TryingAgain

My partner and I were both given funded offers that we won't be accepting. The program sounds awesome, though, so best of luck that you get one of the two spots that have opened up! (We notified them about a week ago about our decisions).

I am in the same situation and mentioned to my prospective schools that my decision hinges upon my partner's acceptance, and vice versa. We have had very positive responses and might now wind up at schools together. Go ahead and ask. It can't hurt.

Thanks! Do you know what the bus situation is from South Manning Street to campus? I have a car but have not done much snow driving, so I would like the options of either walking or busing. Thanks again!

Hi everybody! Is anyone familiar with Albany? My partner and I were accepted to SUNY's English Ph.D program and we are considering it. I have lived on the West coast my whole life, so I am not familiar with the area. All I hear about it is the cold and snow! Does anyone know what graduate student life is like in the area? Suggestions for neighborhoods to live in? Thanks!

Thanks for the advice everyone! I am still not sure which way we are leaning, but it is good to get some insight. I am heading down to school #1 for recruitment weekend today, so we'll see if that helps at all. As far as the commute goes, I am not all that worried about that - I grew up in Southern California and before I went back to school did the LA commute, and then my first year of my masters I had about an hour and half commute. I know 40 minutes (midday, probably 1-2 hours rush hour) isn't undoable, I just told myself I would never do the commuter thing again. It could be worth it though. I think what I might not have made entirely clear, and the only thing that is holding us back on a decision right now, is that the program at school number 2 is doing some pretty awesome things and has some great professors that the SO would love to work with. I would also be quite happy to work with them as well. The reputation at school number 2 isn't bad at all as far as I know (it is a SUNY), just not ranked highly. School number 1 for SO is not such an exciting program for him, even though it is higher ranked. Sigh (but good sigh, I suppose!).

I realize this is a fabulous problem to have, but it has me freaking out anyway. My partner and I have both been applying to Ph.D programs and we have been lucky enough to get into two programs so far that are geographically feasible. However, the upsides and downside to both are making me a bit crazy in trying to figure out how to make a decision. If anybody has any advice, I'd love to hear it. This is the scenario: In one case, we were accepted into two different schools about 40 minutes apart from each other. I have family in the area of the school I got into, so I wouldn't have to commute everyday. We could live near his school and I could stay with my mom a couple of days a week. The school I got into is pretty awesome program. It is one of the top ranking schools in my field and number 1 in my subfield, the school he got into is ranked in the top 50 and cool program too. I got awesome funding, his funding is yet to be confirmed but probably will be fine, especially combined with mine. I would be thrilled to live near my mom again, but I really dislike the areas these schools are in. In the other case, we got into the same school, same program, so there would be no commuting, no living out of a suitcase and no spending so much time apart. Also, because we are in the same field, during our masters program we found it very helpful to be able to bounce ideas of each other all the time while studying, something that would be more difficult to do if I were away half the week. We received the same funding package, which is good but not as good as the package I got from school #1. The city that school #2 is in would be a cool place to live. School #2 sounds like a pretty awesome program and would be a good fit, but it is ranked low - it is in the top 100 but barely. I know rankings are not all that straight forward, and a good fit with a program is more important, but I am worried about how much the rankings will affect our abilities to get professorships later - and of course we will have the two-body problem then as well, so anything that will help us on the market is a definite consideration. Oh, and we are in the humanities. I don't know if that changes anything as far as how much rankings matter or not. What to do? Thanks in advance for any and all advice!!!

Ha ha snorri - I know who you are. My silly post above was just a response to someone who asked what I did differently this year from last year. See you tonight!

I got a negative! Poop. Sorry if my post is obnoxious.

This post is in response to the person who was asking about UCI on the results page. So, I did make some major changes in my application from last year to this year, and I am having some great results - I have been accepted into three schools with full funding (rejected from 5). Two of the schools that accepted me this year rejected me last year - there is hope for all of you who are going to try again! So here is my background - my undergraduate degree is in journalism from a Cal State and my GPA from back then is terrible. My masters is in English from a small liberal arts college and my GPA from there is fine (3.91). When I was applying last year, I had finished my masters but was still taking language classes - I was in my second year of Spanish and my first year of French. My focus is Latin American literature and politics as well as West African lit. The first thing I did was contact my top choice schools and ask them if they could give me any advice on how to improve my application. Two of them responded - one saying she couldn't speak to my application specifically but giving me some general advice. The other was very specific, listing items from the committee notes about my application. The first major concern was, not surprisingly, my language level. Next, there was concern that my undergraduate GPA was so low. Lastly, she said my SOP and my writing sample didn't reflect a strong enough theoretical focus for their particular program. So, I went back to school full time to get a second BA in Spanish, which I will finish at the end of this year. I also will finish up second-year French this year. My second BA GPA is MUCH higher (although not perfect by any means - language classes are hard!). I can read and write fluently in Spanish now, which, as I should have realized during my first application season, is pretty important. In addition to the language stuff, I spent the summer researching for a new writing sample. I contacted a professor in the history department who I thought might be interested in my topic and took a class with him in the fall. He was extremely helpful in guiding me through writing a new paper. Also, after writing that paper, I was able to articulate more clearly in my SOP what my interests are and what I would like to focus on as a Ph.D student. Also, I applied very widely this year. One thing I didn't do that I should have, if only to save money by narrowing down my application pool, is contact professors whom I wanted to work with. If the professor responded that he/she isn't taking new students in my area, I could have eliminated some of the schools I applied to right off the bat. In my SOP, I always mentioned a professor I wanted to work with, and often tried to mention two or three. I tried to be specific about that professor's work and why I find it interesting according to my own areas of focus. I think that was a good method because out of my three acceptances, I was notified for two of them directly from the person I mentioned in my SOP. My partner, who is applying to English programs, has three acceptances as well, and was also notified by his PO for two of them. Of course, the rejects could be due to my Person of Interest being not-so-interested in me! That's why I should have contacted them ahead of time. Anyway, sorry to have given you my whole life story. Apparently I like to hear myself talk (or type). I hope this is helpful to you in some way, and GOOD LUCK next year!!!

Hi all. This is just a follow up to my earlier post. I finally spoke with my POI today. Sorry to say I wasn't able to gather much information for those of you still waiting to hear. He said I should get an official letter of acceptance in the mail - in fact he sounded surprised that I hadn't received it yet. That makes me think letters should be going out to others soon, too. I'm sorry I don't know any more. Keep up the hope!

Thanks for the congrats! I just checked and it still says "Pending - manual review required," which is what it has said for quite some time. I will post here if I garner any more info. Try to have a good weekend (I know -seems impossible right now, but try anyway)!

Hi! I am the UIC poster. I received a phone message from Nicholas Brown, my POI, this afternoon. I haven't actually spoken with him yet - he was on his way to catch a plane, so I didn't call back. He didn't give any details about funding or anything, but asked that I call him back this weekend or next week. I will let you all know if I get any info about whether they are done with their acceptances or not (I doubt that they are done). Good luck - I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

One of the admits is my partner. He received a phone message this morning from his POI. He hasn't returned the call yet, so he doesn't know any details. So happy for him, but so nervous too! I am crossing my fingers that I get that phone call soon. Looking at last year's search results, it seems that Santa Cruz sent out admits throughout February. There is still hope for us all.

Hi all. I was (surprisingly) accepted to UC Irvine's comparative literature program. My area is Latin American literature and political philosophy, for the most part. Also, my partner was accepted to UC Riverside's comparative literature program. His specialization is philosophy and literature. Good luck to everyone. Those acceptances are sure to start rolling in soon!

In my M.A., getting less than a "B" was grounds for dismissal (although I doubt this is enforced). I always thought of the grading scheme as a condensed version of the undergrad scheme, i.e., where B- = F, etc. Still, I doubt very many professors see it this way, and I wouldn't take a B+ (too) personally.