Nighthob

Oh, holy anxiety pills, Batman! Mine was also updated on 2/17. Good luck to us all.

I had a similar quandary after my first round of applications. Personally, I think cutting down your thesis is going to be a lot harder than expanding one of your shorter papers. I find in my writing (and YMMV) that when I start cutting, my argument gets substantially weaker. You're talking about more than halving your paper since, depending on where you apply, they're looking for 15-20 pages. I think you'd be far better off expanding on the Gawain paper. No idea what the focus of your Gawain paper is, but you could potentially pull in some children's lit to the paper. Gerald Morris used Gawain in two teen novels a few years ago: The Squire's Tale and The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady. Around the same time, Cindy Vitto wrote an article for Children's Literature Association Quarterly about the role of Gawain and the Green Knight as adolescent literature. It talked about defining adolescent lit in the medieval period and where the Gawain poem fits in. I don't remember if it was in this thread or another that you mentioned having limited resources. Was your undergrad from an American college? If so, you might be able to contact their library and sign up for online library access as an alum. And because I love you so much, I found this list on JSTOR for you of all the institutions in Israel that have JSTOR access. You can contact them and see if you can get access through one of these: Academic College of Law, Anglican International School Jerusalem, Ashkelon Academic College, Bank of Israel, Bezalel Academy of Arts And Design, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, The Israel Center for Digital Information Services (Bar-Ilan University, Ben Gurion University, Beit Berel College, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Open University, Oranim Academic College, Peres Academic Center, Ruppin College, Sapir Academic College, Shenkar College, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Hai College, University of Haifa, Weizmann Institute of Science), Israeli Antitrust Authority, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, National Insurance Institute of Israel, Orot Israel College, Shalem Center, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, UN Relief and Works Agency West Bank Research Office, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

Ditto on the emails. I'm part of a group of friends that regularly gets together every other Monday. Our last outing was canceled due to snow. So today, there have already been 10 emails of "Are we on for tonight?" and replies: "Yeah! Cool! Looking forward to it! Sounds good!" I love my friends, but I'm ready to strangle them today. My anxiety is through the roof.

Strokeofmidnight, in the time I've been visiting thegradcafe, I've seen a number of threads you've commented on, and while I don't always agree with you, I appreciate the time and thought you put into your posts. Thank you for that. I agree (this time! ) that focusing on our own scholarship is the way to go. In addition to the benefits you've mentioned, that kind of self-improvement also made me feel more confident about my applications. For me, that's been particularly helpful. Whenever I start getting wound up about my chances, I try to focus on how good I feel about the strides I've made in my scholarship.

Inextrovert, I read your first sentence as, "This week has been a giant STRIP tease." And then the thought of the results board "bing bing binging away" went to a very weird place. The results board is now that trampy girl who dated everyone in school but me. As far as application changes, I made significant changes after my first round. I did, however, take more than a year between tries, so I had extra time to work on it. My main problem was that I didn't have meaningful LoRs because I'd been out of school for such a long time. I was fortunate to live near a major university, so actually took a few graduate classes to show that my brain hasn't rotted since I was last in college and to garner better LoRs. I wrote new SoPs and a new writing sample. I had my graduate profs review both and give me feedback. On reflection, I think my original sample was probably pretty mediocre. More troublesome, it wasn't a good reflection of the kind of topics I'd like to research, so it didn't support my SoP. I feel much happier with my new writing sample. If you really want to test the strength of your writing sample, I recommend putting it away for at least three months (six is better). When you read it again after that long, you'll have a better perspective on it. Personally, I didn't retake the GRE; I'm happy with my Verbal and Writing scores, though my Math score sucked. I considered retaking the subject test because my score wasn't stellar, but I choose to believe it won't be the deciding factor for my applications.

I'd never heard of it until you posted. I searched online, and the website looks awesome. I lived in Dublin for 6 months after my Master's (just traveling for fun), so I have a soft spot for Irish medievalism.

I've been in serious fantasyland when it comes to housing. I've been looking at online real estate listings. Now, how I think I'm going to afford to buy a decent house with a stipend, I'm not sure, but in my head, it all works out. Sure would help if I heard from some more schools, though.

Medievalmaniac, congratulations on the book deal! My interest in Arthuriana is both in how pre-Christian myth informed the early legends and how the Arthurian canon is now being revised and revitalized in modern mass media. I'm particularly interested in the roles of women in modern versions of the legends -- from Zimmer Bradley's feminist proto-pagan Morgaine to Keira Knightly's wode-spackled Guinevere. Interest in Arthuriana has remained remarkably strong for quite a while now, and I suspect part of the reason is because the legends continue to be revitalized in modern literature and film. There are oldies like me who fondly remember singing tunes from Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot" as a child or reading Lloyd Alexander's books soon after they were published. But since then, there have been a host of other versions of the legends that have continued to influence my generation (and good golly, I feel old saying that) as well as younger folks.

For the Latinish folks, you might want to check out latinum.mypodcast.com. In addition to free online materials (yay for free!), they also have some low-cost materials. I'm extremely auditory, so hearing the language while I read along with a text is proving to be excellent for me. I've taken a grad-level Chaucer class, so I'm hoping to pull some of the Middle English knowledge back out of the depths of my noggin, but I'll certainly need a refresher. I'm personally expecting Old English, Middle English, Middle Irish, and Middle Welsh to be necessary for my research in addition to Latin. Daunting? Yep. But, also exciting. Like most of us, I really believe in the power of language, and I look forward to being able to understand works like the Lebor Gabala or the Mabinogi in their "original" forms. And Sparky, thanks for exempting me from your ire. I highly recommend Googling Dan-Brown-worst-sentences if you want a good laugh.

For all you folks bound for Duke or UNC, the Carolina Theatre shows revival films. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a double feature of The Dark Crystal and Army of Darkness. I forgot how fun they both were, but seeing the latter has inspired a Bruce Campbell festival in my house. Evil Dead Evil Dead II Army of Darkness Hudsucke Proxy Escape from L.A. McHale's Navy The Majestic Bubba Ho-tep Spider Man Spider Man 2 Spider Man 3 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs And then, if my Bruce Campbell needs still aren't fully met, I can have a "Burn Notice" marathon. WIN!

Ditto, astroturf. My advisors said that I probably wouldn't hear anything until March. I know that most of my schools are currently reviewing applications, but I don't really expect to hear anything for a couple more weeks. (Although, one can always hope.)

I think it really depends not only on the department, but on the individual professor. I expressed concern about my age (I'm 38) to one of my recommenders, and he said he personally preferred older students. He didn't think my age would be a problem at all. Then again, I know some professors want younger students -- and at only 23, you qualify in my book. I'm sorry you're having a tough application round. This is my second round, and I know that after the first time, I thought about all the reasons I might've been passed over by adcoms. Personally, I don't think that age is that great of a factor. And even if it is, it's not something you can control, so there's no reason to worry about it. Again, this is just my opinion based on my own personal experience, but I reevaluated my writing sample and SoP first because that's where I felt I had the most control.

I'll also be 38 when I start. Reading these posts, I'm happy for the younguns who are mature and ambitious enough to apply straight out of their undergrads, but I couldn't have done it. I was very immature when I graduated, and I think I'm coming to this process at exactly the right time for me. As an older student, I now have an enhanced educational background after earning an M.A. and taking additional graduate classes as a non-degree student, and I have a terrific career that's helped me define my research interests and taught me how to network and work with colleagues effectively.

I had very similar issues. My last name is difficult to spell, and sure enough, I had multiple schools misfile transcripts and GRE scores. If I ever have to go through this kind of application process again, I'll call well before the deadline and ensure that everything is in order. However, I've discovered that missing materials isn't necessarily the disaster it could be. I found out one of my transcripts was misfiled when U of SC notified me because they needed the official transcript in order to nominate me for a university fellowship. Then again, I was told BC wouldn't even look at my file unless everything was in order by the time reviews started. Once again, it's all a crap shoot depending on the school (and likely the department).

A) This is exactly what I imagine will happen if a POI calls me. If I manage not to sound like a gibbering idiot, I'll be very surprised. B ) I love your attitude. I wish I could be this cool about acceptance updates. Every time I hear someone has gotten into a school of my choice, I immediately have to pull my brain back from the cliff.

I wish I felt better about UNC's process. The rolling acceptances just makes me feel like I'm definitely not one of their top picks. Anybody know how many students they typically admit? I looked at the website, but couldn't find the info.

I thought the same thing when I read Venetia's comment. I am definitely in favor of compulsive, compulsory Twittering by the adcoms. This made me laugh! I'd be happy to serve on the testing committee to score all those exams. In fact, I suspect if you suggest this to your Congressman, you could see this as part of the next Department of Education bill.

Good call on Grad Cafe. I've been obsessively checking postings almost as much as checking my email. And good luck on the thesis.

I'm a big fan of Neal Stephenson. Since you're into children's lit and fantasy, have you read Delia Sherman or Ellen Kushner? I think you would really like them.

I'm taking out my frustrations in Star Trek Online. Also having movie marathons, cross stitching (okay, I know that sounds a little Carol Brady, but modern patterns are actually pretty cool), and reading voraciously. Now recommending: The Thirteen Tale by Diane Setterfield, Sepulchre by Kate Mosse, and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.

I'm also waiting for BC. A little birdy told me they're reviewing files currently, though, so I'm hoping we won't have to wait much longer.

I heart you, minnares. Right before taking the GRE, I had been teaching remedial writing courses for probationary students at a two-year college. My students had very similar writing prompts they had to pass on a test that the college used to determine promotion to full acceptance. I used the same formulaic methods on the AW that I taught my students for their test and aced the AW. I also bombed the math portion like you wouldn't believe. (Hey, SOMEBODY has to be in those low percentiles; I think of it as my sacrifice to the Gods of Mean and Median.)

I can vouch for Durham as a great place to live and work! Remaining in the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) is one of the reasons I really want to get into UNC.