Bopie5

This cycle really is coming to a close (truly strange to think how time has passed!) and I’ll be saying a soft goodbye to checking gradcafe. But y’all are the best and I’m so grateful for the way we’ve supported and encouraged each other throughout this cycle. If anyone ever wants to be twitter friends (I am terminally online) or collab on a conference presentation send me a DM! Best wishes to all who still have decisions to make or waitlists to hear back from.

YESSSS CONGRATULATIONS! I have been anticipating this post for weeks and I am SO EXCITED to wish you a much, much deserved congratulations. So thrilled for you, you absolutely deserve this. Can't wait to read all the great scholarship you produce!!! And maybe see each other at conferences, etc. Take the time to celebrate, this is a huge and wonderful accomplishment. CONGRATS!!!

Of course! It was for English, and my area is media studies/race and ethnicity/contemporary popular cultures.

Hi! Sorry for the confusion--I am currently in an MA, and will be starting a PhD in Comm/Media at Michigan this fall! I updated my signature to show my cycle is wrapped and I made my decision to attend Michigan lol. Probably could have phrased it more clearly.

This is just my two cents, but I think all of us are set up for an uncertain future, no matter what program, no matter the ranking. I'm thinking about how Columbia has had trouble placing any of their recent PhD grads in TT positions. If we put any credence in US News rankings (I don't really), we can solidly say that top 10 and even top 5 schools struggle to place their graduates. Adjuncting is profoundly precarious, and VAPs/postdocs are extremely competitive (and still precarious). In my opinion, I would go with the place where you believe you are most likely to thrive for the next 5-6 years. Not to be a downer, but there are no jobs in English on the other side of the PhD, and I think unfortunately the situation is more likely to get worse than it is to get better. So I would say, factors like a good funding package, health insurance, a strong grad student union, program culture, and other financial support (conference travel, emergency fund, additional fellowship, etc) should be weighed as more important than program ranking or reputation. If you haven't already, I'd ask these kinds of questions to make sure you're making the best decision. Is there a union? If so, how strong/active is it? Does the department or graduate school offer any relocation assistance? Does the department or graduate school have support in case of medical/personal emergencies? What does the health insurance, if offered, actually cover? Is there funding available beyond the 5th year, and how competitive is it? What is the most common time to degree? What are placement rates like, and where have graduates ended up if not in academia? What is your assigned advisor's mentorship style? How does the stipend scale to cost of living? Do students have to work other jobs outside the school to make rent? Is the social culture more collaborative or competitive? The one thing I would say is that I think it would be worth trying to get in touch with more students at the first program. I'd take the opinion of the student who had a bad experience seriously. But I think you need more data points before you take their opinion as your conclusion about the program. It might be worth re-upping your emails to students and faculty at that program. If no one responds again, that's more data too. This got long, but hope it helps!

Hi, I haven't posted here yet, but I wanted to let you all know I just declined a spot at Washington State American Studies. Hope this opens up a spot for someone!

I've just declined my offer at Davis, and also removed myself from CUNY's waitlist. Hope this helps someone!

Wow, amazing. I'm sure your presentation will be great--keep us updated on how it goes!

Omg congrats! I couldn't pull my life together enough to submit to NeMLA this year, but I wish I could come to your panel. What are you presenting on?

Okay the whole #TeamBEN paragraph sent me! I was laughing out loud throughout but that part really got me. Also... "no more difficult and complicated than the vast web of lies your professors have clearly been spinning about your talent and scholarly potential to keep from hurting your feelings" OUCH!

@dogeared is right! @cassidyaxx I just want to echo everything they said. And add that I really admire your resilience and dedication to your work. Your research truly is so interesting, and it's been so cool to see how it's developed over the past few years. I really hope there is waitlist movement and you hear good things sooner rather than later. We are all rooting for you here (not to be corny and quote Whitman, but we are with you and know how it is). This process really beats you down. Please take care of yourself and be gentle with yourself. Your work is meaningful and valuable; you have something to contribute and something to say. But even beyond that, you are meaningful and valuable, separate from your work. The stress of this process is so debilitating, and on top of all the other stressors in the world right now...it's so much to carry. I hope this little community can help remind you (and me, and everyone else here) that we're not alone in this, and that we are here to build each other up and care for each other as scholars and as people. Manifesting good news for you, and soon.

When I was shut out in the 2019 cycle, I reached out to all the programs asking for feedback. It's not rude, but you really have to be careful not to make it look like "Why the hell did you reject me?" and instead make it more like "I genuinely want to approve and would appreciate feedback if you can give it" (even if you're feeling both ways haha). Fwiw, 6/7 schools I applied to said they couldn't give feedback bc they have too many applicants, and the one school that did give feedback was almost entirely positive.

Hi, thanks for reaching out. I'm definitely not any kind of expert here, but I can speak to what my process was like! I applied to multiple programs because my research interests don't necessarily fall neatly into one department. I am really interested in television studies/media studies, and that doesn't consistently fall into one kind of department. My research proposal is largely the same, but with different framing/emphasis for each discipline. I wrote a somewhat unique SoP for each program regardless of discipline, because one thing I worked hard on this cycle was articulating fit beyond just naming professors of interest. I did a lot of research into centers, certificates, student organizations, programs, and curriculum, and talked specifically about those things in my statements. Basically, fit was what guided me this time, much more than last time I applied. Some Comm programs are more media studies focused, whereas at some schools Comm is much more political communication or information studies driven. Some schools sort of house media studies scholars in the English department, while some English departments are much more focused solely on literature. A good starting place for me was identifying scholars who are important to my work, and then seeing if their department would be a good fit for me in other ways (since one scholar you admire doesn't necessarily constitute good fit). In terms of letters of rec, I had recommenders who were very generous with their time and support. I used the same recommenders regardless of program, and I waived the right to see the letters, so I don't know how different the letters were, but I do know they varied slightly for each discipline. I personally think applying to multiple disciplines was the right move for me, although it certainly required much more research (for many Comm programs I looked in to, I was able to find stats as to whether the program primarily took people with Comm BA/MAs, or if their cohorts were more interdisciplinary). What initially motivated me to consider other disciplines was advice from my professors. That's what got me started in terms of thinking about jumping disciplines. I can't say whether it would be the right thing for you since I'm not familiar with your work, but I'd be happy to answer any other questions you have over PM! And it's not over til it's over--we're still early in the cycle. Hope you get good news soon.

I can't really speak to the potential impacts of being an international student, but everything I've heard (on here and elsewhere) suggests that stats (GRE, GPA) are significantly less important than SoP, sample, and LoR. And I know for me, my stats are good (4.0 GPA, 98 percentile verbal, 99 percentile AW) but that didn't get me anywhere last cycle, because my project was vague and poorly defined. I've heard that good stats don't necessarily help you, but particularly bad stats (major GPA, subject, verbal, and AW--the quant score doesn't matter at all for us, really) might have a negative impact. Proving that you are equipped to pursue scholarly work semi-independently matters much more than proving you can get a good score on a test. I'm showing my cards a bit here, but I think standardized tests are mostly a classist barrier to entry/access, and I hope more and more schools stop requiring the GRE general or subject. I'd say unless your scores are particularly low, I would focus way more on your sample and SoP, and on finding departments where you can clearly articulate departmental fit in multiple ways (happy to say more about this if that would be helpful). Also--part of your application is proving that you will be a good colleague and department member. This means demonstrating that you participate in your field (often, through conferences) and aware of scholarly debates and at least somewhat cognizant of your "intellectual genealogy." But it also helps to have involvement in academic community (maybe working as a student editor for a journal, having a position on a committee for a particular conference, working as a teaching assistant or a grader for your department, or being on a grad student council or committee). Also, something that seems counterintuitive is that you don't want to seem too "finished" or that you've already arrived. You want to show that you're ready to be shaped by the program. This is getting way too long, so I'll stop haha. (Maybe we should make a "what we learned from this cycle" thread or something, lol). But I hope this helps, and I'm happy to answer any questions over PM too.

CONGRATULATIONS! I'm so happy for you. Which program? So excited for you, for both the acceptance and the funding. I hope you do something fun to celebrate.