booksareneat

The best grad school prep is to skim the list of critics who everyone refers to, but few people have really read that much of: Lacan, Bakhtin, Barthes, Foucault, etc... That way you can throw in great phrases like, "well, I don't think that he meant is in the Lacanian sense of the word." And then you can be prepared to roll your eyes when someone mentions Spivak. "Spivak?" you say "she is sooooo 1997."

As for rent in the city, I don't know what the undergrad poster was smoking when he/she went apartment hunting. I lived in the cities years ago and now that I'm moving back I've been looking. It's definitely not on par with Chicago. Yes, it's more expensive than many midwest cities, but what else is in that category, La Crosse? There are some beautiful spots to live in that are quite affordable (though perhaps not right next to campus). Oh Twin Cities, how I love thee so.

Something else that comes to mind is that you have varied interests (not necessarily bad). If you're talking about modernism, then there are schools that will come to mind (many obvious), but that list may be separate from the ecocrit schools. For example, when I was talking to Oregon, I was suprised to hear they were trying to make themselves an ecocrit school (or at least emphasizing it). For one school you might emphasize your ecocrit chops (I'm talking about your SOP) and for another you may emphasize other strengths and interests. Also, I would disagree with the GRE subject test comments--680 is good, not great. You won't be going to Harvard, but it won't keep you out of, say, Washington or another good program. I came from the great liberal arts school, but they aren't tied to "the field" situation, too. I went to get my MA at a research 1 and within a month I had learned 1,000x more about "the field." (Though, I still loved my undergrad).

All of this is good advice (I feel like there should be a FAQ for Lit applicants: if you apply to only top 20 schools, you are dumb) and have only a couple extra notes. You want to know your discourse better, so figure out--what do you mean by Modernism? Then, figure out what are the journals and conferences that you need to go to (Modern Fiction Studies, for example). Then, read every issue (obviously skimming) for the last five years of those journals. Make notes not just on who is talking about exactly what's up your alley, but in terms of style and theoretical approaches. That way you can get an idea of the lesser critics in the field (Ricoeur is great, but that's like saying you're going to visit Big Ben when you go to London--there's a lot more). A brief final note. I spent years trying to get into a PhD program, asking every opinion, working on my SOP and knowing the work of all the scholars I wanted to work with and you know what? All of my perfect fit schools rejected me and I'm going to a great program that is a pretty alright fit. This is just to say: nothing about this process will ever make sense. That's why you apply to a lot of programs, broadly spread out (in terms of rankings and fit). Good luck.

To quote The Hold Steady: "He loved the Golden Gophers, but he hated all the drawn out winters." I can attest to that. The most important part is that the Twins are getting a new stadium. Baseball in the spring air.

Certainly it's not the worst position to be accepted off the wait list on the 14th as you point out, but it does make for a really stressful time. I was accepted off that wait list this weekend and they said I had until today to decide. Really? A couple of days? Thankfully, I had already been emailing people and getting to know all the programs where I was waitlisted. In the end, that one acceptance simply made the decision easy. Best of luck to others. This whole process is trial by fire, then that fire is doused by multiple Gulliver-sized adcoms pissing on the fire of your Lilliputian dream home in academia (how's that for a literary analogy?).

There's nothing positive about the wait, but the feeling of relief is intoxicating. I'm still thinking, wait I don't need to worry anymore? I can actually plan for the future?

I feel the wait list pain (I was on four and in the years before my MA I struck out on a lot of schools), but I just accepted a spot at the U of Minnesota. They even added on a special fellowship. I told them, throw in a free mug and I'll take it.

After 8 rejections and 4 waitlists--one of those waitlists--Minnesota--gave me the thumbs up today. All I have to say to every other university in the country is WAITLIST THIS! Now, I'm going to skip through a field of flowers.

The answer I've always heard is that you're right to a certain extent. Schools bring you in according to you specialty (yours being Early Modern). I've been told they really don't look kindly on those who suddenly decide that they are something else entirely (say, if you became a Victorianist). But when you're getting ready to work on your dissertation, you should be prepared to be flexible. Maybe you can work on Thomas Dekker instead of Milton or someone else in the same specialty.

I don't know specifics about Dartmouth's program and I always hear the inane "shoot for the stars" on this forum. My advice is to really, really consider Purdue and PSU. Penn State is pretty great (that's the only one I researched of your group). Talk to both of those schools and get a feel for them. If you don't feel right about them, that's one thing. However, there is a very real possibility that you go to Dartmouth next year and don't get into any better schools and possibly don't even get into these schools. Everything about this process is random, don't forget that. So, if this is all about trying to get into the best school you can, I think that's just the ego thinking. Good luck.

I'm curious if anyone else has spoken with MN about their waitlist. I had a nice conversation with the DGS, but when I asked about the waitlist (size, my place, do they do it by specialty) she was evasive. Every other school has been quite specific when answering questions about the wait list, so I didn't know what to make of this. Is it just their style? Why be so cagey? All this said, it really was a nice conversation where the DGS went out of her way to say that many times that she thought my app was great and that sometimes they're not able to take people who end up going on to be superstars. I thought that was a nice gesture.

April 14th is technically Ruination Day: A big ole dust storm, Titanic starts to sink, and the Great Emancipator took a bullet to the head (dying the next day). I'm combining those two days, though, and I'll be listening to the Gillian Welch song about it. Unless someone wants to decline an offer at one of the million schools where I'm wait listed. In that case, Honest Abe, who?

Sorry, but I think this is another silly self-indulgent thread. Prestige is a silly concept to think about. Where do you want to teach? Do you really want to be at a small liberal arts college and work with students, publishing infrequently? If you were in that situation, would it be terrible? If, when you think about your future teaching, you really, really want to be at a Research I school and anything but would be failure, then you can think of something akin to prestige. But, as noted a thousand times here, what's more important is placement. How does your school do at placement? What type of schools are they placing you into? Are you comfortable with that? How good are they at placing you there? You could go to a "prestigious" school and have a much harder time getting a job, because it puts you into a category where small liberal arts schools don't want you and you're not as good as the "more prestigious" applicants. Settling is a silly way to put it--this is a professional decision and you need to have a very clear idea of what you want from your profession.

I'm on the waitlist and still waiting. I probably will be for a while.