A Small Raven

Unfortunately no, not a peep from them since last month. You're quite right – I am in absolute purgatory, and check my email approximately every four minutes. I assume they're probably in a similar situation to everyone else – I suspect their offer holders have not responded. It's honestly extremely frustrating.

Yeah, it seems like a funny kind of cycle – the whole admissions process is almost kind of at a standstill/stalemate, because people are sitting on offers while hoping to potentially hear back from waitlists, but sitting on those offers is also what stalls waitlist movement in the first place. It's like admissions gridlock. ? Also, I can relate to this dilemma, because I also applied to a mix of creative and critical programs after getting my MA in creative writing. While I'm not actually currently in this predicament as I don't actually hold any offers (sitting at 11 rejections and 1 waitlist ?) I considered the possibility that I might be faced with this issue (deciding between a critical or creative program) quite a bit, and what I might do if presented with this scenario. Just the thought of having decide between the two stressed me out a lot, and it is no doubt a really tough decision. For me, my main deciding factors would have been 1. location (having lived somewhere I didn't particularly enjoy before, this factor makes a big impact on my own personal happiness) 2. how engaging the community is (do they have clubs/organizations you can join, things to encourage you to be active in the graduate community) and 3. how attentive/helpful the faculty is (which you would generally get a sense of from contacting them). If you need someone to kind of talk your thoughts out with on this one, I totally understand your dilemma, so please feel free to PM me!

Do we think it's a good or bad sign that I'm STILL waiting to hear back from a waitlist? ???

I did my MA in Creative Writing at Durham. While I can't speak specifically to the nature of how difficult the Literature program was (being as I was in Creative Writing,) I found the writing program to be exceedingly easy. Nevertheless, if you're thinking largely about student experience, there's a lot to consider when comparing these two schools, primarily due to their locations. When I applied to grad school, Durham honestly wasn't my first choice. But I absolutely fell in love with Durham while I was there, and had a fantastic student experience there – the town is small, but there's loads of good bars and restaurants about town, as well as some good shops. It's also just a quick 15 minute train ride to Newcastle if you want to do any kind of city shopping etc. I really enjoyed the postgrad social scene there. One of the biggest differences between these two schools will be the social structure – Durham has a college system, whereas I believe Glasgow doesn't have a college system (I think only Cambridge, Oxford and Durham have college systems - think of them like Hogwarts houses). What college have you been admitted to? I was in Van Mildert, and made a good number of friends within the postgrad dorm, but also spent a lot of time over at Ustinov (the all post-grad college). My college was a bit far from the center of town (20 minute walk or so), but I still very much enjoyed it, and had a lovely walk along the river any time I needed to go into town. I don't have a ton of experience/knowledge about Glasgow, however I did live in Edinburgh for six months after I finished my MA at Durham, and I ventured over to Glasgow maybe twice. Obviously, Glasgow is a bigger city compared to Durham being a small town. However, and while this may sound silly, something you should really take into consideration is the WEATHER. I found Durham's climate to be extremely agreeable – mild winters with a little snow to make it feel festive, a beautiful spring and autumn, and nice warm summers. It was much sunnier than I expected it to be. When I moved up to Scotland, people warned me to be prepared for the climate, and I shrugged them off, thinking it couldn't be all that much different from Durham, seeing as it's only about 1.5 hours north by train. In the end, the climate in Scotland is one of the major reasons I ended up leaving and moving back to the states. It is entirely different to Durham – the sky is gray most of the time, and it's often raining and windy. You do occasionally get a nice day here and there, but don't expect the summers to be warm...you will rarely, if ever, be able to wear shorts. So while it might sound like something ridiculous to factor into your decision, if you are AT ALL prone to a bout of seasonal depression here and there, the climate will make a monumental difference. I've been living back in the states for a few years now, and I still miss Durham every single day. If you have any more questions about Durham, please don't hesitate to PM me!

I think I can answer that question! The spot probably ends up going to someone like me – who his hanging on 11 rejections, and 1 waitlist. ?

Yeah as far as I know, absolutely nothing from Albany yet. They're the last one I'm waiting to hear back from.

Did anyone get an acceptance from Brandeis? There isn't a single one posted on the results board. I'm on their waitlist, and have been rejected by every other program I applied to. ?

I'm "high" on the waitlist for Brandeis, and have been rejected by every other program I applied to. ooooohh the anxiety!

I feel like age is all over the place when it comes to doctoral programs. I'm 27 (oh god, 28 in a few weeks. Hello to the ominous approach of 30) and that feels old to me to be starting a PhD program, but I also know that this might just be my irrational psycho brain being, well...irrational. Because it's completely normal to start a PhD at any age, quite frankly. If anything, I feel like it would probably help my case more if I spent a couple years getting some kind of teaching experience before I applied, because my current work experience isn't all that relevant. But I guess we'll see how things turn out this round. Mind you, I got my MA in the UK a few years ago, and even then I was one of the oldest Master's students around because of how the UK educational system is structured, so maybe that mentality has stuck with me, and that's why I feel old going into this.

That's EXACTLY what it is. I check the results page about a dozen times a day, and my email about 10x that

Welcome to the club! ? As far as I know, most programs don't conduct interviews, although there are a handful that do. NYU announced that they would be conducting interviews this year, though I don't know if they mention that on their website. It's new as of this year, and they announced it in an online info session in the fall. You could look in the results section for school response records from recent years, and see if anyone posted interview invitations from where you're applying to.

Unfortunately yeah, you'll probably be waiting another 4-8 weeks to hear back from everyone. BC just sent me my first rejection yesterday, but they were also the first to get back to me last year, and it was about a month before I started to hear back from anyone else. It is, unfortunately, an insufferably torturous period of agonized waiting that we must endure. Last year it absolutely demolished my mental health, and I'm sure it won't be any different this year. But we're all in this together, so just remember that you're not alone.

Anyone else already starting to get antsy waiting to hear back? ?

So I'm applying to a few of these programs this cycle (Brandeis, BU, and BC). Of the dozen schools I'm applying to this year, I found BU's faculty to be some of the most accessible. The interim department chair even offered to do a zoom call with me for a little personal Q&A. Of course I mostly asked questions specific to my own research interests, but perhaps they'll be relevant to you – I asked about weaknesses in the program, and she did mention that the department is currently in a stage of transition – various poetry faculty are retiring, and they don't have strong Native American literary scholarship within the department, though they are hoping to bring some on board. They do, however, have pretty strong scholarship in transnational literature. I also found BC and Brandeis faculty to be very responsive and friendly! When I reached out, they replied with long, thorough answers instead of just something short and generic (I received short generic answers from faculty at other schools, which makes the longer more personal responses stand out so much more). While that sort of thing might just come down to the specific faculty member you reach out to, for me, it reflected well on the department and made me more eager to apply. BC was one of the schools I applied to last year and was unfortunately rejected from, but...hopefully things work out better this time around! I Know BC does heavily lean towards Irish literary scholarship, so I'm not sure how much they distribute their admissions between Irish lit students and others on a year to year basis. I know they accepted a couple Irish lit students last year, so maybe they'll accept other research interests over that this year, to even things out. That's just my ungrounded theory though. The Brandeis professor I spoke to emphasized that since they are such a small school, they have to be selective about the research areas they choose to develop scholarship in – he mentioned that American and British Romanticism are strong fields within their department. He also mentioned that they are acutely aware of how competitive and challenging the academic job market is, so they help prepare their students to become strong candidates for alt-academic jobs as well. A note on Tufts – I looked at their program, and while it seems like a great school, I ultimately decided not to apply because it wasn't a good fit for my research interests – the department seemed particularly sparse on any kind of poetic scholarship. Hope this helps! They all seem like decent programs to me, though they have their own strengths and weaknesses and specialties. Best of luck!

Officially submitted all 12 applications! I hope everyone else's apps are going well!