Warelin

I think it's also important to note that the admissions committee also has responsibilities: In addition to being on the committee, other responsibilities may include: preparing lectures for class(es), grading essays, meeting with students outside class for help, develop new classes, supervise and evaluate graduate student teaching, evaluating teaching by colleagues up for tenure, attend department colloquia, write letters of recommendation for students on jobs, graduate schools, scholarships, and other programs, supervise graduate student research, read and evaluate Ph.D oral examinations, write grant proposals, monitor spending from grants, write papers for publication, read scholarly journals to stay current, edit academic journals,  participate in faculty meetings and committees, respond to information requests from college administrators, give public lectures, participate in or host faculty searches, give presentations to promote university, supervise independent studies or master's theses, guide student research. This is not an exhaustive list and they may be raising a family or have other family obligations in addition to this.

Last year, an individual here made a document to try to paint a picture on grad committees.
 
Updating this document with your own information might be able to help people better understand their chances of fit and determining what they are after. The document can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LpH5dOHh39c2UyyCJbviQRvXCXvy__QPZjs4bG9ZDp0/edit#gid=0
 
The following document talks about funding at different schools. Some of the information may be outdated but could provide future cohorts of what to expect:
 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H7d9iuwSL8ZWE-DmFo2013lpF2cL7hDidWcDt4mic0Q/edit#gid=0
Congrats to all those who have been accepted. =)


 

Please remember that projected dates are just projected. Lots of changes this year. Keep up the hope.

That sounds similar to what I did last year! I'm enjoying cheering on people this year!

Thanks for the update. I swear I can read most days.

Not to cherry-pick from your post, but I just thought I'd answer this one item with a resounding NO! It's not a bad thing at all! I'm actually rather annoyed at your mentors on your behalf. You can't underestimate the value of a support system, and making a decision that is even partially based on personal factors is perfectly valid. In this case, you've got two amazing programs vying for your attendance, so there's really no reason why the personal elements shouldn't be a crucial factor for you.

I also second what everyone else has said, though @Warelin in particular is wise to point out that your interests can (and likely will) change a bit. So while it's important to go to a program for the people, just bear in mind that you also want to attend a program that will allow you some flexibility.

 

Today, I found myself extremely bored. As a result, I complied a list of when schools typically notify for first-round acceptances using data from the results page. After, I rearranged things in order by  when programs typically notify.

Michigan State-Dec 10? (Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures)
OSU-Jan 25
Wisconsin- Jan 28
Duke- Jan 29
WashU- Jan 31-Feb 2
Northwestern-Jan 31-Feb 2
Berkeley- Jan 31-Feb 2
Chicago- Feb 1/2
Minnesota-Feb 2
Vanderbilt - Feb 2/3
Texas- Feb 3/4
Indiana-Feb 3/4
Purdue-Feb 3-5
UCLA- Feb 4/5
Johns Hopkins- Feb 5
Davis-Feb 5/6
Penn State- Feb 5/6
Pittsburgh-Feb 5/6
Nebraska-Feb 5-7
NYU-Feb 6/7
Maryland-Feb 7-9
Rochester-Feb 8/9
Emory- Feb 8-9
Irvine-Feb 8-9
Illinois- Feb 9-12
Brown-Feb 10-12
LSU-Feb 11
Rice- Feb 12
Buffalo-Feb 12
Missouri- Feb 12-14
Delaware-Feb 12-14
Kansas-Feb 14
Carnegie Mellon- Feb 14/15
Alabama-Feb 14-16
Cornell- Feb 15/16
Miami University-Feb 15/16
Michigan-Feb 16
Connecticut-Feb 16
CUNY-Feb 16/17
Santa Barbara-Feb 17-19
Stanford- Feb 17-Feb 20
Princeton-Feb 17-20
UVA- Feb 19/20
Rutgers-Feb 19/20
Harvard- Feb 20-Feb 22
Columbia- Feb 20-22
Penn- Feb 20-22
Utah-Feb 22
Notre Dame-Feb 23
Yale- Feb 24/25
Washington-Feb 25
Syracuse-Feb 26
Chapel Hill-Feb 26/27
Oregon-Feb 27-28
Iowa-March 2-5
Florida State-March 4-7
Mississippi- March 5-7

Sometimes, programs don't have a ranked waiting list and instead divide it by subfield. If that's the case, they may be waiting for someone to reject before offering it to the next person in the subfield. They may do this in order to make their "prestige" higher by keeping the admits low. Others may do this due to funding concerns or to make sure that they don't have too many people in one specific subfield enroll or to make sure that too many people get the same adviser. Others may indeed leave it up to the graduate school to decide which often has their own schedule of things that must be done. There are lots of things going on behind the scenes that we may not be aware of.

If I remember correctly, the essays are graded by machine and by a human grader. The average (rounded up? down?) of the two determines your final score. If there's more than a point difference, another human grader is brought in to determine the score.

It's possible that the program has accepted people who aren't on GradCafe. Programs tend to notify rejections after acceptances.

It's possible that the program has accepted people who aren't on GradCafe. Programs tend to notify rejections after acceptances.

Both schools are well-sought after schools on both the undergraduate and graduate level. Both schools are ranked 8th under USNew's ranking for English so it's hard to distinguish them. While Cornell is an Ivy-League, it's important to remember that it just refers to the sports conference that it belongs to. Cornell has about 3x as many undergrads than Chicago does, but Chicago is in the 3rd biggest city in the US if that makes a difference for you. Chicago tends to be less rainier and gets less snow than Ithaca. In turn, Ithaca has slightly less expensive food and less traffic.
 

Congrats on your acceptance!

I think Wyatt brings up several good points.

I'd also like to add that acceptances anywhere aren't guaranteed by any means. Where you get into right now may not accept you two cycles from now. With that being said, what is your ultimate goal? If you're aiming for a R1 school then there's a good chance that you'll need a top 10 program. If the goal is a liberal arts, community college, or anything else, then the prestige of the college matters less than your teaching experience. Alternatively, you could take the MA program, develop your skills, do presentations and see how you change within the two years which is something that a PHD program wouldh't allow you to experience otherwise. You might find that your work interests and style do change. You may find that there are programs that are a better fit. You may realize that you may not even want to pursue a PHD. Or it may make you want to try a post-graduate fellowship or you may decide that you want to teach high school. There is no right or wrong answer but the Master degree can be pretty life changing by itself.

I largely agree with the wise folks above, but I will add one minor counterpoint.

A lot of this depends on you and your readiness to go down this path. The problem is that you might currently have no way to gauge that -- you might think that you'll be able to make an easy transition from undergraduate to doctoral level work, and discover that the chasm is far wider than you could have anticipated. OR it could just require a bit of rapid adaptation on your part, and you'll find you can adjust rather easily.

Two years ago, had I been accepted to a Ph.D. program as well as the M.A. program I ultimately attended, I almost certainly would have taken the Ph.D. program. However, with the luxury of hindsight, I can see how much better served I was by getting the M.A. before moving into a Ph.D. program. I still think I could have done well in a Ph.D. program right away, but the two years of M.A. work have been invaluable. In your situation, getting an M.A. from one of the highest ranked programs in the country could position you for even stronger work when you pursue a Ph.D. two years later.

All of that being said, I do think the most obvious choice is to go for the Ph.D. and don't look back. I just wouldn't want you to think that there's not at least some merit to the other option as well.

GOT MY FIRST ACCEPTANCE from the MA program at UBC. I'm so happy, it's a great fit. I don't feel like I can accept immediately before I know if I've been admitted to any funded PhDs (since I'm American and a Canadian MA may be financially challenging) but this is such good news. It's such a load off to know that no matter what else happens I have at least one option for next year.

On the bright side, by this time next year; you'll be enrolled in a PHD program while you watch me struggle with waiting for decisions. This year off of applications hasn't kept me away from TGC. 

On the bright side, by this time next year; you'll be enrolled in a PHD program while you watch me struggle with waiting for decisions. This year off of applications hasn't kept me away from TGC. 

Both schools are well-sought after schools on both the undergraduate and graduate level. Both schools are ranked 8th under USNew's ranking for English so it's hard to distinguish them. While Cornell is an Ivy-League, it's important to remember that it just refers to the sports conference that it belongs to. Cornell has about 3x as many undergrads than Chicago does, but Chicago is in the 3rd biggest city in the US if that makes a difference for you. Chicago tends to be less rainier and gets less snow than Ithaca. In turn, Ithaca has slightly less expensive food and less traffic.
 

Go through all English results and report all conversations not reporting an actual result. I think it resulted in 500 results of spam disappearing. :/

Go through all English results and report all conversations not reporting an actual result. I think it resulted in 500 results of spam disappearing. :/

Go through all English results and report all conversations not reporting an actual result. I think it resulted in 500 results of spam disappearing. :/

Congratulations on your acceptance and clean sweep. It sounds like you'll be extremely happy wherever you end up and make at least 3 people from the waitlist happy.

I think it's also important to note that the admissions committee also has responsibilities: In addition to being on the committee, other responsibilities may include: preparing lectures for class(es), grading essays, meeting with students outside class for help, develop new classes, supervise and evaluate graduate student teaching, evaluating teaching by colleagues up for tenure, attend department colloquia, write letters of recommendation for students on jobs, graduate schools, scholarships, and other programs, supervise graduate student research, read and evaluate Ph.D oral examinations, write grant proposals, monitor spending from grants, write papers for publication, read scholarly journals to stay current, edit academic journals,  participate in faculty meetings and committees, respond to information requests from college administrators, give public lectures, participate in or host faculty searches, give presentations to promote university, supervise independent studies or master's theses, guide student research. This is not an exhaustive list and they may be raising a family or have other family obligations in addition to this.

I think it's also important to note that the admissions committee also has responsibilities: In addition to being on the committee, other responsibilities may include: preparing lectures for class(es), grading essays, meeting with students outside class for help, develop new classes, supervise and evaluate graduate student teaching, evaluating teaching by colleagues up for tenure, attend department colloquia, write letters of recommendation for students on jobs, graduate schools, scholarships, and other programs, supervise graduate student research, read and evaluate Ph.D oral examinations, write grant proposals, monitor spending from grants, write papers for publication, read scholarly journals to stay current, edit academic journals,  participate in faculty meetings and committees, respond to information requests from college administrators, give public lectures, participate in or host faculty searches, give presentations to promote university, supervise independent studies or master's theses, guide student research. This is not an exhaustive list and they may be raising a family or have other family obligations in addition to this.