diehtc0ke

I study 20th-century American with a critical race/queer studies theoretical focus.

UPenn is at the top of my list right now but I have one more school that I'm waiting to officially be rejected from and a few other offers I have to make sure that I want to turn down. I'd be going for my PhD in English. It's weird because I live in NYC and actually have a grandfather that lives in Philly but I haven't been there since I was about 6.

So I'm almost embarassed to admit this but I've never read Kurt Vonnegut before. I'm in the middle of Cat's Cradle right now and loving every moment of it. The black comedic tint of his prose is almost too satisfying and I'm finding myself laughing out loud almost too much. Until I can get my hands on more Vonnegut, I'll be reading some short stories by Haruki Murakami and then probably Paradise by Toni Morrison. If any of you know New York City, I'll have you know that strand bookstore will be the death of me (and my credit card).

I just got off the phone with David Kazanjian and I'm still shaking. I was accepted and I think this is the most excited I've ever been in my life. He asked me if I had any questions and I had to tell him "I'm sure that if I could put a coherent string of words together I would but I can't" (edited for coherence).

I wrote a senior honors thesis but I didn't use any part of it as my writing sample because it was only tangentially related to the research I want to do in grad school. I took the opportunity to do something relatively different from the work I had been doing and so it made for something to mention in my SOP but that's about it.

Just wanted to pop in and congratulate you as well, Popstitute. =D

Not to derail this thread but when did you find out about Cornell?

Must be hard to pick five people out of such a large applicant pool. Can't say I envy them.

Hey, guys. I'm the one who put the acceptance up on the board. You definitely shouldn't despair because I got the impression that I was being called before others because I was awarded a university-wide fellowship. I wasn't told anything about the statistics of the entering class, only that because of my interest in early 20th-century American, I would be a great fit for the program. As most know, IU is known for it's strength in 19th-century British but they're trying to make a name for themselves in other fields as well, 20th-century American being one of them. Good luck to you all! If anyone is interested, I'm interested in a hybrid of critical race theory and queer theory with a focus on representations of what I'll call "African-American bisexuality" in the early 20th-century.

As one of those students from a smaller and (I'm fairly certain) unknown department (I don't mind sharing that I graduated from one of the colleges in the CUNY system, which is a large public institution in New York City. My particular school sees maybe four or five students per year who are serious about going to graduate school for anything more than an MA to bolster their chances at getting a teaching job at the high school level), I have to tell you all that, in my case, it basically takes an entire department to rally around those students who want to get their PhD in this field. I'm lucky because I was at least part of a small honors program that has gained nationwide notoriety but I never really highlighted this in any of my applications, mostly because the advisors I had in that program were lacking in their knowledge about even our rinky dink school's own English department, let alone the steps it takes to get into a PhD program. When a school asked for my undergraduate institution, that honors program was not mentioned. The people who wrote my letters of recommendation work in one of the best English departments in the country but I can't tell you that they are the academic rock stars that others on these boards seem to have. I had to work my butt off because I knew that no one was going to take me seriously based on the name brand of my school and my less than perfect (but nowhere near terrible) academic record and I'd like to think that it was the potential that I displayed in my application that has made me successful this application round. I applied to 11 schools but because of my research interests (an amalgamation of critical race theory and queer studies with a focus on 20th century American texts), there were a number of departments that were a very strong fit and I don't think I can be taken as any less serious a candidate because I might have had the luxury to apply to so many programs. What am I trying to say? These sweeping generalizations about how adcoms choose their entering class is fairly deleterious work to those who might be looking to us for advice on how to go about applying to graduate school in the future. Some schools give more weight to an applicant's alma mater than others. Some schools want to see academic powerhouses as LORs more than others. Just because an applicant comes from Po Dunk University does not mean that he or she is necessarily at a crippling disadvantage in every graduate school admissions scenario. Of course, you will want to make the most of your academic situation but these obstacles clearly can be overcome in ways that Horatio Algiers would be proud of.

Just saw the postal service notification on the results page and have already chewed half my fingernails off (a dirty habit that only resurfaces in the most dire of circumstances) in anticipation of tomorrow's mail.

I just received my packet today and I agree that I think it just spoke about the general package that everyone gets. I am planning on attending the GASP (lol) festivities and figure I'll just try and get a better answer about all of this while there. From what one of the professors who wrote me a recommendation said, he thinks the Wisconsin cohort is larger than at other schools I applied to but one of those schools was looking for 5-7 students so Im not sure how fair the comparison is. For the record, my focus is on representations of queer black bodies in mid 20th century American lit. congrats to my fellow acceptees.

I've screamed in the library for much less substantial good news. Congrats!

I don't know. I applied to 11 schools (12, technically but there was a whole...thing...with the 12th and my application didn't go through. I'm over it) and the application fees/GRE score reports/transcript deliveries took a real toll on my bank account. After applying, I realized a few were not the best fit and the list could definitely have been streamlined. But, if you have 20 schools that are actually good fits for the research you want to do and you have the money to back it up, I don't see a cut-off limit being applicable.

I also received an invitation to the Open House. My stats are less impressive than the person above me haha. Cumulative GPA: 3.67. Major GPA: 3.88. GRE: 650V/750M/4.5AW GRE Lit: 560 (Yes, that's 53rd percentile. lol) I went to a large urban public college but was part of a rather competitive honors program. I'm thinking it's my writing sample and LORs that got me through. Good luck to everyone else!