forsberg

Hi Ouibeque I'm not really in a position to answer your question, because I withdrew from Columbia quite early on It was essentially for the same reasons as you (not a great fit, not very fond of the city). At that time, I already had an acceptance from a school for which I had a much better fit, and I wanted to minimize the time I spent in visits, so it seemed like the right decision.

The schools will probably be done contacting the students very soon, so we'll all be settling into decision mode Good luck everyone with the decisions

Congrats Nedjamma for UPenn and Rutgers offers. Fantastic !!! I just got an E-mail from the DGS at Duke, I’m in. Good luck everyone !

Update for Stanford: Heard via email from a professor (one on my SOP) yesterday. Some awesome news. Can't wait for the visit

Ha. That was totally me 5 years ago, before I decided to go down the humanities path. Anyway, maybe I was just fortunate, but my experience with studying languages and discussing that with others has been quite positive. When people ask me why I major in French I simply explain I want to become a scholar of French literature and that usually evokes an intrigued but positive reaction.

Congratulations on your offers Joey !!! Accepted into UChicago via phone from a professor (one on mySOP) yesterday. Got admitted to Harvard via phone from the Chair of the RLL today. Good luck everyone !

Invited to French open house at Columbia via e-mail.

Thank you Nedjamma! I'm very very very happy riht now. The e-mail wasn't very specific, just congratulated me and discussed quite a few of the benefits Yale offered, as well as upcoming campus visit days. I didn't even get a phone call or anything, just BAM! A congratulations you are in e-mail. Needless to say, that was one welcome surprise GK, the French deadline was also January 2nd. I hope you'll receive news shortly

Just got an E-mail from the DGS at Yale, I'm in. My first acceptance. Good luck everyone!

Congratulations Joey on your offer !!! I am sure you will get other offers in the coming weeks. I am really happy for you.

Heard from Stanford (via E-mail), invited to a phone interview. Surprised.

Thanks Ouibeque and Nedjamma! Not quite sure what to expect from the campus visits though. It sounds someone less daunting than phone interviews, but who knows?

Duke UniversityFrench, PhD (F11)Interview via E-mail on 31 Jan 2011 31 Jan 2011 Campus visit in February

Congratulations Nedjamma, for the Rutgers acceptance And the Penn campus visit. That's awesome. Good to have you back too Joey.

Ouibeque, don't despair! I have to admit, I LOLed at the bolded part. Yeah, I don't think you are the only one fearing this worst case scenario... I honestly don't see what's so wrong about talking about the weather, though. Small talk always serves its purpose and I expect to be equally tense as you are for my first phone interview. Also, you have more interviews ahead, so all the experience will help you out along the way

Thanks Good luck with the phone interviews, Ouibeque! Let us they how they go

Invited to Princeton (via E-mail today) to visit the department on Monday February 21 (Presidents' Day). Exciting! Good luck everyone!

I'm glad you're enjoying yourself Joey It must be hard, not to, though. You are in Paris after all. I'm not letting myself be swept away by the stress of waiting for responses just yet. Still want to enjoy the last few weeks before school starts

Warm greetings to y'all I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas I'Ve been going through the results section on this forum, and found the following stats. 6 Jan 2010 UCLA Accepted via E-mail 14 Jan 2010 Wisconsin, Madison Interview via E-mail 20 Jan 2008 UVA Accepted via E-mail 25 Jan 2010 Princeton Interview via E-mail 25 Jan 2008 Berkeley Accepted via E-mail 26 Jan 2010 UPenn Interview via E-mail 28 Jan 2010 Vanderbilt Interview via E-mail 29 Jan 2009 Duke Interview via E-mail 31 Jan 2007 Chicago Accepted via Phone 1 Feb 2010 UT Austin Accepted via E-mail 4 Feb 2010 Yale Accepted via Phone 4 Feb 2008 Northwestern Accepted via Phone 5 Feb 2009 JHU Accepted via Phone 6 Feb 2009 Pittsburgh Rejected via Postal Service 7 Feb 2006 Columbia Accepted via E-mail 7 Feb 2009 NYU Accepted via E-mail 8 Feb 2010 Stanford Rejected via Postal Service 11 Feb 2008 Cornell Rejected via Postal Service 15 Feb 2010 Brown Wait listed via Website 17 Feb 2010 Michigan, Ann Arbor Accepted via E-mail 19 Feb 2009 Rice Accepted via E-mail 5 Mar 2010 Harvard Wait listed via Postal Service These dates are, I believe, the earliest date mentioned by people being contacted by each of the above schools So most likely no news for a few weeks. And then things start to roll.

Thanks Joey! Impressive explanation of your interests I am a bit surprised you are not applying to Stanford, considering your interests, as the department there seems to love the interdisciplinary yet theoretical approach you described. I can understand not applying to Penn though About contacting professors, the faculty members I spoke to weren't that specific, but they did mention that contacting professors beforehand would not really help your applications in any way. I know there is this ongoing debate about contacting the profs or not, but I am going to side with the no group Basically, I am mentioning them in my SOP(and making rather detailed references to their work) and I think my enthusiasm there will shine through I am going to let my letter do the talking and hopefully that works out. As for the writing samples, trying to get the appropriate length for each school is definitely a pain. For example, Duke requires a 10 page one, whereas most schools seem to require a 15 or even 20 page sample, so I had no choice but to do some tweaking Some websites are also a bit unclear, as to how exactly you are supposed to send your sample. I think most schools have you send the sample along with the rest of your online stuffs (transcript, cv, etc), but others require you to send it separately to the department you are applying to. Kind of confusing

Yeah, I think you might have started the thread a bit early Who knows, I sure hope this thread becomes more animated in a month or two I am pretty big fan of Gide and Camus, especially. I am pretty interested in the representation of both WWI and WWII and their historiography. As far as the 19th century goes, I enjoy Baudelaire and Huysmans in particular. What about you? There are definitely specific professors I am keen on working with, dealing either with 19th or 20th century literature/history. I am not planning on contacting them though. I was advised against it by some professors of mine I spoke to. What's your take on this?

That would be me I'm a college senior (who will graduate in May 2011). I attend an Ivy too (but not a HYP school ) A French major too, of course, with a strong interest in 20th and 19th century literature. Still working on those applications Applying to most of the schools you are applying to, in addition to Duke and Chicago. It's pretty cool that you are taking a gap year... I considered doing that too, but decided against it.