marlowe

..And that people have contacted professors beforehand and been quite unsuccessful.

Eh, I'd disagree -- they accept plenty of students with MAs-in-hand (there were at least five on my visit two years ago). However, they wanted me to re-do most of the coursework from my MA and to essentially earn another; it felt very much like a step backwards. However, once they were convinced I was looking elsewhere, they started throwing exemptions and money. Call the department or email the DGS.

I'm IN. Rambo can live with me.

Looks like first semester I paid something like $1100 in tuition, and I got refunded $400 a month later. Much of the remaining bit, I think, was withheld for taxes (or paid as taxes?), and I got most of it back in my return. Second semester it was about $1000 even and I got the same amount back.

Ah, you were the renaissance bro? I spent probably half of the weekend drunkenly harassing you. You were, however, able to chat at length with the first year's resident Early Modernist, though it is a shame the Shakespeareans are consistently out of town on visit weekend.

Glad to hear the both of y'all had a blast. Sorry if I wasn't able to hang out with each of you individually, but I met the most of everyone at the Thursday night dinner/drinks. Hope to see you all in August.

Call a real estate agent. They will drive you to a bunch of apartment complexes within a geographical range and price range that you select, and it won't cost you anything. Some people do pay upwards of $800 in rent. You most definitely don't have to.

My advice, for now, is to ignore the doom and gloom of the internet. I live within walking distance, cycle in every day, and pay less than $700 in rent for a one bedroom place in a fantastic area. I am happy to tell y'all more next weekend.

Not sure what you mean by a 'marroon bias' -- are you thinking of A&M? I'm also not sure I buy your logic. Several of us turned down offers from better ranked and better funded schools to come here (for a variety of reasons). But I am all for you going with your gut reaction: follow your heart!

Not even going to give us a chance to woo you? Send me a pm if you want the medieval low-down on UT.

We seem to have experienced a post-"feeding" turn. Now, we are trolling the troll.

You may be meeting her sooner than you realize.

If y'all have been paying attention to the dynamic trajectory of this particular poster's three name changes thus far and her posting history, you would have a better idea about what she is really asking here. I think she initially underestimated the difficult and random nature of this entire process and naively assumed -- as many of us have done before, including myself -- that they would be far more successful in the applications process than results later demonstrated. CUNY is the lowest "ranked" of the schools on her application list (and not as prestigious as her undergraduate institution, where she was not accepted for the PhD), so she feels as if CUNY is a step below her pedigree. She also spent much of the Fall trolling the boards and not inconspicuously humble-bragging about the schools to which she was applying. Please correct me if I am wrong. So, to answer your fair enough question (and one that many of us have considered at one point or another): 1) You wouldn't have applied to CUNY if it wasn't a brilliant program and a good fit. 2) Their funding package is absolutely amazing compared to last year (assuming Comp Lit has a similar scheme to English in place). 3) It is a great program in a top city with top scholars. In hindsight, it is easy to think that you might have been (or will be) accepted at better places and to know that you would be successful at those places. But this whole process is unpredictable and stupid, frankly, and you will be as well-trained and challenged at CUNY as at most other schools in the country.

I disagree about the whole "follow the money" advice: if you are choosing between two funded programs, go where it feels right. You are going to be living and working in this place for 5-7 years with no guarantee of a job on the other end -- live somewhere that you won't regret spending your twenties or thirties. As for the money at UT, it's fine. We don't live extravagantly, but there are very few complaints about the money or lifestyle. I turned down a better funded -- and perhaps more prestigious (in my subfield) -- offer because I felt this was right. I immediately connected with my future advisors and the DGS on the visit. If any of you have specific questions about the money, you might get five or six different perspectives with some carefully directed GC personal messages.

Or perhaps because UT students get to hang out with twenty of their best friends every day (and night) of the week. $13k goes a long way at 'Hole in the Wall'.