FiguresIII

@swarthmawr and @kendalldinnienegreat questions! I'm sure many of us have this on our minds as we prepare for visits. My first one is in 9 days !!

Can do this weekend!

hmmm hm in at yale comp lit hmmmm

Hi all! @a l l c a p s noticed we were both located in Paris and had the wonderful idea to get together to share app season joys and woes, pre-program preparation, and anything and everything else. So, is there anyone else in Paris/France who wants to take gradcafe to the real cafes?

Woooooh congrats see u at the visits??

Thanks all!! It was an email from the DGS. But yeah, out of the blue on a Saturday. It seems like the email was pretty standard, inviting me to the visit weekend but no funding info yet.

Yassss accepted at Berkeley English bbs! Anyone else hear back?

congrats everyone!! also got an invitation to NYU's comp lit interview day AHHH ?

Yessss congrats!!

Can confirm that Chicago has probably made most of its decisions. I just got an informal email from a POI telling me about this fellowship they're offering me and I confusedly asked whether that meant I was accepted! She said yes and added that she was surprised that the administrative gears were turning so slowly. Anyway, I'm beyond excited and hope everyone will be released from this agony soon!!

Anyone else biting their nails over Berkeley...?

No I don't think my applications commit me to any one project at all. And there's a distant sense in which the two projects are related, so who knows I'll get to do one first, then something related to the other. But that's getting way ahead of myself. And anyway I expect to be changed deeply in ways I cannot predict by the coursework, the people I'll meet, the department culture, etc, of whatever place I end up choosing. I've heard this directly during my interviews, actually, that my own lack of direction in my studies so far means I'm more 'malleable' as it were (this sounds weird, now that I think about it). That's true about the lack of comp lit jobs. So, as you probably know, what every comp lit department will tell you is that you just have to do work that fits a national literature dept. with some other languages or whatever sprinkled in. However much buzzwords like transnational and global get thrown around, the institutional legacy of national literature departments is too deep. And so I've also been told not to worry too much about the comp lit / English divide, because many positions in English have been filled by comp lit people as well (says my undergrad advisor). One reason I'd study comp lit anyway is that I would like to work with people who are comfortable and familiar with several literary traditions and languages, plus that I'd get to study more languages (and an ancient one! I can't wait, honestly). One consequence of this that I do worry about is that my main literature in comp lit will have to be anglophone, since there is probably no way I'd get hired at a French department with a francophone comp lit project, because that would also require language teaching.

It's insane, I really hadn't expected this! I was happiest to hear back from my top choice super early (Jan. 17). It feels really good to have no rejections yet, but I know that that can't last, plus I don't have any actual acceptances yet, so I'm still a bit nervous. This week we should all get some certainty though! As for choosing, I hope to do a lot of visits! I applied with two totally different projects for English and for Comp Lit, so the hardest thing will be to choose what discipline I'll go into. My heart says Comp Lit, my brain, fearful of the job market, says English (and I'm not even sure if English actually has more jobs, it just feels like it will be easier to explain and place my work during the job search).

nice congrats! Same here I went out with some friends last night to stop me from obsessing over my email, now I'm waking up way too early and still half drunk, and there's not even an email from them, I just had to feverishly check all my portals.

wowowow Stanford waitlist!!

The Bible

Wow just got an invite to Duke's 2nd round! I was totally convinced I was out. Anyone else got news? Not really enough funding for me to actually attend though, coming from Europe...

That's so nice, congrats! That's the vibe I got from Chicago too, although some have had a different experience it seems. I'm questioning my interest in Duke now, but I'm sure that's just a way for me to justify feeling inadequate in the interview.

I'm like: I'm applying here so I can learn to argue the kinds of questions you're asking me now! I want to go to Duke to get a good understanding of Marx, Professor Hardt!

Wow! That Duke Lit interview was harrowing. First they were 20 minutes late, so I thought I'd missed the whole thing. Then, Mark Hansen, Walter Mignolo and Michael Hardt interrogating you on the finer points of the argument in your SOP, your understanding of Marx, and the (to me unsuspected) implications of your own project--it's a very good way to convince you of your rejection. I'm going to join the Ben & Jerry's binge club here.

I'll make sure to post about my interview experiences! Just had an interview with Chicago English and if it's anything like that one, I should be okay. It was very casual, they were eager to hear me speak more in depth about my projects, about my backstory as an international student, and about how I envision my interdisciplinary work. No grilling at all. They also left the last fifteen minutes to my own questions (I should have prepared better ones...). Not sure how Duke will go, it's going to be shorter, and it feels more intimidating, with the DGS and four other adcomm people. As for Yale, who knows. I've heard it's more of a formality, not a decisive step in the admission decision, and it will be via phone, not skype.

@flungoutofspace so on point with the Beckett reference! "Something is taking its course..." One of my favorite readers of Beckett, by the way, is Leo Bersani: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674048768

Thanks! It seems that they don't fund international visits, I'll make sure to ask if I'm lucky enough to get a second round...

And does anyone know if Duke also flies out its international applicants for the 2nd round?

No way, congrats, I'm actually from Utrecht! I love the city so much and I have so many recommendations haha