dilby

Got that Toront-NO, so my only pending programs are Yale (LOL) and the Rice waitlist. I am not holding my breath on Yale, so good luck to everyone who still has places to hear back from !!!

It was via email! If you haven't heard back yet I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Got my rejection from Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford. MTL was my dream program so this one really hurts my heart. Looking like Rice may be the only place I'm able to go if I move off the waitlist. Good luck with these final programs, everyone.

At long last, my Duke Literature rejection has arrived! I had to jump through several confusing hoops to access the portal, so thank god I know what the outcome was going to be. Otherwise I might have had a heart attack.

Got a really nice email inviting me to the Rice visit weekend while they wait to see who will accept their offers so if any of you all will be there, it'll be awesome to meet you!

Peep this thread friend:

as my app season moves in the direction of an almost shutout, I'll be peeping this thread to see if any Rice admits decide to go elsewhere ?

lol I love the way we all talk about Yale because it truly is like a straight up lottery — everyone is really out here awaiting a rejection and some lucky person is gonna get a surprise admit

This comment / username combo is the stuff of poetry

I just had to go through the various stages of grad school email stress because I got another message about Chicago's stupid MAPH. Insult, meet injury.

THANK YOU FOR THIS. I just reached out to my POI at Rice, and depending on how things shake out with Stanford, it may become my top choice. I will certainly be returning to this page throughout the spring.

Lol if anything is going to finally convince me to get my "thy life's a miracle" (from King Lear) tattoo, this will probably be it

3 rejections in 24 hours. Ouch.

Received my Madison and UCLA rejections.

Same here. My SO is a medical student in Houston, so getting off of Rice's waitlist and being able to live in the same city for 3 years would be really wonderful — but I'm also facing the reality that all of the other schools on my list have far better placement rates, and a few of them are better fits for me. Part of me hopes that every other place will reject me so that I don't have to be responsible for the decision to move away. But of course I also really, really want to do my research at Stanford (et al)

Fingers crossed for you!

Really feeling this bullshit today lol

Got my Chicago rejection! Time to start pinning my hopes on Stanford >:)

My Chicago Cinema Studies rejection has arrived!

As everyone here is saying, this is very impressive. I also worked and did theatre in undergrad and can't imagine going through this process on top of all of that. We're all keeping our fingers crossed, but I'm happy to confirm that doing all of this stuff while working a full-time job that has nothing to do with academia actually makes it really fun—a nice return to what you love. And if you start early enough, it's never so much work in a day that you feel burned out. And I would say the biggest plus is that completing a thesis will become one of the most important parts of your application. My thesis is the center of gravity of my entire SoP, a demonstration of both my previous research aptitude and the launch pad that I will use to expand my focus. And it gave me a writing sample that I feel really, really confident in. In many ways, applying as an undergrad puts you at a disadvantage. I hope none of this is discouraging to hear. Everyone who's applying has a different path and none of us will be surprised if you land in a great program this cycle.

I don't think having a B.A. in another discipline is necessarily a turn off for most departments, as long as the sum total of your application demonstrates that you have enough experience and aptitude as a literary scholar to be admitted as a PhD candidate. You will want to have a solid writing sample that is a sustained argument about a literary text using a humanities methodology. Considering the fact that many people study religious texts as literature, I see no reason why this wouldn't work if it indeed is how you plan to build your application. I would just make sure that you aren't pitching your application as an opportunity to learn how to enter a new discipline. Programs want to know that you will hit the ground running when you get started, and to that end you should project confidence in your experience and skill as a literary scholar.

I think I'll hold out for another week or so before assuming an implied rejection. Based on my research I don't have Chicago CMS down to notify until this week or next week good luck!

Hello! UPenn has not sent out interview requests as far as I've seen, but Duke and Emory have definitely notified their candidates as of a couple of weeks ago.

It's an understandable feeling, for sure! I think that each rejection suddenly, sharply makes the outcome more concrete. It stops being "I could end up in these places" and starts being "I am not going to live in Durham." That stings, and the newness and intensity of it can overpower our more levelheaded considerations (i.e. most people who get admitted only get admitted to one or two places total, so a few rejections shouldn't really change our expectations). My friend who was admitted to Johns Hopkins yesterday was feeling really discouraged because he had three rejections before that point, and I think this is more likely to happen than not. So, it makes sense to be discouraged, yes. Hopefully, you'll get some good news soon which will make it easier to put things in perspective.

A dear friend of mine was just admitted to Johns Hopkins! He's an early modernist focusing on melancholy and performance criticism, and has written quite a lot on metatheatre. Hope this info helps you all!