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have formally accepted Columbia's offer!

Thanks everyone! About to email the DGS with my attempt at negotiating. Do I need to ask to meet, talk, etc., or can I just say this in an email directly right off the bat? We haven't communicated much yet and I feel a bit rude/awkward just being like HELLO and also more money???

Thank you! I had been waiting on one last school, assuming it'd be a rejection like the others, when I posted this...but it wasn't! So indeed I'll be getting my PhD at Columbia. However I almost went to Clark for undergrad and loved it, and the area! This makes me a bit wistful!

Oooh would you mind forwarding those to me?

Could you share with articles your POI suggested? I'm interested in a lot of what you mention (autonarratives, connection of language/identity). Thank you!

Hi! I'm interested in 20th century and 21st century American lit -- mostly the aesthetics of fiction vs. nonfiction writing, especially as it involves the rise of New Journalism and the contemporary American memoir--and where the history of autofiction plays into all this--and other forms of inventive, experimental self-narratives that question the generic categories of novel, memoir, autobiography, etc. I have growing interests in disability studies, in affect theory, and also just in plain old American realism!!!!

Also going to be brushing up with my Norton Lit Theory book, and reading Felski! I'm also planning on reading Mark McGurl's The Program Era, everything by Marta Figlerowicz, and a bunch on this list. Also Leigh Gilmore -- The Limits of Autobiography and Tainted Witness. Oh, and I'd like to revisit my affect theory reader. To @la_mod, what would you name as the canonical modernist texts? And oh my gosh I don't know how I won't be that person in the first grad class talking about something that's overplayed or whatever! My undergrad program had a pretty formalist, lacking-in-theory bent, and I've been out of school for three years. How at all does one get up to speed (I'm seeing these readings we're talking about here as important, but not necessarily a surefire way to be versed in contemporary dialogue)?

I'm not sure either! I know my friend at Stanford bartered successfully with them, but perhaps it's different there. I didn't see on my letter that everyone gets funded equally, but I'll try to look into that a bit more before asking!

Thank you so much! That is great advice. I think I certainly will ask nicely and politely -- the worst they can say is no, and they must get asked all the time.

Hi everyone! I've received one acceptance to Columbia with straightforward rejections from everywhere else. Even if it weren't the only acceptance I'd received, it happily happens to be my top choice/dream program, so with those factors combined there's zero question I'll be turning this down (unless I learn like, a DARK DARK secret about the department or something). I'm not complaining! But I am wondering how this changes the interactions and processes between me and the department before I officially accept. What's the point in asking questions about the department, placement, etc., when I know I'm going there? What do I do if a professor or student asks me if I'm choosing between Columbia and anywhere else? Do I answer honestly, evade, or lie a tiny bit (idk, I could say I'm waitlisted...?)? I'm afraid if for some reason I'm forced to say I was rejected everywhere else they'll be less excited to have me as a student, and less open/welcoming/etc. during this courting process. Saying I was rejected everywhere else seems different, obviously, and kind of more private, from just saying I'm planning on accepting their offer. If I say the latter, will that diminish their courting motions? Maybe I'm just too hung up on them finally courting me after months of me desperate for them..! And finally, I suppose all of this crystallizes most importantly about the funding package. A friend with multiple offers was able to leverage other acceptances to increase her package, due to arguments she politely made about cost of living and so on. I'm certainly concerned about the cost of living in New York! But how can I ask for possibly more money when I have no other offer? Also, she did that, but is this actually a thing other people do -- negotiate their funding packages? Thank you so much for your help!

I have a visit day later this month but as it's the only place I got into (not that I'm complaining) and I am HAPPILY going to be accepting, I'm not sure what to ask and also whether or not to suggest I'm still really considering any other option? What types of questions do you ask when you know you'll be going? If you only have one offer are you forthright about that?

Hahahaha thank you! Oh my goodness!!!! What a difference a day makes! Thanks so much!!!!

Thanks so much!!! You too, that's amazing!

I also want to say it may indeed be staggered by subfield -- I just got another email from the DGS and the faculty in my field. So they might have slightly more personalized processes at work while they notify applicants.

American, yes! I am an Americanist!