pelevinfan

Yup, I'm aware that all Russia applicants have an interview. However, I figured it will be useful for next year's applicants to have as much information as possible, just like I appreciated finding any information I could from previous years. Hence, why I requested to add my interview to the spreadsheet. And yeah, I went off the postmark dates as well. Last year's letters were postmarked considerably later than the year before (around 4/9, if I'm not mistaken), so I'm going to go ahead and figure that it will be at least two weeks. To be honest, I'm not all that anxious about it. You may be right that not stuffing envelopes and such will skim off a few days, but since we have no way of knowing that beforehand, I'm not really going to sweat it.

I'm actually taking comfort in the fact that I won't hear for at least another two weeks (or at least, historically the earliest acceptances have gone out is two weeks from now). I was all over my email, all the time in February; now I get this period of calm, when I don't have to worry. I guess the way I've come to think about this, is that I've done what I can do, the decision is already made. Either I got it, or I didn't (or that dreaded alternate, but I don't even want to think about that). Obsessing over it won't change the outcome, it will just make me crazy. So, calm. Or at least, that's what I keep telling myself

It really is. As much as I feel like I will be an excellent, TT-worthy professor, everyone who posts here seems like they will be as well. The statistics, however, say otherwise. It really is pretty miserable. I personally take comfort knowing that I have virtually no crossover with anyone who posts on here, so at least I won't be in direct competition with you all!

facepalm. it has been one of those days. Thanks all!

I'm so sorry heyles; I know this is on the thread somewhere but I just can't muster the energy to go searching for it. What is the email that we should send information to? I want to add that I was given an interview for my Russia ETA. (HAVE NOT HEARD ABOUT ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION YET, sorry if I freaked anyone out!)

Have you tried bargaining with your top choice? I've heard that it is fairly common practice for PhD programs. Let them know that they're your top pick, but that their funding package isn't quite what you had hoped. Tell them the truth - other schools have given you better offers, and you would really hate to turn them down due to money. Just my $.02.

That is 100% the reason that I still check my mailbox eagerly every afternoon, even though I know I got rejected.

Well, after over a month of searching this forum, looks like a found my fellow Slavic nerds! Glad to finally meet you all :-) And Enzian, do you have your heart set on comp lit programs? I know that, in the Slavic department at least, my undergrad institution encourages our grad students to take BCS (or Polish or Czech), and I know that my future institution has ways of offering it as well. Though BCS wasn't originally a priority of mine, I've sort of fallen in love with it and now I'm glad that I'm ending up somewhere that is really supportive of it.

Yup, waiting on Fulbright and grad schools has been an absolutely tortuous process. If I had to do it over again, I would likely have chosen to only apply to grad schools, and then apply for a Fulbright a few years down the line. In case someone reads this comment a eight months from now, think long and hard before you decide to do both! It will eat up your life.

Bayo - yay for lit classes in the Slavic department! My dept. is actually primarily lit, so I'm always happy when people outside of the major take advantage of Slavic lit courses. Yep! BBC Radio did a series back in September. I think I found the link on the SRAS Facebook page or something.

Did not know that! I've been a resident of Strugatsky land for so long now, I haven't had much time to branch out of sci-fi and fantasy. And on Grossman goes to my reading list! *edit to say that, in my defense, I've had the podcast version of Life and Fate sitting on my computer for the past three months. Well, now it just went to the top of my list for things to listen to while at work!

T Pain, I think we all know you aren't making it up! It just seems that Belgium has decided to follow its own protocol this year and stray from what the US Fulbright office is doing. I hardly think this is unusual; I'm too lazy to go through this thread and find examples, but I'm pretty confident that this happens so often, Fulbright felt the need to send out an email about it back in January. I think it was something to do with how only the US Fulbright Commission can give you a final yes or no answer, and that you shouldn't take any acceptance from your host country as official. I personally am of the opinion that they only said that to cover their bases, in case for some reason the proposed host country wanted you, but the US commission (my apologies if I'm using the incorrect terminology; I think you get my point, though) objected for some reason or another. So, congratulations on your admit! It sure sounds like the vast majority of us will be getting our answer via email, but this certainly doesn't invalidate your great accomplishment! Belgium was so eager to have you, they just couldn't wait :-)

My number one Pelevin must-read would definitely be Омон Ра. It is the first novel he wrote (earlier short stories), and it doesn't have all that much to do with his current work. However, to me, that book is just incredible. Every time I read it, I get something completely different out of it. I personally would steer away from the newer stuff - I haven't had a chance to read Ананасная вода для прекрасной дамы yet, but I haven't heard great things - but in general I prefer his novels to his short stories. I'm currently reading Священная Книга Оборотня and it is WONDERFUL. If I didn't know who the author is, though, I would think it a Sorokin piece - it is really quite vulgar. I have read some Tolstaya, but unfortunately not Кысь. It's on my reading list for the summer, though! I hate to clog up the forum, so if you would like to continue to nerd out (yes please!) feel free to PM me. Oh, and as far as getting into Yale goes, I'm about 80% sure they're going to realize their mistake and rescind my offer any day now...

21-year-old here! :-\ also, apologies for bumping this thread when I'm not actually saying anything important about waitlists!

Okay, so I am SUCH a lurker on this thread because a) I don't do comp lit I didn't apply to CU Boulder So what am I doing here? I guess procrastinating studying for finals. I don't know, I guess it's kind of creepy. BUT I couldn't resist posting after reading your response, Ryzhaya! It seems that people with the same interests as mine are few and far between, but I, too, am interested in 20th Century Russian lit in general, and Soviet-Jewish authors in particular! To date, it hasn't been my primary research interest, but I've kept a paper on representations of time in Mandelstam on the back burner for a couple of years now. I've been focusing mainly on science fiction and fantasy, and obviously Master and Margarita fits in quite nicely :-) I haven't done theory yet (my undergrad isn't too keen on it), but I'm really looking forward to it in grad school. Anyway, just wanted to pop in and say that I think that both your Бегемот picture, as well as your interests, are awesome. Ты просто молодец! *edit to apologize for using ты; somehow, this forum just seems to warrant it. No offense meant!

Ahhh, the grey/white hair thing freaks me out SO much. During the fall, when I was simultaneously applying to grad schools/writing my senior thesis (which was also used for my writing sample), I found my first grey hair. I mentioned it to my roommate, who immediately responded 'look, there it is! I see it! Right there, at your temple!' ...Because it wasn't stressful enough to find it on my own. But I suppose I'm intruding on this thread, as I'm not actually a waitlister. However, if you ever do form this association, I want in!

Why on earth would your roommate resist the coolest idea for a party ever?? Sidenote: have you seen Midnight in Paris? When I read your post, that was all I could think about.

Obviously it would be impossible to say 'yes, get the MA and then you'll DEFINITELY get into a PhD program!' That said, though, it sure seems like you want to do the (funded!) MA. Worst case scenario, you spent time doing something you love, didn't go into debt for it, and have an advanced degree - though not a PhD. More likely, it seems, is that you get a lot out of a program that really excites you, you produce good work, and you have a stronger application for PhD programs in a year or two than you have now. If it was unfunded, it would be crazy. But since it really sounds like you're leaning towards the MA anyway, and the PhD program really seems to not mesh with what you wanted, then I say go for the MA. But, I'm just a random person on an online forum! This decision is a big one, and ultimately the only person that needs to be comfortable with it is you.

Just something to think about, from the Fulbright ETA page (coming from a fellow ETA finalist) Multiple Fulbright Grants A student who has received a U.S. Department of State-funded U.S. Student Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Grant may apply for a U.S. Department of State-funded Study/Research Award provided two years have elapsed from the end of the Teaching Assistantship Award. Recipients of U.S. Department of State-funded U.S. Student Fulbright Grants are eligible to receive the U.S. Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays DDRA award one year following the completion of their U.S. Department of State-funded grant. Candidates may apply for both the Fulbright U.S. Student Grant and the Fulbright-Hays DDRA award in the same year. However, if awarded both, the candidate can only accept one award and must decline the other. *edit to include link to page* http://us.fulbrightonline.org/eligibility.html so, given that you actually can apply for a research grant in the future, I really don't see any disadvantage for taking a better-funded, generally more well-known (though of course no less competitive and 'impressive') grant. But, if both of them do come through for you (what an impressive applicant you'd be!), then that will be the time to further evaluate.

so, who posted the Yale MA acceptance? Sounds like you're pretty sure you'll be attending - if you see this, feel free to PM me! Sounds like we'll probably have a few classes together :-)

I would just like to say that today I found out that I went 1 for 6. Got a rejection from my undergraduate institution. If I hadn't already accepted an offer, I'm fairly confident I would be having a meltdown right about now. Man, this process is brutal...

I also don't see how that could possibly be a 'spectacular waste of' time. I don't think you necessarily have to research in-depth every single professor in every single department in which you are vaguely interested, but I personally found it immensely helpful to find two or three professors who work in roughly the same period that I do, see what courses they teach, and what kind of scholarship they have published lately. I ruled out many programs just by seeing that they didn't have professors with whom I wanted to work. I would say it probably saved me a lot of time in the end, by helping me narrow my list and really identify my top choices.

This. Definitely this. Though ComeBackZinc would probably know far better than I would, as he (she? I'm fairly certain that you're a 'he', but not positive) is already in a program, I was told specifically by multiple professors in the department I'll be entering next year that they chose students to fit their vision for the direction that the department is headed in. Specifically, they are starting a bunch of new (really cool, actually) interdisciplinary initiatives, and so they picked a cohort full of people with interdisciplinary interests. Further, they picked both applicants who explicitly detailed interdisciplinary research interests, as well as candidates like myself, with latent interdisciplinary research questions that the adcom could see, but which I didn't specifically articulate in my SoP. I would imagine that specific goals for a program's new cohort will vary widely from school and school, and also from year to year. So the 'perfect fit' is really more in the eyes of the faculty, and not of the applicant.

I would say I threaded my research interests into my personal narrative. While explaining my background and each of the things I have done, I then mentioned what I got out of each experience and how that affected my research interests. While I do name specific authors and specific subfields, I would say I spent a larger chunk of time explaining why I had those interests. But, as I am currently still an undergrad, I felt that I had to justify why they should offer me - someone who is very young and, because of that, may potentially come off as flighty - a spot over someone who has an MA, who has lived for an extended time abroad, or who has much more life experience. To be short about it, I; I just tried to explain who I really am, and how I thought that particular university would help me grow further. Hope that helps just a little!

I'm so, so tempted to respond to this, but I also only got one acceptance. So please, take anything I say with a bucket of salt. I used my SoP to sort of chronicle how I got interested in my subject, why I absolutely loved it and couldn't see myself doing anything apart from learning more about it and spreading that knowledge, and then explaining why X University was the only place in which I could really thrive. The program I'll be attending was probably the best fit for me, and so most likely my argument of 'I can do SO MANY THINGS here that I can't do anywhere else' rang as true - since it was. Though my responses on this board probably don't portray this image, I naturally have a very hard time talking about my achievements. I generally get very embarrassed by praise and attention. The way I sort of got around that was by explaining why I had applied for each of the grants or opportunities that I did, and why it made me even more well-suited for my current path. If anyone actually wants to read the SoP that I sent to my successful program, please feel free to PM me. Again, I apologize if this comes off as too braggy. I only want to offer help because I really wish it had been available to me when I first started applying. I'd be happy to read other statements as well - but again, since I was only successful at one program, I can understand if you all don't think I'm exactly a big help!