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Stately Plump

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  1. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from Pythia in Are we all just a tad too pretentious already?   
    I've been really pleasantly surprised at how unpretentious this forum is.

    I told my advisor about this place and how it has been nice to get to know some other people who have similar interests/are going through a similar process. She frowned, then cringed, then warned me about people trying to be intimidating via a shadowy and pretentious internet personality. I think she was thinking of her own days in graduate school, when intellectual "sophistication" and cut-throat attitudes were predominant. I'm sure all of us will encounter the pretentious jerks of PhD programs (including some professors), but I've found the environment on here overwhelmingly positive and refreshing, and I'm excited about meeting a lot of these people as we become the next generation of scholars.

    I'm especially excited about becoming the next generation of scholars together.
  2. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from AnimeChic101! in SOP Readers - Helping Out Fellow Applicants   
    If I were applying for this upcoming application year, I would print out this post and hang it above my desk. And I would do exactly as it says.

    Write a draft following these instructions. Then write a completely new draft following these instructions. Then write a third and a fourth. Then combine the best features of all drafts, whether that be one paragraph, one sentence, or one word.
  3. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from ecuaplato in Damn you, ETS!   
    Your writing sample should be your best piece of academic writing. It should be related to your proposed area of interests; if it isn't, there should be a viable reason, and I would even mention why you chose said piece (but really, send a writing sample that is in your field). And yes, make changes. Revise, revise, revise. Rewrite entire sections, if they are weak. Rearrange paragraphs. Ask for multiple people to read and review it, incorporate their feedback, then have them do it again. I wrote my writing sample for my senior seminar in the spring, revised it several times over the summer and into the fall, and only finished revising with maybe two weeks left before I started submitting applications. By that estimate, I probably spent about 11 months working on my writing sample.

    A stellar writing sample will you get in even despite poor test scores, weak undergrad, and potentially even a shaky LOR.
  4. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from TonyB79 in All frequenters of this forum: some want to be profs, but most want to be authors. Discuss.   
    I'm hoping to become a professor.

    But I'm also going to get a PhD for the sake of the PhD itself. Even if I end up running the family business, I don't want to be 50 or 60 and have to think, "Would my life have been different if I had pursued my dreams of obtaining a PhD?"

    <--- no regrets sunglasses
  5. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from aGiRlCalLeDApPlE in Fall 2012ers: How are y'all feeling?   
    Awesome!!! So exciting! I hope that is the case for all of us!

    ---> sunglasses to mask my fear of not fitting in with my cohort. they're all so much smarter than me! how am i going to keep up this lie that i belong in graduate school?! didn't i mostly fake my way through undergrad?! will i still be able to make it, faking it in grad school?! THEY'RE GOING TO FIGURE ME OUT!!!
  6. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from vitaebella in Summer Reading List (for Incoming Fall Ph.D. Students)   
    Ha!

    But seriously, "wrestle" might best describe the experience. Pro tip: it will be more enjoyable if you don't expect to win the wrestling match.
  7. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from rcelestestu in Following up with your recommenders   
    Don't worry, I'll -1 one of your innocuous comments. Only when you least expect it...
     
     

  8. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from practical cat in Following up with your recommenders   
    Don't worry, I'll -1 one of your innocuous comments. Only when you least expect it...
     
     

  9. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from feraleyes in Following up with your recommenders   
    Don't worry, I'll -1 one of your innocuous comments. Only when you least expect it...
     
     

  10. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from sebastiansteddy in Following up with your recommenders   
    Don't worry, I'll -1 one of your innocuous comments. Only when you least expect it...
     
     

  11. Upvote
    Stately Plump reacted to Stately Plump in Following up with your recommenders   
    I told my professors the results of all my applications, though I went to a small liberal arts college and had pretty close relationships with all my professors. I don't know that there is a particular decorum regarding how to handle this situation; it should probably be judged on a case by case basis.
     
    Congrats on UNC! 
     
    EDIT to add: I would definitely, definitely inform your recommenders about your acceptances. Being admitted anywhere is so difficult, and it's always a nice feeling for a professor to know that a former student of theirs will be continuing in a field for which they have prepared the student. 
  12. Downvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from ComeBackZinc in Following up with your recommenders   
    I told my professors the results of all my applications, though I went to a small liberal arts college and had pretty close relationships with all my professors. I don't know that there is a particular decorum regarding how to handle this situation; it should probably be judged on a case by case basis.
     
    Congrats on UNC! 
     
    EDIT to add: I would definitely, definitely inform your recommenders about your acceptances. Being admitted anywhere is so difficult, and it's always a nice feeling for a professor to know that a former student of theirs will be continuing in a field for which they have prepared the student. 
  13. Upvote
    Stately Plump reacted to Datatape in What exactly made you a successful applicant?   
    You should think terribly of Harold Bloom.  He is a misogynistic narcissist.  He is not even in their English Department.  They gave him his own department of Humanities because no one could frackin' stand him.
  14. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from cicada123 in Digital Humanities   
    I know UVa has some people who are really interested in DH.

    EDIT to add: DH will very likely play a huge role in all of our futures, in one way or another. If you end up at a school where there isn't that much DH activity going on, be responsible for starting it. Then put on your resumé that you started X DH project.

    <--- professionalization sunglasses
  15. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from Gustav in Wait listing is NOT the end!   
    Here's some hope for everyone:

    Two of the three professors who wrote me a LoR got in off the waiting list. The one, who was also my advisor, actually got accepted into the MA program, without funding. She went anyway, and got a non-department-related GAship. Her first year, she was working 20hours/week in the daycare on campus (I know, I know, horrible). Her second year she was in the registrar's office doing brutal paperwork. While there, however, she impressed the hell out of them. For her third year (which was technically the first year of her PhD), she was fully funded through the department, and she even managed to haggle with them for more money. She went on to win a dissertation-year fellowship, and win an award for the best dissertation written that year.

    The two students from her cohort whom the school accepted with full fellowships with no teaching responsibilities? One dropped out after a year (didn't even complete his coursework) and the other was ABD for 5 years before they asked him to leave. Neither completed the program.

    Hope! Hope! Hope! +++
  16. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from mban112 in Why do you want your Ph.D.?   
    Literally lol'd.




    This is one of my top reasons as well.


    My other reason, and perhaps my main reason, is because I can't imagine being 50 or 60 and regretting not getting my PhD. Ideally, I would like to land a TT professor job, but even if I don't, I can't imagine not trying. I know a woman who has her PhD in Italian Literature and now makes a fine living as a professional gardener, mostly working on upscale homes planning and designing their yards. She loves what she does, she loves that she got her PhD, she wouldn't change a thing about her life.

    If I don't get my PhD, or don't at least try, I know for sure that I will wonder for the rest of my life, "what would life have been like if I had gotten it?" I'm not trying to live with that forever. So I'm going to give it a shot, and if it works, that's (probably) great, and if not, then it doesn't.

    <--- sunglasses to hide fear that, as opposed to regretting not getting PhD, will actually regret getting PhD
  17. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from JeremiahParadise in Acceptance Freakout Thread   
    Oh my gosh this process is so exciting. CONGRATS!

    Good luck to those still waiting!
  18. Upvote
    Stately Plump reacted to bfat in Cornell School for Criticism and Theory   
    I would basically gnaw off my own arm to go. Unfortunately, I need to be earning $2700 this summer, not spending it... I think I'll apply and see where I can get with funding.
  19. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from ktwho in Quit My Tenure-track Job to go to Grad School?   
    Hmm. I'm not sure about this. Perhaps the problem is that your romantic vision of what scholarly life was like was misguided from the start. 
     
    I don't know that there was ever a time when, as you say, there was a "noble life of the mind where you are excogitating on first causes and the nature of things and then disseminating them to well-heeled, beautiful dreamers and the poetic geniuses of tomorrow." Scholarly life is difficult, grueling, repetitive, at times idle if not inane, and often jejune.
     
    That said, as a current graduate student, I find my life situation much more invigorating than some of my peers. Of the students with whom I graduated, I think my life is, at this point, the best: I get paid to read and discuss awesome books, basically all the people I hang out with on a daily basis love reading as much as I do, I'm never "late for work," I'm not physically worn out at the end of the day (though I'm certainly mentally exhausted), and I'm currently on the tail end of a four week break (some of my lucky peers had Christmas eve off, in addition to Christmas day). In four months I'll have a four month vacation, and if you try to tell me that summers aren't vacations for graduate students, I'll direct you to my friends who will be working 50 hours a week all summer. My life is really, really good right now.

    I've worked in a grocery store since I was 14, periodically working full-time. Let me assure you: the erudite rubbish I've been producing as an attempt to disguise my own emptiness is infinitely more effective than admitting my own emptiness and tying up another prime-rib roast nonetheless, as I did at the grocery store.

    As for the OP, I have no idea what you should do
  20. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from BookGeek in School Lists 2013 (Where are you applying?)   
    I wouldn't apply to 30 schools. I would find 10-15 schools where you feel most confident in your assessment of how you well you "fit" (you won't be able to actually gauge your fit, but give it your best guess) and focus on submitting a solid application to those schools. My thinking is that if you apply to 30 programs, you will be so overwhelmed with application materials that you will end up submitting an application that is just okay. And "just okay" won't get you in anywhere.
  21. Upvote
    Stately Plump reacted to Datatape in book recommendations - staying cozy?   
    Reading? For... pleasure?


  22. Downvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from John_Duble_E in School Lists 2013 (Where are you applying?)   
    Are you referring to NYU in particular, or all the schools on your list? Because all the schools you listed, and actually pretty much any top 50 PhD program in the country, is so competitive that it probably is "not worth it." Most of us applied (or will apply) to 10-15 schools, and the lucky ones will get into 1 or 2 programs.
    This isn't to scare you, but just to point out the harsh realities of graduate education in the humanities.
  23. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from Datatape in Questions about Statement of Purpose   
    Sounds like you've gotten a head start on the whole PhD thing (particularly because of English 792: Introduction to Recent Critical Theory and Method).
  24. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from Two Espressos in SOP Specifics   
    The trick, and I think this is reflected in the varying reports from Duke vs. SUNY Buffalo, is to find that gray area that is neither too specific nor too general. An SOP too specific could pin you to a corner, particularly if you come as being so specific that the program feels like they might not be able to support your interests. On the other hand, being too general might suggest you haven't thought very seriously about these issues, and you might come off as naive, or, worse, unprepared for graduate-level study.

    Follow the guidelines the schools are giving. If Buffalo wants you to talk about the importance of your research questions (which, by the way, I read as meaning why they are important for the discipline, not why they are important for your family/friends, etc., which is more in line with Duke's suggestions), talk about the importance of your research questions. If one school wants 500 words, send them 500 words. If another school wants 2-3 pages, send them 2-3 pages. If a school doesn't have specific guidelines, send them your best statement of purpose (whatever best means...).

    Good luck everyone! It's over soon! Then you can rejoice getting your applications submitted by perusing Grad Cafe results boards 23 hours a day! (Definitely how I celebrated...)
  25. Upvote
    Stately Plump got a reaction from Two Espressos in reading list in preparation for MA in English Literature.   
    Read Harold Bloom with a grain of salt. His isn't exactly the brand of scholarship one might build their academic career on, and you might find professors in graduate school are actually hostile towards him and what he represents (I won't divulge "what he represents"...).

    Look around in journals in your field too. Try to figure out some top journals (this is a good starting place) and head over to your library and read some of the most recent editions, particularly if there are some articles on authors/periods of interest. Here is some good advice offered to new students entering my program: "In addition to reading literature over the summer, you might find it useful to look at scholarly journals in your area(s) of interest. Secondary research is crucial for graduate work, not only because you will be engaging in broader critical conversations, but also because most of the writing you do will be in the form of the scholarly research essay. Accordingly, you should read scholarly work with an eye both to content and to compositional and stylistic practices."
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