augustquail

that's awesome! how did you find out?

Mine hasn't changed either...it just says 'all of my credentials have been submitted for review'

Gah! An acceptance! I wonder if they do it in one shot, or in rounds? Has anyone here scoured the results pages to see what they've done in years past?

There's this fancy ginger ale I love, called "Maine Root." I don't know if they sell it outside of the northeast, but it would be amazing with almost any kind of alcohol. Reed's ginger brew is also really good. Mmmmm fancy ginger ale and vodka....

Don't forget Mr. Jim Beam. And Captain Morgan.

I will be getting that moby dick tee shirt. This is the best thing ever. Book shirts!

Officially, I'm still waiting on 6 schools...but there are at least three implicit rejections in there, so it's not as hopeful as it seems. This really sucks. I wish I could say I'm going to present at conferences, etc., but my confidence is kind of shot at this point. I don't really know if I could stand up in front of a bunch of people and present a paper...why bother? I mean, if my ideas weren't convincing enough in a writing sample I don't know if I can pretend they're good enough for a conference presentation. Hopefully I will emerge from this gloom and do something useful with my time, but I don't know how likely that is. Since I decided I was definately applying to ph.d. programs, I have been looking for ways to gain teaching experience, but it's really difficult, especially in the state I live in, to get any kind of teaching job with out certification. I've tutored privately a little, but that's really touch and go, and most of the responses I get to my ads are spam. I've volunteered at places tutoring kids, but their young, so it's a little irrelevant to college teaching. I have thought about giving up altogether, like skeleton keys, but I just can't imagine myself doing anything else. Strangely, the only field I could imagine myself feeling fulfilled in is publishing/editing, but I would basically have to move to get any kind of job in the field. If I could just get a job with a salary, I might do that as a back up while I applied this year, but I've had very little luck getting any kind of real work with an MA in English. I look constantly, though.... If these last six schools do reject me, then I'll probably work on my writing sample, hopefully get the courage to present at some conferences, and try to enjoy life a little. That is of course after two-week mental meltdown where I probably won't get out of my pajamas or leave the house. After that, I'll probably wake up one day, make a long list of goals and other neridness, go to the gym, and start eating more vegetables....I've kind of been toying with the idea of writing fiction again. I figure, why not? The worst thing that could happen is I produce total shit, and it was a waste of time. But apparently time is what I have to waste right now...

What you felt when you were 24 is probably what many of us mid-twentiers are actually feeling, but can't quite articulate. For me, it's not that i want to 'have a phd. by 32' or whatever, but that I am completely dissatisfied with the work i'm doing now and the place i'm living i (read: college job has become my post- MA job....), and I want to be able to start the next step of my life. If I don't get a ph.d., then I need to take some drastically different step (like go back to school for a professional degree, or start working in an office as someone's secretary), and I just don't want to do that. It's really the looming future that bothers me, the not knowing where i'll be in the next five years. And I'm also the kind of person that needs to be constantly working toward something--some project--that I feel is important and productive, etc. in order to want to get up in the morning. And of course, it doesn't help that I have friends in other fields (mostly science) who will have their ph.ds by 29.....they don't quite get why an english ph.d might take 6 or 7 years.

got my rejection letter today too. 6 more to go...

This is my first round of applications, but so far I have three rejections, and I applied to ten schools. Last fall I was writing my MA thesis (I did a combined ba/ma), and I decided not to apply while I was writing it, because I thought my application would suffer. So I waited until this fall to apply. If I get rejected from everywhere, I will be completely crushed, but I probably will try again. That being said, I can't afford to take more classes, and it just seems like it will be harder to get in with a longer 'inbetween' period than I have this season....I'm 25, and I feel like this is a good age to start a phd...I just don't want to waste anymore time! I haven't even heard from half my schools, but I do feel like giving up already. This *is* depressing...I don't know what I will do if I don't get accepted by the second try...there aren't exactly a million jobs in the english field. I will probably end up going in more debt getting an Ma in education and teaching romeo and juliet to 9th graders who don't care. SIGH

I would really like to know the answer to this question also. Duke was my top choice, and I thought I was a great fit. My guess is people emailed, though I'm not sure who...maybe the DGS?

snappysorbet, you are completely right when you say the process is soul-crushing! I can't even imagine having to apply again. It's not so much the process of applying itself that fills me with dread (though it wouldn't exactly be fun, either) but having to go through this waiting period again, and having to fuck around for another year doing shit that I don't want to do (i.e. living where I live, and working at my shitty job). I've only heard from one school so far, and it was my top choice, and it was a rejection. I'm pretty tough, but I locked myself in my room and cried for four hours. And had some kind of existential crisis. Now I'm just expecting all rejections and a life condemned to poverty and failure. This application season is turning me into a dramatic pyscho, but I can't help it!! I got a gym membership about three weeks ago, so about this time everyday i've been going (the endorphins really help!) but today I didn't get myself together, and now I'm sitting here refreshing my email every five seconds. I feel like it has been february for an eternity.

this may really be the key to sanity at this difficult time. A week and a half ago I made a resolution not to check my email ever again, because it only has bad news. That lasted for 24 hours... This time I simply *must* include dancing in my anti-crazy regimen...

FUUUUCKKKKKK

Congrats!!! Duke is such a great program. Hope the weekend goes well

Nothing! I'm basically crawling out of my skin at this point. Someone got an invitation to the visiting weekend from the Lit Dept...so English can't be that far behind! The past two years, I think they've notified on the 3rd. So, that's tomorrow. I'm just afraid I won't be able to tell the Lit results from the Eng results....can we all agree to select just "english" for english and "english (language and literature)" for lit? maybe that would make it easier. Good luck to you guys!!! We'll know soon.....

Yes--the consensus does seem to be that some schools will see your MA as a benefit, some will not. I'm applying with an MA as well. Personally, I don't really understand how having an MA can be a disadvantage, or why schools would see that as a negative thing, considering the fact that many programs will make you retake at least most of your MA credits. I think that the argument for programs that tend to select students with a BA is that they want to train you in their own particular way, but again, if you're going to essentially do MA coursework all over again, then how does that argument hold? Clearly I'm a little biased... I prefer to see having an MA as a benefit; at the most basic level, having an MA demonstrates that you can do graduate work. And the completion of a thesis demonstrates that you can get through that incredibly difficult and isolating process of writing a long, independent project. Most programs want to ensure that their candidates will complete the program, and not get lost in their dissertation years (apparently this happens to a ton of people!), and it seems to me that evidence of past success is one of the best ways to do this. I'm hoping that adcoms will feel the same way...hahah

haha...I didn't even notice that it said Michigan state. I applied to U of Michigan, so I'll stop worrying now. thanks:)

There's a post up on the results page that says someone got a rejection email from Michigan a week ago....are they notifying this soon? Has anyone else heard anything from michigan?

I'm not a Philosophy person, I'm an English person, but as we all know the humanities are so interdisciplinary now, blah blah blah. Anyway, when I hear someone say "well, English is a pretty useless major, but at least it's not as useless as philosophy" I like to invoke Foucault and ask them, "But aren't you interested in the politics of truth?" This works especially well on political science majors. Well, I don't know if it works at all, but it amuses me anyway.

there isn't a fight club in my town, sadly. I think I will start boxing.

I regret being a procrastinator. A lot of my LORs were uploaded past submission deadlines....

I can completely sympathize with everyone who doesn't have and understanding family. My mom, who means well but is totally self-centered, is set on me going to Brown, because it's only a few hours away. Even though I want to go into Transatlantic studies, she's convinced I should study Native American literature, and that I should change my last name to hers (she kept her maiden name), so that she can see it on publications. YARGH. A few years ago I was at a family reunion--I was a Junior--and my uncle asked me if I was done with my Ph.D. yet. What?! Then he launched into a discussion about how English is pointless and professors have the easiest job ever and that even reading fiction is a waste of time....yeah. Coming from a guy who only went to a community college. The more I understand how much professors have to do, the angrier it makes me when people act like professorships are the easiest jobs in the world. I only talk about it with my girlfriend, my brother, and a friend at work. No one else is really interested, because they 'hate homework,' let alone talking about graduate programs. Sigh. Thank god for grad cafe....

wow--this is a little creepy. I googled myself, and nothing really comes up except two pdfs like 'dean's list of distinguished students' and 'academic awards', so I guess that's ok. My facebook doesn't show up because of my privacy settings. What was really weird, though, is that this website called 'reunion.com' has a 'profile' for me...I never made that. And it lists me as my brother's contact, and I know he never made one either. But in order to see that profile, you have to register (with your name, birthdate, and location), which I didn't do, because it just seems like a scam. Still, it kind of worries me that there is a profile of mine that I never even made... There aren't any other people with my name that show up on google, so that's good (except with a different spelling). But strangely, my name (again, spelled differently) is extremely common in France. Weird.

I've got an MA in English, and will *hopefully* be admitted into a phd. program soon.... Person 1: "What's your major?" Me: "English" 1: "So you want to be a writer?" Me: "Well, not exactly." 1: "Yeah, I mean, not to be offensive or anything, but what can you really do with that? Like, write books? I mean, what's the point of being an English major? Can't anyone write stuff?" Me: "You'd be surprised." Person 2: "So what do you want to do?" Me: "I'm going to get a ph.d in english." 2: "Oh, like be a teacher?" Me: "Teaching is part of it. But I'll be a scholar, you know, research, write, that kind of stuff." 2: "Isn't research science though?" Person 3: "What's your major?" Me: "English." Person 3: "Ugh, I hate Shakespeare." Me: "Well, we don't really just study shakespeare. It's a lot of things, contemporary lit, theory, cultural studies. And a lot of writing." Person 3: "Oh god, I hate writing. I just don't have anything to say, you know? And all those stupid English teachers always want you to over-analyze things. Like, who cares why the writer put a burning building in the book, or what slavery was about, you know?" Another conversation, that actually happened, but is a little irrevelant, took place between me a long time friend. It was a few years ago, and she asked me what courses I was taking. Her: "So, what courses are you taking?" Me: "Well, a few that are required, but my favorite one is an upper level lit theory class. My professor is a classical marxist so we've been reading a lot of marx, and doing analyses of literature and postmodern theory through a materialist lens." Her: "I don't get that. I mean, I know it's just a class, but if Marx had his way and we were all equal, everyone would kill themselves." Me: "Have you ever read any Marx?" Her (lying): "Yes, of course." Me: "Well, it's more complicated than 'everyone being equal'. Do you really think if everyone had equal access to health care, paid vacations, education, etc. they'd all go out and kill themselves?" Her: "Well they could never be better than anyone else, so what's the point of waking up in the morning?"