osodulce
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Posts posted by osodulce
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For whatever it's worth, I think that my Statement of Purpose (while an excellent piece of writing for what it is) fails to meet the scope of the blog. I think I got in on other merits.
Mine talked a lot about Cormac McCarthy--and women!--but a lot about Cormac McCarthy.
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Congratulations! I also received admittance letters yesterday - I'm beyond ecstatic. No mention of funding, though - I'm relieved to know that I wasn't the only one.
For those who are curious about how they made decisions, here's an interesting link the DGS's blog, which I didn't find until yesterday:
http://arcade.stanfo...w-narrow-enough
Good luck to everyone still waiting . . .
Congratulations!
Also, thanks for the link to the blog--a nice insight into their attitude about their process. Also, now I can say with relative confidence that I am not getting in.
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I called again this morning to find out I'm on the waitlist! Woo! It seems 300 folks applied for 15 slots--same ol' story.
Congratulations! I hope everything works out for you.
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Hmm. I guess I'll just sit tight then.
Mary Udal, the person I talked to, was very nice. I really think that you could call her.
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I broke down and called today. The grad secretary told me that my file was still under review, no decision had been made, and decisions are being made daily. That department sounds very...creatively organized.
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I still haven't heard anything either way. Did she say the department would notify the rest soon?
It sounded like she was still sending out letters but that all of the decisions had been made. My letter was waiting for me when I got home from work today.
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I just called and spoke to the grad secretary--got my hopes way up because she recognized my name. She looked at the acceptance and wait lists and told me (very kindly) that I wasn't on either of them. She also said that she's sorry it's taking so long to send out all the (rejection?) letters.
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I've actually had horrible luck with hopstop in Boston. My friends swear by it in NYC, but it's not terribly accurate for Boston - e.g., turning my 25 minute, 1 train commute into a 45 minute, bus + train + bus commute. Google Maps public transit, however, rarely fails me.
Use the "Trip Planner" feature at www.mbta.com
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Anyone know anything yet?
Pamphilla is pretty much correct. Although admitted MA candidates have to apply to the PhD program, the expectation is that MA candidates will continue on to the PhD--unless the candidate also has a BA from Penn State, in which case they prefer that the student apply elsewhere for their PhD. They will admit a few PhD candidates to fill the spots of people leaving with an MA. Each year they admit approximately 1-3 PhD candidates who have MAs from elsewhere.
I don't know how many people with MAs from outside they are admitting this year. I want to say one, but I am not sure that that is correct. I know that they got 780 applications for both the MA and PhD programs and had 16 spots. Their visiting weekend is the 18th to the 20th of March, so I imagine that most of their offers have been made.
I hope that helps.
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Hi Boston knowledgeables -- thanks in advance for your help!
What's up with Allston? Is it an undergrad ghetto, or a decent option? Like an earlier poster, I will be with my partner, who will be gainfully employed. (Yes!) When we looked on Craigslist at a price point that was higher than what the average undergrad would be able to pay, it seemed like there were some really nice places there. I also really want an easy carless commute, so the location seems convenient. But I don't want to be surrounded by bro culture or drunk people. At the very least, I would like to limit myself to tasteful drunk people. Like someone who is going to get drunk and ramble about farm subsidies or Derrida, not get drunk and pee on the street. Somewhere with plenty of youth culture and things to do, but nothing gauche. (If you're familiar with Chicago-- I'm thinking Logan Square/Wicker Park/Pilsen, not Lincoln Park or Wrigleyville).
Ah! Please take this with a healthy dose of "no offense." If you are still reading and haven't been offended ("I'm a frat boy, and I'm opinionated about farm subsidies! How dare they?!") any advice would be appreciated.
I would avoid Allston if I were you. It is full of a mixture of bro culture and annoying hipster culture (not necessarily smart hipster). Also, there have been some pretty severe bed bug infestations there in the past five years. One of the reasons that it is cheap is because the public transportation in and out are some of the worst in Boston. You have the Green B Line to get into downtown (the oldest, slowest, most over crowded train line in the city) or the notoriously unreliable 66 Bus to get into Cambridge.
If you do want to live there, stay far away from Harvard Ave and Comm Ave, where most of the loudest clubs are located.
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I am of the opinion that with the changing of the guard in English departments, the subject test may be reexamined or even dropped (U of Chi doesn't require it), but who knows!
I agree, and I hope this is true. When I was applying, I made a long list of schools which don't require the subject test because I didn't want to have to take it. Unfortunately, many of these schools which don't require the subject test do accept scores from it and use these scores to make funding if not admission decisions--which is why I ended up taking it.
Other schools which don't require the test include: Penn, Penn State, UMass (American Studies Concentration), Washington, Florida, SUNY Buffalo, Brown, Kansas, Oregon, Minnesota, UNC, UC Santa Cruz, Ohio State, and Duke
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I wanted to weigh in on the GRE discussion. I agree with what most people have said that while GRE scores aren’t a great tool, grad schools and departments do use them in conjunction with GPA to both eliminate candidates with very low scores who they won’t look at any closer and to decide who to offer fellowships to.
That said, the GRE—both the subject and general tests—is teachable. I used to be a general GRE instructor for avery large test prep company—one of the two who’ve heard of if you’ve heard of any. Their courses are pricey, but if you don’t do better on your final test than you did on your first choice, you get your money back. If you’re struggling with the test, I strongly recommend taking a course—not only for the instruction but also for the 8 computer adaptive tests that you have access to.
About the changes to the test, both sections of the test are changing. I would strongly recommend taking the test before the changes because there in a lot of knowledge out there about how to beat the existing test. On the current verbal section, if you learn the 200 to 1,000 vocabularywords which the GRE uses heavily, which if you’re planning on getting a degree in English you probably already know, and if you have the opportunity to practice how they’re used on the test, you can get a very good score.
One of the changes which is coming to the test is that they are getting rid of analogies. This is not good news for people who study for the test because the analogies are the most teachable part of the verbal section.
Don’t worry too much about the quantitative section. As long as you do above average, you’re doing great.
No matter what, make sure that you finish every question in each section. You get at least 100 points just for finishing each section.
Practice your pacing. Be systematic about how you study. There’s a lot of information out there about how to study for the general test, so I won’t say any more.
About the subject test:
I didn’t realize that it’s something you can study for, but it really is. My undergraduate program had essentially no breadth requirements within the English major, and in my last year I realized that I had studied just American and Irish writers after 1850--which is my area of interest, but not great for distribution. I quickly took a Shakespeare course and a course on the metaphysical poets, and studied my ass off. It took me six months of serious study, but I moved from a score in the 20th percentile (ouch, that was demoralizing) to a score in the 85th percentile.
Here’s my advice:
Read/skim the Norton Anthology (I just used the Major Authors edition which is only one volume, but I probably would have done a little better if I had used the complete 2 volume edition).
Identity your weaker areas (periods, genres, literary terms,etc), and read widely but not deeply on them.
Get the Princeton Review prep book. Their advice is very good. Particularly, their study strategies and target score formula are good. For example, I found that after studying, when I was reasonably confident in the answer of a question, I had—averaged across the whole test—about an 80% chance of gettingthe answer correct. Therefore, in order to get the score I wanted, I needed to answer about 90% of the questions on the test.
Get all the practice tests. As far as I know, there are 7 practice tests in existence: 1 which ETSwill send you when you register, 1 in the Princeton Review book (it’s the sametest in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Editions), 3 in the other practice book in existence (black and yellow cover, I can’t rememberthe name), and 2 in an out of print book published by ETS which I was able to find on eBay (these two tests were the most similar tests to the actual test).
Practice your pacing. There are 230 questions in 170 minutes. Also, know that the proctors in the actual exam are not allowed to give any indication about time except for a 20 minute warning. Keeping track of your own time is essential,and nobody tells you this. It took me a good four to five practice tests to get my pacing down. Every Saturday morning for two months before the test, at 8 am, I sat down and took a test. I wrote out the quarter, half, and three-quarters time marks as well as my target question number for each time period. If that hadn’t been automatic by test day, I would have been sunk.
Lastly, make allowances for yourself and the way you take tests. For me, this meant admitting that I would get a better score if I allowed myself a 5 minute break three quarters of the way through the exam.
I hope this helps. Rightly or wrongly, test scores do get used by departments when evaluating students, but the good news is that the tests are teachable.
Best of luck UST.
(edited for a sticky space bar)
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I would say that we could commiserate over our (or at least certainly my) impending rejection together (we are both in Cambridge!), but you have been accepted somewhere at least! I have not heard anything from anywhere yet and it is killing me!!
Congrats on Penn State, btw!
Thanks!
No word yet probably means you're on a lot of waitlists.
(By the way QuentinComp, do you know where on the Charles is the plaque marking Quentin committed suicide? I've heard one exists but is somewhat overgrown now.)
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Has anyone been accepted yet? Or just rejected? I have not yet received my UW rejection, although I am sure it is only a matter of time.
I'm still waiting on my rejection, too.
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I was wondering- do many people in Cambridge cycle? Are there places to buy bikes?
Would I even need one?
Thanks!
Biking in Cambridge/Boston is excellent. There are at least a half dozen bike shops in the Cambridge and Somerville: Broadway Bicycle School--you can rent time on a stand to do your own repairs or get your bike fixed; they make great city commuter bikes there, but they have a lot of the cooler than you punk/bike messenger attitude problems, ATA Cycles--more racing oriented but very convenient to Harvard, Cambridge Bicycles--closer to MIT, lots of custom work, solid shop, rent bikes by the day, Wheel Works: technically in Somerville (I think--Davis Square), decent shop, very mainstream. There are a couple of others which I'm forgetting. Harris, out in West Newton on the commuter rail, is amazing if you want anything special.
For commuting, I strongly recommend a classic Raleigh or similar 3-speed internally geared hub. There aren't many hills (unless you're living farther into Somerville), and the internally geared hubs mean that you can bike easily in all weather conditions. There used to be a Raleigh factory around, so these bicycles are everywhere, and you can get them used for cheap.
Pick up a copy of the greater Boston Bike Map. It's a great resource not just for cyclist but anyone new to the city as it has every single side street labeled on it.
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So I'm getting totally tired of waiting and emailed to ask what the time frame would be. Here's the response: "The committee is making its final-round decisions for PhD applications next week, and letters will go out shortly thereafter." Best of luck to all of us waiting!
Thanks for asking them.
I remember on the application they asked for contact information of teaching references. I wonder if they will contact them before making decisions.
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Thanks guys
I'm also the English/WS admit at Michigan on the results board, so I'm balancing 3 choices at this point! I only applied to a handful of programs (just waiting on Penn now, though they weren't a top choice for me), but it's still going to be such a difficult, difficult decision.Congratulations!
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Osodulce, I'm really sorry to hear that you've had such a rough day! Five really is just beyond tolerable measure. I don't know if this will help cheer you up at all, but I'm going to contact Kansas early next week and let them know that they can give my funding and spot to someone else. I was thinking of waiting for more offers, but I know I'll take my other guaranteed offer instead. Knowing that it might help someone worry a bit less made up my mind. I'll email Monday. I sure hope it's you so that you'll have a guaranteed spot while waiting for the rest of your decisions. Best of luck
You're really kind to say this. I thought about making a general comment in an earlier thread but thought it might seem too self serving--although our areas of interested only minimally overlap, so I doubt that your decision will impact me directly. Last year, I got waitlisted for funding, and the person ahead of me in line took until 4:30 on April 15th to make up their mind to come. That was pretty hard.
This is okay. I new that given the odds at least five schools were likely to reject me. May be having it happen all on the same day is actually better in the long run.
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GGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Four rejections in one day!
F-O-U-R
No, wait. Make that five.
F-I-V-E
Mother of F*&k.
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GGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Four rejections in one day!
F-O-U-R
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There's a fourth up now--$26.5K stipend, apparently. That figure is HUGE!
Congrats to the lucky 4(+).
That's in a similar range as Harvard's stipends typically are--even though the cost of living in New Haven is lower than it is in Cambridge.
Congratulations to those accepted!
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I actually don't remember what I checked because I think I read everything wrong, which is pretty typical for me in stressful situations (and I honestly don't remember having to specify it anyway, but it WAS pretty traumatic, haha.) They can probably tell what my intentions were anyway. I've gotten to where I know I likely won't be accepted to any English programs, and I think I'm going to be okay with that at this point in my life.
Who knows anymore! (Don't worry--I didn't call
I never seem to find time to be able to do so!)I made a similar mistake on one of my applications--applying to a PhD track when the school would want me to apply to the MA track. I got an email alerting me to this and then was considered for an MA. Calm down. It's going to be okay.
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Hey everyone-- Minnesota American Studies status was available online. I didn't get an email, just a random website check.
Huh. I just checked, and mine still says "submitted".
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I agree that teaching can be very scary at first, but approaching teaching not as a chore but as a compliment to your own academic journey is very beneficial. Teaching forces me to clarify and articulate my own ideas. Through teaching--and learning from my fellow teachers--I grow as an academic. Without my teaching load, I don't think that I would be as good a scholar.
State College, PA
in City Guide
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I'm going to be visiting Penn State next weekend. I almost certainly will accept their offer, but I'm worried about State College feeling very isolating and culturally bland. Does anybody have advice what my partner and I should visit or do to convince ourselves of the opposite?
I grew up in Madison, WI, and my partner grew up in rural town so small that there's only one paved road. There are some things that we're looking forward to--like mountains, outdoor space, quiet--and some things that we're really not looking forward to--like being surrounded by a sea of (mostly) white conservatives and drunken undergrads. What advice would you give about setting up a life in/around State College?