RydraWong

Yeah I've lived in California my entire life so I'm terrified at the prospect of a Wisconsin winter. But I feel like I should get used to the idea of moving somewhere cold because I'im probably going to be Midwest-boudn. And definitely send me a PM if you do end up going to the Indiana recruitment day, it would be cool to discuss the pros and cons of each program with someone haha.

I'm interested in studying feminist science fiction and hopefully incorporating a disability studies approach to science fiction studies as well. And oh cool, I'm in at Indiana too - are you planning on going to their recruitment day as well? Indiana and Madison are my top two choices right now because they're both great places to study science fiction but I think I'm leaning more toward Madison.

I am! At this point, Madison's one of my top two choices so I'm really excited to get a feel for the campus and department. I've also heard nothing but good things about the city of Madison so looking forward to the trip. Have you heard back from any other places?

Big congrats to you!! UC Riverside has such an awesome program. I applied there as well but haven't heard a word...I wonder if they'll be sending out more acceptances in the next couple days? Although you're right that having that many options is kinda a problem in and of itself haha. Also it looks like we have a lot of overlap in our school apps! I also applied to UCSB. Hope we run into each other at a visit weekend someday

Congrats!!! That's super exciting, Nebraska has a great program and seems like it'd be a great place to study for a couple of years. Heads up, I'm probably going to be declining a funded MA offer (lit not rhet/comp though) from Nebraska in the next week or so, so I hope that helps you out!! I have no idea if rhet/comp and lit funding is like the same but fingers crossed for you.

Wait that definitely happened to me this morning too haha...the DGS from Indiana called and it was an Oakland area code so the small part of me that is still clinging onto hope for good news from Berkeley was like "What is happening??" and then she said she was from Indiana and I kind of deflated a little and then I tried to recover and I was like "Hi thank you so much for calling!" And then I had to awkwardly let her know I had class in ten minutes and couldn't really talk. So yep, basically just going to let all calls in the next month go to voicemail. Introverts + out of the blue phone calls = not a good combo indeed.

Hey, not sure if this is relevant to you since it looks like you're applying to PhD programs but I applied to the MA program at UConn and got an email today (roughly an hour ago too) letting me know of my acceptance. The email was sent from the graduate secretary's email and contained an attached letter from the DGS with specific funding information, etc.

Yep, I don't have an MA so it's an acceptance to the MA/PhD program for literature And congrats on your acceptance!! I'm interested in 20th/21st century American lit, and science and literature as well so that's cool that we're in the same field. I already have separate travel plans for the IU recruitment day date but I'm going to see about changing them around so I can attend. Hopefully I'll see you there! Also if this is helpful for anyone: I also got acceptance calls today from the PhD lit program at UC Davis and the MA program at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Since I've got a few PhD offers at this point, it's not likely I'll take the MA offer but the DGS at Lincoln was really nice, had very specific info about funding, etc. Also, jeez, when it rains, it really pours....was not expecting such a flurry of news on a Monday.

AHHHH just got an acceptance email from Indiana University. nominated for a fellowship as well. i'm in a class rn and should totally not be checking my email but ah i'm glad i did...

If you're a student at Davis or Berkeley, you should have access to the Davis-Berkeley shuttle. Not actually sure if it's cheaper than Amtrak but maybe worth checking out: http://fleet.ucdavis.edu/davisberkeleyshuttle There are probably ride sharing Facebook pages for each school too - I go to Davis and I know we have a ride sharing Facebook page where people post if they're driving somewhere/looking for rides.

@Lovegood RE: Madison, I applied for the PhD in literary studies as well and my SOP and writing sample were both focused on science fiction but I presented myself as someone who would want to also work broadly in 20th century American lit! Hope that helps. Oh and edited to add: my application status on the UW-Madison portal hasn't changed, my app still just says completed - I only got a notification via email.

Congrats @Wyatt's Terps!! What a well-deserved acceptance, you've always been very helpful and informative on these boards

Yeah reading through old threads about funding has made me a bit nervous about what they'll offer. I responded to the acceptance email asking generally about the funding situation and the DGS responded and said they guarantee 5-6 years of funding but that the total amount of the stipend is TBD - I would hope that the stipend isn't something as pitiful at $1000 or $5000 but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

No funding info from Madison yet - the email said we would hear back in mid-February about funding. A bit nervous about this, Madison is a really good fit for me and if I didn't get another acceptance, I'd be more than happy to go as long as the funding as reasonable. Congrats to the person who was accepted to Davis - I'm currently an undergrad there and a huge fan of our English department, so feel free to send any Davis questions my way.

Oops yeah right after I posted mine and I was like oh there are more UW-Madison results up yay!! Huge congrats to you - if I had someone's shirt to sob into I would almost certainly have done so but I'm at work right now and so had to make due with hugging coworkers and just staring here in shock haha. Very happy for you

That was me! Got the email at 8am PST...still in shock and kind of convinced that they've sent the email to the wrong person but also incredibly relieved and grateful, especially after a disheartening rejection from Duke the other day.

Sending virtual hugs to everyone who's receiving news today - good news or not! I feel like it's all actually beginning now. Was definitely caught off guard by the Duke email; wasn't expecting to hear news so early and pretty discouraging that the first bit of news is not good news. This is going to be an interesting couple months...

Just got an email from Duke saying an admission decision had been made. Rejected - surprised to get news back so early though and kinda relieved that I know the door's closed on one school but also pretty gutted because I thought it was a pretty good fit. Good luck to all Duke applicants!!

Anyone applying to the same school they did their undergrad at? I would definitely prefer to go to a different place for grad school, but my undergrad program is a good fit for what I want to do and I know the professors here are generally extremely welcoming and kind so I felt like it was worth it to apply. Just wondering if anyone was in the same boat of having to draft a SOP and list POIs who are professors they've already worked with/who are writing their letters. I'm starting to edit my SOP for my undergrad school and it feels a bit awkward haha.

The system wasn't letting me input any .edu addresses for some reason but I used my professors' gmail account and it ended up working so I'm confused as to why they wouldn't take the .edu addresses but I'm over it at this point lol. Thanks for the input everyone! Hope the weekend is productive and at least a little bit relaxing. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel....

Has anyone successfully added their recommenders through the Duke English application yet? I keep trying and the system keeps telling me it's an invalid email address but I know the email address works...I'm going to contact the English department and see, but was wondering if anyone else had trouble with this. It's just a tad frustrating because I just want to get everything in...

Hope everyone's break is going well! I'm currently freaking out just a tad and wondering why I thought it was a good idea to apply to programs while finishing up my senior year of undergrad.... Which brings me to an SOP question that I've been going back and forth on - in one of my programs that allows a longer SOP (2 pages, single spaced), I have a few lines about how much I enjoyed the collaborative atmosphere of my honors thesis seminar. Basically I talk about how we were all working on distinctly different, interdisciplinary projects but how giving reading/giving feedback on other people's projects allowed me to reflect more on my own work and I want that kind of vibe in a grad program. But I had someone look at my statement recently and they said it seemed too obvious and not worth mentioning. Thoughts? Should I take it out to talk about something else or does it actually show something about the type of person/scholar I am?

Thanks for the reminder, Wyatt! I've made a spreadsheet to keep track of app due dates, the differing writing sample lengths for each program, GRE test dates, etc and everything is starting to feel so overwhelming. I have a feeling dealing with school this fall quarter + finishing up apps is going to be very, very hectic and now I'm wondering why I didn't just take everyone's advice and do a gap year instead... Also, I'm wondering how you all are going about emailing professors and different programs? I'm putting the finishing touches on my list of schools and there are a few that /might/ be a fit and I'm thinking of emailing some professors and asking them how they think the program would align with my interests. Has anyone here done that yet or can anyone speak to the usefulness of doing that?

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses to my foreign language question (and for complimenting my username; Rydra Wong is a pretty dope person :3). I'll add it to my CV and see if I'll have time to brush up on French this summer. Also @QuercusV if you're interested in studying comic books, you might check out Ramzi Fawaz at UW-Madison. He just published a book about X-Men and American comic books in general.

Hi everyone! I've lurked a lot and never posted but figured since I'm planning on applying this fall (still sounds weird to say this...) I'd make a post. I'm planning on studying science fiction and will be applying to a mix of MA/PhD programs so if anyone has any suggestions, do let me know! Also, I had a question about foreign language requirements and was wondering if any of you might have an answer. I haven't taken a foreign language class in undergrad but I took a French placement exam when I first started college and placed into intermediate French (basically the equivalent of two years worth of study at my school). I don't know if this would be included on my transcript when I apply to grad programs. Do you all think that having a lack of foreign language courses on a transcript would be a weak point? I might put on my CV that I have reading knowledge of French but my French is pretty rusty at this point so I don't know how accurate that would be. But I also don't want to not put French on my CV and have programs think I don't have any foreign language experience because I think if I brushed up on my French intensively for a month or two, I could get re-gain a lot of knowledge pretty quickly. Sorry if I'm totally overthinking this haha....