Bopie5

Alrighty folks! I just emailed Penn State, U Rochester, and UC Santa Barbara for some status updates.
The coordinator at Penn State said: "Our graduate studies committee makes offers on a rolling basis up to and including April 15. You will be notified by either phone or email as to our decision. Because of this, I am unable to give you a firm answer at this time, unfortunately."
The coordinator at UC Santa Barbara said letters will be sent out this week. As for U Rochester, I'll keep y'all posted. 
Yay hooray I only have to pretend to be working for another hour!!

@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.

YALL! I got into my dream program at UVA!!! I can’t believe I did it!!!!
i got the email while I was at my nanny job and started crying and shaking. I told my child I was happy because I was going to be a teacher and she hugged me said “I hope you will be mine next year!” Cue more tears. 
 
I can’t believe this is real!!!

I'm sending everyone good vibes - I just had an amazing phone call with the DGS at the Minnesota Writing Studies program who offered me admission! I was staring down a shut out, pending waitlist movement, but now I got into my top program. It's possible, y'all! Every single person here is a great academic and can make it happen!

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

Thank you so much for this, I have really been struggling the last few days and have been feeling really defeated and self-conscious (from grad apps but also other reasons) and this post made me cry happy tears. I remember my family lost power randomly on Thanksgiving and my mom was so upset because of all the food she had cooking/needed to be cooked and I just started laughing hysterically, because it really does seem like the universe really is laughing in our faces, especially in the last few months! It's really hard to be part of this process and so your words mean a lot to me. 

McSweeney's took my essay, y'all!! I'm so excited to see something that's not a rejection in my inbox!

Anyone else getting this weird message on their pending applications or is it just me? Guessing this is a hint from the adcoms that I should refresh a few more times

Reached out to Notre Dame just to see if there was an estimated date they might send out more decisions. I received a nice email back from the grad coordinator stating that I was within the top 10 applicants of 20th c British and Irish literature! She said she expects she'll have more concrete news by "the middle of next week." I'm hoping for another waitlist, at least! 

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. 

Oh my goodness thank you so much for such a thorough response! I really appreciate it. This is my first PhD admissions cycle, and I don't think I was completely prepared for quite how competitive it would be honestly. I got my MA in England and the application process was very different than I think it is here. Definitely learning a lot this round for my PhD apps. 

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.

To add onto @mashatheicebear,

There are several "top" programs that don't have certain subfields. It would be rather difficult to pursue a subfield if it isn't something the university currently has. If accepted, you'll be able to do your own research on it but not having someone to guide you through that process is going to make you not feel as supported by the department. It'll also likely make the job application process more difficult.

I don't think there is any wrong answer to this. I think one of the best things you can do is figure out what your goals are. If your ultimate goal is strictly to teach at an R1 school, your chances are significantly higher if you attend a top 10 school. Though there have been cases where people not attending a top 10 school have gotten tenure-track jobs at an R1 school. Likewise if your goal is to teach at a small liberal arts college, certain schools might decrease your chances because they might not think you have a good understanding of what their culture is.

Years ago, a job applicant got their job offer rescinded from a school because the applicant was making requests that would be more commonplace at an R1 school. A school is making significant investments when they make offers so they really want to make sure you understand the culture of the school and would be happy there. There are things that you can do to make you seem like you understand the culture more but it be nearly impossible to do for every type of school. This is often also the reason why a lot of schools also tend to place better in their geographical location. While nobody is guaranteed a tenure-track job, it might be worthwhile to consider whether there are any locations you be content to be living in and apply to schools within that region.

It might also be worthwhile to consider how many students are a part of a typical cohort and comparing that with how many students get placed. There's a big difference between 2 students (of a cohort of 3) being placed per year and 4 students (of a cohort of 18) being placed per year. Think of you'd be happy being placed at the types of schools they're placing at.

Consider if their stipend is enough for you to live on. If you prefer to live alone, is it enough to get by without roommates? If the city is expensive, how far would you need to be from campus in order to afford rent? Do students need to work additionally in order to live there?

What's the college like? While sports might not impact you, it might also be considering how undergrads deeply involved with D1 sports might impact the way you teach or interact with the town at large. Would you feel okay with living to a town that revolves around the university (a college town) or would you prefer to live in a city? What about the weather? Do you prefer cold weather? Do you prefer hot weather?

As an international student who went through two cycles and applied to many schools, here's my take: school prestige is a thing and it is very important. There's a reason why the "higher" you go up the alleged rankings and look at current students, the less variety you will see and less likely you will be to find a school you're unfamiliar with. Part of admissions is risk assessment; how likely is a student to perform and finish the degree? Schools are investing time and money that is ultimately supposed to pay off by producing brilliant scholars and so they want to get the best students that fit what they're looking for every year. While a great student is a great student, there are hundreds of applicants every year and for the most part, they're all brilliant. Even when you narrow down to specific fields and interest areas, you might still have multiple great students with similarly-brilliant supporting materials. If one of those went to an ivy league school and another to a school no one on the committee has every heard of - and, perhaps, from an a national content they've never dealt with before - well, the latter student is just a more unknown quantity.
Personally I think this plays a large part in admissions, but there's also just the access privilege issue someone mentioned above. Someone who spent 4 years at Yale is more likely to be able to speak the Harvard adcomm's language better than someone who went to Arizona State (and both are more likely than someone who went to lesser known university in Spain). These things have an effect and while it's certainly possible to get in regardless - an amazing candidate is an amazing candidate - it's probably just a bit harder. The good and the bad thing is that you have no control over this so it's pointless to worry about it. No one is going to throw your app out because of it so you should still apply to your top places, but, and this is always true, you should be realistic about your chances.
So, my advice to anyone in this position is to do A LOT of research on schools so you apply to the places with the best fit and can tailor your application (though there are many people who get in without tailoring their materials). Craft and re-craft your documents so they're perfect. And, and this I think is something that is less self-evident than the previous things I've said, diversify your school-list. Consider that if someone has a very similar profile to yours they are likely to apply to similar places. Now, someone who applies to Harvard is more likely to also apply to Yale or Chicago than to San Diego or Arizona State. Someone applying to UCLA is more likely to apply to UT Austin or Berkeley, etc. People generally apply via some structure and sometimes that's the school type (public, private, etc.), location, prestige, etc. If you only apply to ivies or only apply in a particular geographical area, you're more likely to be competing with the same people. So, if you're unlucky and your cycle has that person who is doing very similar things to you but for whatever reason is getting offers and you're not, applying to a wider variety of schools will give you more opportunities at schools where this person has not applied.
There's a whole bunch of factors and no one really knows how any of this works and no single factor is ever determinant so, ultimately, your best bet is to produce the best documents as you can, be as honest as you can about who you are and what you want to do, and just hope that you resonate with a committee. (But yes, strong SoPs and WS will trump average scores and a spectacular SoP can probably balance out anything, but what's a spectacular SoP?)

Thanks so much! I am not too sure about the stats because in my country the grading system is very different and conversions to the US system are usually not recommended. Our grading system comes closer to the British system but still there is very little consistency in how different institutions go about the grading-- the older and more 'significant' institutions tend to be more conservative. My GRE score (only for the general test becuse I didn't take the subject test) is alright. But what I mean when I say that my stats are average is that I have never been to what you might call an 'elite' institution and I don't want to depend on my exam scores. They are nothing spectacular given so many applicants have pretty formidable records and I most certainly don't measure up to those. Neither can I change the stats at this point. The only things I can really work on are the writing samples and SOPs and it would be great relief if the admissions committees weigh those in over other documents. Yes, I will pm you soon. Thanks so much for your help and clarification

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.

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.

I don't mean to be histrionic but Vanderbilt rejecting me is the biggest mistake Nashville has made since its country music industry rejected Lil Nas X.

I received an acceptance for poetry (my first!). She said they are accepting 5 applicants in each genre, and all applicants would be called today. She also told me to expect follow up calls from Natalie Diaz and Solmaz Sharif! 
I am dying!

I just got accepted to UC San Diego. I can't really explain how relieved and proud I feel. Last year was a nightmare and I got shut out of every single program, but this year, I published articles, gave more presentations and workshopped the living hell out of my SOP and it really paid off. I'm just beside myself with happiness.