RaspyRay

I would prefer to think of it as $160 for a better chance at a generous fellowship. 

See y'all later today!

In at Yale. My one admit of the season. I'm speechless.

@tacocat211, @millw, @gloriagilbert: Hey all, current UT PhD student here. I'm not sure why the department hasn't updated the placement information yet, but hopefully that should happen soon. While all the standard qualifiers apply to the following statement (e.g. "the job market is tough, etc"), here it goes:
We have had several straight-to-TT placements in recent years, or at least TT after one year of completion. Generally speaking, UT fares better on the small-to-mid size universities, especially liberal arts schools, but if you're in the Rhet/Comp track you're likely to do extremely well, as UT is in the top three of that category and is generally well regarded, with lots of big names in that department. I would say that attrition is relatively common pre-MA; at least one person per year since I've been here has left after getting their MA, commonly due to losing interest in academia/not wanting to slog through the job market. Some have dropped out pre-diss defense but it is uncommon. 
My own feeling is that people who are fully committed to the job market typically end up coming out pretty well in lit (my field), with virtually almost perfect placement in the Rhet/Comp field (fewer of those students are accepted each year; it's something like 12-15 lit, 4-5 in Rhet Comp per cohort). I work in modern and contemporary dramatic literature, which is not a super robust field in literary studies on the comparative (in my experience looking for PhD programs back during my application season, when a department listed "drama" as a speciality of its faculty, it was typically a 60-90 percent Shakespearean subset of the professoriate), so I might have a harder time on the job market than some other fields, but overall I don't have anything above the typical sense of dread about the job market. UT is still a well regarded school with a large, respected faculty; it's a great place to study.
If y'all have any more questions specific to your field and interests, feel free to PM me. I can be more helpful if I know specifics about what you're working in.

i got into Michigan!!!!! my first offer!!! i cried at work!!!!!!

At this rate I’d be happy to attend Trump University.

Shout out to everyone's friends/roommates who have done this! Y'all the real heroes of this admission cycle!! 

Got a call from POI at NYU. Voicemail said they have some “very exciting news” ... That means I got in, right? Right?!?! I’ll roll over and die from embarrassment if it means they referred me to their master’s program lol. 

Hi everyone. I will definitely be attending the visit days in March as well. I'm SO excited. UT Austin is the only program I have heard from so far, but it was a top choice so I'm not super stressing about my others atm. I focus on 20th century and contemporary Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean Lit, U.S. South, energy studies, disaster narratives (hurricanes, droughts, oil spills, etc), postcolonial and ecocrit. You all have fascinating interests, and I look forward to meeting everyone. 

I would very much like to know where/if I am going to graduate school !!

Lol I'm in at UT Austin too! Congrats to everyone. Will you all be attending the visit weekend? Hook'em ?

I will totally be there.

Congratulations UT admits!!! That is my undergrad institution and I know most of the faculty personally (although the department is huge and I have some blind spots). Please feel free to DM me if you have questions about the department or the city  

Lol I'm in at UT Austin too! Congrats to everyone. Will you all be attending the visit weekend? Hook'em ?

Wow, I've been admitted as well.

UT Austin!!! Can't breathe!!!
 
Edit: that is, I GOT IN!

Lol I'm in at UT Austin too! Congrats to everyone. Will you all be attending the visit weekend? Hook'em ?

Sooo...I just received an email saying I've been admitted at UT-Austin's PhD program! This is all happening so quickly, yet so slowly!

Memes are my only solace from this nightmare

At 3am Duke be like, u up?
And we, despairingly, answer in the affirmative. 

Hey, folks. I had a major meltdown this morning so my mom sat me down and gave me some insight into the admissions process now that I’ve turned my applications in. She’s a tenured English professor at a large public research university (with only MAs, no PhD program), and has served on an admissions committee a handful of times.
She walked me through the review process at her institution and what she’s gathered from peers who also review doctoral applications at other schools. She shied away from giving me too much information before I sent in my apps because she’s way too ethical and has students applying to some of the same schools as me, but now that they’re in she unloaded a bunch of useful information (which, on second thought, might be more helpful for people applying next year than those who’ve already applied).
Either way, I thought I’d share this information in case it gives others some insight into this nightmarish process, or at least assuages some of the dread that comes with waiting for decisions. As always, please take this with a mountain of salt, since its only one person’s experience and mostly hearsay since I didn’t take amazing notes when we were chatting (but I did read this post aloud to her and it has her stamp of approval). 
And of course, apologies if hearing about the process from a professor’s perspective after submitting applications might feel unhelpful/provoke further anxiety. It was comforting to me just to take the mystery out of it, but might not be to others. 
 
At her (small-ish) program, there are only 2 professors who read the entirety of the applications each year Admissions or the college of liberal arts have some basic guidelines, and the department administrator separates out the people who don’t meet these requirements before forwarding the applications to the faculty members  The adcomm faculty members still review the applications of folks who don’t meet requirements like GPA minimums, however, especially if they have supplemental letters/explanations for poor performance or test scores (mom says she wouldn’t want to miss a ‘diamond in the rough,’ lol, but she’s been listening to a lot of Hamilton lately) 
  The first thing she does when reviewing an application is independently read the SOP and writing sample There are some expectations for both pieces that determine whether or not the applicant is likely to be considered ‘graduate school ready,’ mostly the candidate’s reason for pursuing graduate study and their demonstrated interest in literary study She says a surprising number of people say things like “I want to go to graduate school because I love reading,” which to her doesn’t show that they understand the demands and expectations of grad school, and it comes across to her like they’re unsure of what to do after undergrad so they just want to bide time Even if the SOP and writing sample do not pass this initial litmus test, she and the other faculty member are expected to read the rest of the application, with the exception of applications that are to the wrong school or unreadable or clearly plagiarised etc.   She and other faculty reviewers at her institution almost always place more weight on LORs than transcripts and test scores. I asked her to rank the pieces of the application from most to least important and she said the following: SOP, writing sample, LORs, transcript, test scores (pretty common knowledge already, but it was reassuring to hear that the pieces I have the most control over are the most important)
  The 2 profs then independently make shortlists of applicants they want to accept, with around 10-15 more people than the average cohort size They then discuss with the other reviewer, and most of the time end up with unanimous ‘rankings,’ but sometimes have to get outside readers (i.e. other faculty or trusted admin) to determine who to choose if two candidates are especially close The top however-many of the list are guaranteed funding or a GTA (since their school doesn’t fund all MA students)
  My mom’s colleagues at both private and public schools who do have PhD programs review applications in a similar way, she believes, and last she heard there are usually double the number of faculty on their adcomms (so, like 4 or more people looking at each application) depending on program size/number of applicants
  Her institution does not recalculate GPAs, and she says most faculty are (hopefully) human enough to not put too much weight on undergraduate ‘pedigree.’  She says she approaches applicants like she would her own students, i.e. she’s generally on their side, want them to be successful candidates, and gives people the benefit of doubt when it comes to things like grades and test scores if they have adequate explanations  However, really poor writing is the only thing that will automatically remove an applicant from serious consideration when she’s on an adcomm, and of course negative LORs or other similar red flags (like mostly C’s and D’s in English courses, or no academic progression/clear patterns in performance) 
  She also doesn’t view older applicants negatively at all, and the only time she will really question an exceptionally large gap between undergraduate and graduate (like, over 12-15 years) is if their writing isn’t demonstrably graduate-level (and even then she said she’ll consider the possibility they might just be out of practice compared to an applicant fresh out of college who probably have more resources/proofreaders at hand) She said that sometimes older applicants demonstrate a lot of maturity and seriousness because they’ve had enough time to consider their career paths— they’re often her most engaged and dedicated students If a candidate is still in undergraduate but shows they clearly understand what grad school is about, this also will not be held against them 
  Diversity of experience counts a lot in her department She always tries to assess how a student might change the culture of the program ‘Fit’ to her is very much about determining who may contribute to the diversity of perspectives upon which the humanities classroom thrives Academic interests are important, especially if what they want to study isn’t offered in the department, but so is admitting students who can learn from one another, and from whom faculty can learn as well. This sounds cheesy, but she said its an important way to foster a well-balanced program
  The last thing she said to me is that graduate admissions varies immensely from year to year (which, sort of unhelpful but I guess a harsh reality)  Usually its a different set of people reviewing each year at her school, and she’s seen her own top students shut out entirely one year and then accepted nearly everywhere the next Many of the most successful scholars she knows have had entirely unrelated careers before going for their doctorates, or they’ve faced the challenge of having to apply twice or even thrice before finding success It really is a crapshoot, but that also means applying again and again won’t reflect poorly on you for most adcomms because it really depends on who else is applying that year  (And she also said some sappy mom-stuff about this torturous experience having nothing to do with my worth as a scholar or person, but that’s not coming from her as a professor so maybe not as helpful)  If you’ve made it this far,  I’m sorry this is so long, but my mom offered to answer any questions if anyone has any I didn’t think to ask. She didn’t know I have been on gradcafe for so long and is worried that I check it too often, but was also excited when I told her I was posting this stuff because she remembers her application days and how horrible it feels not to know. 

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope some of this was helpful to you!  

a thread of positivity!

In a few weeks, you'll find out where you're accepted, rejected or waitlisted. By now, I'm sure you're experiencing all sorts of highs and lows. This is a very stressful process. Sometimes, all you want is some news because you're starting to feel down about the process.

Big News? You're alive.
-There are currently seven billion people alive today and the Population Reference Bureau estimates that about 107 billion people have ever lived.  -Having just a few coins makes you richer than most people on Earth.
-You are unique and nobody in the entire world is like you are
-The opportunity to attend school is something many people don’t have. (Which makes having a college degree even greater!)
-Most people lack a bed of their own to sleep in
-Many people on earth lack access to clean water.
-Cell phones make talking to loved ones easy.
-You have friends that will always have your back. (And if you don't, message me. Let's talk. And if you do, let's talk anyways)
-You can enjoy pizza. Or Ice Cream.
-There are people in your life who love you more than you could ever know -The Internet, n'uff said?   But in all seriousness, try not to compare yourself to others. We have a tendency to look at how great the lives of other people are going without realizing the stresses they're hiding. No matter where you get in or don't get in, please be proud of yourselves. You've worked incredibly hard to get to where you are. An acceptance doesn't determine who you are and a rejection doesn't make you lesser than. It just means not this year. You might realize that your passions change over the course of a year. And you might discover those new interests are really interesting when you do reapply. You might discover some universities that previously rejected you might accept you the following year and viceversa.   Lastly, a word on rankings:
USNews rankings for English are determined by 14 percent of respondents who were department heads or director of graduate studies. As such, it's hard to take rankings those seriously when a lot of the rankings are based on "name brand". Most departments are only paying attention to a few select schools and placements may vary considerably across specific interests. Follow your heart when making a decision. Happiness is the number one thing that will make you succeed in a program and that happiness will translate to the quality of work you produce.

Good luck all. You're going to do great!

"Harvard isn't ready for this jelly"

I was super inspired by one of my tenure-track assistant profs who did really smart scholarship but was also a really talented poet because her outlook was very like "there are lots of different kinds of writing and thinking that I like to do I just get paid a lot more money to do one of those kinds of writing." Obviously she was very lucky to have her position but I really admired how she didn't let academia dominate her creative life, and her advice to me was on the same vein...she said a PhD can be a good setting to do certain kinds of writing and thinking but you don't actually need to be a PhD student to authorize you to do that work...you can authorize yourself!