yank in the M20

Really? I'm interested in British 20th Cent.--Modernism, but also a lot of the outsider texts of the time. I'd love to work with Cooper and Nadel, but also Marlene Briggs, don't know if she was there during your undergrad, but she's very interested in reception of WW1, which is a big interest area of mine. What's your area of focus? Have you decided between Edinburgh and Madison yet? I have to say that I got into Edinburgh and Manchester and did my MA at Manchester and when I visited Edinburgh the following summer I was like, what did I do? It's absolutely stunning!

Thanks for the info. I'm on pins and needles--both because it was always my first choice and because I'm slowly but surely running out of other options. Congrats on your acceptances and good for you making a decision quickly! It must be exciting to plan/think about next year now.

Has anyone heard back from UBC? I've seen other Canadian universities go up on the results board, but still nothing here.

I emailed the graduate secretary and she said that all notifications have gone out--those nominated for fellowships were informed by email/phone, the rest of us will get hard copies of their decisions in the post. At least we'll know for sure soon.

This is the only university that I've seen that's posted a bunch of rejections before the acceptances. Weird. They'd better accept someone or I'm going to be really pissed off that they took all of our application fees with no plans to admit anyone. Good luck to all of you that are still in the running--I'm rooting for you because if some of you are accepted, then at least I'll know my application was given a fair chance.

Hey Anxious, I thought I'd read people saying on this board that the second MA could be a problem, but perhaps I was conflating the problem for teaching with the problem as a PhD applicant. Will you be able to teach on the one year MA? If so, I'd take it. If not, I'd think about it. As I said, the lack of teaching experience at the university level might be an issue, though maybe not with someone that taught high school like you, The only other question I'd ask if I was you is what the attitude towards people that get their BA and MA at the same institution is. I know that getting one's BA and PhD at the same university can make things tougher for you on the job market, or so I've read on these boards, but I'm not sure if the BA/MA at same would affect chances of getting into a PhD. Anyone want to weigh in? And I see you have a waitlist to consider--don't count yourself out yet! Good luck!

Hey there, I did an one-year MA in the UK, but didn't apply until the following year, after graduating. I would say that you won't have had much time to build up your reputation within the department in such a short time and your letters of reference will likely be less strong as a result. Also, you won't have gotten back a graded essay so you won't have the help on how to craft one that might be needed to perfect your writing sample. Two related things that you didn't ask, but that I feel the need to point out. First, completely secondhand, I've heard that having two MAs in different programs can be quite an obstacle to future jobs and getting into PhD programs. I would guess that the only exception here would be moving from a widely different field like the sciences into the humanities. And, based on my own experience doing my MA abroad, I would hesitate to recommend it. It was an amazing experience, I would recommend it for that, but there are almost no funding opps and no teaching possible during the MA. I've felt that the lack of teaching as well as feeling isolated from the US academic community has contributed negatively to my PhD applications. Also, my lecturers here are lecturers, not professors and, while they were amazing teachers and researchers, the US community really relishes titles for one's letter writers. Last of all, it's not normal to request support from your lecturers here during the PhD application season. They invited me to university events and chatted with me about my potential areas of study, but they did not read my SOP or my critical writing sample and they were unaware of the requirements and difficulties of the American PhD application system. Just a head's up...you might get that MA and then find yourself in my boat, unable to get into a PhD program.

I really don't want to know. No news is good news in this case since only those that have been rejected have heard. Therefore, I'm avoiding checking the website until I receive an email linking me there. Big flaw in my logic, but makes me feel like I still have a chance...

Come on, no need to be petty.

I'd say that those of us first rejected were the ones they wanted the least--no hope. They will turn to their waitlisted folks if/when people decline and then to the unofficial waitlist, as I'm calling you guys that didn't receive a rejection today. So, some hope. Unless rejections are going out alpha by last name or they are submitted to the graduate school by each subject area and only some subject areas submitted theirs? I don't know how these things work. My last name begins with a G and I'm interested in 20th Cent. British/Modernism if that's any help to you all still waiting.

quoting--'Maybe on round 2, I won't tell anyone I'm applying.' I thought the same, but I was such a stressed-out mess Aug-Dec and such a worried mess now that there is no way that I could not mention what I was doing without people seriously worrying about my well-being--if nothing else it explained my odd behavior. Plus, it's one of the only things you think about while applying and when decisions start coming out that it's hard not to share that with the people in your life. I agree with you about just wanting to know which schools will be more likely to like me for my experience. If I knew that certain schools had a preference for people just out of undergrad or even with a masters that they got directly after undergrad, I wouldn't have bothered to apply. It's like the rumor that BU doesn't like people with MAs--at least it's known around here, though obviously not advertised by them. So which universities don't like students over 30? And which care the most about previous program's prestige and/or the prestige of the letter-writers? Too late for me now, but would have really helped.

The rejections are rolling in now--I just received mine.

I know exactly what look you mean! I HATE having people feel sorry for me. And I know they aren't judging me, thinking I'm not good enough, but I can't keep that nagging suspicion at bay. I also have to say that I'm a bit jealous of all the support you guys have gotten--if it's offered, make use of it. I felt guilty getting my profs to submit to seven universities--the only people to see my SOP were from my MA cohort and same with the writing sample, plus a newly minted PhD. I didn't presume to ask my profs to read them and they didn't offer. I'm in England so I know it's a different sort of process here--if you were applying to their university, you would get their help, but it's not normal when applying elsewhere. And do any of you guys start to get annoyed with the schools for the perceived reasons for not admitting? I think about the long list of reasons I might not get in--because they favor young hotshots that'll have a PhD by 27 and a book, or two, by 30. That I said something naive or just off in my SOP, that my writing sample is on an unpopular author, that it looks at Freud, only in a historical context, but that this is unfashionable, that my letter writers were lecturers, not professors, because that's normal here in the UK but not in the US and so their letters will have less clout. And I get angry with the schools for some, like the last, thinking how ridiculous it is to be so focused on position, or the first, because I will be a dedicated student after knowing what it's like to work for years to support myself. Then I think that I was stupid to do my MA in England because my letter writers don't know people at the schools I applied to, there's less crossover abroad, and that can make a difference, as people on these boards have suggested. Or I think I fucked up in some tiny way with my writing and if I had only known--but also, why didn't I know, why wasn't I able to sense it? Okay, rant over. Just wanted to share with others in the same boat.

Thanks boppel88--that's good news for the rest of us. Not an implicit rejection yet. And congratulations, it's a great program.

Hey guys, I saw a posting on the results board yesterday that someone had heard from Bloomington, email from faculty. Do you know if they've contacted all of their accepts yet or is this a late fellowship notification (there were a few fellowship nominations a few weeks ago)? Any news would help all of us sitting here biting our nails.

I can't believe we're at another weekend and I still haven't heard from a second school. Of course I have heard that one of mine accepting only five and contacted them all, so it looks like the rest of us are on, at best, a very long waitlist. And another school contacted one only one person to accept--at least according to the results board. So my hopes are beginning to dwindle...I keep telling myself that it's not over until it's over, but the other part of me says it's less painful if I prepare for the inevitable seven rejections so they don't come as surprises. And of course I've been sick this week so in front of the computer even more than normal when I would otherwise be at the gym after work or out with friends....plenty of time to obsessively refresh the results page, my email, and check my phone for phantom no-ring missed calls.

Ahh, damn gradcafe autocorrect! Okay, well at least we know now. Thanks for posting rubyrunner and congrats! I see we applied to a few of the same places. What's your focus, out of curiosity? I'm interested in 20th Cent. British lit/Modernist studies.

Yeah, but all of the posters say they were contacted on the 29th, not the 28th, which wouldn't square with your call yesterday. Very odd. I guess we'll just have to wait and see--patience is not one of my virtues and this process is really testing the little I have.

I've started to see acceptances from Boulder on the results board and I was initially disappointed, thinking that I guess that means a no for me since I haven't heard, but then I noticed something bizarre. Why are several people posting that Boulder called them today, the 29th? It's still the middle of the night in Boulder. Someone says they were in a class when they found out they were accepted--unless they are abroad like me, even if they were on the east coast they would have had to have been in a class that started before 8am. I never had a class early than 8am in the entirety of my academic career.Thoughts? Anyone want to claim these acceptances and shed some light for the rest of us?

I'm sure we all have zillions--can't possibly pick just one. But this is one I keep coming back to, I love the energy/speed as it pulls you along: “And it was that self-same summer—June 5th, if precision is your watchword—that I first set eyes on a stringy southern hemisphere home-boy, a man-boy, a prankish puck by the name of La Roux (with very bad skin and even worse instincts), who sailed into the slow-beating heart of our half-arsed, high-strung, low-bred family, then casually capsized himself, but left us all drowning (now they don’t teach you that at the Sea Scouts, do they?).” ― Nicola Barker , Five Miles From Outer Hope

Well, here's to hoping that we all end up where we want to be! I would choose teaching high school over community college composition both because teaching comp is not my thing. I know it would be done alongside the lit if I taught high school, but that's the key word, alongside, and because working as an adjunct can be a hard life--paid by the hour, no health insurance...And, really, what's the difference between a high school senior and community college freshman? If anything, and I know these are vast generalizations I'm about to make, you'll likely have more kids keen on the subject in high school that will go on to a four-year school or won't be needing basic comp classes if they go to a community college for financial reasons. My first application season I was really out of the loop about what percentage of people get into PhD programs because it's so different here in England so I applied to Northwestern, Brown and WashU and was rejected by all three. I also used a writing sample from my dissertation different from the time period my SOP focused on, and this was the feedback I got re. my rejection. They want to see how I engage with the field I'm planning to work in. Since our MAs here are only a year, we choose our dissertation topic only four months into our MA and I changed my mind once I finished my coursework and began my dissertation. So I applied to all new Unis----and created a new writing sample and presented at conferences and rethought, revamped and rewrote my SOP. It meant studying 15 plus hours a week while working full-time and I just don't want to do that again next year. For those of you that reapply, based on the boards alone, not my own experience because I haven't been accepted anywhere (yet?), I'd say don't bother retaking the GREs unless your results were abysmal--I had heard it didn't make sense to do so and a lot of people started saying they wished they hadn't wasted that time; they could have spent more on SOP or writing sample. I also heard that a prof you worked closely with is always better than a big name, but I don't know if that holds up results-wise. Shame that you didn't get into Pitt, GodzillaGrad--seems like it would have been a great fit with your interests. I thought it was for mine theoretically, but it was so American-focused that I wasn't sure it would pan out.

My state is California--public school jobs just aren't available. But maybe I'll investigate Oregon and Washington. You're very lucky to be teaching honors . I hear it takes until the teachers currently in those posts retire for a spot to open up and for some that might be a long way off...Can I ask what made you decide to go back for your MA and try for a PhD? Do you not enjoy it or do you just want that something more?

Sorry, I meant that it IS a car city, as in hard to get around without one. As for applying to a safety, it's not that I didn't want to go, I researched and chose mine for a reason, but when people around you are going to prestigious schools and you know you will graduate and have even harder of a time on the job market, it can be a bit depressing to contemplate. But I read on here, actually, that applying to just top 20 schools is a good way to get shut out and, as I knew this would be my last application season, I wanted to broaden my horizons. I just wish now I'd kept the safety school but applied to another five in the top 30. Oh, well...I can only say I was cheap and didn't relish shelling out application fees, score reports and transcript costs to more than my chosen 7.

Crystalleem, if you apply again, make sure you look at UVa if you haven't already. They have some great scholars working on the fin de siecle. And they have a summer course in London taught by their big modernist!

It's funny because Greensboro was on my list, along with Western Michigan which was to me equivalent. I didn't want two safety schools so I dropped Greensboro for no better reason than it's not a car city and I had a great conversation with a current PhD at Western Mich talking about the great atmosphere of the program and the town. And the name alone--Kalamazoo. Ha ha! Then I read on the boards that last year Western Mich didn't accept anyone and suddenly I'm wondering if I have a safety school at all...and of course I know that sometimes what we think will be safety schools actually aren't.