hadunc

No, it does not require an MA. I was accepted with a BA.

I'll be starting the English PhD program there this fall. I'm not a comp lit person so I'm not sure how helpful I can be, but if you're studying anything to do with theory or poetics SUNY Buffalo is a great place to be. It's a very innovative department and they give their grad students a lot of freedom (no required courses, no language requirements, very easy to take classes outside of the department, etc.) I'm going there for digital studies, which is a relatively new thing for them. As far as rankings go, I don't know if I'd call it a "top" school (though what that means really varies from person to person) but it's pretty well respected from what I understand.

It was an email from someone named Sharon Logan. I've had the same communication problems with Temple as everyone else here. My transcripts and test scores were listed as missing until March 17th. I emailed them to ask what was going on and never got a reply. I could have put more effort into contacting them but after I got my first admit I was pretty sure I wouldn't be accepting an offer from them anyway. And from what other people are saying, it looks like I made the right decision.

I just found out today that I got accepted to Temple. It says in the email that they will have funding in place "in two weeks." 2 WEEKS??? Are they kidding me? That's past the April 15th deadline! Can they even do that? I didn't even think I was going to hear back from them, and I've already accepted another offer. Their loss I suppose.

If your ultimate goal is to work in publishing, I would not suggest pursuing a PhD in literature. I currently work freelance for an editing/marketing company and I can tell you that aside from teaching me to write effectively, my literature background did absolutely nothing to prepare me to enter the professional writing field. Scholarship and professional writing/editing are two very different animals, and I don't think you'd be helping your career much by spending 6+ years in a PhD program. I second bluellie's suggestion of looking for internships with publishing houses or journals. I'm pursuing a PhD because I see it as an end in itself, and even if I do end up in some other career, the experience will have been worth it to me. If that's not how you feel, graduate school probably will feel "soul-crushing." If you still feel like you'd like to give academia a chance, a funded MA is a great way to go. But if I were you I would take at least a year off first. That year really clarified my goals for me, and I have a feeling it would probably do the same for you. Good luck!

Is this a funded MA? If so, I'd say you might have a decent chance at the PhD. If not, I'm inclined to say that they probably tell all of their applicants that. Most schools prioritize the writing sample over all other pieces of the application anyway, so they may not necessarily be singling you out. I would talk to the DGS and ask if you were highly ranked among those admitted to the MA, and assuming you perform well at the MA level, if your chances of being accepted into the PhD program are high. But I definitely would not take the letter as a guarantee that you will be able to go on to the PhD. Try to get some straight answers, but keep in mind that either way it's a gamble and if you'd really like to attend that school's PhD program you might just be better off reapplying next year.

I felt this way for a while, even after 4 acceptances, but my fears were eased after I went to the prospectives week at the school I've chosen to attend. I sat in on a class for which I had done some of the reading ahead of time and found very dense and hard to understand. I was so worried that this was what grad school would be like and that I would never be able to engage in any sort of meaningful conversations with my peers. Much to my surprise, it turned out that the majority of the students in the class were just as baffled as me! That was a huge relief. I was also really worried about taking on a TAship with no teaching experience. One person I met said to me "Well, I won't lie, you are going to be terrible at first. You're going to get an awful evaluation. Everyone does. But after you get through that first class, it will become much more natural." Though that might not sound very comforting, it really felt good to hear that others had experienced the same struggles. I know starting grad school won't be easy, but I'm now much less afraid that the adcomm made a mistake in accepting me. And I don't feel like I have to live up to impossible standards.

Dude, how high were you when you wrote this?

I got mine last friday. It was a simple letter saying that I had been accepted but without any funding. It also said MA students can only expect a 1 semester TAship at most. I will be declining shortly.

Wow, somebody in their office really dropped the ball if this many people got emails! I found it a little strange as well that they couldn't just say "oh btw you're accepted." That would have been nicer than the curt email they sent. Brandigrad, if you're #3 on the waitlist you probably have a good chance of getting in. I'm 99% sure I'll be turning down my offer. I just got my final funding offer from another PhD program and I will most likely be accepting it. I really hope that helps you out!. I checked the mail today but still no letter. I'll be going out of town this weekend so I may not see it for a while. If anyone else receives theirs in the meantime could you please post some basic info about what it says? Thanks!

I think I just found out I was accepted in the strangest way possible. I just found an email in my inbox from a staff member at the school who apparently forgot to enclose some important information in the envelope with my letter (which I have yet to receive). The attachment is a list of tuition prices, fees, etc. as well as placement records for their past PhD grads. I can't believe I'm finding out this way though. Unless they just want those rejected to know what their missing!

HAHA! Oh this is so true. My fiance designs web sites and I write web copy part-time so I generally know a good web site when I see it and Boulder's looks like it was designed sometime back in the '90s by a high school student. Not only is it not aesthetically pleasing but it's very hard to navigate. And Branwen, I also took note of how vague they are about funding, and from what Brandi has told us it seems unlikely we'll get good funding packages. Screw 'em!

Glad to help! I forgot to mention that SUNY-Stonybrook would also be a good school to look into, and it sounds like it would fit your geographic target area pretty well.

You certainly did, thank you very much!

This seems a little unfair of them since the prospectives week is the 17th through the 19th. That doesn't give you guys much time to visit and make a decision if you're admitted. Good luck to everyone still waiting!

Um, wow. Not a very good first impression of the school at all! At least letters are going out so we'll know either way soon. I hope her attitude doesn't reflect the rest of the department. That doesn't give me warm fuzzy feelings at all.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but some that I've come across are the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State, Carnegie Mellon, Washington University in St. Louis (Joe Loewenstein), Duke (the literature department, where Katherine Hayles works), Loyola Chicago, CU Boulder, and Indiana-Bloomington. I focused mainly on the midwest and east coast as my target areas, so I don't know much about which schools have good programs on the west coast. Hope that gives you a good start! It's great to see more people who are interested in the field.

Yeah, I know the funding situation isn't so great at CU, plus it's an expensive city, and I didn't apply for a TAship because you needed extra recommendations addressing your previous teaching experience (which I don't have), so I'm thinking that if I do get in it will be unfunded and I'll have to turn it down anyway. Which is unfortunate because I think the program would have been a really good fit for me. I'd still like a decision from them though.

Hi Woolfie, I apologize if I'm thinking of the wrong person because I don't remember which topic it was posted under but I'm pretty sure you told me earlier that you were looking into digital studies as a subfield and asked about SUNY-Buffalo. I was also accepted to UW-Milwaukee and I can tell you they are a great school for digital and cultural studies. Check out their modern studies track. Also, I was told by one of the faculty members that they will be adding a digital studies PhD track within the next couple of years. I'll be visiting sometime in the next few weeks so if you'd like some more info about the school feel free to PM me!

That's interesting--mine has said "In Review" since early February. I'm giving it until the 15th before I contact them to ask. I noticed that the acceptances were to the PhD program, and that makes sense since departments usually make PhD decisions first, but I haven't seen any MA acceptances or rejections, so I think that means there might still be some hope for us, but who knows! I'll let you know if I get any more info.

Did anyone else apply to the MA/PhD program at Boulder? I saw a couple of acceptances go out awhile ago but there hasn't been any news since. My application still says "In Review," has anyone contacted the department or have any idea when they will be sending out decisions?

I wonder who they did accept. Must have been a pretty small group this year for no acceptances to have gone up on grad cafe.

Yup, I just logged back on and got my rejection letter

Well my status on Apply Yourself changed over to "Graduate School Final Review" today as well. The suspense is killing me!

That sounds somewhat promising. If some still say "sent to program" and others are in "final review" I would imagine they must still be reviewing, right?