Boz

Thanks for sharing, kfed. And congratulations!

I did not hear from Duke today, unfortunately. *Sigh*

Hey, historians. I read your threads rather wistfully, as history was my much-beloved second major in undergrad. I've always been fascinated with European history, especially France during the period 1789-1945. However, I'm a stronger student in English, which I'm equally passionate about, so I decided to pursue a PhD in this discipline instead. Sigh. Still, I strongly believe in the importance of understanding literature in its historical context. Anyway, best of luck to all of you in the admissions process! Please, someone write a dissertation on something that concerns the historiography of the French Revolution .

I recently concluded a teaching stint abroad, and it was certainly an experience. But yes, it will be nice to be a student again.

Being removed from academia these past few months since I finished my BA has only reinforced my belief that academia is the best environment for me. I miss everything about school, even the stress! Yes, I miss those late nights spent in the library, high on caffeine and half-delirious from lack of sleep, studying for an exam or writing a paper. My current work is relatively stress-free, and I'm trying to enjoy the free time while it lasts, but I do miss the pressure and the challenge. Oh well, at least now I'll be well-rested and recharged for round two!

Only two more days of January--you know what that means! It will be February and our neurotic obsessing will become justified as the notifications really start to roll in! Ahhh!

Sounds lovely! One of my most favorite places in the whole world . Have you ever heard the song "April in Paris" by Bille Holiday? That's what your trip brings to my mind. I hope that a) you'll get accepted to wherever you want to go and you'll enjoy Paris!

Congratulations!!! Very happy for you!

Creeping closer to the humanities as well! First implicit rejection today (no interview offered)--not too painful! I think that I'll live. 1 down, 13 to go!

Yes! I concur.

Well, obviously my field is completely different from yours, but I'll give you my two cents anyway. If the school has a wait-list system, then you could still be in the game. For at least one English program that does interviews and keeps a wait-list, applicants on the wait-list who are not offered interviews may still be offered admission. Of course, it depends on the school, but I just wanted to give you an example of how things could possibly play out. Best of luck!

I think that any word-count restriction of less than two pages, single spaced, is just wrong. Two of my schools had a 500-word requirement, and it was hard to cut my painstakingly-written SoP down to size. However, I found out later that a lot of applicants to one of these schools just disregarded the instructions and submitted their uncut SoPs, to no negative consequence with regard to admissions. I think you should send your SoP just as it is.

Don't despair, fenderpete! Everything will be all right in the end. I, too, have been considering what I'll do if I don't get in this time around--and it *is* hard to imagine taking yet *another* year off when a PhD takes so long in the first place. However, I've heard stories of many applicants getting in *nowhere* on their first try and then getting into all the Ivies on their second go. So, as much going through this process again sounds dreadful, take heart! I really hope that things work out for you! Incidentally, I'm applying to those three schools as well. With any luck, we'll be colleagues in the next few months!

Duke sends a periodic application materials checklist thing (although they've already established that all of my stuff has been received), which isn't too cruel and unusual on their part, but it still makes me jump. The fact that Duke has its notifications coming out soon (early February) certainly doesn't help my nerves much, either! On a different note, who isn't relieved that the first notifications (of acceptance, anyway) are by email or phone, rather than post? Personally, I can remember some God-awful afternoons in high school spent waiting for the mailman to come with letters from undergrad institutions ("Is it a big envelope or a small one?!?!"). Of course, I suppose that checking my email 50 times a day amounts to the same thing :roll: . *Edit: Oops, I didn't realize that this thread concerns "current" schools. I do not and have never attended Duke (but maybe someday I will, hehe).

For myself, and perhaps for other English majors as well, I think that there was a turning point in undergrad when I first began to look at literature with a critical eye and learned to appreciate texts not only for the pleasure that I took in reading them, but for the possibilities that they offered for interpretation. Of course, reading critically is second nature to most of us now, and I often forget that I *learned* to think in this way, but the first time that I became conscious that I was actively engaging with texts, rather than just consuming them, was certainly a milestone in my progress as a scholar. This laid the foundation for my desire to study English professionally. But anyway, I first realized that I wanted to pursue a PhD when one of my professors advised me to consider this option during my second year. And then, after I thought about it, it *did* seem like the natural course for me to take and the best way to employ my talents. I knew that it would be a fulfilling career, etc., etc., and that I wouldn

Something that I did to help assuage the serious doubts that I was having about my chances is this: I made a list of all the different elements of my application (GPA, GREs, WS, SoP, LoRs, awards/honors, etc.) and organized them into a three categories, "Positive," "Neutral," and "Negative." Lo and behold, I found that I had a lot of "Positive" things going for me, including little things that I had overlooked in my pessimistic state: for example, I have a very strong foreign language background, which isn't a requirement to be admitted to PhD programs for English, but shows that I already have skills that all PhD candidates will ultimately need. So, remembering this detail gave me a little confidence boost that I needed. I was also able to see beyond my narrow perfectionist tendencies and put my GRE Subject Test score (a good-but-not-great 660, 86th percentile), which has been plaguing me forever, in the "Neutral" category, along with two other things. Finally, I took my embarrassingly low GRE Writing score and stuck that one down under "Negative," along with another potential liability. Anyway, the point is that this simple exercise helped really helped me to put things in perspective. After I was finished, I could see how the good qualities outweighed the bad and realized that I hadn't been giving myself enough credit. I think that being able to confront my demons also enabled me to view them in a realistic, rational light, rather than a distorted, pessimistic one. I feel better now, not because I proved that I'm the perfect candidate, but rather because I know that I'm still a strong candidate in spite of it all. Ok, so, I hope that this helps other people as well .

It certainly *is* amusing to see how some of my dream advisors fare in the "hotness" category :wink:

[quote name="Louiselab

Ok, since everyone else seems to be going poll crazy lately, I thought I'd make one for those of us applying to English programs this year! Not very creative, but I wanted to see the breakdown of applicants across a few different areas of concentration (see my earlier thread, "Fields of Interest"). The poll setting only allows for 10 options, and obviously there are many other fields and subfields that I could also have listed, but hopefully these very broad 10 encompass at least some of your personal research interests.

I got a 740, too! *high five* As an English major, I must say that I was quite pleased with myself .

I think we can all afford to be a little unscholarly at this point--we have 5-7 years or so to be more scholarly than we could ever want .

Well, my little daydream isn't nearly as fabulous as any of yours...but I'm *really* looking forward to rejoining Facebook under the network of my prestigious new school! Ah, I can see it now: "Yale Grad Student '15" (just an arbitrary school from my crazy list). I can think of a few former classmates from undergrad that will be green with envy, muhahaha!

If I were you, I would be overanalyzing too--what suggestive language this department coordinator used! However, I agree with the others that you shouldn't get *too* excited just yet. Best of luck, though! (From another English applicant who is just as anxious to get accepted somewhere .)

When deciding where to apply, I wish that I hadn't been so preoccupied with "official" rankings, such as US News, which are not necessarily definitive (or completely reliable, for that matter). Instead of trying to figure how to make myself a good fit for certain schools, I should have been asking: "Which of these schools is a good fit for me?" Had I done so, my list of schools would probably have been much shorter, but my applications would perhaps have been stronger and more focused. I wish that I had discussed prospective schools with my undergrad advisor, rather than rely on the internet and my own judgement.

At least on the weekends you can go out and engage in some heavy drinking until you forget that you're applying to grad school at all . But it's still a good thing that I don't have any admissions office contact numbers in my phone, or there *might* just be some very inappropriate drunk-dialing going on!