abluedude

well, that's ridiculous. you think they'd know this was coming, considering it happens... erm... every year?

Time to grade more composition papers.

NO. I did email Jill Quirk today (around 10am EST) to see if they'd be issuing notifications this week or next. No reply. I can think of little else.

Excellent -- because UK is neither my alma mater nor a school I applied to/am interested in. Sure glad I didn't send an inappropriate message. I think some of the advice here is anal-retentive... surely professors choosing grad students realize that clothes are just clothes... I'm not sure I'd want to spend my time with a group of people so willing to judge me by my garments. Just sayin'.

I say go with who you are. If you're relying on clothes to set the impression, shouldn't you work on your self-esteem? I wore a pair of Dickies pants, a long-sleeve tee shirt, and a Dickies sweat shirt vest on the first day (with my favorite Land's End hiking shoes). On the second day, I wore a long-sleeve "University of Kentucky" tee shirt, jeans, and my favorite shoes. I don't remember anything the profs wore, or anything any of the current students wore, so I'm guessing they don't remember what I wore either. Be comfortable and be yourself -- the last thing I'd think you'd want to do is set a false impression, selling yourself on something that doesn't represent you. Go dressed as you and see if you fit as yourself. The clothes are just coverings, not markers of identity.

Recently, during a paid visit to one of my top three universities, the graduate coordinator and department chair must have been having a day of policy transparency because I got the "low down" on their selection methodology. The department chair told me that he has *nothing* to do with choosing students to invite/fund, although he does write fellowship letters for those students whose names are provided to him by the grad coordinator. The grad coordinator has the job of shaping the incoming class as she/he sees fit. This means different things for different departments. I'm in English, so to the English dept., this means shaping a class by sub-specialty. If they get 25 applicants who are all fantastic and acceptable -- but who are all 19th century American poetry folks -- they can't very well take all 25. They try to select students who represent the entire range of the department's specialties, so in some instances, the "best" applicant doesn't even make it in. For example, if one college's Eng. dept. has a shortage of postmodern drama scholars, and your work focuses primarily on the works of Latina playwrights of the 21st century, you won't get in, and you shouldn't want to because who would you learn from? Similarly, if you are among 50 applicants who want to focus on the same exact subject -- queer theories -- then you're applicant pool just got that much more competitive. In short, your rejection from any number of universities could say less about your personal worth and more about the commonality of your sub-specialty for this application year. Perhaps in the future you might consider tailoring your statement of purpose to a more specific intersection of your field, so as to convey a more specific niche within the common field. I hope this "rejection feedback" helps, but I'd certainly suggest emailing/calling the graduate coordinator, as she/he seems to be the one who is responsible for thinking through the exact questions you would want answered. If that grad coord. is worth her/his weight, she/he will provide you with helpful, constructive criticism and encourage you to reapply. If s/he doesn't do that, I'd say choose another school to apply to next go around -- I wouldn't want anything to do with a department who can't make time for the individual student's success. Best of luck to you and to all of us in these horrible financial times. Don't let rejection determine your worth -- there's so much more going into these schools' final choices than the quality and diversity of your experience.

Theorygirl, If you accept your MSU offer and want to room with someone for the first semester until we figure out this town, I'm down for sharing a place with you and your partner. My partner will need to stay in our current location for up to 3 months after school starts, so we need a long transition period -- certainly enough to sign a 1-semester "lease." Anyway -- let me know what you think; message me on here and we'll exchange email addresses closer to time. abluedude

I'm considering accepting a PhD slot at MSU in English, but I'm concerned about two things: 1. How difficult is finding a short-term lease (month-to-month or semester-to-semester) in a "good" part of town -- and/or -- can someone suggest a way to find a live-in situation for super cheap for at least the first semester until I learn the city? 2. The teaching assistantship offered doesn't cover summers. Can I survive without summer aid, and/or are there opportunities in surrounding cities for work during summers?

Lexington is a beautiful city with traffic issues. You'll find it congested, and you'll most certainly need an automobile to get around, as public transit leaves much to be desired. Plus, you'll want to get out of Lex and see the countryside, wineries, horse farms, etc. There are plenty of opportunities around the Lex area to work in academia: Georgetown, Kentucky Community Technical College System (KCTCS), Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), and others hire adjuncts/single teaching classes all the time. Living in Lexington can be pretty cheap ($600 for a 2-bedroom apt is normal), or you can commute from Winchester or Richmond, where you'll find one bedrooms for as low as $350 a month. Interstate 75 takes you to just about wherever you want to go outside the Lex area, but if you're just looking for groceries, malls, or other shopping, you will not need to leave Lex at all. Several malls, Lexington Green, Hamburg Pavilion, ect. provide all the shopping a person can handle. In Lexington Green, there's Joseph Beth Bookstore, which is magnificent. Also a great comedy club there. There's an interesting underground right off campus, including Sqecial, a "head shop" that's very popular. UK's campus is navigatable by foot, bike, public transit; exploring Lex requires a car. Gas right now is $1.98, gallon of milk is $2.99. A great, great place to live is South Broadway Park or thereabouts; within walking distance to campus and transit. Not as cool as Louisville, but Lex has its charm for sure. The Equestrian Games are coming in a few years, so the city is renovating all of the downtown area, which should drastically improve ease of mobility and grocery shopping for campus/near-campus students. Lots of local music, publications, newspapers. Opportunities to work on farms, wineries, at greenhouses/landscaping in summer. These last few years' winters have been crazy with ice storms this year, but typically, it's not terribly bad and certainly livable to anyone from anywhere. Snow storms are few and manageable. In short, Lex is great. If you're from a big city, you'll find traffic okay; from a smaller city, you'll think traffic sucks. People are friendly. Stay in Lex for homofriendly; outside of Lex (Richmond and Winchester, for ex.) are homophobic, racist, but Lex is like an oasis from this. Good luck.