ChuckCL

Gold star A+ for jury nullification reference.

Wow, I've seen a lot of vain, petty posts on this site, but this one's in the running for the most amazing. Come on, dude/dudette. Do you honestly think they're running some sort of giant prank on you? A $300 prank, nonetheless? Until you've got an acceptance letter in your hand, nothing is guaranteed, so something obviously made them decide that you weren't right for the program. Maybe your interviewer said an acceptance was a "given" (though I seriously doubt that, as most people in that position would be way more professional about the situation), but that's not a guarantee. Recruitment events are recruitment events. That's all they are.

I agree that the "Don't work with that guy!" posts might have been reactionary, but I stand by my calling the professor a dick. It's not the fact that he wants to be called "Dr." which is totally (TOTALLY!) understandable. It's the way he went about correcting it (assuming the original post wasn't embellishing the situation) that most of us are bothered by. There's a huge difference between "Hey, I prefer Dr Lastname, actually" and "How dare you drop my title!" Academia is seriously suffering under the weight of inflated egos and ritualistic nonsense. I firmly believe that if scholars were less caught up in the act of being "Dr Lastname" and more worried about researching and teaching with enthusiasm and passion, higher education would improve exponentially.

First of all, that professor sounds like a dick. I wouldn't apologize again. Just make sure you refer to him by his preferred title ("It was nice talking to you, Dr. Ego-trip"). Apologizing again would just bring the attention back to that issue. You've already apologized; no need to do it again.

It completely depends on the university and the program. I received some decisions in about a month; others took more than three months. Use the Results Search to estimate the timelines for the programs you applied to.

I think it's extremely uncommon to ask for a copy of letters of recommendation. Professors write them under the assumption that you won't read it, and I think it's fairly rude to undermine that understanding. Especially if you originally waived your right to read the letter when you submitted your application. Personally, I find that if you need another copy in the future, you should just ask the professor.

Many (most?) universities have classes designed specifically for graduate students learning research languages. They're 1-semester classes that teach you the grammar of a language for reading knowledge ... You'd finish the class able to read a text (with a dictionary), but no practice in speaking or understanding the language. That's how I learned German (after that semester, I went back and continued studying myself to fill in the speaking/understanding gaps, but that was for personal satisfaction). (Edit: Whoops, looks like you mentioned these classes while I was typing.) That said, you can usually also fill the requirement by taking the first four undergraduate semesters of a language or by teaching yourself and passing an exam. It depends on what your previous experience with language is and what your goals are. If you've previously studied a language, you can likely pick up French (or Italian) pretty quickly. I taught myself Italian in about six months and passed the exam, but my MA program was in French, so I already had a romance language.

I'm hard and fast a literature student, and I was in English studies all the way through my BAs. But I was never convinced that the "national literatures" model that pervades academia was the correct way to be reading literature, especially for the things I'm researching. So I went to Italian for a while, and then I switched to French. By the time I added Japanese, I realized that the only way to avoid the national literatures model was to do comparative literature.

In my particular situation, no -- most of the programs I applied to had a 20-page limit, so I had to cut my thesis down. I chose the chapter that best represented my research (in terms of theoretical approach, bibliography, writing, etc.), and then cut in a section of my last chapter, because I wanted to show that I also work with film (instead of just written texts). So the hard part was actually choosing what part of my thesis to submit. But I know a lot of people who submitted their BA theses exactly as-is, and they had successful applications.

My personal opinion is against emailing admissions committees unless there's a specific concern. These things take time, and the people on the admissions committees are extremely busy. I had a Skype interview for a school and was told a decision would be make "later this week" ... I didn't hear anything for almost three weeks, when I received an acceptance email (in which the director noted how long it took and apologized ... "we had a lot of strong candidates to consider"). These people have a lot going on, and emailing them about decision timeframes seems unnecessary. They've not forgotten about you, I promise.

That's what most people (including myself) use for the writing sample, yes.

I agree, take a look at community colleges. It's extremely unlikely to find a position at a university without a PhD (I taught as an instructor at a university for a year, as did my best friend, but we both knew the people in those departments very well, so we got very lucky). I've had friends teach at community colleges -- whether during a gap year between MA and PhD, or as they were trying to decide what exactly they wanted to do with their careers -- and absolutely loved it.

Waitlists always ask you to confirm your interest (at least in my experience). They want to make sure nothing has changed since you submitted your application -- some people have been accepted elsewhere and taken the offer; some people have decided not to go to graduate school after all. The program doesn't want to waste time accepting someone off the waitlist if they're no longer interested in the program. Definitely indicate your interest (unless, of course, you're not interested anymore).

I had some worries about that, but not a lot (especially once I started receiving notifications, I realized that I'd pretty much made the right decisions). What does shock me is the number of people on the results page saying things like "Well, it wasn't a good fit" or "I didn't want to go there anyway" Why did you apply to a program you didn't want to attend or a program that was a bad fit?!

The Airbus is a lot cheaper than a taxi. Takes you from the airport to the transit center in Ann Arbor.

Not to be That Guy, but I don't think any of us can help you. You're facing an intensely personal decision. My only piece of advice is that if you don't like intense, competitive environments, fashion design IS NOT for you. You're not just going to waltz into a successful design career ...

Your director obviously knows better than me, but don't dismiss the possibility of a certificate right off the bat. My certificate was 10 credit hours, but I was able to do it while also teaching a 2:2 load. Granted, my MA had comp exams instead of a thesis, so I wasn't working on that.

Slightly different field (Romance Literature/Language), but here's my experience: Twos BA from a mid-ranked university. One in English literature and the other in linguistics. I decided to switch to RLL after I graduated, and I did a fully-funded MA in a very good but basically unranked program (large state school, terminal MA). The MA was two years with teaching in both years. I applied this cycle for PhDs and I'm deciding between two competitive offers at two very good schools (one Ivy and one in the top 10). My point: My random, horribly ranked MA was EXTREMELY helpful. I got a lot of great teaching experience, and I was able to spend some time figuring out how I wanted to specialize. When I applied this cycle, I felt so much more confident writing my sample and my SOP because I have a very good idea of what my dissertation project will look like. During my MA, I did a certificate in a related but unusual field, which appears to have set me apart (several faculty members during Welcome Weekend visits have referenced my certificate). I also got really good letters of recommendation (at least, the admissions committees at the schools I'm being admitted to suggest they're good letters), which is easier to do in an MA with small seminar-style classes than it is in a BA. That all sounds very "Oh, look at me!", but I'm detailing that to suggest that there's a LOT you can do during an MA that will help for PhD applications. Remember that so much about the application process is about finding a good fit (a lot of people on the results page seem to forget this). If/when you do your MA, spend your time exploring subjects and when you find your niche, figure out where that work is being done. Apply to those schools. It's a huge waste of money to apply to School X just because it's an amazing school (I'm sick of seeing people say "I applied to Stanford even though it's not a great fit"). The MA will allow you to figure out what your contribution to the field will be, and you'll be able to figure out where that work is being done. So, I guess the summary is that I don't think a low-ranked MA is a bad idea, especially if it's fully funded with teaching experience (I'm hugely opposed to paying for a Humanities degree).

I'm not in an MFA program (I got accepted to a few fiction programs in the 2013 cycle, but decided not to go), but I have a lot of friends who are. From what I understand: MFAs skew slightly older, and while age itself may not be hugely important, there's definitely an impression that MFA admissions committees value experience outside of academia. It doesn't really matter what type of experience, but it seems they like candidates who have been out in the world for a while. (I think the rationale is that someone who has been in academia since kindergarten with no foray into the "real world" may not have the exposure that makes a good writer, painter, etc.). Of course, those are creative writing programs. And there are definitely people in MFA programs who went straight from undergrad and were very young (my best friend finished her BFA a year early and started her MFA at 21). But that's my limited experience.

I was completely rejected during the 2013 cycle. What helped me was to think less about what a program might want from me and more from what I eventually wanted out of a PhD. That is, what could I change about my resume to make myself feel more confident when I applied again? For me, that was teaching experience and (because I'm in comparative/foreign literature) experience living in the country of my main literature. I already had a Masters, so I found a Part-Time Instructor position where I could get more teaching experience. Then I found a job here in the country of my primary literature. When I applied for PhDs again (this cycle), I felt a lot more confident with my resume/CV and much more comfortable presenting myself in my application. Because I wasn't obsessing about what the programs might want (which is entirely subjective and almost impossible to determine), I was less stressed during the application process. I've ended up with a few acceptances ... no rejections so far (but there are still a number of programs that haven't notified).

I've frankly never heard of a school doing an employment verification. My employer definitely didn't know that I'd applied when I did my Masters. Maybe it's different for different schools ...

What field are you in? I think contacting professors is less important in the Humanities (it's not a bad idea, of course, but it's not necessary). I contacted a couple professors who I knew previously through conferences or who I had connections with via my current professors. But I got into some of my top choice schools where I didn't make any contact at all. The more important thing is fit; I mentioned profs in my SOPs that fit really well with my research (and make a point of indicating that I knew their research pretty well). Granted, if you're not in the Humanities, I have no idea.