diehtc0ke

So, I just got in to Rutgers off the waitlist and was wondering if anyone who went to the Open House could give some impression of the department. I'm hoping to be able to visit before April 15th but I'm not sure how possible it is even though I live nearby. If anyone is unwilling to share their thoughts publicly, I wouldn't mind corresponding through private messages as well.

I will turn 23 about a week before classes start this September.

Hmm. I had no idea. The schools that I applied to for the most part give equal funding to everyone so I didn't know that this practice occurred. I certainly would be weary of applying to any school that uses GRE scores for the allocation of funds but that's probably because I performed so piss poorly on them.

To be fair to your americanist friend, what is he/she interested in? If he or she is into southen literature or poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, I find it difficult to expect him or her to know even key postmodernist figures. I'm also a 20th c. Americanist and I honesly only know of Wolfe and Delilo bc both are popular at the bookstore I frequent. My research focuses on an earlier period and a different subject matter and my undergrad institution only had classes that went up to about 1945 so it's not like I would have been exposed to either in a classroom setting. I find that 20th c. American is a large enough field that even the most important authors can get lost until you actively search for them. To your other point, I want to stress that it's definitely those SOPs and writing samples that get you in. My abysmal and embarassing gre lit score can die in a fire.

I think that's more possible if you're looking in West Philly than if you're looking at Center City from what I gather.

Is there a really compelling reason for why you want to accept the offer so early?

Just an aside but I love how Maryland sent me a rejection letter and a bill for my application when I didn't even apply.

Ahhh that makes much more sense. Chalk my response up to wishful thinking and a lack of reading comprehension. Many students live on that amount but I can't for the life of me figure out how.

I was accepted and I'm unfortunately declining. I visited WashU at the end of last month and met with a good chunk of the cohort across several years and also met with several professors. It is a wonderful program, especially if you're an americanist. The faculty, even though it is a small dept, is first rate and the grad students there are exceptionally warm and helpful to one another. You can feel a genuine academic community that's free of just about all stuffy pretentiousness. They also give an amazing stipend and healthcare benefits, especially given how affordable it is to live in St. Louis. I'm not turning the offer down bc of the department; I'm turning it down because I've gotten into other programs that are a better fit for my research interests. It's a shame because the department is way more into fostering interdisciplinary approaches to critical work than most others. If you're accepted off the waitlist, I would definitely give WUSTL a good look.

If they're not shouting about their job placement rate from the mountain tops, chances are it's not that great.

If it's any consolation, I think I'm going to be declining the offer I received from NYU. Not 100% sure yet but I'll be sure to be prompt about it when I am.

I'm also very lucky in that I live in NYC so getting those academic resources merely required a trip to the library. I still have friends who are either in undergrad or are going to graduate school in the area and so the only thing missing from my academic experience this year is having to schlep to a classroom on a regular schedule (I do sometimes drop in on my friends' classes). It's really a personal thing, this question about when it's most appropriate to apply to grad school but, unfortunately, it seems like it's these faceless adcoms that decide for us. If we get into a school straight out of undergrad, then it's been a positive experience. If we get into school after taking a year or more off, then it's been a positive experience... wouldn't want it any other way. Basically it boils down to you doing you. I agree, it's my friends who went straight from undergrad but have somehow found the time to have real life experience outside of the academic bubble that have been most successful in graduate school. So, basically I wrote all of that above so that my question about NYU didn't seem like a complete derailing of the topic. Why is what you're saying about the program so? As you probably know, there was a cocktail party and open house thing towards the beginning of last week that I was unable to attend so I don't know how it went but, because I live in New York, I as able to go to lunch with two of my POIs there and the Director of Graduate Studies. All three were very enthusiastic about their work and their students (and those students' job placement) and left nothing but the most favorable impression with me. When I was admitted, I immediately told the cohort of professors at my undergrad institution that helped me with my application and received overwhelmingly negative responses to that program, even from one of my favorite professors who got his MFA at NYU. Did you get a feeling from those acceptees why they didn't like the program? Is it that they all just got into better schools?

I'm going to second the whole take a year off approach. Of course going straight from undergrad to grad school works for many people (I have a few friends who took that route and are perfectly well-adjusted socially and academically) but I'm sure I would personally have been a wreck. This isn't to say I didn't try. I was universally rejected and had no other choice but if the option to defer had been available, I think I would have done that. This year off has solidified my interest in my field and this discipline in general. I've had the time to reevaluate where my life has been/is/will be going and everything has just clicked. I also didn't do anything academic this year other than work on my applications. I only had to take the GRE Lit exam (and performed pretty poorly) because I had taken the general GRE the year before. I'm quite aware of the class privilege inherent in my ability to live at home with my parents for an extra year while I worked a rinky dink part-time job at my local Staples (aside: I got the job b/c in my interview I told them I was an english major and had become passionate about pens, paper clips, etc. LOL) but I exploited that capital as best as I could and, thankfully, I have something to show for it.

Resurrecting this thread. Does anyone have any idea how feasible it would be to live in Philly (preferably somewhere around UPenn--I have to admit that I don't know my Philadelphia geography at all) on a stipend of a little more than $22k? I'm seriously interested in going to UPenn for English lit but I've been given better financial offers at other places.

That is pretty ridiculous. It's not the same situation and I don't know how Vanderbilt deals with paying for their TA-ships and teaching obligations but at NYU we get paid for our teaching obligations in addition to receiving stipend money. From what I understand, the base package at NYU is $23,000 and those two years of teaching can award up to about an additional $22,000 depending on how much teaching you do and in what capacity. The program is also trying to secure funds so that students can get $5,000 for each of the first three summers. I received a diversity fellowship which would be another $4,000 per year so for about two years there's the potential to be making about $50k which is nuts but I'd say completely necessary to live comfortably in New York (and even then, living in the Village could be somewhat of a stretch lol).

I was but I called the dept and found out my fate. All the decisions for the phd candidates have been made. Not sure about the joint mfa/phd applicants.

This is definitely where the people who wrote you letters of recommendation and people from your department come in. This is not the time to be protective of your work because other people (preferably academics but pretty much anyone basically) need to read it and tell you how you can polish even the best papers. From what I've been told, those undergraduate papers that you think are wonderful and got you an A are still not going to cut it (for the most part. You could be the next Roland Barthes; I don't know lol).

So, those mysterious e-vites from last year are back. I just received one about two hours ago from Jennifer Fleissner (who is really sweet. I've spoken to her on the phone) and I can tell you all that 27 people have been invited to Graduate Recruitment Day which takes place on March 24th.

/wave. You'll find this forum rather friendly and helpful. Are there any initial questions you're dying to have answered? (and why the switch if you don't mind me asking?)

This is actually a really great post and I wish I had seen it before I applied last year (long story short, I took seven classes in each of my last two terms and sent out a couple of humdrum applications that obviously got rejected. I sent them out just so I could get a feel for how this process plays out). If I could add my own two cents, it's just felt like adcoms need to be wowed. This all ties in with what keila said about having focus and not only a writing sample that ties in to that focus but a personal statement that does as well. No one's going to take those two pages as a binding contract that delineates your next 5-6 years of study but you need to let admissions committees know that they're not wasting their precious funding on someone who hasn't given considerable thought to a future project. I was just interviewed yesterday for a fellowship and my interviewer had been on the graduate admissions committee. He point blank told me that he was floored by my application because I conveyed a level of confidence about my work and myself as a academic that said, "I clearly know that I'm a scholar and I know that I can do this work. What can YOU offer ME?" Not that I assume that everyone or anyone does this but I didn't spend more than a few lines discussing my past work or my experience as an undergraduate. My personal statement became about my intended future research, showcased that I had already done considerable research on this topic and sketched out how each school offered something to help facilitate my studies, whether it be through a particular cultural institution, a specific set of archives, etc. I really think this is what was able to set me apart from other applicants.