M(allthevowels)H

What would you like to discuss / debate, specifically? I ask since it sounds like you want to speak about a specific issue. But if you'd like someone else to start, I have some thoughts! During my time in grad school, I worked with other students to address the issue of unconscious gender bias in admissions to STEM programs at our school specifically, so it's something that's been on my mind!

The best advice I ever received and did not take: DO NOT GO TO GRAD SCHOOL UNFUNDED!!!

I just finished my first semester unfunded and it is the worst. The work is demanding and thankless and it sucks to put your heart and soul into it all and not have a dime coming in for all of your efforts. It sucks having to choose between eating or heating your place.

It's just not worth it. Try again next year, apply for more grants and such but it's just not worth it. I thought i wanted this more than anything and I didn't care what it took to get here and here I am miserable I did not accept good advice 6 months ago.

Oh my stars! Thank you ( and @Warelin and @a_sort_of_fractious_angel) for providing this. I see it as a "Fit Finder" but also a "Final Decision Assistant". I love *love* that it has a space for "concerns". It's easy to get so excited (especially after we've gotten an acceptance) to forget things that actually made us hesitate before; having fields for all of the abstract information that isn't numbers or names is so valuable for comparison.

I'm still on the wait list at Tennessee. They told me that the person they are waiting on has until April 19 to make her decision. We're in the same boat! 

Well, it is April 16th and I am still apparently on the waitlist. I called today to learn that it may be May before I hear anything more. This is really nerve-racking. While I am lucky in that I am nearby UT and not going to be moving soon, I need to get a job if it is a no. I didn't have high hopes for this cycle and expected to reapply to more schools next year, but I also expected to have clear answers by today...

Me too! What a ride. Thanks for all of your insight and support, Warelin. It's been great having such a sage resource around.

Hey! I took the exam today and I found it was indeed less ID-heavy than the Princeton Review book suggests. However, there is some useful advice in there. They explain how test writers can't expect that you know everything ever written in English (and a bunch of other stuff) by heart, which I guess is pretty obvious, but it's important to really keep it in mind, because it leads to the only advice you need: LOOK FOR CLUES. The PR is also useful in all the other ways mentioned above (I'm from Argentina so the timeline and lists really helped fill in the blanks left by my somewhat patchy English Literature knowledge), but I think Parts I and II were the most useful, so don't go straight for those A-B-C lists.

UCLA and USC English require it - those are the only two schools I applied to this season that required it.
I am very glad it is falling out of fashion, as the focus (both times I took it), was largely British lit, which is not my forte. 
I bombed the subject test both times I took it (once before my MA and once after). 
As far as retaking goes, I suggest retaking the regular GRE to improve scores on that rather than retaking the subject test - it took me three times (for three different app seasons) to get decent scores in writing and verbal (third time I took it I had taken a prep course beforehand).
However, I am terrible at standardized tests and believe the subject test and general GRE should be optional rather than required.
Good Luck!
 

I got in off the waitlist to my program!!!
I contacted CUNY first thing this morning to decline my offer, so I hope someone gets some good news today if not tomorrow!

Just got the phone call from University of Arizona DGS for English Lit: accepted off the waitlist, woo hoo!!!

 
 

Oh, haha! I thought it was just a database thing. Like they sent something out to all waiting potentials when they meant to just send it out to theirs? But I guess they thought everyone needed to know about their fabulous math seminars. It's not too late to change majors, you know. We could get in on that sweet, sweet quantum topology class. 

We'd be very diverse applicants! I don't imagine Math programs get many applicants with an English BA and MA! WUSTL already has my heart though!

I got the same weird e-mail except I never applied to them. I think it has to do with the buttons we pressed when we took the GRE.

My top schools where I want to apply to are Oxford and the Sorbonne. But my safety's Harvard.

Rejected by Vanderbilt, thank GOD. Applied because it was free and I lived in Nashville for a few years: they don't offer anything I'm interested in. I was afraid I'd actually get in.
 
Would've been a nice safety, but safety is wildly overrated.

We'll see if anyone says yes. If not, c'est la vie, eh?

My condolences to those who had hoped to study there and was rejected.

Holy cow! Congrats on all the things!
I know a lot of people who are dying to move to Oregon. Congratulations!
Congratulations on your decision and having a mascot with a cool name.
Oh, the illusive funded MA! Congrats!

Haha wow the video wasn't too far off, especially for the bars and touristy areas.
So for the low down...I live walking distance to Vandy's med center (not sure where your English classes would be, but also walking distance from my apartment, I'm willing to bet), and I pay $1000/mo for my 1BR apartment (no pets allowed and no space for the doggos anyway, sorry). If you're looking for a house for $1400/mo, you might be able to find a 2BR/1Ba in Sylvan Park, East Nashville , possibly even Germantown for that price. If you're willing to get a roommate or two, you could easily find a 3BR house in any of those areas or closer to campus and pay more like $1000 apiece, perhaps less.
You're right, the argument over East Nashville is settled, and it can be summed up by one interaction I've had: some guys came up to me one night to ask, "what's the seediest part of Nashville?" I said, "you're pretty much in it, sorry," and their reply was "Seriously? This is the whitest, most gentified piece of shit." (if anyone's wondering, they were looking for cocaine). It's gentrifying (FAST) for better or for worse. Still not nearly as kitschy as Broadway, the Gulch, etc; it's more akin to 12th Ave with the hipster restaurants, speakeasies, tourists seeking out hot chicken. There are a few sketchy areas, but if you walk around your neighborhood beforehand, you'll know pretty immediately whether you'll feel safe there or not. Or you could probably do a google maps search and base it on how many coffee shops are within a 1 mile radius.
From what I can tell, there are definitely still places you'll only find if you drive around and look for signs out front. They don't have to advertise all that much in Nashville with tons of people moving here and renting temporary apartments til they find homes. I did find my (individually owned) apartment via internet, though, for what that's worth.
Hope that was helpful! Also, if anyone without pets wants my apartment, PM me (my lease is up the end of June).

Out of interest, how did your cohort do? 
Also, you know why physicists/mathematicians/biologists/whatever discipline you fetishize get PhDs? Because they love research and they're getting paid to do what they love. There are no academic jobs for anybody (save a few specialities in economics/business and engineering). Yes, these disciplines have exit opps that don't leave you destitute and starting over in a new career with a boss who is 10 years younger than you, but nobody serves 7 years in a basement at Harvard to work at a quant hedge fund or Pfizer either. These people could've worked up to those jobs out of UG, and would probably be further ahead in their alt-ac careers had they done so. Most if not all of them are doing it for no reason other than that they love research and want to take the one in a million chance to make it their career.
The reason you and that other ass-clown aren't being taken seriously is because you've formulated some overly hysterical narrative of "oppression", the responsibility for which you then, in full contradiction to the fundamentals of your argument, try to pin on the individual. Like, I'm sorry, but not getting your dream job doesn't constitute exploitation. What, is every kid who worked really really hard in high school but didn't get into an Ivy exploited now? There are definitely programs that exploit their graduate students by not paying them a living wage or saddling them with insane teaching/service commitments, but your $25k/year fellowship summer stipend conference and archive funded gig is emphatically not that. You played the game and you lost, a game that most people will lose, a loss the financial and emotional devastation of which is impossible to imagine when you're just starting to play the game. Don't dress it up as some universal injustice. 

I'm doing this because I'm getting paid good money (considering my cost of living) to do what I enjoy.  I'm fully aware that my options may be limited to instructor, lecturer, or adjunct when I go on the market, and because my passion is teaching, and not driven by a capitalist impulse to excess, I'm completely okay with that.
Btw- your bitter is showing.

After a stellar campus visit and a decent funding offer, I officially accepted at Syracuse University's MA in Composition and Rhetorical Studies! Nervous to move up north for two years but excited about the cohort and the faculty.

Same! Officially accepted in late March! Can't wait to see you on campus!

I officially accepted Iowa's offer, after falling completely in love with Iowa City over the weekend. If there are any other future Hawkeyes out there, feel free to message me any time you want.

Hey @bobochicken, the CSCL people gave me a spreadsheet of recent placements for both CSDS and Comp Lit grads when I visited. It was very impressive. Ivy postdocs and R1 tenure track positions were in there. I don't know if I still have it but I'll see if I can dig it up.
I would very strongly advise against doing the Chicago MAPH. From what I can tell, it doesn't really give you much of a placement advantage for future PhD apps. You're also rushed through the program in a year and from my understanding (admittedly hearsay, but this reputation is out there) this makes it harder to forge the meaningful faculty relationships you'd want to have with an eye toward getting recommenders for a future round of PhD apps. And you're paying for an MA on top of that, and in an expensive city, none of which is ideal. CSDS is a top program with excellent faculty and grad stfdents and, if you're cool with living in the Midwest, I think it would be an incredible experience.
The only reason I'd consider doing the MAPH over CSDS is if you absolutely had your heart set on another interdisciplinary PhD program and wanted to use the year to strengthen your app, though even then I don't know how much value the MAPH would have.

I've decided to officially accept Vanderbilt's offer of admission. I just got back from Ole Miss and while the program and people are even better than you can imagine, (seriously, if anyone in the future wants to talk about Patrick Alexander or Cristin Ellis, hit me up) Oxford is not ideal. So I am going to be accepting Vanderbilt's offer and becoming a...I don't actually know what Vanderbilt's mascot is, but it's not a "rebel" so that's a plus.

I've decided to officially accept Vanderbilt's offer of admission. I just got back from Ole Miss and while the program and people are even better than you can imagine, (seriously, if anyone in the future wants to talk about Patrick Alexander or Cristin Ellis, hit me up) Oxford is not ideal. So I am going to be accepting Vanderbilt's offer and becoming a...I don't actually know what Vanderbilt's mascot is, but it's not a "rebel" so that's a plus.