skybythelight

Pull ups and push ups are my least favorite things.

Finding the motivation can be a serious struggle for sure! Have you thought about working out at home? That's what helped get me to actually enjoy fitness.

I totally hear you! I honestly hate the gym. I would force myself to go use the one on campus because I had free access to it, but it was just always such a hassle to get myself to actually get up and GO. Have you ever considered working out at home? I use DVDs now and am head over heels in love with not having to make myself look presentable enough to actually go anywhere, haha

I started working out seriously in November, shortly after beginning my first year of grad school, and I have to say it has made a HUGE difference in not only my physical health but also in keeping my sanity (relatively) intact! Right now I'm doing Chalene Johnson's new program PiYo. What does everyone else enjoy doing to stay in shape?

Thank you! I had some of those but a few are new to me. I appreciate it.

Hi everyone, So I'm going to be starting my MA project in the fall and plan on using the summer to read, read, read and read some more. My project is specifically on Biafran War literature, but I need to develop my background in postcolonial theory more generally, as well as in relation to Africa specifically. I'll of course be doing my own research and working with my advisor to construct my summer reading list, but I thought it couldn't hurt to check in with my fellow students: do you have any texts you'd recommend as "must-reads" for a student interested in post-colonial theory? (other than Orientalism!)

Hi everyone, and sorry for being MIA. School's been hectic and I haven't been on here in over a month. If any of you have accepted your offers at UW and would like to talk more about some of these questions, please feel free to PM me! Also, re: the funding competition. Yes, it is competitive. Yes, it is distracting and discouraging and frustrating and stressful. The main issue is that until last year, this was never an issue. It was more or less true until last year that if you did not receive funding for your first year, you would for your second and beyond. That is no longer the case due to budget cuts/TA raises/etc. So not only is this frustrating and upsetting for those of us who accepted our unfunded offers under the assumption that we would be funded beginning in September, but it's just as frustrating for the department staff because this is pretty much out of their hands and something they haven't had to deal with in the past. So overall, yes: it's a sucky situation.

Have you contacted the department?

No prob! I will fwd you those PMs sometime in the next few days--I didn't mean to ignore that request, I'm just on a mini-spring break vacay at the moment.

The DGS assigns you to a prof for your first year based on the conversation he'll have with you about your interests, and after that you can choose to stay on with that person or ask another professor with whom you think you'd like to work.

Of course! I'll copy and paste my response to apixelrevolt in a PM to you as well.

Hey again--I'm going to send you a PM answering this at some point tonight or tomorrow. I'm a little pressed for time at the moment and I want to give your question a thoughtful response.

I second this--native Rhode Islander here!

I would say the majority of the department are Lit and Lang/Rhet people. I don't know exact percentages. I can only speak to my own experience, which is that the majority of my classes have been with other Lit students, but there have absolutely been some MFA and Lang/Comp/Rhet folks in there as well. I think this is probably more true during the first year while we're all sort of trying to get some solid grounding: for example, there's a Feminist Theory seminar next quarter and I know there are a few MFA students taking that because it's obviously relevant and useful across the board. I'm glad you talked to Jennifer! She's great, and so is Kathy. Very informative, and I would definitely say that their demeanor is a great representation of the department in general. Will you be able to come out and visit?

I have no idea if they've all gone out, unfortunately--I didn't even know they had started notifying. I don't think they would be irritated by a phone call. The office opens around 8am on weekdays. I would suggest trying to call around then or possibly around 1:10pm or so when they're back from lunch, before they get super busy.

Congrats! Unfortunately I don't. I wasn't offered funding for my first year and trying to compare those of us that didn't with those that did has been futile, haha. All we've been told as far as what the committee considers for second year funding is "academic merit." We had to submit another writing sample, personal statement and two letters of rec.

Congrats!! The same thing happened to me last year--I checked the website and saw that I had been admitted. I emailed the department because I also was freaking out and wanted to make sure it wasn't a mistake since I hadn't heard anything from them, haha. Totally e-mail! You'll probably get a response from Jennifer on Monday, she's really sweet. As far as I know, the committee isn't meeting to make funding decisions until the first week of April, BUT I could be wrong. I know that's when they're meeting to make the decisions for those of us already in the program applying for funding, and am assuming they're doing everything in the same meeting but I may be assuming incorrectly. Last year there was no official visiting weekend, but Kathy and Jennifer in the graduate office will set up an itinerary for you if you tell them when you're planning on visiting, what professors you're interested in meeting, and sometimes even if you're interested in sitting in on a seminar. I was able to do that last year and it was really helpful. On that note, just FYI: next week is the final week of classes for winter quarter, and spring quarter starts up on the 31st.

Congrats! Good to know they're starting the acceptances. I'm currently an MA student at UDub, look forward to meeting you!

I haven't heard anything. I'm surprised they're trickling out like this, I was under the assumption that the committee made their decisions relatively all at once. I could be wrong, who really knows anything about how the committee does anything.

No problem! Good luck.

Incoming students do not have to submit any separate applications, unless it's for a fellowship that asks for one. They're automatically considered for funding. I don't really know about the union stuff, unfortunately.

I could be wrong about the $11-13k… I know that the TAs have been getting raises steadily for a few years now, and that the stipend is higher for PhD students than it is for MAs. If I can find out more definite information on that I will definitely let you all know! Basically the way the funding works, to the best of my knowledge, is as follows: The department is able to fund roughly 50% of the incoming cohort, which includes both MA and PhD students, in the form of a TAship. TAs teach one section of Comp per quarter, and in the first quarter of your TAship you're required to take a pedagogy seminar. In previous years, first year students who attended UW without funding would have an all-but-guarantee of being funded in their second year. That was a big part of the reason I accepted my unfunded offer--at the time, the situation was such that I felt confident I would only have to take out loans for one year and would then be funded for years 2-6 (once you're offered a TAship it is renewable for five years as long as you're making satisfactory progress). The issue now is that last year the current TAs were given a raise by the university, which is all well and good except that the university didn't cover that extra expense, instead requiring individual departments to cover it out of their budgets. Because of that, only about 50% of last year's unfunded students were able to receive second-year funding, which, I'm told, is the first time that has happened. Up until then, the department felt very confident in assuring students that funding would be available their second year. SO basically, we're all currently in limbo waiting to find out what the situation is going to be this year. We know the TAs are getting another raise, but we don't know whether the university will cover it this time, or whether they'll make the department do so again which would, again, dramatically decrease the number of TAships available to second year students. As far as competition: right now we're all feeling it a little bit, because those of us without funding just submitted our TA-applications for second year funding, which included recommendations, a personal statement and a writing sample. When the committee meets in April they will rank the applications and then when funding starts to come in they'll go down the list and award as many TAships as possible. So in that sense it is a little icky-feeling… I mean, no one wants to be ranked from best to worst among their peers. But I don't have any animosity towards other unfunded students in my cohort--of course I want funding next year, but we're all equally deserving and ultimately it will be left up to a subjective decision by the graduate studies committee. I guess what I'm trying to say is that some sense of competition is inevitable due to the nature of the situation, but it hasn't really affected my ability to do my work or to maintain the friendships I've made among my cohort. Everyone is really supportive of each other. We all want all of us to receive funding, haha, no one wants to see their peers left in the dust. I can't say if that vibe will change once the decisions start coming in, but I hope it doesn't. As for potential other funding opportunities, I do know one student who has a TAship that has something to do with computers, and occasionally we'll get e-mails from other departments looking for TAs, but they usually require some experience. There are fellowships available for PhD students, but very few, if any, for MAs. I personally am living off of loans right now and I also tutor a few hours a week for the athletics department. I really can't say what the other unfunded students are doing--I know of a few people who have part time jobs, and others that don't, so I can only assume they're living off of loans or savings, I'm not sure.

I actually was quite surprised to see those rejections go up because the last time I was casually chatting with the ladies in the office I was told they were still a few weeks away from making offers. Last year, they updated the website with the acceptances but didn't hold the funding meeting until a few weeks later. This year, I know the meeting to determine who receives funding is not supposed to be until the first week of April. I would assume/hope they'll be giving acceptances before then, but I'm really not sure unfortunately. As far as the stipend, I don't have an exact number because I'm not a TA this year, but I believe it's somewhere between $11-13k.

Oh, and as far as the success rate of applicants--I don't have any specific numbers to give you, but I do know that this year's cohort is likely going to be smaller. The department is going through some major budget issues right now.

I don't know anything about the textual studies program, unfortunately. My cohort last year was around 20, and I believe the total number of grad students at various stages of degree in the department is somewhere between 120-150, I can't quite remember exactly. UW doesn't admit directly to the PhD program without already having an MA. The options are that you can apply to the PhD program if you already have an MA from another school, or you can apply for the MA which is fully integrated into the PhD, meaning that you don't have to reapply to get into the PhD program if you do your MA at UW.