anxiousphd

Hi Jose, At Duquesne, I think you might enjoy working with Emad Mirmotahari, Greg Barnhisel, and Linda Kinnahan. Emad is a Postcolonial scholar, and the latter two profs are modernists. It sounds like you’re a very competitive applicant. Funding is guaranteed for 4 years for all PhD students, and virtually guaranteed for a 5th year (the first 4 years are a teaching fellowship, while the 5th year could be a different sort of fellowship). Some students secure funding through the department or university for their 6th year, although it is rarely necessary for a student to spend more than 5 years on their PhD here. Please feel free to message me for more info about Duquesne! -Courtney

Hi, I did my MA at Wake Forest and I’m in the PhD program at Duquesne. I was partially funded at Wake (ended up paying about $20,000 when all was said and done), but at least 2 students per semester get full funding, including a Writing Center assistantship and a stipend. Duquesne has similar funding for MAs, but the fellowship is for teaching and the stipend is higher, as far as I know. All students are at least partially funded and there are additional assistantships available. There should be 2-3 teaching fellowships, a fellowship with Women’s and Gender Studies, and a position as admin/office assistant available next year. Wake has a perfectly good program, but if I had known about Duquesne’s MA program at the time, I definitely would have rather been at Duquesne. Its really an amazing department.

I'm not sure what other schools offer, but a student in my MA program was able to get housing on campus and funding by working as a Residential Director. It seemed like a fairly time-consuming gig, but it might be a good way to save money.

Hello all, I'm moving to Pittsburgh in a month (!!!) and I found an apartment I really like with Mozart Management (http://www.mozartrents.com/). I had the opportunity to visit and tour 2 buildings and 4 apartments before choosing my favorite, but they also allow you to do an "Instarent" online if you won't be able to visit before renting. The application and leasing process are very thorough--and frankly kind of a pain in the ass--but it made me feel like everything had been thought of and handled. Most of their apartments (maybe even all of them, I'm not sure) include utilities, so there's one less thing to worry about each month. They also allow pets in many of their buildings, but charge a pet rent ($35 for me, possibly different for other buildings). They did require my parents to co-sign, and it seemed like this might be their general policy for students, but they easily accepted my parents' middle-class income. They have an 'apartment search' tool on their website, so you can see what is available for your move-in date, in your budget, in your preferred neighborhood. Good luck to anyone still searching for a place to live!

I tend to agree with this, but much like @fuzzylogician I'm not sure what options I have for dealing with this when I'm in a position of little to no power. With students, I like fuzzy's firm-yet-accommodating approach, but I've been at a loss as to how to deal with this from faculty in the past. I absolutely think they're wrong/disrespectful/unprofessional to blow off meetings or consistently arrive late, but I never feel like I can say that to them. @MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou, one of my favorite professors during my MA was like this. She was amazing to talk with about lit and theory, and I learned so much when was a TA for her. However, she rarely responded to emails at all, let alone in a timely manner. We did an independent study together, and she often rescheduled our weekly meetings because she had forgotten to do the reading. Sometimes when I really needed her, I could count on her. She met with me multiple times to workshop my Writing Sample. She was a great second reader for my thesis. Other times, she really dropped the ball. She turned in nearly all of my LORs past the deadlines, and I can't help but wonder if that hurt my chances of admission at some PhD programs. Based on my experience, I would say that you should be wary of working with an 'unreliable' professor (if you discover that this is in fact his style and not a summer thing or a fluke) on major, time-sensitive projects, but that he may be someone wonderful to learn from and build a more informal relationship with.

I completed my undergrad in a department that was not at all rigorous. I was generally able to get away with doing my work last minute, skipping some or all of the reading, and not paying much attention in class. I still made almost all 'A's. There were a few courses (literary theory, gender and sexuality in lit) which challenged me, and I would not have been at all prepared for grad school without them. Other than my undergrad honors thesis, which was roughly 25 pages, I had never written a paper longer than 10 pages. I got really lucky that I managed to become self-motivated during my last two years of undergrad, because I could have easily gone all four years without becoming much of a scholar. My MA program was the first time I ever really had to work at school. My first year, I read an average of 1,000 pages a week. I wrote papers three times as long as what I wrote in undergrad. I was unprepared for the work-as-you-go expectation of grad school, so I wrote most of my final papers in the span of four days during the first semester. They (mostly) turned out pretty good, but after that semester I learned to start working on papers much earlier. After the first semester, I was used to the rigor of graduate school and it's been pretty smooth sailing since then. What I'm getting at here is that if your undergrad was anything like mine, your first semester might be rough. You may also be best to start at an MA program instead of going direct to PhD, so your transition isn't as difficult. But ultimately, if you did well in undergrad and are prepared to work a lot harder, then you will be absolutely fine in grad school. Also, so far most of my graduate courses have been discussion-based, but it's been a lot more interesting and rewarding in grad school when you can assume everyone did the reading and has something useful to contribute.

Look into which MA programs are funded. Although they are relatively rare, there are some MA programs which offer partial or full funding. There may also be Graduate Assistantships available outside of your department. For example, and acquaintance of mine worked as a Residential Director to earn her tuition and a stipend during the MA. If you are unable to get the majority of your MA funded, however, then I think going straight to the PhD would be the better option.

My best friend from my MA program is nearly 8 years older than me! We meshed better than I did with students who are only a few months or a few years older than me. My point is, age really doesn't matter because you and the other members of your cohort are likely to be at a similar place in your lives. I can see there being a greater divide between married and unmarried students, but even that isn't necessarily the case. I agree with the other posters, just be yourself! You wouldn't have been accepted into the program if you didn't come across as mature to the admissions committee!

A good friend of mine met her language requirement for the MA at Boston College using ASL.

Yes, I'm finishing up there now.

I did not teach at all in my MA (except for electing to TA undergrad lit courses for no compensation). I will be teaching 1:1 in my PhD at Duquesne. The first semester, I'll co-teach a course with a student with more advanced standing in the program. After that, I'll be on my own. I will teach first-year writing every fall and an introductory lit course every spring, and they will try to arrange for me to co-teach an upper-level course with a faculty member in my fourth year.

I GOT INTO DUQUESNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you! So far, wine has been the only effective way to forget the anxiety

I just got an email from the DGS at Duquesne: "I just wanted to update you on your waitlist status. The deadline for replying to offers for the PhD program is this Saturday. I have one candidate who I have contacted multiple times and who has never responded; I am assuming that she does not intend to accept the offer. If, by the end of the weekend, we have not heard from her, I will instruct the graduate office to extend an offer to you." I'm freaking out. I think I might actually get in.

I'm not sure, sorry!

I'm stuck on a waitlist, and I was rejected from the other 11 programs to which I applied. The program where I am waitlisted only accepts 4 students, and I am 2nd on the waitlist. As of about 10 days ago, when I last spoke to the DGS, 2 of the 4 who were offered admission had accepted, and 2 had not yet decided. Either both of those people, or one of those and the person ahead of me on the waitlist, would have to decline for me to get in. I feel so hopeless. I feel like there's no chance of me getting in, and that I just have to wait around with my perpetual nausea until they finally tell me it's over. Of course, the 15th falls on a Saturday. I might not know anything until Monday. And it's a holiday weekend, so maybe not even until after that. I know a week isn't that long, but after six months of this I am at the end of my rope. I have a few back-up options, but I'm not thrilled with any of them. I feel horrible all the time. I'm embarrassed because I'll have to tell everyone I got rejected from 12 schools; to people outside of academia who don't know how difficult this is, that just sounds like I'm not good enough. Maybe I'm not.

Yes! I still haven't heard anything from UNC Chapel Hill. I contacted them, per my advisors' suggestions, but they did not respond. I know since I wasn't one of the original waitlists it's a long shot, but it would be a dream come true. I'm second on the waitlist at Duquesne. They only matriculate 4 students. Of those offered admission, so far 2 have accepted. No word on the other 2 or on the person ahead of me on the waitlist. So, I could still get in, but my odds aren't great. I never heard back from U Maryland CP, but I am pretty sure they just can't be bothered to reject me.

I have been similarly frustrated. My advisors think I should reach out to UNC and see what's up (and not-so-subtly emphaisize that I'm still interested in the program), but my instinct is to wait in agony until they tell me. I know I'm almost certainly not getting in, but the possibility really hurts. I would do anything to go there and it feels like they're taunting me. I know they aren't, of course, but it just feels that way.

Thank you both for the information! It's good to know that the uncertainty is probably almost over.

Programs that accepted and waitlisted people weeks ago still have not bothered to reject me. They know they're rejecting me. I know they're rejecting me. But the tiny little 0.001% chance that they are not rejecting me is very painful. Please pull the plug already, UNC and UMD.

Mostly commenting because I want to hear people's answers to this. I'm waitlisted, I know that I am second on the waitlist, but I haven't heard anything in about a week. One part of me knows that probably means that nothing has changed in the last week, but another part of me wants to check in. I've considered checking in under a different pretense (by asking some specific, unrelated questions about the program), but I don't know how obvious that would be.

Since you have other offers, I would suggest contacting the programs. You can use your other offers as a justification for contacting them: you need to know if you're accepted or not because you want to accept/reject your other offer. From what I've heard and in my own opinion, that's one of the best reasons for contacting a program to which you applied.

I didn't go to Villanova, but after applying from an MA-only institution this year, I got the impression that certain programs were less inclined to accept students from programs that don't also grant a PhD. Ohio State's website, for example, seemed to indicate that they only considered MAs for transfer credit if they came from a PhD-granting institution. I may very well have been denied for a myriad of other reasons, but their website made it sound like if I had been admitted, I would have been required to repeat my MA coursework. Take that FWIW, I don't have any inside info or anything.

Possible silver lining: many of my professors/advisors have told me that they prefer--and many people they know on other admissions committees prefer--for graduate students to have taken at least a year off at some point. They think that students who have some time 'off' are less likely to get burnt out and are more likely to complete their dissertations than students who go straight from BA to MA to PhD. My professors also explained that it was beneficial for them to take time off, and they highly recommended I do the same (I'm trying my best not to, but that's another story). So, even though it's painful now, you may become a better graduate student and scholar in the long run because of what seems right now like a setback. Don't give up. I'm sure that you're well-qualified and would be extremely successful in an MA or PhD program, and after taking a few months to refine your application materials, I'm sure admissions committees will agree.

Vent of the Day: No one else who applied to Duquesne's English PhD seems to be active on here this year. I know from the DGS that they offered admission to four people and I am second on the waitlist. Since I have no info on who was accepted, however, I can't gauge how likely they are to decline their offers. I just have to be patient. I don't wanna.