girlmostlikely

Congrats, TripWillis! My work is very vaguely queer theory-ish, if I decline, please take my place, Rutgers has enough Victorianists. Funding is very generous for what I imagine to be the standard of living for New Brunswick--about 26K for first year (plus a 5K summer stipend to be taken first or second years), and the 25K+ for following years with teaching fellowship.

Fellow acceptees: is the Nicholson fellowship what they call their stipend? The $23,750 year/$3000 summer funding thing in the PDF from GSAS. In any case, upward $26,750 a year is much more than I had been expecting from Columbia and am thrilled!

Also, arrivant, no need to apologize for crude language. The response from one of my recommenders was "hot damn."

Oh, hurrah!!! I haven't seen you around on wgi (granted, no one is really around on wgi) and even on these boards, and were wondering how you've been doing this admissions season. Looks like stalking wgi for years really paid off for us, eh? To reiterate, I've been the exact same way with Columbia for years. Last November, I had the privilege to meet and have an eye-opening conversation with a Columbia prof whose work I've deeply admired for years. It did little to undo the Columbia mystique! Will everyone be attending the open house? I definitely will. Congrats to all who have gotten in, and pay attention to those stats to those who didn't. Columbia is such a crapshoot for ALL of us because they get such a ridiculously large volume of applications. I very well could have been in your shoes, and I would be so very . PS my field is the long 19th century.

Gotan email from the assistant dean at GSAS. And reaching R is Mr. Ramsey's metaphor for his academic ambitions in To the Lighthouse.

I HAD THE EXACT SAME REACTION. This has been my dream for nearly 3 years. I have surpassed Q and arrived at R. Now onto Z!! I am revelling in literary citationality because I cannot process it in any other way.

@ Dorinda: Sounds like you'd be a good match for Chicago then. Or, atleast, a match for what Chicago are selling themselves as to me!

I agree with this completely. I think using such specialized jargon shows an acknowledgment that literary studies is a field, with its own debates and ways of thinking (often through things such as "discourses," or, perhaps debates about "humanism," or what have you). To use such language shows that you are trying to make your analysis of a given cultural object legible to other readers so that they can then respond to your work. To say, "Jude the Obscure is so radical because Sue Bridehead likes to read books and doesn't want to be a wife and stuff, she's so great!" doesn't give the audience as much to respond to "Sue Bridehead illustrates the impact of discourses about women's education and the New Woman concurrent with Hardy's writing of the novel." (This is some paradigm-shifting reading of Jude I have going on right here.) I also think that one can be incredibly passionate and erudite about their research--and, as vordhosbntwin says, have these interests carry into the day-to-day conversations in one's life--without being pretentious. Isn't pretension more about how we relate to others rather than ourselves anyway? My undergraduate adviser's work is some of the densest, theoretical jargon-heavy scholarship I've read, yet "in real life" he's the sweetest, most down to earth person to earth person ever who is always willing to engage me in some camp give-and-take about how on a given day I'm dressed like Liza Minnelli circa 1963. That said, I am SO AFRAID of being one of those grad students who can't talk about anything BESIDES grad school and their research. I'm hoping that wherever I am, I have access to my friends/family who, though very intelligent and educated, aren't academics.

Well, I live for the written word, and people come second or possibly third....

Hey now, I can say that, as of this time last year, I had about 1/4 of my (year-log) thesis finished, and was just about to begin the archival research that made up the bulk of my second chapter. I ended up completing the first draft by the beginning of April and was able to thoroughly revise it early enough to be able to meet awards deadlines. And my thesis may have ended up being about 150 pages (shh, don't tell any adcom members this.) Granted, I also wasn't applying to PhD programs at the same time.. What with my satisfying collection of acceptances, I am in no position to feel vulnerable right now, though my dream should be notifying on this week and I am on edge! I wouldn't call this program my top choice, because I love the programs I've been accepted to, and ultimately they could very well be better fits. But this is the school that I've been, literally and figuratively, dreaming about for almost three years. It is my Everest!

Ahhh, I just got a call from a member of the adcom about a half hour ago. I spent the afternoon in deep despair--that is, listening to Morrissey and drinking a bit of wine-- because I assumed I hadn't gotten in. And then I got a call as I was sitting in a Taco Bell in Nashua, NH with friends. The one thing I've learned in this process is not to assume to early rhat you've been rejected. So excited! Rutgers is a great fit for my interests and I'm looking forward to learning more about the dept.

Is there any consensus about precisely who is calling? Some people are saying the DGS, some POIs? If it's POIs I think we can expect more randomness. I wish POIs could call students whose applications were well received but ultimately could not be chosen. "Hey, kid, you're a great fit for Rutgers and we think you are super bright. Unfortunately, we had to go with another set of applicants. But don't be blue, we still liked you alot!"

My secret source says that accepted students should expect to be contacted next Friday. Apparently there's alot of administrative red tape at Yale.

Wow, looking at your signature, you have quite a list going on! Seriously, congratulations. I'm beginning to fear that successfully going through the admissions process depends somewhat on who happens to be on a given adcom. Unfortunately, at my two top choices (besides one of the programs to which I've already been accepted), many of the faculty members I am interested in working with are on leave/have other administrative responsibilities .

When was this?? I am going to tell myself that I have heard nothing because my names (both first and last) are at the end of the alphabet.

(Also, congrats!!)

When did you get the call? This isn't surprising as Rutgers normally calls on the weekend---last year they called on the 20th. Rutgers is such an awesome fit for me that if I don't get in I'll be so crushed. My work is on a relatively obscure part of 19th century studies, that Rutgers happens to be great for.

I'm not affiliated with Yale, but I know someone in the PhD program, and I was told that the final list of accepted applicants was drafted last week, but acceptances might not go out until next week. So don't be surprised if you hear something today, but also, don't be alarmed if you don't. I haven't heard anything about interviews. It seems awfully late in the game for schools to request interviews, nu?

Just wanted to say that I've also been accepted to Chicago and will attending the open house. All the faculty I've talked to so far have been incredibly enthusiastic and generous! One professor told me that 24 out of the 25 students accepted have committed to attending the open house. Which means that, though we might not know who specifically will be in our cohort (if any of us pick Chicago!), we'll recognize some names and faces once we know the official cohort list.

I just had three chats with faculty from one school yesterday! I was so nervous and had prepared an elaborate list of talking points about my work, anticipating it to be almost like an admissions interview. This was definitely the wrong approach to take! If you have other acceptances, it might be helpfulto compile a list of simple questions--about program strcture, requirements, etc--that will help you compare programs. However, I am still waiting to hear back from a lot of schools and am at this point seriously considering one program. So, yesterday I found it helpful to simply ask what the general intellectual environment is like in the department and at the university. If the person you are talking to was on the adcom or has otherwise accessed your app materials, you might ask why they thought you'd be a good fit for the program. You don't want it to come off as if you want to be showered with praise, but chances are faculty considered you to be a good match in ways you won't even know.

Hey all, I just recently got my BA from Brandeis (English major, WGS minor). I can't speak to any of the graduate programs but if anyone has any questions about faculty, resources for research, etc. (particularly for queer theory, theatre/performance, and 19th century) feel free to drop me a line.

I got accepted (email from POI last week) and today got an email saying I am among those awarded the Chancellor's Fellowship and invited to the March 16 open house. On that note, does anyone know (hearsay, previous experience) if it's kosher to request to spend that Friday night with a current graduate student? I currently live in Boston and while NYC is just a Bolt/Megabus away, I'm on a tight budget and my nearest cheap accommodation is my sister's apartment in New Haven. And I have little desire to take a late train to New Haven Friday night!