Capo

So what if they aren't the same degree? I know of professors who teach creative writing courses with doctorates in English/Literature, especially if they've proven that they are authors. It seems like he is trying to buy his way into the fields by getting degrees from schools who won't refuse him admittance instead of becoming a scholar on his own after earning a more than adequate degree from Yale. What is he going to do after collecting an MFA, a PhD in English and a PhD in Creative Writing? Apply for a PhD in Film Studies?

At any rate, one has to admit that double enrolling in doctoral programs and probably not being residential in either one requires exceptions that the average graduate student would not get.

/end bitter rant.

First of all, sorry you didn't have any success with this year's applications, but glad to see that your'e looking forward to next year's round!


I can't echo this enough. I have to admit my eyes bugged a bit looking at your list. Really great schools—also, really hard to get into! To give yourself a better chance at an acceptance, I'd suggest you spread your application pool evenly along three tiers (almost all of those schools are Tier I). Ditto on going for "fit." Sure it'd be awesome to be at Harvard, but you might find that it's equally awesome to be at a program that is doing exactly the kind of work you want to do and begs you to come work with them!

One of my mentors told me, unequivocally, that the way you get into a PhD program is to demonstrate fit with the department. Why do you need to do your PhD at X school? Why is X school the best possible place for you to be doing your research? These are the questions that adcom will have after reading a strong application, and if your SOP answers them, then by george, you're in!

It sounds like you have a fairly strong background. You did well as an undergrad, you're doing well as a master's student, you're doing a thesis (which you can really play up—PhD programs love to see an MA student already familiar with that process), and you have some teaching experience and some identifiable research interests to articulate. I'm sure that if you find some programs that are a really great fit and diversify your application pool, you'll have some acceptances in hand next year.



Ditto, ditto, ditto! Do you have any presentations on your CV yet? If not, you NEED to do this. The chair of my department once told one of my friends, when he asked about the importance of presenting at conferences as a master's student, that "you may as well not bother applying to PhDs" if you don't have any presentations. Presentations are also a good goal to pursue before trying for publication. The feedback you get at a conference can also help shape a stronger project.

Conferences seem really frightening at first, but they're such a great experience. (I sometimes even use CFPs as an endgoal, as a way of finding a focus or idea for a seminar paper.) Papers needn't be long, either—in fact, you'll want no more than 8 pages worth of material in order to keep within your allotted timeframe.

Oh definitely, I don't recommend relying majorly on GC for advice, but for little questions, it's great. It is also really useful to find out about schools and profs you don't know about by asking. Best of all, it is a place to commiserate together with people who know what you're going through!

I want to say thanks, as well. GradCafe has helped me through two extremely stressful rounds of applications now!

Last year, as a college fourth-year completing my thesis project, I applied to eight schools and was roundly rejected by every single one. I was so confident that I'd get multiple admits, but once the last rejection letter rolled in, I realized that I had had no idea what I was doing and my confidence was beyond crushed. My professors had little time to help me with application materials because they were also teaching me classes and helping me with my thesis, and I had little time to commit to the applications for the same reasons. I used pretty much the same statement of purpose for every school. I harped on the irregularities in my transcripts (I attended three different undergrad institutions). I used papers from my second year as writing samples. I chose schools I liked the sound of without doing nearly enough research into their strengths, their faculty, and the types of students they admit. I applied to UPenn (one of the most competitive in the country!) and SUNY Buffalo (where my interests were a terrible fit!), and several other places that just CLEARLY wouldn't have worked. I felt like an idiot, and no one had the time to bother telling me what I was doing wrong.

So I decided to figure it out for myself. This year, I was out of school and working a full-time job four days per week. Luckily, the job didn't follow me home (it's retail), and I was able to commit A LOT (seriously, A LOT) of time to my applications. I carefully researched many, many schools and selected eleven that were strong in my fields of interest. I contacted several faculty members, particularly at my top choice school, and even met with a faculty member at my top choice. I wasn't shy with any potential or former professors: I told them exactly what my goals were and straight-up asked for advice about what should go in my personal statement. All of them were remarkably helpful and none of them were put off by my boldness. I created a hanging file system for my applications, as well as a checklist for each one, and methodically completed them in the order that they were due. I wrote a completely new statement of purpose for each program. I carefully edited my best thesis chapter and used it as a writing sample.

Disaster struck when, as the due-date for my first (and top choice) application neared on December 1st, I realized that one of my recommendation writers might not come through. She stopped responding to my emails about ten days prior, and never acknowleged receiving the packet of carefully printed, stamped, and organized materials I had mailed to her. I tried to have some faith, but decided that I HAD to err on the side of caution. I contacted another former professor and asked him to overnight me a set of letters for all of my schools. Eight letters. In less than two days. I felt like an absolute asshole. But he came through, and I got my first-choice application mailed the morning of December 1st. The materials from my first recommender never arrived, and I haven't had any emails or letters from her since.

To my complete surprise, I ended up getting in to five schools, and was wait-listed at a sixth where I later withdrew myself from consideration to accept an offer from my #1 choice. I could barely believe it when I got my first admit, much less the subsequent ones, and I practically fainted both when I was wait-listed and when I was taken off the wait-list at my top choice. In one year, I went from nothing but form-letter rejections to mostly eager acceptances at awesome schools.

Most importantly, do not give up if grad school is really what you want to do. And in the application process, never be timid or shy about asking for what you need; just ask for it straightforwardly and then thank everyone profusely.

Congrats to everyone and GOOD LUCK!

I was just accepted off the waitlist at Emory. I'm so excited! I can stop checking this forum and conducting results searches every 45 minutes. Best of luck to all the other waitlisters out there!

Just joining the chorus here, and I also wanted to add that, even if it's true that UCI students are a clueless bunch (and I doubt that they are), a university's undergrad population is almost never an indication of the quality of its graduate program.

The first lesson you learn when applying to schools is not to be swayed by a university's undergraduate reputation (or lack of one). Rutgers and Indiana are, like UC-Irvine, large state schools charged with educating qualified in-state residents. Their undergraduate populations include students with a wide range of abilities and interests. However, their PhD programs in English are among the top in the nation. I would never turn down Rutgers simply because I heard a rumor that the undergrads weren't that bright or something. That's insane.

Additionally, there are plenty of schools that are top-ranked for their undergrad programs, but not so well-known for their English or Comp lit PhD programs. (I won't name any for fear of starting more drama.)

And sorry you're not having a good season, RockDenali. But seriously, quit looking for opportunities to insult graduates of certain schools, specialists of certain areas, and admits of certain Ivy League programs. It's getting old, and it's not cute.

I would also note that I tried to turn them down via email, was told I had to mail in my non-acceptance of their non-acceptance, and then realized that they did not provide return postage! So basically, "Thank you for your application fee. We have, in turn, accepted you to our cash cow of a consolation program. Oh yeah, and could you give us a couple quarters?"

That certainly sounds sufficient to me. I wasn't advocating saying something like "the program director is super-hot."

After reading your blog, I'd say your proper home is with us rhetoricians, compositionists, and applied linguists. Ditch literature. Academic literary studies is nothing but a giant circle jerk. Do you really want to be someone who can crack a joke about "The Laughing Medusa" or talk for more than two minutes about post-colonial queer theory's relation to contemporary Caribbean poetry? Psh. Useless. The work you're doing has a place in the academy. Come on over to the rhet/comp pool. Water's nice and warm.

Shame I can't press that little green plus sign more than once.

Maybe this is just the bitterness in me, but it seems unfair that you would post how traumatic it is that you're still waiting on schools when you have been accepted to three already. Some people are waiting to hear back from a lot more, some people have only been wait-listed, while others have only been rejected. Count your blessings that you have some acceptances. It could be a LOT worse.

Me too, almost! At least nominally! I'm interested in gender and queer performativity, but in early modernISM... i.e., end of the 19th and early 20th. Cited Colleen Lamos as my P.O.I.

Sigh. No news doesn't feel like good news.

Shame I can't press that little green plus sign more than once.

Uhh...because the only type of hard alcohol we can afford is more properly used to disinfect surgical instruments?

Amaretto and Lemonade (as recommended by my 11th grade religion teacher).

Ugh. This is me being angry but grad school shouldn't be something you do because you don't have any other options. It should be something that you feel you *have* to do, like a calling. You've been chosen, with or without your Will.

over and out,
sad applicant.

I got a phone call this weekend from a professor on the adcomm offering admission to the PhD-track program. They're admitting seven students with the goal of having a cohort of four or five. Shocked, thrilled, and a host of other things, too!

No problem! Glad to suggest congenial clothes for the Grad Cafe geek-dom.

Cry? ...I really don't know. I've got some money saved up in the bank, so I'm planning on doing any and all of the following:


a) getting a new job because the one that I'm at is slowly draining my lust for life
take community college classes in French so that I can say that I have that language in my back-pocket too (I'm currently taking French 1 at my undergrad)
c) going to Paris, even if only for a week or two
d) keep applying to and presenting at conferences
e) try harder for next year

As much as I want to, there's no way I'm giving up yet, because I honestly can't imagine doing anything with myself at this point. Plus, my advisor at my undergrad was rejected all-around her first time applying, and now she's got a cushy job teaching at my university, is totally happy with her life, is well-respected in her field, and just had her first translation published in book form. So, I guess the answer to your question is "try, try again".


Oh, and DRINK HEAVILY AND OFTEN.

Another day without news. Today, for the first time in this process, I craved a cigarette so intensely I almost asked to bum one from someone smoking on the street. I quit in June and it's been all fine and good until now. But I didn't ask for one, so it's okay. It just speaks volumes about the stress I'm feeling!

My knee-jerk reaction is to not sympathize with someone who bemoans the fact that they will be, gasp, thirty by the time they finish their graduate degree.

Perhaps it is time for you to "move on" with your life. If you think that not hitting a certain goal by a certain age is the only way to succeed, then I agree that you lack the pragmatism, flexibility, and adaptability to succeed as an academic. Best of luck.

I think that as more programs are clogged with hundreds of overqualified applicants, it will be more and more common for people to be in their early 30s when receiving the PhD. This in itself shouldn't be something to be ashamed of--it means that we'll be a bit more mature and clear on our goals when going onto the academic job market for the first time. As my MA thesis chair told me when she learned that I'd still be 22 when I received my MA, "we've got enough young scholars," and I kind of get what she meant. In other fields, it's typical for people to work for years "in the field" gaining integral hands-on experience before transitioning to graduate study, but because the humanities don't really have any professional component outside of the academy, we've tend in the past to be a bit incestuous in our degree-granting (the BA goes onto the MA at 22, the MA to the PhD at 24, and the PhD to a professorship at 28, where s/he will in turn produce more people to go straight through the system).

I think that the perceived maturity factor will become more of a significant consideration among admissions committees, especially as more programs, rightly or wrongly, embrace "professionalization." I'm 25 now and will be 26 when I start my doctorate this Fall, meaning that I'll probably be 31 or so when I get my PhD. I washed out of applications two years in a row and was accepted during my 3rd round (this year). It wasn't just a matter of weathering the storm, of course. This was the first year that I actually had a solid sense of what I wanted to do with a scholarly career in a particular subfield, and I believe that that came through in my statement of purpose.

Regardless, considering that the PhD is the pinnacle of educational credentials, it isn't anything to be ashamed of to be earning it in one's early to mid thirties. I knew some grad students in their 40s when I was in my MA program; those people had families, a history, etc., but they were all incredibly happy to be doing what they were doing, and they were great teachers and scholars to boot.

luckily, i came home already drunk cos it's gone 2am here. No worries, man. No fucking worries.