Mumasatus

My daughter just accepted her spot at the University of Illinois for a MS in Library and Information Science. It was a difficult decision for her, but we are all excited at the idea of visiting those amazing libraries!

We did something very similar to this. You can see our company on the FB page "Dancing Dog Dairy." We sold livestock, wool, yarn, goat milk soap and other products both in online and at festivals and comic cons and farmers markets. After a awhile, my older kids wanted to go off to college, and I didn't want to continue that kind of work load without their help. When you get ready, I can put you in touch with people who are really doing well with this model. They were a great help to us with info like the most profitable size of herds for example and also pitfall to be sure to avoid. It is a very rewarding way to live.

We live in Vallejo, and often walk down to the ferry terminal and take the ferry to SF. Unfortunately, I've got kids who are sick today. I'm sorry that your friend bailed on you. I hope you find a different way to celebrate. Happy Birthday!

Just got the email that my daughter was accepted to University of Illinois Ischool. It is exciting because it looks like such an amazing program, but really expensive. I’m still hoping for a fully-funded PhD program because we have another daughter finishing her undergrad degree and 2 more still at home so it would be great to have a little break from tuition. In the end, she would like to get both an English PhD and a Library Information masters, so this is great news and in the end, all of her options are good ones.

We have 2 daughters that are English majors and we think it a sensible and marketable degree. There are so many companies that need good writers. Right now, my adult daughters are filling out grant proposals for their younger sisters' swim team. You can't believe what a difference their writing skills make. One has also revised the swim team website. It now has the same information, but when you read it, you think, "Dang! I like these people. I want to give them money and join their team!" My husband is an engineer and his most valuable employee has an art history degree. So I know that my daughters will be able to find jobs even if it isn't in traditional English major fields.

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I have heard from one professor that the applications are convoluted by design. They want to know who is going to go to the trouble of reading every word on every page of their confusing website in order to follow the directions to the letter and who is just half-assing it. I can't remember which school it was for, but I know my daughter spent a long time on getting the SOP down to the correct word count only to find buried on another page "disregard the word count requirement listed on page..." It is so frustrating. On the other hand, even if the system is set up that way, there is no reason to believe that the people reading the application have the same goals. My daughter was applying to a program once and she contacted the department to ask if she could go over on the word count. The guy who answered the phone said, "The people sitting in this room make the decision and I promise you we have never once looked at the word count of an application." That is part of why everyone feels so helpless about this process. It feels so random, but I understand that some of the application materials are just subjective. One reader may find a writing sample excitingly complex while the next one thinks the same sample is wordy and too esoteric. But in the end, you really want to go where people want you and like the work you are doing. Maybe you wouldn't have been happy at all in the programs that don't select you. It looks like we all have an emotional few weeks ahead of us.

I’m super excited for everyone being admitted to UT Austin! My daughter just got her undergraduate degree there and is a research assistant for one of her former professors this semester. She really struggled with choosing a school but UT was really an awesome experience for her!

I like the one by Joseph M. Williams called Style Twards Clarity and Grace.

I’m being the balance in the universe. I’ve been hitting up the thrift stores buying the books and treasures that don’t spark joy in others!

When I went to UT in the 80s, all of my roommates participated in Shakespeare at Winedale under Doc Ayers. It is such an amazing program. A couple of weeks ago, my sister ran into one of our friends from that era who was still in Austin, directing local plays.

My daughter was also strongly advised not to apply to University of Chicago by an alumni for similar reasons. I just assumed that he meant it was an environment that would be bad for my daughter but that other personalities might thrive in. I think that we have to take these recommendations with a pound of salt.

I think this is a huge advantage.

I wanted to mention one helpful book that I read. It is called Graduate Admissions Essays. I felt like it gave a good balance between giving guidelines, but also mentioned the exceptions to the rules. I think following the advice in this book would at the very least keep you from making many common mistakes. Good luck!

Oh, I completely agree. That is why I said that we tend to do things backwards. This morning, I asked my daughter about how much she researched POIs. She did research them, but she said, it is like trying to see if you can work with someone by looking at their FB page. She would rather trust the opinion of someone who knows them personally, in different contexts over a number of years She would rather not get in anywhere than get in somewhere that isn't a good fit. I also doubt she will try again another year if she is shut out this cycle. Oh, the uncertainty!

I feel like we always do everything backwards. Someone mentioned personality fit up thread. That will more likely result in success and enjoyment for my daughter than anything else. I remember when she was just starting her undergraduate thesis. She knew what professor she wanted to work with so she picked a topic that made him the obvious professor to over see the project. It isn't an exaggeration to say she enjoyed every minute of the process because the compatible personality factor was there. She took him a list of the 15 graduate programs that looked promising and he trimmed it down based on departmental culture and personality fit. About one that looked pretty perfect to me, he simply said, "No. God, no." Another school he said would have been a good fit last year, but the person who took over would make my daughter miserable. Another he said was just not enough value for the price. For the 5 or 6 schools that made his cut, he told her which professors she would get along with, which ones would appreciate her talents and who he had picked out as her ideal doctoral advisor. In her SOP, she had a really nice progression of her research up to this point, then more questions that she still has and how that particular school has resources (culture, courses, professors) who could help her further her research. It will be very interesting to see how this turns out.

Ah, you may be right! If you have had a class with her, you will understand why I am concerned with her finding a program that is a good fit. LOL. It takes a particular personality to appreciate her. That class turned out to be very fortunate for my daughter though. Apparently, at some point, the professor invited anyone interested to take his graduate class the next semester. My daughter said she still isn't sure that he wasn't teasing. But she went straight to the dean to get permission to sign up for it and that sealed their academic alliance. No one saw that coming.

My oldest daughter just graduated from UT Austin and Ann Cvetkovitch is actually my sister-in-law. Just a heads up-Ann has taken a position at University of Ottawa. She is driving up there at the moment. I think she may be the new head of women/gender studies, but I'm not 100% sure. In any case, I know for sure she is not at UT any longer.

I did not notice that, but see it now that you brought it up. That is certainly good news. Thank you!

Thanks for the replies. I feel like in the end, so much comes down to luck. Even though this daughter went to a school with over 50,000 students, she was lucky to get a ton of individual help from her mentor and her advisor. That has been critical to her success. My middle daughter is at a much smaller school, but hasn't had anywhere near the same level of support. School fit isn't an easy for me to predict.

Hi! I'm mom to a 2019 applicant, doing some research because I have more spare time than she does at this point. She just completed her BA at a state flagship and is applying to a couple of English Ph.D programs and a couple of Library Information Masters programs. She ended up with a 3.76 cumulative GPA and a 4.0 in English, her major. She got a minor in studio art and was one class away from a second minor in Ancient Greek. Strong points are a few publications and conference presentations as well as departmental awards and scholarships including the honors thesis prize. Her LORs are probably very enthusiastic. The weak points are her GRE scores. Her quantitative score was very low due to low processing speed and learning disabilities. Her analytical writing was a 4 which is also very low for an English major. I imagine this was also due to processing speed issues. She did however get a 167 in the verbal section and is taking the English subject test in April. She took her mentoring professor a list of 15 possible graduate schools to apply to and he thinned the list down to 5. His point was that that she should only apply to the schools that she would enjoy attending and that have faculty he believes will value her particular skills. Unfortunately, the only schools she applied to are the very most difficult to get into-Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan and University of Illinois ischool and Syracuse ischool. It is going to be a long few months waiting to see what happens. Good luck to everyone who has made it this far in the application process!