bigjumps

I'm moving to Urbana in August, and as I'm moving from overseas I'll need to set up a new bank account, find a cell phone company to use, and many other things like that. I'd appreciate some recommendations on good banks for grad students (handy to campus and helpful with queries/problems), cell phone companies with the best rates and coverage, the best wireless internet etc. I'm also moving into an unfurnished 1 bedroom apartment, so recommendations on where to buy cheap furniture and kitchen things when I arrive would be incredibly useful as well! I'll definitely try craigslist, but I won't have a car, so won't be able to pick up any furniture I buy second-hand. Are there people or companies who do pick-ups and transportation for that sort of thing?

Hi! I'm not visiting next weekend (I'm trying to arrange a visit either in the last week of March or first week of April) but I'd love to hear how your visit goes. I'm not really sure what to expect! Anyone else arranging visits? How much time will you spend there? Please feel free to PM me because I'd also love to meet anyone else thinking of going here.

I also got one of those acceptances (my first one - woohoo!) and I have an external MA, so don't give up yet, fellow MA-holders!

I know I haven't! I'm overseas so I still hold my breath every time I check the mail...just in case. But I am starting to lose hope at this point. It's been two weeks! (Although wow, feels like months.)

My focus is on British Romanticism, which actually has heaps of scholarship coming out of the States as well as the UK. I only applied to three places: Toronto, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and CU Boulder (I see you've applied there too). I haven't heard from any of them yet though! Despite having some great suggestions about where to apply, a lot of my research was the same as yours (checking out faculty profiles online etc.) and I have similar worries about not matching up closely enough. But then, so much of this is beyond our control, and I think we've probably all done (as you say) as much as we can. Fingers crossed!

Ha, yes, sometimes the acronyms have taken a while to figure out! Although the context helps a lot. I'm from New Zealand - did my undergrad and MA here - and I'm quite fortunate in that I've been able to get advice and guidance from people familiar with the US system. My MA supervisor went to grad school in the States, as did the academic I'm currently a research assistant for, and I know they have a lot of friends/contacts at American (as well as British) universities. I personally haven't had contact with anyone currently studying or working at any of the places I'm applying to though, but I hope it will be useful having recommendations from people who know the system they're recommending me for. Regarding scholarship: most of the academics at my university have PhDs from overseas - Britain, US, Canada - and I think the criticism I've been introduced to reflects that as well; it's pretty balanced. (This is just my personal experience though - I'm quite interested in what other people in other places have to say about this!) I guess it makes sense - NZ is so small, that if I only read criticism to come out of NZ, I wouldn't have a very good sense of the field at all. What I have noticed more about scholarship here and in Australia is that, at least in my field, there is a sense that we're often overlooked by the rest of the academic community, all the major conferences and journals coming out of North America and the UK etc. I think this is beginning to change, but it was a topic much discussed at a conference I went to in Australia last year.

Hi there - I'm international as well. I don't have a definitive answer to your question, but I have done a fair amount of over-analyzing the results on the board from previous years, and I haven't noticed international students getting notified any later. I suspect we hear at the same time...except in the case of schools who send out acceptances by post (one of mine does this!) in which case it'll take longer to get to us.

Thanks for the info. And congratulations - that's really awesome that both you and your wife got accepted. Gives me a teensy bit of hope too...I just have no idea how long to hope for, being overseas and not sure how long the post would take to reach me. Fingers crossed, everyone!

I noticed last year on the results board that a couple of (PhD) acceptances came early (in January, actually), and then more in March with the rest of the MAs. I just wonder if all of those later PhDs are actually MA/PhDs, or if some of them are PhD only...I really hope so because that's what I applied for! I also wish we could check our statuses.

I'd love to hear more about this one too - it's my top choice program! When is the campus visit?

Chiming in to agree with everyone so far and add Joanna Newsom.

The form you send in with the transcript was linked to in the small writing at the top of the documents upload page (I think - I did this on Friday and my brain is a bit fuzzy now). It's not a specific transcript form, but rather a page you need to print out with all your details for anything you have to mail in (which is only transcripts anyway). So read everything on that page, just in case! I'm applying from overseas so have to mail mine in with plenty of time, even to get it there by January.

Same here! I submitted my PhD application on Friday (non-direct entry though) and just uploaded my SOP straight to their documents page. They had instructions about what formats were allowed (DOC, PDF etc.) but no special form. What threw me though, was that they have a special form you need to print out and send with your transcripts. They don't tell you this until you've submitted the main application though - thank goodness I hadn't sent mine yet.

I had the same problem. My writing sample was within the 15-20 page limit at 18 pages, but over 6,000 words. When I realized this it was too late to change anything, so I submitted it as is...and I just hope it's going to be all right. Surely, since they've actually stated 15-20 pages, they can't be annoyed about this. ...Right?

I used the Princeton Review book and found it really useful, but I also used the REA book, which a friend of mine gave to me after she finished with it - I found they complemented each other well, as the REA book listed quite a few authors (and key texts to know) which the Princeton Review didn't (or didn't have as much info on). I wouldn't recommend REA on its own though - its practice tests were especially unhelpful. They didn't seem to follow the actual test format as well as Princeton Review's practice test, and I scored horribly on all 3 REA ones, even though I did fine on ETS's practice test, and on the actual test day (although it didn't feel like it at the time). The other thing I found really useful was Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia (there are similar Oxford and Cambridge ones, and they should all be available at university libraries), which helped me to narrow down the major texts to know by particular authors, and has plot summaries for many of them, which are VERY helpful. You won't have time to read everything, but knowing character names, settings, and major plot points means you can recognize some texts you've never read. Good luck!