straightshooting

There are at least two Asian supermarkets within walking distance of campus, in or very close to the East Rock area. No car needed. There are also now two/three general grocery stores in the area. A Stop and Shop a bit west of campus for general needs, an organic/Whole Foods-esque place just a bit farther west of that, and a co-op market right downtown (rather like the organic place out west, though with some more standard options as well). There's also Peapod, which will deliver quite cheaply.

Do not go into debt, especially if you have funded options to choose from. Taking on Columbia + NYC debt is foolhardy at best and could ultimately be a major financial disaster for you a few years down the road. Though I cannot produce statistics, I can say from at least a few rather devastating anecdotes that top-tier MAs do nothing to guarantee later admission into a funded PhD program.

The COTA #2 bus will get you to and from everything up and down the High Street corridor. The commute is going to be longer than from the Short North/Victorian Village area, especially if you're up in Clintonville proper. Italian Village is spotty. It's hard to assess it generally, as some parts are very nice and quite safe and others are about as bad as the area can get. If I were going to offer a rule at all--mind you, there are exceptions--it'd be to stick with south of 3rd Ave and west of Summit St., between Summit and High.

Better than taking the shuttle services, which I think are too expensive, do this: From LGA you can get on the M60 bus into Manhattan (you'll need $2.25 in quarters or a Metrocard). Get off after the bus gets off of the freeway onto 125th, just after the Lexington Ave intersection. You'll see the large train bridge above and in front of you. Walk up to it and go into the train station. You can take the Metro-North to New Haven at off-peak hours for $14. It's very convenient.

I'd say that there is an important difference between east of High Street south of Lane Avenue and north of it. There are some undergrads up in that direction, but it's mostly non-student 20s-30s people and working class families. Some of the areas in the northeast quadrant also have long-term middle-class families as well. It's not going to be as quaint as Clintonville or south of King down the Neil Ave. corridor (the Victorian Village and Harrison West areas), but it's also a good deal cheaper than them and rather nicer than the student ghetto between campus (~10th) and King on the west side of High. That said, you do likely want to stay away from the area east of High much south of Lane. It goes from undergrad wasteland to very low income neighborhood quite quickly. That said, most people moving to Columbus only feel comfortable in the Victorian Village and Clintonville areas. And, for those willing to live a little farther out, Grandview. I like all of those areas (though I'd say Grandview is probably too far), but prefer something a little less socioeconomically homogenous. I'd be happy to weigh in on potential real estate for anyone looking.

I really don't think that there are too many programs that roundly reject applicants holding master's degrees, especially as a matter of principle. I'm sure that, numerically, the anecdotes of people who used the experience of an MA program to put together a very strong PhD application and get into a top program line up at least roughly with the ones of people getting rejected across the board when applying to PhD programs after getting their MA. The fact of the matter is that if you have an MA, the programs that you're applying to are likely (and justly) going to expect you to demonstrate more professionalization and direction and originality in your research than those coming straight out of an undergraduate program. If you have "MA" after your name, people assume more of you. I should say that it is true that most PhD programs tend to accept more people coming straight out of undergrad than master's holders, but there are also a hell of a lot more people coming out of undergrad than there are people coming out of field-specific master's programs. I suspect the distribution is proportionate more often than not. That said, while I know that there are success stories and that many will disagree with me, I would strongly advise against accepting an unfunded offer to an MA program. Although no humanities programs really make for the soundest of long-term financial decisions, funded or otherwise, it's really not wise to throw a few dozen grand over two years into a very uncertain chance of getting into a PhD program that may then translation into yet another uncertain chance of getting a job that will pay you enough to live decently and pay off your loans. For what it's worth, I completed a two-year funded MA at an R1 state university before getting accepted into a top PhD program

OSU's English department tends to have two rounds of admissions (plus waitlist stuff later in the season). The first, at least in the past, has been for those awarded special university fellowships. The second, then, is when general TA-ship admissions happen.

Yeah, Yale's Comp Lit. has a cohort of around 5 each year.

Yale's English department generally aims for an incoming PhD class of between eight to twelve. Not sure where the 2-3 is coming from.

I would advise you to be somewhat wary of anecdote as regards the quality of the various parts of "the greater campus area." It is true that most graduate students opt to live in the Short North/Victorian Village/Harrison West area (which, though divided nominally, are essentially one area), as it is closer to most of the 20-something nightlife, but many find themselves quite at home in Clintonville and/or the area northeast of campus. At risk of gross caricature, Short North tends to be more 20-something single and Clintonville tends to be more 20-to-30-something family, as the latter is a bit quieter. There are also a few who live in Grandview and some of the suburbs, as well as in German Village, a Clintonville-esque area south of downtown. There's just too much variation in personal preference to really be able to make a recommendation without knowing yours. The only solid piece of advice is to avoid living in the central campus area, which is undergrad party central (OSU's football fanaticism outdoes virtually all other schools'). I would also recommend avoiding the grey area between short north and campus, as it tends to be an unpleasant combination of college bro houses and low income housing (it's known to have a good deal of opportunistic crime). I should say that for the average grad student on a day-to-day basis, Columbus is essentially just a 4-mile north-south stretch along High St., the central corridor that goes north from downtown through the Short North, campus, and then Clintonville. Columbus's public transit is far from amazing in general, but the number 2 High St. line is reliable and, as an OSU student, bus fare is free. Going from North Clintonville to downtown will take you a little while on the bus, but it's not bad -- a bus is a bus. Also, campus-short-north-downtown stretch is pretty bike friendly.

It is always worth reemphasizing how much it really comes down to the statement of purpose and writing sample, though I will say that there is a lot that often goes in behind the scenes correspondence between recommendation writers and target faculty that really locks in decisions--especially, I think, at top schools. There is, after all, only so much that a few documents can say. In any case, congrats! The call is always very satisfying, even if is sometimes awkward.

Three bullet points: In this job market (and probably any foreseeable ones), you should be happy to get all of the teaching experience that you can. If you cannot juggle research (or coursework) with a teaching load, then you're going to have a hard time meeting promotion and tenure benchmarks at any research-oriented university. This isn't to say that a fellowship isn't nice in many ways, but there are very strong benefits to teaching straight through.The criteria used to determine whether to nominate you for a fellowship often have nothing to do with whether they think you have more or less academic potential than someone else. Frequently, administrative units above the department (the graduate school or university itself) require certain test scores and GPAs that the department might think are at all important. Also, the number of fellowships that a program can offer are, well, limited, which means that--like graduate admissions themselves--decisions are often made on the basis of what is essentially a coin toss.Really? You'd stay at what you describe as a lesser program because you feel that the better program doesn't think you're as hot shit as the other? Go to the better school and show them that you know what the hell you're doing (which they presumably already believe seeing as how they admitted you) and pick up some extra professional (teaching) experience at the same time.

I can tell you from first hand experience that Yale will not care if your personal statement is too long. Mine was a full 20 - worry not.

I will certainly grant you this, but it's a bit late in the game (at least this season) to still be asking "whether you really want to go to grad school." Presumably almost everyone on this message board, ill-advisedly or not, has already concluded that pursuing graduate school is the correct path for them. I stand by my original statement that having an undergraduate thesis to list on your CV or discuss in your personal statement is not, in itself, going to impress anyone. Your ability to conceive of a larger project and/or a directed course of study should be evident from what you discuss your personal statement. No one should feel inadequate for not having had an opportunity--or desire--to do write a thesis, especially because the process is frequently one that requires a significant expenditure of time and effort that has a questionable degree of ultimate pay-off. This isn't to say that I think they're at all without merit or somehow not worth doing for some, but they aren't the benchmark of undergraduate achievement that many make them out to be and, when it really comes down to it, they only bear a fairly superficial resemblance to the type of work that you'll be doing in graduate school.

Cost of living differences are extremely important to keep in mind. Though I make now make ~$10,000 more than I did when I was in my MA program, dramatically increased living costs mean that I end up with the same amount of discretionary income each month, which doesn't go as far as it did in my previous location.