woolfie

The bitter cynic in me agrees with you. But then again... when I see billionaire celebrities spending their money on plastering themselves with designer names and houses on every continent, it's refreshing to see someone who uses his money to better himself. If he was taking funding away from someone else to do this, then it would be unethical. But he's paying his way to spend his time learning and being immersed in an academic community. While we who are trying to start careers see it as somewhat superficial, I wish more people would spend their money on reading, writing, and critical thinking as what one does in their free time and on a whim like this guy does, even if it's obviously not going anywhere. He doesn't have to go anywhere, he's set.

A school I was very interested in was very generous with travel funds and very nice about everything, yet I just have a better offer. Some schools have just sent me emails and not really shown as much interest, so I'm just going to turn them down with a kind of generic email. But as far as the two schools that I have met with faculty and visited and which spent money on me, is it a faux pas to tell them why I'm not choosing them? I have an offer I can't refuse and these schools I feel like deserve a better explanation than "it's with regrets that I must withdraw my application." I feel obligated to let them know my better offer. Is that appropriate?

EDIT: Oh man, I hate it when I make typos in an English forum.

If it were a 9-5 I'd say do it. But a PhD program? Ever second is valuable when you are in graduate school; I personally think not living within walking distance of a campus is too far, I need to spend ALL of my time devoted to research, writing, and teaching. Especially since, why do you want to live on Manhattan? It seems like you will only be paying through the nose to live in a place you can't enjoy because you are in a PhD program in a different city.

The bitter cynic in me agrees with you. But then again... when I see billionaire celebrities spending their money on plastering themselves with designer names and houses on every continent, it's refreshing to see someone who uses his money to better himself. If he was taking funding away from someone else to do this, then it would be unethical. But he's paying his way to spend his time learning and being immersed in an academic community. While we who are trying to start careers see it as somewhat superficial, I wish more people would spend their money on reading, writing, and critical thinking as what one does in their free time and on a whim like this guy does, even if it's obviously not going anywhere. He doesn't have to go anywhere, he's set.

The bitter cynic in me agrees with you. But then again... when I see billionaire celebrities spending their money on plastering themselves with designer names and houses on every continent, it's refreshing to see someone who uses his money to better himself. If he was taking funding away from someone else to do this, then it would be unethical. But he's paying his way to spend his time learning and being immersed in an academic community. While we who are trying to start careers see it as somewhat superficial, I wish more people would spend their money on reading, writing, and critical thinking as what one does in their free time and on a whim like this guy does, even if it's obviously not going anywhere. He doesn't have to go anywhere, he's set.

My SO and i just signed a lease for an apt in seattle, and we have a cat. We had kind of a hard time finding a place, actually. We found that most apartments had a no-pet policy (about 60 - 70% I would guess), and most of the ones that did allow cats were a little pricier. Most of the places we looked at wanted an extra $15 or $25 a month for having a cat, and many of them charged a non-refundable "pet fee" of several hundred dollars in addition to the security deposit. We kept looking though, and I'm glad we did. We ended up finding an adorable apt in wallingford that we're very happy with, and there's no pet charge in the rent and only a small, refundable additional security deposit. It seemed that small, independent landlords were generally more understanding about the cat thing; the big apartment buildings had the highest fees on average, I think.
As a side note, I was surprised at how quickly the craigslist renting scene moved - we would often call someone who had posted a listing for an apartment the same day, only to find out that the place had already been rented. So my advice would be to wait until you're physically in seattle if possible, and then check craigslist several times a day and follow up on new postings immediately. It's very much a first-come-first-served market and the best apartments get snatched up pretty quickly.
Good luck! It's a beautiful city - have fun.

Comparing UCI students to CC students - expecting that, under normal circumstances, university students would be more intelligent than CC students - is incorrect and rude.

I feel bad saying this because I do know people who have gone through the Chicago MAPH and had great experiences. But, the faculty that I've encountered at my current program and others whom I've spoken to (not to mention my undergraduate advisors, who strongly discouraged me from applying when I brought it up as a potential MA app option) don't have great things to say about it and generally don't seem to respect it as a program very much. Even if a reputation is unfair, perception can mean a lot, and if adcoms perceive your MA program as sort of a consolation prize/cash cow that has lower admissions standards and accepts too many people just to get their money (which is how I've heard the MAPH described by faculty), that's not insignificant. Please note that I don't know enough about the MAPH personally to gauge if this is an accurate characterization or totally unfair--it certainly might be the latter--but it's how an awful lot of faculty from several programs have described it to me, and they're the ones deciding on PhD applications.


That said, I've met several students who have done the MA at UVA and have gone onto be really, really successful in PhD applications. I've heard little about this program specifically from faculty--frankly, it doesn't come up often in idle conversation, as the MAPH sometimes does--but at least I've never heard anything negative.

Re: Chicago vs. Charlottesville. By all accounts the MAPH is SO rigorous that you may not have much time to enjoy Chicago's great cultural and urban offerings anyway. And while you may be less "anonymous" in the large town/small city of Charlottesville, at Chicago you'd be in Hyde Park, which is not the greatest area, and you may not have much time to get out and about elsewhere.


By the way, sorry for the brand new profile. I was an active member of GradCafe under a different name but have recently switched usernames due to privacy issues.

I think that the above advice is good, however I think if you have funded offers you should choose them over the unfunded one. In this economy and market, there's no reason to turn down money to get an English MA. The work you do is the most important. I do not deny the above advice about having more time, getting access to great faculty, etc. But I guess it depends on how "lowly ranked" your other schools are. If they are anywhere in the top 75, I think they are fine. Unless you have stellar credit, no debt, and tons of money, take the funded offer. While being free from teaching might be a bonus to some, teaching experience is invaluable to me. I haven't taught before and I need to see if it's something I can do, something I will love or hate, etc. Maybe you are in a different situation, but the teaching experience is part of what I want out of an MA. If you decide to not go on to the phd after, and want to teach at community college or high school, that teaching experience is going to get you that, not an MA with no teaching.

So yeah, it depends on what you want out of it, your financial situation, and your personality. In MY case, I would take the funded offer.

If it were a 9-5 I'd say do it. But a PhD program? Ever second is valuable when you are in graduate school; I personally think not living within walking distance of a campus is too far, I need to spend ALL of my time devoted to research, writing, and teaching. Especially since, why do you want to live on Manhattan? It seems like you will only be paying through the nose to live in a place you can't enjoy because you are in a PhD program in a different city.

I think that the above advice is good, however I think if you have funded offers you should choose them over the unfunded one. In this economy and market, there's no reason to turn down money to get an English MA. The work you do is the most important. I do not deny the above advice about having more time, getting access to great faculty, etc. But I guess it depends on how "lowly ranked" your other schools are. If they are anywhere in the top 75, I think they are fine. Unless you have stellar credit, no debt, and tons of money, take the funded offer. While being free from teaching might be a bonus to some, teaching experience is invaluable to me. I haven't taught before and I need to see if it's something I can do, something I will love or hate, etc. Maybe you are in a different situation, but the teaching experience is part of what I want out of an MA. If you decide to not go on to the phd after, and want to teach at community college or high school, that teaching experience is going to get you that, not an MA with no teaching.

So yeah, it depends on what you want out of it, your financial situation, and your personality. In MY case, I would take the funded offer.

No, we don't have a waitlist. It's not impossible that we might delay an acceptance, but don't plan for it.

Jonathan Shewchuk
Associate Professor
CS Division
UC Berkeley

I took a trip up there about three weeks ago (not an official visit, only to see a friend) and was told by the secretary that MA announcements would be at the beginning of April. You can imagine my surprise. I hate to think that she might have been speaking of the rejections, and with her privy knowledge pitied me for all my ignorance.

Best of luck to you. I hope the answers come sooner.

RockDenali, you seem doggedly determined to get a rise out of the literary studies folks, and I’m not entirely sure why. Granted, you could have meant for the comments you made to come across ironically, however they don’t naturally lend themselves to that interpretation. Whichever you intended, I’m surprised anyone who studies languages and communication (literature or rhet/comp) doesn’t take extra special care to guard tone while participating in an online forum, where the absence of intonation and body language in conversation increases the likelihood of miscommunication.

In any case, I don’t know why seemingly apropos of nothing you’ve chosen to post antagonistic remarks in a thread where people are legitimately trying to provide the OP and others with helpful advice. We all have varying interests within the English discipline (none of which, in my opinion, maintain an inherently superior or inferior status to another, but contribute to a collective understanding of the language), and whether they’re literature, rhet/comp, Early Modern studies, Victorian studies, or flying carpet theory, there’s no need to discredit the posts of literary studies GCers (especially on the basis that we can’t seriously consider their input because they focus on literature rather than rhet/comp—which, speaking of argument analysis, I believe is an ad hominem.). Personally, I view rhet/comp methodology as critical to my literary studies approaches, so I take particular offense at some of the assumptions you make about scholars in my field. What’s more, setting one field against another is unnecessary, unproductive, and worst of all, destructive; as society continues to dismiss the relevance of the humanities, those of us who recognize and believe in their intrinsic value need to band together and endeavor to put our best intellectual foot forward for the sake of preserving the discipline. We don’t stand a chance if we’re constantly bickering among ourselves.

I assure you that I’m not trying to pick a fight here, RockDenali. I’ve read some of your posts in other topics, and I sincerely appreciate your contributions. I think you’ve made many insightful, down-to-earth comments that others have undoubtedly found helpful—hence why I’m particularly confused by these aggressive bursts. Sorry for the monologue: I just want the sandbox to be as amiable an environment as possible.

letting me pay the rest of the postage for an absurdly large acceptance letter to a program I did not apply for.



Sincerely,

Catherinian

A school I was very interested in was very generous with travel funds and very nice about everything, yet I just have a better offer. Some schools have just sent me emails and not really shown as much interest, so I'm just going to turn them down with a kind of generic email. But as far as the two schools that I have met with faculty and visited and which spent money on me, is it a faux pas to tell them why I'm not choosing them? I have an offer I can't refuse and these schools I feel like deserve a better explanation than "it's with regrets that I must withdraw my application." I feel obligated to let them know my better offer. Is that appropriate?

EDIT: Oh man, I hate it when I make typos in an English forum.

After reading your blog, I'd say your proper home is with us rhetoricians, compositionists, and applied linguists. Ditch literature. Academic literary studies is nothing but a giant circle jerk. Do you really want to be someone who can crack a joke about "The Laughing Medusa" or talk for more than two minutes about post-colonial queer theory's relation to contemporary Caribbean poetry? Psh. Useless. The work you're doing has a place in the academy. Come on over to the rhet/comp pool. Water's nice and warm.

I would think that the absolutely CHEAPEST rent would be in north campus. I mean as far as being close and cheap, north campus is pretty shitty (sorry) so it's cheap. Cheap but far away would be anywhere east of 71 and the railroad tracks. Though that's far away, you'd have to drive, which is expensive. But rent there is cheap. Hope that helps!
 
Yeah, honestly, I think people live in Clintonville because it's nice yet cheap.. .but its far away enough that you are either going to have a 20-30 min commute or pay for parking. I really really recommend living in the Victorian village, short north, Italian village area. Clintonville kind of sucks.

Congratulations! That's wonderful news. I see you were accepted to Mizzou too (that's just down the road from my undergrad institution). Hooray for the midwest!

I just called Sue Hart about when we would receive notifications and she was quite cheerful in saying "I'm working on it! I should get everything loaded in just a few minutes." I hope that's true! I'll be waiting patiently at my computer until then.

I received a phone call yesterday afternoon notifying me that I had been accepted into the program. $15,000 stipend for 5 years, tuition waiver, health benefits, etc. The DGS mentioned I was at the top of the list for admits, and the committee had just finished making final decisions. So perhaps I was one of the first to know and the news will trickle in slowly for other admits. No mention on the size of the cohort (I didn't ask). I was a bit surprised they offered to fly me out for a campus visit, considering some of the things I've read on Gradcafe regarding the funding issues at UNL. It was a very pleasant phone call. Don't know if I'll take the offer because I'm leaning toward another school (and have waitlist possibilities), but this will make me pause and consider my options. Best of luck to the rest of you waiting to hear news.

I emailed them and here is their reply:
The committee will meet this afternoon and notification will begin on Tuesday.

Yeah, it's the last program I'm waiting to hear from as well, and even though I don't expect to get in, I'd like to get closure on it. I looked up their academic calendar and found that they're on spring break this week, which would explain why the DGA is away, but doesn't explain why the grad secretary was there when I called yesterday. Go figure. So basically, I think we probably won't hear anything until next Monday at the earliest, when they all come back from spring break. Hang in there!

The governor in my state has vowed to cut funding to public education and has said publicly "Ohio doesn't benefit from research papers lost in a drawer somewhere." I don't want to offend or argue about politics, but just as far as public education goes, politically right now it is not valued at all and schools, at least in the Midwest, are quickly losing more and more funding because of attitudes like this. It depresses me so much that bank bailouts are okay but public school teachers are the enemy of fiscal responsibility.

Sorry for the politics rant- I agree that paying to do a PhD is probably the worst investment of all time. GETTING PAID to do a PhD is slowly become a bad investment as well, when you taking into consideration the time spent living on patlry stipends (I think some people do take out partial loans when they've got a stipend of 9K) compared with the rates of finding a job after the PhD. They ain't that high right now.

The governor in my state has vowed to cut funding to public education and has said publicly "Ohio doesn't benefit from research papers lost in a drawer somewhere." I don't want to offend or argue about politics, but just as far as public education goes, politically right now it is not valued at all and schools, at least in the Midwest, are quickly losing more and more funding because of attitudes like this. It depresses me so much that bank bailouts are okay but public school teachers are the enemy of fiscal responsibility.

Sorry for the politics rant- I agree that paying to do a PhD is probably the worst investment of all time. GETTING PAID to do a PhD is slowly become a bad investment as well, when you taking into consideration the time spent living on patlry stipends (I think some people do take out partial loans when they've got a stipend of 9K) compared with the rates of finding a job after the PhD. They ain't that high right now.

The governor in my state has vowed to cut funding to public education and has said publicly "Ohio doesn't benefit from research papers lost in a drawer somewhere." I don't want to offend or argue about politics, but just as far as public education goes, politically right now it is not valued at all and schools, at least in the Midwest, are quickly losing more and more funding because of attitudes like this. It depresses me so much that bank bailouts are okay but public school teachers are the enemy of fiscal responsibility.

Sorry for the politics rant- I agree that paying to do a PhD is probably the worst investment of all time. GETTING PAID to do a PhD is slowly become a bad investment as well, when you taking into consideration the time spent living on patlry stipends (I think some people do take out partial loans when they've got a stipend of 9K) compared with the rates of finding a job after the PhD. They ain't that high right now.