ahembree

Great question! Did your undergrad supply you with a thorough background in literary theory? Mine did not, and I was totally lost during my first semester as an MA student. I wish I had read this book, which was recommended to me by my classmates: The Routledge Companion to Critical Theory.

Other than that, take this pre-MA time to just enjoy reading. I haven read so few books for pleasure since I started my MA program in 2008; now that I'm teaching, I still rarely have time to read! So make sure to throw some Hunger Games, Southern Vampire Mystery series, Dave Eggers, or whatever other non-canon books float your boat on your reading list as well!

As a teacher, the last day of school is June 15th. I've been counting down days left from 100 days, and now we're at 14 days left. These last two weeks seem SO AWFULLY LONGGGGGG. I've been banging my head against my whiteboard ever since. =.='' I want to stop being the teacher and start being a student!!! ><''

Has anyone seen this before? It's my favorite spoof on cultural theory. "But it's empty." "But of course.":

Ah, good one. This Onion article will always be a favorite: http://www.theonion.com/articles/grad-student-deconstructs-takeout-menu,85/

P.S. -- I just ordered Terry Eagleton's Criticism and Ideology: A Study in Marxist Literary Theory ​and I'm very excited about it. I've only read bits of it before for an undergraduate class. Has anyone ever read this one before?

***thriftbooks.com is great if you don't know about it. It only cost me $4!

Elementary my dear, Watson (or stephenfirrell, ha). What you have there is ''prolepsis.''

I actually go to Penn but I live and have lived with people who go to Villanova. The train ride isn't terrible. We live in West Philly and the train ride is about an hour and pleasant enough though it does involve a transfer. It seems like most of the grad students I know live in either Center City or West Philly and do the commute thing. That means they haven't needed cars, which is a good thing because I find Philly to be quite a hassle when you have a car (ie, there are too many blocks which require a parking permit to park for more than two hours, there's absolutely no parking outside of a parking garage in center city at any reasonable hour of day, etc). That said I do know someone who goes there and lives in West Philly with a car and it can be useful. I myself have a Zipcar account and that's worked out really well, imo.

And Philly is totally a bike city--you'd have no problems there. Hope that helps.

I just bit the bullet and officially accepted UC Riverside's offer! California, here I come!

Two things.

1) For the past few years, I have not bought any pens. Most of my pens come from hotels or conferences, where I loot the "free stuff" booths. I take my free pen/anything else collecting seriously. Occasionally, I accidentally steal lab pens. But my pens end up becoming lab pens anyway... circle of pen life.
2) I totally misread the title of this topic.

Hands in the air for dreams coming true off the waitlist! Congrats!

Ultimately your experience will be what you make of it. [\cliche]

At the same time, however, if i were you I would probably choose UNC. My opinion is uninformed, as I know little about Iowa (other than their great writing program). I just know that UNC's resources and the relative availability/proximity to conferences will likely be better (and for lit crit, it's a pretty legit). I'm also obsessed with that area of the country weather-wise.

It's up to you. Play against me for a post and pretend Iowa is your favorite by a mile, then try to explain why. I've found this helps me figure out what's most important to me.

Villanova (MA). Ready to get my Cheesesteak on.

Ditto! I just got a grad assistantship at my school after a few weeks of sweating. Sending good waitlist vibes!

I began this process thinking only about Ph.D. programs. I started with a list of great schools based loosely on "rankings" from a variety of sources. I checked to see if the funding packages were good first, then read as much as I could on faculty members and haunted JSTOR. As I moved further along I started to consider job placement as a factor as well, though there is only so much one can predict about the market in 5-6 years. The more I read around here, the more I also started to consider department affiliations with things like the Folger library or the availability of conferences in the school's area.

As the new year rolled around, however, I discovered that a shimmering chimera known as the "funded MA" actually exists. If any of you 2013-ers are coming out of your BA immediately or after even a few years off, I would strongly advise you add a few of these programs to your list of grad schools. When I started, I just assumed that basically no MA's were funded, but this is not the case (and there are several threads hiding about here dedicated to them). I was fortunate enough to stumble upon several of these programs and am very happy with the results. If I were to do this all over again (pleasegodno) I would increase the number of funded MA's on my list and prioritize Ph.D. placement and funding the highest.

I'm glad to hear there are people doing this for programs. Kudos!

I'm sure you remember what it was like to look for housing, but I have a few issues that are of particular concern for me that might help you craft your list of apartments:
Prioritize apartment complexes that have websites and disclose rent prices up front. In some areas I'm sure that's easier than others, but I really appreciate it when I don't have to call/email a landlord to find out the cost was prohibitive anyway.
Is there a system for grad students to seek a fellow grad student roommate? (I know that can seem a bit sketchy, but bills is bills)

Also, a few other miscellaneous thoughts:
Are there any campus events/seminars/gatherings that occur before the first week of classes (optional or otherwise)? It's helpful to mark the calendar as early as possible when deciding when to start a lease/buy a plane ticket.
Are there extracurricular clubs/activities available to grad students on campus? I know plenty of programs aren't exactly "free time heavy," but it's worth knowing.
For those who may not be fully-funded or provided a stipend: links to part-time jobs available on/near campus would be useful.
What days/weeks are summer classes in session? If a student was unable to visit before summer due to work/school, it would be beneficial to visit a summer class in the field while apartment hunting. Are tours given during the summer?
Do any local storage facilities offer discounts to students? Some cross country movers may have stuff to ship out before classes start.

I'm sure there are plenty of other things to mention, and that some of the above are inapplicable to your program or overly-based on my own current needs.

Anybody else making their decision based on the results of the NCAA basketball tournament?

All three of my possible schools play in the next two days -- I will be watching attentively.

i wonder if i can renegotiate a rejection into an acceptance?

"Shakespeare is the happy hunting ground of all minds that have lost their balance."
--Joyce, Ulysses.

More than applicable to a paper I once wrote...

I'm sure we all know this one, but I couldn't resist....

Just replace the "B" with an "M"

I think that this might be a little bit too sensitive. For example, I applied to the MA programs I applied to as 'back-ups' because of where they are located, and the fact that my personal preference is to (ideally) attend a direct-entry PhD. I think referring to schools or programs as back-ups reflects personal preference that could be based on a host of different things including location, fit, and funding, all of which have to do with the preferences and experiences of a particular person, and are almost never meant to condemn or belittle those who consider the same programs or schools to be exactly what they want. When I say the MA programs I applied for were my back-ups, I say it because given my situation and my personal preference, they are not my first choice. That is not to say that these programs are not fantastic and amazing and anyone would be lucky to attend them, it is simply saying they were not right for me. If I were interested in staying in Canada (where there are very few direct-entry PhD programs), then they would have been my first choice, but I am not, so they were my backups. I think eoyarbidem and ahembree were coming from the same place, in that for them PhD programs were first choice, and MA programs second. Not that MA programs are terrible and unworthy and only deserving of the lowest rank on everyone's radar and consideration. Many people, and rightly so, find that MA programs are perfect for them because of the particular needs of theirs that are met (honing down research interests, gaining teaching experience, getting a taste of grad life before committing to a PhD, the list goes on), and others simply don't, and that is just fine.

Just trying to lend some perspective

I'm feeling much more positive today, and as we all know that doesn't always last very long, so I guess I better enjoy it while I can. I only have one more PhD program left to hear from, and I'm assuming it will be yet another rejection, so I'm trying to view acceptance into an unfunded MA program as a good thing. Glass half full?

"...Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and razor lay crossed."

Hi eoyarbidem, the MA at Villanova in PA has a late deadline, though I'm not sure exactly when. They are funded.

Yeah, Strier is great. He was my MA thesis advisor, and I learned a lot from him. He's also a really great professor. Bradin Cormack is also really nice. I love Quilligan's work. I work on gender and epic poetry, particularly Spenser and Ariosto, so I'm jealous of your acceptances Congrats!