a_sort_of_fractious_angel

I'm a mostly contemporary person (21st American with 20th century frame) and do diasporic/hemispheric lit (Caribbean). In every one of my SOPs, I aligned myself with at least one POI who had a primary focus on Af-Am. 4 acceptances; 3 rejections; 4 implied rejections (though these don't count until they do!); waiting on 3 - signature gives deets. I'm pleased with my results this season given how I framed myself in the WS/SOP and my background (BA & MA) - I'm happy to discuss my application, my successful apps, and my theories as to why I got in where via PM.

Haha, Chicago is not as bad as this year in NY mid bomb-cyclone. Gotta love it.

for sale, Michigan vest, never worn Jk - I'm wearing it right now as it is very comfortable. It was an honor and privilege, U Mich. SO MANY CONGRATULATIONS to the admits. I'll catch y'all at MLA.

I've been doing Dr. even if they use their first name. Its feels a bit formal and sometimes cringey for me (I had one phone conversation where they were like "hello, it's [first name]" and I panicked and was like "hello, Dr [last name]" and I felt like a Batman villain) but I think that following their lead is just as fine as sticking to Dr. or Professor. I'm almost positive they do not put nearly as much mental energy into their salutations as we do. *Also, this is not a stupid question - this is a great question and I spend a lot of time fretting over if I'm coming off as weirdly formal and, if so, am I within the boundaries of normal weird or not.

My cell service cut out twice on one call and I had to do the awkward call-back while they're calling back bullshit ... and I'm still in. Phone calls are just ... there's no good way.

CONGRATS @JustPoesieAlong!!! And to everyone who has heard great news!!!! YAY!

If you blast Destiny's Child loud enough and scream-sing along to "Survivor," the nausea kind of goes away.

48 hours. I can make it 48 hours. We can make it 48 hours. Maybe it's a little under 48 hours? I'm going to go calculate it and then convert it into minutes and then seconds and then make a song about my feelings in the style of Rent.

... there's ... a Michigan ... on the board ... I'll be over here doing some Lamaze breathing if anyone wants to join.

CONGRATS! Hooray!

Excellent!! I can't wait to hear about it! Omg! I hope you get to go to some of the meet and greets!!??? Innnnnteresting. Thanks @Warelin Their process is something that I find especially mystifying!

Ya, ya. My undergrad is a SLAC in the rural hills of NE America that has a patented brick design and color and my grad institution is beautifully presidential, so I'm judgey as all hell about campuses. And I love Delaware. 11/10 enjoy aesthetically. Especially in the fall. The greens, the leafs, the gently setting sun .... ugh. Haha. Thank you! As the youth say, I'm #blessed this season. My heart hurts to say no - Buffalo is the same weekend and I kind of committed to them before I heard back from Delaware. I'm also close to UD, so I figured I can swing by on my own (which would be harder for Buffalo, lol.) I don't love the idea of not meeting other people and missing out on stuff but ... I have you and @punctilious to perhaps compare notes with?? And the Race & Ethnicity track is super exciting! I'd love to hang out on that track and the Transatlantic/Transnational Studies track. Both are perfect for my interests and I'm really excited to learn more!

It's a beautiful campus! I'm from the Philly suburb area and had several friends from high school attend UD for undergrad and I visited them a fair amount. Beautiful campus, seriously. Cool people (undergrads and otherwise) and an overall very livable area. Plus, it's like 45 min to my area (where there are a ton of train lines to Philly) so you can get your urban fix pretty easy. Also, the department seems SO nice! and COOL!

I'd guess you're well within your rights to ask? If you're high on the list, it'll help you guys out to go and see the place.

Thanks Thank you for posting and, please, keep us in the loop about how this all goes, if you'd like. Thanks, friend! And this^ about fit - yes. Fit can be scary to think through because it's so personal. And, when applying, They determine the fit. When weighing acceptances, we have to determine the fit. I'm already starting to realize that, whatever I choose, some people I respect and trust won't agree with my program of choice. This is inspiring AF, first of all, and I love how you describe ~better~ schools ... that's exactly how I have come to think of them, haha.

@Fineanddandy's post got me thinking about my first season (12 PhDs shut-out; offered an unfunded MA, which I took) and my second season (12 PhDs shut-out). A list of straight rejections is its own world of hurt. And it's a right shit world to be in. I know I've said this elsewhere, but I was the only MA in my cohort to get shut out and listening to some of my friends and peers feel their feelings about their acceptances was hard. I excused myself from several social gatherings and I opted out of GC for a while because isolation - while a Generally Bad Move When Sad - felt better than smiling through a "yes, I know you wanted [Princeton] but I'm sure you'll find a way to make [Harvard] work, friend!" I've never felt that kind of sadness before - I don't even know if "sad" is the word for it - and while distance + time has brought peace to those memories, I can still recall what that anger/humiliation/fear/shame felt like as it unfolded. Internet hugs to you, @Fineanddandy, and to everyone whose season is a red card so far. I really, really, really hope the next few weeks bring you something amazing. I do think, for this season, my rejections will feel different. I share @unicornsarereal's anxiety about choosing between the best fit. I'd be nervous about that no matter if I got in 1 place or 10 or my dream school and rejections are tied to that anxiety somehow, although I can't quite articulate why. I guess it is the weight of the decision and all its attending wins/losses (many of which we can't foresee at this point) that make a rejection feel weird or painful even if there's an acceptance in hand. Also, I have a friend at my dream school. They've worked on my SOP and have been rooting for me, along with several others who know about The School. If things go sideways for me with that particular program, I'll be mostly sad and scared to tell them. Stupid? Totally. We'll still be friends and it'll all be fine. But that rejection will hurt, too, in a different way. I had some sort of concluding thought but it's walked off, so I'll second @hibiscus's advice to sign off of GC if you need to (not like GC is going anywhere, lol) and best of luck to all of us.

Thank you so much @fuzzylogician - that makes total sense now that I think about it. There's a lot that goes into the decisions that I'm sure I don't know/understand, so I can imagine why asking about future plans may not get me that far. And thank you @TakeruK - your question about tenure rates and the department's plans is fantastic and I will ask it at every visit day. Also, I'll keep an eye out for profs who aren't meeting with students - while that's not foolproof, it's definitely a sign I hadn't though to look for.

For one of my campus visits, I had to select 3 professors to meet with. I picked the 3 whose work currently most closely aligns with my own because (1) we may well end up working together and (2) I get nervous talking to people and figured I'd have the most overlap with these three (hence not as many foot-in-mouth opportunities for me.) Two of them are associate professors and one is an assistant professor. FWIW, the DGS mentioned the assistant professor to me when they called because, while we work in different time periods, the assistant professor and I overlap in terms of methodology and geography. Is there a polite way to ask the associate profs about their long term plans? It's a tiny department so I'm not sure if or how tenure works for them and I'm hopeful the two associate profs will stick around, but that is going to influence my decisions, so - any advice?

Duh. Of course!

YEEESSS! I'm so jazzed. I will mark you down, friend, and - provided we land in Pitt - we can get this team going!

Lol, it's all good - I learned that I can take courses at Pitt if I'm at CMU, so I'm mostly focused now figuring out how to make a co-departmental trivia team as such a thing will be paramount to my personal happiness which, in turn, will dictate my professional successes. And no! Ugh! I know UD is like, you know, doing stuff other than mailing us but ... I want my mail. Gotta update my Excel spreadsheet, sheesh.

Received my official letter of rejection from Pitt via the post today! While rejections are never pleasant, I do very much look forward to the possibility of waving quite vigorously at Pitt from CMU's side of the street.

I'm guessing that - maybe - Virginia and Princeton are end of this week, UPenn is the beginning of next week, and Rutgers is end of next week. Also am eagerly awaiting my Maryland, Pitt, and PSU rejections, although I'm already ready for PSU to officially reject me sometime in April, lololol.

GOOD JOB, GOOD JOB, GOOD JOB!

@WildeThing makes a good point about giving them ample time to read and respond - I found that I had the best success during my MA program when I came to them with a specific conference and paper already in mind - I'd email them the panel info and (if necessary) remind them about the paper. From that point, we'd talk about directions I could expand the ideas. At the same time, the paper and project development was entirely on me. I also gave them a lot of time to fit me in since they were busy with their own classes/grants/projects/books/and other commitments. FWIW, I noticed a big change in the way support was given between my undergrad (which was totally focused on teaching undergrads) and my MA ititution (which was a flagship research university.) The profs in my MA were supportive - undoubtedly - but it fell on me to get what I needed in terms of resources. Also, the dept coordinator may have info on funding (or how to apply) so perhaps speaking with them directly (depending on your institution's policies regarding conference and travel funding) may be a better bet than asking your profs. Re: publications. You may want to look at the dept handbook (or the website section on professionalization) @Melvillage_Idiot - at least one of the programs I am currently considering seems to have a professionalization course/workshop in the third year that addresses publications. I didn't publish as an MA so I don't know much on how that works but @fuzzylogician's advice about relationship-building and initiative is spot-on and echoes a lot of advice I've received to remember that, as a doctoral student, the relationship is more of academic kinship (especially in the later years) than the undergrad student/professor gig. *FWIW, I don't know what that looks like exactly since I'm not a PhD student yet but it makes sense to me.*