GoodGuy

Hey guys...I got the email from our cohort-mate across the ocean this morning. Gonna respond tonight. earlyamerican--mark told me he knew someone else from the cohort, how strange that we've already been communicating, right? i cannot wait to meet you peeps in april. i'm still in berkeley, LOVING it, but still wanna check out Harvard before i make a final decision either way. DRINKS all around when we meet up! GG

How funny is that about Mark? We had a meal out at Berkeley the other day and he said he knew someone else in the Harvard Am Civ Program! are you still going to visit? GG

A phone call is how I found out I didn't get into one Ivy. I emailed a prof I'd been in touch with (mainly) via email since before the application process. As I'd heard rumours that results were being heard, I sent him an email, asking if there was any news about my application decision. He sent me an email, asking me to call him. I did. We chatted. He told me that I hadn't been made an offer to be part of the incoming cohort. I was cool with the results actually, as I was pretty sure at the time which two schools (that I'd already gotten into) I'd really be choosing between. If anything, it was a relief to find out that I hadn't gotten in--fewer wrenches, as it were, thrown into the decision-making mix! But I also thought it was relatively cool of him to handle it that way. I hung up feeling all right. Then a coupla days later, I got the rote, standard "rejection" email, and that felt so anti-climactic that I could only laugh at it!

Hey KFed--Who's the prof in English doing queer stuff? Curious... And do you know where you'll end up in September? DId you work with Salamisha Tillet at all? She seems really bright and progressive...and at Penn now.

Same here, earlyamerican, Harvard and Berkeley--you going to the April 2nd event? Will be good to meet one of the other 4!

I'm fairly sure Bernstein's getting tenure. And I'll be glad to be there -- if I go -- working with her and Garber and Carpio and Sollors and Higginbotham...

I went up to check things out a week or so ago and I found that there's a split--a lot of first years live in the grad housing (which I unfortunately didnt get to see) and while some G1's live off campus, virtually every other student beyond the first year was living nearby but off campus. I'm trying to weigh the options myself now. Good luck and safe travels! GG

I might be heading to Harvard, too. But still trying to make a decision... Going up for a visit in April.

Still looking at Berkeley myself, got my funding package today and was MUCH more impressed than I expected. In some ways it's better than one of the Ivy offers I'm considering. So I'm gonna go out to the meet-and-greet in a coupla weeks and check out the dept and campus.

Yup I know the feeling. I was actually in the library when Berkeley called. I yelped while listening to the voice mail message. Got strange looks from the other people reading and studying. So I ran outside and called my best friend, giggling like a madman! Congrats!!!

Got into Brown and Harvard for Am Civ; turned down by USC and Yale; waiting to hear from NYU. (Also African American Studies at Berkeley.) Funded pretty well by all three I got into, but waiting to visit Harvard and Berkeley before I make a decision... My research is around gender identity formation, mainly racialized constructions of masculinity in youth cultures. Good luck to everyone--indeed, even as I continue to hear all the guff: "good luck being able to find a job with your 'inter-disciplinary' degree!" GG

And therein, miratrix, is the crux of the dillema...if you go to Brown, you WILL become a regular, and I assure you, once you're a regular, the GCB (as we call it around these parts) is the place to be for a fun Thursday night! But I'm such a cheerleader for Brown, it's ridiculous...! I had a GREAT time there, and met some really cool great grad students in my undergrad days...

Mani I'll send you a private message with my info in case you have questions. I dont mean to seem like an idiot, but what's a 1/1 in terms of living arrangments???? let me know... GG

Yeah, it caught my eye. First because I thought "Gee, when did Princeton Af Am start taking PhD candidates, and why the heck didn't I know about it?" Then I read the comments and I thought "Ah."

rinneron you should start a "guide to graduate fit"--okay, bad title, sue me!--or at least, someone should start a guide that answers the kind of elegant, necessary questions that you pose in your post. it could even be online, but comprised of info on all the depts, plus first-person, experiential evidence about each one, what they offer, who's teaching/leaving, how--at the end of the day--the applicant might "fit." I know all this is so capricious and random in many ways, but a guide like this would at least go a little ways toward making some applicants better informed and more comfortable in the app process... just my thought... to yellow: i did my undergrad at wustl; the english dept is incredible...

Waiting to hear from NYU's American Studies program here...

I'll look out for the Tattoo-ed One, and introduce myself, no doubt! I agree about the students at Harvard Am Civ. All the guys I spoke to seemed very cool and inviting, patiently answering all my questions and offering some good insight. I felt very comfortable with them, as well as with the correspondence I made with profs Stauffer, Bernstein, Biel, and Sollors. I'd like to get to know some of the film faculty there as well. My project's sorta around public displays of desire and racialized masculinities in youth popular cultures. Yeh, Fed, I have heard that about Harvard, the lack of tenure given to junior faculty. Why is it that way? Any ideas? GG

Right back at you! Congrats! Hope your waiting game wasn't as agonizing as mine! :roll: Yup, I'm gonna go to Brown's student invite...as for Africana, there are some great great people in the dept at Brown, especially Tricia Rose, Corey Walker, Tony Bogues, and Francoise Hamlin who just came in last year. And in Comp Lit there are some good folks too, especially Arnold Weinstein (the Faulkner/Morrison expert who I THINK should still be here if/when you matriculate) and Susan Bernstein, who does a lot of comparative theory stuff... If you go let me know and I can tell you more about Brown (did my undergrad there.) Later GG

i think i'm the exact opposite of you! I got the call from Brown on the 27th, then the post from Harvard the next day, but nothing either way from Yale, call or email or post, so I figure I probably didn't make the cut. I didn't have a clear-cut "top" choice, mainly because there are people at Berkeley, Brown, and Harvard that I'm excited to work with (some more than others, depending on the school, but you know what I mean.) Funny, I'm also VERY excited about working with Robin Bernstein--we had a nice email conversation back before I applied and it sounds like she'd be great to learn from. I'm definitely going to Harvard and Brown's student days. I actually did my undergrad at Brown, so it will be nice to stop by again and see the old digs...I love the Am Civ program there, some very good people in popular culture and comparative race stuff, which is part of my project. Maybe we'll meet in "real life" at Harvard's event? Let me gather my thoughts about living in Cambridge and I'll start to badger you! Congrats to you, mm, and to everyone else! GG

Got the phone call from the department at Brown yesterday afternoon. Got the package from Harvard in the mail today. Haven't heard anything from Yale, so no idea what my status is there...Where do you think you'll end up? I should pick your brain about life in Cambridge in case I end up there. Still wanna hear back from NYU and Yale before I really make a decision. Was Yale a call? an email? a letter? GG

Got into Am Civ at Harvard today. Anyone else out there get in? Wanted to ask you a question or two... GG

Hey, just curious, if you don't mind saying, which program at Brown are you considering? Also considering Brown here... GG

Brown's a great place. I did my undergrad there, and since I got into a PhD program there I'm contemplating going back for that. Providence is an interesting city, not huge, not small, lots of cool ethnic communities, GREAT italian and dominican food. Small grad school but people are close and friendly and very helpful. You'll have a cool time there. GG

Actually the one you mention was for Northwestern. I saw a coupla results on the board so I went to the Northwestern site (really, my application) and there was a link (as they'd said there would be). I clicked it and it sent me to a page of a rejection letter. As for USC, I was sitting at the computer one night, noticed an email in my inbox, saw that it was from USC American Studies/Ethnicity, hurriedly clicked it open...and found a rejection letter! Oh well... I didn't check your field before I clicked over to reply, so maybe you're in a diff dept that does it differently? Good luck out there... GG

That should be cool in Providence. I did my undergrad there, and Prov is a town that runs the gamut from cheap to expensive, especially around campus where you can find decent-to-GREAT housing and food for relatively good prices. Don't know where you'll be coming from, but the BIG investment you'll want to make will probably be for your winter coat! It can get pretty chilly here in jan and feb. I actually really miss Prov, which has some great things about it; hope you like it! (And there are GREAT people in the history department--that was my department!) GG