killerbunny

I like this optimism about the quality of online education benefitting from the test periods of late spring and summer, but I am highly skeptical the quality of virtual learning can approximate even a fraction of the benefit of being in a real classroom setting. I loathe doing my current graduate seminar through a staticky interface, and everyone involved, including the prof who is the most committed I've encountered in my master's program, is struggling to maintain the engagement and enthusiasm we had before moving online. In two words, it sucks. I'd also hate to think of missing the opportunity to develop IRL bonds with my new cohort, the collegiality that has been such a vital support system for all us in my current cohort, and to cultivate a rapport with professors that can only come from in-person interaction.

Apologies @ArizonaAdmit. The same happened to a friend who had been accepted back in mid Jan to another AZ dept. I've seen comments to the effect of "well, maybe if they'd accepted their offer..." which fails to consider cases like my friend's: she was still waiting for an official letter detailing the finances and so couldn't accept when they sent word about no funding this year (well, it was more like they'd try to scrape something together for the first year but no promises for now or later on). Luckily, my friend got off a waitlist for another program only days ago; so it worked out in this case. I hope the same happens for you. Best of luck!

Yes, it's a major bummer. I feel like a killjoy sharing it here but I personally appreciated this insight from a Humanities DGS. The OP of the Reddit post is in philosophy; I'm guessing English might have somewhat better prospects of weathering this storm, but who knows at this point. I have a few friends who are banking on the 2021 cycle and I just told them to make sure to start now on being the most competitive applicants they can be.

I take viable to mean what works for you in your situation and comprehends all of the factors that go into choosing to enter a graduate program or not. You have to decide based on your own situation whether this offer is right for you, and no, you shouldn't disregard critical contributors to the quality of your life just to be in a program. I think in the case of this Reddit post, the professor is saying if you have a funded offer that remains a good fit in terms of both your academic interests and your individual situation, then go for it; don't bet on the next cycle just to get into a higher ranked school, because whatever happens with COVID, this process, which is already plagued by austere humanities budgets and other unknowns, will be more fraught. I hope you get off the waitlist for your #1 choice. Please report back if you do and let us all rejoice in some good news. (Note the edit in the Reddit post: OP's default advice is don't get a humanities PhD at all, which I hear a lot but still, yikes. My momma did raise a fool after all.)

I agree with @Wildthing. Based on what I've been hearing, word to the wise is take a viable offer now and be glad you have it.

Food: A Cultural Culinary History, a series from The Great Courses, available on Kanopy, if you have a free sub through your library. Ken Albala, the host of most of the episodes, is a darn delight.

This recent Reddit post by a philosophy professor who is also an interim DGS predicts a brutal cycle next year and urges current applicants to take funded offers now rather than try again next cycle for a more desirable spot.

I was poking around on Reddit last night and came across this post from a philosophy professor who is also an interim DGS. Based on the user history of the OP, it seems legitimate. I hope it is helpful to applicants of the current cycle.

Oof, this is the fear that's been seeping into my thoughts the last few days. There were unconfirmed whisperings of rescinded offers on Reddit. And an instructor who had had a verbal offer of a TT position said it has since been withdrawn. Aside from the awful prospect of losing an offer, the idea of beginning the first semester or year of a PhD online has had me close to welling up. As I'm wrapping up my master's, I can't overstate how vital the first semester was in terms of bonding with my cohort through our sharing the same struggles and stresses. Those bonds have remained so crucial for our mental well-being. I know not everyone reports the same level of closeness with their cohort. But we communicate everyday through group chat and share so much in terms of information and support. In our second semester, we talked one of our cohort members out of quitting the program, and when I've hit my own rough patches, they have been there to give me a morale boost. Plus, how can we develop relationships with professors through glitchy, hiccuping interfaces? I don't want to defer because I'm an older student and have worked for the past 7 years toward beginning a PhD but I dread beginning the fall semester from home.

Interesting both advisees said the same thing. It seems worth following up on; maybe you can simply ask, in what way is he intimidating? It could mean so many things and not necessarily, negative. For instance, in person and in emails, my advisor is never anything but pleasant and engaged but he's intimidating in the sense that I greatly admire his writing, which can be inspiring or petrifying depending on my confidence levels, when I'm working on something with him in mind as a reader.

Just wanted to say I so relate to your sentiments about (over)responding to approval from mentors. I'm currently experiencing a sense of abandonment: with one exception, my thesis committee is being slack, but I realized my frustration is compounded by emotional needs that I need to separate out from grad school. Absent parents aside, being an academic tends to make for a solitary existence, and few people have the knowledge or interest to understand the work we do, at least the finer details that consume us day in and day out. It can be hard to separate eagerness for attention and affirmation from the reality of academia. But if you thrive off a support system and like to have deeper connections with your mentors and peers, that is not something to ignore. Your description of your visit to Northwestern sounds lovely, and even if it is in the context of recruitment, it makes one wonder how much cooler your reception will be at Yale if it feels close to lukewarm now. I wonder if you could speak further with advisees of of the NW professor who you were wooed by?

Just a quick note. You've likely considered this but Boston's cost of living is high. Someone recently quoted the avg one-bedroom apartment is $2000/mo.

Expressing interest in professors' work is a pre-application step. I would avoid contacting them after applying, especially ones with whom you have had no prior communication.

Oh, no. Those are some unfortunate mistakes. I used to grade standardized exams and one ninth grader somehow mixed up Anne Frank and Harriet Tubman.

PMed you.

Another Monday in the longest month of human history. In other news, I just graded an essay describing a French aristocrat in an early 18th-century portrait as a MILF.

Anyone else stewing in the nth stage of waiting: anger? Edit: I'm looking at you, applications with November deadlines.

It's nigh impossible to not project into the future and comprehend all the "what if?"s of an application cycle but it might be wise to get through this waiting period to find out how it all shakes out before contemplating next steps. The present moment is too fraught with emotion to make clear-headed decisions, and those kinds of life choices are better made out of a sense of possibility, not a scarcity of options. Wanting out of your job and your current location sound like pressing concerns for you, but it might be less stressful to disentangle your current situation from your prospects of getting into grad school. If you do end up getting shut out, take some time after the final decision to process and get back to some kind of "normal." It would be nice to have a new situation and a new place to live waiting this fall but it sounds like if you have to sit tight awhile longer, you have the security to do so while you consider your next plan of action. You might find you still want to go to grad school bad enough to go through the gauntlet a second time, which many have done, often with good results—because applying is a learning-by-doing process, and once we hit submit, the decision is out of our hands and very much at the mercy of many factors that have little to do with our individual merit (sadly, to an extent, it does seem like a numbers game). I agree with your resolve to not pay for a terminal MA; did you apply to any funded options? Moving and then moving again in two years' time is a nuisance made more complicated with a partner (I'm in the same situation and it does add pressure). You might decide otherwise and pursue an avenue other than grad school. But it's not over yet. I'll be rooting for you as are many others on this forum.

Yes, Reddit does do this, mostly to discourage obsessively checking results and to replace waiting in anguish with adopting a que será, será attitude. Grad Admissions Reddit is mostly full of applicants in STEM, anyways, very few humanities folk.

hmm...meanwhile, the English forum for this application cycle is at 60 pages and nearly 1,500 replies

Hi, @ire, there is discussion about this year's Getty cycle here:

Good, important, and timely points about water off a duck's back. In the grander scheme, it is self-defeating to dwell on rejections, and there's really no nice way of turning down someone's application. Best to dust yourself off, keep your composure, and move forward. But unless I'm misinterpreting the initial complaint, an admissions office CCed people other than the applicants regarding decisions made about their applications? If so, it's a fair complaint about a lack of professionalism and veers awfully close to a violation of applicant privacy. That institution might want to review its procedures.

A bold response. The wait period is far from over, @yuyuuu. Sorry if I missed it but have you received an actual rejection yet? And if you do get shut out, I think you answered a lot of your own question as far as feeling as though you didn't have enough time to do more thorough research of programs and possible mentors whose work would gel with the topics and methodologies that interest you. Did you have a chance to reach out to any POIs before applying to suss out their availability and receptiveness to your proposed scholarship? That would have been a great opportunity to get their opinion about the patchwork nature of your academic background, which TBH doesn't strike me as a "mess," especially if you're applying to interdisciplinary programs. The most convincing case you could make are your SOP and writing sample. These will demonstrate more than any letter by a well-known figure or a more consistent undergrad curriculum that you're ready to take on the project you're proposing in your application. But like I said, the 2020 cycle is not over by a long shot. Good luck!

My vote is keep it. You're risking your GPA (a little bit) but you're showing gumption by taking a tough class out of your academic comfort zone to acquire a skill necessary for your interest area. I'd imagine (and hope) some ad comms would appreciate that rather than an applicant just ticking the perfect GPA box. (I don't know if it's necessary but if the potential B is something you feel you want to address in your statement of purpose, highlight it as you taking on a challenge in order to achieve your scholarly goals in a graduate program.) If you haven't already, be sure to use your instructor's office hours and ask how you can improve your performance while showing you're committed to putting in the work to do well in the class.

Ha! Yes, you'd think we'd be motivated to complete the requirements we need to fulfill our dreams of entering a grad program this fall. But this process thwarts rational thinking!