HelloFeminists

While I completely understand what someone else said about having to wait for more information about a spouse or parent's job situation, a family member's health, funding, etc., I do agree with you, ElusiveMuse, specifically about the number of people here who seem to apply to huge numbers of schools - I've seen a lot of comments of "I've been rejected, but it's ok because there's really no fit" or "What was I thinking applying to so many places anyway?" I think that certain numbers of people, especially as reflected on this website, apply to all the top-name places and don't seem to have really strong stand-out programs, which I think is both a bad and a financially privileged approach [it costs a lot of money to apply to 10-12 programs!]. Again, for everyone who isn't in that scenario, my critique does not apply to you

On the flip side, the center of Amherst tends to be filled with white straight rich male preppy Amherst students, which can be extremely homogeneous and off-putting if you don't fit into all of those categories. Northampton is a lot more diverse and has more of an artistic feel to it, thus the liberalism and queer-friendly culture. Northampton also has way better restaurants and random funky places to go. In addition, it has a pretty decent music scene [usually indie rock and folk], especially for a town of its size. Whenever I take the PVTA from South Hadley, Noho is my favourite place to go, and I hardly ever feel like doing something in Amherst. I will say that Ben & Jerry's free ice cream day is an ok reason to go to Amherst, though

I agree. There needs to be a balance between being kind to yourself and being kind to the people who graciously accepted you / the people on the waitlist who are biting their nails for weeks and months. I'd say try to narrow it down as soon as you can, because really, figuring it out before April 14th can only be less stress for your psyche [and everyone else's]. Maybe I'm biased because I got in to my top choice with funding and was simultaneously rejected from some other programs, so the choice wasn't so difficult for me and I've already accepted But I still think it's important to get your act together at some point.

Mercurial, you're responding to synthla, right? Are you in History?

Aw!! I LOVE the Pioneer Valley I'm finishing up my undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke. PM me if you have any specific questions about the area. I will say that Northampton is one of my favourite places ever. I think Amherst can't hold a candle to it; however, the free bus system will take you to both places.

I agree. We'll see... besides, I've been fortunate enough to secure a fellowship, which is a refreshing change from my undergraduate career that has me at $50,000 in loans now. So I'll take it as it comes. Besides, this is what I want to do. And I've heard that gender studies programs are expanding at various places.

Update, abolitionista - I was rejected today via e-mail. They said that a record number of applicants + the financial crisis forced them to only accept 6 people, down 2 from last year. I was on their top 20 wait list. Glen Mimura's e-mail / letter was very thoughtful though. I'm wishing you the best of luck!!

Exactly. Besides, being diverse and compassionate and embracing difference and equality is far from "scary" to me. I think it's "scary" to refuse to get with the times and cling to tradition that excludes swaths of the population from having equal rights. I think it's "scary" to hold on to the same lines of thinking and same academic trajectories.

I have no idea about the rejection letters. Francine told me I'd hear back in "the next couple of weeks" last Friday [i.e. one week ago], but I have no idea. I did respond to her today and tell her that I have a fully funded offer from another UC and that I'd like to be able to make a decision in the near future. I actually ended up accepting the other offer today, so if it makes you feel better, should they admit me to the program, I will give it up I wish you the very best of luck!!! What do you want to study? I had applied to study the history of sexuality with Jennifer Terry.

Yes, that situation must have been really nerve-wracking for you! I was incredibly nervous and I wasn't even in that situation. I went to the recruitment visit last weekend, and I loved the department!! I've accepted their offer today. They've really been the best fit for me from day one, and the programs I'm hearing back from now really could not be better than their offer. So they've won me over Everyone was really nice and especially enthusiastic and willing to do whatever it took to have me attend - very flexible and accommodating. The events were nicely planned, my host was really nice, I was given a tour of the campus, et cetera. It was incredibly overwhelming to be at a large university given the fact that I come from a small private liberal arts college in New England!! But so is the nature of grad school. Oh, and I've been fully funded for five years with a stipend / TA-ship through a Regents Special Fellowship, so that made the decision process that much easier! I wish you the best of luck with funding et al. Have you heard anything more? Enjoy your visit! Where to, may I ask?

We personally don't have any kids, but thanks for the info - definitely good to hear for those who have kids! I just visited the campus this past weekend and was so overwhelmed - I come from a small liberal arts college, and UCSB is so sprawling! I'm sure that somewhere like UCLA is even more overwhelming, but it was definitely an intense experience.

I did hear from someone during my recruitment visit to UCSB that they'd been accepted to the Culture and Theory program. So I'm guessing we're both on the wait list at best. We shall see.

That's awesome that you had a great experience - I'm visiting this coming weekend I'm so excited yet also nervous to make a good impression! Have you gotten funding info yet? I'm thinking that the way it's going, I won't have any funding info before I actually meet with everyone...

The fish questions is an interesting one to put in context with contemporary politics, because what happens when the following sorts of variables arise?: a.) How do you teach him/her? Do you pay for it with taxes [omg socialism! ]? Should we leave everything up to the private sector, so that rich people learn the best fishing techniques and get the most / biggest fish? b.) What if he/she learns how to fish and then has to sell his/her fishing pole during the economic crisis? c.) What if a corporation comes along and poisons the water the fish live in? I think my point is made.

...The government is to blame, especially concerning what the person you quoted was referring to with supposed "free trade agreements". NAFTA is consistently screwing over Latin America and causing people to lose their farms and starve only to subsidize U.S. corporations - U.S. corporations even go into other people's countries, take samples of their local plants and then PATENT the seeds so that the people who have been growing certain foods for thousands of years to feed their communities are all of a sudden banned from growing them anymore. Corporations like Wal*Mart destroy the local infrastructure. Coca-Cola poisons communities' water supply [like in India] and on occasion murders people when they try to form unions [like in Colombia]. Our government allows the global bullying and domination of corporations without any kind of oversight. And don't even get me started about the number of times we've gone into other nations and murdered their leaders just because they didn't follow the neoliberal American agenda, or installed puppet governments, etc. etc. etc. The U.S. GOVERNMENT should "clean up the messes they've created", all over the globe. They're the ones with the massive [super]power, after all.

I think it depends on the issue, but in general, I understand that people need to be helped out who are disadvantaged and that a society works better and has a happier, more elevated quality of life when the community works together to help the least fortunate and most vulnerable among them. I also extend my positions beyond economic positions to include issues such as supporting civil rights, which the Republican party in the U.S., especially the religious right, is not too keen on.

Thanks for the info! I'm actually trying to get into family housing with my wife, but since there is a year-long waiting list [!!], I'll probably have to find temporary housing somewhere else for a few months. Although another element of it is that the family housing is located in IV. I wonder if it would be less obnoxious because I'd be surrounded by couples and probably some kids instead of kegger-obsessed frat guys and cheerleader sorority women with burning couches

Thank you for that, cardnav. Also to weeble. I figured out that my school's Financial Aid office has different student budgets for married and single students, so I'm wondering if they would give me more aid if they knew I had a [same-sex] marriage license in the state of CA [which hopefully will not be nullified by the jackass family-destroying Prop 8 people in March]. Theoretically, if there are two people in our household, wouldn't they account for bigger expenses? Or do they not take my wife into account at all because she's not a student there? If not, why bother having two different budgets to begin with? What do people think?

I'll visit as many places as the departments are willing to pay for. I don't have the money to pay for my own visits. I'm completely dependent on the goodwill / desire of others to recruit me So far I'm visiting UCSB. They've accepted me and are paying for me to come visit. I haven't heard back from anyone else yet. [Also, all the places I applied are on the opposite side of the country from where I currently am.]

It's not as easy as "people should be responsible for themselves". That kind of capitalist bootstraps mentality consistently proves itself as flawed, especially with the kind of unfettered monopolist workings in which wealth is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people, certain classes of people are born with inherited wealth and access to phenomenal privilege, et cetera. It is easier for some people on Day One. "we as america is really a closet socialist country." Those articles are pretty laughable. What I will say is that America had better do something different that is more akin to democratic socialist principles [a.k.a. western Europe, Canada] if it wants to pull itself out of its non-sustainable capitalist illusion. By bailing out the CEOs, we're already proving that we're willing to sacrifice the capitalist principle of "everyone for themselves! let the 'free market' reign!" when it suits the wealthy business elite.

I, too, agree with your statement about people in the humanities Not sure about the scientists, but my own experience dealing with issues of social justice, especially in analyzing not just the conditions of struggle and oppression but how they got that way, leads me to understand the importance of truly embracing a diverse and equal society where everyone has a chance to succeed. I've studied in depth the ways in which dominant paradigms of thinking [capitalism, imperialism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, et cetera] are harmful to vast groups of people, so it's pretty hard to not be "far left" in the progressive American sense. Plus, my own experience with discrimination helps me additionally understand complicated axes of privilege.

Life changed by these marvelous women.

Has anyone else been accepted to UCSB for a grad program, particularly in the social sciences / humanities? Which programs, and are you thinking of going? I've been accepted to the Ph.D program in Feminist Studies, which I'm absolutely psyched about. They're paying to fly me out for a visit in early March

Abolitionista, did the professor contact you about setting up the meeting, or vice versa? Are you already fairly close to Irvine? I'm all the way in MA, so it will be an all-day experience just to fly to Santa Barbara

Yep. Take the cue from them. I try to use first names as soon as it seems like they're ok with that, but then, I go to a private liberal arts college where professors actually interact with us and form quite personable relationships that border on friendship, so I haven't really had to deal with people who have huge egos and refuse to be called by their actual mortal names