kalleziffel

My research is on censorship under Metternich :-)

I got the Research Fulbright

I received the Fulbright for Austria.

Hallo Kafkaesk! I'm glad to hear that there are people out there already making plans to join our US-Germanistik love bunch!; I was in the same position as you (obviously) about a year ago, and I was rather fortunate to have some funds saved for travel, a badass adviser (and I went to a not-so-hot undergrad school) with some connections and who took the time to make some informal introductions to a few professors, and that some of my personal travel plans coincided with my prospective visits, so I went with my ex-boyfriend to San Francisco for a few weeks, during which time I was able to visit Berkeley and decided it was not for me -- I also visited the University of Chicago (whose offer I accepted) and Columbia when I was out visiting a good friend of mine in NYC. I did put some time and effort into the GRE exam (spent about two months studying) and received good scores, but I don't think that they are very important (in retrospect) -- a good, solid verbal score (mine was in the 700s) is a good score to shoot for and I think they could honestly give a rat's ass about your quantitative (unless it's like freakishly low....) .. and the essays are a piece of cake (though I guess they're changing them now?) Your personal statement and writing sample are very important -- and your letters of recommendation. For familiarizing yourself with programs; last year, I just made a list of all programs I was potentially interested in: Princeton, Yale, Chicago, Cornell, Stanford, Johns Hopkins and then started narrowing my list to my three top schools which ended up being the only schools I applied to. I was also accepted in all three programs, so if you're looking to uh ... save some of those application fees, I would warn against applying to a dozen or so schools: klein aber fein. Chances are that if you know a lot about the program, faculty, their overall emphasis, and think you'd fit in well (and visiting is a great occasion to really figure this one out -- you can really take the reins here!) then you'll get in. And it will help your Letter of Rec writers know what they need to emphasize about you. That's all I have for right now. My applications were grueling month-long processes and I had all kinds of dreams (I still do! I dreamt last night that I actually should be going to the Ludwig-Maximilian Universitaet and then somehow ended up in Princeton's bookstore -- and I didn't apply to or visit Princeton -- and was a bonafide Princeton student?!?), but I am confident that I made the right choice and it's great to be done. Let me know if you need anything else from me! Cheers, kalleziffel

Had to do the hard thing and reject two offers to accept the University of Chicago. Super stoked about the first quarter though! Good luck to all the rest of you (with your deliberations). Kalleziffel OUT!

I can claim the Columbia acceptance. Last school I expected to hear from!

Ich dank dir, Uldo!

Heard back from Cornell, very nice telephone call. I've been admitted!

I've been seriously worried about that ... if you google my name, the first hit is a youtube video of me sitting in a very noisy cafe talking about clean energy acts: I look awful and I sound idiotic.

Serbo-Croatian (not going to get too specific) and YES to Boulez and Penderecki. (Glad to say I haven't been there with the diaper changing ...)

the trappings of upper-middle-class American life still don't beat graduate school! (says the woman whose hair will probably turn white before she turns thirty). Interesting thing about computer programming, that -- I'm a translator, though, (French, German and a Southeastern European language) and just eavesdrop on them in the lunch room. If you're like me and don't care about sports, don't go to church, or talk about diaper-changing or TV programs… you’re just useless for the infernal ‘mainstream’ here. One needs bug spray: Webern or Stockhausen to drive them out. Anyway, all of this to say, I'm not too concerned about the job market. Musicology, eh? I've just translated a few texts for MUSIK-KONZEPTE (kind of the musical pendant to text & kritik) on Stefan Wolpe. Those durned tricky musicology terms were giving me some trouble!

Have to second what our friend "GK Chesterton" says -- if the whole telos of the graduate school experience is "job," get an MBA -- I'm in the corporate world right now, and I can guarantee that there are a lot of very happy people with jobs and MBAs there (cars, 1.5 kids, suburb kind of thing!)-- or some kind of computer programming skill; plus, where's our good ol' Bildungsideal if we're concerned with the silly job market. Raus, Neoliberalismus, raus! (If it had some kind of a form, say, erm...a "Samsian" one ... one would like to stomp it out of its parasitical, risible existence)

Woot woot!!!

Hello Mr. Chesterton (interesting pick for a Germanist!), My interests include (but are certainly not limited to!) discourse theory (Kittler, etc.), psychoanalysis, modernism, Frankfurt school, film, comp. lit/studies with the Southeastern Slavic "Sprachbereich," and ADORE, adore Thomas Bernhard, Jelinek and the other crazy Austrians (Handke not so much)! Have worked on Kleist, Kafka, Benjamin, Musil, etc. Mostly attracted to Chicago for their strength in reading literary texts -- you can't fail with Wellbery and Santner! I'm dyyyyiiiiinnnnnnng in this "cube farm." Have many email alerts set up ... had received a very encouraging email a month ago from a faculty member at UChicago though, so here's hopin'!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha .... fantastic !!!!