cyborges

That's sort of my feeling, especially now considering the three people on this board who have been accepted to UCSC got responses from different people. I like that. And I know what you mean about phone conversations -- I usually stall a couple of minutes so that I can breathe normally and my heart stops racing.

ilikecatsalot and lisa -- who emailed you about your acceptance? I'm wondering if whoever emailed the student becomes the assumed advisor. I'm happy with mine, if that's the case, but i'm wondering if that's the deal. Mine was Freccero, if you're curious. in other news, i'm getting more excited about UCSC.

A professor of mine just wrote me back and assured me that not only does UCSC have good placement, they are also highly respected as a Literature department. She even scoffed at the 39th ranking, which I found funny. I'm still a bit wary. You'll still be at the meet and greet on the 2nd and 3rd?

did anyone get any more information on this? i'm curious about it.

applyingtograd.livejournal.com is probably a better place to ask, if only because people have already tailored them to removed what school they applied to and who they specifically mention.

awesome, thanks for the link. and I just checked the 2009 USNEWS listing and UCSC is 39th... so it's still top 40 (!). Why do you like cats so much?

Sorry, let me address this more directly in addition to my last post. I usually call my undergraduate major "Continental Philosophy" or "Media and Cultural Studies," but its basically a liberal arts degree with a huge thesis project attached to it. I DID apply to other literature programs, but all of the interdisciplinary sort. I applied to Literature at Duke because Katherine Hayles teaches there, along with other megastars like Fredric Jameson. I also applied to Rhetoric at Berkeley (Butler) and Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford. I was rejected from all of those places, and in retrospect I regret not applying to English at Stanford instead of MTL. Outside of Literature, I applied to Modern Culture and Media at Brown (rejected) and History, Theory + Criticism of Art and Architecture at MIT. Still waiting on MIT. So unless MIT accepts me with funding I'll probably be going to UCSC. I do find it a bit dubious that Literature doesn't list their current grad students and their former grad students and their placements. That could be helpful info, and I'll definitely try to figure it out at the visiting weekend. If you do email Hollie C, please let me know what she says.

Life story? I went to a very untraditional undergraduate liberal arts college (Hampshire) where there are no tests, no grades, and everyone must complete a series of projects in order to graduate. I didn't study literature explicitly -- I wrote my thesis on cyborgs as a metaphor for existence in the 21st century, which is the primary reason I applied to UCSC in the first place. I imagine I'll have a bit of access to Donna Haraway, who teaches in History of Consciousness, and that's helpful. I would have applied to both Literature and HistCon, but most UCs don't let you apply to more than one program per school and HistCon only had 3 spots this year, so I went with Literature. I'm actually glad for it (mostly because I got in) because it seems like Literature allows you to basically study what you want (for me, Body/Subjectivity, Kinetic Movement and Experience, Virtual/Actual) but trains you to be a "Literature" professor in the meanwhile (Postmodernism, Science Fiction, 20th Cent. French, 19th Cent. Italian, etc). This is probably cause for more discussion. UCSC is interesting because Literature is ambiguous, as I said before, like they squashed English and Comp Lit together and decided to sprinkle some media and culture studies in there (garnished with your Marx, or perhaps the cooking metaphor should end. Yes, it should.). I was also a bit dismayed by the lower ranking than expected, but I also recognize, having gone to a school like Hampshire, which ranks 100+ every year even though I'm confident it is ultimately and interesting and intellectually stimulating place, that the rankings use very straightforward methods of placing schools -- to the point that they can be totally inaccurate. Obviously, getting a job with a PhD from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, or Chicago is much easier because of the name, but being confident in a cool or interesting project at a school that actually lets you embark on such journeys (and funds it) is maybe more worthwhile. In the end, you'll have truly original work to speak for you, or at least that's the idea. And since we're all trying to be literature/english/comp lit professors here, I'd say stay young and don't get into debt. Santa Cruz offered you funding (right? three years or whatever unconditional?) and they want you (we're two of 12-15, and 10% of the pool)... they're willing to spend the next 7 years with you. And who wants to spend 7 years in a traditional program and then teach in one for the rest of their lives anyway? That's not really a life story, but I'd happily share more. Unfortunately, I know nothing about Santa Cruz's library, so I can't really comment.

I don't know about Davis or UChicago, but I was accepted to Literature at UC Santa Cruz (we are talking about literature, not "english," right?). My feeling is that it's a very interdisciplinary program that could, perhaps, be more properly titled "Media, Literature, Culture" or something like that. There seems to be a heavy focus on critical theory, materialism, marxism, and postmodernism in general, which is why I applied in the first place (coming from an interdisc. standpoint, I wasn't a Literature major in undergrad). I'm excited about the prospect of UCSC, but I'd like to know what you and others think. Are you attending the April 2/3rd dates? I'm also curious about Santa Cruz's ranking, but it's actually very hard to find be the program isn't called "English" or "Comp Lit," but something more ambiguous. Something from like 2002 says it's 38, but does anyone have any more recent info? Good luck to those who haven't heard yet... I'm still waiting on MIT and oh god it is frustrating.