immersion

The grad school is pushing students out and raising tution in order to increase its rankings. This means that folks who have been here for four or five years now have to pay twice as much tution as previous years or have to withdraw from the school for two years and return with a finished dissertation. These decisions were made without consulting department heads or graduate students. It's a slash and burn model that is, unfortuately, pro forma at UVA. You never know what new "ideas" the administration will brainstorm or the consequences of those ideas for your livelihood, scholarly or otherwise. DONT COME TO UVA. Check this out: http://gsbuva.wordpress.com/author/gsbuva/

http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/ NOW THATS FUNNY!

"** PS. I've actually worked in inner city high schools in Brooklyn teaching/tutoring kids in high school Math. You have no f'ing clue." Great! You teach poor people! I think its a sign of our "post-racial" times that it has become ever more difficult to call a spade, a spade...It scares me because I imagine you folks will be my colleagues one day and when you make a dumb, racist joke I'll know that If I say something I'll (again thanks to our "post-race" moment) be pinned down as a trouble maker. Good luck, however! And again, even more vehemently, I really hope you don't get in..

I don't want you to be PC. I want you to be yourself. And, as it stands, that self is pretty racist. I live in an "ethnic ghetto" a few blocks from Penn so when you talk about it derisively..I'm gonna speak up...I'm not asking you to change..I'm just letting you know...that the comments suggests a serious race issue... And, frankly, I really hope you don't get in.

The problem isn't if you should goto harvard and yale (I wish ppl. would stop saying this b/c it makes little sense plenty of tolks who went to harvard and yale lack jobs...)...the problem is if you aren't at the head of your field...

wow dats pretty racist

WOW...dats pretty racist

whose the professor at Penn...I can tell you what to think..

No one cares about the GRE Subject Test at all...I was accepted at two very prestigious schools and didn't even take the damm test...both schools require it (I can't believe I'm going to mention rankings) but both schools are in the top 5..ewww...

well if you are wait listed...never fear...I'm def. going to turn down the offer next month

Yellow 5, I think you are hilarious! I'm sure you'll do amazing..I heard God likes good (funny) people...

1) I don't care too much about being grammatical on a blog..particularly in French....lol...as this is the third person to make a similar comment, I wonder if this disqualifies me from being a good PhD? In any event, I spend a lot of time reading Mrs. Smittherman (who is another Harvard woman) and she makes me feel betta about not bein' able to spell stuff good...http://www.amazon.com/Black-Talk-Geneva ... 0395699924 although AAVE does have a really fine grammar to it and while I wouldn't rest my carelessness on culture.. I do think my grammatical errors point to a pet peeve of my own..I really dislike prescriptivism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription for all my friends who are up on their poststructuralist thought, we can draw a direct link between the description of prescriptivism detailed in the Wikipedia link..and all the problems of ideological coercion which language unleashes...there is a direct link between how we enforce language and how we enforce social codes... 2) Oh, I didn't realize we were talking about the English department. I was talking about the Af Am department. Though, now that you mention it, I prolly don't have many good things to say about the English department as well...My reasons, again, are not from first hand experience but from various faculty members...but they could be wrong...and I imagine you are right about the department's culture changing..I wouldn't know... 3) I'm not sure if we can talk about folks as "great advisers.." that is to say, that I think that advising is all about personality types and work habits..its far too idiosyncratic of a dynamic to generalize..one's man great adviser is another man's annoying weirdo who is way too touchy feeley. BUT...I do imagine that a great litmus, lowest common denominator way to determine a programs quality of advising is to get a look at their retention rates...oh, and I think Kfed is pretty cool, so to be sure this was all written within a spirit of intellectual cogenality...

Hey Guys, I hope everything works out for everyone but I'm not sure why you would want to go to a school which only have you four years of funding...Is that enough money to live off?

Hey Guys, you really shouldn't be afraid to call Peter...he is a really, really great guy. And also don't be afraid to call Collette...she is super warm and cool as well...I do remember there being a box for the MA but you didnt get the choice to choose b/w the MA and the PhD...I actually accidentally checked the MA box and the department phoned me to make sure that I in fact wanted the PhD

No, I'm neither wait listed nor do I like talking shit (well..maybe I do)...both my advisors are recent Harvard grads..one from a post doc program and one from the am civ program..I also spent a good amount of time talking with a few grad students in the program...and was kind of being recruited through a few programs I'm affiliated with..plus, I spend a lot of time researching a program's history...by which I mean..I track the publications of students who have graduated from the program and look at the acknowledgment sections of their books and articles (which is actually really helpful because you get a sense of both the departments culture and where they received most of their intellectual development)....but, ce la vie, I'm not here to make a ruckus..just to conversate

and, damm, i swore I deleted that old UVA post...it was a moment..lol

Hey Guys, I'm sorry...I didn't realize how gruff my response had come off...and I didn't realize blogs needed spell check (lol...) Many apologies

Yeah you prolly rejected..UVA told us almost a month ago that we had been accepted..Who were you hoping to work with, btw?

I got to say Kfed from talking to folks in (coincidentally) both English and AfAm Harvard's resources are pretty limited. The names you mention are really some of the fore father and mothers of their respective interests but, again, are not the best advisers...If you goto Harvard, you are on your own...

Really? I heard Ann Arbor was expensive as hell....Plus, it is the lowest amount out of all the school to which I was accepted..

Hey Folks, I was recently accepted to UMIchigan and I am a little worried about the stipend amount. I wanted to have a forum for other folks who were worried about their respective stipend amounts from the program. What are other ppl. getting? I even have a fellowship from Rackham and I am still worried about the amount of money I am getting. Plus, its going to be cold and I don't want to be lonely...

I got into UMichigan and I get the sense that they are done letting accepted students know...

Guys, I got to tell you that I think Af Am Studies at Harvard is more hype than it is substance...Gates isn't a very good adviser and with few exceptions there aren't very many people with whom to work. Its also pretty resistant to some of the most exciting work going on in the discipline to date..

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Hi Folks, Does anyone have any advice/stories about negotiating for more money. Let us hear them!