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a_sort_of_fractious_angel

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Everything posted by a_sort_of_fractious_angel

  1. Bucknell University offers a non-competitive, fully funded, two year MA program. Carnegie Mellon offers a partially funded one year MA program. Bucknell is a great dept - supportive and collegial - and has done very well with placing their MAs into PhD programs (Harvard, UPenn, Vanderbilt, Temple, etc). CMU, while different in the details of its academic strengths, is also a very supportive and friendly place, and their MAs also do well with both PhD apps (I know they placed someone at Virginia but I don't have as much knowledge about what other programs - which there are - at this time). Both depts have scholars doing work in modern and contemporary literature and, depending on your specific areas of interest, one (or both!) might be a good to consider.
  2. Thanks, @TakeruK, especially for putting into words what is definitely one of my first academic experiences re: maintaining the balance between being polite/positive & firm/not a doormat.
  3. Thank you both! It's good to hear that university depts being really, really slow (esp for stuff like reimbursing prospectives) is par for the course. I'll follow up again in a week or so but will otherwise just sit tight. Thanks again!
  4. The program I have decided to attend hosted a visiting event and offered reimbursement. Once I had chosen that program (and was done visiting others, which made things a bit hectic), I emailed the dept admin about getting reimbursed. They copied the correct person to talk to and told me what I needed to send. I gathered those materials and sent them to the new person on March 24 (didn't receive a confirmation email). On May 1, nothing had changed so I sent an second email (in the same thread) confirming receipt and asking if there was anything else I needed to send. As of today, no response and no check. Since this is the program I'll be attending, part of me thinks I should just drop it - I don't want to appear pushy prior to showing up and, while I'd really appreciate being reimbursed, I have absorbed the costs. Plus, the school has already had its graduation so I don't know if I've missed my opportunity to fix this. The other part of me thinks I should try one more time and send the email from my official school account - I was offered reimbursement and (far more importantly) might be able to figure out how the whole reimbursement thing works in terms of time & whatnot (which would be really helpful to know prior to starting.) Granted, it could just take FOREVER to get checks to prosp students out but I'm a bit concerned about not getting any kind of response. What would you all do? Email the finance person one more time? Or email the dept coordinator directly? I don't like the idea of going back to them but, maybe if I reach out to the financial person a third time and get no response, I should reach out to the dept admin (who is great about responding to emails).
  5. Hey, @indecisivepoet - I'm not punctilious but I have some info/opinions that might help you. I found the NRC rankings more useful than USNews precisely because they don't have one definitive number (like USNews does with the rank number and its corresponding 1-5 score.) The more holistic score gives (I think) a better sense of how programs are perceived IRL. Granted, the NRC rankings are now, what - ten years old at least? Bear that in mind. Also, USNews is not "updated" for this fall (it's the 2017 rankings, I believe.) When I first started thinking about programs, I looked most closely at the S-Rank, Research, and R-Rank columns. What I found interesting is that there are programs that score well in Research but not so much in R-Rank. I paired that info with the dept's strengths (which I learned from the websites/etc.) Doing so made me realize that some programs are generating powerhouse scholarship BUT - for myriad reasons - maybe aren't viewed that way by other programs. Could be that faculty at school A don't really know anyone at school C, so they don't have a favorable (or unfavorable) perspective on scholarship (so, like, if a 19th century scholar is asked about a program that really doesn't do 19th century scholarship, they probably won't have a high score to give.) Could be a handful of other reasons. So, if you're going to go down the rankings rabbit hole, I think the NRC is better than USNews because you can use it to learn a bit more about strong programs that you might not have otherwise considered. Beyond that, both of them are pretty much useless. My advice would be to skim both lists to see if there are any programs you hadn't thought about looking at, but then turn your attention to what kinds of info the programs themselves are offering and what kind of work the faculty/and students are doing. Re: handbooks - @Warelin is spot on. The handbooks explain what milestones you need to meet by when. And it gives you a sense of what kind of support is offered by the program beyond "we will fund you."
  6. The University of Pennsylvania has a Call For Papers (CFP) website - you can find it here: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/ I've only used it to look for ones that were close to me (US Southeast/Northeast) but, if I recall correctly, I think they offer international conferences as well. Might be helpful to you? Totally. I was accepted to one of the big, int'l conferences in my field as a first year MA with no publication history. I still have no publication history but have been to three other professional conferences (and co-chaired a panel for one.) I would guess that certain huge conferences are (obviously) going to perhaps be a bit more competitive than others, but if your proposal is exciting and understandable (they're usually pretty short, so try to be super clear about what you want to do), and it aligns with the panel's theme, you shouldn't struggle to get yourself accepted. When I co-chaired a panel, we tried to get papers that touched on the same broad topics so that the presenters (who were working on different texts) had something in common and could talk to one another. So, if you happen to get rejected from a panel, it may just be that your paper doesn't fit with the others for that particular session. You don't need to have a fully polished paper to take with you - some (most) people I know use conferences to get feedback on a project that is in its early stages. I've taken a couple seminar papers that I knew needed a lot more work and I've taken papers that were (at the time of applying) more of an abstract + lit review + outline. Conferences are great for bouncing ideas off of people in a (relatively) low stakes way. Usually, conferences have a meet-and-greet / drinks & food on the first night (or over several nights) and a thing to do (like a round table or another mingling kind of event) during the day - you can go to those and just mingle with people. You can also speak to people who present & attend your session. And you can go seek out other panels that look interesting to you and introduce yourself to people there. I like using the last two approaches since you will be armed with something to talk about (which, for me, makes networking feel less like awkward in-person cold-calling and more like genuine conversation.) Nope. I presented at a conference the fall after I'd graduated from my MA program. I was an "independent scholar," if I recall the ID tag correctly. No one cares, IMO. **My experience is as an MA in the US, but I'm pretty sure all conferences (generally) work the same. If I'm incorrect, I apologize!
  7. Just my $0.02 - take what works for you. There is an advantage to attending a professional conference in your field (and not just A Professional Conference). Bring part of your WS as the conference paper and get feedback from people who are already familiar with that intellectual terrain - you might get some good suggestions about your higher level arguments. And attending professional conferences in your field will allow you to see POIs and leading scholars speak about their projects, which could help you get a sense of where the field is going. Knowing these things will help you both short-term (with the SOP) and long-term (with knowing who to follow as you move forward). There is also an advantage to attending a more general professional conference (like a regional MLA). Bring part of your WS and get feedback from scholars who aren't so familiar with your area of study - if they can't understand how you're laying out your arguments, the adcom might not either. It seems to me that best SOPs and WS strike a balance between the exploration of intricate ideas and the maintaining of accessibility (in the way that good journal articles do). Learning from other people via conferences on how to do that is good prep for PhD applications. Also, like @jrockford27 says, you're going to have to go to conferences as a PhD student and future academic. I think it looks good to show adcoms that, yes, you are aware of the important conferences in your field and, yes, you have been to one (so you're not green to the whole process). While you'll certainly get support as a doctoral student re: conferences, you want to show that you are already familiarizing yourself and engaging with conferences because they're necessary.
  8. Hi - wanted to drop a line. All of the above is excellent advice and I'll just add (again) that the WS & SOP (in relation to fit) are the most important parts of this application - the other parts matter, yes, but they will never outweigh a "fitted" SOP & WS. I'm happy to read or look at the SOP and/or the WS for any of the 2019ers. Granted, I am an internet stranger, but I had some wonderful people here on GC look at my materials during my application season and I found their perspectives very helpful precisely because they were strangers and could point out things that peers and faculty perhaps didn't see.
  9. Excellent point - @Warelin is totally correct in that some schools put "other" funding details & financial info into a handbook and not the acceptance letter. Some handbooks (in my limited experience) are publicly available - if you've been accepted somewhere and cannot access or find the handbook, I think it's perfectly fine to request a copy from the DGS so that you can make an informed decision.
  10. Hi! So - @Warelin, please correct my errors as this is your creation - the funding package sheet tells you the stipend amount. It doesn't include tuition waivers or healthcare details (or conference funding/other financial support) as that information isn't considered part of the stipend that you earn for TAing or what have you. So, in your example, you will get 15,000 for 9 or 10 months (I'm assuming 9 months) and then a summer stipend of 5,000, all for rent/living expenses/etc for the work you do as as TA (even if that requirement is waived for your first year) or as a fellowship recipient. Additionally, health care & other fee coverage changes from school to school - for example, one of the programs I was accepted to covered all mandatory fees and healthcare for the duration of the degree and one of the programs I was accepted to covered 80% of healthcare, didn't cover all mandatory fees, & didn't cover minor tuition fees after a period of time (post-coursework). The third school that I considered offered a different combination of healthcare and fee coverage. I think the chart is more meant to give a more general sense of what schools are offering their students. Additionally, I'd assume that all of the schools on the funding list offer full-tuition remission, partial (if not full) health care coverage, and some amount of conference funding (whether it is through the dept itself or the grad school) -- all of that detailed info will be included in the offer from the school, too, of course.
  11. Thank you! The Burgh seems AWESOME, so I'm jazzed. And if you end up applying to CMU for doctoral work (I hope you do!) feel free to email me - I'll be the proud Bucknellian in the current students section, lol.
  12. I don't know how large the total applicant pool was but I'd guess that (now that people have picked where they want to go), spots and and funding have opened for people doing the kind of scholarship that Bucknell's faculty is strong in. And if they've got the money, might as well use it, right?! They sent students to Vanderbilt and Harvard this year, so it's definitely a place to be if you want to go on to doctoral work - I hope people apply as well! And congrats again on Vermont It's another super solid MA program - I hope you love it!
  13. Hey, all - I wanted to pass this link along in case anyone might be interested. Bucknell University is currently accepting applications to their fully funded MA program in English. https://www.bucknell.edu/english I did my BA at Bucknell, had two friends do the MA at Bucknell, and am happy to answer any Qs about the department or the area!
  14. Thanks, @Hermenewtics for tagging me - I will shoot you a PM @velvet_witch but I do agree (for any future applicants) with Hermenewtic's opinion on UB's poetics program.
  15. 3 credits per course, so 9 credits per semester (for the first 3 semesters) and then 6 credits (one course, one mandatory "thesis" course) for the final semester. I did have to take a 4th course (intro to grad studies) during the first semester, but it was graded pass/fail and was a walk-through of graduate work (as opposed to a content or methods based course) so I don't consider it comparable in terms of workload (although it was 3 credits, if I recall correctly, so - technically - I did 12 credits that first semester.)
  16. I took three courses per semester as an MA student (and one course during my final semester, during which I was also writing my MA thesis.) During my first year, I held two part-time jobs (both obtained through the university) as a research assistant and a tutor a total of 16 hours of work per week). During my second year, I continued tutoring at least 6 hours a week (I did more when the opportunity arose) and took a part-time job at a restaurant (I worked 4pm - 12pm at least two days a week, sometimes three.) Overall, it went fine for me - I got my work done (academic and otherwise) and had some time to relax & hang out with friends as well. The first year went really well. The second year was more difficult because I was applying to PhD programs, but I think I would have felt overwhelmed regardless of if I had been working or not (in fact, the PT jobs were helpful mentally). The trick was not only making a reasonable schedule but truly following through on that schedule. I only ran into trouble when I would go to conferences and lose a few days of time (I don't work while traveling well, which isn't a problem for everyone) or if I chose to push things back farther than was sensible. Hope this helps and good luck this year!
  17. I've done the thing I swore I wouldn't do (go MIA after deciding) and I apologize for that. Congrats to everyone who has made their decision!!!! You did it!!!!
  18. Welcome! All good points above - I absolutely agree with @EspritHabile that there are no safety schools. It seems (from my anecdata) that schools are still regularly receiving hundreds of applications. Additionally, some programs are shrinking the cohorts to make for better funding during the degree and for better success on the job market. My gut feeling (which is pretty wobbly, seeing as I don't really much yet) is that programs are beginning to undergo change in terms of cohort size. Perhaps not all of them, but I think the trend will be to shrink the cohorts every year. Also, I totally agree with @Warelin that how you define fit may not exactly be how the program defines it. I didn't think I'd have a shot at the program I'm going to attend because my research interests didn't totally align on paper. While I could name 3+ people in the dept to work with, I figured it'd be a "no" given my projects - I was totally wrong. And when I went to visit and speak with the department, I got a really strong and clear understanding of how the dept can help me in a way I would have never known just by looking at the website and reading some articles. @swarthmawr - feel free to shoot me a PM as it looks like our interests overlap to some degree and I did my undergrad at a small liberal arts school. SLACs are not carbon copies of one another, of course, but I realized there was a big difference between the SLAC undergrad academic experience and the large, research university academic experience (which I did for the MA).
  19. Hi! I lived on the Range during my two year MA program . I was on Selections Committee that first year and was the Vice Chair of Selections during my second year. It's a competitive application but truly holistic. The rooms are small, absolutely, and you'll have to get creative with cooking or (as I did) get a university meal plan. The bathroom situation is not a problem at all, haha. I lived on both East and West Range, so I can speak to both sides of the Range. In short, I loved my time there. And yes, it is Grounds. Shoot me a PM if you'd like more information on the Range - while I've obviously been out for a couple of years, I'm pretty sure I can answer almost any question you will have.
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