HelloKaty37

So I was accepted last week to my top-choice school, plenty of funding, and there is absolutely no doubt that I will be accepting their offer. Now that the shock has worn off, I am now wondering about these other applications I have floating out there. At this point in the game, is there even any point in withdrawing them? I want to give other applicants who actually want to go there as much of a chance as possible of getting in, but I'm wondering if this would be of any more benefit to them than just replying asap with a polite "no" if I get more acceptances, since the adcomms should already be meeting by now. (Surely they're almost done... surely?!) There is one side of me that really wants to know my final tally (like a grad app win-loss record), but that would be cruel if it made others have to wait longer to get into a school they want to attend. Any thoughts?

Yeah; I'm definitely excited! I grew up as a rabid Notre Dame football fan, so this is like a dream come true. I actually have been looking into the housing situation a lot online, and I visited last summer to get a feel for the different neighborhoods. I really liked the area just south of ND between it and IUSB. I think they call it the riverside area or something along those lines. A lot of little houses (1-4 bedrooms, rent or buy) were there and it seemed like a predominately student and young family oriented area. A large chunk of my family lives in Niles, MI (about a 10 min drive north of South Bend) so they kind of know the area and they advised me against going south or west of the river. Mishawaka also seems to have some nice housing around their big shopping center. I think that may be called University Park, but once again my memory for names is a little fuzzy. I hear Granger in general is nice, but I'm personally not willing to live that far from campus. I have found these two rental agencies to be helpful, and Blue & Gold Rentals has even agreed to let me look at some houses for pre-leasing during the visit weekend in March. http://bluegoldrentals.com/ http://www.bumbacahouses.com/ Will you be taking the trip there in March? I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone then.

My fluff is probably even fluffier lol. I'm currently working on Julie & Julia and after that will continue working my way through all the recommended authors on Sophie Kinsella's Amazon page (probably Jennifer Weiner next). I read chick lit to keep myself sane among all the dense material I read for class. As for (slightly) more serious works, I would like to re-read American Gods and Good Omens and maybe some more Irish legends.

night school

I'm going into the Ph.D. in Literature program. Anyone else on their way to South Bend this fall?

I'm with coyabean on this one. I have more plans than all my friends and family members (of about my age) put together. 1. Finish off strong in grad school and don't burn out/grow a distaste for academia while writing my dissertation. Get awesome career as a professor, but ideally as one who does more teaching than research. Guessing that would not be TT. 2. Finish off strong in grad school, get the Ph.D. and decide I would rather not be a professor. In this case, I become a professional baker, work my way up in the wedding cake industry, possibly gaining a Food Network show/special. 3. Same as #2, but rather than spending all day in a hot bakery, I utilize my knowledge of literature to write a best selling novel. 4. Finish grad school (strong or not), become high school English/Latin/Italian teacher. 5. Scrap all of this, move to Ireland, have lots of kids, and raise an entire clan of academic bada**es and one future NFL safety. (J/k on this one... or am I?)

One of my profs was actually talking about this today. She said specifically that she has known people who got all their degrees from Harvard and had a difficult time finding work after graduation because of the lack of diversity in their schooling. So I would bet it has less to do with how awesome the school is and much more to do with what you can produce at the school that makes it an exception to the rule. If you find that your alma mater is the only place you are accepted where you feel a good "fit" or where you can do good work, I would think that would work in your favor when explaining to future employers why you stayed.

Another medievalist here. Medievalmaniac, where have you studied Celtic languages? I'm very interested in the Ulster Cycle, but my undergrad university lost its Irish professors just before I came here. Now it looks like I will just have to pick it up in bits and pieces on my own or in graduate school. Has anyone ever heard of someone using literature in their dissertation that they didn't have the language for going into graduate school? I'm advertising myself as a Danteist to potential programs, which is accurate since I am very interested in his work and his influence on Boccaccio, but I would much prefer to spend several years comparing the ideal of the warrior-hero in Anglo Saxon and Celtic literature.