Warelin
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46
Posts posted by Warelin
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28 minutes ago, upsy said:
I'm not sure what living situation you are in or what salary history you have, but $20k, for a 12-month stipend, is very low almost anywhere. $20k is equivalent to being paid $9.62 an hour (using 40hrs/wk, 52 wk/yr). I didn't check every location in the US, but the living wage calculator you provide gives $11.04/hr ($23k yearly) as the living wage for a single adult, even in Mississippi. In New York City, it's $15.07/hr ($33k annually), and even in Oklahoma City, it's $11.27/hr. $20k is below the living wage there; it's not remotely "high". The $3k difference between the living wage and a $20k stipend offer might seem small, but at the margins, a few thousand dollars matters.
I never claimed that a 20k stipend was high. I said it could be considered high depending on where the program is located. In some places, living on 20k without roommates is doable. In other places, you'll need a roommate or two and/or a long commute to make it work. The living wage calculator also includes higher medical costs (which most universities provide within their funding package at a much-reduced cost) as well as taxes which are higher than the stipend would require. As a general rule of thumb, you don't pay social security taxes or medicare taxes when you're on a fellowship because you're exempt. Most universities also don't consider you "full time" for their records. Grad Students are usually seen as individuals that work 20 hours per week and most universities don't provide stipends for the full 12 months but rather at 9, 10 or 11 months. Some universities provide additional opportunities for summer funding which also allow you to increase your stipend.
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2 minutes ago, irgradcafe said:
On a rather different note - how do you guys define 'low' funding? Say - 5 years of guaranteed funding with $20,000 each year - is that considered low? Sorry if I asked a stupid question, I'm new to this
This depends on the city. 20k is low for living in New York City, but can be considered high for living in Oklahoma City. MIT has a living wage calculator that can give you a better idea of the local cost of living in various cities.
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1 minute ago, sugilite said:
From the list of projected acceptance dates, it seems like Berkeley generally notifies over a few days. @Warelin, am I interpreting this correctly?
You are interpreting that correctly!
- Musmatatus and stressbot3000
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3 hours ago, bardie said:
Edit: If anyone knows anything about UCLA's history of waitlist acceptances, I'd be interested to know. @Warelin might have some insight?
The only thing I know about UCLA is that they have a history of sending acceptances to more people than they have spots for in the incoming class. This is common practice for most programs. If I recall correctly, I think UCLA does not have a ranked waitlist. All this means is that you'll need either 1 or 2 people from your subfield to reject their offer before they move to the waitlist.
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2 hours ago, kendalldinniene said:
That feeling when you accidentally copy and paste your email in the results forum... @Warelin can an admin remove?
Is today over yet?
Unfortunately, not something I have access to. If you report it though, an admin can take care of it. Alternatively, I think using the contact us forum and explaining the issue will also result in fast action.
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2 minutes ago, Bopie5 said:
Holding out some (realistic) hope that it'll work out this year, but making peace with the fact that it might not, and if it doesn't work out this year, it just means I'll be a stronger applicant with more knowledge of programs and myself, more equipped to truly end up in the right place next year.
I think you'll go far with that attitude! It is so hard to tell what admission committees want in any given year because we don't know in what direction they're heading. I think making strides to learn more about yourself as an applicant and taking steps to immerse yourself can only strengthen how you appear to any committee though.
- Bopie5 and vondafkossum
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2 minutes ago, FiguresIII said:
also got an invitation to NYU's comp lit interview day AHHH ?
Congrats! Looks like you'll have some very hard decisions to make in the future.
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7 minutes ago, snorkles said:
In at Chicago..........
Congrats!
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Bumping this back up as a reminder.
- vondafkossum, Junebug01, Bopie5 and 3 others
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1 hour ago, dilby said:
A dear friend of mine was just admitted to Johns Hopkins! He's an early modernist focusing on melancholy and performance criticism, and has written quite a lot on metatheatre. Hope this info helps you all!
Congrats to your friend!
56 minutes ago, briwriteshere said:Accepted at Johns Hopkins and I am freaking out!!!! ?
You're slaying this app cycle!
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11 minutes ago, kendalldinniene said:
OOF good thing I already had zero expectation of getting in ?
Edit: Just reread the e-mail that I received in an earlier year. 1-5 is the range that I was given on the number of applicants they accept!
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11 minutes ago, placeinspace said:
Lmao 4?! Glad I can add another school to my implied rejection list. At least Boulder wasn’t a top choice for me!
I think it's also good to note that smaller cohorts are not uncommon. Graduate Programs are becoming increasingly sensitive to the market and most are attempting to provide their graduates with as many resources as they can. Chicago and Johns Hopkins were traditionally huge programs with cohorts of 20+. In recent years, Johns Hopkins has chosen to accept between 0 and 6 candidates for each cohort.
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9 minutes ago, beirut said:
I’m not sure about making that visit time either, but I’ll definitely schedule something in March if I can! My focus period is 20th-century American with an emphasis in African American literature and Southern studies.
I was wondering the same thing about the fellowship—I got it too, and also got the vibe that it was pretty common. Maybe it’s their standard offer? Either way, I’m absolutely ecstatic!!
The standard offer from Illinois is a fellowship plus teaching one course per semester during the first year. The stipend increase during the second year is in exchange for teaching two courses per semester. I'm not sure if teaching two courses is guaranteed. An enhanced offer includes an increased stipend plus no teaching for up to 3 years. I think there's usually a nomination process for the latter.
- M(allthevowels)H and beirut
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6 minutes ago, mandelbulb said:
uh i had pretty much accepted that i'd be shut-out, but i'm admitted at UCSD too...
41 minutes ago, Bottle-o-Red said:Uncloaking to say one of those is mine. Thanks! It was my only solidly Literature program this round, and a long shot - I came to it via a pretty nontraditional path. But it's a good place for me and I'll likely say Yes.
Congrats to both of you!
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I think Application Season is wonderful practice for the Academic Job Market. Each job on the job market will want a number of different documents. The length of these documents will also differ at each school. Application Season (while stressful) allows everyone to become better aquainted with each school they're interested in and learn how to tailor their application to each school they're applying to which is a crucial skill when applying on the Job Market. The practice allows you to think carefully about what you enjoy doing and which schools align well with your interests and your values in the future. (Are you interested in research? Teaching?) Are you sensitive to temperatures? What about area? How do you feel about a large lecture?How do you feel about small schools? After Graduate School, there are a lot more schools which have the potential to hire you. According to World Atlas, there are 3,026 4-year institutions. That's a lot of work to catch up on if you aren't sure what you're looking for within a university.
I think the biggest part this would cause is a huge increase in the number of applications. Less work means people who aren't passionate might apply anyway to get in. In turn, this will lead to less-interested professors who only applied because they were trying to delay something else in life without really caring about what that thing was. On the flipside, it might also mean that universities will only look at students who listed their university at the number 1 or 2 spot because these students are more likely to accept their offer. I don't see that going well for many people. The SOP is crucial because it allows professors to not get overbooked and different people might be interested in the same professor for different aspects. Without the SOP, professors would have to spend more time looking over applications on top of their additional responsibilities which often include teaching, academic advising, publishing, academic meetings, serving on other committees, applying for tenure/trying to get a promotion and so on. -
On 2/1/2019 at 3:09 PM, spatial_person said:
Whats that sappy quote from Dead Poet's Society about doctors saving lives, but poetry gives people a reason to live? That.
"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."
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Just now, spectrum-in said:
I love that spreadsheet! I was hoping to augment the specific funding information with other headings like teaching load, lowest-highest temps, etc. I'll think more on this!
The sheet does have teaching loads on it; usually either under the teaching requirements. Adding lowest-highest temperatures gets a bit trickier because a major cold front can happen at anytime which could significantly alter expectations. It's possible that the temperature drop is so drastic despite it normally being warmer than other cities which didn't experience such a rare low.
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10 minutes ago, lyonel_ said:
strange that a UCSD rejection is on the board before even one acceptance... ?
They did the same thing last year. https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=ucsd+english&t=a&o=&pp=25
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2 hours ago, swarthmawr said:
This CUNY email was sent to people who didn’t apply, right? I’m shellacking myself.
Last year, we received invitations to apply to their Math Program! I don't think many of us would be accepted, but we'd diversify the majors in the program.
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11 minutes ago, kendalldinniene said:
Waitlisted for Oregon state's MA.
I guess my application isn't total trash after all ?
Congrats! FWIW, the offer I accepted was at a school that originally waitlisted me! So, I think there's a good chance this works in your favor.
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3 minutes ago, dreid said:
Guys! Just randomly checked the portal for University of Texas (Austin) and it says I’ve been accepted! No email or anything though, fingers crossed it’s not an error....?
Congratulatons!
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Last year, certain schools sent out acceptance letters even when they were closed. Often, there are some staff and faculty members who work from home or make calls from the office despite the university being closed. Not sure how anyone feels about this, but I thought it might prove helpful to pass along what we experienced last year on this forum.
2019 Acceptances
in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
Posted
I'd caution against this unless you have a funded offer in hand. In the past, there have been applicants who have tried to play the game of matching funds. Some schools have reached out to them requesting funding letters of the other schools so that they could forward it to the right contacts to see if they could better match other offers. If you have other funded offers, I'd only would e-mail the school that you're most interested in because funding is often tied to very particular things.