Tybalt

It's tough to even guess at when/how we might hear from Delaware. There have only been TWO acceptances on the results board, and the most recent of the two was posted in 2007. I don't know if that means UDel just isn't as popular a school amongst Grad-Cafe folks or if they just reject a lot more people.

Yeah, I can't go without funding, and their website says that "almost half" of their students receive funding. On the other hand, I specialize in Shakespeare and Renaissance pedagogy, and they have a scholar (Alvin Vos) who has done extensive work on Roger Ascham.

Does anyone know anything about SUNY Binghamton? The state of the application season (no word from any of my schools--5 likely rejections, and 6 still in the mix) has me considering an 11th hour application. Their deadline is 2/15, so if I'm going to do it, it pretty much has to be today. So help me out with the Readers Digest version--what can you tell me about this school (good or bad)?

Bread Loaf is a summer MA, designed specifically for high school teachers. In education circles, it's a VERY highly regarded program. I'm not sure how PhD adcomms would view an MA from Bread Loaf.

I hope you get into CUNY! My office-mate was wait-listed at UB, and the two of you have practically identical sub-fields. I'm guessing that if you turn UB down, my office-mate gets good news (and both of you will be happy).

I'm in the O's, and my web status hasn't changed at all.

Don't be greedy. You already have an acceptance to Northwestern, while all I have is a likely rejection from SUNY Buffalo. If you GET that phone call, you have to give one of them to me.

Anyone going to claim the Notre Dame admit? I'm curious as to sub-field and what not. It's kind of strange to have just one result posted, isn't it?

To be honest, I'm pretty sure it means no UB for us. In past years, they've notified in one fell swoop. Admits and wait listers have been notified, which means it's a safe bet that those of us who have heard nothing are rejected. I really wanted to work with Dr. Hammill and Dr. Carla Mazza, but aside from that, the general philosophy of the program (very heavy on modernism and theory) wasn't the best fit. I'm pulling for my office-mate to get in off the wait list, as UB is a much better institutional fit for him than it is for me (now Vanderbilt, UMD and U of Rochester, on the other hand, I want SOOOOO much to get in).

I applied to UB. I have yet to hear anything (no e-mails and no status change on the website). I see on the results board that there are 2 admit posts and 1 wait-list post. I wonder if rejections will go out later. Did your status change at all on the web site? I'm early-modern/Shakespeare, and Graham Hammill was the prof I was looking to work with.

Well, good news/bad news on that. Bad news- Based on past years, Maryland DOES notify by phone and e-mail. I'm guessing that the notice on the ASF is just to prevent people from calling/e-mailing to ask for an update. Good news- The notifications don't seem to be a one-day affair. They've been staggered in each of the last two years. So even IF the acceptance is valid, the fact that we haven't heard anything is not necessarily the kiss of death.

I just searched UMD for "Testudo" and the page came up. I logged in the way TC3 recommended. I saw the same thing he/she did: "Pending Decision."

Nevermind. I found it. Quick question though-- The "Contact Phone Number"--Is that supposed to be your phone number? Because mine is definitely not... Nevermind again. I googled it, and it's the phone number for the graduate studies coordinator.

Wait--What's "Testudo"? I've just been looking at the ASF page...

I thought UMD's website said that they don't notify over the phone or via e-mail. It said that all results would be mailed. I kind of hope that the acceptance posted is a fake, as I received no phone calls from UMD, and they are one of my top 3 choices.

I'm one of the ones going to the CEA Conference. I'm also organizing a graduate conference for March 19th (http://web.me.com/smoneil/BonasConference/Welcome.html). Last semester, I presented at the NYCEA Conference and the NCTE Convention, and last June I presented at the ANZSA Conference in Sydney Australia (I'm a sucker for a good fun conference. It's like the lit nerd version of Comic-con).

I saw the University of Phoenix online English PhD rejection the other day as well. It had a comment like "I can't believe I wasn't excepted." I figured it was either serious and very sad, or humorous and absolutely brilliant.

Not exactly, though it is more of a feminist reading. Korda is a feminist critic, though. I haven't had too much of a grounding in theory. I didn't have any theory classes in undergrad, and I just had the one theory survey course in my MA work. As such, I'm still kind of feeling my way around in that area. I've used disability theory and new historicism effectively in papers before. This one is my first attempt at using Bakhtin, and I like the way its coming together. Part of the reason I liked the UFlorida program was that they have a prof who teaches a whole class on Lacan. With Lacan's connection to education and pedagogical theory, that class/prof would likely be a HUGE help in my dissertation work.

Very cool. What's your paper topic? I'm presenting on Saturday. It's an excerpt from my thesis. I'm using Bakhtin's speech genres and Natasha Korda's work in domestic economies in a reading of the Merry Wives of Windsor (The critical consensus is that Falstaff is different in MWW because MWW is just a poorly written play. I argue that the Falstaff of the Henriad was a licensed fool, and draw a parallel between that role and the ideal Erasmian teacher. In MWW, Falstaff is out of his element--he's displaced chronologically, and rather than the beer halls of London, he finds himself in the homes of suburbia in Windsor. He is in a different speech genre, specifically, the oeconomic sphere of the household, where wives held mastery. I argue that, due to his attempt to "teach" the wives about love in a dialogic sphere whose language he does not know to "students" who represent authority, Falstaff is reduced in numerous ways--from masculine to feminine, from teacher to student (all the way down to lesson), from licensed fool to unlicensed pedagogue (akin to the foolish schoolmasters loathed by Erasmus). Basically, I argue that MWW doesn't suck, and that there is a clear textual purpose for Falstaff's diminished (figuratively speaking) potency and wit.

Does anyone know how often, if ever, programs notify acceptances/rejections over the weekends? The answer to this question will likely have a direct impact on how much of my thesis I get done this weekend. Oh--Incidentally, is anyone else going to the CEA Conference at the end of March?

Good luck to you both! Who knows--With three different sub-fields, we may end up as a cohort.

Tortola and Bottles, what sub-field are you all? I applied to U of Florida as well (Shakespeare and Renaissance Pedagogy--I want to work with Sidney Homan).

It wasn't even a very amusing one. I did laugh out loud at a "Results" post the other day, though. One person posted an acceptance to the Jedi Academy's "Masters" program, complete with a comment about his high medichlorian score.

This post, in light of Chumlee's earlier comment, makes me smile.

Yeah, I'm a Shakespearean, so I was looking more at the trio of Mark Caldwell, Mary Bly and Stuart Sherman. It seemed like so many of their scholars were doing "fun" sorts of research. I was also drawn by their advertised acceptance rate (20% when I looked last summer), but the ambiguity over the funding scared me off (UCLA had the same ambiguity, but they also had three scholars whom I would LOVE to work with, so I risked the app fee on that one as a long shot). Good luck!