sending them any transcripts, official or unofficial, and they just accepted me (!!). I really would try not to worry about it if I were you. I think if they love you, they'll either ask for transcripts or overlook it. Fingers crossed for you!

I GOT ACCEPTED TO UC DAVIS

I know UC Davis historically notifies over the course of the week, but now that it's begun, I can't do anything other than stare at my phone and refresh all the GradCafe tabs. Eep!

Even this comment made me so anxious.