tmwhalen

AWESOME! I am so excited! I wonder who else accepted the offer? I guess we'll find out in August at least, if not sooner.

I've been lurking on here the whole time, except in the SMU thread, but I just wanted to say I just got accepted off of SMU's wait list and I will be accepting their offer.

Apparently the department is starting to hear back from people. I just got accepted! It figures a natural disaster (TORNADOES!) would presage my acceptance into a doctoral program! I hope you guys still waiting on SMU hear back soon, and that you get in where you're supposed to be, even if that's not SMU, though I'd be happy as anything to see you there!

I probably should have posted this last week when I actually heard back, but I got a bit antsy and called the department to see what was going on. Prof. Dickson-Carr said they were still waiting to hear from many of the accepted applicants but that they were hoping to start hearing back this week.

Can I suggest that you try to cultivate some skill sets outside of the academic? It's just been my experience that a majority of my classmates who had trouble finding good jobs out of school, especially jobs related to their majors (English, languages, philosophy, etc.), were the ones who didn't have any skills outside of being students. On the other hand, I have had a lot of success with a few different, very useful sets of skills that have gotten me into a number of different jobs that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to get involved in, like journalism (editing and paginating), tutoring and office work. (A typing speed of 110+ wpm doesn't hurt that last one.) Also, if you really want to teach in that year, you can always look at local schools. A lot of states have alternative certification programs now that you can complete within a year (and who doesn't need an extra certification under their belt?), or you could always go through programs like Teach for America. You could also potentially tutor part-time while working another job full-time, especially if you have good standardized test scores. I'm currently teaching test prep courses with a newish company in the DFW metroplex, and you can make excellent money teaching test prep part-time if you're good at it.

I see! Well, I'm glad to know you're at least in good spirits about everything. Let me know if you hear anything, k?

alhin89, which of the two lovely ladies from Virginia are you? The one from VSU or William and Mary? I'm just curious.

I did apply elsewhere, but let's just say that I've had a less than stellar application season. SMU was a top choice to begin with, but now it is certainly the top choice.

If I were to be admitted, I would probably accept on the spot. My only issue is that my school has historically been in competition with SMU (Or so my department says. I don't know if SMU sees us as competition at all), and because it's so close by, they are reluctant to take our grads because they want to diversify. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, though, but I worry.

I guess so. That makes me nervous, because I'm into 20th century literature, and I was by far not the only one. Well, still keeping my fingers crossed! Dr. Dickson-Carr's email about the waitlisting is right, though. It seemed like we have a very competitive bunch, so perhaps someone will get an offer they can't refuse elsewhere.

well, I did go on the campus visit, but I said, they only accepted about half of us outright and waitlisted the rest. I will say that the weekend was cool.

I believe I spoke to Brooke. Like you, the impression I had gotten from other information I previously had was that those invited were usually accepted, but the person I spoke to yesterday said that's not necessarily the case. I know what you mean, though, that it kind of conflicts with other information that we've gotten. I don't know much else except what was in the email, and I presume you got the same one. I don't think this is going to be a formal sort of interview, sitting down with someone asking us questions. More of a meet-and-greet, get a feel for us sort of thing. And that scares me more than a formal interview. Oh well. Only two weeks until we find out what we're getting into, right?

Hey, this is my first time posting on the forums, but I just wanted to clear some stuff up for you guys before ANYONE gets their hopes up (or down). The emails that went out today apparently are not "acceptances" exactly.They have a sort of I guess informal interview process by which they invite their top 12 candidates for a campus visit. From what I was told when I called this afternoon to clarify what this is all about, they generally make admissions offers to 6 of those 12 soon after the visit. So, if you got that email today, we're not out of the woods yet. Conversely, no one is really out of the running either, because who knows what's going to happen even after all of this? I will say, as someone who's lived in DFW for almost 6 years now and is excited at the prospect of perhaps 6 more, The campus is gorgeous and there's so much to do, see, eat and drink around that campus that it simply boggles the mind. Plus, their facilities are infinitely nicer than the university I'm at right now, so that's a big plus. Anyway, I'll see anyone who is going on March 4 I suppose. Good luck!