Mippipopolous
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Posts posted by Mippipopolous
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Guys, after that Oscars flub I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have nightmares that I didn't actually get into a PhD program. "I'm sorry, but there's been a mistake—we've actually admitted Moonlight to the English PhD program at Notre Dame!"
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1 hour ago, Caien said:
Haha, aw! My mom wanted me to go to California so she could visit me and go to the beach! (She is not impressed with this whole Indiana business...)
Please have her binge watch all of Parks and Recreation, that'll definitely turn her around on Indiana
Many P&R jokes were made during recruitment weekend haha. Li'l Sebastian does have an honorary degree from Notre Dame after all!
- ellieotter and LurkyLurker
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13 hours ago, orphic_mel528 said:
Haha, I just made a thread about this! And btw...law programs are most definitely not so much easier than PhD programs. Especially that part about graduating with $150,000+ of debt and no job in sight because the market is flooded with lawyers.
Very true, my sister just took the bar and it almost broke her. She's one of the smartest and most dedicated people I know, but it really pushed her to the limit. And she already has a job lined up, so if she didn't it would've been even more stressful. The debt is crazy too, when I told her I was turning down an offer from U of Chicago's MAPH offer because I could never justify taking on 50k in debt she thought nothing of that amount. She absolutely loves the working environment at the firms she's been involved with though and the work itself, so definitely worth it to her!
@eadwacer, I'm sorry you had such a negative experience in law school, it's definitely not the right path for everyone. I think you are perhaps discounting a lot of the wonderful work the profession as a whole can do though. For a recent high-profile example, the ACLU's work to strike down the Muslim ban and all the lawyers who showed up at airports to work pro bono for those stranded by it. And of course lawyers are responsible for landmark legal cases that have expanded our rights significantly; Obergefell v. Hodges being one of the most recent examples where the law was the path forward for fighting discrimination.
It does sound generally like a hyper-competitive environment, which is one reason I never really considered pursuing law school—that and my deep passion for literature of course! It sounds like the environment at whichever institution you attended was very toxic, so hopefully you end up at a wonderful PhD program to remedy that!
Keeping my fingers crossed for you about Minnesota! They seem like such a lovely department, I'm sure you'd do amazingly there And of course spending time at the insanely beautiful UBC campus is an awesome option too!
- loganondorf and eadwacer
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I've been lucky I guess, everyone I have talked with has been incredibly encouraging. During the application process I definitely ran into people not really understanding how difficult the process is and how low the odds of success are, which can be frustrating to an extent. "Oh, you're smart! You'll get in, don't even worry." And I'm like, no. It doesn't work like that at this stage, said while stifling panic attacks. I do have a few friends applying in different areas though, so we've commiserated over the stress. But everyone's been really supportive otherwise, especially once I received my acceptances. Once I told friends they were all very excited, promising to take me out for drinks to celebrate—all my close friends know its been my dream for ages. I'm lucky that my immediate family have always placed a huge value on education and reading especially, so they're a huge part of the reason I have the passion that I do for literature in the first place. My mom said she cried for like thirty minutes when I told her I had gotten into Notre Dame haha, she knew how much it meant to me, she might've been even more nervous than I was. I definitely am very grateful to have the support system I do, they all mean a lot to me.
I'm so sorry to hear about some of the negative or frustrating responses others have received! That's part of what makes a forum like this so nice, isn't it? It's great to have a place where people understand and are there to support each other and celebrate all the hard work everyone has put into following their passion! And the fact you've stayed dedicated to pursuing your passions in the face of doubt and outright opposition is really inspiring! That kind of internal-motivation and confidence is amazing. I'm definitely proud of you guys anyways!
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This is a fascinating topic! So interesting to hear more about everyone's work.
I used my undergrad thesis on the Villa Diodati ghost-story competition. The first chapter, which I did not include, examined the various narratives of the event which often differed wildly and were frequently attached as paratexts to the works conceive at the Diodati. I also surveyed the critical scholarship surrounding the event and argued against their attempts to establish a definitive historical chronology and the failures and limitations of using that approach to discuss the Diodati.
The second and third chapters were my actual sample. I wanted to free myself from attempting to just determine the "true" version of events, and instead examine what the Diodati myth came to mean as a symbol within these narratives and what Romantic tropes these self-representational accounts drew upon. So, I wrote about the scandal surrounding the original misattributed publication of The Vampyre and how it tainted the Diodati as an origin for Polidori's work due to associations with scandal and celebrity gossip. Then in the next chapter I analyzed Mary Shelley's 1831 introduction to Frankenstein and how she crafted a compelling narrative where the Villa Diodati becomes a foundation for an origin-myth for her work—she's able to draw upon and subvert numerous Romantic tropes (dreams as inspiring force, fragility and transience of poetic inspiration, Percy's ideas of the poet as creator, and so on) and creates something uniquely her own through her self-mythologization and legacy-building.
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2 hours ago, imogenshakes said:
I somehow missed this in my haste to post!
I also heard from most of my top schools really early, but I'm super indecisive, and all of the programs I applied to are very clear fits so I knew going in that I'd be happy at any of them. That's making this so much harder. I do agree, though, and we can always chat about the directions we're leaning and whatnot (or just talk about random things, since that happens on nearly every thread and is just as wonderful). Also, I'm really grateful for the offer to chat, I'm finding that talking to students who have been in and around the departments/programs are the most helpful in narrowing things down!
Re: ISIS...yeah. I can see why that needed to happen. Yikes. How long did it take them to decide they needed to change it? haha
Just started the thread!
Hopefully it'll be a good space for people to share their exciting choices and help each other mull over their options too!
You've definitely got a tough choice ahead of you! Some awesome programs as options for sure. You said you were leaning to the California options before, yeah? Definitely awesome programs! And can't beat the location of somewhere like UCSB. My best friend's there for her visit now and making me insanely jealous with a bunch of snapchats of the ocean and mountains haha. And of course, anytime! Happy to help if I can!
It just was changed from ISIS last year if I remember right, maybe last summer. We were all a little bummed out honestly, we'd gotten so used to the name! They changed the interface too and most of us preferred the old one, so that just added to the joke haha
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A few people suggested in the acceptances thread that it might be a good time to get the ball rolling on a separate decisions thread! So, if you feel comfortable share which school you've decided on here! What were the biggest factors in your decision? How incredibly excited are you to have made it through to the finish line? If you're having trouble making a final choice feel free to mull it over here too! It can be a nice way to network with future classmates as well. And of course it's a space to celebrate each other and all the hard work everyone put into this process!
To start us off, I'll be heading to Notre Dame next fall! They were always one of my top choices, so I'm incredibly excited to have gotten an offer. There are numerous faculty who are great fits for my research interests, their funding is very generous, service free years one and five, and all kinds of great resources. My other offer was unfunded, and although I was waitlisted for two great programs they wouldn't really have been able to beat Notre Dame's offer or fit for me. I also fell in love with the school and department while visiting for recruitment! So ultimately wasn't too tough a choice for me. It's also closest to my family which is a nice perk. All in all I am very excited with my decision!
Looking forward to hearing where everyone ends up!
- positivitize, brontebitch, yanicus and 8 others
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40 minutes ago, imogenshakes said:
Thank you so much! I will send you a message soon with some of my questions, for sure. And congrats to you on having made a decision! I considered applying to ND, they have such a great program in so many areas. I'm so excited for you! You should start a decisions thread or something, so we can all celebrate and figure out who all will be in the same programs!
Thank you, I'm really excited to start there! It's definitely an awesome program, I'm still a little dazed it all worked out! A few of us from the weekend have stayed in touch through GC too which is nice. I'll probably start a decisions thread soon! I was pretty lucky to hear back from all my schools early in the season though, so not sure if too many others will have made up their minds quite yet! But will be good to have it ready to go for everyone.
Hopefully I can be helpful about Iowa info; I've worked with a few of the professors from the book studies area, so hopefully can be a bit there! And then know IC pretty well obviously, though from an undergrad perspective. Great town!
7 minutes ago, eliza_winter said:Mine still says In Progress! I think a couple weeks ago there were a couple posts on the site that said they'd gotten emails from Iowa saying to check the MyUIowa site & their rejections were there....perhaps they work in waves?
This is totally off-topic, but funny story about MyUIowa—for almost the entirety of my time there it was known as... ISIS. As you can imagine, a name-change became rather necessary after awhile!
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20 minutes ago, imogenshakes said:
I just got my official letter from Iowa, so that train should be rolling now! I already had an idea (my mentor knew and was being really vague about it, haha), but it's nice to have specifics. Was offered a TAship and the DGS asked to call me soon to talk more about that, so...yeah. I'm quite excited! It's a MUCH better offer than I was anticipating, so I may not have really narrowed down my decision as much as I thought I had. I mean, their book studies program is INCREDIBLE.
Has anyone on this thread officially decided where they're going yet? Is there going to be a new thread somewhere to post this news? I haven't decided yet, but would like to know if and when anyone has settled on anything.
Congratulations, I'm so excited for you! If you're thinking about them and have questions happy to answer any like I said
Their book studies stuff is definitely great—Hooks is super awesome, the Center for the Book is crazy, lot of great resources.
I also already decided—off to Notre Dame! My other offer wasn't funded, and even if I got off the waitlists for my other schools I felt the faculty at ND were best for my interests, their funding was most generous, and they just have a lot of great resources. Really excited!
- Narrative Nancy, allywally, yanicus and 3 others
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49 minutes ago, Caien said:
I am developing a slight concern that the ND campus and surrounding area may be like living in a Disneyland version of Ireland - Shamrock Street, Waterford lane, and that fecking leprechaun... Are you in Irish lit also?
I'm with @Hartley on this one—I think you'll be fine on that front! The Catholic influence is more noticeable in general than the Irish one around campus—our guide cracked a bunch of jokes about the number of chapels we passed by during our tour haha. And the campus is stupidly pretty, we were all wowed on that front. Totally agree with @Sunsy (Congrats on all the acceptances by the way! Sounds like you've got some tough choices to make) that it was just so good to be back in that academic environment and be able to kind of nerd out about our research interests together and share that passion for what we're studying, both with the faculty and fellow interviewees. Notre Dame really did things right. Also happy to chat if you have any questions, @Caien! It'll be a really good cohort whoever ends up accepting offers. It's nice a lot of us are on GC too, cool to be able to stay in touch a bit and compare notes.
Also, funny story from today! I was walking to the bookstore back here at home and ran into one of the other interviewees from the weekend! Such a small world, right?
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1 hour ago, eadwacer said:
Congratulations on your decision, and on behalf of all other Minnesota wait listees, I thank you!
Thank you! I should've also noted that I'm a Romanticist for anyone else waiting for those, so dunno how helpful that is for anyone on here depending on how they work their waitlists. But that's definitely encouraging one of your POIs told you that! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you
Minnesota seems like a lovely program.
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2 minutes ago, loganondorf said:
Ahh, ND it is!
Haha yeah, was nice to be able to make a decision early since I've heard from everyone now. Their full-court press at recruitment weekend won me over pretty quickly, it's just such a good offer and a great fit for my interests. Hopefully you'll be joining in August!
Excited to see who from the group is going to be coming, sure it'll be a great cohort!
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2 minutes ago, imogenshakes said:
I got an acceptance email from UCSB today!!!!! I am in shock and utter disbelief that I got in to all of my stretch schools. And that oceanside campus sounds reeeallllllly nice
Congrats, that's so amazing! Really rooting for you to pull-off the clean sweep! Hell of an accomplishment no matter what though. That campus is really something for sure. One of my good friends is heading out there next week for interviews for art history, sounds like its an awesome school.
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The other day I turned down my offer from Nebraska and removed myself from Ohio State and Minnesota's waitlists. So, hopefully some of those help out some people on here!
- loganondorf and hmss9245
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4 hours ago, novazembla said:
So I misspelled the name of a professor I wanted to work with on the application for one of my top schools. It wasn't in the SOP -- the application asked you to list three professors you were interested in working with and gave you three text fields, and I just switched around two letters in the middle of his last name. I screwed up my GRE score, too -- I had gotten a 151/43rd percentile on the quantitative section, and I entered that I got a 143, which is like the fifteenth percentile. I think I'd spent so much time reading and rereading my SOP and writing sample, making sure that everything was perfect, that I forgot about not effing up the application itself.
This school is the only acceptance I've gotten so far.
I did the same thing except it was in my SOP! I didn't even realize until later, saw I'd left off the last letter of his last name somehow. I got in too, so it worked out! The professor just sent me an email congratulating me. Life works in mysterious ways sometimes. I also had a pretty significant typo that was in all of my SOPs—an omitted word in the topic sentence of my second paragraph, so very noticeable—I was pretty convinced my goose was cooked, had a freakout about it. All's well that ends well I guess!
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18 minutes ago, FeetInTheSky said:
I don't remember who made this point several weeks ago on this forum, but you'd really think that English faculty would know how to be more explicit with their writing....
So true! When I got waitlisted for Minnesota their email started with a paragraph about how they had intense competition for a few number of spots and how difficult their decision was, you know textbook rejection template, and then their second paragraph says I was recommended to be put on the waitlist! My heart was sinking more and more by the word until I got to there haha, was a rollercoaster.
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7 minutes ago, loganondorf said:
I'm in too! Congratulations!!!
Yes, amazing, congrats! You better accept now so we can be classmates! Good thing I didn't lose my phone on the bus, cause I got that email right after haha.
Thanks everyone! I'm so excited. You Nebraska folks will just have to visit South Bend for conferences and stuff!
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Notre Dame already got back to me before I even got home from the visit! I'm in, I was accepted! I am so unbelievably excited. The visit was incredible, they're a perfect fit for my interests and the department seemed wonderful. I'll definitely be accepting—I've heard back from everyone now already so makes my choice easy! Everyone at the weekend was amazing too, so it's great to know I'll be joining an awesome cohort! So excited I can't even believe it, it does't feel real!
- kirbs005, Zelda, positivitize and 8 others
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The Notre Dame visit was amazing! Faculty were incredibly kind and amazing to talk to, interviews were really relaxed and went well, and all the applicants were so nice! We bonded so fast I wish we could all just get in haha. I'm definitely pretty emotionally invested now, cause it'd be a perfect fit here, but even if I don't get in it'll be really nice to know that spot is going to someone great! Best of luck to all my fellow interviewees
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3 minutes ago, Caien said:
Best of luck to @loganondorf, @Sunsy, @Mippipopolous and everyone else off to Notre Dame tomorrow!
Thanks!
I actually just got into the hotel a bit ago—met some of the other applicants on the bus ride here, a very nice and cool group so far! Looking forward to meeting everyone tonight at dinner. Congrats on the Nebraska admit, @JeremyWrites! I was just accepted into their PhD program last night, also waiting on funding too. It definitely seems like a great program!
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5 minutes ago, imogenshakes said:
Thank you! I'm so glad things are picking up for everyone!
Re: Iowa, I'm excited about the program. I'd be going for their strength in book history, for sure! I'll definitely message you if I am accepted there! I'm really glad to hear that you had a great experience, both in the program and in IC. I know basically nothing about Iowa, haha. Thanks for the offer!
I took a number of seminars in that area while there, Iowa's great for it for sure! Professor Hooks was one of my absolute favorites during undergrad. And their Special Collections is really great too. You'd be landing in a really good place for that! Definitely happy to answer any questions about the alma mater
Hope you get in there too!
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3 minutes ago, imogenshakes said:
Hooray! Congrats to all of the acceptances today! Things are finally starting to pick up. I hope everyone starts to hear positive news soon!
Congrats on your acceptances! Definitely seems like the news is rolling in. I see in your signature you applied to Iowa—if you get in there and have questions I'd be happy to answer some! I went there for undergrad. It's a really fantastic department, I miss all my professors there tons! Iowa City's pretty great too.
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1 hour ago, CrunchyMamademic said:
Good luck! Maybe lit hasn't finished yet.
I was also given until March 15th to decide, so if you do end up wait listed you probably won't have long to wait.
I just got the email—I've been accepted! Came just a bit ago. Tuition remission, and then the waitlist for a TA position. So, not perfect news, but still super exciting! I think they'd be an awesome fit for me. I'm just so over the moon, my first acceptance! And after getting shutout last year only one rejection this year, so not bad! So excited
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2 minutes ago, CrunchyMamademic said:
I was accepted to the PhD program in comp/rhet on Friday via phone. I don't know how far along they are, but an email I received sounded like they might have finished.
Are you Comp or Lit?
Lit! So, haven't seen anyone post about an acceptance for that or rejections, so dunno what the status is on that one. Lots of congrats on the acceptance! And thanks for the info as well.
2017 Final Decisions
in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
Posted
Thanks, @imogenshakes!
Definitely two great schools it's down to then! When are the visiting days for them? One of my best friends was just at SB and absolutely loved it, though she's a bit worried about how to make it work financially if she gets an offer. Seems like an amazing place and school!