Lolahola

Hey all! So I have been accepted to UCLA and UC Irvine's Spanish programs as a PhD student. I visited both programs last month, and was really impressed by UC Irvine, and slightly less impressed by UCLA. UC Irvine's faculty made a huge effort to get to know us and answer our concerns. The DGS spent the whole entire day with us, even driving us to the beach to ensure those of us who traveled far would still be able to touch the Pacific. We spent lots of time with current grad students who were SO friendly, giving us a tour around campus, showing us their grad housing apartments, and inviting us to a barbecue that they were having with both faculty and grad students. The vibe seems extremely collaborative, supportive and with a work-life balance all around. UCLA on the other hand, was more of a mixed bag people-wise. The DGS only spent an hour with us and read a prepared statement about the program. Some of the other faculty were really lovely to me, and I had a nice time chatting with current grad students as well. I met with two potential advisors and clicked with both, but later on heard that one of them is unreliable as an advisor. The real kicker for me was that UCLA paid a few grad students to go out to dinner with us, and they spent nearly the whole time chatting amongst themselves. I know this is just a first impression, but it makes sense to me that at a larger program more people are going to be focused on their own work and less on each other. So, all in all, I would say I am leaning toward Irvine. However, UCLA has offered me a significantly larger package. $31k my first year, and two years of fellowship funding (my first year of course and my fourth year, which would be huge at the time I begin dissertation work). They also have offered $6k in my first summer, and have lots of opportunity for summer TAships etc. UC Irvine was able to up their package slightly, offering $26k my first year and $3k in my first summer. They have fewer summer opportunities for TAships. Worth noting that apart from my first year the annual stipends between UCLA and UC Irvine are nearly identical. Additionally, when it comes to department fit in my research areas they are fairly close to even. I have four days left to decide, where do I pick?? Any advice appreciated.

@SPGR_22 I applied to UC Riverside and am awaiting to hear decisions too. They did contact me last week to let me know I failed to include my writing sample (face palm) and asked me to send it along for consideration. I also received rejections from NYU and Princeton last week. Congratulations to anyone who made it in, I'm sure it was a super competitive year! I'm still waiting to hear from Brown, UPenn, Columbia, Stanford and UC Berkely. Don't have high hopes for UPenn because I flopped in my interview and I saw on the results page that some people got acceptances 5 days ago. Also don't have high hopes for Brown because I saw some were invited for interviews. Anyone have any info on any of these schools?

Also I received a rejection from Harvard last night, which is unsurprising given I did the worst thing ever (named a different school in my SOP). Just sharing in case anyone is wondering about news from that department. I got into UC Irvine also! Very excited to have one great PhD option. Not super sure how the school ranks compared to others, does anyone have any info about UC Irvine's reputation?

@caromella I sincerely hope that's why we haven't heard anything from NYU! I kind of figured that if I didn't hear anything it's because they passed over me for the interview round. I'd love to hear from anyone that has a little more info if they have it! @vallejeando My experience interviewing them was good! I had met one of the professors very briefly before because he guest lectured in one of my undergrad classes, so I felt a teeny bit more comfortable as a result. I don't have a strong rapport with any one POI though, and haven't heard anything since the interview. Best of luck to you, I'm sure you did better than you think! It's normal that the interviews take on that interrogative tone I think

@MillerS Something similar happened to me with UC Davis. I applied for the PhD and they sent me a decision letter admitting me to the Masters program. When I emailed the graduate coordinator about it she said that "We understand that your intention is to pursue the PhD. The practice of the Spanish program at UC Davis, however, is to admit students to the MA if they do not already have one. We often have students go on to pursue the Ph.D after completing the MA. It is a simple internal application process." I know that all their offers for MA students come "fully funded," but I'm still not quite sure what that means stipend wise. Anyway, my impression is that this is a slightly more formalized structure that most schools have, where after you finish your coursework you'll have to demonstrate you're ready to advance, but it is a little weird. Let me know if you find any more updates, and I'm curious what the rest of the forum thinks about my case?

@María de ZayasSure! They contacted me to schedule an interview late last week, and told me which two professors would be interviewing me. One was a POI and the other was the Graduate Chair, who also is a POI for me but not one I named in my SOP. My thinking is she might be sitting in on a lot of the interviews for continuity. They asked me to talk about my background and how it led to applying to this program, and also asked me to elaborate on some key points of my SOP, like why these topics in conversation etc. They also asked me about a recent book I'd read. For my questions, I asked about the department culture (really positive) and what topics the department is looking to emphasize going forward (seems really open-ended). They told me they'll be making decisions all through the month of Feb. @caromella When you spoke to DGS about NYU's timeline, did they mean they'll be making final decisions by tomorrow or just be done inviting people for interviews? When @GRADSPN1 wrote they said that NYU told them two weeks from now-ish, so I'm curious what they meant by aiming for this Friday...

@GRADSPN1 I also have my interview with Princeton on Friday! I am extremely nervous too. I had an interview with UPenn yesterday that did not go so hot... I think I prepared for the wrong types of questions, and didn't expect the whole entire thing to be in Spanish (I did all my prep in English.. silly me). Any chance you want to chat more to help each other prepare? Tips for other interviewees: have an elevator pitch prepared! It may sound obvious to you but it wasn't to me, and that was the first question I got. It's hard to talk about yourself coherently on the spot. Also, have a good answer to the "what are you reading" question. Lastly, I expected the questions to ask me to argue for my fit in the department, but none did. They pretty much all just wanted me to delve into my research proposal more richly.

I applied to LAIC and ILAC and have not heard back. Both schools state on their website that they'll start making decisions in February though, so hopefully that means good things for us!

Congrats, that's so exciting!! I'm also trying to keep expectations low just to try and preserve my sanity more than anything haha, and it makes it all the better if you do get some good news!

Hi all! Little late to the party here, but I applied to 10+ schools (I have a tendency to overdo things slightly), NYU, Colombia, UPenn, a handful of UC schools, UMich-Ann Arbor, Stanford, Brown and Princeton. This is my first cycle applying (kicking myself for spending so much time fussing about the GRE haha, anyone else run into this surprise?) My research interests are 20-21st cent Lat Am lit/ visual culture in Colombia and Chile, specifically in indigenous and gender and sex studies. I'm super nervous that I won't get in anywhere but I think we're all in the same boat there. Nice to think that there are lots of you out there struggling through the same thing :)