Timshel

It depends on the day. Some days I feel like "yeah, I have a chance," and then other days I'm like "I am so f-ed. This is never going to happen."

All of my LOR have advised me to contact professors, but I haven't. Although I had questions, I didn't see them as relevant to the application, and I didn't want to run the risk of looking stupid.

And, I do have one anecdotal evidence of knowing someone who should not have gotten in to a really hard school to get into because he did not meet the qualifications by any means but he got in due to a correspondence he had with someone on the adcomm.

It depends on the day. Some days I feel like "yeah, I have a chance," and then other days I'm like "I am so f-ed. This is never going to happen."

I am confused, why do you think they were comparing disabilities and fatness/weight issues as essentially the same? I haven't gotten that from anybody. They were just saying that disability studies has a place in the humanities and so can fat studies. I think there is a fair argument as to the difference in permenancy but there are disabilities that aren't permenant just as there as genetic disorders which make some people obese from childhood. I know far too little about the ideas and rationale behind fat studies, so I would want to know more before making a judgement.
 
Edit: this was in response to pepperthedog

How about next we do PMS studies, and then Bad Haircut Studies, Unflattering Outfit Studies, Shrill Voice Studies... Basically reduce every trait that people find naturally repellant into an "unfairly marginalized minority group" and build an academic sub-discipline around it. I think that will move the humanities in the right direction, and certainly real minority groups won't be insulted at all. 

I am really surprised to see these really simplistic ideas coming from someone who presumedly has the intellectual curiously that we have in the humanities. I asked a legitimate question. Fishbucket said that we should leave "fat studies" to those in medicine, so I asked if s/he feels that we should also leave disability studies to those looking for cures for illnesses. I didn't say that being fat = being blind.
 
Do you tell addicts that they do not have real diseases, and those with depression that they merely need to look on the bright side? Or is it only weight that you assume is the direct result of some personality flaw?

Interesting point. I do think a blind person would find it fairly offensive for his lifelong disability to be compared to a bodily state that can be changed over the course of several weeks on a reality tv show.

I wasn't suggesting that the field of Fat Studies was about how to combat fatness, I was merely responding another poster's claim that in the vast majority of cases, weight is about personal responsibility. That's not always the case.

WOW. I see where all of this is coming from now. Good luck making that comparison to someone with a disability.

I think that it's interesting that most of the contributors to the Fat Studies Reader are not fat. They are morbidly obese. I agree that our society seems to have a pretty insane problem with (particularly female) body image, but morbid obesity is a medical term that I'm inclined not to read in any sort of "cultural studies" way. It really is an incredibly unhealthy state. If we try and create a minority identity label for it rather than treating it as a medical condition, I don't think we're helping anyone.

Is this real life? Am I the only person that thinks this is ridiculous? The "personal responsibility" comment that you "don't get" derives from the fact that in the vast majority of cases being overweight is directly involved with diet and physical activity. Are you sure you didn't know that? I know it's hip and trendy to claim that pretty much everyone is a minority, but seriously this kind nonsense is only advocated by WASPS who are desperately trying to minoritize damn near everyone.

And this is the problem that the moderators are dealing with. Stop taking issue with tiny, nsignificant bullshit. I'm trying to be supportive and give you information about a school that we've both applied to. I'm not saying you applied to a bunch of schools and haphazardly spent your money. Jesus...when did people become so touchy? Read the post again...realize I'm talking about people who apply everywhere and take up acceptance spots, waitlists, etc and make people like us sweat it out because we have to wait for them to relinquish space for us...I need to stop reading these forums. It's apparent many of you haven't been in the field for very long and, perhaps, need to understand the nature of the beast a bit more.

I got into UC Riverside guys!!! I was not expecting this!!!!
 
I called them this morning when the check next to the box that says, "application is under review" mysteriously disappeared, and the grad secretary said, I'd know my status in a month or two, so I assumed that was an implicit rejection. I am in shock.

You should practice being more of a dick to people before you start your program this fall. Programs really like that sort of thing. 

You should become a rejection consultant, make bank.

IN AT RIVERSIDE!!!!

You can also make it so that your facebook profile is not searchable.

quick/friendly word to the wise: if/when you move to california, you may not want to refer to it as cali.* it's like calling san francisco "frisco."  
 
*unless you happen to be singing along to biggie smalls. then it's ok.

Ok rems, based entirely on this meager and vague information, I'm going to bet that you won't get into any programs. Your turn. You do me.
 
There are definitely a few other people from this forum that I would be very surprised to see get into any programs. In fact, I would bet good paper money on it. Who wants to go in $500 via paypal? That's enough for maybe 4 applications next year.

Look up Rob Latham at UC Riverside. Also, UC Riverside has a huge special collection of science/fiction fantasy. It is a prominent area of study in UC Riverside's program.

Look up Rob Latham at UC Riverside. Also, UC Riverside has a huge special collection of science/fiction fantasy. It is a prominent area of study in UC Riverside's program.

For those who haven't seen it, here's a terrifying blog: http://100rsns.blogspot.ca/

Aren't you tired yet?

but I thought Harvard was super not-cool and stodgy and too expensive and too selective and had tough exams?

What are any of us looking for? Acceptance? Validation? Love? Why are we here?

I think when it comes to admissions, we're all underdogs. This time last year I was severely depressed, living at home, completely uncertain about what to do with my life. I thought I would apply to grad school, started an application to SFState, and then went to talk with an old prof at Columbia -- who told me to throw the SFState app in the garbage and apply to Stanford. So I completed exactly one application last year, expecting nothing. I literally forgot I had applied until I got the acceptance email, on exactly Februar 15th. Life is nuts sometimes.

So now I'm here, learning new languages, having too much wine with my professors in our philosophical reading group, discussing heidegger with French rocket scientists... I love it. I'm trying my absolute best to stay here. I really want to be a part of academia, a forever part. I've never been happier, or felt more at home, than doing what I'm doing right now. That's why I'm going crazy over these applications. Doing this job, studying these things, being a part of these conversations...well it just makes me really damn happy.