rinneron

So now people are posting about rejections from UCLA via email directing them to the website... and still nothing for me! I think they forgot about my application. This may be a blessing in disguise. Maybe I can sneak in unnoticed into their graduate program...

Good to hear! I saw this morning that someone posted on the results page that their UCLA online admissions page was updated with a rejection. As of now there's still no decision made on my page, which I'm taking as a good sign, though I am skeptical of whether these UCLA results are really for Comp Lit or actually for English, as they are listed. Good luck to everyone...

I hear ya on NYU! I finally heard back from their Master's program last year around the beginning of April, after I had already given up all hope.

Still waiting as well.

Two very different questions lumped into one post -- how lovely... 1. I noticed that some people posted on the results page that they had heard from UCLA's English Dept about decisions, but on the forum the only chatter is about Comp Lit. Has anyone heard from the English program? I hope I'm not waiting in vain... 2. The only acceptance I've gotten so far (and, because of how devastating this process is, I'm going with this being my only acceptance) is from Northeastern. I like their program, and I want to go to graduate school enough that I'd pretty much go anywhere (my career goals also don't require me to go to a top 10), but I was wondering if anyone here knew much about them/how they're considered in the larger academic world.

I got really lucky as well, my SO isn't an academic (god bless him) and is very willing to move with me. However, I didn't apply to schools in cities where I knew he wouldn't be happy, and to be honest, I applied to a few schools that I'm now realizing are not in the best place for us, so I would decline. To be honest, I decided a long time ago that, no matter how much I want a PhD and to be an academic, a few things (like my SO and my horseback riding) come before that because they make me happy, whereas an academic career only fulfills me intellectually. I want to teach, but I would be very happy teaching at a small "second rate" college/university/community college, if it means my SO can have his career and happiness too, we can be in an area well suited to us, and I can have my horses. I researched how to do this financially and wisely, and I think I'm making the right decision. In a nutshell, if I have to choose, it'll be SO over school. Thankfully I've already been accepted somewhere where my SO is very willing to move, so now I'm just waiting to see if I'll have other choices.

Thanks Yellow, that certainly helps knowing that they haven't made decisions yet! If I can just get in there, I'll go and be merry... Good luck to you as well! I feel that, without this board, I would have lost it by now.

I'm waiting on them too... on complete pins and needles since they're one of my first choices. I got an email from one of their profs on the adcom committee at the end of January saying they liked my file and my LoRs were very good, but two were quite short, and could they have another. I got my undergrad thesis advisor to email them one the same day (I had given him some of my more recent work and SoP), but I don't know how to interpret this whole thing. It's just too stressful some days...

Thanks! That's what I thought, but it really helps to hear someone else confirm.

I know I read this somewhere here, but I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of an "official policy" type of thing... What is the official date we're required to accept or decline offers of admission with funding? I think this has something to do with the Graduate Association, which is bigger than just individual grad schools, but I can't find any information on the specific grad school sites about when we have to reply to offers by. Hmm... I just don't want to be waiting to hear from places and unintentionally give up offers in the meantime; on the other hand, I don't want to jump on an offer, out of fear of losing it, when a better one could be on the way.

Just got accepted to Northeastern today, via mail. With a ton of money too! Things are looking up.

One down, 11 to go...

Maybe we can share advice/ways not to go crazy? In the past 3 weeks I have:

For my MA recommendations, my profs were also on my undergrad thesis committee, and I made them all white chocolate chip raspberry muffins, and brought them the day of my defense. For my PhD recommendations, I made them all apple pies. Fuck yeah.

In my first class of my Master's, which was "Introduction to Advanced Literary Study," the professor (who was also my school's DGS at the time) told all of us the following: "Most of you want to apply to PhD programs in English, but I think you should reconsider. Graduate school isn't for most people, and most of you won't get in, so I don't know why you would want to waste your time applying. It's a very select group, and I don't think many of you make the cut." This was the woman who told me, when I mentioned perhaps wanting to use 'Crying of Lot 49' and 'Wild Sheep Chase' as ways to examine some kind of postmodern detective story for our term paper (which was entirely open ended), "I think Pynchon is over." Seriously. Anyone who tells you to flat up give up has forgotten what it's like to be a student. Dreams are important, let them live on!

NYU's MA program in English offers absolutely nothing to every single student. Thanks guys. I think the lowest stipend I've seen for a PhD in English (for the school's I'm applying to) is about $14k; the highest is around $25/30k. Needless to say, I'm terrified. I've managed to live in NYC for a bit over a year now on about $2000/month very comfortably (okay, okay, I live in Brooklyn...), and my first semester lived on about $1300/month (with $850 rent! that sucked), but I'm scared to go back to that. My boyfriend will most likely be coming with me to super grad school, and he's a real working man (not a grad school nut like yours truly), so maybe we'll be able to avoid living in a cardboard box. Somedays I struggle to remember that I lived on $1100/month in undergrad during my senior year and had an awesome apartment and never wanted for cash. How the hell did that happen?

Of course! And if I can improve my score (I have a terrible memory and absolutely zero talent for vocab on a regular basis without my handy little dictionary and thesaurus) anyone can. Good luck!!

It seems we're missing a middle ground here. For much of my life, I considered myself an atheist; recently, that has begun to change. It has nothing to do with any kind of religious conversion -- I was raised UU and will be my entire life -- but rather a gradual spiritual journey I seem to be walking down. I've realized that, for me, believing that I was of the highest intelligence in our known universe (being our world, I suppose) was narrow minded and selfish. Somedays I think Freud was kind of on target with Oceananic (spelling?) theory, but sometimes I think it's a lot more nuanced and complicated than that. In any case, I'm doubtful there isn't some sort of spiritual energy out there that I can't quite comprehend. I'm very willing to accept the fact that "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." But anyway, that middle ground. Religion isn't just for wackjobs and screwups. It doesn't automatically have to be undying belief in walking on water and burning bushes -- it can be a careful consideration of how these stories (true or not) contribute to senses of communal and personal spirituality and peace. Religion involves so many, subtle layers of community, connection, generosity, kindness, and honesty that dismissing all of it out of hand seems unwise, reactionary, and foolish. God doesn't have to be some old man in the sky condemning or approving our every move, and awaiting his big musical finale on judgement day -- god can mean a lot of things, and assuming that everyone who believes in god lacks rationale because they ascribe to some aspect of a traditional Judeo-Christian-Islam concept of god is bizarre. To you it may not seem rational to believe in god, or it may seem that religion and science are automatically antithetical, but to someone else that isn't necessarily the case, and their personal logic may allow for both religion and science. What did Wernher von Braun say? "Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death." And he was one of the leading rocket scientists of the 20th century! Talk about a religious intellectual. Fundamentalists are no good, and that means fundamentalists on both sides. Those who bomb school buses and persecute non-believers in the name of god, and those who do the same because there is no god. Insulting or attempting to dismiss/disprove someone's personal religion or atheism is childish and absurd, and only a few steps removed from the more inflammatory and physical acts. Not only does it immediately encounter argument of "why would it change your life if I believe in god or not?" but it seems to me that to be truly informed, curious, knowledgeable, and creative intellectuals, we must explore religion and its implications without this trendy, condescending contempt of religion that seems to be rearing its ugly head.

Yes you certainly can! But GET STUDYING! I improved my verbal score from 590 to 690 with a lot of vocab studying. I took a Princeton Review course, and memorized every damn word they gave me. Most of the verbal section is vocab, even if it doesn't seem like it, so studying words till they're coming out of your ears is really worth it. Pick up one of the review books -- again, Princeton Review is best, as they base their vocab on the actual test and what words come up often -- and study study study till test time. Hope that helps!

I would call a few days after the deadline just to make sure -- that's what I'm doing, and most of the schools have been pretty understanding and sympathetic about letting me know what they have of mine and what they're waiting on. Otherwise, lots of alcohol. LOTS.

Yeah, I tried to stay away from ridiculous lingo in my SoP -- one of my profs and I actually had a "jargon free" meeting to groom my SoP of all empty-sounding phrases and words! It was fun, if a little painful ("So you don't actually know what you mean by x...?" "Well, ya know, let's just cross that baby out...").

(lauras -- my mum, who has both given birth and gone through a lit phd, said that giving birth was definitely easier. i think you're onto something!) I totally understand about tailoring your applications as city-specific -- I chose only schools that were in cities where not only I would be happy, but where my boyfriend could a)find a job and b)possibly attend an MA program in sociology, though very, VERY far down the road. I'm in the stage right now where everything is submitted and I'm uselessly panicking about things I have absolutely no control over (things like A} my grades were slightly less than impressive one semester -- a drop, B+, A, A- -- because of a collasped lung and spending the entire semester in the hospital, and I failed to mention this unless the school asked for a statement other than the statement of purpose and B} what if not mentioning Baudrillard in my writing sample suggests that I'm not a serious poststructuralist? Oh lord what have I done???) -- anyone else there yet?? I'm attempting to have spontaneous individual dance parties whenever I get nervous to ward off the anxiety. And I would very happily take any other suggestions... Good lord April you (and your pile of rejection and possibly, hopefully, some acceptance letters) can't come soon enough.

Thanks everyone for the advice! I did have some sentence to that extent in my SoP -- I think it was along the lines of: "Although my focus is 20th century British and American, especially the novel, situation these literatures within a broader theoretical and literary context, both globally and chronologically, will help me contexutalize my interests within a larger critical and textual lineage blah blah academic jargon 2.0 blah blah..." And yeah, though I can sort of externally recognize that I am one of "those" who are in a fairly good position going into all this (but I ain't gone to no Ivies! lol), it's still very nerve racking! I just figure everyone is as well/better qualified than I am, and all my faults/holes (especially that damn GRE subject score...) stick out like a sore thumb to me. I suppose now all I have to do is make sure all my materials are into the schools I applied to and then wait until April-ish (I sent off all my apps two weeks ago cause I am the picture of neurotic behavior, as I'm sure most of you can tell) to find out if I have a future in this crazy literary world. Maybe I will consider becoming a farmer. I worked in Germany for awhile running a horse barn, and I do have three ponies to start already...

From someone at NYU -- In general, their grad programs are VERY interdisciplinary. Not that I've taken advantage thus far, but you can pretty much take what you want in what program you want, and as long as you give sufficient reason, you can transfer it to your program. In other words, if you go to them for a French PhD, and take courses in the Comp Lit department, you're going to be alright. And having a PhD in French isn't going to stop you from teaching French lit. And I suppose you have to weigh the other question of what's more important: getting into a PhD program at all and getting to study, or going to this one specific program and studying within it?

(To Minnesotan: Yay Brooklyn! My & my boyfriend's current home, though, to be honest, we are keeping our fingers crossed that I get into a PhD program that's *not* in NYC so we can try somewhere new for awhile!) Theory is... eh. It's one of my concentrations (specifically aesthetic theory, French poststructuralist, structuralist, & pomo theory), but it's definitely not a mandatory issue you need to obsess over. It is a good idea to have a sense of the theoretical direction literature has gone in (someone else said this earlier, I think); ie, have an idea of what Marxism is, what reader-response is (in other words, who Wayne Booth is), what Brooks & Richards said that was so important; what Kant & Wilde have in common & where they disagree, how Plato and Aristotle are the foundation for many major theoretical schools, etc etc. That being said, most people come to grad school (including myself, by far) with a vague sense of one or two theoretical schools and not that much more on others. Grad schools usually offer a few good lit theory courses, which they expect will be the way you become familiar with the major schools. So don't stress. Put most of your energy into the canon and literature itself -- that shit doesn't change; theory goes in and out of style literally every five minutes. If you find a theoretical school you love -- great. Play with it. But don't stress too much about memorizing exactly what every theorist said ever. (And a hint: there are theorists who are also writers who are very, very worth getting to know. Look around the late 19th-early 20th century for these guys, they're awfully interesting and tend to stay in style a little longer than most.)