shieldmaiden

omg just checked the portal after seeing several people posted their results on the forum. ecstatic. plz plz let me know if anyone accepted is not going. Rutgers is definitely my top choice as an 18th centuriest.

omg just checked the portal after seeing several people posted their results on the forum. ecstatic. plz plz let me know if anyone accepted is not going. Rutgers is definitely my top choice as an 18th centuriest.

I've been a long time lurker on this forum, and used it for some great advice earlier in 2019. So I thought, you know, good time to post that I got my first decision of the cycle, and it was an offer from the University of Chicago. !!?

In at Chicago. First notification of season. Holy mother of...
(For some reason my content is still moderated so this probably won't even be approved by mods for hours but .... !!!!)
 

I just want to give everyone encouragement in these times.
If you don't have a specific project or a definitive method, that is okay. While yes, strategic specificity is key in things like the SoP, nobody here is expected to produce a dissertation prospectus. It can be incredibly helpful to have a project, but the projects in an SoP are going to be tentative and indicative of a direction than the play-by-play that programs will expect from you after qualifying exams. I came into grad school with some ill-defined notion of a queer archive that, while I have it in the backburner, is a project I'm not currently writing on nor do I plan on writing about queer poetic archives for my MA paper. If you don't feel that your proposal is specific enough, remember that right now, it's not supposed to be a hyper-specific document. What is more key is a strategic specificity that outlines a potential direction that your program can support and shows you're in conversation with current issues in your field, but one that does not foreclose the possibility of you growing within the program.
This process is notoriously tough. If anyone's expressing worries, I'm right there with you. I have heard whispers that this particular cycle is a touch more competitive than last year's due to the fact that there's an increase in applications for some programs. Of course, it must be taken with a grain of salt, but the general point I want to make is that this is a hypercompetitive process with almost no feedback except in most cases a decision. Fit is an elusive beast, and you could have an extremely polished SoP and WS, but there may have been circumstances in the department that meant that your app, as strong as it may have been, simply would not have meshed well with the program. If you find yourself staring at a sea of rejections/implied rejections, remember that it's the very likely case that it's not about you nor is it a final judgment on your skills. Fit, to priorities in the department (too many/too little grad students per cohort, too many in one field), funding structures/decisions dictated by admin, etc. and so many factors out of your control can go a very long way into determining the decisions you can get.

I've already started contemplating which of my books will come with me to grad school.

Just checked my mail and found out that I have been waitlisted too. I would definitely take this as a positive turn since my first notice was Duke's rejection. Good luck to us all~

Just checked my mail and found out that I have been waitlisted too. I would definitely take this as a positive turn since my first notice was Duke's rejection. Good luck to us all~

Just popping up to say that this thread is absolutely necessary amid a wave of rejections (and implied ones). Hope you all the best and fingers crossed! These are hard times (even harder than the application season) indeed.

Just popping up to say that this thread is absolutely necessary amid a wave of rejections (and implied ones). Hope you all the best and fingers crossed! These are hard times (even harder than the application season) indeed.