pinkrobot

Speaking as a current grad student, I do not mind these inquiries at all. I wouldn't understand what you mean by "worth of the program," though; while I'm sure you have a reasonable rationale and explanation (it is an important decision, and I remember the stress of making it!), I'd suggest rephrasing, since as is, I would both be unable to answer it and, yes, be a bit miffed.

Yes, I really want to emphasize this. I applied twice; there were huge and concrete differences between my two applications for sure (a better statement, more focused research interests, a writing sample that fell in line with those research interests, a higher subject GRE, another conference), but please trust me when I say that luck, I believe, has a GREAT deal to do with things. The more I read about the job market, where things are even worse, the more I'm convinced of this; the difference between number of applicants and number of admits is just so stark that luck will invariably play a large role. ETA: I trimmed out the part of the quote that's about "prestigious" UG backgrounds. While I obviously don't know enough to definitively say that it's not true, I've seen all kinds of folks from all kinds of backgrounds, and, like the people reporting in later on this thread, there's really nothing I've heard more consensus on than the "undergraduate 'prestige' doesn't matter" line. So, I only meant to emphasize the luck and randomness part of ComeBackZinc's post.

Ladystardust: Sure. This is a hectic semester for me, so it may take me some time to get back to you, but please feel free to PM. And if you want to chat with me but worry about derailing the thread, feel free to chat via PM, too. Good luck, all!

Ladystardust, since you do ask, my take on your CV design, your matching writing sample, and your matching statement of purpose is that it is both unnecessary and, yes, may well come off as gimmicky. And while I understand your instinct to use professor's papers to rewrite your writing sample, I wonder if that wouldn't also come across similarly. If you do end up needing to reapply, I'd strongly recommend just plain old white paper with black (standard) font, and I recommend for your writing sample simply working on writing your best and most thoroughly-researched piece, and making sure it accurately reflects your interests. Just words on a page. Good luck! ETA: w/r/t your statement of purpose, I know others have already mentioned that more than one professor whose work interests you is a good idea, but I would also like to suggest avoiding much of what you describe here: Unless nursing school is relevant to your interests, I'd cut. I'd cut the quip about understanding people. I'd cut the love of literature and the "strengths and weaknesses." I received some helpful advice when I was applying: think about the statement of purpose as an articulation of academic growth, not personal growth. And then as for the school-specific paragraphs: you're definitely right to customize, but I'd cut remarks on moving to the area from where you live and remarks that are simply to show how much you know about the school. For the first half about yourself, I'd start with describing your honors thesis and move to your future research goals and questions; for the second half about the schools, I'd stick with faculty fit, research, etc.

Re: 1: Vomit and/or leak eye-juice all over everything, then buy cake. Re: 2: Vomit and/or leak eye-juice all over everything, then buy cake. #notthatidknow #hearditfromafriend No, but seriously: Best of luck to all of you!

sure, just send me a PM. it's that time of the year, so I'm not sure I'll be able to be terribly detailed in my response, but I'm happy to read.

I did TERRIBLY with personal statements when I applied, so I'm not going to give any advice on the nitty-gritty. I had not the faintest idea what I was doing and was pretty tempted to send this: "MY BIO = -> -> -> ." (Pro tip: don't do that.) But after some time in my program (fairly typical of me to only be able to figure out what to do after it is required, which bodes well, I'm sure, for the future), and coming from a feminist theory perspective myself, I think you actually have solid ground on which to talk about your parents in a personal statement (not a statement of purpose, obviously), provided that you do it in an interesting and academically-relevant way. Destruction of the so-called division between the personal and the professional is well traversed ground in feminist theory, including very canonical feminist theory (the personal is the political and all that, and all the theorists who have quoted and built upon that slogan). So while I have no advice for the practicalities, I think it may help you to think of feminist theorists who have drawn on their personal lives (including their parents, whether by affirmation or by negation) as precedent for your document.

I'll echo proflorax. Please, no size 11 or any other assorted fiddlings. I've been there and trust me when I say I understand the frustration you're feeling (which never ends: I just sent in a long-shot conference abstract that's 250 words, and my guess is that it only gets worse!), but please also trust me when I say that everyone can tell something's been fiddled with. Also now speaking from the point-of-view of a TA, it's not just that folks can tell that something's different, but it's also that there are inevitably plenty of people who followed the guidelines to the letter: I can't help but wonder, every time, why this particular student felt entitled to go above the limits, or deserved more words than her or his classmates. It's a perfectly understandable reaction and temptation (I did it myself as a UG and during my first application cycle!), but I genuinely think it reads as entitled in some way, shape, or form, no matter what--the rules are both for the sanity of your readers and to make sure (as much as possible) that each applicant is playing with the same-sized deck of cards. For whether to send something longer than the limit, I'm really not sure. But I do think that sending something that is obviously longer would be better than sending something that tries to hide the fact that it is longer.

I'm not familiar with the UCI program, but materiality's picking up a lot of steam now in a lot of different ways. Many people in my program (myself included!) are doing something along those lines. The relationship between that work and art history is more variable (some go that route, others don't--someone I know in my program is, whereas I'm not), but either way, especially with the print culture angle, I think you would not have trouble finding support. If you would like to know more about where I am, feel free to PM.

I actually don't recommend reusing, even if permitted. You mention a lot of changes you've made in your application, and I think you'd want the letters to show that growth. My recommenders wrote letters for universities I reapplied to; they were glad that I added many new programs, but they didn't seem to take issue with the schools I chose to try for again. If you sensed a tone change, you may want to ask them if they have any reservations about any of the schools on your lists.

Yes, in my experience, DGSes were happy to talk about placement. But I think something to consider is appropriate timing--in the case of these positive anecdotes (as well as my own experience), applicants ask these questions either during interviews or post-acceptance correspondence/visits. My two cents: I don't think applicants should be shy about asking questions that directly affect them, but I do think there are good times and bad times for those questions, and I am not entirely sure that "before you apply" is a good time. While I understand the desire to use this information for narrowing down your list, I might suggest that you work independently for now (I like Romanista's suggestion), and save Phil Sparrow's (really good) questions for a later stage.

Hi there-- Reposting my previous message with no-logon-required links for the CHE forum threads (sorry about that!)-- "A Google search turns up a blog post by Ian Bogost (lit/sci prof, OOO studies at GA Tech) that might interest you: http://www.bogost.co...blication.shtml Two threads on the CHE forums may be of interest as well: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,56653.0.html http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,90018.0.html Based on the above, I personally would not publish a chapter with this press, but YMMV, and beyond that I can't say much." (You mentioned in response to my post the editors of your book project are senior faculty members who you met via your thesis director. Yeah, those kinds of circumstances are why I said YMMV/I can't say much: I really don't know!)

A Google search turns up a blog post by Ian Bogost (lit/sci prof, OOO studies at GA Tech) that might interest you: http://www.bogost.com/blog/writeonly_publication.shtml Two threads on the CHE forums may be of interest as well: http://chronicle.com.proxy.library.emory.edu/forums/index.php/topic,90018.0.html http://chronicle.com.proxy.library.emory.edu/forums/index.php/topic,56653.0.html Based on the above, I personally would not publish a chapter with this press, but YMMV, and beyond that I can't say much.

1. The academic job market in the humanities is atrocious. Please, please Google this. Read everything that says "just don't go," "worst idea ever," "am on welfare," "didn't get a job," "am very depressed," "department in X at university Y was just cut," "enormous teaching loads," "no health insurance," "was discriminated against in A, B, and C awful ways," "am about to begin my 10th year in the program," etc., etc., etc. Rinse and repeat. 2. Cornell's join MFA/PhD accepts 2 people per year. It goes without saying that there are more than 2 outstanding, well published writers who apply. You will need to be accepted by the faculty of the MFA and the faculty of the PhD program. 3. For the MFA application: the writing sample will be the most important thing. Congratulations on your publications and your award! But please know that while they may well get your application a second look, the writing sample will be all that matters, and it will matter in intangible ways that you cannot anticipate. 4. For the PhD application: the writing sample will be the most important thing. Congratulations on your award and your great lit. grades! But please know that while they may well get your application a second look, the writing sample will be all that matters, and it will matter in intangible ways that you cannot anticipate. 5. As competitive as grad school applications are, job applications are (literally) several times as competitive, with numbers like 800-900 applicants for a single spot, many of whom graduate from highly ranked programs with excellent advisors, publications, conference presentations, fellowships, recommendations, teaching evaluations, and so on. (I'm terrified out of my gourd.) See #1. 6. If you read all of the articles recounting the misery and insecurity of the academic job market and still want to go, I would strongly suggest: speaking with your professors about your goals, widening your pool to programs that are _not_ joint MFA/PhD programs (and certainly widening your pool to more than just one program), and really, truly taking into account the fact that there is absolutely nothing you can do to ensure acceptance. Three things: (1) It is possible to continue writing creatively in a PhD program, although it takes a fair amount of dedicated effort and a program that is supportive (I'm doing this now: I write too, but I didn't apply to creative writing programs--if you're curious about how this is going, please feel welcome to PM); (2) Please note also that with the advent of creative writing PhD programs, the question of whether the MFA or the PhD is the terminal degree for creative writing positions seems a bit up in the air; (3) Other than the fact that you are good at and enjoy writing and reading, why do you want to go to grad school?

Speaking as someone who really likes a big, solid, tough challenge, and, as a result, can really understand why uni #1 is so tempting to you, even beyond the science: you may want to entertain the question of what on earth you will do if the big, solid, tough challenge becomes insurmountable. Or, to put it differently, if the challenge is not so much a challenge, but, as the other students have warned, a surefire disaster. You write that your decision is, "Partly due to the science, partly because if you get through this group, it proves you can take that much shit and still be standing." And I really do understand that--I think many fellow grad students would. But what if you're not left standing? In that previous question and this following one, I second TakeruK: do you have a Plan B at uni #1? I recommend searching through these forums for the word "advisor." Maybe also look for the same word in the Grad School subforum at the CHE forums. Things can get hairy, to put it mildly. The bottom line is: if you have an advisor who does not want you to graduate, you will not. Your advisor will continue to be someone spoken about with awe and Nobel Prize murmurings, but you will not be, and it might even come to pass that telling others that you work with this person, which once felt like such a huge coup, will start to feel like an albatross around your neck. At the end of the day, as you yourself write, you are looking to work in academia, and to do that, you're going to need to graduate with good work that has your name on it and an advisor who will recommend you for future positions. If you're still committed to uni #1, you may want to seriously consider moving from generalities ("abusive") to specifics (behaviors A, B, C, and D) and considering, concretely and dispassionately, how you would address them. Also, you may also want to speak with someone who did successfully make it in and out with the same advisor you're considering.

Yes, for Fall 2013, most (if not all) English PhD deadlines have passed. RandiZ mentioned Hopkins, but I believe their English PhD deadline is actually in December. To your other questions about your age, I don't know. But I can say that in my experience, research is the primary focus of an English PhD program, rather than advocacy. Of course plenty of people in my program and others do have some kind of connection to advocacy--typically those working in fields like postcolonial studies, critical race theory, disability studies, queer theory, feminist theory, ecocriticism, and so on--but your writing for and beyond coursework will be more academic than activist. English PhD programs are incredibly competitive, and regardless of your own professional goals, aim primarily to train students for academic jobs. You may receive more responses on the "Literature, Rhetoric, and Composition" board, which is very active.

Cary Wolfe, "Human, All Too Human: 'Animal Studies' and the Humanities," PMLA 2009 (this is, I believe, the same issue of PMLA asleepawake mentioned). For the record, the argument "[insert subject here] doesn't write literature, so, bored now" impresses me less every time I hear it.

I wish! I'm in the same theoretical headspace too, for what it's worth, and would love to hear about Morton's keynote. (It would be kind of cool to get a big PM conversation going about this stuff, no? Would love to get to know more fellow students working in the posthuman/animal studies/ecology studies/etc. wild.)

Seconded. When I applied last year, I submitted some right at the edge of the deadline and others ahead of time, and I saw no pattern either way in acceptances/rejections. Also, KenAnderson, you mention that you were not able to submit until a couple of weeks before the deadline? That's not even cutting it close.

Great! Can't wait for the new semester to start--some really exciting courses lined up.

Hmm. Just as a disclaimer, I write this with the awareness that I have SO much less experience than you do--I just finished my first semester in a PhD program; I don't have an MA; I haven't had an iota of your experience--so I may well not know what on earth I'm saying. It seems to me that quitting the job to enroll in a PhD program may not be worth it. It sounds like you love your institution and you're compensated well, and that your institution has given you a way to remedy the problem you have--you feel that you'd rather be on the other side of the professional interactions you're having--without jeopardizing any aspect of what you care about. You mention that you find the PhD program option more appealing: can you say more about why? What do you think you'd gain from it that you wouldn't also gain from the alternative? To me, this doesn't really strike me as an "uncertainty" v. "stability" issue, or a "risk it all" v. "play it safe" issue. It seems a little more like one method (the part-time MA) is a way to get what you want, whereas the other (the PhD program) is a way not to get what you want: as you write, you would not be able to be a faculty member at your current institution if you leave your job, and the statistics for likelihood of employment for English PhDs really are dismal and terrifying.

I'm so sorry, but I really don't think the proposal will fit the bill. If you don't have a chapter that can stand alone yet, perhaps you have a seminar paper? Despite having had an undergraduate thesis as well, I wrote a new standalone paper for my applications and had good luck with that approach. I'm not trying to suggest writing something from scratch at this point--my situation was also a little different, as I graduated college a few years before applying and my interests had shifted away from what I wrote about in my thesis--but rather I want to suggest that just because you have a large project, that doesn't necessarily mean that your best possible writing sample must come from it, you know? Also, my apologies if this is out of line, but I just thought I'd ask ... is there any way you might be willing or able to wait one year? It sounds like you're in a bind this year, and although waiting a year may feel awful, it might be beneficial in the long run. For example, waiting a year might give you more solid footing with your writing sample (maybe you could even end up taking it from the thesis-in-progress!) and you wouldn't have to miss out on any schools. From personal experience as well as the experience of others I know in both my program and other programs, I can assure you that having a non-academic year after your BA will not be frowned upon.

I'm only in my first semester myself, so I'm afraid I can't really speak with any actual knowledge about many of your questions. But I can speak to your dilemma about the phone call. I would really, really recommend going for it: you say you don't want to withdraw from your program, so this is one of those "bull by the horns" moments. I'm not trying to say that your worries about becoming too emotional during the conversation are invalid or anything; I just think that's an obstacle you'll want to puzzle through, because it sounds like the conversation is one that you really should have--for one thing, I think it's a great sign that Prof. A wants to speak with you so much so that he'll chat over the phone while out of town. It sounds like you have a very supportive SO. I wonder if he or she would be willing to be with you during the phone call, to remind you to breathe and to offer support if it looks like you're heading down the crying or defensive paths? Alternatively, would it help you to come up with a list of specific, non-emotional, non-defensive questions? It sounds like you're not exactly interested in trying to "change" the grade; rather, you're wondering where it came from and hoping to learn from it. I think that's a good approach, and it might help to write out questions with that specific goal in mind. Forget the grade for a second: was there anything about the course material, or about your paper, that you yourself felt uncertain of, or wished you'd done differently? Those might be good places to start. Plus, it sounds like you did learn from the course--you mention you added to and took from the discussions--so it maybe wouldn't also hurt to remind yourself of what you learned from the semester before heading into the conversation. As for your cohort: this is easier said than done, but try to let their comments roll off. There is no single person who never struggles. Besides, at the end of the day, it sounds like this experience could really ultimately be great for you: you took a course, you learned from the course, you did your best, and one of the professors teaching the course is interested in speaking further with you, may be able to help you make progress in areas of your work that you perhaps hadn't noticed need a bit of a jolt, and supports you in myriad other ways. None of that sounds like anything to be ashamed of, and if someone loses respect for you off of the back of a learning experience, well . . .

I remember that I used underscores: after reading _X_, I developed an interest in . . . Hope this isn't too late to be of use!

I ended up doing this by accident for most of the calls I received--most of them either came in while I was at work or, uncannily enough, at precisely the times when I was in random places that had no reception--but it worked out really well. As it turns out, when I receive good news, I make odd squeaking noises, hyperventilate, and say "Thank you" a lot. At the university I ended up attending, I did actually pick up the phone, so, to speak to your question about "upon acceptance," rest assured that, from personal experience, they do not automatically revoke that acceptance if you sound like a deranged raccoon, and there are plenty of opportunities to ask questions later.