havemybloodchild

Now I know what my tree needs next year ❤️

Reading at least two books a week and working a lot. Sleeping a lot as well, although I keep having dreams about rejections and waking up on the verge of a panic attack. Super fun.

At this point I’d love to get into a my life is a failure back up school, even in Buffalo ??

Right there with you. The dread is real. There are no wrong emotional responses to this process. It’s not self deprecation, it’s recognition of the exceedingly low acceptance rates of humanities programs. Dread of not being accepted is often (and definitely for me) coupled with dread of low job prospects and being not in my 20s anymore. It’s okay to feel sad and defeated already. Just as it’s okay to feel optimistic. We’re all in this together. We all have our own ways of processing this process. Very happy for all who have been and will be accepted. Also standing in solidarity with those of us who are very afraid of what the next month or so holds.

Yes, same here.

That’s how I’m feeling, yeah ?

Lol this is basically my entire personality but + memes because I’m a millennial and that’s how we roll ?

@dilby your statement seems incredibly strong to me, thanks for sharing this portion of it. What you want to do is so crucial, in so many ways. I wish you the best of luck.

I'd really encourage you to try again next year if you are shut out. This is my second round, and I can tell you my applications this time are much, much stronger. There is so much to this process, I think the first year should pretty much be viewed as a practice run. If you don't feel strongly about your materials, start revising them now. Just having been through the process has taught you so much, I'm certain. You'll have more tools in your tool kit next time. If it's your dream, I think you owe yourself another try, personally. Good luck!

I started writing my 2019 SoP today. Anyone else already lost their entire mind and any shred of hope it ever contained? ?

I wouldn't think this would be a big deal. Fingers crossed for you!

@swarthmawr thanks for the feedback! I hate theory (I know, I'm a bad English person) so I didn't incorporate much, really relied on criticism and sources from other fields. The trickiest bit was justifying making an argument about Black masculinity when the protagonist in the novel is white, but I found some wonderful sources including a book called Playing in the White that were really helpful. I read a ton of Trudier Harris-Lopez (always a pleasure for me!), and incorporated some (I think) interesting pieces, including a passage from "Chickamauga" to argue that American masculinity and the image of the white "conqueror" have always been intertwined, and an article about fallen women in Victorian novels (I argue that Giovanni is treated similarly in GR). I looked at some psych sources about Black masculinity and fatherhood, particularly transmission of values. Also Cleaver's commentary on Baldwin in Soul on Ice and a lot of Baldwin's own essays. I also posited that the protagonist's view of femininity had a lot of Gothic elements, that was probably the most "fun" but of the paper to me. I feel like his construction of femininity was like a dangerous black hole, more about being not male (lacking, haha, I see you Freud, but I still hate you) rather than anything else. I feel like there's so much, I'm not really communicating it clearly...this grad app stress-induced hangover probably isn't helping ? Anyways if you want to see my sources or chat further let me know, I could geek out about this forever, I love GR so dearly!

Disturb us.

Lol I checked the results page immediately this morning and then had conflicting feelings of relief and impatient desperation. Still feeling that feeling.

Y’all make this process so much better. It’s fucking horrendous. But y’all make it better. Thank you.

Lol hopefully this method pays off for me too in the end ??‍♀️ Also...congrats!!! You’re killing it this cycle

Sammmmeeee

These fu**ers referred me to the MAPH program. Lol, you think I want to suckle at the teat of UChicago so badly that I'd get another Masters and pay 50k for it? I would have preferred a flat-out rejection. Get bent, scu*bags

I was wondering about this too... #clingingtohopebutchangedmysignaturetoappearcoolandunaffected

This makes me sad to hear.

I did not receive this email.

My pleasure! GR is a really quick read but so beautiful and layered. I hope you enjoy it!

2 publi, ton of research experience, strong lor. If Harvard is impressed with me, why wouldn't you? Someone thinks they're all that and a Harvard degree.

No shame! I was able to take a class on his work in undergrad and fell in love. If Beale Street Could Talk is excellent and there's now a movie on it that I highly recommend. Giovanni's Room is my favorite, I wrote my undergrad capstone on it, and Go Tell it on the Mountain is excellent (his first novel and semi-autobiographical). He also wrote a billion essays which are phenomenal, there's one in particular about his good friend Lorraine Hansberry right after she died called "Sweet Lorraine" that is just lovely.

Your UPenn SoP says "Penn State" (to which you are not even applying) three times and you just barely catch it in time to delete the one you uploaded and replace it with one that actually has the correct school name in it. When one of your SoPs says "additionally" twice in the same paragraph.