JeremiahParadise

After Theory (Eagleton) and a bunch of novels for me: Bellow, Ellison, Kerouac, Plath, and more. Also, since I'm applying this fall, I'm reading lots of recent articles by prospective profs/advisors.

I imagine you might encounter Gloria Anzaldúa, but I'm not certain. Maybe check out Borderlands/La Frontera. UT?

Also, I hope posts like Fiona's will encourage folks in this thread to move on from discussing/stressing about GREs and deal with what really matters: the writing sample! How are folks doing with those? I've been working on mine for a few weeks -- it's a (reworked/shortened/tightly focused) version of my MA thesis -- and it's been tough! What sorts of strategies/tips have you heard about/been using to help get through these mothers? How are you dealing with your programs' differing page requirements? I think I'm going to shoot for 15 pages and just use that for all my schools. Ugh. You? 2012 applicants?

I love reading stuff like this. I haven't taken the subject test yet, but knowing that you and others with similar scores still got into great programs (thanks to your writing/recs, etc) is really great to know. Thanks! And congrats

That's a great read -- thanks! I recently spoke with a professor at Vanderbilt who told me she gets LOTS of emails from students who want to work with her. I'm sure most profs at major universities do. Anyway, she said that she only really thinks these emails are valuable if the student senders have read her work and can make specific connections between her interests and theirs. Otherwise, she said, it's pretty much just a BS attempt to get a foot in the door and is totally transparent to the prof. She recommended being as specific and succinct as possible, while still saying enough to be memorable.

Man, Ammiel Alcalay's seminar. Oh my. So excited to apply.

Hi folks, I plan to apply this fall and I'm wondering if any of you can speak to Terry Eagleton's presence on campus -- is he still there from time to time? Have any of you taken any seminars with him? Thanks for whatever info you can provide. PM me, if you'd prefer.

Sounds like awesome advice -- too true. Enjoy the next few years, for sure. Man, so happy for/jealous of all of you who are admitted/heading off this fall. I expect you all to report back regularly with notes about your new cities/departments/seminars. Mmhm.

I believe it -- I felt pretty much nothing when I finished my MA, and I wasn't even going right into a PhD program. I think it's just because, for some/many of us, it's just a step along the way. Not that I'm not proud of myself/others with MAs shouldn't be proud/happy/excited, but, for me, it'll pretty much be a waste if my PhD applications don't work out. Scary.

I just loled reading this... while proctoring a final exam. Thank you. "Like everything you ever had before, all mixed up." Oh my.

Congrats! What's your area of interest, if you don't mind my asking?

Just ordered Eagleton's "After Theory" on Thriftbooks -- I'll report back in a couple weeks when I get to it

Wow -- and free shipping in the US? Daaaaaaamn. I like that. Thanks for sharing.

No worries -- clearly, I've got plenty of time

Speaking of MLA/Boston/conferences -- will any of you be heading to the Boston College Joyce and Religions forum? Might be worth peeping. http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/centers/ila/events/joyce.html

I need to get into this program haha -- this is TOO exciting, all of this. Oh my. One year from now, I'll know -- can't wait.

Even just the keynotes -- wow. Thanks for posting this.

Congrats! Brandeis has a great program -- good for you. What do you mean when you say you're only just now getting used to it? Disappointed with other results? Whatever it is, I hope you love Brandeis -- I hear it's wonderful in spite of its small size.

I appreciate the insight -- especially in comparison to the old test. It's been almost 5 years for me, and I'd been wondering how different my experience would be this time. Thanks again.

Congrats! Really happy for you.

Congrats, all! So amazing to see so many acceptances this late in the game. Quick question, though: how big is the cohort at UT? And the wait list? Congrats again!!

@Mistral-- I wish I could say more, but I can only really say that UGA treats its grad TAs and adjuncts REALLY well. In fact, one of their adjuncts is responsible for a lot of the New Faculty Majority stuff that's going on right now -- and he's involved because he's shocked, as far as I can tell, by how well UGA treats it's contingent faculty in comparison with other universities.

I think this is my favorite thread going right now. It's so good to see so many folks getting good news this late in the game. Congrats, all!

My MA language exam -- which I hear is similar to many others, but not all -- was to translate part of a critical essay on Madame Bovary in 1 hour. It was three pages or so, written in French, and I got to use a French/English dictionary. I didn't study or prepare more than a day or two, and I hadn't had any French since freshman year of college. I passed first time. Now, as for the PhDs at my school, I believe they had to do something similar, but I'm not totally sure -- maybe a longer translation x 2 languages? I imagine that's all it was. To prepare, I'd recommend looking at verb tenses/conjugations -- assuming most programs do something similar to mine, you can look up unfamiliar words, but whether or not you can translate/conjugate verbs correctly into English is another story. No matter what you do, though, I appreciate how far ahead you're looking! Good luck with all your prep, foreign language-related or otherwise.

This was great -- thanks! Every prof I've encountered has echoed most of this (beside the math stuff, of course ) and professional/professionalizing potential seems to be the name of the game. I wonder, though, about how to communicate our potential for passing/finishing/publishing/tenure-tracking without appearing as though we "know it all" already. How does one strike a balance between being informed about the department/program/research/professionalization and being interested/excited/desirous of learning more and more the whole time? Blah.