marlowe

Two Espressos: Dokkey's post is correct for two reasons. The first being that one should certainly not make decisions solely off factors such as how "elite" the institution appears or via relatively uninformed a prioris based on either a welcome reception or projections concerning a school based on its location (although location should certainly be a factor).

The second point he makes (although without at all being aware of it) is that every discipline is filled with pretentious jerks, in fact some of the most egregiously unselfconscious cretins you'll likely encounter. This is important. It should go to show that the academy (like the individual institution) should not be romanticized, as it is not abstracted from many of the petty, undesirable features of normal jobs (quite the contrary) and is becoming increasingly less secure and more competitive. In applying, you'll be fighting tooth and nail for a slightly-better-than-subsistence financial allowance, in order to be more overwork than you've ever been and write scholarship that only a handful of people will read or care about-- still all the while have to deal with bloated egos such as our model one (qua departmental politics, rivalries, administrators who will do everything in their powers to incinerate your budget/funding, etc).

You have been warned, good luck next year.

This is honestly the stupidest reason to think about schools. Go for good programs with good funding that fit you--the idiotic stereotypes you have about a state just make you seem like a jackass when you put it like that.

Hi, all. As a current MAPHer, I thought I might weigh in on the program. I applied to several top-tier PhD programs (interdisciplinary programs, like Berkeley Rhetoric, UChicago Social Thought, and Stanford MTL; and straight philosophy programs, like Boston and DePaul), and got close to a few but eventually rejected from all. Then came the mysterious and unexpected letter from MAPH. I accepted because I wanted to stay in school and because my girlfriend was doing an MD/PhD at UChicago.

In short: it was one of the best decisions of my life.

Before I accepted though, I looked at all the MAPH comments on GradCafe, which resulted in some serious nail-biting and gnashing of teeth. So many people seemed intent on hating it. In retrospect, after two quarters in the program and heading into the third and final quarter, I can say that the 90-plus percent of the people who wrote in the forums hadn't even attended MAPH. Sour grapes abound: beware of them. Most heard about it from a friend-of-a-friend or their cousin's professor, or what-not. Most derided it, saying a) it's a cash cow for the university, that MAPH students aren't taken seriously, and c) it's impossible to get faculty attention. To which I would reply on all three counts that in real life experience, those are (by and large) nonsense. Real live MAPHers, of which there are a few on the forum have said different.

As those other MAPH posters have said, you get out of it what you put into it. If, in your undergrad, you were used to professors patting your back and telling you how smart you were, that's not going to happen at U of C. EVERYONE here is pretty damn smart. Profs won't go chasing you for overdue papers, won't cheerlead, and won't hold your hand. They WILL respect students who, as my thesis advisor says, "work your bloody ass off."

One poster suggested that:


"it seems like it would be better for someone more laid-back. someone who doesn't necessarily want a career in academia or who wants to keep their options open."
The latter part I agree with -- many MAPHers who enter the program convinced they want a PhD are confronted with a huge workload and elevated expectations. I would guess that somewhere between 40 and 60 percent decide NOT to pursue academia. That's because MAPH is incredibly serious and the program is onerous. If someone is "laid-back," MAPH will crush you. Into tiny little pieces. But if the idea of working with some of the world's top faculty members in an environment profoundly dedicated to higher learning and giving aspiring academics the boot camp-style training needed to get ready for the PhD programs you weren't granted admission to, then MAPH is a dream come true. But it's also grueling, exhausting, and you will have never worked harder in your life.

If you decide not to do academia, MAPH bends over backwards to give students occupational opportunities, with tons of internships, externships, and professional development workshops. The MAPH staff are some of the most encouraging folks I've ever met, regardless of your post-MAPH goals. Do I sound enthusiastic about the program? Damn right I am. It costs an arm and a leg, and I am saddled with a massive amount of debt as a result of attending. Do I regret it? Never. Not once, not for a second.

PS: It's very worth checking out the blog of a friend and fellow MAPHer at MAPHmatically Yours.

Rep.

Mustaches are whats up.

Anybody else making their decision based on the results of the NCAA basketball tournament?

All three of my possible schools play in the next two days -- I will be watching attentively.

Anybody else making their decision based on the results of the NCAA basketball tournament?

All three of my possible schools play in the next two days -- I will be watching attentively.

Wake Forest also has funding and a very strong MA program.

Perhaps Courtier? Castiglione gave me the impression they were mostly the same thing. But how would that job add look?

Wanted: Articulate and intelligent persons sought for to fulfill Courtier positions. Duties include engaging otherwise uninterested citizens in lengthy discussions about literature, art, music, and philosophy, while simultaneously spreading seeds of doubt concerning deep seated prejudices. Impressive neck ruffs and many layered petticoats to be provided by employer.

I can't see myself doing anything else. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

They are worse than most things.

What is a 'prequel'?

What is a 'prequel'?

omg.

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Suppose this is your second time applying to grad . . . and your second time getting rejections (or presumed rejections) across the board. All your old professors are baffled, outraged, and depressed by turns. And you're really tired of the pity and the annoying observations that "you're the perfect candidate, I don't understand, etc." You've reminded them of every reason why it's hard to get in, the match must not have been perfect, funding's scarce, application numbers are up, adcoms care almost only about your writing sample and whether or not their profs want to work with your kind of research for the next 7 years -- and yet still your old profs insist "I don't understand." It only contributes to your dejection (from which you'd really rather move on), and you're mildly concerned that they're going to start thinking you have a felony keeping you out of grad.

What do you do?

Glad my pick was chosen early in the thread - Beloved. I will give it a go in another couple of years to see if anything has changed, but I hated it both times through.

Was it Antecedent that was loving Joyce's poop jokes? Check out his 'love' letters to Nora. They are absolutely the most poop-filled, explicit things I have ever read.

I love almost everything on this thread.

I can't see myself doing anything else. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I can't see myself doing anything else. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I can't see myself doing anything else. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

So encouraging, ComeBack.

One of my favorites, especially in terms of literary studies:

"That would be a glorious life, to addict oneself to perfection; to follow the curve of the sentence wherever it might lead, into deserts, under drifts of sand, regardless of lures, of seductions; to be poor always and unkempt; to be ridiculous in Piccadilly."
--Neville from Virginia Woolf's The Waves

Dear sweet baby jesus laying there in your manger....please oh please oh please let Miami report to me and tell me that I am in. I single out Miami because they should report like now. I cannot take this waiting anymore. AT ALL. The anxiety is on full blast and lolo needs a hug....constantly!

The "love note" tactic (as I like to call it) from what I understand is idiosyncratic to certain programs. It is of course always very flattering to receive emails from professors telling you how much they enjoyed your materials, but it's also not the case that a love-note-free program didn't enjoy your materials. From what I can tell, some programs ask professors to recruit over email by sending such emails, while others do not (so also don't assume that you weren't/aren't a top prospect at a program who doesn't bombard you with emails). What I am 99% sure of is that these emails are determined by policy for the prospective cohort as a whole, not by individual professor enthusiasm for a student.

As someone who chose a program who did not send love notes over others that did, my advice is to enjoy the flattery but take it with a grain of salt. The love notes do make you feel like you have a relationship with a program and that may make it harder to turn down. It's a recruiting strategy, and while it does mean that Columbia very much wants you, it doesn't mean that Brown is indifferent.

Here is a thematic gif for you all:

Thanks for your wonderful wisdom and encouragement. I am feeling more pumped than before about fall 2013

I used Sidereel. Many of the links they list are duds, but I was able to find at least one quality HD link for each episode.