guenevere01

LOL, well, I don't think Valentine's Day is an "official" holiday. Actually, come to think of it, no Saint's day is an official holiday in the US, that I know of. Separation of Church and State? I suppose if they did one saint, they'd have to do them all, and then there would be NO workdays/maildays on the calendar!

I've wondered about RS too, since my German is incredibly weak. Does it just prepare you to function minimally in the culture, e.g. ordering food, getting a taxi, etc, or do you come away actually able to read a scholarly article in the language? It seems geared more toward people who want to travel, but then again there is a Latin one, so maybe not...

Hey katanian, that used to really irk me, too, but then I realized why most of my students do it. Many of the kids I teach are bilingual with Spanish as their first language, and in Spanish it's quite respectful to call people "Senorita" or "Senora", which translates directly into English as "Miss." I don't know if your kids are Hispanic or perhaps just influenced by Hispanic culture or neither, but it's much less offensive when you think about the origins of the phenomenon. Not to say that they shouldn't learn that in English "Miss" sounds disrespectful, though.

Nice.

I think it's very interesting that the study of Rhetoric is now considered "postmodern" and whatnot, when it's among the oldest concepts/subjects formally studied. Cicero, meet Heidigger! Yay!

My parents died a long time ago, so my grandparents are basically my parents, which is ok with me since they are wonderful. I don't think Grandpa really even understands that I'm applying to grad schools - he just knows that I might move really far away for several years, so I think he's generally against the idea. Whenever Grandma mentions it (which isn't very often), he just kind of stares into space like he's completely uninterested. Denial is a powerful thing. He does get kind of emotional now when I go visit, which is weird since he was very hard-core when I was growing up. I'm not a 1st-generation college student technically, but I am in the first generation of WOMEN in my family to get a degree, at least for the last few generations - one of my relatives was one of the first women in the US to graduate from medical school, or something like that, but it's been downhill from there. So, the "expectation" from the elders has always been that I'll get some meaningless job for a while, then get married and have lots of babies and stay home to take care of them. In light of the utter disaster this mode of thinking brought upon my mother's generation, I'm not sure why the grandparents haven't given up on this idea. I guess they think it's still the 1950s. Thank goodness it isn't!

I haven't heard a peep, either! Argh! NYU, Cornell, UT Austin, WashU, Rutgers, U Michigan, Toronto... ?

Lol, missashley - sounds like "Grey's Anatomy"! Everyone goes to this one bar, everyone dates within the program...

Ha! Ok, waaaaay too nervous, I totally didn't even get the joke. Duh. I'm going to go do some yoga now.

Hey, can anyone shed light on a maddeningly ambiguous results board comment that basically says things are "really bad" at UT Austin? This person was rejected for an English PhD in March of last year, so I'm wondering if it's just sour grapes, or if there's really anything to that rumor. I haven't been accepted there (yet!), but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Hey rlm, cruise on over to the "English Literature and Rhetoric & Comp" forum - it's under "Board Index", then scroll down to the Humanities section and you'll see it there. Lots of news to be had. Also, there is a pretty substantial post about interviews somewhere on here, as I recall. Try searching, would be my advice! Best of luck!

FWIW, I did my undergrad in Austin and absolutely loved it. I have not idea what the Geo dept. is like, but the city and campus are awesome! Feel free to PM me about Austin if you want.

I walk around all day in a stress-induced haze. This is bad because I teach high school, so I'm letting my students get away with all sorts of stuff I would have totally nailed them for in the past... I'm sure they talk about me after class, like "what the heck is wrong with mrs. g?" or more likely "it's so awesome that mrs. g has stopped being hardcore and lets us watch movies all the time now!" Of course I can't tell anyone here that I'm hoping to quit and move on next year until I actually get an acceptance. Which hasn't happened yet. Even though I check my email and phone messages constantly.

Windows (I'm too tech-stupid not to be a sheep, I know you techhies look down on us Windows-ites!). I used to have IRC, when I dated a computer engineer many moons ago...

One of my undergraduate mentors has a husband who lives in Europe (she's in the US) - they've lived apart for years, but she spends Christmases and summers there, I think. Another one's husband taught at a small college in town after she got a job at a our Tier I research university, even though they'd both gotten PhDs at Hoity-Toity U. It's not easy being an academic and having a relationship with a career-oriented SO. It seems like either one partner will take a "career hit" for a little while, or you'll have to live apart for a while. In today's world, though, it's not so bad - we have cell phones, email, online chat, even video chatting, and while that's not nearly the same as living together, it's certainly better than what previous generations would have had to do to maintain a LDR. As a veteran long-distancer, and soon to be one again, I can say it does suck a lot, but if you're really committed you can do it. You have to be committed, though, which seems obvious, but really, just being "in love" isn't always enough. Maybe that's just me.

Ummm, a little help for us Humanities types? What is freenode, how do I get on, etc?? I've been to the freenode.net site but can't make heads or tails of it! :oops:

Definitely! As one of my friends put it, most people in the business world do presentations every now and then - we do them every single day! Right now, i'm doing three different ones every day, so I'm really ready to be a student again for a while.

Fordham just emailed to say they found my transcript under the maiden name - phew! Surely by now female applicants are the norm, at least in the Humanities - I wonder if it's more that they're not used to married women applying? I noticed the majority of people who took the poll on relationship status aren't married.

Oooh, hadn't thought of it making a difference for fellowships and such... Yikes!

Hi katanianQ. I'm a Latin teacher by day. :shock: 4 classes of Latin 3, 1 class of AP Latin 4. It's fun, but I'm SO ready to be a scholar again!

Ok, *sigh of relief*. Thanks so much, that more than answered my questions. I did mean "if they do in fact ask you to visit/interview before they make you an offer of acceptance, can they reject you on the basis of not attending their designated weekend." Sorry to be unclear. You did answer it, though. Thanks! Also, I didn't apply to either NW or Emory. So, hooray, no rejections yet!

Hi all, I'm new here but extremely thrilled to have found you all! I thought only schools that had made offers to you asked you to come visit them - is this not true?? And, if one is unable to visit during the appointed weekend, does that automatically mean a rejection? That's a scary thought.

Haha! That's awesome that we posted at the same time about the same issue! I seriously considered NOT changing my name 3 years ago when I got married for just this reason - people get so confused. I usually list all 4 of my names on stuff, too (First, Middle, Maiden, Married Last Name), but it never seems to help. Come on people!

Hey, any other married ladies (or anyone else!) have trouble with their name on the transcript being different from the one on the application? Most schools ask a question like "by what other names have you been known in this life or past lives" (or something similar), but that doesn't seem to have forestalled any confusion - both Fordham and Cornell couldn't locate my transcripts until I reminded them of my maiden name! In fact, I have yet to hear back from Fordham about the lost transcript, and since my undergrad school charges $10 a pop for them, I'm really hoping they find it!!!