OctaviaButlerfan

Oh god, yes. It's getting sad. Right now I'm at the point where I try to go as long as I can without bringing up Sherlock Holmes in normal conversations. But one of the other teachers I work with is as crazy for Holmes as me, and we feed off each other!

We watch the BBC series, read fanfic (a GREAT distraction while waiting for program notifications), just watched The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes the other day, and now we're into the Jeremy Brett series. Oh, and my husband and I pop in the Robert Downey Jr films on a rainy day (like today). I read all the stories over winter break, am in the middle of writing three academic articles on Sherlock Holmes novels and adaptations, my students just read A Study In Scarlet and wrote papers over it, and I'm going to the Sherlock Holmes conference at the University of Minnesota in August.

So yes. Totally sherlocked!

I just straight up squealed at your username.

What would I do differently? I would use the writing sample that I used in every application that got me an acceptance in all my applications. However, the take-away from this for someone applying might be the opposite: don't put all your eggs in one basket. But if you do: pick the best piece of writing. Go with quality and ambition over length-adherence and specialty-relevance.
 
Also, be super organized! I got lucky, but had some close calls. Triple check deadlines (I got it into my head JHU's was the 9th; it was the 6th.) Do a spreadsheet of who wants GRE subject scores, who accepts electronic transcripts, etc. etc. Get an early start on sending everything, because you never know what problems you'll encounter, and circa December, a lot of offices start closing for the holidays. I don't remember details, but I know I wasted money messing up sending subject test scores unnecessarily/to the school not the dept. etc., paying for expedited shipping on writing samples/transcripts--stuff like that.
 
Finally, after a computer disaster this month, I would underscore the importance of external hard drives/Dropbox/Box.com/et al. Back up everything. Constantly.

I'm in the same boat (except for the other schools...I'm just waiting on funding). I am supposed to know by Thursday (tomorrow) afternoon, but I'm starting to doubt that haha.

I still can't make any final decisions until funding comes through and I hear back from two other schools. :'(
 
Why is this taking so long?

Next week? Oh, bless you. I was going mad not knowing. (Also, congrats!)

I've gotten help from my school's writing center and it's always the same - brutal but really instructive.  I find it more helpful to have someone edit my work and really follow the logic of those edits instead of reading out of a book or offline.  For me, most of my mistakes are the same ones over and over.  So if I can just have someone smack me around (metaphorically) over a "then not than" a few times it will stick with me more vs. reading about the rule.
 
Also; your title reads like most of the texts I sent my husband
Ex: (all texts from me)
"I'm standing by the toad"
"No! I meant goad"
"Wait tad newt bode"
"Nooooo road"
"Ahem, I am standing by the road"
"Yeah, I didn't see you because I was texting, sorry"

Dear school of choice (a.k.a. only school that accepted me.. but.. but you were my second choice, really you were):
 
Please, please, give me a fellowship or Teaching Assistantship so that I can read books all day, and teach, and pore over my most beloved literary works that otherwise I must always sneak reading in between other duties (or somehow work into my final papers for every English course I take).
 
Signed,
 
Your academic slave for at least two years

For those of you waiting on Georgia State: I just found out I have been accepted from a friend who is a PhD student there already. She went to ask the secretary about my application after she talked to the department chair and was told she could tell me I have been accepted. They're trying to "streamline" their process of notifying applicants (which, if you look at the results board, I think they need to!) and everyone should know in the next few weeks. I'll believe it when I see it, though--my friend was not even waitlisted and she was informed in the 11th hour!
 
Oh, and they're waiting to hear back on funding for me. I will tell you all that the funding is not great. I have always been really excited about this program because I spoke to someone who is willing to work with me on Anglo-Jewish lit. But the funding is dismal!! 

I've got a huge list of schools that were put together by ranking/placement almost exclusively. I will start narrowing down when I get to writing my SOP later this year and I can really look at POI's. Mostly, I've been prepping for the April GRE (I know most people say don't waste time you could be spending on your writing sample, but first things first, right?) and bouncing ideas and fears off of my professors in undergrad. I'm lucky in that I went to a small school and have great relationships with several professors, but I'm also unlucky in that I went to a small school of which no one has ever heard.
 
I too have had the crushing blow of reality laid on me by just about all of my professors. Then, I threw it back and told them I didn't care. They gave me their blessing after that. 

Here's a NYTimes blog post that concerns that very issue:
 
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/pregnant-without-a-policy-in-graduate-school/

http://cheezburger.com/7111144704

Obviously no one would ever do this, I just thought maybe those of us who got rejections from programs we really wanted to go to would find it funny.

Hello! I am a fellow 2014 applicant! I applied a year ago while I was finishing up my MA but decided to take a year off and do some teaching. How are you all going about narrowing down programs? Rank, POIs, funding packages, etc? I have a couple in mind and do not want to shoot too high with rank, like the ivies, but I also want the schools I apply to to be good schools with great placement records. What are your thoughts?

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhh another historian!!!!!!! Here's my advice:
 
1. Contact the department. Do not start choosing schools by their reputation, choose them by their department. It is nice to apply to an Ivy League school but if your interests do not match, it is stupid. I wanted to apply to Harvard, besides there is generous funding from my country to go there but my interests did not even come close to those of the department.
 
2. Do your research. This is connected to the one before. Really investigate where you want to go, not only for the academics but also for the place. I did not apply to a place I did not want to live in. Check if your hobbies are available, for example, I checked out for field hockey teams. Ask EVERYTHING to grad students, most are happy to help you and to meet you if they have a chance. Many will advice you one the mood in the department, funding, housing, etc. Furthermore, they know very well the departments rankings/interests focus and thus can advice you to also try elsewhere.
 
3. Take your time to prepare your app. I was working full time so I started in July with the contacting the department/POIs and preparing GRE. I finished my applications in December. Take your time to write your SOP, show it to professors/friends in grad school. Many grad students I had met were happy to read it for me, even though I did not apply to their school. Take time to prepare for GRE. Although it's rubbish, expensive and almost pointless, it is necessary and you cannot fight the system. I had an excellent private teacher who started with the writing section and because I could write logically, I could also read logically. I got excellent results. My advice here is DO prepare it, and choose your course wisely. Work on your letters of recommendation, do not just ask for them. Meet your professors/employers, tell them about your ambitions, be clear on what is expected from them. Your SOP and CV should show the adcomms how great you are and why making you an offer is the best decision they will ever make. Now, I understand that you Northamericans are quite skillful in "decorating" your accomplishments, especially (I envy this a little bit ) because ALL your accomplishments have names. So you won the "Robert Smith Senior essay of the Year on how to dehydrate an amphibian's limb". So, do not put yourself down here.
 
4. Narrow your choices. Many people may not agree with this. I believe you shouldn't apply to more than seven schools. First of all, its loads of money. Second of all, if you did points 1 and 2 thoroughly then you will not be able to apply to more than 6/7. I had an EXCELLENT fit with a program I really really wanted to apply to but the POIs responded my e-mail very late and then he did not answer again. I could have applied, but how much do I want to be accepted in a place where they did not show any interest? Mmmm, I don't know. Another example, I was a great fit with a professor in a program on the west coast. He acknowledged that and was happy to talk about my application, but advised me that there was no funding and it was almost pointless for me to apply. Finally, one professor directly told me he was not taking any students this year. So, communication is basic and although I would have applied to, say, 10 programs, I ended up with 5. Which programs? The ones that are best for you. 
 
5. Be confident. You will have an offer from a place that really really wants you. It doesn't matter how badly you wanted to go into another program. They just don't want there. I mean: be prepared for rejections but be confident that a rejection is not a bummer, it just means you did everything you had to do and the department had to choose. This is difficult because you feel stupid when someone else gets into a top school and you don't. In the end, all that matters is the acceptance, not the rejection. 
 
6. Be realistic. Do not yield to emotional stress and drama. If you get in, great. If you don't, it is not the end of the world. Be an adult in your application, show your real potential as a historian. Be prepared to make decisions. Save money. Have a plan B (a master's elsewhere? Year abroad? You name it). Listen to those who praise you and those who criticize your work. Learn from mistakes. Get yourself published, it's awesome. 
 
Mmmmm I sound to motherly, don't I? You get more or less what I mean right? 

Nope, nothing. Has anyone e-mailed them? I'm considering it if I don't hear anything from them soon. Just to be like "Hey... I saw you accepted me... so that's cool..."

"Is it worth the money?" is a personal and complicated question. For me, the answer is no: I would accept, move, explore during the summer and familiarize myself with the scene, then blend in smoothly fall term. 
 
So, I officially accepted my offer online a minute ago. The "conditional offer" is conditional upon submitting final MA transcript and obtaining a study permit. However, the program messed up and this letter disappeared. Obtaining a study permit depends on proof of this letter. D'oh! These are things that can be resolved. I'm reminded of that Common lyric "Why do I need ID to get ID? If I had ID I wouldn't need ID!" 

I went ahead and contacted two grad students today from one of the programs that accepted me. I introduced myself/my interests and asked them each a handful of questions about the department's culture and the livability of their stipends. When I visit in a few weeks, I hope to meet up with one or both of them for coffee.
 
I, too, am waiting on word for funding, so when the DGS encouraged me, in two separate emails, to let her know if I had any questions, I finally caved and asked her (in as polite a way as I could) whether it was reasonable for me to expect some kind of funding package. It would give me so much peace of mind to know that I'd probably be getting SOMETHING, even I can't know how much, that I decided to risk impropriety in asking. I haven't heard back yet, but I wrote late on a Friday. I don't expect she'll be able to tell me much, but you never know.
 
To answer your question about how to respond, I initially responded by saying I was "thrilled" to be accepted, I was interested in visiting later this month, and that I would keep my eye out for the official acceptance and funding notification. The DGS wrote back a warm email, encouraging me to visit and connecting me with a few grad students.
 
I haven't contacted my POIs yet, but I will do so later today/tomorrow. I wanted to wait for my initial excitement to calm down a little bit so that I could more successfully craft emails to them that would convey a sense of cool composure instead of immature squealing.

Have people here taken some time off before applying? I took off one year between my B.A. and my Master's and then (what will be) two years between that and starting a PhD. I think it's helpful to be able to compare one's academic prospects with those on the open market (in my case, stints as a barista, maitre d' and bookstore employee, and some very sporadic editing/translating work). It's worth examining what those other options are, and how appealing; as someone else here pointed out, my "modest" grad school stipend will be more than I've made from any of those jobs.
 
I guess my point is: while things might be looking grim inside the academy, it's not like the picture is rosy anywhere else (aside from a few isolated sectors, like nursing). Transformations in the global economy are pushing productive labor towards the (former) periphery and away from the core, and--as we've now learned--you can't paper over that loss of jobs with lines of credit. I think this is a hard time in *any* sector.
 
There's two ways of looking at that fact. The pessimistic reading is that, generally speaking, we're all f*cked. The optimistic reading is that we have to fight for the world we want to work, and live, and love in. While the current trend in academia is towards more precarious adjunct work and less full-time jobs, diminished funding, hyper-competition and specialization, etc etc, there's nothing about any of that which is inevitable. If we fought for increased state funding, free public education, and revitalization of the humanities, then the picture would look quite different. (And universal free education, while seemingly politically impossible, is economically quite feasible.) This could be connected to a broader struggle vis à vis the social welfare state, workers' rights, and the importance of the "public" in the face of privatization. (Instead of "publish or perish," we'd have "public or perish!") I guess I'm trying to connect this notion of individual "dream jobs" to a more collective dimension; the point here is that we'll really have to fight--collectively--for whichever dream it is we choose. 

I'm in sort of a similar situation.. except that my only choice is between two schools in the state which I already reside. I've gotten the impression that it "looks better" if you move around a little. Any thoughts?

Yes, especially for ethical reasons. I was vegan for almost a year right after high school, but it didn't last. I do think often about trying again, but I haven't taken the plunge because CHEESE and because I'm a terrible cook. I should really do it...

It's a much more complicated issue, I think. For one thing, high quality, nutritious food is much more expensive than fattening foods. For another, many communities, particularly in poor urban neighborhoods, are food deserts in which access to nutritional food is limited but access to fast food restaurants is high. (One neighborhood in Pittsburgh that I can think of has a KFC and a pizza joint, but no grocery store.) I won't deny that personal responsibility plays some part in body type, for many people, but the issue isn't quite so simple. 

I totally understand this concern, but I also think the same argument could have been (and probably was) used in the past to describe then-burgeoning fields like Queer Studies, Black Studies, Chicano Studies and so on. Obesity is such an issue today, at least in America, that the topic merits some level of discussion from people other than public health professionals. 
 
I hadn't heard of this subfield until just now, but I'm intrigued. Some readings in "The Fat Studies Reader" sound interesting to me ("Double Stigma: Fat Men and their Admirers," comes to mind) whereas others seem a bit obvious ("Does Social Class Explain the Connection Between Weight and Health?" I assumed this to be common-ish knowledge?). 
 
In any case, I've always wanted to thoroughly examine the nearly barbaric obsession with fatness in the gay male community. Perhaps I'll be able to, now, and get it published in a future edition of The Fat Studies Reader!

I'm in the 29-going-to-be-30-when-I-start brigade.
 
I'm not sure whether or not there's age discrimination in this process but one of my recommenders from my MDiv program did ask how old I was and hinted that ad comms do take that into consideration. I inquired further and she said she had heard of some programs who have an unspoken, magic age for applying. Too young and you're seen as too immature, too old and you're set in your academic ways. I haven't experienced this or heard anything like it so hopefully that's just a vicious rumor.
 
On another (potentially more important) note, should we start a separate Star Trek poll? I vote TNG.

Seeing all the 26-30s reppin' is making me feel better about the fact I'll be 30 in a year and three months.    Sometimes I look at my freshfaced cohort-mates and go, "Goddamn I wish I had the energy to stay at school until 9 and work on the weekends and then go get wasted." 
 
But, on the other hand, none of them know what 7:00 in the morning looks like.

Last year, I had to email the DGS at Alabama in order to find out I was on the waitlist.  I never received a general email or snail-mail letter from them stating I was on the waitlist, and only got a snail-mail "regrets, but we won't be able to accept you" letter in the last week before the April 15 deadline.  Some of these schools don't automatically send out waitlist reminders, so yes, it's totally reasonable to send a polite email to the DGS or graduate secretary asking if they could update you as to your status.  At least that way you'll know one way or the other.