hamnet in tights

Welp, I'm two weeks out, on two waitlists, and my one offer just upped my proposed fellowship and stipend. I'm shitting my pants here not knowing what to do. I'm #1 on the waitlist at my dream program and at this point, I've been told by all schools that the 4/15 deadline is becoming a wee bit flexible... ugh. edit: I realize this is such a first world problem but my god, I did not see my MA victory lap looking like this...

The job market is (generally speaking) less about the school you went to and more about who you studied under in your subfield, and additionally, how well-connected your department is in terms of job placement. If you want to grow up to become a scholar of Queer Theory in Shakespeare, you need to go find the person who does that, study with them, and go forward, ideally with your POI starting to put out feelers to place you in a job long before you finish your dissertation. The caveat to that, of course, is that a lot of "the greats" are at the Ivies, and folks at the Ivies are extremely well-connected. Are they more connected than folks at UCLA or Michigan? That probably depends a lot on your subfield, area of study, and other factors. So the name might not do much, but the name comes with connections that might. Make sense? For what it's worth, fit on the job market is related to so many factors. At my university, we've actually seen a lot of people with amazing Ivy educations not make it to the last round of searches because their background just doesn't match the program of studies we offer (in that it's much more classical than what a lot of our students take). These are amazing scholars who go on to be highly sought after elsewhere, but just aren't the right fit for what we offer.

Well, in any case, for my timezone, it seems as if our week is done... although granted all I'm waiting at this point is waitlists, and I sincerely doubt Monday will bring a whole lot of movement...

We've just had our first reported cases in my state and all universities have now closed through the end of the semester, with some places doing classes online. Mortifying. My guess is this means campus visits at schools here will be cancelled or suspended, too...

So I'm seeing on the news that a lot of the Ivies basically just told everyone to take their books and computers home and, effectively, plan NOT to return to campus after spring break. I'm in shock. Harvard and MIT were mentioned in specific. What is even HAPPENING??

Two waitlists here, one of which is my top choice. Loosing my mind.

Just got my final first round notification of the year! I'm sitting pretty on 1a/2w/2r -- the news today wasn't good, but honestly, I'm just happy to be out of the game. Whoo-hoo!

So on another topic: when to inquire about waitlists? I'm currently sitting pretty on two waitlists. One list notification came with the promise that they would notify me of change as soon as possible (it wasn't stated but somewhat indicated that I'm at the top of that list), and the other was a lot more vague. I currently also have one very generous fully funded offer. My advisor encouraged me to get in touch with the schools I'm on the waitlist of, although I'm not really sure what to say at this phase, apart from to express my continued interest. Thoughts?

*knuckle crack* Here we go, guys... another Monday morning...

Oh gosh. A bunch of the programs I applied to historically send out stuff this week and next and I'm loosing my marbles in anticipation! I didn't apply to any of the really "big" programs (curiously, researchers in my subfield of Rhet/Comp are generally not at those places...) so I'm so anxious and so full of impostor syndrome after spending time on this form. You're all so amazing.

Can I just say, whoever you are? I am so delighted for you, and so delighted that someone like you is going to go do amazing things at an amazing place. I'm not in the same discipline as you, nor did I apply to any of the same places as you, nor is it likely we will ever cross paths. But I can tell from your writing and your frankness that you're a wonderful person, and exactly the kind of person we need in academia, and at those sorts of places in particular. also I'm sure you're not a mess. You might feel like you are, but I am confident that you are not. ❤️

My understanding is that that program generally responds somewhat later. Best of luck to you, the cohorts are very, very small. Michigan posts their admissions statistics each year under Rackham's statistics page. The three English programs are listed separately.

Michigan has three separate English PhD programs that all admit separately-- English Lit, English & Education, and English & Women's Studies. I don't think there's any news out yet for English Lit or English & Women's Studies.