silenus_thescribe

Still waiting on two potential offers that could challenge my offer at UT-Austin, but from the look of it they're both implied rejections at this point. There are also about five other universities I haven't heard back from, but none of them are as strong a match for my interests. I really lucked out with UT accepting me, as it's objectively the uni that correlates most closely with my intended research. Couldn't be happier.

While these decisions are undeniably difficult, the nice thing about the kind of people who spend lots of time and money on becoming English PhDs is that they're smart and determined people who will do the best no matter the offer they take. Sure, one could devise any number of counterfactuals about what might have gone better at a different university, but I think it's obvious that we do these things because we love it, not because we're hoping to score the big bucks one day.

I don't think worrying about the rank is dumb at all. After all, even though the application process is brutal enough, getting a job -- tenure-track or otherwise -- is brutal. My inclination, however, is that the stipend, while not irrelevant, is not the ultimate make-or-break deal. (As a professor of mine puts it, "There's dozens of dollars in literature.") Unless it's a killer fellowship you landed, i.e. something that goes above and beyond the average stipend, I can't think of an English PhD stipend that lets one live in high comfort and save up of money. For the most part, PhD students have to live pretty miserly. Being attracted to higher offers is natural, but the amounts of money we're usually talking about don't amount to anything that would allow you to save up tons of money in the long term. So, say, if school X offers you 14k per year and school Y offers you 16k, the latter is technically a better offer, but after expenses and taxes it's unlikely to amount to a significant enough addition to your bank account such that Y is necessarily a better offer for the money. Then again, if you have landed a cushy stipend/fellowship, then that's certainly a decisive factor.

Congrats to all the Rutgers acceptees! Such a fine-looking program. Given that 9 aceeptances have shown up on the board, I've moved the university to the implied rejections column. No news yet over here.

Waiting on this one too! Looks like the uni accepted people this time last year, so next week, hopefully? Congrats! I love the university system over there. And East Anglia has some killer drama scholarship, which is my game.

Nothing to me, which I assume means it's not funded outright (i.e. not a fully funded offer). What funding info I do know is on the website: "Most MA and MFA candidates receive at least one semester of funding to work as teaching assistants." So I imagine there'd be room to get funding, but it looks like nothing's guaranteed out of the gate. I'm lucky to have offers elsewhere, though, so this isn't too much of a bummer, although Colorado would be great to live in.

Speak of the devil, I guess... just got my notice in. Rejected from PhD, offered admission to MA. According to the email, nearly 200 applicants for 4 spots. Brutal... originally the site said 6 to 8 students, which admittedly isn't much better, but four... dang. I love this location, and I have friends in the area, but it looks like funding for this MA isn't much of a sure thing.

I'm a Boulder applicant as well! With their deadline being one of the earliest (1 December), I would have expected to see some rustling in the bushes from Boulder, but it looks like no one's heard anything yet.

I should have said this months ago: thank you so, so much for this. This is one of the smartest tips I've gotten in this process.

Just saw a waitlist for Rochester's PhD up on the board. Damn, they have fast turnaround. Their deadline was the 15th of last month. Having not heard anything, I'm calling implied rejection on this one.

For happiness' sake, I suggest there's only one Scott Walker we should talk about on Grad Cafe... Scott Walker, "Jackie"

No such thing as "small cheese" when it comes to English graduate study, especially when there's a fellowship/funding involved. Congrats! Waiting to hear back on their PhD. Their deadline was a later one, though, so I'm not expecting anything until start of March, probably. Speaking of, did anyone notice that Rochester let in some admits at the start of February? Their deadline was 15 January. That's crazy turnaround.

Just noticed that I switched my verbal and quantitative scores on the results posting board. Rest assured that I did not skate by with a 146 verbal on the GRE...

Just got an email from the DGS at Miami of Ohio... fully funded MA offer! Since I already have a PhD offer, I probably won't be taking this, but still a very nice notice on this freezing afternoon.

Metal is and always will be my way of getting through stress. My pick as of late has been Swallow the Sun, who should be of interest to anyone with a penchant for the gothic. "April 14th" has been my jam as of late. (One of their tunes, "Labyrinth of London", has a reading of William Blake's poetry in the middle of it.)

On the first one, I very much agree with you that the test I was given was significantly different than the practice tests I had been taking up to that point. In fact, my mind goes to a thread on GradCafe (can't remember which) where someone pointed out that after doing six months of studying the literary canon, s/he was given a test that was overwhelmingly reading comprehension. I had that anecdote in mind when I went into the test, and -- surprise, surprise -- that's what I got. Whereas the practice tests I had taken contained a plethora of different questions on different texts, the test I took generally used longer excerpts and followed them up with numerous questions. Of course, the questions weren't strictly "reading comprehension"; there were still plenty of questions about authorship, time period, genre, and allusions. But the amount of comprehension questions I had were of a degree far more substantial on the practice tests. However, as many have said throughout numerous forums here, while having a good subject score is a big boost, having one that's average or slightly below average isn't an automatic cause for worry. The only concrete data on what a school expected out of a GRE subject score I found in the application process was UT-Austin. They said they wanted at least 60th percentile; I scored at the 55th. (Costs of being interested in more contemporary stuff, which, save for the Beats, Joyce, Beckett, and Woolf the subject test pretty much leaves out.) I expected to be shut out of the five schools that I applied to which required the subject test, but not only did I manage to overcome that, but I also landed a school near the top of my list. As to your second one: yes. Very much so. I've found that universities that house the leading journal of one's interest are often a good match. If I could have applied to U of Toronto's PhD outright (which I couldn't do with only a BA), it would have been my top choice, easily. (They run Modern Drama.) It's also good to read journal articles by POIs at places you're applying to; my personal statement for UT is the only one where I directly quoted a professor at the institution.

Well hello! Pleasure to meet a fellow admit. Of course, I hope you get to go where you like, but the more at UT the merrier!

Howdy folks! New GradCafe member here. Throughout the application process I popped in and out of here without ever making a profile, and got some helpful advice. (Making a separate email for grad apps=genius.) You're all very helpful, which is much needed in a stressed-out first time applicant, so a big thanks to everyone on this site. Fortunately, my stress has been substantially mitigated by my first acceptance, to the University of Texas at Austin. This was very high on my list, and basically a dead ringer for research interests. (Perhaps fittingly, this was the one app that, upon finishing it, I felt truly confident and comfortable with.) This acceptance came after rejections from Cornell (my #1) and Columbia (predictable, but sad). Just got rejected from Pittsburgh yesterday. Truth be told I found it best at first to avoid Grad Cafe, as looking through acceptances only added to my stress. Now, however, I feel much more comfortable chiming in here given that I know at the very least (in fact, most likely) I'll be at UT in the fall. This goes without saying, of course, but major props to all of the acceptances so far!