NowMoreSerious

I know I've said this before, but visit places. Visit as many as you can afford or have time for. I would even borrow money and take time off work in order to make these trips (many schools reimburse you but don't pay up front). I know I did. Also, I would ask yourself what type of environment you think you'd thrive in. Hyper-competition? Lay-back? Communal? Friendly, but everyone keeps to themselves? Big programs where you can have your space, or small program where everybody knows everybody? Do you need to be near friends and family? When you visit, take the opportunity to ask about the advisement and mentorship styles for your POI's. To do this, ask the STUDENTS who are currently being advised by your POI. If you can't find any you have to find out whether its because not many people are working in their field or because nobody wants to work with that advisor. If EVERYONE is working with your advisor, that's something to consider in terms of how much time they would be able to give to you. Sometimes during welcome weeks, only first and second year grad students attend. But if you come across a 4th or 5th year, as in somebody who is doing their dissertation, talk to them. They will often give you a view of the department that his a different (longer view) perspective. People pay a lot of attention to location, but I think its overrated. I know plenty of people who are happy with their programs, but don't like the city they are in, and I know many people who are unhappy with the program, but maybe like the city. The latter are always in a much worse position. If you have any other questions let me know. 2 years ago I visited 6 places all around the country in order to make my decision. And when I did I was paying very close attention to everything going on at the school.

What's more interesting to me, and this happens every year, are the people who start off something like 0 for 9, lose hope, and then suddenly get accepted to a top program. This famously occurred on this board like 2 or 3 years ago and the person got into Columbia.

Yeah what's even more interesting, to me, are the novels written in response to it. In literary studies many people employ the whole, "Yeah, there was racist stuff in literature back then; it was the times." But I'm starting to study mostly-ignored 19th Century American novels that are unapologetically, and unabashedly racist and written for specifically pro-slavery racist political ends.

Indeed, he's excellent. Took his course last winter.

Uncle Tom's Cabin.

I don't think GRE scores matter that much to MOST schools. I think the reason acceptances have high scores might have to do with the fact that people who have the time and energy to study hard for those tests usually also have the time and energy to work meticulously on their other documents. I have never heard anybody who has ever got accepted get told, "We were really impressed by your GRE scores." In fact they are almost never mentioned as far as I know. However, many people get told "We were really impressed by your writing sample." It's possible they are used to "break ties" but even then I have no proof.

Thank you for making this thread! Yes, current grad student, 2nd year, UCLA. I work with writings going all the way back from Aztec Poetry to 21st century Chicana/o novels. In terms of Chican@ literature, I feel like, unfortunately, it is a tale of 4 empires: Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Texas-Austin. That's not to say there isn't work going on in other places, but the proximity to archives and professors in those schools sets them apart. For east coast, I know Cornell has some good stuff going too, with some great graduate students in and around that field.

Congrats!!! That's such an awesome program.

I remember Hsuan Hsu called me like at 7pm on a Saturday night. It was one of my fondest memories. Who was the phone call from, if you don't mind me asking?

I was accepted there two years ago, went to their welcome week, and email corresponded with both their graduate students and some faculty during that process. If you have any questions let me know. I'm 100% candid and here to help. I also do 19th and 20th American as well as "multi-ethnic" literature.

Congrats! During my season (2 years ago) I was also accepted there and I visited campus. If you have any questions let me know by pm.

Congrats! I got accepted there a few years ago and I visited campus. If you have any questions, let me know. It's a great program.

Congrats!!! As I will say to all the UCLA admits, let me know if you have any questions.

Congrats!!!! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

As far as I know, some schools only admit a certain number of students from each field, and have rankings and a wait list for each field. So if the two early Americanist spots go unfilled, they will draw from the early Americanist wait list. What I would inquire about in that email is whether you are 2nd place overall, or 2nd place on the waitlist. Either way, congrats!

All I can tell you is that I don't think that any of the information you listed will make any difference in the outcome. There's a high chance they've already separated the applications into "acceptance" "rejection" and "wait list" The only way to move from any of those is if you are wait listed, and you don't get off waitlisted by bolstering your application. Movement has to occur with the already admitted students.

It normally doesn't happen with USC because they normally admit so few, and wait list so few. But starting off a season with a wait list for USC bodes very well for you. Not only that, but I got my wait list notice from there March 1. This implies that there was movement that occurred in Feb. But hey wait a min we are still early in the season, bud!

I just want to say to everyone to hang in there. As some of you know who have been around here before, this tends to be the most stressful time, but at the end of the season everything works out. Strange and cool things will happen; cohorts will form. Even for the people who don't get in anywhere, by the end of the long season they normally have a much better idea of what they could do to increase their chances again. In my experience, the heartbroken people at the end aren't those who don't get in anywhere, but people who get wait listed at their dream school and don't get an offer. That's always rough because they usually are waiting hopefully all the way until April 15. PS We are so early in the process still, too!

To a fellow CSU'er (LA for me), good luck this season!

Did you apply to UCLA?

For me, there was a big difference between where I thought I was the best fit, and apparently whether ad committees thought I was the best fit. Some of the schools I thought I was a perfect fit for rejected me. Of course, I don't know if that's because they thought I wasn't a great fit, or because there were just 8-10 people applying there who they thought were just better than me for their program. What I have heard though, it that admin committees are looking for what they perceive to be overall potential for literary scholarship. Even if you aren't a particularly great fit for their specific faculty, they will take you if they just think you will thrive in their program. Another aspect is this: Right now I am in my 2nd year and I have just put together my Part I Exam committee. NONE of the professors I mentioned in my UCLA SOP are in that committee.

In my view Grad school is a whooooole other beast. Consider how tiny the percentage is of people who go on Ph.D. programs.

There are too many ways to judge this: difficulty, level of expectation? Amount of coursework? Expectations within the seminars? What are the "first stage" or "part I" requirements? People should also not overlook funding. Programs that do not fund well, (causing you to have to pick up outside jobs and work) might make a program feel very "rigorous" because of the time constraints. DramaDuck, don't worry though. Judging from your list, wherever you go will feel very rigorous, trust me.

Boom! Congrats!!!!

Fair warning, though: just because you see a city on your analytics, doesn't mean that's the school that's considering you. For example, during my season (And this happened to a few other people), I got a hit at one city on my academic.edu profile, but it turns out that my professor of interest was doing archival work at this university, and ended up calling me from there for my acceptance to a school completely across the country. I was thrilled either way, but yeah.