MundaneSoul

I’m so excited to say that I officially accepted my offer at University of Oregon today! It felt so weird to submit the acceptance letter; I stared at the screen for like ten minutes before I finally clicked send. It’s such a good fit for me, though, and I think I’m going to absolutely love it there. The faculty and students that I got to chat with were all wonderful. I can’t believe this is finally happening! Thanks to everyone here for all your advice and kindness!

Totally get this. Had two conferences planned, one of which would have for the first time brought me directly into contact with the artists creating the most significant contemporary works in one my main fields (queer game studies). And campus visits, of course. And I’ll be the first in my immediate family with a grad degree, so I was also excited about commencement. It really sucks, but now I’m just doing my best to look ahead to doctoral studies and how excited I am for that.

Just got my first campus visit cancellation. I'm sure the next one will arrive soon. Hooray. I already knew which way I was leaning, but now I feel like I'm going to end up making a (huge) decision without all the information I thought I would have.

Ugh...neither of my visits have been cancelled yet but this is worrying.

Yeah, all of my MA paychecks were taxed.

Anyone going to Oregon or Stony Brook? Hope to see you there! Oregon in particular looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

You know what? The doom and gloom over there almost tanked me too, and I kinda think it’s bullshit. Like do you want to go get TT at a Top 50 school? Then yeah, you probably should hold out for something high ranked. But like...are you doing this because you want to be the foremost scholar in your area or because you adore your subfield and want to keep learning in it and teaching in it? I don’t think you should let anybody tell you your lower ranked acceptance isn’t good enough. You might not get the prestigious job that they ultimately do, but that’s only a failure if you decide to frame it that way for yourself. I’m getting my PhD because it’s the only path that makes sense to me. If I have to go alt ac or whatever down the line, fine. But I’m getting that degree, and I don’t believe for a second I’m going to work any less hard for it than anyone else, or that my experiences in my program will be any less valuable. I see you and I love you, lower ranked university friends! Everything is going to be okay for all of us.

I’m in at Oregon! Maybe our paths will cross soon. Best of luck, friend.

I have so much respect for medievalists. I’m in a Middle English lit course in the last semester of my MA, and it’s some of the most difficult work I’ve done in my academic career.

I just want to thank everyone for their kind words after my last post. I spent an hour or so today talking with one of my professors in my MA program and she really made me feel a lot better. Like...yes, the tenure track job is a nightmare, but it's not the only option for folks with a PhD. I can teach at a private high school, work in publishing or grant writing, etc., and that to me would by no means be the end of the world. I'm also in game studies, so there's a chance I could end up with an industry job. (Of course, I'd love a tenure track job, but more than anything I want to make sure I can provide for my family first and foremost.) And I have options internationally, too; my partner is from Korea and we've talked about opening an English academy over there, which of course we'll have better prospects in doing if I have the PhD. Stony Brook has a fairly sizable Korean community and a developed Korean Studies program, too, and so my son will get to grow up exposed to that culture (we're already planning to raise him bilingual). Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know I'm doing much better now. Thank you again, and I wish everyone here the best of luck.

Maybe this is too vulnerable to post here, but I’ve just spent the day teetering on the edge of nervous breakdown because I was so excited about moving on to my PhD, and then after doing some reading on this forum and looking at the state of the job market, I’ve completely lost all hope that I’m going to be able to find a decent job at the end of it all. I just want to do what is right for my partner and child, and now I feel like maybe that’s not this. I don’t know. I feel so lost right now. Sorry. Sorry for oversharing.

Yikes. I was already feeling kind of down about my only acceptances so far being fairly far down the list (47 and 60), but reading some of the comments here just completely ruined my day. Now I'm wondering if I should just pack it in until next year (or altogether).

Thank you for this! I'm excited to meet her in April, and the DGS told me she wants to be my adviser, so this makes me feel really good about Oregon.

That's a great way to look at it, spikeseagulls. Congrats on UC Irvine! I'm trying not to hold my breath for anymore acceptances at this point, either. I'm kind of kicking myself over (probably) not getting into my top choices, because I wish I had started preparing about a year earlier than I did, but I am really excited about working with Betsy Wheeler and Tara Fickle at Oregon or Jean Elyse Graham and Jeffrey Santa Ana at Stony Brook, and truthfully I think I'll probably have a great experience at either university. (It helps that I'll finally be escaping the deeply red state I currently live in.)

20th/21st, gender/sexuality, media studies for me. Some folks definitely seem to have gotten outright rejections, so maybe we're looking at waitlist? My anxiety is through the roof on this one, ha. I never thought I would hate weekends so much.

Weird. Still nothing for me from Columbia. No email and application still the same.

Not sure, @tinymica, but I got rejected by CU Boulder a couple days ago and never got an email. Just saw it on the application. Also, maybe the Columbia emails are just for the folks who interviewed? I've got nothing on email or my app. So anxious.

Hi everyone! I just discovered this site about a week ago and am wishing I knew about it much earlier. I'm the first person in my family to apply to PhD programs, and I've felt lost a lot of the time. Anyhow, I'm glad to be here now, and I've sympathized with so many of you reading through the posts here. I applied to 14 schools this cycle. I've got a BA and MA from a good-sized Midwestern state university, and didn't expect too much from applications, even though I took shots at a few major programs. So far I've got 5 left pending (including Penn and Columbia, which I don't expect to happen), 7 rejections, and two acceptances: University of Oregon and Stony Brook, both of which I think will be good fits for me because they have professors working in my areas, even though they're I know they're not top schools or anything. I really wish I'd had a better sense of how things worked when I applied, because I think I could probably have saved myself at least a good five application fees--I see now that I applied to programs that probably weren't the best fit for me--but oh well. I don't really think I'll wait around 'til next cycle, but I do have a few regrets. And there's also that fun thing where my favorite professor at my top choice decided to jump to a new department after I'd already submitted my app (and had been in communication with them). Anyways, hi friends! I'll be happy to anxiously wait with you for the next few weeks.