meghan_sparkle

Just an update on this: I have been emailing/having coffees with all of the mentors of mine who're in the know about the state of the programs I applied to at the moment and they are ... all giving me completely contradictory advice lol! Also most of them know each other and it's gotten to the point where some are fighting behind the scenes about their advice to me. (I'm sure this will all be fine in the end, no one is totally right and no one is totally wrong, but just picture me, a person who always tries to please her teachers, good teacher's pet, sitting in a chair, trying to process all of this.)
A: Don't go to (x). There's no one for you to work with there.
B: Well, A doesn't know what she's talking about. Go to (x). 
C : Wait, actually I think (y) could be a perfect fit for you. Don't go to (z).
D : I've been talking to C and we both think you should go to (y). Go where you have multiple people you want to work with who have clout.
E: I know you like (y) a lot but eh ... I'm not crazy about [POI]. 
D : I've changed my mind; go to (k).
F (teacher of B ) : (x) is boring. (y) is also boring. Don't go to (x) or (y) under any circumstances. Also don't choose for advisors; all that can change. Go where you like the intellectual community best. More soon, bye.
B : Remember there are no jobs so don't expect that you'll get one. Kiss kiss!

Just an update on this: I have been emailing/having coffees with all of the mentors of mine who're in the know about the state of the programs I applied to at the moment and they are ... all giving me completely contradictory advice lol! Also most of them know each other and it's gotten to the point where some are fighting behind the scenes about their advice to me. (I'm sure this will all be fine in the end, no one is totally right and no one is totally wrong, but just picture me, a person who always tries to please her teachers, good teacher's pet, sitting in a chair, trying to process all of this.)
A: Don't go to (x). There's no one for you to work with there.
B: Well, A doesn't know what she's talking about. Go to (x). 
C : Wait, actually I think (y) could be a perfect fit for you. Don't go to (z).
D : I've been talking to C and we both think you should go to (y). Go where you have multiple people you want to work with who have clout.
E: I know you like (y) a lot but eh ... I'm not crazy about [POI]. 
D : I've changed my mind; go to (k).
F (teacher of B ) : (x) is boring. (y) is also boring. Don't go to (x) or (y) under any circumstances. Also don't choose for advisors; all that can change. Go where you like the intellectual community best. More soon, bye.
B : Remember there are no jobs so don't expect that you'll get one. Kiss kiss!

Just got into Syracuse! Hyped!

Okay so there's an applicants thread and an acceptances thread. Where's the thread where someone tells me what to do.

Thank you for your condolences! I'm surprisingly heartbroken. I am trying to remind myself that I'm already in at my top choice and that I'm probably definitely going there anyway, but I still really thought Brown and I would have gotten along. I visited Yale and Brown last year and spent the night in Providence on my way to Portland, ME. I had wished the whole time we were eating lobster in Maine that we had chosen to stay in Providence instead. I loved Providence more than New Haven, even. IT'S FINE EVERYTHING IS FINE I have great options I just really f*cking wanted to have the option to consider Brown. It felt so right! I would have loved to receive pedagogical training there!  Despite having a successful cycle even after expecting/preparing for a shut out, it is still a devastating process. My hands were shaking for like 10 minutes after receiving the Brown rejection. I could hardly open my rejection champagne! ??‍♀️

Girl what the F*&? Ugggggh!! I'm so sorry. You are fabulous do not forget it even for a second!!!

Got rejected from Brown and Princeton today, and despite the fact that I have great offers already, I am still SO BUMMED and am investing in drinking champagne in the afternoon and dreaming about having health insurance in September. I feel like I got dumped twice by two different people and I only even wanted to date one of them but I needed them both to love me??? 2 more schools to hear back from and it will be O V E R I C A N N O T W A I T

I pledge allegiance
To the Susans*
Of the Princeton University English department
And to the novel
For which it stands ...
*Wolfson and Stewart obvs
---
Okay I'll stop now. My heart is being pulled in 10,000 directions and beating very fast because I wasn't expecting anything over the weekend but ... I just ... got in ... to Princeton.
I know it's obnoxious but I'm posting 1. For posterity, so people know this can happen 2. Because my entire family asked me repeatedly over Christmas "What will you do if you get rejected from everywhere?" and I was so terrified because I'd worked so hard night and day on apps I didn't have an answer. And while I was feverishly working on them an awful ex-boyfriend asked to "swing by and wish me luck" a few days before the deadline and walked into my living room to say "You know you're really not smart, right? You try to make it seem like you are but you just never ... produce much of anything" About that, luv. About that.
I felt like a loser for two years after a particularly shitty time during my masters, and I've struggled with having zero self confidence even longer than that. I have had embarrassing failures that made a huge dent in my ability to move forward. This? It can happen. Admissions is a wildly unfair process and I think more than anything I've just been incredibly incredibly lucky, but I lurked on these boards on and off for years thinking, "I'm too stupid, I'm a loser, this will never happen for me." For anyone who remotely fits that description reading this now or in future just please know that it can.

Okay so there's an applicants thread and an acceptances thread. Where's the thread where someone tells me what to do.

Okay so there's an applicants thread and an acceptances thread. Where's the thread where someone tells me what to do.

I never said all adcom members at all programs read every single word of every application! I was responding to the suggestion that an abstract might be good because you can never underestimate how little a professor reads—which suggests that people think they're at risk of rejection because professors are skimming.
Also, no one person on the adcom has hundreds of files—they are broken up into packets/sessions and divvied among readers, usually by subfield. Obviously I can't speak to how it works at every institution, but I know people who have been on adcomms at places like UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, NYU, Princeton, Brown, and Oxford (MSt and DPhil). There are one or more initial culls based on any variety of factors (and I'm sure in a lot of cases it doesn't take reading every last word of the sample to know the person isn't a good fit for the program), but, like I said in my previous reply, by the time you get to the first and second rounds, yes, please take it as a given that your application is being read carefully and in full by several people. 
I won't engage in further on this one because really that's my entire take, but I just do not see the point of an abstract for writing samples. If it's an essential component of compiling a polished file for you personally or a helpful structuring element of your style as a scholar and thinker, I'm sure it won't harm your application. But imo, if your introduction doesn't accomplish what an abstract would, something's wrong with your sample.

Just to be clear, schools you apply to will definitely read your writing sample in its entirety—and if you get to the second and third rounds where candidates are narrowed down to 60/~20-30 applicants respectively, many people will read it! I really don't think anyone should be approaching or strategizing for the WS on the assumption or hunch that it won't be read. I'm sorry, that just sounds like a bad faith argument to me.

I never said all adcom members at all programs read every single word of every application! I was responding to the suggestion that an abstract might be good because you can never underestimate how little a professor reads—which suggests that people think they're at risk of rejection because professors are skimming.
Also, no one person on the adcom has hundreds of files—they are broken up into packets/sessions and divvied among readers, usually by subfield. Obviously I can't speak to how it works at every institution, but I know people who have been on adcomms at places like UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, NYU, Princeton, Brown, and Oxford (MSt and DPhil). There are one or more initial culls based on any variety of factors (and I'm sure in a lot of cases it doesn't take reading every last word of the sample to know the person isn't a good fit for the program), but, like I said in my previous reply, by the time you get to the first and second rounds, yes, please take it as a given that your application is being read carefully and in full by several people. 
I won't engage in further on this one because really that's my entire take, but I just do not see the point of an abstract for writing samples. If it's an essential component of compiling a polished file for you personally or a helpful structuring element of your style as a scholar and thinker, I'm sure it won't harm your application. But imo, if your introduction doesn't accomplish what an abstract would, something's wrong with your sample.

Totally agree with #2. A million times yes to #2. But #1? I may have missed this discussion earlier in the thread but I don't think an abstract is necessary and I haven't yet encountered a WS that had one (with the exception of brief single sentence at the top indicating a sample was an excerpt from a longer paper, for one friend that had no time to revise anything or rewrite a different conclusion). Maybe that's just a fluke, but I was a bit of a hoarding magpie when it came to asking friends who went through past cycles to see their SOPs/writing samples.
I say this only because an abstract at the top of papers (different than a conference abstract) can be a tricky form to get right (has to be brief, concise, eloquent, sum up piece without repeating and in such a way that doesn't steal any of the thunder of your thesis/arg in the introduction). Most people won't have much experience with it even if they've done conferences, unless they have publications and had to write one for a journal article—I for one have never done it and can bet if I would've tacked one on to my WS, on gradcafe advice, it probably would've been redundant and awkward and a waste of precious page-space. Not saying it's wrong—it's certainly an option and for some a good one; I can see why for the kind of paper you're describing it might benefit—just chipping in two cents for someone who might read this in future wondering whether they should. 

Just to be clear, schools you apply to will definitely read your writing sample in its entirety—and if you get to the second and third rounds where candidates are narrowed down to 60/~20-30 applicants respectively, many people will read it! I really don't think anyone should be approaching or strategizing for the WS on the assumption or hunch that it won't be read. I'm sorry, that just sounds like a bad faith argument to me.

I never said all adcom members at all programs read every single word of every application! I was responding to the suggestion that an abstract might be good because you can never underestimate how little a professor reads—which suggests that people think they're at risk of rejection because professors are skimming.
Also, no one person on the adcom has hundreds of files—they are broken up into packets/sessions and divvied among readers, usually by subfield. Obviously I can't speak to how it works at every institution, but I know people who have been on adcomms at places like UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, NYU, Princeton, Brown, and Oxford (MSt and DPhil). There are one or more initial culls based on any variety of factors (and I'm sure in a lot of cases it doesn't take reading every last word of the sample to know the person isn't a good fit for the program), but, like I said in my previous reply, by the time you get to the first and second rounds, yes, please take it as a given that your application is being read carefully and in full by several people. 
I won't engage in further on this one because really that's my entire take, but I just do not see the point of an abstract for writing samples. If it's an essential component of compiling a polished file for you personally or a helpful structuring element of your style as a scholar and thinker, I'm sure it won't harm your application. But imo, if your introduction doesn't accomplish what an abstract would, something's wrong with your sample.

Totally agree with #2. A million times yes to #2. But #1? I may have missed this discussion earlier in the thread but I don't think an abstract is necessary and I haven't yet encountered a WS that had one (with the exception of brief single sentence at the top indicating a sample was an excerpt from a longer paper, for one friend that had no time to revise anything or rewrite a different conclusion). Maybe that's just a fluke, but I was a bit of a hoarding magpie when it came to asking friends who went through past cycles to see their SOPs/writing samples.
I say this only because an abstract at the top of papers (different than a conference abstract) can be a tricky form to get right (has to be brief, concise, eloquent, sum up piece without repeating and in such a way that doesn't steal any of the thunder of your thesis/arg in the introduction). Most people won't have much experience with it even if they've done conferences, unless they have publications and had to write one for a journal article—I for one have never done it and can bet if I would've tacked one on to my WS, on gradcafe advice, it probably would've been redundant and awkward and a waste of precious page-space. Not saying it's wrong—it's certainly an option and for some a good one; I can see why for the kind of paper you're describing it might benefit—just chipping in two cents for someone who might read this in future wondering whether they should. 

I never said all adcom members at all programs read every single word of every application! I was responding to the suggestion that an abstract might be good because you can never underestimate how little a professor reads—which suggests that people think they're at risk of rejection because professors are skimming.
Also, no one person on the adcom has hundreds of files—they are broken up into packets/sessions and divvied among readers, usually by subfield. Obviously I can't speak to how it works at every institution, but I know people who have been on adcomms at places like UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, NYU, Princeton, Brown, and Oxford (MSt and DPhil). There are one or more initial culls based on any variety of factors (and I'm sure in a lot of cases it doesn't take reading every last word of the sample to know the person isn't a good fit for the program), but, like I said in my previous reply, by the time you get to the first and second rounds, yes, please take it as a given that your application is being read carefully and in full by several people. 
I won't engage in further on this one because really that's my entire take, but I just do not see the point of an abstract for writing samples. If it's an essential component of compiling a polished file for you personally or a helpful structuring element of your style as a scholar and thinker, I'm sure it won't harm your application. But imo, if your introduction doesn't accomplish what an abstract would, something's wrong with your sample.

I pledge allegiance
To the Susans*
Of the Princeton University English department
And to the novel
For which it stands ...
*Wolfson and Stewart obvs
---
Okay I'll stop now. My heart is being pulled in 10,000 directions and beating very fast because I wasn't expecting anything over the weekend but ... I just ... got in ... to Princeton.
I know it's obnoxious but I'm posting 1. For posterity, so people know this can happen 2. Because my entire family asked me repeatedly over Christmas "What will you do if you get rejected from everywhere?" and I was so terrified because I'd worked so hard night and day on apps I didn't have an answer. And while I was feverishly working on them an awful ex-boyfriend asked to "swing by and wish me luck" a few days before the deadline and walked into my living room to say "You know you're really not smart, right? You try to make it seem like you are but you just never ... produce much of anything" About that, luv. About that.
I felt like a loser for two years after a particularly shitty time during my masters, and I've struggled with having zero self confidence even longer than that. I have had embarrassing failures that made a huge dent in my ability to move forward. This? It can happen. Admissions is a wildly unfair process and I think more than anything I've just been incredibly incredibly lucky, but I lurked on these boards on and off for years thinking, "I'm too stupid, I'm a loser, this will never happen for me." For anyone who remotely fits that description reading this now or in future just please know that it can.

I'd say get your advice on this topic outside of Gradcafe. Talk to your recommenders, talk to grad students at the programs you're considering, talk to the placement officer (if applicable) at those programs, talk to faculty at those programs. GC is mainly the blind leading the blind--the vast majority of users have too little information to see the whole picture. This isn't at all to say that you shouldn't think about ranking, but that offline conversations will probably lead to much more fruitful information, particularly tailored to your subfield, your previous credentials, and your goals. 

I never said all adcom members at all programs read every single word of every application! I was responding to the suggestion that an abstract might be good because you can never underestimate how little a professor reads—which suggests that people think they're at risk of rejection because professors are skimming.
Also, no one person on the adcom has hundreds of files—they are broken up into packets/sessions and divvied among readers, usually by subfield. Obviously I can't speak to how it works at every institution, but I know people who have been on adcomms at places like UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, NYU, Princeton, Brown, and Oxford (MSt and DPhil). There are one or more initial culls based on any variety of factors (and I'm sure in a lot of cases it doesn't take reading every last word of the sample to know the person isn't a good fit for the program), but, like I said in my previous reply, by the time you get to the first and second rounds, yes, please take it as a given that your application is being read carefully and in full by several people. 
I won't engage in further on this one because really that's my entire take, but I just do not see the point of an abstract for writing samples. If it's an essential component of compiling a polished file for you personally or a helpful structuring element of your style as a scholar and thinker, I'm sure it won't harm your application. But imo, if your introduction doesn't accomplish what an abstract would, something's wrong with your sample.

I never said all adcom members at all programs read every single word of every application! I was responding to the suggestion that an abstract might be good because you can never underestimate how little a professor reads—which suggests that people think they're at risk of rejection because professors are skimming.
Also, no one person on the adcom has hundreds of files—they are broken up into packets/sessions and divvied among readers, usually by subfield. Obviously I can't speak to how it works at every institution, but I know people who have been on adcomms at places like UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, NYU, Princeton, Brown, and Oxford (MSt and DPhil). There are one or more initial culls based on any variety of factors (and I'm sure in a lot of cases it doesn't take reading every last word of the sample to know the person isn't a good fit for the program), but, like I said in my previous reply, by the time you get to the first and second rounds, yes, please take it as a given that your application is being read carefully and in full by several people. 
I won't engage in further on this one because really that's my entire take, but I just do not see the point of an abstract for writing samples. If it's an essential component of compiling a polished file for you personally or a helpful structuring element of your style as a scholar and thinker, I'm sure it won't harm your application. But imo, if your introduction doesn't accomplish what an abstract would, something's wrong with your sample.

Totally agree with #2. A million times yes to #2. But #1? I may have missed this discussion earlier in the thread but I don't think an abstract is necessary and I haven't yet encountered a WS that had one (with the exception of brief single sentence at the top indicating a sample was an excerpt from a longer paper, for one friend that had no time to revise anything or rewrite a different conclusion). Maybe that's just a fluke, but I was a bit of a hoarding magpie when it came to asking friends who went through past cycles to see their SOPs/writing samples.
I say this only because an abstract at the top of papers (different than a conference abstract) can be a tricky form to get right (has to be brief, concise, eloquent, sum up piece without repeating and in such a way that doesn't steal any of the thunder of your thesis/arg in the introduction). Most people won't have much experience with it even if they've done conferences, unless they have publications and had to write one for a journal article—I for one have never done it and can bet if I would've tacked one on to my WS, on gradcafe advice, it probably would've been redundant and awkward and a waste of precious page-space. Not saying it's wrong—it's certainly an option and for some a good one; I can see why for the kind of paper you're describing it might benefit—just chipping in two cents for someone who might read this in future wondering whether they should. 

I pledge allegiance
To the Susans*
Of the Princeton University English department
And to the novel
For which it stands ...
*Wolfson and Stewart obvs
---
Okay I'll stop now. My heart is being pulled in 10,000 directions and beating very fast because I wasn't expecting anything over the weekend but ... I just ... got in ... to Princeton.
I know it's obnoxious but I'm posting 1. For posterity, so people know this can happen 2. Because my entire family asked me repeatedly over Christmas "What will you do if you get rejected from everywhere?" and I was so terrified because I'd worked so hard night and day on apps I didn't have an answer. And while I was feverishly working on them an awful ex-boyfriend asked to "swing by and wish me luck" a few days before the deadline and walked into my living room to say "You know you're really not smart, right? You try to make it seem like you are but you just never ... produce much of anything" About that, luv. About that.
I felt like a loser for two years after a particularly shitty time during my masters, and I've struggled with having zero self confidence even longer than that. I have had embarrassing failures that made a huge dent in my ability to move forward. This? It can happen. Admissions is a wildly unfair process and I think more than anything I've just been incredibly incredibly lucky, but I lurked on these boards on and off for years thinking, "I'm too stupid, I'm a loser, this will never happen for me." For anyone who remotely fits that description reading this now or in future just please know that it can.

So after I got my rejection from USC at 4 AM yesterday, I woke up today with a phone call from Rhode Island. I've been accepted to URI with a TAship, and I admire several of the faculty members there. I saw on the results page someone else was accepted this morning, too, so if anybody wants to compare notes or share thoughts about the program and other offers, please reach out to me! I have a feeling I'm going to be torn between my current options. 
I'm honestly just happy to have the win right now. Having eight rejections was starting to weigh on me.