zombiekeats

Dusting off my GradCafe account to offer perspectives/hellos to any prospective folks with questions about the program. I'm a second year studying 19th c. women's writing, poetics, and disability theory (just about to wrap up coursework!) Otherwise--congrats, and see you in March!!

Really excellent points, @Bumblebea and @orphic_mel528. I hope there is a time in which a more comprehensive rating system is created, not least because almost all of my advisors steered me away from totally relying on Ivy League, partially (probably) to help preserve my sanity, but also because in their opinion the more cutting edge research gets done in the prestigious research universities, where you're getting the rising stars of your field just as they're beginning their ascent, rather than at their peak or plateau. Speculation on mine and my advisors' parts, of course, but I wish there were a better way of actually seeing who's doing the best research, who's placing the most people, etc.

Yeah, I noticed that too--if you have AdBlock, click on the icon on your toolbar, and there should be something that says "Block an Ad" (or something similar) in the dropdown list. If you click that, you can highlight the ad you're seeing and it'll generate new code to block it.

Yikes, is it really just Ivy or bust? This is definitely something that worries me.

After some thought the past week, I just accepted UT Austin's offer and I couldn't be happier!

Meh, even with UT Austin falling in the rankings I wouldn't have made a different decision. Did UC Irvine jump up several spots, or were they always in the top 20?

Yayy same! Congrats! I'm not sure if I'll stay on the list or not yet, myself. Just relieved to be almost done with decisions.

Yeah, same--I've already started talking to my advisors about leveraging offers (in fact, they volunteered information). It feels a little weird, but--I do want to make sure I'm able to live on the stipend, etc., wherever I end up, especially since my partner won't be moving with me immediately. I think the strategy is to only do this if you have intentions to accept the offer from the school you're negotiating with, though. Otherwise you're just sort of stringing them along. What I've been told so far is to keep asserting your interest, and make it relatively clear you'd accept if they provide you a competitive offer--but also make it clear that you are entertaining equally competitive offers. What this translates into in real time I'm personally still sussing out. I've been emailing professors pre-visiting days and making it clear I'm interested, excited, etc., though that's really the easy part (because I am happy and excited!)

Thanks for the update! I figured it'd be between the two schools I got into early this season. Now to choose!

Me too I'm sorry

Ugh, I feel it. I'd bet we'll hear something today or tomorrow, though--March 1st is fast approaching.

Still waiting on official word from Michigan, Boston, and Columbia. Ugh, I just want to rip the band aid off and have done with it!

Not yet--I'm waiting for the waitlist stuff to come out. Good luck!!!!!!

Congrats @PoeticsofPossibility! Time for me to continually refresh my inbox. I've pretty much assumed that I've gotten all my positive decisions for the season, but I'm pleased with how things have gone.

Any UT Austin folks on here and going to the visiting days? I'm going to have an ocean of time on Thursday, and I'm debating on what I should do. I'm hoping to sit in on a class, if possible, but open to suggestions on interesting things on/nearby UT's campus! Also would love to meet a GCer in general.

Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Yup. Preeetty empty. Edit: rest assured, I am still obsessively refreshing my email. I'm not sure what I'm going to use the internet for after this is done. What did I do before? Go on Facebook? Who knows.

Good luck, @la_mod! I'm sorry, this all sucks. Application season is already so stressful. I don't get people.

I'm having the same problem Idk, the way my season has gone I'm not counting on it. Ivy leagues have kinda stayed in the longshot range for me sadly. But, I'm excited to see how my visits unfold this coming month!

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I have heard nothing

Yup! Roughly--Nineteenth century Americanist, but developed from an interest in Romanticism. I totally feel you on POIs, though. The person I want to work with at Columbia has my exact specific interest and now I'm dying to work with her. But, still, I'm happy with the schools I got into (happy to get in at all, tbh).

Feeling this for sure. I've written off UMich (sadly--that had always been my dream school), and I'm not at all confident about Columbia, but I can pretend for a little longer

It is, actually! And two rejections already, but no waitlisting; it seems unusual. Guess we will have to wait and see. Edit: In my puzzling over this, I forgot to mention: congratulations!!

Wow, thank you. That definitely hit home for me. It's funny you mention reading and writing more. I was struck by just how little I was reading books in the past couple of years I've been out of school (you think you'll get all this reading done once you don't have to read, and it ends up being just the opposite). I made a rule for myself recently to read at least 15 minutes a day, if I couldn't dedicate a huge swathe of time. Really getting back into critical writing might be my next task after that. Hopefully, this summer I'll have time to sort of reset and get myself into that headspace.

Welp, looks like Michigan is sending out their WLs. I'm crossing them off my list--good luck to everyone, and congratulations to those who got in!

This is something I'm trying really hard to keep in mind! It's difficult for me, because I nearly went down a very different sort of career path when I got out of undergraduate (well, actually, I did go down that path). I recently began to have more and more opportunities in that career after struggling in it for some time, and I turned them down because I got into grad school. I'm struggling with that decision. I know that grad school is something I have always wanted to do, and I know--I know--I have to at least try it, or I'd always regret it. But I'm upending a lot of things to do it, which is exciting, yes, but also very scary. Thank you! I'm trying to do this. Things are hard!