lolopixie

Here's a good list for my fellow postcolonialists: http://www.class.uh.edu/english/__docs/postcolonial.pdf

The canon (which one???) is constantly expanding. There is just no way anyone could have read everything that and English major "should have" - pre Ph.D. program. I took a ton of British poetry classes in my undergraduate career. In my master's program, again I took more of a survey of courses. The difference to me between undergrad and master's was that there was a lot more critical reading, research, and exploring of the theories that the world of academia is working with for the development and research of the field. Now once we get into our Ph.D. programs and are given our reading lists, that is when we will read/re-read everything that we should have for our chosen field and subfield. Even still, that doesn't encompass all of it in its entirity. That is what I love about English; the fact that you can always have something new and exciting to work with (even if it was written 100+ years ago). I like to go to the Columbia website and look over their reading lists for the orals and pick books off of there. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/english/grad_orals.htm It is a pretty good resource to get the gist of what will be expected. I figure Columbia is notable enough to be a reliable source lol!

wow #2 I'm starting to realize my obsession!

I'm retarded sometimes and I can't really understand the graph. BUT my opinion is that the subject is more important. That will give you the background you need in order to be able to up the ante on your research ability.

I haven't read Paradise Lost. I just downloaded it and ready the first page and put it down. LOL.

Confusing me with someone else I applied to Miami, FL. I want to skip to the keys! Lol

Luckily, grad school minimums don't really work anymore because of the new scoring scale. Try your best on the math section, but don't freak out too much. Some schools state they don't care about your math scores -- that's what I'm hoping for because my math scores suck. Oh, and if you decide to take a GRE prep course, see if there is a Sherwood Test Prep course near you. I took that course and it was extremely helpful and I increased my verbal scorely hugely after taking it. And it is not as expensive as all the other courses. $400 as compared to about $1k-$1500

So when you see X school's name get posted as an admit on the board somewhere you will then immediately pull out your phone, check vmail, email, and then go to school website. If there is nothing there, you will pray to the academia gods that you just haven't been called yet. There is no way to handle this. I didn't even cry much last year until it was over. I kept holding on to hope. May we all be accepted by the first school that reports back to us so we will at least know that we are in somewhere!

I mentioned to my dad that I would need assistance with moving my stuff if I get into a program. He is now planning a "vacation" for moving me. Which is awesome and somewhat scary at the same time. He is so enthused about helping me and certain that I will get in somewhere this round...I hope he is right!

I hadn't read it before. I really enjoyed it even though it made me feel hopeless. Yes! I promise you this has made its way into my life. Just start screaming and throwing dictionaries and you feel better - who knew? I'm reading The Madman's Tale now and I'm really into it.

Gradcafe was down? Good thing I worked way too much overtime yesterday and practically passed out when I came home.

Third, I would love to go to any of the programs that accepted me that I have applied to, but top choice is Miami.

People that just can't grasp the difference between there, their, and they're. Or too, to, and two. Get. It. Together! You are a grown-up. If you didn't master this in 2nd grade, THERE is a serious problem. Or is it their? LOL I see this EVERY day at work from people that are making well over six figures. Where did I go wrong?

Call the department. I can't remember the woman's name, but the graduate secretary is very helpful there. She was quite informative when I called last year. 352-392-6650

While I can appreciate the quality of education that is provided at a top-tier school, I don't think that you have to attend one of these schools in order to achieve results. Guess what, they don't have 100% placement rates either. You have to make the most of where you are. Publish, publish, publish.

I went to 2 schools in the South - North Carolina to be specific - for my undergrad and MA programs. Each University had a very large portion of the faculty coming from top 20 schools. I feel my education is not mediocre in the slightest because I come from and have been educated in the South. Yes, the NC public school system (as far as K-12 goes) is shitty at best, but there are some great Universities here: Wake Forest, Duke, UNC...schools that many people on this board are dreaming of getting into. Now, I did not attend any of these Universites named; however, I have been taught by professors that earned their degrees at these programs, and Yale, Harvard, UCLA, CUNY....but I guess that doesn't matter either. I guess us old hicks don't know a gerd dern thang about nuthin cuz all we knows how to do is grow tobaccy and get happy bout that there indoor plumbing being installed next week.

Respect. I was having the same conversation just a few minutes ago. Almost verbatim.

Sh*t, that goes for all of us!!! Myself included. I'm still crossing fingers, toes, braiding my hair, whatever it takes to get the positive energy flowing towards me!

You could be part of the unqualified. Ya never know. The percentage is just what part of the pool as a whole is accepted. And I really don't think anyone submits applications as "practice" without the hopes of trying to get in. That is a lot of money to waste just to write some statements and tweak a writing sample. I'm just saying that, no matter how you slice it, the odds of being accepted are slim.

Let's say each school accepts 12 students and you apply to 10 schools that get 300 applicants, then 120 people are accepted as compared to 3000 applicants. Unfortunately, it is still 4%. Now that is a GRE quantative question in the making!!

I've decided that this year I am going to alternate my pleasure reading with books I personally want to read and books I should have read by now as an English major. Of course, we all know there are books we have not even touched because the canons are just way too large and ever expanding. I am also going to "broaden" my reading spectrum.

Don't freak out. It is entirely possible that he had your file on his desk when the email came through. I called a school once and the grad secretary was actually working on my file the same time I called. Don't read too much into it. It doesn't necessarily mean anything good, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything bad. Just be happy that he responded quickly

I remember last year when I applied to U Florida, their website never updated online. I freaked out calling the department and the woman that answered the phone was like yea...that thing doesn't update. Why have one if it isn't going to update? That's why I took the executive decision to just reach out to contact persons to confirm receipt of everything, even if the website says so.

haha I didn't even know I was on the list!

Yea, the worst part was it was a transcript that they had they just didn't load it correctly!!!