woolfie

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Me too! I keep wavering between a confident excitement about prospects in the future, to anxiety attacks about what I'll do if I don't get accepted. If I had a permanent job right now, it would be easier, but I'm for sure leaving this job (it's seasonal, long story) and everything is riding on these applications. For some reason, all month I've been fine, but this week the anxiety has just hit me.

I spent two years refining my list of schools and now all the deadlines have passed and I'm waiting. Yet I can't stop worrying that I will be rejected from all programs, and I even find myself researching MORE schools, like low tier MA programs. I can't stop thinking about it because this is my second year applying, I'm losing my seasonal job this summer, my boyfriend will be done with his graduate program and out of a job, and I just wouldn't know what to do with myself if I were rejected again. I have some "safety schools" that I sometimes feel like I'm sure I should get into at least one of them, but in this economy, in English, there aren't really any safety schools anymore. I'm so anxious right now. So much is riding on this decision.

This is true. I more so meant fellowship recipients, those with the stellar GRE scores. Which shouldn't mean that they are better candidates than the other admits but, financially, they are treated that way.

I guess I meant the people who get phone calls seem to be first choice, and then there are those who get email/letters. Though, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

I hate to say it, but I think the only people who are going to be contacted in the last week of January are the TIP TOP candidates, it seems like there are only one or two acceptances in that week, and then most of them come mid-february, or the first week of March. I wish I could fast forward to April right now.

Here I am just merely checking the online status every few days. Thanks for giving me a new thing I can obsess over.

So wait, this is a systematic thing? When you apply to Colorado, they send you a "please come to Colorado" junk mail packet? Why on earth would they do that? You already applied there...

Yeah, I can't imagine. I'm at the point where even junk mail gets me excited for .0002 seconds.

Yeah, Ohio just sucks for jobs right now. I am not suprised. Right now I'm on the other end of the relationship/graduate school experience. I have been looking for jobs in Columbus while my partner attended school, and I have only found seasonal positions. Before moving here, I lived in Bloomington, Indiana for over 10 years, so if Oxford is anything like Bloomington, I think I would love it. I miss the small town thing, though I do like having the option to get away from the campus/undergrads which is harder in a small town. Each has its advantages. Well I guess I just need to cross my fingers and hope. I feel ambivalent about my chances. I wonder if being an Ohio resident has any effect on chances. It's probably like everything else, very competitive, they got record applications, etc... sigh.

One other question about Oxford- what is the job situation like? My partner will be moving with me and I'm worried about him finding a job in a small town like that.

One reason I'm so interested in Miami (besides the fact that I'm in Columbus right now and it would be the easiest move for me 0is that I have heard NOTHING but good things from people who have gone there. Everyone speaks so so highly of it and it seems like a very friendly and positive place to have an academic experience. Though most people I know are in Rhet Comp, I'm applying for literature. What do you think of Oxford? Location wise, it's the best for me. Though I worry about living in a very undergraduate-y town. Is it more of a suburb of Cinci or is it too far for that?

Congrats! That's so quick. Miami is one of my top choices, but I didn't hear anything yet. I hope I'm still in the running.

I have one school, I think it's Washington, that requires it. And as someone else pointed out, you might need it for loans, which I'm planning on not using, but you never know what's going to happen. The odds are you probably won't recieve the biggest stipend in the world, and when living on something like 14K a year you might end up needing extra money. I think the best bet is for everyone to submit one.

I applied to the English program too. I think I submitted my app and all the materials around Dec 15th and the site is still not updated. I think they must be behind, because I have post office confirmation that they recieved my materials. Even though it has been an entire month, I think they just take forever to update the site. At least I hope that's what it is!

I don't know about Duke, but UNL sends "status updates" every week. They say if you don't want to recieve them you should unsubscribe. Maybe it is a similar situation and you just need to unsubscribe?

Does anyone know anything about Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's? They have funding for TAships and seem not too competitive and there deadline has not passed yet. I didn't apply to many MAs and am thinking about a last minute application there. Also, does anyone have any insight on being an International student in Canada, specifically from the US? How hard would it be for my partner to get a work permit/move there, etc? I'm afraid I'm incredibly naive about international travel/work/study, I've never really been out of the country.

Can anyone tell me about what it is like living in St. John's, especially for an American student? What is the weather like? How bike friendly, walking friendly is the city? What kind of political leanings do people have? What is the general reputation of MUN? What is the cost of living like, comparable to the US (specifically Ohio)? Thanks!

The best way to research a program is to read faculty bios and the faculty's work. That's a good starting place if you haven't done so already. I know nothing about twentieth century literature so I can't help you there. One thing to keep in mind is cost of living. While most good programs will offer stipends and tuition waivers, the cost of living is going to really determine how much money you make. The East coast is much more expensive than the Midwest or the South and would probably add only a few hours to your trip. I would encourage you to keep an open mind about these areas- there are a lot of great schools in the Midwest from all tiers, Ohio State, Indiana University (great for Victorian lit), Wisconsion-Madison, U of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon just to name a few off the top of my head. And all those places are very affordable.

I hope I don't sound like a jerk, but to me, 50% off tuition doesn't sound like a good deal, especially if you are from out of state. Maybe it's an entitled philosophy to have, but I believe that you shouldn't go to graduate school in English if you have to pay for it. There are MA programs (such as the ones I applied to) and most PhD programs that cover 100% of tuition. Again, don't mean to be a jerk. Maybe it would be worth it if you are in-state and already live near there/have a job there.

Hmm, now I'm wondering if I did the right thing as I did NOT mention my bad grades. I also had a bad first semester: I had a few Fs and some Cs and Ws and I dropped out. My mom had just died, my dad was gone, and I had severe financial problems so I just stopped going to class like an idiot. I asked a professor/recommender if I should explain that and she said no, definitely not if the rest of my transcript was good. She said not to make excuses and not to highlight bad parts of my applications, to make the SoP as positive as possible about my strengths. Since I went back to school 4 years later after this bad semester, got mostly As and Bs with a gpa of 3.70, I agreed with her and did not mention my deficiencies unless I could turn it into a strength. I did mention in the SoP that I worked full-time while getting my degree because I thought that was a highlight of a strength of mine, that I have time management skills, educational administrative experience, etc. But I did not mention my mother's death and the financial problems that led to my depression and dropping out. I think this might have been the right thing to do, as they will see that i had 4 years in between and great grades when returning, but part of me regrets not mentioning it. If a school had a personal statement, like Michigan, I did mention it as it was personal info. But for academic SoPs, I left it out. I'm curious what people think about my choice; I'm still ambivalent. (Maybe it's because right now my job is an admissions evaluator for undergraduate applications and I read undergraduate essays all the time that make excuses for problems that everyone has and I get very tired of reading them. They make the student look bad from my perspective, when I read an essay about how they couldn't get into this one AP class because they had mono one time and this one teacher was mean so their grades weren't as good as they could be if they hadn't had to go to soccer practice every day and also their school levy didn't pass, etc. That's undergrad, though, I know.)

I think you "have a chance" in that you are perfectly qualified and would probably do well at a PhD program (from what very little information I have about you). But it's extremely competitive (some programs can get from 400-700 applications) and at those numbers it's somewhat random and subjective what gets one in. You should do what I think a lot of us with only BAs are doing, apply to the PhD programs that you really like/are a good fit for, but also apply for maybe some terminal MA programs to get a better background in English/figure out a specific and original focus and then reapply to PhD programs with the MA. That is my plan, since my scores and gpa are probably not competitive enough for the PhD programs I want, and I'm expecting to get rejected from all PhD programs. Honestly I really have no idea what to expect as far as acceptances, and you should take my opinion with a grain of salt. I tend to set my expectations low as to be surprised when I succeed, which might not be the best advice . The common wisdom on this forum is that there are no safety schools, which I agree with, but I do think there are schools and programs that you have a better chance of getting into than others, just by the numbers alone. So my advice is to cast a wide net, but also to make sure you are good fit for the schools that you do chose.

You should definitely contact them, but as a rule I usually trust English department's websites over Graduate School websites. Though every university has different protocols, some emphasizing the Graduate School while others handle it all in the department. Which is why you have to contact them.

I somewhat agree with the original post, but I don't think it has to be so all or nothing. Maybe the OP just got nothing out of a lot of the advice because he/she did his/her research so well. But, for example, there are so many posts asking "OMG I got a 710 on the verbal, should I retake it for a 790 which is what I HAVE to get to get into school X?" And those people are always given the best advice: that mincing scores and obsessing about numbers will not make a better application. And I think that is the best advice, not just anecdotal, uncorroborated evidence of which we will never know what the right answer is. It's true. Does anyone else disagree? I don't think anyone would. I think there are some basic things that are just true such as the above example. Some people need to be told that. Yes they could get that answer from a faculty member, but we are all worried about bothering faculty with too many questions since they are writing our LoRs for us, and it's just so much easier to ask a forum than a faculty member. As for other more esoteric questions about applications, no, we can't know their answers. People always say "take this with a grain of salt" or "I don't serve on an adcomm so I'm not sure..." and I think everyone keeps this in mind, or at least should. I never trust a post to be the end all be all of what to do about an application. I know it's an opinion. And our discussing these things is not to find out the truth, but to creatively brainstorm, to put ourselves in the place of an adcomm so that we can visualize a better application. I think it's a very functional and helpful way to get through the application process. (clarity)

What is your area?