Yellow#5

Well, mostly entrepreneurial types undertake this kind of study. I'm not saying everyone who gets a PhD in rhetoric is guaranteed an instant entry level corporate job with a 7 figure salary, but it's pretty hard to be an efficient minister of propaganda, charismatic cult leader or revolutionary subversive with less than an extensive survey of the field.

No problem, "Life Science" folks are not generally known for their great sense of humor KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ummm, you seem to have racked up a good number of acceptances, so I'd say you're doing alright

orinincandenza, Thanks for keeping me and the rest of the readers in mind. All my friends are telling me Brandeis is a crappy school because I didn't get in and they think it's what I want to hear, but their program interests me, they are still a good school in my mind (even without me) and, hey, there's always next year. I just don't want to read general news stories about losses to endowments and generalize what that might mean for the one tiny department of the school that I care about. Edit: Oh and BUMMER on the spam. Spammers should have their hands chopped of and be thrown in Guantanamo Bay, just in the general case, but in a case like yours, they should suffer a thousand bee-stings first.

orinincadenza, if you do get wait listed/accepted, please post and let us know how things look at Brandeis. I'm already rejected, but may reapply. I know they were hit hard in the Madoff scandal, but their English department is really great. I may reapply next year if nothing goes my way.

Already got my first rejection -- which I dutifully posted on the results page. Makes me uneasy that I was such an easy "no." I have 7 more applications out there, but suddenly, I'm not hopefull for any of them. Edit: Academiccricket, don't feel too bad about an early rejection from Harvard.

It reminds me of Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and their coin-toss probability analysis.

Make sure, when you're searching for English results you search for Literature as well as English. I've noticed several people with rejections have entered their field as Lit. or Literature. Sorry, no news on UVA. I'm waiting on them just like everyone else on this board, it seems.