HumanCylinder

It's cool hearing about all your visits! It makes me excited for my own coming up, in spite of my nerves. I'll definitely talk to grad students; I'm very interested to hear their take and to get advice about living in each respective city. @victoriansimpkins, U of Arizona notified a while back; I think it was the last week of February. I posted my result on the board when I got it, but I don't know if too many people on GC applied there this season, so maybe the results board didn't register a whole lot of info on this school.

I'm on this line too with my "hold-out" schools but I'm just trying to be patient. I haven't even visited schools yet (that will happen the next two weeks), which I imagine will be very illuminating but everything is just hanging in the air until then. I'm not concerned about Arizona State at all at this point, but WUStL could potentially be a major curve ball if I were to be admitted. It's one of my top choices along with Utah, but higher ranked. On another note, has anyone visited schools yet? How did it go? Any advice?

I would say that about 1/2 of the 15 schools I applied to wanted the officials to be sent in addition to scanned uploads. Maybe a little less than half.

Oh, this makes a lot of sense -- thank you!

Yea, I actually feel like it's fairly common for good people to get shut out, unfortunately. If I got shut out this time, I would have switched directions and tried to get a full-time job teaching at a high school or perhaps a CC. The goal for me is really to teach literature, but I didn't want to give up researching and writing my own papers if I could help it. What you said about encouragement really resonates with me as well. I would read published articles and think that my own abilities are not far off. After the first two cycles, I did begin to question the strong encouragement of my mentor -- perhaps she was mistaken, or had a blind spot for me, or was simply being nice (though I know full well this person does not say things just to be nice). But, my own faith that I had the capability to do academic work, and that I was running up against horrible odds, is what propelled me to keep trying. I also really think that timing, program selection/location, and sheer, dumb luck play important parts.

I'm sure that your perseverance will pay off, and hopefully in the way that you expect. It really just shows that the app process is such an opaque crapshoot, which is super frustrating. I know really smart people who have been shut out of 15+ programs and decided to pursue something else. Part of the issue too is that many programs have been cutting the number of people they accept, so the odds are crazy bad. It sounds like you have plenty of good things going for you and I hope for the best.

Just fyi, I've been experiencing radio silence from ASU. I emailed the dept. earlier this week inquiring about status, but no reply. Good luck! Also, in case it helps any, this is my third time applying to PhD programs since graduating with my M.A. I know many people who have had to go through multiple rounds, including people who have been shut out applying to an equally large number of schools as I did this time. (Objectively, I thought I did a pretty good job putting together a reasonable school list, but I was also still terrified that this would be the end of the line for me even with such a long list.) I hope everything turns out well this time, but there is hope if you apply a second time! I felt like I realized something new each time I applied haha.

This just happened to me. I remember reading this post a while back and thinking, "That sounds really reasonable; I hope it's true." Good luck to everyone in the decision-making phase!

Congratulations! It must be so exciting to have a final answer. P.S.: I should probably clarify something that was poorly worded in my previous post. I meant I would turn down ASU or Baylor if either were to accept me at this point because I prefer my current offers. I emailed both programs for a status update, and the DGS at Baylor got back to me instantaneously, saying I was rejected.

It seems like the schools I applied to were not super popular among this year's GC application cohort, but I've declined my acceptances/waitlist spot from these programs: University of Washington (it was an unfunded offer, so don't get too excited), University of New Mexico, and Washington State (a wait list spot). I'm waiting to visit the other schools to make my decision. If I get in to ASU or Baylor, I would turn down my offer (those are the schools I'm waiting to hear from; pretty sure I'm in some waitlist abyss at WUStL) @DaniB23, does this mean you've come to a final decision about where to attend?

Congrats, DaniB23! Wishing my best for everyone waiting on decisions; I hope things shape up in the next week so that final decisions can be made.

Received a call from Utah this morning saying I've been accepted! Super excited since this is one of my top choices.

Half way through my application due dates, I noticed I had a subject-verb agreement grammar problem I somehow never caught and I was mortified. Also, I'm kind of interested to see how this fit paragraph/naming professors thing plays out. I was probably overly concerned about it when I was working on the SOP, and I hedged my bets by naming profs in about half of my statements. For the two schools I got fully funded offers from, I did not mention specific professors in the SOP, and just had one rather broad sentence in place of the fit paragraph I developed for other schools.

I love this idea for a thread. Even though I have some acceptances, waiting for these last few results has been making me so crazy! Especially since one I'm waiting on is a top choice. I tend to work on late-Victorian and Modern poetry and literature, and I especially enjoy avant-garde/formal experimentation and gender issues. I tend to think of myself as a pretty academic theory/aesthetics person, but then one day someone started to describe my interests as popular culture. This really threw me for a loop because I tend to dislike most of contemporary popular culture (sorry if this sounds horrible!), but then I realized that I did have a pretty strong cultural interest. It's just that I like to focus on counter cultural phenomena in gender and race. Anyway, this is just a long preamble to explain that I did eventually find myself looking at cultural things as a sort-of-not-really research, like DaniB described. A strain within all of this too, is that I like to look at bodies in the world and break down the reflexive relationship there. So, one of my personal interests is in sports. I watch a ton of football and basketball (and tennis, when it's on), and I've recently been thinking about how I could turn this into a project. My writing sample stemmed from looking at home decor, which is another personal hobby/interests. Since I pretty successfully turned that into an academic topic, I've been seeing what else I can work on in a similar vein. I also had this idea connecting more contemporary hip-hop to Harlem Renaissance poets, so I just enjoy listening and connecting the lyrics to the concept I came up with. Last thing that is a little more off topic. My MA institution is putting on a small film event and they'll be showing The Decline of Western Civilization with Penelope Spheeris on a panel afterwards. I was super obsessed with this film as an undergrad and watched a bootleg version many times. Punk was a big influence during high school, so I'm excited about this. I like to incorporate literature and other arts in my research, so I've also wondered if I can work punk in. It definitely influences my way of thinking even when I'm not directly drawing on it. I'd love to hear what cool things other people are thinking about, or what they justify as research. I know I just watched a lot of film adaptations when studying for the GRE Lit.

I agree with what DaniB expressed. I chose programs based mainly on the type of work the faculty did there, and tried my best to check out whether I actually liked that work. I was considering one program, found the person who works on Modern poetry and read their work, but did not like the critical direction, so I took that program off my list (of course this is reductively stated and there's a little more to it than this). In another program I did apply to, a POI works on figures a little different from my own but I really liked how she described her research project in her most recent book; I thought it was actually important and I "vibed" with her ideas/rationale. So, for Boulder, I liked that their Modernists were focused on visual culture and that a lot of faculty there work on literature and other arts. There were other more practical factors, like the fact that I'm trying to stay as close to the West Coast as possible, and I was also trying to increase my odds by applying to a higher number of schools, not all of which were perfect fits (but each had something I could like about it). I am also not as concerned about ranking because I want to focus on who can help me do my best work. Also, I know that my "stats" like GPAs are not competitive at schools that are in the top 20, so I think I was pretty practical in realizing that, if I wanted a shot to do a PhD, then I needed to focus on schools that are more in the 40 to 60 range. Even still, there are schools here like Boulder and Oregon, where I was also just rejected from, that are very popular for a variety of reasons that make it hard to cut through and make it in.

I've used this same rationale, too. Some acceptances would make for a difficult "match-up" between programs and put pressure on me to choose based on factors other than fit with faculty (which is my #1 factor), such as proximity to family/S.O.. I'm basically waiting on Utah to notify, and apparently the WUStL admission process is "ongoing" (though I'm skeptical of that).

I'm out at Boulder. I'm at least happy that they notified sooner rather than later, and I knew it was a long shot anyway. Hoping you other Boulder applicants fared better!

I think I actually posted it on another thread, but I've been receiving emails back from my inquiries about my status at pending program. Not all of them have been helpful. One that I'm curious about is what the coordinator at WUStL wrote back to me. I saw notifications of admissions go up a long time ago, I think start of Feb. When I submitted my app, I was informed mid-Feb. is when they would get back to me, so I decided to email about it once the calendar turned March and still no word. I just got a response from the coordinator saying the process is still ongoing and that they will get back to me by mid-March at the latest. I just find it strange that this is so much longer than their original stated timeline. Is this normal? I'm also curious if anyone has received a rejection from this school, or if only acceptances have gone out? Any other applicants out there? I kind of want to ask her if this means I'm on some type of wait list, but don't know if this is impertinent or if know that will even make a difference -- I'd still have to wait. Or, it could just be a super generic email and has nothing to do my specific application. I'd also like to see if there are any other U of Arizona or TAMU admits out there considering the programs. Perhaps I'll start a thread for people to discuss the decision making process, but I'm just anxious to hear from my last few schools still!

I've gotten some replies to the email inquiries I made this morning to programs where I have implied rejections, each falling somewhere within the broad spectrum between definitive and cryptic. I'm with the rest of you in that these late notifications are making me anxious about the looming decision deadline. I have a couple left that would be pretty big game changers if I were to be accepted. Also, I would really like to visit the programs I'm accepted to. I've already thought about ways to rearrange my schedule to visit TAMU, but I don't want to announce any changes to my students about our class schedule until I know if I will have to do more rearranging. I also need to ask for time off from my second job, but want to know all of the dates before doing so.

I cross-posted with you, DaniB23. Hahaha, that's pretty definitive

No, I haven't heard anything myself, but another person on GC asked the dept. about notifications, and apparently mid-March is their target for notifications. Now, I'm not sure if that would be acceptances or rejections. Don't they only accept 4 people anyway? Perhaps I shouldn't hold my breath. I think I'll contact the schools I have implied rejections at today (and probably through tomorrow too -- it seems A LOT of my schools are slow at getting around to rejections), and maybe the schools where I have "live" applications later next week if I don't hear anything.

Congrats all on the recent acceptances!

I'm also interested in this. Having a couple of offers I'm happy with, I'd like to more seriously enter the decision-making phase without wondering if another offer will derail my entire thought process (I'm also trying to plan for visit days, which entails altering my class schedule and finding subs). I'd also just like to officially move on from schools who have notified long ago.

Thanks, too, EmmaJava! I also noticed the regional overlap and thought I should plan a road trip . I appreciate the reading recs too! As an adjunct piecing together employment, I don't have a whole lot of time to read during the semester. Now that I actually have to be a PhD student, though, I am planning some pretty epic reading lists to cover stuff I (a) should have read but didn't or (b) think I would be expected to know (as a Modernist/Victorianist). I usually don't do as much contemporary fiction, unfortunately, but I can see myself getting into some Stephen Graham Jones.

Congratulations on your funded offer! P.S.: I was also inordinately excited to change my signature on grad cafe when I received my first acceptance