Baudrillardist

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

Wait are you actually in grad school or are you 549 posts into speculating on what life in the academe is like?
 
I'm not here to get into a snide quote war, I've already said my piece to the original poster.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

"The problem is that I already have a good job with great pay at a wonderful institution."
 
You will not have this after grad school.
 
I say this as someone who dropped out of a degree from one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions on planet Earth: I would never, ever, go to grad school for English Literature unless you found yourself living somewhere between the 15th to 19th century.  The dream-dusted days of being a wry don are over.  The capitalists have moved in, and if you can afford a tweed jacket right now before attending school, you better get it tailored long enough to sleep in because there is only horrible toil with no pay ahead.  There is no noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow.
 
There is no love of knowledge; it has been replaced with love of work.  (Thank you German research university.)  The essays you write will be the most willfully "erudite" rubbish and will require more masks than Nietzsche and every protean postmodernist ever born could ever summon in order to avoid dipping your toes into the icy waters of self-awareness.  Academics put vacuous pop-culture celebrities to shame when comes to disguising their emptiness from themselves.
 
Also I would suggest attending graduate school if you are massively wealthy, perhaps a potentate of some fairy kingdom or something.
 
This could be seen as a vile attempt at trolling, but I would earnestly admonish you to find something else to do.  I had (what I believed to be) sanctimonious professors give me the polite version of my sentiments above only to disregard them and attend anyway.  I romanticised noble poverty and esoteric conference papers with the best of them--technically as one of the best of them.  Being a professor *used* to be a noble and meaningful occupation, but those days are gone.  
 
Whatever you decide to do, bon chance.

congrats on the acceptance!

I wouldn't pay for the PhD, though I was happy to pay for my mphil (at the other place). I would take a hard and sucky year out and re-apply next round. Try to get in on scholarships (take the time to explore the rich colleges and all the obscure scholarships oxbrige has to offer) and apply early. That's my plan anyways.

One question I would ask (because I had to ask myself this question) is that when I look at academic CV's, usually these people are awarded money to study, and they make sure to mention that on a CV. I wonder if there is any sort of taciturn snobbery/discrimination about paying for the DPhil (or any PhD), since there may be a situation where they interpret a lack of financial awards for the years you studied, and (wrongly) assume that your project was not interesting enough to attact outside funding. Again, I don't say this to be derisive, but that is what I thought about for my own particular application.

I'm back in the US, yes the economy is crappy, but then again I haven't really tried all that hard to obtain a job so far. I've got some possible teaching lined up for next semester (though who knows if it will come through). Also I think it is rather difficult with the new immigration laws for U.S. students to get jobs in the UK (I didnt look hard while there either). Kind of crepe-y all around.

Good luck with your decision!

You're right. 2 mils is not nearly enough to live off of, much less to philosophize with. No wonder why Socrates and Nietzsche sucked so much.

Fraco was intellectually screwed unless he could matriculate to a top 5 school with funding, because on top of all those "agents, money managers, personal managers, lawyers, pr people, taxes" he now has to pay assistants to go to classes for him, concoct a dissertation for him, and then write it.

I mean that's going to cost at least 10 latte's per day!

No, I actually never fell asleep during a lecture because I cared about what was being discussed and had a sincere desire to learn.

I doubt Franco went through any sort of normal application process, and he has enough money to where if he really wanted to embark on the via contemplativa, he could go buy an island, write, and then create a powerhouse publishing firm to disseminate his foundation shattering thoughts to the rest of the world.

But he wants to go to Yale.

This sounds more like he is currently bored with acting, and gravitated towards a "prestigious" school for some intellectual fornication, since that is probably the furthest thing from his everyday existence, or the most radically different thing a person in his situation could do. Chicks? All the time. Parties? All the time. Fast Cars? All the time. Knowledge? Never. Just following his curiosity--nothing wrong with that--but do you really need to burn $$$ at Yale and Columbia to learn?

Yale should have said no thanks, but I imagine if you look at the population who "gets in" simply on renown and connections, they would have to say that a lot more than they do already :/

You're right. 2 mils is not nearly enough to live off of, much less to philosophize with. No wonder why Socrates and Nietzsche sucked so much.

Fraco was intellectually screwed unless he could matriculate to a top 5 school with funding, because on top of all those "agents, money managers, personal managers, lawyers, pr people, taxes" he now has to pay assistants to go to classes for him, concoct a dissertation for him, and then write it.

I mean that's going to cost at least 10 latte's per day!

No, I actually never fell asleep during a lecture because I cared about what was being discussed and had a sincere desire to learn.

I doubt Franco went through any sort of normal application process, and he has enough money to where if he really wanted to embark on the via contemplativa, he could go buy an island, write, and then create a powerhouse publishing firm to disseminate his foundation shattering thoughts to the rest of the world.

But he wants to go to Yale.

This sounds more like he is currently bored with acting, and gravitated towards a "prestigious" school for some intellectual fornication, since that is probably the furthest thing from his everyday existence, or the most radically different thing a person in his situation could do. Chicks? All the time. Parties? All the time. Fast Cars? All the time. Knowledge? Never. Just following his curiosity--nothing wrong with that--but do you really need to burn $$$ at Yale and Columbia to learn?

Yale should have said no thanks, but I imagine if you look at the population who "gets in" simply on renown and connections, they would have to say that a lot more than they do already :/

Elizabeth Wurtzel made it into Yale Law a few years back. Funny, considering she's published books which detail her personal experiences stealing, doing cocaine, and hiding drugs inside her body during international plane flights! Just because you want to practice law doesn't mean that you must have followed it (at Yale anyway...which is notoriously hardcore selective for JD admission)

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=2972554&page=1

Imagine! Falling asleep in class! The pity! The shame! Shame on him!

Like none of us have EVER fallen asleep or drifted off in a boring-ass lecture.

But of course not! We're REAL PhD students who'd NEVER do anything like that. Yeah, right. lol.

Only difference is, unlike Franco, we didnt have a pack of photogs lingering around to snap a pic of it.

I do think it's funny that Franco's just doing his thing, and probably not thinking a whit about any of us naysayers out here.

Good luck to the man.

His publicist stated to the Yale Daily News that even if he accepts the offer from Yale, he'll still be pursuing an additional degree from elsewhere.

THIS IS BULL. I have nothing against actors pursuing a higher education, but 2 PhDs simultaneously?? WHAT THE F*CK WAS YALE THINKING!!! He won't be able to teach, research or do anything scholarly like everyone else in his cohort.
Also, I hate the idea that just because he's a celeb he gets to break the basic rules of PhD study - THAT is your full time job, and you're not even allowed to work elsewhere part time if you're funded.
And if he's not funded - well, I thought Yale funded ALL entering PhDs. So suddenly you can buy your way in??

Somebody mentioned he's doing two PhDs - is he pursuing them both at the same institution? Isn't it against academic policy (not to mention all-but-impossible logistically) to pursue two PhDs simultaneously at two different institutions?

And ultimately, if he is getting funding, he CAN'T be pursuing two PhDs at two different institutions, so if that's the case and anyone finds out, raise a stink. Funding is contingent on the university's exclusive right to your brain during the course of your studies - conflict of interests, and so forth. That's why people with fellowships aren't supposed to hold down jobs; in some cases (not all, but some), if it is a particularly prestigious fellowship, and you have a job aside from that, they can revoke it and send you packing.

And he's sending his ASSISTANT to classes for him? WTF? What is the point of the degree, then? And aside from that, how does he expect anyone to take him seriously as an academic? It's his assistant everyone's going to consider the scholar, right? lol

I would love to think he really means it. I'm going to keep on deluding myself that no university would take him just because he's James Franco, and why on earth Yale of all places would so do - unless he donated an endowment or something - is beyond me: after all, Yale is the Alma Mater of some of the single most famous and influential people in history. He's a good actor, but certainly not on the top ten of all time list, or at least not yet.

I'm with y'all - I'd LOVE to see his application and SOP.

Franco CV

MFA Creative Writing -- new descriptive abilities: shadowed beige building = shadow-colored building
MFA Film Studies -- starred in many movies

...

I think his application would get lost in the 700+ Yale received, fame or no. So, I figure he didn't even do the official application like the rest of those who applied (I didn't btw, just disillusioned by what pop fame gets you even in academia). You can tell me he was more qualified or a "better fit" than everyone else who applied, but I won't believe you--excuse me while I take a bit of a nap.

The literary journal I work for may or may not have gotten a terrible fiction short story from Corey Haim, but his story certainly isn't in our next issue.

I'm all for pursuing an intellectual life. But if that was truly the case, he would dedicate himself to ONE program, take a hiatus from movies, and really devote himself to the whole kit and caboodle. On the other hand, when his publicist is claiming that he'll be pursuing an additional degree at another school, while still making movies, it means that the whole thing is a load of bull. That's one whole spot this year that a SERIOUS scholar could have gotten, not one that generates "I love you" catcalls during the Master's Tea.

And if he sends his assistant to classes as claimed - ugh. Bad enough if he's in class and asleep. An assistant - ugh ugh ugh. And if his fiction is anything to go by, I'm sorry, but that's not exactly what I would think as Yale material. Personally it stings worse since I loved Yale's English program and really really wanted to go there. Now I'm not so sure. If a program that I REALLY looked up to will degrade its scholarship to accept a movie star with no serious scholarly investment, what's the point in going there?