positivitize

Uh... holy shit. IU just funded my first year! Thank you @RydraWong!!

Hazel, are you a poet or a fiction writer? Edit: I just saw that you're doing your MFA in poetry. Guess that answers my question. If You are a poet, you probably have a good understanding of how poems work (or don't work). I've found that the transition from Poet to Poetry-Critic is a fairly simple one to make--my old standby as an undergrad was to analyze a poem based on the poetic devices I saw at work--How does the enjambment work in a few crucial lines? Why does the metre lend itself to the message/undermine the lesson of the poem? In undergrad, it served me well to use the insider info I gained during my failed attempts at poetry. Sure, you'll need to show that you can incorporate theory into your work, but I found that my time spent as a poet taught me how to closely read (and write) in a way that my fellow English majors usually couldn't.

I'm one of those people waiting for IU's first-year fellowship. If I hear something soon, I'll be thanking you =D

I did the previously unthinkable today and declined a likely funded offer from Nebraska-Lincoln. Here's hoping someone from here gets my spot!

Maybe some of their faculty left or retired?

Rankings are bogus. That said, WOO! Indiana went from 22 to 20!

This is also relevant to my interests.

Just got off the phone with the DGS at Syracuse University. I've been accepted to their fully funded MA Program as one of their top choices! I can't believe that I have the good fortune to choose between 3 R1 programs. Everything is unreal.

WAY TO GO MAN! WOoo!

I just received word that I've been accepted at the University of Indiana Bloomington's PhD program! This was my reach school--every other program that I applied to was just a MA. I am shell-shocked. I need to sit down. I AM SITTING DOWN. What is happening!

Great topic! I have 2 distinct styles of taking notes--one for class and another for texts. In class, I usually just write passive aggressive notes to myself that don't pertain to the subject matter. For example, in the first class period of my early Brit lit survey a few years back, the ONLY thing I wrote down about Gawain and the Green Knight//Dream of the Rood were the words "Yahoo! Toolbar" because the professor displayed a website to the entire class through the use of his personal laptop. The top of his web browser was LITTERED with adware toolbars, and he actually opted into using the Yahoo! one to conduct his search. I lost a ton of respect for him (which I quickly regained when he turned out to be one of the most helpful and insightful people that I've ever met). I know this sounds weird and as if I am not actually taking notes on the subject of the class, but getting my little snide shitty thoughts out on paper stops me from obsessing about them. In the same vein, I also write out questions/comments I had and couldn't bring to the attention of the class/professor (sometimes I'm not called upon, sometimes the conversation moves before I can contribute, ect). It allows me to move on with the conversation and be present in the class. I can pay better attention to the class if I don't have my own ideas rocketing around in my brain. Sometimes I even get paper ideas/topics from my scribblings! Langston Hughs gets me. He likes to talk about "dreams deferred," whereas I'm more concerned about ideas deferred. I don't want them "dry[ing] up like a raisin in the sun" or "explod[ing]" so I write them down. When I'm reading, I like to use the "Star" method. I developed this when circumstances forced me to use library books. Like others, I am a terrible margin-writer, but I couldn't bring myself to desecrate public property with my shitty ideas. Instead, I--VERY LIGHTLY--etched small asterisks to the side of pertinent passages, then, in a notebook and sorted by page number, I wrote a sentence as to why the pertinent passage was important/what I was thinking. It's a great way to develop ideas without contributing to other student's mental jitter. It's a time-consuming process and I'm worried as to how it will hold up in my MA when I'm reading 3-5 books a week, but, as of now, this is my preferred way to read. Would you be terribly upset if you checked out a book and saw this? How I ended up keeping the library book is a fun story for another time...

It was either that or a discussion of Barthes/Derrida

Was this the gif?

Silliness? We're elevating the level of the discourse!

...and here I thought Sense8 was just a fun TV show, not real life. TAKE ALL MY UPVOTES YOU GLORIOUS PERSON! Edit: I actually don't have any more upvotes. 5 is too few when Mel's on the forum.

Mel! I thought I told you to get out of my head!

I used to think I could write poetry (7th-10th grade circa 1999 - 2002). I think that same jerk kid was in my class, cause some dude stole some of my poems and told one of my female classmates that they were for her. She handled it well, but I was embarrassed to the core. Kids can be mean, man. ...especially when they're making problems disappear... or so I've heard.

I'm coming to this late, and can only echo what other's have said. I failed out of undergraduate after an existential crisis, a family crisis, the selling of my childhood home, and crippling depression all happened at the end of one semester. But, worse than that, I didn't realize I'd failed out until a semester after I should have just thrown in the towel. I have 30 credit hours of 0s (not Ws, not D's) on my transcript. It took 7 years, but I finally pulled myself up by my own bootstraps (with the love and support of an amazing partner) and got back into the same school I failed out of. It was a constant concern, but over the course of 2 years, I managed to pull my Cumulative GPA up to a 3.02. I know exactly where you are coming from. Having a crummy GPA that doesn't reflect your abilities and limits your choices really sucks. What sucks even more is that there are programs out there which will toss your application away immediately. In a rejection from last year, a DGS told me that although their English department wanted to admit me, there was a hang-up with the Graduate School due to my low GPA. They moved on to another candidate that didn't require additional paperwork/campaigning. She suggested that I earn (pay for) my Masters degree at a small state school with rolling admissions. This year, I'm having much better luck even though my GPA is the same. My writing sample is the same but more polished. My SoP is entirely revamped. The biggest change to my applications is the number of schools to which I've applied. Last year, I applied to less than 3 programs. This year, my original number was 16. I cast a much wider net even though I only applied to R1 schools that fund MA students. The large net worked. I've been offered acceptance to a strong MA program, and, to my surprise, I've been waitlisted at a top 20~ PhD program. It can be done. Writing Samples, CV's, Letters, SoPs, Good GRE scores, and Teaching Statements CAN overrule a bad GPA. But it's hell to do and the GPA still haunts me. That same DGS I mentioned earlier told me that often GPA is tied directly to funding opportunities, and, as I sit and wait for my funding options, I'm still kicking myself for my GPA. I guess what I'm saying is that GPA matters but can be overcome. A 4.0 at a Masters program at a less prestigious university is one way to overcome it. Sometimes miracles do happen and you can get in at a good place with a bad GPA, but you will have to work hard and your GPA will shadow you for a while. "Not only do some committee members rule out applicants with anything less than a 3.5, but the Graduate School also restricts our ability to admit students with low undergraduate GPAs. Most importantly, funding, in the form of TA-ships and research support, is often tied to a minimum GPA." - DGS TL;DR: Admission to a Masters or a PhD is possible with a low GPA, but your GPA will haunt you until you prove you can handle graduate work. You can do it!

Watching the results page like: Edit: I bet these youngin's don't even know their Meatloaf.

You are a treasure.

Anyone hear anything from U of Kentucky/Syracuse/Purdue? I haven't seen any postings from these yet but I'm starting to get ancy.

I wouldn't send an updated CV. I know it sucks to be on the waitlist and that you want to do anything to separate yourself from the pack, but this isn't the way to do it. If they ask you for more materials or something, feel free to give them the updated CV. UCLA is a research institution and really only care about your research/what kind of scholar you'll become. In all likelihood, the fact that you are a writing tutor won't move the needle for them. You aren't on the waitlist because someone else was better suited to teach than you are. If you feel like it's absolutely necessary, you can mention it in a followup email to the DGS/POI/Whoever contacted you to tell you that you're on the waitlist. The follow-up email should inquire as to your position on the waitlist, the implications regarding your funding should you be accepted off the waitlist, and if they need anything else from you to help make their decision easier. I would wait a while before sending that e-mail though--probably until March 20 or so. Although it may feel as if it's late in the season, the admission window has really just begun. Some schools haven't even sent out their first round of acceptances yet! Now that you're on the waitlist, you might not even hear anything until April 16th. Settle in for the long haul and wait. I know it's hard. Good luck!

Oh, so we're pretending that never happened?

I hit enter and I thought it posted 2x...

Edit: Get out of my head Mel!