sonicsustain

One other thing: if you can get into family housing, you might want to take it. While it may be small, you do get your own little house for $500/month, which is a ridiculously great price out here.

Look in Canyon Crest. That's where you have the nicer apartments at good rates. Anything named "Highlander" is already trying to get students in and will charge higher rent. I live in University Village (Watkins and Big Springs, not the "towers" near the shopping center on the west side of campus), and it's quiet here and right next to the east gate of the school. If you're looking for a decent 2 bedroom, you can get them from about 900-1100/month in the Canyon Crest Town Center area, which is just south of campus. The number 16 bus serves that area, and it drops you off right behind the humanities building where English is housed.

Just a heads up about some misinformation: someone from last year (I have an idea of who it might be IRL) posted that they received a $20k fellowship offer for their first year. That cannot be the case. Fellowships only range from 8-16k per year. What I think they posted about was the TOTAL of fee remission + fellowship, meaning that the actual fellowship amount was on the $8k end of things. I just wanted to post this information, because I didn't want any of you new admits to think you're getting passed over for better money compared to others.

This is late, but anyways: the SOP should be focused on your research and fit at the university you're applying to, and the personal statement should be more along the lines of who you are and what motivates you.

No worries. TA salary doesn't matter, because we're all paid the same amount UC wide (union contracts), but the fellowships vary from 12-16k. Someone offered a lower amount might feel off if they found out who, if anyone, is receiving larger sums from grad div. Anyways, as long as things remain fairly anonymous here, it's not a big deal. Most of your cohort won't even know this site exists.

Hilda, I don't believe there's a terminal MA program anymore. It's pretty much all or nothing here.

Didn't Tina tell you not to share your fellowship amounts as it could breed discontent among cohort members?

If you get into UC Riverside, you'll dig it here. Rob Latham is very cool, and we have one of the largest Sci-Fi collections in the world.

This post is really suspicious. 38 is an EXTREMELY high number, and the UCs don't admit people for whom they can't foot the bill. With the current budget crisis in California, I highly doubt that they basically doubled their admissions numbers. The fact that this poster is "anonymous," a member for just a matter of days, and only has this one post raises a lot of red flags. Only time will tell, but considering the budgetary issues the UC has been dealing with, I would take this poster's information with a grain of salt.

I know it's a little late, but WashU has strong professors in those fields. Rafia Zafar is fairly well known in African American Literature, and there’s also Gerald Early, William Maxwell and Steven Meyer respectively. Not to mention a strong American Culture department.

Good for him, I guess. This doesn't really do much for the OP, though.

I'm going to UC Riverside. Had an offer from Santa Cruz, but I turned it down. Afraid they're not going to the wait list anymore this year.

Any of you made a decision on this program yet?

The wording of the agreement is explicit and seems binding enough. Don't forget that it can affect their reputation with potential admits this and coming seasons if they are threatening withdrawals of offers if you don't meet an earlier dealine. To quote the agreement: "Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15; earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offers violate the intent of this Resolution." You really shouldn't have to do this, but it looks like you will anyways; tell them that you are still very interested in their program, but you want to make the best choice. Tell them that if you choose their school, they should want it to happen for the best possible reasons. They signed the CGS, so you have until April 15th to accept or decline. A quick question, though. Is it the Graduate Division offices telling you this or the department? Whichever it is, talk to the other and let them know what's up. If the dept.'s trying to force an early decision on your part, the Grad Division may not be aware of it and wouldn't like that they're enforcing a deadline that isn't April 15th, as agreed upon by CGS signers. And visa versa, if the grad division's putting the pressure on, let the department know. They may not like that students are being badgered for decisions because it can affect the admit's view of the program. That's my two cents. If both are pressuring you, read the CGS aloud to them over the phone and tell them that even though they aren't following the guidelines, you have the right to. If they try to renege on the admissions offer due to this, you probably wouldn't have gotten along well there anyways. I doubt it would go this far, though. I hope you can straighten this out. They signed it, they have to honor it.

It seems like the school that accepted you is trying to strong-arm you into taking their offer. You should check to see if that school signed on to that agreement between grad programs that says they'll give students until April 15th to decide. If not, tell them that you need to make an informed decision about grad school, and they need to allow you the proper time to do so.