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dilby

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Posts posted by dilby

  1. 37 minutes ago, sad_diamond said:

    Anyone else here use tattoos as (one of) their form(s) of therapy? I'm getting one today and feeling like the timing couldn't be better. Nothing like a couple hours under the needle to make you forget about existential woes. 

    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

  2. 14 minutes ago, amphilanthus said:

    uchicago rejection officially means i'll be moving away from chicago in the fall - and away from my fiancee and our home and pets, because it's not the right time for her to leave her job and we've got a mortgage to pay in chicago (we bought a home just a few months before we decided i should apply to grad school, so that's been...interesting). she's amazingly supportive given the circumstances but man, the whole situation is starting to feel a lot worse now that my local schools are both rejections. anybody else grappling with any tough situations around grad school and partners/families? uchicago wasn't a good fit for me at all so it was a lot easier to immediately wave off than northwestern when the email came through, but it's hitting a little harder as it sinks in. this whole process is, generously, exhausting. ugh.

     

    3 minutes ago, Matthew3957 said:

    That's really rough. I mean you will get through it of course and all that. But it's tough to have that conflicted excitement about starting your PhD and the coupled disappointment of leaving that space behind. You will be refreshed soon. We all just need official news and then a vacation from waiting/deciding.

    I am going through a similar situation potentially.

    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)

  3. 9 hours ago, Bopie5 said:

    I applied to grad school while working 2 jobs, taking a full courseload, having a student leadership position, having a second lead role in a play, and researching an independent senior honors thesis. I can't imagine how nice it would be to have a few months away from scholarship, and to not have school and other obligations pressing on me. Thanks for the encouragement--it's easy to feel like there's nothing other than the apps and decisions, and this makes me remember I have a life and value and a personhood outside of this.

    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.

  4. 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.

  5. 1 hour ago, jadeisokay said:

    i just searched for chicago cinema/media and saw the acceptance- CONGRATS, stranger! (i'm afraid this prob means a rejection for me, but still happy for them)

    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!

  6. 6 hours ago, complit315 said:

    Hi everyone! I'm a long time lurker finally joining in on the discussion.  Does anyone know if all the interview requests have gone out for Emory, UPenn and Duke (Comparative) Literature?

     

    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.

  7. 16 minutes ago, Bopie5 said:

    Anyone else feel like because of the rejections they've already received, that they have little to no chance at getting in anywhere else they applied to?

    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. :) 

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