piccgeek
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Posts posted by piccgeek
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I am not accruing any debt for grad school (thank you freshman composition!) but I still have around 58k hanging over my head from undergrad...I'm rather bitter that it wasn't funded, I'm not gonna lie, but it is what it is. So while I'm not actually taking out loans to fund grad school, I am allowing my current debt to fester and gather interest, because my measly TA stipend is barely enough to live, let alone make loan payments. *sigh*
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Last year Notre Dame English department send a mass email rejecting a round of applicants. The email didn't even have the general address line "dear applicant," let alone our names.
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Dear School,
Do you like me? Check yes or no.
Yes No
-your not-so-secret admirer
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People who are going crazy trying to sift through all the grad apps and get acceptances out while managing everyone's funding and talking to prospective applicants on the phone and dealing with the people who are persistent and upset about their rejection and trying to link faculty members with incoming PhDs and setting up campus visits.....
.....WHILE teaching two courses and serving on committees and keeping up their research and conferencing and working on publications.....
......AND maintaining some semblance of a family and personal life.......
.....are really unlikely to take the time to check out what song applicants posted on their myspace.
I agree with the "they're just not that interested in you" posted above. Definitely not worth worrying about!
Psshhh professors aren't BUSY....*remembering literally running down the hallway with LOR writer on his way to a class to get in a breathless reminder about the LOR due date*
Seriously, it's like my mentor told me in the first round: "They're not losing any sleep over this. Trust me."
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don't completely lose hope yet! First round acceptances may be coming out, but a lot of schools make second or even third rounds of offers!
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Yeah... We'll be in touch, I'm sure.
How cool would it be if we both got in?!? I would love to know someone in that area already.
We would take Cambridge by storm!!!! Let's hope this happens. I can introduce you to so many fun and crazy comp sci people, it will be fun.
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I am in EXACTLY the same situation, Monkeefugg. I think I'm going to go crazy at some point in February.
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I check the results at least once a day, even though I know that (1) my program will not be releasing any decisions until march and (2) there's only like...two people on this forum who are applying to the same types of programs, let alone the exact same program, and so...really, it's just an obsessive compulsive habit, like biting my nails...damn raggedy things.
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I have this idea that the adcoms look at my application, look at each other and then say:
"hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
Then they take a few moments to collect themselves, then someone starts laughing again, then everyone's hysterical again, and then...
"Oh man, that was good. I needed that."
Then they toss it aside and start looking at some apps that are, you know, worth their time and attention.
(I am getting more paranoid every day.)
- sugarmilk, pheonixx, hyronomus4 and 2 others
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Strangely, if you google my name, the top three pages are mostly full of a couple different high school/college athletes--different girls in different sports in different states, all athletes though. Also a dietician. I think one or two of the results are actually me...I would so much rather share a name with 6th century royalty!
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the key aspect of a panopticon is not that they are watching, but that you THINK that they are watching you. All the time. In your head. Jeebus, I **am** developing paranoia!
Which means that the fact that this thread exists means we're already in a scary dystopic movie? Crap.
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Dear God, I hope they don't!! Not that I have anything up that would be bad...but still!! A panopticonic application sounds like a scary dystopic movie.
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It's not reversed for the humanities--at least, not for English. It was made pretty clear to me by the schools I applied to that they cared WAY more about verbal and would hardly even look at the quant...which was unfortunate, because I scored higher on the quant. I am of the unshakable opinion that the gre is total bs, mostly because the verbal gre is so very ineffective for ACTUALLY measuring textual communication skills...it's only good for measuring how well you can recognize words sans context and arbitrarily choose which of the many possible connotations of a word is the one the testers chose. But I digress. It makes a lot of sense that more people do well on the quant than the verbal sections of the gre, because quant actually DOES have provable right and wrong answers, and you can logic out those answers from the info they give you. Not so with the verbal questions.
Sorry, I just can't help but rant at the attempt to give an subjective exam over something as objective as language. And now back to your regularly scheduled thread.
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After my last LOR submitted, I checked the update status over and over again to make sure he really really HAD submitted it. I kept thinking I was going to log in and there would be a big "J/K ROFL no lor sry" or something.
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Once upon a time piccgeek really thought a PhD in English would be the best thing ever in the history of creation. So she applied to a whole bunch of outstanding programs and her UG alma mater as a backup...and got rejected by all the Cool Kids, even though her old friend, the alma mater, told her she could stick around for a master's degree since no one else seemed to like her much. Meanwhile, her prince charming got accepted at every ivy league and public ivy known to man, often in more than one program at each school. Off to seek his fortune at the bigger and better schools, the young lovers tearfully parted ways, telling themselves it would only be two years, as he sailed off the mysterious land of Boston and the castle MIT on a quest for the Holy Grail of Technology.
So piccgeek stayed amongst the cows and cornfields and started her master's program. After about two months she realized two things: she loved teaching, but she wasn't so sure the mystical heterotopia called Academia would really be all that great even if she could get the PhD passport. Then a wise old hermit whispered in her ear about a program called "science writing," an adventuring life in which she could research and write but not be trapped in the beautiful but confining ivy-covered walls of Academia. So, she filled out an application to join the science writing preparation at castle MIT, hoping to be reunited with prince charming and find her dream career all at once.
And...hopefully this will end with "and she lived happily ever after." ...I can't help but fear I'm going to have to add some horrible battle from which I retreat back to the safety of cows and cornfields, and finish my master's degree as a I lick the wounds of defeat a second time....but here's hoping! Cheers!
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It's probably a good idea to let the department know you have a fiance who's also applying the same school and that your decision will depend in large part on the outcome of her application. I would then leave it at that; I think it's a bad idea to ask your department to lobby for your fiance. If they want to do it on their own initiative that's another matter, but I agree with TerryM that asking yourself will reflect poorly on you.
Others have mentioned that sometimes when a department really wants someone, they will create a position for their partner. I know this happens after the PhD level, when looking for employment, so it's possible it also happens for particularly attractive PhD applicants. Maybe you'll get lucky.
+1. I think it is perfectly fair (and probably smart) to let YOUR department know the situation. If you make it sound like her acceptance is the crux of your decision, they might inform your fiance's department at least that if they accept her she will definitely say yes, something like that. When my fiance was alerting schools as to why he wasn't accepting their offers, his explanation was basically "I got accepted to another program I like, but I would have gone to your program if your English department had accepted my fiance!" I don't know if the departments CARED about that, but I think pretty much every department ever knows that SOs are a factor, and sometimes THE factor.
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If I got in, I would not be giving up a wonderful career...but I would be leaving a fully-funded MA halfway through for a nonfunded (writing) MS. Granted, my job opportunities are WAAAAAAY better with the MS, but still....The cost of the MS, if I'm offered NO FUNDING AT ALL, will be equal to all my student debt from 4 years of undergrad. That's just frightening.
So I am DEFINITELY vacillating. One day I want to get in to my program so bad that I can't even concentrate on the reading in front of me, and other days (the days when I look at my bank statements) I secretly hope I am forced to stay put and collect my stipend like a good little composition TA. I really do think science writing is a perfect fit for what I want do with my life...but I still love literature, so it's not like I will hate my life if I *have* to spend another year studying lit.
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In my experience open houses are a way for universities to woo you to their program. It is also an excellent way for them to feel you out as a candidate. They will be able to determine if you are a good fit for the department and you will be able to evaluate your level of comfort with your potential cohort, faculty, etc.
Congrats on the invitation and have fun!
+1. I totally understand getting paranoid about the process, but I think that in general, if they're inviting you to the campus it can't possibly be a BAD sign, and it might be a really good sign...try to think positive!
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How ironic.
That's the idea!
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Haha, I checked mine last week and none of my schools notified before MARCH. I've got a ways to go.
I'm also not expecting to hear anything until march, and I am SO JEALOUS of those of you who will hear earlier. One of the most painful things about waiting last year was that my fiance was getting accepted in January, while I knew there would be no news, good or bad, until late February at the absolute earliest.
February = longest. month. ever.
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Oh, gosh, how many people here have Dan Brown-related horror stories? Seriously, I have friends in theology, history, literature, art history, and several other fields who ALL have tales of other people being like "Ooh! So Jesus and Mary Magdalene..." *headdesk*
(I'm aware he didn't make that up. But that's still everyone's 'reference' point. He gets 120% of the blame from me).
+1. When people want me to "interpret" the Da Vinci Code, I usually just snarl. (note: this is also my reaction to 'interpreting' Twilight. The people who ask definitely do NOT want to hear my real thoughts.)
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Is there anything wrong with visiting a department before getting accepted (without an invitation as the OP described)? It seems that departments might think it is presumptuous of an applicant (making it look as though the applicant assumes he/she would be accepted before actually getting a letter). However, if I am visiting relatives who happen to live very close to one of the schools I applied to, would it be bad to drop by the campus or maybe set up informational interviews?
I think I'm actually going to do this...I applied to MIT, my fiance goes to MIT, so if I visit him I can visit them at the same time....and hopefully that's a good thing...?? I'm nervous about it, but I feel like it would be an opportunity wasted if I didn't.
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Now there's a new one to add, thanks to Avatar: "Like the guy who created Na'vi?"
Apparently we're going to actually do something with Na'vi in one of my linguistics classes this semester, though, so at least I'll be able to indulge these fans by discussing alien phonology. I just know this is going to end by someone becoming convinced I'm a Xenolinguist in the tradition of Lt. Uhura...
If I could major in xenolinguistics, I would start tomorrow.
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No one I know has ever heard of science writing. Ever.
Me: I'm applying to a program in science writing.
Them: Oh, so you write lab reports?
Me: No, I read lots of lab reports and other things, then write about them for a wider audience.
Them:...you have to go to school to learn to read then write? Aren't you already an English major.
Me: *facepalm*
And you would THINK people would get what the English major entails, but seriously, trying to explain academic journals to my family is an exercise in circular logic:
Grandma: So, if you're an English professor, you teach! That's cool.
Me: Yes, but the big thing about be an English prof is doing the research.
Grandma: What do you research?
Me: You know...books, culture, theory.
Grandma: How is that research??? There are no labs! No graphs!
Me: Yeah...it's different.
Grandma: Okay, so what do you do with the research? I mean, it's not like you send it to pharm companies to make medicine or something useful like that.
Me: Well, you publish your papers.
Grandma: Where?
Me: In a journal.
Grandma: Oh, a journal! I get those.
Me: These are different. They don't have recipes or news reports or anything like that. They're JUST scholarly papers.
Grandma: So who reads these boring journals?
Me: Other scholars.
Grandma: So...you read books, write about them, then publish your writing so other people who write about reading can read about your reading?
Me: Something like that, yeah.
Grandma: WHY?
Me: *facepalm*
Your Tips for Future Applicants
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Don't panic!