dilby

Word on the street is that Columbia made offers to something like 35 people this year. I'm not sure how many people will have to turn them down in order to get the waitlist moving, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for all of you ?

Congratulations!! It really felt like such a great fit for your work during the visit weekend. I am still super torn, but if I move off the waitlist there's still a good chance I'll be joining you.

Yes! I had a great visit to Yale but, get this—I am still strongly considering Rice! That's a big decision, so I've got lots of phone calls to make and emails to write before I'm comfortable pulling the trigger either way. (Of course, I haven't even been admitted to Rice, so doing my best not to jinx anything here). You were there during my visit, so you definitely got a sense of how happy I was and how much I fit in with just about everyone I talked to. This is definitely where Rice has a leg up on Yale, where the overall atmosphere was a little stuffier and more self-important than I'd prefer. Although of course that doesn't apply to everyone I met, and some of the professors I talked to were really warm, honest and helpful. And their work is really exciting, and meshed well with my own interests. My academic and academia-adjacent friends and mentors are going to get a lot of questions from me in the next couple of days, to be sure.

owo I did not know about this at all, and it could potentially allow me to work with some of the major POIs put other schools higher up on my list than Yale thank u for bringing this to my attention ?

Rice's visit program was spectacular. The way they run their program is super sharp and very attentive toward the needs of 2019's job market. A big takeaway for me is that they dedicate a lot of attention to training grad students in styles/genres of academic writing other than criticism: conference proposals, book reviews, etc. But the biggest takeaway is that EVERYONE WAS SO SUPPORTIVE OF ONE ANOTHER. If you had told me that a graduate program could be so tight-knit, I would not have believed you. Some takeaways for you all: Really ask what a department's professionalization philosophy is. What is the theory behind their "Intro to graduate studies" course, if they have one? And if they don't, why not?? How do they intend to make sure graduate students aren't teaching themselves how to apply to conferences in the fourth and fifth years, when it's too late? Think about the distinction between "guaranteed teaching" and "required teaching" — what is the quality of the teaching experience you'll get, not just the quantity? i.e. does the department view teaching as an opportunity for you, or a way for them to make sure all of the discussion sections get taught? Ask about the relationship between mentors and advisees: Do the department's most well-known (and/or most ego-driven) professors allow students to latch remora-like onto them and produce methodologically identical work? (Spoiler: this kind of mentorship model often does not yield exciting job applicants) Try to have dinner/drinks with groups of graduate students and see how they interact with one another. Is this an environment where you feel at home? I'm not gonna lie, Rice really blew me away on all of these fronts and more. I'm going to enjoy asking Yale to compete with them next week.

Word, this is exactly how the Rice visit weekend was. It instantly helped the feel of the visit become more collegial

Thank you! re: Texas, if you go to the visit next week, you will be meeting a couple of super cool people I just spent the weekend with at Rice. I hope you all have a great time!

I don't expect to make my decision until next weekend, but I went ahead and made the thread because I don't mind getting a notification every time someone posts.

So, where are you cool kids going this fall?

Emory: Feb 6-9 Duke: Feb 21-23 University of Alabama: February 28-March 2 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL): February 28-March 2 CU Boulder: Feb 28-March 1 Indiana University: March 1 Queen's University: March 1 U Wisconsin-Madison: March 3-5 SMU Interview Visit: March 3-5 Illinois (Urbana): March 4-5 Stanford: March 6-8 UC Irvine: March 7-8 Northwestern: March 7-9 Saint Louis University: March 8 UC Santa Barbara: March 8 UCLA: March 10-13 Florida State University: March 12 UC Santa Cruz: March 14 Fordham: March 14 University of Minnesota: March 14-15 CUNY Graduate Center: March 15th UC Berkeley: March 16-18 Kansas: March 17-19 UVA: March 18-19 UPenn: March 19-21 University of Michigan: March 21-22 Vanderbilt: March 21-22 UNC Chapel Hill: March 21-22 Rice University: March 21-23 BU: March 22 USC: March 24-26 Penn State: March 24-26 Rutgers: March 25-26 Princeton: March 25-27 Yale: March 25-26 UT Austin: March 28-30 UC Davis: April 2 SUNY Buffalo: April 2-3 NYU: April 3-4 University of Washington: April 4-5 U Oregon: April 4-6

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 ?

This is something I've been talking about with my SO! She was initially a little worried about me going to Yale because she thought that it would be very difficult to guarantee landing a residency in New Haven after she gets her MD. But I told her that a lot of students and faculty live all over the northeast—basically, anywhere within train commuting distance of New Haven. That was a big relief to her. I know that you're thinking more pointedly about the professional dimension of this question—with that in mind, NYU, Columbia and Harvard are all very reachable (and, it occurs to me, MIT, where a professor I very much want to work with is teaching).

I fucking love gradcafe. this is how you know you're about to get the TEA

independent wealth and/or loans. The "scholarships" they offer seem pretty clearly designed to entice people who are down on their luck to spend tens of thousands of dollars and fund the graduate students the school actually cares about. "Well at least I'm not paying the full $60k!" It sort of makes me sick to imagine that there are people who aren't on this board who think they've been given a lifeline. Honestly, the apparently predatory nature of this program seems at odds with Chicago's reputation for excellence. I imagine 10 years or so from now, when our generation is fully entrenched in academia, this is not going to be a good look.

I also got (and immediately turned down) the MAPH offer. Me @ Chicago:

And I was mainly speaking to their Modern Culture and Media faculty when I made my comment about theory! So I could be wrong about their English department. All told, you are in a pretty enviable position, so I hope you enjoy the fact-finding and decision-making process!

What are your research areas? From what I understand, Michigan is an Early Modern powerhouse. If you want to study queer/feminist theory, though, Brown might be the best place in the world

Thank you for the good vibes I've been going back and forth, and that anxiety is definitely there. My number one priority is talking to enough people about this and giving this enough consideration that when I make my decision, I know it's not based on an impulse or flight of fancy that changes after 48 hours. I gave myself a bit of time after the Yale visit to take a solo trip to Staunton, VA to see some plays at the American Shakespeare Center. I'm hoping that all of my travel time and downtime between plays will give me the space I need to consider everything carefully!

@madandmoonly Yes, the feel of the cohort will be an important factor in this decision for me as well! I know I'll be meeting you and a few others on here in Houston in a few weeks, which I'm excited about.

Ooooh, thanks for this! I'll check it out. That is definitely what I've been puzzling out for the past week. I really didn't think I could get in because I was not particularly convinced by my own fit argument in the application. It will be good to hear their understanding of my research/profile and see if that sounds like the kind of work that I truly want to be doing.

Hello, everyone. I have back-to-back visits coming up at two schools, both of which are extremely exciting programs for me. One program is extremely prestigious, but the fit with my particular research area is pretty nebulous, and the other program, while smaller and less highly ranked, has a laser focus on the theory I want to be studying — as in, the work happening by my POIs at that department planted the seeds for my entire application and SoP. I am wondering what kinds of questions I can ask to help determine my fit and quality of life within these two departments. Both programs are generously funded. Both visits will include meetings with faculty and the DGS. I know that the particulars of my situation might make this seem like an obvious choice, but I want this decision to be meaningful and I am also hoping that this conversation can be helpful to others who are choosing between departments.

Check out Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford as well!

In at Yale. My one admit of the season. I'm speechless.

In at yale, oh my god

waiting until April to hear back from the one program where I was waitlisted like