Eli-

I want to open a yoga studio. Maybe we could pool our resources.

This is my second go round. Last year I applied to 6 English/American lit Ph.D. programs and received 6 rejections, though I did receive 2 offers of admission to consolation-prize (i.e., unfunded) Masters programs, which mostly sort of pissed me off. I was just finishing up an MFA at a school whose Ph.D. program happens to be pretty darn good, and my professors were all like, "Good heavens, Eli, of COURSE you'll be admitted..." blah blah etc., which of course did not help matters come April, when I received my final rejection letter. I'm of the sort who always has an extra plan in his pocket, but all my proverbial basket-eggs had been crushed, and I had no idea what else to do. I was bitter and irritated with myself for ever wanting to apply (even though I've wanted to for like 10 years). To make matters nastier, my engagement broke off around prime rejection-receiving time. I spent a few months doing a lot of Scotch-based research. But I was able to finagle summer teaching at my MFA institution, and then, contrary to what everybody and their ugly uncles were saying about the job market, I found university teaching jobs at two amazing institutions for the fall semester and was pretty jazzed, even though adjuncting = super unstable lifestyle. I was just happy not to be working in a grease pit (again), you know? It wasn't until July or August that I could even really think about applying again, and when I did, it wasn't so much "Oh gee, time to think about applying" as it was "Hmm, I really feel like parking my tush in the library tonight and reading about xyz." Soon I was so damn interested in XYZ (yes, the same XYZ I'd applied to study before) that I couldn't help but want to reapply. But I feel differently about it now, in these ways: * The writing sample I submitted last year had been written for a grad seminar that was utterly coincident with my interests - but it was too short (14-ish pages) and sort of facile in its theoretical orientation for the simple reason that I hadn't yet had the opportunity to research deep enough into my subfield (which I guess you could call post-emergent?). It contained some decent close-reading type passages, but it wasn't complete in itself. And it wasn't very entertaining. * Teaching as a faculty member and not as a TA has made me a lot more confident about both teaching and about finding jobs. I just moved across the country (long story...remember that break-up I mentioned?) and picked up two classes at a university here, plus another interview (results tbd) within a WEEK of moving. It's not an ideal situation, but I now know that 1) it is possible to USE the master's degree which everyone said was so useless, and 2) the job-finding process is a lot less scary than I thought. Though I know that tenure-track jobseeking and -landing is a lot more involved than finding adjunct spots, there's a certain kind of professionalized interfacing involved and experience with that can't be bad. * My interests are more focused, and I was able to fit the arc of their development (as in MY LIFE) more thoroughly into my SOP. I think. I still feel like my SOP sucks... * I had more time to research programs and faculty, and I care a LOT less about things like reputation and bigshotness. What I do care about: 1) fit/ faculty; 2) funding; 3) library facilities!; 4) placement rates. I'll be bummed if I don't get in to any of the 11 ($!!) programs I applied to, but whatev. Lots of good life to be lived outside the academy, I'm told... The real problem right now is that I'm itching to make my next move, and I can't do that if I don't know for sure that I'm rejected/accepted!! Keep on truckin, y'all.

I ended up calling mine "'A Good Serviceable Fiction': Capital, Form, and Carpenter's Gothic" - though a better title might have been something like "Hope You're Comfortable: This Paper is Ass Long."

I applied to the English program @ UW, too, though you wouldn't know that from looking at my status page. Or not yet, at least.

Totally down for some Bloody Marys - in honor of my like $2k sacrifice for tests and apps...

The fictitious Penn!! This is hilarious. Thank you.

Georgia + snow = total shutdown. Nothing to do but obsess...

@EricaMarie - Reading your post, I could hardly believe my eyes. I'm in an incredibly similar situation (have master's, applying to English Ph.D. programs), and my family thinks I'm nuts, a loser, avoiding "real work" (as if I weren't teaching/tutoring my ass off)--all of them work long hard hours at jobs they have because they all decided not to attend college and/or not to take it seriously; and because I've made a different choice--and don't have to wear a uniform to work--they've got a lot of disdain for me. DELAYED GRATIFICATION PEOPLE COME ON! I know, I know, they just know nothing about it...but they're my PARENTS, for god's sake. I'm sorry to hear that you're going through similar shiz. But I am comforted to know someone else is surviving the same petty battle.