lyonessrampant

It's a Master's. That's a different, more career-based degree; I'd go Emerson for the funding. Even IF you plan on going on for the Ph.D., I think you'll get enough experience to create a competitive profile, but you'll have a lot less debt. However, that's an outsider's perspective, so you should really analyze the social and personal components for each program to weigh them against each other and what YOU want for a program. Best of luck!!

MENSA admittances are based on the IQ test, not the GRE. I'm not saying that to be snarky or anything, just to clarify. You have to have the percentile equivalent of about the 136 or above to get into MENSA (on the adult GRE or equivalent juvenile test... all of which are usually administed by a psychologist). That is a different skill set. The GRE does NOT measure that. The old GRE quantitative largely measures your abilty to do math in your head and geometry. The NEW GRE math section has a practice calculator and, I'm told, more math that is algebraic based, so maybe take that. I haven't studied math for years and years and with no studying scored an ATROCIOUS 650 However, if you're in the humanities, it doesn't really matter. Pick your battles. If you want your math score to be high for other reasons, review the new GRE math section and take it again post August 1. It really has NOTHING to do with IQ, seriously.

Fun thread!!! All my LORs and stuff. "What?! You didn't get into Harvard? In personal feedback they just told you were competitive? I'm flabergasterd not everyone loves you BUT I know you're brilliant." Me: "Well, so few of us have gone on for the Ph.D. and it was shooting in the dark, so I guess I'm happy with all the state schools I got into." Profs: "We're proud of you too!" Me: "I sure wish I'd gotten into my top programs " My profs "It doesn't matter!? All those schools will be drooling over you for jobs when you're done." Me: "Um. . no. I got into a good top 40 and for my program better program, but it isn't Harvard or Stanford or whatever, so that whole concern for jobs once you finish your Ph.D. program is a concern still." Undergrad advisors/fan club: "Not all all! You're just as awesome as those other kids!" Me, "Um. . .IQ doesn't matter. Apparently, their work is better, so those whole AWFUL job stats might eat my soul. . .sigh " May be overly dramatic/depressive but just looking at the Chronicle job stats is REALLY depressing. I've been reading lots of articles about how fucked up the American, even, Ph.D. system is. Are all the non tippity top programs doing us a disservice by presenting us with a degree that won't ultimately compete with the preferred children who get to the Ivy and (close to it) system that produce the "BEST" candidates? I don't mean for this to be the whiny part of me talking, but those recent job stats are AWFUL!!! I feel like even someone who got multiple offers to top 50 programs is still looking at destitution when there is a surplus for English Ph.D's. Reassurance please?

Hi, sorry, I meant thread not threat in my previous post! If NYU is like UC, you pick almost all your own classes, so I took almost all of my nine classes in my major and secondary areas (early modern and late Medieval) so I got lots of prep and have presented papers from classes at conferences and had a publication, BUT again you have to be pretty independent and forward thinking to make that work for you. Overall, I had an AMAZING time at UC's MAPH program, and I know people both like me and very much the opposite of me. I got partial funding, which helped, but I more than doubled my undergrad debt nonetheless As long as you know what you're going in for and what YOU have to do to make this a great experience, I think you can be happy, but it isn't for everyone. Best of luck with your decision! Also, please excuse typos as I'm writing this on my touchscreen phone keyboard.

Check out the threat of U of Chicago's MAPH program. Similar pros and cons and similarly designed program. I did the UC MAPH program, so you can PM me if you have questions, but in summary--cons: can be seen as a cash cow/feeder program by other institutions (partly true), can be treated as a second-class citizen compared to Ph.D. folks (partly true), don't get teaching experience so don't have that to put on CV while other MA in hand applicants do, only a year so you have to cram a lot in fast and hit the ground running (I don't know if NYU is only a year), potentially big cohort so you have to be proactice and standout, oh yeah and the money; pros: access to world-class faculty, access to world-class research resources, rewarding and challenging courses, rewards for proactive/assertive students to distinguish themselves in the midst of a lot of people.

First, I don't get why people were voting down chaospaladin. I bumped it up to level it out, but it seems like he/she was trying to provide good questions to help the OP. Second, I think I might also go for the Northwestern option. It is pretty expensive, which is scary, and the odds are not great for the advancement to the Ph.D., but you could leave with your MS and be more competitive, theoretically, for fully funded Ph.D. programs (as another poster said). The thing with the other two options is that you would be constantly worried about money, and that would impact your liklihood of completing your Ph.D. One thing to think about, though, could you do the UNC option and just stay until you get your MS and then reapply? That would get you new LOR contacts and let you strengthen your application (as you would do after Northwestern if you went that route and didn't get advanced to the Ph.D.), but it would be substantially cheaper than the Northwestern option. Maybe you'd get directly into Northwestern's Ph.D. program after that? They clearly see promise in you, so maybe having the space to do an MS and then reapply there would let you show that your potential is worth investing in. This option (get the MS and then reapply) may be your best bet. If I were you, I'd find out from UNC and Stony Brook if you can just do the first year or two there to get the MS and then make the decision at that point whether to stay there or apply to other programs. Good luck!

That's a tough one! I'd probably try to find the person introducing you beforehand and tell him/her how to properly pronounce your name. It might be awkward to correct him/her at the beginning of your presentation.

I've had the emails to set up my email and I think register for classes? Haven't figured out how to do that yet. . . and officially confirmed through my school's webportal. I got an email a week or two ago saying that I'd get official paperwork the first week of May with the orientation schedule, medical records forms, etc. Maybe that's when you'll get stuff too? If you're worried, just email the DGS or secretary and ask if you are missing any paperwork and when you can expect to get it if you are missing stuff.

You should go find him and ask while you're at Yale and then report back to us

I haven't read them, but word on the street is that his book of short stories Palo Alto is total crap. In the words of one of the creative writers on the lit forum, it's like a totally stoned 8th grader wrote it. I can't really stand him, so I don't plan to read it, but I'm not surprised. Also, I don't think that he is funded, so I would sure hope that he doesn't count as part of the normal accepted cohort.

Just as a head's up: for the MA it doesn't really matter if you do the degree in another country you plan to teach in, but for the Ph.D., it is usually recommended to do the Ph.D. in the country you want to teach in, especially if that is the US. To find more awesome Austen scholars, read the relevant journals (or do a search on JSTOR or MLA), find contemporary scholars, read their work, and then look where they teach. That can be a good way of approaching the creation of your schools to apply to list.

I also find him annoying. There's a whole thread on him in the lit, rhetoric, and comp forum. He's apparently also enrolled in programs at Columbia and NYU in addition to Yale and now Houston. Apparently, he plans on maintaining all of these degree programs?! I think he must just occasionally sit in on classes and wax on about himself and then leave. I highly doubt he is writing the papers, doing the research, or meeting the stardards that the rest of the Ph.D. candidates are. Money can get you anything. Hopefully, when programs "admit" him (ahem. . .let him in without review) they don't count him as one of their cohort and just have him as some sort of dilettante loosely attached to the Ph.D. program.

Oh, I get it now. I thought it was the same degree. Either way, I still think he's lame. I guess programs accept him because he funds it himself and it might be good PR?!

Ask Germany for an extension. Tell Denmark that Germany is pressuring you with a deadline for a response, especially if Germany won't extend your deadline to respond. That may get things moving faster in Denmark. Good luck!

I don't know anything about how much you can expect to make in social work, but my guess is that generally the income potential is not super high (I may be wrong!) so going into a lot of debt for the MA might really affect your quality of life later. With a $50K student loan debt, your monthly payments will be around $700 a month for around 20 years (there are debt calculators out there that will give you more exact numbers). Is that a number you feel comfortable spending each month on loans? Best of luck with whatever you decide!

The Ivys and top 20 schools who have MA programs generally do not fund their MA students or only very partially fund them. Their Ph.D. candidates are fully funded, usually very generously. Others will be able to speak to this more, but check out schools who offer full funding for the MA (or at least mostly full) where you also get to teach. This will be a big advantage for you when/if you decide to go on for a Ph.D. Schools like U of Oregon don't fund you for the first year, but you can get funding through teaching for the second year. U of Utah has some funding for the MA level and Kathryn Stockton is there. It sounds like she would be perfect for your work. Syracuse and Villanova offer funded MAs as well. Anyway, don't focus so much on the rankings, especially for the MA. The brand of your Ph.D. will matter, but that of your MA won't as much. It serves to get you into a Ph.D. program, but you will be well served by any place that prepares you well, gives you an opportunity to teach, lets you develop your writing and research interests, and provides you chances to begin to conference and perhaps publish. Be aware that some schools either don't take students who have an MA in hand or take very few of them. U of Wisconsin-Madison is switching to not take people with MAs. A lot of the Ivys and top 10 schools tend to prefer straight from undergrad applicants. Stanford, for example, has less than 25% of their cohorts who have an MA already, so I'd recommend researching all this pretty thoroughly and then applying to a variety of Ph.D. and MA programs so you have choices. Good luck!

Cylon! LOL! I think you're right. I wasn't saying the above to criticize U of Houston, just to point out the needlessness of going from one place where he is supposedly doing a Ph.D. and apparently close to finishing to another place to do another Ph.D. in the same thing.

So what's he doing at Yale then? Why would he go from Yale's Ph.D. to U of Houston? Or maybe he's already completed the Yale Ph.D. and wanted to add on another one from U of Houston. . .whatever. I find him annoying.

Ask profs and fellow grad students if they would be willing to share their syllabi with you to give you an idea of materials, how much you can cover in a course, reasonable expectations for student work, and, if possible, maybe go sit in on a couple of those classes being taught now by an experienced professor so you can observe some classroom management strategies. Good luck!

Oh definitely, I don't recommend relying majorly on GC for advice, but for little questions, it's great. It is also really useful to find out about schools and profs you don't know about by asking. Best of all, it is a place to commiserate together with people who know what you're going through!

I also accepted in the evening (about 9 PM the school's time) and heard back within minutes from the DGS, but we'd been communicating pretty regularly (and this was WELL before the April 15 deadline), so I don't think I'd worry if I were the OP. Also, in addition to the other possible reasons listed for the delay, might it be possible that the cohort will be quite large? I don't know how many people are usually in a Master's level program for your field, but in my field, the MA cohort can be large (whereas there were less than 10 accepted to the program I was corresponding with), so maybe they're just trying to get through responses to a lot more people than in my situation (and perhaps that of the previous poster as well)? Anyway, congrats and good luck!

I just also wanted to say thanks to the Grad Cafe community. Like any other informal network (cyber or live), advice isn't always right, but I think by far you get more good than bad, and I'm always happy to put Mill's Marketplace of Ideas into practical effect. I've been around Grad Cafe for two application seasons. Between an initial attempt, the attempt that ended up with an MA, and then a quick dip, and this year, I've participated if four (FOUR!) app seasons. I know that if I'd found it earlier, I wouldn't have needed as many attempts. I am a first-time college student, let alone grad student, from my family. My undergrad institution is small, and lots of the English folk don't go on for graduate degrees. My profs were supportive and awesome, but it had been decades since any of them had been in a Ph.D. program. Needless to say, my first round of applications (including Harvard, Cambridge, and UPenn. .. yeah, unrealistic much?) didn't quite work out. I didn't learn anything from the process because I didn't get any feedback. I didn't do much to prepare for the next round, which included Harvard, Brown, UChicago, Notre Dame, and UW. I got an offer from Notre Dame (absolutely no idea why because my personal statement was aweful. . .) and an MA offer from UC. I know the debate about the MAPH program; I found it useful, but I can see the advantages of other programs. Anyway, I applied to UC, Princeton, Northwestern, and UIUC. I found Grad Cafe late in the game. This was right when the recession hit and programs cut their cohorts in half. Princeton said I'd have gotten an offer the previous year. UC said I was competitive (but they almost never take people from their MA to Ph.D.), Northwestern doesn't like UC migrants (learned that later), and I sent UC's personal statement to UIUC (oops. . I didn't want to go there and my subliminal mind deliberately sabotaged me . I took a few years for personal and family reasons and applied again, using lots of advice I'd acquired from the GC and others (including my UC profs). I had lots of state school success (UMinnesota, UUtah, UOregon, UKansas, waitlist UTA, UW in a personal phone call told me they loved my work but didn't have an advisor for me) but didn't get into my top picks (UChicago, Harvard, Stanford, Duke). I think my age, time out, etc., affected that (and the obvious wealth of really competitive applicants). Anyway, the point of this digression is to say that empirically, in my case anyway, Grad Cafe made a positive difference. Thank you all! I'm so happy for those of you who got in and hope to meet you as colleagues. To those of you who didn't: try again if this is really what you want. Ask for help here (take it with a grain of salt of course and everywhere you possibly can. I'm more than happy to read personal statements, share anecdotes, whatever. I wish you all luck! And I can't say enough how long it has been since that Dec 1 deadline (UTA and UMinnesota for me) until now. I'm SO glad it is over!!!!

I'd email and say you're heavily leaning to said school but say you're really concerned about the lack of first-year funding. Ask if there are any updates about getting funding and also ask if there are any top-off funds or anything that, if you don't get full first-year funding, could at least help ameliorate your financial concerns. Good luck!

Are there people you want to work with at UB and ASU? If so, I'd probably take either of those, probably UB. Since you're paying on this (crazy for an English Ph.D. in my opinion), I'd factor in money though. Which school is cheapest for you? What is the cost of living comparison? Which school provides you the best support to finish early? That sounds like UB since you'll get through your course work in two years for sure. Money would be an important part of the game for me in this decision, but all that aside, I'd probably say go UB.

I was at Chicago for my MA, so I can tell you it is an awesome school and I loved it, but Yale can't be that much lower in the rankings, can it? I mean it's an Ivy, super well respected, and I would guess might be more well known internationally if you're going to end up outside the US. Without more context about program or at least field, it can be hard to make recommendations. However, if you live on the South side (live as close to UC as possible if you do), you can find a studio or one-bedroom for 700 or 800 (at least you could in 2007/8). Cost of living is pretty high, though, so you're looking at taking on quite a bit of debt to live in Chicago. I have no idea how much it costs to live in New Haven, but I'd guess it is less than Chicago. The money seems to say go to Yale. You have an enviable problem Best of luck on your decision!