mayakeys

If jazz is one of your areas of musical interest, you might look into Columbia's English program and its close ties with the center for Jazz Studies. The English department has a heavy emphasis both on Af-Am literature and on jazz. They would welcome someone who can bring musical expertise to bear on the many engagements between 20th century musical and literary movements, I think. I am about to begin my first year in Comp Lit (at Berkeley), and I am also a professional musician so I'd be interested in talking more with you about possible intersections between the two fields, just inbox me.

If there have been both rejections and acceptances and you still haven't heard anything, there's a chance that you're on a waitlist. What sucks about this process is that when people are on waitlists, they often never know. I find that very cruel, because people tend to assume that they were at the bottom of the barrel, when in reality they could be in the final round! A friend of mine is a professor who is currently doing admissions and she says that people are frequently waitlisted without being told -- they are only told if the spot opens up. If the spot never opens up, they never know that they were in the final round. Even if we are going to be rejected, those of us who were waitlisted should at least know THAT. It is a lot more encouraging for people who are thinking whether or not they want to give it another shot next year.

It doesn't seem like the GPA should get you in trouble at all; 3.8 sounds like a good major GPA, and I happen to know that in the application for UC Berkeley they ask you in addition to the overall GPA to specify both your major GPA and your GPA from the last two years at school. This suggests that they specifically don't want to punish people for lower grades that they might have had in the first two years. Go for it!!

Hi, I was just accepted to Berkeley Comp Lit and saw on the results page that several others were notified early as well; it would be really helpful to talk to other accepted students who are thinking about going. Thanks!