digital_lime

I've been going through some similar feelings. I'm on two waitlists, but that's no guarantee that I'll get in, and last week, I was in a bit of a "dark night of the soul" place w/r/t grad school and my applications. After thinking about it a bit, I feel much better. Here's what I've been thinking: I think that many of us who apply to graduate school have this idea that getting a Ph.D. is the only possible route to a fulfilling life. That's not the case, though. There are many ways to live a creative, intellectual, productive life that have nothing to do with the contemporary university--and there is also no guarantee that being admitted to a graduate program will provide you with a fulfilling or meaningful career. If you are capable of performing well in grad school, which it appears that you are, there is no reason why you cannot work on a nonfiction writing project outside of the university (unless, I suppose, your current job situation is so oppressive and all-consuming that you can't find even thirty minutes a day to devote to something outside of it). There's no reason you can't do citizen journalism, or start a small business, or a blog, or a series of video essays, or a zine, or a podcast, or whatever (and all of these can be just as intellectually rigorous, in their own way, as grad school coursework or journal articles). There are so many ways for you to be creative and express your ideas. Eventually, you might be able to monetize any of these endeavors and--perhaps slowly, but probably in less than the five to six years that a Ph.D. would take to complete--could start earning enough money to make it a full-time job. The job market for any creative endeavor is awful, but I don't think any of them are worse than the job market for humanities Ph.D.s. And the skills you've already developed in order to make yourself a competitive applicant would give you a head start in any of these endeavors. This is, at least, what I have been telling myself as I face the real possibility of not going anywhere. But it's made me feel significantly better about the prospect of not going to grad school.

Waitlisted at University of Connecticut! Which is great, and an honor, and it seems like a great school! I wouldn't mind a bona fide acceptance though 😬

It seems like you've had a particularly stressful season and it makes me really happy to hear that you've received some good news! I hope you get in off of the waitlist!!

Same here, pretty much exactly! Oh well... I have plenty of notifications to go.

Thank you for keeping us all updated!

Late 19th c/Early 20th c America. I may be something of an odd applicant out in that I'm not specifically interested in either the center for psychoanalysis or the poetics program (although I'm jazzed at the idea of working with some of the people in those)

I was waitlisted at Buffalo!!! I know it's not as cool as a straight-up acceptance, but just the fact that the admissions committee thought my application was good enough to waitlist is really, really exciting!! It is so good to hear something that isn't a straight-up rejection!

I would love to hear, too!

I would love to hear more about this if you have the time. Specifically what certifications and pieces of software have you found valuable? I'm trying not to give up hope, but it's appearing more and more likely that I'm going to be shut out this season, and I need to start planning now so that I'm able to land on my feet in the summer.

I am in the same boat as you! Buffalo is one of only a few schools that I thought I had an actual shot at, so I'll be pretty disappointed if I don't get in... I guess that's the way it shakes out sometimes, though.

I second this--whatever you're doing, it's working, and I am super curious to know what your secret sauce is! Congratulations!

Just looked over my application for UVa because I'm obsessive and in my SoP I mentioned how much I'd like to participate in department life at a completely different school from which I copied and pasted that paragraph So that's cool and great (And if anyone's feeling insecure about their SoPs, at least you didn't do what I have done!!)

Sounds great! I'd love to see your panel. If you'd like, send me a message and let me know when you're presenting! I'll be there for the entire conference.

I just realized that I took a few courses at a community college during high school, and transferred them to the university I got my BA from. Nothing major, just English 101 and some math and science classes. But now I'm wondering if my not reporting this (or sending any transcripts) is going to doom my application. I don't think it will--it seems more likely that my brain is looking for a reasonably plausible hook to hang my panic on--but has anyone else made this mistake? Any advice or thoughts?

I will be at the Northeast MLA conference this March presenting a paper. If anyone's going to be in Boston, maybe we'll find a way to say hello!