The Wordsworthian

I plan to officially turn down Brown's offer and accept Michigan's by the end of the day tomorrow, at the latest. The people at both places were really unequivocally lovely, and I hope this early-ish decision on my part helps encourage some pre-April 15 waitlist movement at the former. 

Dallas bound y’all!

Off CUNY's waitlist :') 

GOT INTO THE VILLANOVA MA! Funding pending, but I am OVER THE MOON! 

I had a lot of professors at SMU ask what I’d done during my gap year. My response was working, reading, and counting down the minutes until grad school. Some professors I felt didn’t love this answer. I could have said I’d been working on things for publication, but after taking with one professor about publications at length the night before, I didn’t think what I’d been working on was really ideal. The prof stressed that, in his opinion, publications were really important if they contributed to a coherent idea of the scholar’s specific research goals. The things I was working on did not necessarily do that. They were related to my interests, but that’s all. 
The majority of the faculty seemed to find my answer, I dunno, charming? And then we talked about other stuff. And then I was accepted two days later.
Obviously this is just one school but personally I did not feel any pressure to justify my gap year. I think with how difficult it is to be admitted to a program, gap years, willingly chosen or the result of a shut out, etc., there really shouldn’t be any prejudice against them.
Not that academia gives a single shit about my opinions, ???.

Okay. Several major problems with what you're saying here. 
No, adjuncting is not your "only option" to stay involved in academia, and not everybody has had to adjunct at some point or another. In fact, again, I would recommend that you do not do this unless you absolutely HAVE to (as in, "I need to stay alive and adjuncting is the only way I can buy food this month"). Yes, the system is exploitative. Yes, the universities are to blame. But no, you are not somehow obligated to be exploited simply because you need to stay in academia and you have an English degree and boy oh boy what are you supposed to do now. 
More importantly, a degree in English is not some kind of sentence to working at Office Max or Starbucks. To say that is just wrong, and it also hurts us in the long run. Part of the reason the academic job market is so bad--especially in the humanities--is because of the near historic decline of people majoring in the humanities. The school where I got my PhD is busy dismantling the English department as we speak, replacing required lit classes with business writing and creative writing. (And this, by the way, is a "top 30" program, though I doubt it will be much longer.) Part of this decline is due to the fact that people buy into the bullshit that getting a degree in English or history or French will doom you to a lifetime of pouring coffee, and therefore no one is allowing their kids to major in the humanities anymore. When we talk about having to work into Office Max, we perpetuate that myth and do a terrible job of selling our line of work to the next generation of students. A degree in English is actually super useful and can be lucrative. In fact, it may actually be more lucrative in the long run if one decides to go into private sector work. Here's the notoriously conservative "The Hill" on the subject: https://thehill.com/opinion/education/411925-a-humanities-degree-is-worth-much-more-than-you-realize
I got my (fully funded) master's in a humanity at a time when the economy was tanking--in a much worse place than it is right now. I decided I didn't want to continue to a PhD at that point. I applied for jobs--both adjunct and professional jobs. I landed my first professional editing job making $40k a year with excellent benefits (they wanted an English major!) ... on the same day I got a call from the community college offering me a couple classes for $1100 each. Obviously I chose the editing job. 
I have never worked as an adjunct. 
I managed to get into a PhD program several years later; not being part of academia didn't keep me from getting back in. Sure, it was harder in terms of the fact that I didn't have access to JSTOR from home, but I had several public universities in my area where I could go and make copies of articles and use databases. 
And even if you don't land a professional job, no PhD program is going to care that you worked at Office Max or mopped floors at Wendy's. They just are not going to care!
I would also add--and this is super important to keep in mind--that it's necessary for humanities PhDs to cultivate skills outside academia. Because, as others have pointed out, even if you get your PhD at Harvard, that's no guarantee of academic employment. The copy editing or technical writing you did for a couple years between degrees might come in handier than you realize. 

FYI for everyone--I emailed most of my schools asking for feedback. Davis has given feedback, the program coordinator at UCSB said she'd contact the Adcomms for me, and the coordinator at Michigan said that they aren't able to give feedback due to high volume of apps. Waiting to hear from Northwestern, decided not to reach out to Stanford, Chicago, or Columbia.

Okay, I heard back from the grad program coordinator at Davis! He was very friendly and helpful, and even gave me a few direct quotes from the Adcomm. Ultimately, there wasn’t much to work on—he said that my app was highly rated by all 3 profs,  the comments were almost entirely positive, and that they thought my WS was “very competently written” and “strong,” but not as interesting as some other applicants, and that they think I would probably benefit from getting my MA. The transparency and clarity of his email makes me feel better about the denial letter, and encourages me that the Adcomm had positive feelings about my app as a whole! Might look to get this kind of feedback from other schools. 

lmaooooo got the rejection from Davis too––
The program to which you applied indicated the following as the reason(s) that you were not selected for admission:
- Not competitive with other applicants because:
      - Statement of Purpose/Written work

Thanks for making the thread, @dilby! And, YAY, @mandelbulb!! I literally just made my decision official today. I, too, will be attending UCSD's Literature department in the Fall! So excited to be a part of such an interdisciplinary and transnationally focused department! 

ucsd! it’s a drag i hate the sun though

I love this thread b/c of the role reversal!!! So nice to see students doing the rejecting, for once

I just got my Yale visit itinerary and I have visits scheduled with SEVEN professors, plus a couple of graduate students. This double-department PhD situation means I have a lot of reading up to do in the next 8 days ?

do we not have a decisions thread yet? 

Just an update on my end as well -- after contacting the six schools I had left to hear from, I found out I was on hidden wait list for two of them, and rejected from one. I also found out that I have another week or two of waiting to hear back from the final three schools, which are Canadian. Incredibly frustrating because I have pending offers at other schools and I feel bad holding a place that someone else could be taking! 

In off the waitlist at Loyola

Shoutout to all of the GC folks I’ve met in real life (y’all are good people, can vouch), and also to all other prospectives who are honest about the awkwardness of “mingling,” and/or willing to make humorous comments about the overt schmoozing that goes on at these things. 

I know there is absolutely no way that Villanova will notify me at 10pm EST on a Wednesday, but alas...my heart still leaps every time I get an email.

Pennsylvania State University Clinical Psychology, PhD (F19) Rejected via E-mail on 6 Mar 2019   6 Mar 2019 report spam Dear Whoever Is in Charge of These Emails: I will accept your rejection once you send it in a font that is not hideous and a color that doesn't hurt my eyes. Seriously, who is in charge of these emails? Comic sans and bright blue?? What???

I'm turning down Stanford LDT Education MA today. Good luck everybody! 
Just realized this is a literature thread. Whoops.

Today I received notice of acceptance to the MA program at NYU (as well as rejection from PhD). The offer comes with 60% of tuition covered, no help with fees/registration, and no stipend/benefits. Will most likely turn down, but happy to finally hear some news from this school!!

fit isn't only about research; it's also about having access to a lifestyle that will allow you to thrive. funding is definitely entangled with fit for me. what do you really need in order to get the most out of your program? is it a really close research fit? or is it a better financial situation that'll allow you the freedom from stressing about money to really engage with your coursework and your professors? what is it that you want to accomplish outside of your coursework in your program and will that be feasible (such as attending conferences)?

As someone whose popped into this forum from time to time, and gotten invested in y'all's decisions, I'd love to see someone make a "final decisions" thread so we can all see where everyone is ending up!

That brings a close to my admissions season. Feeling very lucky to have received acceptances to 5 MA programs. I'm so excited to buckle down and crush the next few years and apply to PhD programs in the future. Now if I can just figure out what school to go to !!!!!!!

Just did my campus visit for UCI a few days ago. I loved, loved, loved it and it was an incredible experience for 2 days (if anyone there visited and haunts grad cafe, this is the American poetry guy speaking). It was non-stop so there was exhaustion by day 2 lol, but it was the good kind of exhaustion. Basically re-affirmed my final decision. It just felt... right.
Good luck to everyone still waiting Rooting for all of you as March rolls on.