sarahchristine

Hello Everyone,
Got a call yesterday from the head of English Graduate Admissions at Notre Dame with an invitation to fly out (at their expense) for a "recruitment" weekend.
Can't help but feel this is a good sign, yes?
 
 

Remember: literally everyone who has ever applied to graduate school has had a typo in one of their materials somewhere. I'm sure there are errors bad enough to take people out of the running! That said, if departments only took students who never omitted a word somewhere, every graduate classroom everywhere would be empty.
At about this point in the application process, I recommend this website: https://calmingmanatee.com/

I think most MA programs don't expect you to have figured out your research interests. The MA allows you to take a variety of courses to better figure out your research interests. As a result, most MA programs are checking to see if they believe you would succeed working at a higher level. This differs from PHD programs because they're more focused on "fit".

 

Hey all -- I'm in my first year of my program and I was thinking today about this time last year and my worries about my apps and my chances and all that.
So I just wanted to drop a note saying to breathe. You'll be okay. Just work systematically and carefully. Focus on the sentence in front of you. 
You can spend a lot of emotional energy freaking out about your chances, but that actually won't help at all. The only thing that'll help is keeping yourself sane and working on the things that you can actually control. Spend time with your friends and family and know that this'll all be over soon. You can do it!!