straightshooting

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.

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 get the sense that you tend to prefer suburban environments to cities in general, especially from your comment that you wish there were more chain stores and supermarkets. I do suspect that many people who attend Yale come from hermetically sealed white flight suburban communities, so I don't discount your assessment at all for people from such backgrounds, but everything that you mention (sans the crime, naturally -- though that's just how it goes in a city) seems more positive than negative to me. Not that I have any illusion that New Haven will be the bee's knees, but little about your description makes it seem bad. If anything, it seems less urban than I'd prefer.

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.

Amen to that!

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'm closing this because I truly thought I would get advice.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Said simply, It does not matter if you wrote an undergraduate thesis or not. It may help you prepare a writing sample or form relationships with professors who may write you recommendations, which of course matter very much, but the fact that you churned out an undergraduate thesis is not itself going to get you anywhere. Anecdotes are just that, anecdotes, but if they are at all persuasive I can say that I am in a very solid program and never gave a thought to doing an undergrad thesis.

Said simply, It does not matter if you wrote an undergraduate thesis or not. It may help you prepare a writing sample or form relationships with professors who may write you recommendations, which of course matter very much, but the fact that you churned out an undergraduate thesis is not itself going to get you anywhere. Anecdotes are just that, anecdotes, but if they are at all persuasive I can say that I am in a very solid program and never gave a thought to doing an undergrad thesis.

Said simply, It does not matter if you wrote an undergraduate thesis or not. It may help you prepare a writing sample or form relationships with professors who may write you recommendations, which of course matter very much, but the fact that you churned out an undergraduate thesis is not itself going to get you anywhere. Anecdotes are just that, anecdotes, but if they are at all persuasive I can say that I am in a very solid program and never gave a thought to doing an undergrad thesis.

Said simply, It does not matter if you wrote an undergraduate thesis or not. It may help you prepare a writing sample or form relationships with professors who may write you recommendations, which of course matter very much, but the fact that you churned out an undergraduate thesis is not itself going to get you anywhere. Anecdotes are just that, anecdotes, but if they are at all persuasive I can say that I am in a very solid program and never gave a thought to doing an undergrad thesis.

What. the. fuck.

What. the. fuck.

What. the. fuck.

What. the. fuck.

What. the. fuck.

What. the. fuck.

What. the. fuck.

I'm going to have to agree with palindrome. Excepting absurd lengths (1500+ words), if the intellectual bildung that you provide in personal statement is well-written and demonstrates that you are a highly qualified candidate, I have it on good authority that no committee member is even going to register that they've read a few hundred extra words. Certainly no one is going to actually count (submit in PDF if you're worried)! If cutting 100 words means that you don't get to discuss something that you deem important, then leave them! If you have a mediocre statement, of course, more length means more mediocrity--and no one likes that--but it's not the length that's the fundamental problem in that case, it's the mediocrity.

I can say, very simply, that OSU's English department has not sent out all (most) of its acceptances yet.

gracieb,

OSU no longer has an MA program, as such. Beginning this year, all admitted students enter into a direct PhD-track program. Yes, the website still calls it an MA program in the sense that students must first complete an MA prior to beginning the PhD, but I was told that some students' statements of purpose made it clear that they wanted to complete an MA without advancing to the PhD. Such students, naturally, were not admitted.

In any case, those external applicants coming from an undergraduate program (and, thus, into the MA portion of the PhD track) are in the same boat, notification-wise, as the rest of the external non-fellowship applicants. At least as of the other day, not all students had been notified.