loganondorf

Good luck! I applied several years ago to their PhD program and got offered the MA in the late first week of March, so that sounds about right. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you until you hear! Honestly, in my experience a one-year program doesn't set you back. I did my MA in a year (though it was intended to be a two-year program), and I was still able to get into my first-choice program. I didn't explain that I condensed a two-year MA into one year, so it's not like they knew any differently -- if adcomms looked closely enough at my CV, they would likely have just assumed my MA was a one-year program. I wouldn't worry about it; Toronto is a great school for medieval lit (and in general, obviously), so I highly doubt it would set you back in any serious way.

Good luck to everyone here! I hope someone got good news from Toronto today.

It's so weird! Looks like everyone's having a nice, quiet Sunday away from grad-related stress.

All of these are such great responses! @Wyatt's Terps and @imogenshakesI think it's so interesting that you ended up taking fewer notes in your MA programs -- I feel like my note-taking skyrocketed! I love writing down everything that's said in a discussion, though, so I bet that has to do with it; everyone just makes such good points, and I want to remember every single thing that's said. And my Pilot .38 pens arrived today! All twelve of them! Now it's time to start notebook shopping. You've all given me such great ideas -- this might be a tougher decision than actually choosing a PhD program!

Hilarious! Congratulations -- you have quite the decision ahead of you!

Given that this is a forum filled with literature lovers and that we're almost all of us aiming for years and years of professional studenthood, I assume I'm hardly the only one here who loves taking notes. As we prepare to soldier forward into our respective programs, jobs, or other directions, I thought it would be fun to share our preferences when it comes to note-taking. This, of course, isn't an entirely selfless post -- I fully intend to steal everyone's ideas and cobble together a beautiful, killer note-taking strategy like a modern-day Victor Frankenstein (but with less gore and hopefully more future success). I'll start where it counts: paper. For my entire career as a student, I relied on 70-cent spiral-bound (college-ruled) notebooks from Walmart; occasionally I would go crazy and take an entire's semester worth of notes in one multi-sectioned notebook, but more often than not, I'd keep a stack of the shabby single-subject things. I'm ready to move onward and upward, because as a professional student, don't I deserve to spend gobs of money on the best? Yesterday, one of my students revealed to me that he's using the Rocketbook Wave (?) notebook, which apparently uploads all his notes to the cloud and then returns to its blank state once it's microwaved. He swears by it, but I actually like the idea of having my physical notebooks gather dust on my bookshelves for the rest of my life. Pens! I swear by the Pilot G2 series, and I recently rage-purchased a box set of the .038 line after my one and only was stolen by a fellow teacher. I've taken notes in pencil before (and actually did the whole of my MA in pencil), but my problem there is that the pages always fade. Pen, though, bleeds through the paper to show on the other side, which makes for a messy look. Has anyone found a particular notebook that solves this conundrum? I know there exist oodles of notebooks with thicker paper, but I haven't bit the bullet just yet -- waiting on feedback. On bullet journaling: I started that this year, and wow -- it's been perfect for me. I always hated spending money on planners that would inevitably remain largely empty, because I'm terrible at recording dates (and frankly, my life isn't interesting enough to have enough events to record in advance). The bullet journal has been great, though, because I can just design it to be specifically relevant to my life, and because it always has enough blank pages for my rambling, ambling, incoherent thoughts. I'm not certain I want to use it for note-taking as well, though, because that thing is going to fill up fast. It's always an option, of course. What are your tips, strategies, and preferences for taking notes? Do you do it all in colored pen? Do you take notes on scrap pieces of paper? Once I knew a man who wrote all of his notes in highlighter, which astounded and horrified me (but to each his own!).

Thanks for the helpful feedback! It makes a lot of sense.

This is really interesting to me (and directly applicable to my impending decision), and something I'm definitely glad you brought up. In terms of job placement, is it better to attend a school that's better-ranked generally or a school that's well-known in one's specialty but lower-ranked overall?

Finally getting to play all those video games I let get dusty in the corner! Especially because come August, I'll be going on a five-year-long hiatus from serious gaming. (but for a really good reason, so ).

Congratulations on your offers! I can't say that I've worked with and through challenges exactly like those you've described, but I do realize visit weekends can be very stressful, and the pressure to perform well can be crippling. That said, I have a few thoughts. First: I know that many schools do not expect international applicants to attend visit weekends, given the logistics of international travel (not to mention the expenses) are far more complicated than those for domestic applicants. That said, you've already been invited to the visit weekends, so it's clear that your schools are open to paying for your travel. All in all, if you decide you simply can't swing the trip, you can ask to schedule phone or Skype conversations with your POIs, so you can at least approximate the experience you'd have of getting to know them in person. Second: I've never heard of a school rescinding an offer simply because an accepted student didn't perform well at a visit weekend. You've been accepted on the strength of your written work and research history; being nervous and withdrawn on a visit weekend is not a cause for retraction. At the very least, try to put this worry out of your mind -- you've been accepted, and now it's the school's turn to court you. Third: If you do decide to go, I'd try writing out some remarks for each potential person you'd speak with. That way, when you're actually speaking with them, you've already considered your responses and can deliver careful, measured remarks. I think it's also definitely okay to express how nervous you are, if you think that will make you feel better; the faculty and students you'll be meeting aren't looking to evaluate or judge you, and if anything, they'll just try to offer more support in that instance.

In addition to the excellent suggestion of UCSB (I love everything by Aranye Fradenburg!), consider also checking out Brown (Paul Armstrong works with theory of mind) and the University of Kentucky, Lexington (Lisa Zunshine is there, and she'd be a monumental person to have on your committee if you want to do anything related to cognition).

Ha, I'm flattered! With an M.A. program it's less important that you land the perfect advisor, but it's still not a bad idea to ask if they're open to working closely with you on your research. They should understand the nuance -- even though you're applying for the M.A., you'll be looking to continue on to a Ph.D. (perhaps at their school or somewhere else), and you could benefit from having a strong advisor. My formula (as much as these things can be reduced to one) is to introduce myself and my research briefly, explain what I've read of theirs and why I'm reaching out to them in particular, and then to ask if they'll be accepting/advising new graduate students in the upcoming year. It's important to be as concise as possible, because they have a lot to do, but this way I can hit on all the main points.

In my experience, emailing professors is a good idea, whether you're applying for the M.A. or Ph.D. Establishing early contact can lead to some great connections (I had professors from various schools ask to schedule phone conversations with me after I emailed them, and this helped immensely in developing my application and gave me faculty contacts at the schools) and can help you tailor your personal statements to your chosen programs. When I email, I try to do two things (in addition to introducing myself): demonstrate an understanding of their work and ask them if they are accepting new graduate students I like to pick one of my favorite pieces of their writing and tell them what I enjoyed most about it, which both gives the professor something to respond to and proves that I have indeed read the work (which is important, because I always want to demonstrate that I'm reaching out specifically to them, rather than to any and all professors who might respond). I then follow up by explaining my reason for reaching out, which is almost always to enquire as to whether or not they're personally accepting new Ph.D. students. This is really important, because I've gotten the full gamut of responses: most professors will indicate that they're accepting, but some will tell you that they are already advising too many, and some will even tell you about upcoming retirements. Any and all of this info is good, because you can then choose to abandon that application or use the information to strengthen your statements (admissions committees will be aware of impending retirements, and if you sketch out POIs who aren't likely to be at the school for much longer, it doesn't bode well for your application). Whatever the case, when you email, just make sure you're asking questions that only they can answer -- otherwise they'll just (rightly) direct you to email the DGS (which still isn't a bad idea). And remember that not everyone will respond; professors are really busy, and sometimes you just won't ever hear back. Still, I always got really great results from emailing, and if you come across as confident, warm, and interested in their work, you shouldn't worry too much.

Ah, I bullet journal too! It's made a world of difference for me.

I do think it's possible -- it seems to be possible to PM multiple people at once. If so, sign me up! ND is looking more and more promising.

Last year I applied to eight schools and struck out completely. It was definitely a major setback, but I have to say, the extra year it afforded me was an incredible year for developing my scholarship and shaping & reshaping my research interests. I wouldn't be where I am today without that year, and (while I was fortunate enough to have a teaching job I could continue for another year), I used the year to read dozens of new academic texts and isolate new, competitive, and interesting (to me) areas of research. All of this is to say that when I got shut out, my way forward was to find and read six books of theories I didn't yet understand. It's painful, but a great way to continue forward as a scholar and build on how great I'm sure you already are.

Ahh, ND it is!

Thank you!!!

Haha, thank you! It's definitely one of my top choices at this point. Thank goodness about the phone -- leaving my phone would've been such a stressful/horrifying experience. I'm way too connected to it for that, haha.

I'm in too! Congratulations!!!

Thanks for thinking of us, Caien!

Hooray for Pittsburgh (the city)! One of the reasons I was really attracted to the program was the large overlap and collaborative opportunities with CMU.

Looking forward to meeting you! I've heard that it'll only be a few days after the visit, but that's certainly not confirmed -- I've seen that in past years acceptances didn't come until the end of February, so it's probably anybody's guess. Good luck to you, and to everyone visiting!

Lately, I've gotten into the habit of looking back through old GC threads to distract myself from the waiting game. One thread that looked particularly helpful to past applicants was the medieval-specific conversation, and I thought we could start it up again for this round of applications. Especially since there's a good chance some of us will end up in programs together, it'll be fun to start building relationships now! If you're a medievalist, what's your focus/what are your areas of interest? Working on anything particularly fun at the moment? Gotten any responses yet from programs? I tend to have done most of my work with late medieval English texts, though I do have a keen and burgeoning interest in the sagas, and I'd like to explore that further. My particular areas of interest lie in medieval community formation and in medieval understandings of cognitive processes -- the bulk of my academic background has been in linguistics, and I'm fascinated by the cognitive elements of language. So far I've gotten a yes from Pittsburgh, an interview with ND, and rejections from Northwestern and Wisconsin-Madison. Looking forward to getting to know you all!

Congratulations! That's so awesome!!!