cesada

My log-in page says, "Welcome, Cesada Lastname. Your application has been successfully submitted." I never got any further notification that the application was complete, but I figured that was enough. Also, you guys definitely got me with the prank. Nice one. Thanks for having the mercy to tell everyone it was a joke! :-)

I don't think it's a prank. Ford has notified in waves in past years. I would be suspicious if it was just one person, or a bunch of people who joined the forum yesterday, saying they had heard back. Anyways, congrats to everyone who has heard, and good luck to the rest of us!

Thus why I added the part about the incredible professors, who are the main reason I came here... also, if you think every graduate program has the qualities I mentioned, especially the good placement rates and decent teaching loads, you are unfortunately mistaken. And yes, I brought up the grants, lectures, journal, etc specifically to point to the English department's financial health, since that was the OP's main criticism of all the UCI humanities programs. I don't really need to defend the quality of the professors and their research, since anyone can look at the department website and make their own decisions. Anyways, I wasn't trying to laud the wonders of UCI so much as provide some balance to the original poster's opinions. I have experience with several of the top English departments, either as an undergraduate, graduate, or through friends. In my opinion, UCI English is a great program, and it's obvious that other schools hold it in high regard. I think proclaiming its doom is premature, though obviously any incoming student should be aware of crisis in California. I won't argue about CompLit - it's a different department with its own budget. That said, though I haven't had the same experience as Blop at UCI, I do really think it's good to have current grads come on the site with honest opinions of their programs. I could tell when I went to visit days that students were all on their best behavior rather than honestly answering my questions.

I'm not in French or CompLit, so I can't comment on the situations there... but I think it is ridiculous to advise people not to come to UCI for any of the humanities programs. I'm going to confine my comments to the English program, since that is what I'm sure about, but I have to say that a program where you can take a translation workshop with Ngugi wa Thiong'o seems pretty desirable, from my admittedly uninformed perspective. The English department is in the process of hiring a new professor, not usually a sign of imminent decay or funding fallout. The classes and general environment are intellectually rigorous. Scanning my inbox from the last two weeks, I have multiple emails about dissertation fellowships, travel grants, famous guest lecturers, student-led conferences, and a new journal launch. The people on the job market this year are getting offers. TAs teach a very manageable load. Basically, there are a lot of good financial reasons to come here, without even getting into the many fabulous professors. Anyways, I've had a really great experience here, so I wanted to balance the alarming post with a different perspective. I'm not on a budget committee, I'm not sure how budget cuts could affect the department in the coming years, but I don't see anything that alarms me so far.

Hmm... another problem might be that the survey only asked English faculties. Some programs with particular interdisciplinary strengths might make a deceptively weak showing. I know UCI places a lot of people in Critical Theory departments, not English departments. I would imagine that at least a few schools would have similar issues with AfAm, Feminist Studies, American Studies, or other fields.

LuMing Mao just interviewed for a job at UCI... no idea if he's moving or not. You should ask before making a decision though.

Sometimes, if another school offers you more money, you can negotiate for even better funding at your first choice. That can be worth waiting for.

Ah, yes, wonderful scientific advancements... those of us in the humanities are far too unimportant to contribute to all those bombs, products that kill the earth, and experiments on low-income populations! My literature research is never going to be used to kill anybody. Just saying. Okay, I'm joking, obviously. I know most scientists and engineers want to cure diseases, build useful stuff, provide clean water, and on and on. Still, I think those disciplines can be worse than useless without the ability to empathize, to understand other cultures, to develop a system of ethics... all the stuff that the humanities, at their best, teach students.

I know you said to discount fit, but I think fit almost replaces rankings in English... if you are, say, a feminist scholar working with a famous feminist theorist at a slightly less prestigious school, that would be better than working with a lesser-known feminist scholar at Yale. Or if you are in science fiction, you had better pick UC Riverside over UCLA. In any case, I would pick prestige (of the adviser or the school) over money, so long as you will make enough to live decently. Maybe it won't make a difference on the job market... but maybe it will. With something like 50% of English PhDs not getting jobs in academia, I think it's worth living on less money to possibly boost your job chances later.

I think we have to wait until the middle of April. Still so far away!

I applied for the predoctoral fellowship. Looks like the odds are pretty awful. Good luck everyone :-)

Just a clarifying note - every UC I dealt with, which included flagship campuses and barely-in-the-top-50 programs, offered me a fellowship for my first year. Additionally, everyone in my ten-person cohort has a fellowship for at least the first year.

Last year I got offers from several UCs and I am currently attending one of them, so I've accumulated a ridiculous amount of information about their funding. Students have (mostly) even funding. In my program, the only exceptions are two people who received special, two year fellowships in the department's particularly strong sub-disciplines. This hasn't caused any jealousy or unequal treatment so far as I can tell - the other students could never have been eligible for those scholarships anyways because they are in different fields. UCLA, Cal, and UCI students get a little more money for their fellowships, which could probably be expected from the higher prestige. They also have a better chance for summer funding and dissertation fellowships. At least where I am, there are also lots of possible summer TA-ships, grants for conferences, and tutoring centers in the area where students can pick up extra cash. TA funding is the same across all the campuses because we are unionized. We teach one class per quarter. I'm not sure how many students per class, but I think it is somewhere between 15-25 kids. None of the second years seem overwhelmed by their teaching responsibilities. I have guaranteed funding for five years, but according to the secretary there is never a problem funding a sixth year. I should specify that this might be particular to the English department, since TA-ships in writing are still relatively plentiful with our huge undergraduate population. So far as living on the stipend - I'm in a really expensive area, definitely one of the most expensive out of all the UC towns. Everyone complains about the cost of the on-campus housing. That said, even the people who live on campus seem to have enough money for smartphones, organic food, and nights out drinking. I personally have no problems living on my stipend. I eat healthy, drink occasionally, support a kitten, pay for netflix, drive to local events, and can afford to visit family for the holidays. Anyways, I just thought I would chip in from my experience. The quality of the education so far is absolutely incredible. If your interests fit best at one of the UCs, don't let funding scare you off from applying. We aren't starving

First of all, I'm so sorry. This must be an incredibly tough situation. I do not want to offend anyone, so as a warning, what follows is completely based on a personal experience that may or may not have any value to you. I am hesitant to give advice one way or another because this is going to be a really personal and important decision, and honestly neither option is a good one. When I was a junior, I decided to study abroad even though one of my cousins would definitely die while I was gone. He did, at only twenty-five, a few days after I arrived in Britain. While my time there was wonderful in a lot of ways, knowing that I couldn't be there for my family - we all grew up very close, sometimes living in the same house - obviously had a huge negative impact on my ability to focus academically and to make new friends. Most of the time I just wanted to leave and comfort my family. I spent several hours a week on the phone and didn't make many friends. My family has since resented me for leaving at such a critical time, even the ones who initially told me to go. My cousin was sick for a very long time, and my cousins and siblings had made a lot of sacrifices to help care for him and just be near him. It is hard to find a middle ground, be there when you need to be there, and still make sure that you are not throwing away important opportunities. Oldlady is right - a loved one being seriously ill can consume someone's life very easily. Oldlady's suggestion to wait until things turn critical (hopefully they won't) also has a lot of merit. Taking a leave of absence later might be better than postponing a year, depending on what doctors expect from the illness. I hope you and your partner find peace in whatever feels right to you!

I think CJD hit a key point. Tell your boyfriend all your concerns on either side of the issue, and then let him make his decision. He cannot reasonably resent you later if you are clear now that this is his decision and you will accept it as such. I love that you are worried about whether or not he will still be happy with this decision ten years down the road. If there is one common trait I have in this forum of mostly high-achieving, successful, intelligent people, it is that everyone worries about everything obsessively. There is no way to know what your boyfriend will regret in ten years! If you tell him your fears about the long-term consequences, that is all you can do. He will have to deal with the (completely unpredictable) consequences of his decisions ten years from now, just like the rest of us