kfed2020

That's lame. Couldn't they have transferred your app to rhetoric (with your permission)?

Woops. "They" = Stanford.

FYI, all -- I got in touch and they'll have made their decisions by early next week. Best of luck!

Good to know. re: Berkeley -- does this mean the rest of the admits won't be getting money? ie, that the money Berkeley spends on postage will amount to something more than what they're offering? If so... no matter what the letter says, they may as well keep it.

Truth. And given that Harvard started their new PhD prog. in Film this year, who knows -- Harvard could become quite an interdisciplinary place. As it stands, though, not so much.

I applied to English programs this fall with similar-ish concerns, and have had a pretty successful run (so far). English depts are the place for me, but as someone also interested in visual culture, I have to say that they're maybe not such a great place for everyone. It's hard to find English programs that will both allow you to strike the balance between literary and visual culture as well as offer institutional/faculty support for doing such, but I think it can be done. This is maybe a good place for anyone who's had the same problem to come discuss. The important thing for you to first think about is whether or not you really want to be rooted in an English program. Think about what interests you most. As a DGS at a top-15 English department explained to me when I asked him/her this same question: historically, film studies has been closely concerned with a specific--some might say relatively narrow--set of questions concerning film diegetics, production, and history; theoretically, film studies work came to be shaped in the earlier life of the discipline by specific engagements with psychoanalysis and related theories of spectatorship and the gaze, from which, one might argue, it's still trying to recover. To you, I ask (as I was asked): Are broader questions about textuality and representation, about the role of narrative in spectacle and entertainment, about literary responses to social experience, part of your work? Are these the kinds of issues you want to be thinking, teaching, and writing about? If so, there's a strong argument to be made that an excellent PhD program in English, especially one with demonstrable opportunities for interdisciplinary work (see: Princeton, Michigan, Duke, Berkeley, Penn, and so many others), would serve you best. If not, stick to film studies. If you really do want English and/or some form of literary studies program, I would look into programs that are closely aligned with English programs but not necessarily restrictive to a particular canon. Have you looked into Literature at Duke, for example? Rhetoric, at Berkeley (which has a Film Studies track)? Modern Culture & Media (Brown)? Modern Thought & Literature (Stanford)? I name these in particular because a) they aren't Comparative Literature programs, which you might only fit well into if you're really into transnational training; and they share a great deal of overlap with the English programs at these schools -- both in terms of theoretical interests and in terms of faculty -- and might serve you well. There are many similar programs, at Minnesota, a couple other UCs, and elsewhere, but I'll leave you the pleasure of the heavy digging. Remember that no matter how wonderfully interdisciplinary they are, great English programs do have a certain agenda that usually involves some degree of canonical training -- disciplinary training. Are you going to cringe over that pre-1700s requirement? Not so set on reading the Faerie Queen? Departmental requirements in English may get on your nerves if the canon at large is really of little interest. And grad school isn't a place where you'll want to waste time taking more than a few classes that will ultimately prove completely unnecessary to your training. Think about what you want, first, and get in touch with faculty and graduate students at potential departments. They'll tell you the deal and you can go from there.

=( I hope you are, too. You all seem like such wonderful people, and I think, as I'm probably going to choose Duke no matter what I hear from other schools, that this will really make the experience all the much better. For all of us. Best of luck to you all.

I think your more recent grades in your Masters program will count for a lot more -- especially given that they're graduate work, but also considering that they'd constitute an 'upward trend' for your grades. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

My adviser explained it to me this way: "Grad school is the place where you specialize. Professors aren't looking to train people to be 'well-rounded.' They're looking to train experts in a particular field. No matter where you apply, that field will -- for you -- never be math. So who cares if you can count?" I took it to heart. Though, for what it's worth, my quant score was somehow higher than my verbal. And I really CAN'T count. I use my fingers, I swear.

She applied to comp lit.

Yeah... I mean. I know someone who got in. Called two nights ago. But... this person's situation is unique, so it'd make sense if they haven't told everyone yet.

Harvard made its calls 2 days ago. (My advisers are on the AdComm.) Incredibly difficult to get in, this year. Good news for some of you, I hope!

Sorry to hear it. My impression is that Duke admissions are incredibly hard to predict. Best of luck in your other apps.

Where're you waiting to hear back from?

Is this the week when most people start to hear back from programs?

Which profs at Harvard interest you (out of curiosity)?

It does and doesn't matter. After all, if grad school is, for you, the means through which your contribution to the world can be most successfully achieved -- and is therefore your way of 'relieving' or interpreting those world problems -- then of course it matters. I never believed in not-worry or not stressing about my life for the sake of everything going on around me. Of course its important to keep perspective. But at some point, its okay to be a little selfish -- grad school means a lot to you, and to all of us, and everything we're all feeling about it right now is completely legitimate. =)

I'm wondering the same thing...

so is this the week that stuff starts to hit the fan?

My friend just told me about her interview. So... yes, I guess they've started. Not sure if there's any timeline though.

Congrats! Davis is a wonderful program.

No prob. Also, if you haven't heard back yet I wouldn't fret. I think departments have to be a lot more careful this year to make sure they're only admitting as many people as they can afford to fund, and so they might just be waiting to hear back from the Grad School on how many people that actually is. Prospective Students' weekend is late February, so you're sure to hear back by then. Good luck!

I guess I'll volunteer. Hopefully I can be of a little help? I got into Duke this year, with no publications, mediocre-to-good GRE verbal scores, a mediocre GPA (with great grades in english and comp. lit. classes) as well as with an extremely carefully-written and intellectually energetic personal statement, a chapter of my senior thesis (i applied straight out of undergraduate) and what I can only imagine were stellar recommendations. I"m pretty shocked, to be honest. If my acceptance is proof of anything, it's that the big factors for English programs are all qualitative. Seriously. I thought I had a snowball's chance in Hell.

Congrats!!! I just heard good news from Duke. I don't really know what to say right now.

Has anyone else gotten into Duke? I'm so surprised and overwhelmed.