nonymouse

That's wonderful! I'm so glad it worked out for you and congratulations!

Medieval--I was waitlisted for first year funding though, so that would be something to keep in mind.

Declined Ohio State, Santa Barbara, and Indiana. Removed myself from the waitlist at Cornell and UVA. Hope these help someone!

It seems to me that a lot of your concerns could be addressed by calling the school back. Ask them about the deadline, the funding, etc. All of your questions seem perfectly reasonable, ones in fact that the person you're speaking with should be willing and able to answer. Don't worry about being on the road, and don't pressure yourself to give an immediate decision, but don't add unnecessary additional stress to your situation either by not calling. You also might want to contact the other school as it is now almost April and see if they have any new information for you. In any case, I think you need to call and talk with whoever left you a message and see about getting some more answers.

I agree that you definitely need to consider fit over rankings. When you start talking about top tier schools, you're really discussing peer institutions, and rankings (beyond the fact that they're largely subjective) are a poor way of making a decision. Also consider who you would work with at each school. When it comes time for networking and finding a job, often your advisor/advisors can make or break you (for example, I know that some of the "top" professors very rarely/never take on students, so if you're going to work with a specific professor, make sure that you would actually be working with them/they are interested and involved when they take on students) You should also consider the general atmosphere of the program. Do the professors seem genuinely interested in working with students? Does the cohort seem supportive? You seem interested in interdisciplinary topics, are both departments willing to encourage that with opportunities to take classes (or even teach) in other departments? How much guidance would you have from professors? These are all things that you can only learn from visiting or by having some very frank discussions with professors and current grad students. In any case congrats on your acceptances!

I've got a letter drafted and ready to send, but I'm not sure who to send it to. The DGS? chair of graduate admissions? graduate student liaison? All were mentioned in my letter. Further, I was simply contacted through the mail, with no follow up email. Should I just send a letter back and then maybe touch base with someone (who?) by email? All of my other schools are fairly clear about where to send acceptance/declining letters, but this one has no clear information. My instinct is to send it to the Administrative Secretary to the Graduate Program, but she wasn't mentioned in any of my materials; I've just previously spoken with her during the application process. Any thoughts?

It would be really helpful if you could give us an idea of your interests and subfields. I can tell you that Toronto should not in any way be an obstacle to your getting hired in the US—far from it! It's an excellent school, with a great reputation in the US and a degree from there should certainly be an asset on the job market. That being said, Rutgers is also great, and don't stress to much about New Brunswick if that's what's really holding you back about it. It's not DC or Toronto, but it's relatively close to New York. I personally don't know anything about GWU's english grad program, so I can't way in on it. I would suggest though that you try and visit all three of the schools so that you get a better idea of the ever elusive "fit."

bumping this in case anyone knows anything new This is the only place I still haven't heard anything from, and I'm wondering if they're close to doing their second round of admits/waitlists. I've got an offer I really want to take, but would like to hold off on accepting until I've heard something from UVA.

I also love my mac, and I would point out that while the initial cost is greater, over time the cost evens out. With my pc, I had to replace my battery, get it regularly "tuned up," and buy 3!! new power cords in the 3 years I owned it. I also had to be vigilant about viruses and had terrible experiences with their customer service (it was a dell). This was with me largely using it for internet surfing and word processing. With my mac, I had just my initial costs, and haven't had to do any sort of maintenance work or even needed to call customer service, and I've now had it almost as long as I had my pc. I honestly had no idea that computers could be so user friendly. Obviously, this isn't going to be everyone's experience, though. If you absolutely need to get a pc, (I have no idea what you're going into, so I couldn't say whether or not this is true for you), I would recommend an hp or an asus. Asus is relatively "new" to the market as a computer company (although they've been manufacturing the internal parts for years), so they're fairly inexpensive, but they're also really reliable.

Great information, thanks jendoly!

Does anyone have, or has anyone tried out a Nook color? I'm trying to decide if it's worth the investment.

Could anyone suggest some good property management companies or particularly good apartment complexes/buildings in Durham? I'm hoping to visit in a few weeks and would like to be able to visit some apartments while I'm there. Thanks in advance!

Hi Piparoo! I can't get too detailed without some more specifics about places you're looking at. I can tell you generally though that I think you should look at Northport (north of town) as it's a pretty safe area and the housing is even cheaper than in Tuscaloosa. It also has a lot of rental properties. We lived off of Flatwoods road in a rental house for a couple of years, and it was very safe and reasonably priced. If you're wanting to live in town, look either east or south. East, there are some great areas with condos and rental housing (try Woodland Forest subdivision, or condos/housing branching off of 15th St./Veterans Parkway). On the south end of town in the Taylorville/Hillcrest area, it gets a little more "rural" (pretty relative in an already non-urban area), and there are more rental housing opportunities. You could look in Inverness or some of the garden home subdivisions. This area is also really safe and you can't go too wrong here. You could try going a little farther out. Someone mentioned Cottondale, a town nearby Tuscaloosa, that will certainly be cheaper and generally safe. Keep in mind though that in all honesty, cost of living in Tuscaloosa is very low (I honestly think you can find what you're looking for than less than a 1000 per month, although the best deals will take some searching for. My sister lives a 10 minute walk from campus in a nice apartment and pays about 600; if she'd gone with a similar property in Northport it would have been closer to 500) and safe (as long as you avoid the areas I mentioned in an earlier post, esp. Alberta City and the West End, unless you're from here, it's hard to tell which places are actually safe in those areas). Hope that helps!

My focus is on Medieval lit, primarily looking at women, gender, and religion.

Electric Slide

Sewanee—a liberal arts college in TN for those non-Southerners/non-liberal arts folks—offers a summer masters program in English to get an MA or MFA. I think it's also targeted specifically to teachers, but it's an amazing program from what I've heard. http://www.sewanee.edu/SL/SLHome.htm

Thanks! hope you start hearing good news soon!

I'm an external applicant, accepted for my MA planning to go through for my PhD, so I'm thinking those are the decisions that have been posted so far. I didn't even know the decisions were up until I looked on the acceptance forum earlier!

I forgot to add; don't let the university convince you to try graduate housing. Even though it looks ok from the outside; they have a definite mold problem. They also stick transfers in there so you could end up with an unfriendly undergrad as your roommate.

While I didn't go to the University, I grew up in Tuscaloosa, and I can tell you pretty much anything you need to know about the area. My advice is to avoid large apartment blocks unless you know someone who lives there. A lot of them (that aren't insanely over expensive) are traps for foolish undergraduates to sink money into, being poorly made and providing very little service in terms of security and repairs. I would recommend either calling a realtor (Sherrill Realty has some nice apartments at reasonable prices—that's who my sister leased her apartment through) if you want to live within walking distance to campus or looking for apartments farther up either 15th street (look for some near veteran's parkway) or in Northport, the city next to Tuscaloosa that is within a 5-10 minute drive to campus. The university is trying to become a walking campus, so there is bus service to campus from several major places and parking lots, so a car isn't a necessity, although I really don't recommend coming without one unless you absolutely must. Avoid renting apartments in the Alberta City or the West End/Downtown area unless you have visited them first as these areas quickly transition from safe to unsafe. I'd also avoid The Links, Boardwalk, and The Retreat apartments, all of which have definite security issues. On the up side, rent in Tuscaloosa is pretty reasonable, and while there aren't a lot of entertainments, there are some good bars and clubs, and its within easy driving distance of Birmingham if you need something a bit more exciting. Hope that helps!