the once and future grad

No Ramen necessary, friend I'm so, so happy that things worked out for you, and if it is in fact my spot that you've got, that makes me so glad that I made the choice that I did! I was feeling a bit shaky about declining Rochester because I loved the people there so much, but not anymore

According to the Chronicle of Higher Ed, the average age for a doctoral student in the US is 35.

No Ramen necessary, friend I'm so, so happy that things worked out for you, and if it is in fact my spot that you've got, that makes me so glad that I made the choice that I did! I was feeling a bit shaky about declining Rochester because I loved the people there so much, but not anymore

YAY Tybalt, so happy for you!!!!

Not to be Johnny Stormcloud, but it's not looking very likely at Rochester now, either. There were two of us in my MA cohort on the UR wait list. The other one got a phone call today. She's going to think about it tonight and decide tomorrow. I doubt they'll take two people from the same (small) MA program.


EDIT--Then again, they might just call me with fantastic news just minutes after I was being all gloom and doom depressing on the Gradcafe...

CONGRATS TYBALT!!!!! So happy Rochester worked out for you!!!!!

That's wonderful! I'm so glad it worked out for you and congratulations!

If I get that Rochester spot, I'm shipping you a pallet of Ramen. Name your flavor!

Hey Tybalt,

As of right now, I am, but I'm also REALLY interested in Indiana, where I'm very high on the waitlist. I visited there last week, and just returned from Rochester like 20 minutes ago! The big visiting weekend was Sunday-today, but a couple of people came late and are staying till tomorrow, and one visited last week and one is coming next week. I know that at least a couple of the people there had quite a few other options and are going to be making last-minute decisions. I can tell you for sure that one Renaissance person has accepted, and while I'm pretty sure that I met another Renaissance prospective, I'm blanking on who it was.

The medievalists there are wonderful, and I met a lot of people that I absolutely loved (profs, current students, and prospectives). They seemed pretty strong in Renaissance too.

If I find out/think of anything else that might be helpful, I'll let you know!

I also got waitlisted at Penn State, and I have pretty much the same story as the previous poster. Dr. Morrisson and I were emailing back and forth for awhile, and when I sent him specific questions about the program, I never heard back. He said that things might take until April 15th, and since it's my top choice, I might wait it out. The wait list is not ranked but done by subjects, so I think the person who does similar things to you has to decline before they can make an offer. What are your fields of interest? I do 19th and 20th century American with an emphasis on queer and GLBT studies.

One of my recommendation writers currently works at Penn State, and he said they usually make offers off of the wait list. Another friend of mine is in the program, and he said they just had their visiting weekend, so hopefully people will be deciding soon.

Good luck to you both.

Incidentally, I do already have an MA. I don't know if they have a limit for how many students they'll accept with an MA, but I didn't get the impression that it affected my application negatively.

And I understand (and share) your frustration, but I have to keep in mind that last year, when I was rejected across the board, I would have wept with gratitude for a post-April 15th offer. As much as it sucks for those of us that have other offers and want to make a decision, I do think it's nice that they're doing this in a way that will allow them to extend the maximum number of offers possible.

EDIT: clearly multiple graduate degrees haven't prevented me from confusing "afffected" and "effected"

I got a more-or-less waitlist email from the DGS late last week (he never used the word "waitlist" though), which said that they should know whether they can accept me by April 15. He also said that they received 784 applications this year(!), which was extraordinarily large for them. That might explain why it's taking them so long, and also why they seem to have a multi-tiered waitlist. I am really interested in their program, but I have two offers to respond to by the 15th, so of course I'll accept one of those if I haven't been admitted by then. If you have other offers, I wouldn't count on hearing from PSU before the 15th, but if you don't and would be willing to accept a post-15th offer, I think there's definitely still hope! They also don't accept anyone unless they can fully fund them, and the funding looks pretty decent (16k+ a year, alternating 1-1, 1-2 teaching load), which is probably why they can only make a few offers at a time. I hope that helps a little!

Thanks Woolfie! I'm interested in intersections between medieval (Arthurian) lit and British Modernism, especially as it relates to modern nationalism and national identities. My proposed project involves T.H. White, Virginia Woolf, and Goeffrey of Monmouth (it's a little crazy).

I have very serious issues with the said argument that English in nowway helps anyone in this world. I am not sure how many English departments you have been to, or if you have been in one...but there are many different projects and many different stakes out there. I am personally invested in what I study, which is African American literature. And as an African American, I see the work that I am doing as being something that can open the way to policies that could be implemented to make this world a better place for blacks today....but more importantly underrepresented groups in the broadest sense. Of course I know how important engineering and science are, my dad is an engineer and my mom is a nurse and I respect them SO much for the hard work they put into make life easier for everyone. But there are also others things such as racism, political corruption, and economic exploitation...and I think they are equally as serious. And I respect those in English who are trying to raise the standard of living for us all by interrogating the status quo through their pens. How dare anyone who isn't in English and who hasn't thoroughly examined what is going on in the field think its okay to come online and tell someone in English that their work doesn't matter or that they aren't helping people. I have devoted almost 6 years to trying to figure out how I can use my love for literature to change this world, and I am very proud to be entering a PhD this fall to continue that. People invest their lives into their work, and I would be VERY careful how I voice my opinions about a field that I am not in. I am tired of the crap that I hear from those outside of my field. We need to try to work together in this world, or we all fail. How dare you.

I don't necessarily have a problem with the funding situation in comparative terms. It's obvious that science and engineering fields simply cost a whole lot more because of the technology and equipment involved. The LHC costs $9 billion; you can get the complete works of Shakespeare for, what, $26? (I just checked on Amazon). I expect that more funding will go into those resource-intensive fields, even on a per capita basis. What I take issue with is the utilitarian, 'tangible benefits', results-based paradigm which, unfortunately, seems to be on the upswing in many developed countries, certainly in Canada, the US, and the UK.

Now I'm in poli sci, not english, but I view both the humanities and social sciences as having the same basic purposes: making sense of society, relations among people and with their environment, finding better ways to govern ourselves, imputing value in an otherwise value-neutral physical reality, coming to terms with the human condition, finding beauty, and so on. These are things which you cannot measure in dollars and cents, but that doesn't mean they are any less valuable to a society. Science without culture is nothing, and a purely scientific world such as you seem to imagine would be unbearable. It's not either/or, or a question of science 'replacing' culture, as you seem to suggest (with the point about 'taking over'... what does that even mean?). I'm sorry, and don't take this as a personal attack, but there seems to be an incredibly narrow worldview going on here, far from the 'well-rounded individual' the academy is, ideally, supposed to cultivate. It just makes me sad, that's all.

Again, your overly long and pompous post does nothing but further evidence your ignorance of the humanities and their impact.

I'd like to spell it out for you, but if you honestly think the fine arts are reduced to reading, writing and communication, then I doubt any rhetoric in the history of the world could convince you otherwise.

EDIT: And I do not even believe the humanities exceed science--I'm firmly affixed to a middle where both are fundamentally and differently important. Your scientific metrics are simply insufficient and inapplicable to judge the humanities.

I have the most respect for people in all fields and think no less of one or the other. However, the "respect' is lower simply because of the applications of English pale in comparison to many other fields which have far larger impacts and address more pressing needs in the world. To most people, this is why English and many other Liberal Arts seem less "important".

This is what some of my professors have said as well - that a lower-ranked university (or even a community college, which is something we have to consider in our field!) may well be reluctant to hire an Ivy grad because they'd be unlikely to stay, and also might be far more interested in their own research than teaching. It's kind of a horrible stereotype, and I've had lots of amazing, dedicated professors who are Ivy grads (at my small, liberal arts-ish MA school), but I guess you might have to work a little harder to convince them that you're not going to run off at the first opportunity for a more prestigious job.

Is it a teaching assistantship? Maybe they want you to focus more on your teaching style/pedagogy? Or other skills directly related to the (teaching/research/publishing) duties that would come with the assistantship, rather than on your own research like an SoP.