hamnet in tights

I have less hope for me on my end. DGS e-mailed this morning today to say that they're following up with the lone person who hasn't responded, and will have a final decision to me tonight, hopefully. I've been shaking in my boots ever since. I don't know what I assumed prior to them saying that, but I guess that just made the whole scenario all the more... intense.

❤️ I have hope for you, my friend. Have you checked the Rackham program website? A lot of programs at Michigan see a lot of admissions off their waitlist each year.

Were you given an indication of where you are on the list? I'm on a different list at Michigan. Fingers crossed. ❤️

Oh I'm ready. So ready.

Forgot to add on this: when I say significant debt, I mean relative to living in your hometown with my parents. I still have way less debt than I think I would have if I'd gone, funded, to a school across the country. I can't be sure, though. When I picked the smaller, regional program close to home, there were some unexpected trade offs, like no conference or travel funding, unexpected fees ("fully funded" really was a misnomer at my school for anyone), and a very low stipend. At the same time, no regrets. I got to do my MA with a fantastic support network in a great community that I'm very familiar with, and surrounded by faculty that without exception genuinely care for and nurture students. Apart from all that... welp, guys, it's the Sunday night before the 15th. I have a feeling tomorrow morning is gonna be back to intense stuff. Fingers crossed for all of us.

Heya, I did my MA at a smaller, regional school, (a R2 state college in my hometown actually), and there is no one here that really shares my research interests. At the time I started grad school, I wasn't really aware of my field yet and had no intention of continuing onto a PhD or doing serious research. That all changed midway through, and I'm leaving highly specialized in a field that isn't offered at my school at all through a serious amount of independent research. So, it's doable, but it depends a lot on faculty, and the specifics of your department and POI. For us, for example, we absolutely cannot take undergrad courses under any circumstances, but we can take independent studies as we like and substitute our courses pretty freely if we find something we'd rather take in another department. This is certainly not the case at all schools. Questions about independent studies and undergrad courses would be great for the DGS at the school. For what it's worth, I'm very satisfied with the MA experience I've had, and I've been relatively successful applying to PhDs and getting selected within my subfocus without having a huge amount of super-specific coursework in it. I will say this, though: I think I probably had to be a lot more self-motivated than other folks who had more generalized focuses within our program. I spent a lot of time going to conferences and skyping with specialists in my field at other schools to make up for what I couldn't get where I was, for example, and I probably got into way more debt (even while fully funded) than I would have had I chosen a different program.

Ay, dios mio!

I don't know if you'd be able to finagle such a thing, but if you could, say, maintain an address near your campus and stay with someone OOS, like family, I don't think anyone would bat an eye... that may or may not be my plan.

Honestly for me that's so hard to imagine I'm literally starting to wonder about the possibility of deferring...

So, I already said similarly in the waitlist thread, but... my thought is because we're in the middle of a major holiday celebration for a minimum of two very large religions, we won't see as much movement until Monday even though we're chugging to the finish line. Monday might be a heck of a day, though. (I'm actually kind of sickeningly crossing my fingers that I don't get news in case it's bad news... I don't normally really appreciate Passover as much as I should, but this year, with everything? I'm kind of digging the vibes, lol. And Happy Easter to those of you who do that. And Happy Holidays to anyone else I've missed.)

So my thought is because we're in the middle of a major holiday celebration for a minimum of two very large religions, we won't see as much movement until Monday. I'm actually kind of sickeningly crossing my fingers that we don't in case it's bad news... I don't normally really appreciate Passover as much as I should, but this year, with everything? I'm kind of digging the vibes, lol. And Happy Easter to those of you who do that. And Happy Holidays to anyone else I've missed.

I'm on their English Ed list, which is separate from English Lit (and also separate from the Joint English & Women's Studies program). Their department could maybe use a little streamlining. ?

Same here, and so I completely understand why that sense of community is such a huge thing for us. That kind of community also doesn't necessarily have to come directly from within the program. Have you been able to discern if there are other support systems / resources on each campus or in the community you'd be living in for first gen students, or any other affinity group you might want to join? I've been thinking more about the (really unhelpful) advice I gave you earlier and I'll say this: a 2:1 or a 1:2 is manageable for us and our field, but I think a lot of why our PhD Programs are set up that way is because a lot of us come from MAs where we already have two years of experience (or more) teaching a 1:1 of composition. If your background was a bit different, it might be a bit more of a shock to the system. At the same time, if the program is set up that way, it might be done so for a reason -- like maybe your expected course load in whichever term the '2' is is much lighter, or mostly independent study. You might also find that you have a really, really stellar support and development network and it doesn't matter either way. Another great question to ask is when the teacher training component takes place. Do they expect you to go into a classroom on September 5th without ever having trained? Is there a training commitment over a summer (if so, it's good to find out when so you can make sure you're in town). In the event that that training is postponed due to COVID, what's the plan? What kind of materials can you share with prior cohorts? Etc, etc. That's just some thoughts. Another thing to ask both schools might be what other duties students generally take part in. This is sort of tricky. Sometimes there's an expectation that even though your only duties are teaching and coursework, that you might also have 'free time' to sit on committees and do administrative work. Hopefully if you do have that happen to you it's compensated, but if you can find a sneaky way to ask this question, it's a good way of figuring out how much unpaid labor you'll be expected to do at each place and, figure out what that might look like on top of everything else. Of course, it's grad school. We do a lot of unpaid labor to begin with, but there are some places that try their best to minimize that, and unfortunately, others who will get away with whatever they can. So those are some follow up thoughts. Best of luck to you. And my usual first gen reminder from one to another: you have earned your seat here, you are welcome, you contribute amazing things, and you will continue to do amazing things no matter where you go.

Seconding this. It is completely normal for waitlisters to not hear back until after the 15th. Sit and meditate as long as you need. ❤️

Hi! A 1:2 is pretty manageable, and somewhat common for our field. Additionally, I wouldn't take slower response time to mean much during this pandemic. It -could- be indicative of how much support there was in the digital transition at the school. At the same time, I would find it odd that they'd take long to respond knowing that you were admitted at such a late phase. It sounds to me based on what you've said that Program 1 might be checking more of your boxes. I personally would probably choose the program that feels friendly -- that can go a long way -- but I don't think anything you've said should automatically eliminate Program 2 from the running. Sorry this advice is all over the place!