JustPoesieAlong

So jealous of everyone's acceptance dreams! I had yet another dream that I was attending school but perpetually unable to get to class. Except, this time, all my grad classes took place in a place that looked suspiciously like my middle school.

Same. I'm not even hopeful when I check it anymore. Just numb. Lol.

To follow up on this, I was told to consider conferences at this point to be mostly for my own benefit (i.e., professional development, an opportunity to see how it's done, etc.) and less so as something that makes me a better candidate for a PhD. As for publishing at this point, I have been told emphatically by experience faculty not to worry about publishing at this point. It may be a different story in different fields, but for the most part publishing in Literature at least is expected only after you've had the chance to hone your skills and your research through graduate study. The only exception to this that I've heard is among those who disagree as to whether or not PhDs should be working toward a publishable dissertation.

It most certainly is. I'm guessing your status still says pending too, huh?

Howdy. Checking in to say I'm a ripe 29. But I'm definitely older at heart.

I, on the other hand, dreamed I was going to school somewhere and spent hours and hours miserably lost trying to find the class I was supposed to be attending.

I'm hoping. I'm also entertaining the dream that the first acceptances were those who get the bigger funding packages, and that another round of acceptances will come through for the base packages. Unlikely, but it's a nice thought.

I'm so glad this thread is up. Between the implied rejection from Emory and the radio silence from OSU (still pending), I'm feeling pretty blue. In good news, my boss let me know yesterday that he values my work and hopes I stick around for a long time. So at least I've got that if this grad school thing falls through...

Congratulations!!!

I applied to Alabama and got this same email a couple of weeks ago (1/3, to be precise). I think it just means it has been passed to the Department, but I'm not certain. What is your area, if you don't mind me asking? I applied to the Strode program.

AILD was my first experience with Faulkner. Right up my alley!

That's the cruelest thing I've heard so far.

Thank you! I wouldn't normally worry so much over the portals, except that OSU seems to historically notify there first. But until I hear anything official, I'll just try to stay calm and distract myself.

I'm assuming Ohio State web portals that haven't yet will roll over today...Mine still says pending. Doesn't really line up with what the survey shows from previous years, so of course I'm obsessing--braced for a rejection, though. Anyone else have any news or thoughts?

Haha, yeah, this is definitely an out-of-school luxury. I did tend to do this a lot when I was in school too, though. I still have mountains of criticism stacked all over our house from the three different papers I ended up considering for my writing sample.

WT would be a reread for me, so I probably would go with R2, but we shall see. Every time I finish reading something, I have a sort of dreamy routine of standing in front of each of our several bookshelves and choosing the book that just *feels* right at the time. Thankfully, my husband is used to this sort of behavior.

I have that on my shelf as well! It's definitely one I need to read.

I can't wait to read this. I mentioned elsewhere that I had been trying to get a head start on a dissertation reading list, but with the stress of waiting to hear back from schools this goal has been put on hold. I'm currently reading/re-reading Shakespeare's works--most recently Coriolanus and, currently, The Twelfth Night. Considering either Winter's Tale or Richard II for my next read, although I might take a break and read Plath's The Bell Jar to change things up a bit. After I graduated, I wanted to read everything but early modern works, and especially wanted to read works from folks who weren't dead white guys. I went through Toni Morrison's works and now consider her quite possibly my favorite author. My favorite of her works might be Song of Solomon--although few books have done what Beloved did to me so it may be a tie. I also read ZNH's Their Eyes Were Watching God; another one of those books that just stick with you. I also spent time expanding my experience with stuff in the canon that I had missed since I focused on early modern so early on. I particularly enjoyed Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. I read a lot of Flannery O'Conner's short stories as well. Reread Anna Karenina (that horse scene, y'all!). And now that I'm saying all of this, I'm really kicking myself for not retaking the subject test. Doh! My dream list of non-early modern canon includes The Sound and The Fury, The Bell Jar, Jude the Obscure...there's more, I'm sure, but that's what I can think of now.

@FreakyFoucault Seconded!

There has definitely been a boost in telemarketer calls to my phone in the last week. They have no idea what they are doing to my fragile psyche!

Don't know if said person is active on the forum, but congratulations to the early modernist who received an OSU acceptance!

Any knowledge of which schools have been known to use such a system? (My OSU application status still says pending, so clearly I'm pulling on strings with this hope...)

@FreakyFoucault Enjoy! I've been considering giving them a re-read.

@FreakyFoucault I love LotR and highly recommend reading the books after you watch the movies. If you're anything like me, reading the book first often destroys the movie experience. "WHY didn't they include X character's major input here?!" etc. The books do drag in places for me--namely in the never-ending battle scenes--but they give so much more life to characters like Samwise and the other hobbits (hence much of Stephen Colbert's arguments that Samwise is the true hero). @punctilious I hope you get the chance to finish the HP series. It's not perfect, but I love the series. That said, I can't speak highly enough of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, if you're looking for a similar read. As much as I love Rowling, Pullman's work is even more engrossing and is, in my opinion, much better written. He draws heavily from themes from Milton's Paradise Lost as well as Byron's take on it. Plus, it features a fiery female protagonist instead of an often-pissy teenage boy. Funny enough, however, Pullman lodged some heavy criticism of LotR, alleging that the trilogy is " “just fancy spun candy. There’s no substance to it.”

One of the recent acceptance posts says they're early modern, so I may for real be out. Boo. But super happy for the rest!