DorindaAfterThyrsis

Oh noes! A glorified blogger from slate.com thinks I'm silly and misinformed because I use this site! Whatever shall I do? How can I go on? ANXIETY!

Moving my cat with me is Ground Zero for anxiety in the whole process for me. My situation is complicated because I'm spendIng the summer months out west, and then doing an EPIC cross-continental road trip to Durham, while my stuff from Toronto is being shipped to NC....and figuring out the least traumatic way to get Stephen D. (my fuzzball) to end up safe and sound and still loving me in Durham is proving to be a nightmare.....and most likely incredibly expensive.

This is the greatest episode of television ever produced. God bless you, Elizabeth Berkley.

Is anyone aware of or had good experiences with relocation companies in the area? Due to financial reasons, it is pretty unlikely that I am going to be able to do a recon visit in advance of moving, and am looking into the possibility of hiring someone to find me a place to live. Any suggestions, positive or negative, are greatly appreciated!

I have the "and your very flesh" quote tattooed on my left side ribs. I'm not really a Whitman person, but I had a dance career before I started this whole academia thing, and that quote so perfectly encapsulated what dance and performance was about for me that I had to have it on me permanently. It is my favourite tattoo. For my next one, I am torn between a certain Donne quite and a certain Milton one....I'm leaning towards Donne (since it is incredibly applicable to where I'm at right now) and saving the Milton for when I have my PhD in hand.

I keep wondering when, exactly, the happy/joyful/excited/drunken stage of this process comes in...I seem to simply be moving from one level of abject stress-ball to another. First, applying made me crazy, then waiting drove me bonkers, next I went nuts freaking out about campus visits, after that I was absolutely frazzled by making a choice, and now I am massively stressed out about the realities of picking up my life and moving to another country. When does the fun bit start? I'm ready for it...

Yay! Some PM chats between us may be in order in the near future!

Duke.

I wanted to pop in and echo what a number of other people have said about the GRE: do what you can to get your best possible score, but when it comes down to matters of prioritizing (i.e. should I spend my two free hours tonight studying for the GRE, or should I use those two hours to work on a paper for class that will contribute to my GPA and might eventually inform my SOP or writing sample), the GRE should, in my opinion, always be the lowest priority. Anecdata: Applying to grad school was a VERY last minute decision for me (I hadn't seriously considered it until November of my app cycle year), and I didn't even know the GRE existed, let alone that it was something that required preparation. I signed up for a test three days before I took it, and didn't do any studying or prep outside of glancing at the sample questions available on the website. I was completely unstressed about the test, which I think is the reason I ended up doing well. I simply had no time to psyche myself out. Standardized tests aren't really a big thing in Canada, so I was essentially ignorant of the GRE being considered a "big deal". In my case, this ignorance (rather than my own intelligence or level of preparedness) is probably responsible for my score. As for the writing sample, I was in the same boat as the person who noted their lack of lengthy papers. One of my profs gave me the following advice, which I think is invaluable: The length guidelines are, in fact, just guidelines. AdComms are much more concerned about people sending in things that are too long, rather than "too short" (simply because of the amount of time it takes to go through 4 billion writing samples). Writing more does not equal writing better, and writing a long paper does not equate to writing a good paper. Your writing sample should be the length that it takes to succinctly state and adequately develop your argument, and not a word longer. If that happens to fall within the 15-20p guideline, great. If it happens to be 12 pages (like mine was) that's also great (and adcomms will secretly bless you for cutting down their work load ) They are (among other things) looking at your ability to engage with a topic in a sustained manner, not at your ability to adhere to word counts. My suggestion (and the path that I followed, albeit in an accelerated manner) is to take your best piece of writing from your existing work (preferably one that aligns with the research interests your will be outlining in your SOP), and revise/expand that piece as necessary (NOT simply to make it longer, but to develop your argument and refine your reading into a more concise and sparkling state). If possible, ask the prof who originally graded the paper to look over and comment on your new revision. I didn't have time to do this (because I was nuts and put my entire package together in less than a month (NOT RECOMMENDED), so I don't know from experience, but I imagine offering cookies might help busy/reluctant profs to get on board with this step Once you get your profs feedback, revise the paper again. Repeat this process as necessary (involving other profs/grad students/peers as readers if possible) until your sample is diamond sharp and without a single word of filler. At this point, don't give a second thought to such silly things as page count. If the writing is good enough, it doesn't matter. A crisp but officially too short sample is exponentially more valuable than a sample of "correct" length that has grown slack and droopy with extraneous and unnecessary wordiness. (This response is clearly an example of the latter )

I imagine the dudes at customs are getting a good chuckle by holding mine up. I probably won't see my official H-jection until June...2013. I heart Canada Post .

Anecdata: I gather that the Div Schools at both Duke and Chicago allow (and possibly encourage) student crossover with relevant grad courses in Lit or English, and faculty cross-postings aren't unheard of, either. I imagine this is the case at most major Universities where Div schools exist. I agree with Stately, though, that getting an English or Lit PhD is an awfully enormous commitment of time, effort, and money with little practical payoff if you don't intend to stay within academia. Especially since you have plans to pursue ordination in the near future, are you sure you want to be delaying that for another 6+ years? If you're REALLY committed to the idea of studying literature at the graduate level, and are averse to doing self-directed study (which is an entirely valid, and much less costly route to take), perhaps an English MA might be more suitable? I, personally, would have a hard time justifying the many costs (both real and "missed opportunity") of spending 6 more years in school if I wasn't sure that the outcome was going to be directly applicable to my professional path. I could, however, justify doing a 1 (or maybe 2, but that's pushing it)year MA (if it was funded) on the grounds of pure knowledge-seeking and/or personal enlightenment (which seems to be your situation) if I needed a year or so to feed my curiosity before diving headlong into a profession. Keep in mind, though, that you (honestly, truly) don't need an official piece of paper with some fancy letters on it in order to authorize you to discuss, interpret, and "guide others" through literature, especially in a non-University (i.e. Parish) setting. All you need for that is a brain, and you clearly have a decent one of those. (Not trying to belittle or demean your ambitions, just trying to empower you to resist the idea of a PhD as conferring upon you the Ultimate Authority About Books and Stuff) Just my $0.02. Like Stately said, do your research. Maybe a program in Religion and Literature exists somewhere that I'm not aware of (entirely possible). Good luck.

Don't do the York commute, if you can possibly avoid it. Not to be melodramatic or anything, but it will ruin your life. For realz.

Loving the new signature, Trip. If I were hip enough, and possessed a less-embarrassing knowledge of music, I would totes copy you.

You people are much better at being cagey about your choices than I am. Frown.

Where did you get the subfield ranking from? Is that also USNW? If so, your real question is not "how important is USNW rank?", but actually "What's more important, overall ranking or subfield ranking?" ....not that I have answers to either of those questions...... My instinct would be to go with the school that is stronger in your subfield (especially if the $$ is better) IF you are very, very confident that your subfield won't change (from what I hear, drastic changes in interest/subfield are endemic to most PhD programs). However, if you are open to the possibility that you may at some point over the next few years spontaneously transform from an Early Modernist into a Victorianist (heaven forbid! ), you might want to go with the school that has a better overall ranking/stronger overall faculty. But, as we have all constantly been told, rankings mean nothing......except for when they mean something. I've almost given up on trying to be logical about this process. There are simply too many unknowns, and too many factors that won't become clear until well into the program (i.e. how well do you "click" with profs/your cohort, etc? Faculty migration/retirement/etc) that I've given up on making a "smart" decision. Instead, I'm using time-tested randomization strategies (coin-flip, rock/paper/scissors, drawing names from a hat, etc) to develop a sense of what Fate wants me to do. I am only half joking. This was not a helpful post. Sorry.

This is something that is becoming increasingly clear to me, and it's really throwing a wrench into my decision making process. I don't drive, I can't drive, and it is best for all humanity that I never drive again (trust me), so I am (very happily) dependent upon my bike to get me where I need to go. Apparently, Durham is not really the cyclist's haven that I want it to be, so that's a point in Chicago's favour I suppose...

I wouldn't put it past them.

I believe the CIB factor is a perfectly valid decision-making metric. As creator of this thread, I endorse the continued discussion of the prevalence of Cute Indie Boys in various cities. *stamp of approval* I'm afraid Duke scores rather low in that respect.....though I'm not averse to changing things up a bit and enjoying some good old fashioned Southern charm for a few years. Good manners can be just as sexy as ironic disaffection, right? Right?

My CV was, quite literally, empty. I have loads of unrelated "extracurricular"/leadership/service type things that I could have included, but given that in my mind it has no bearing on my academic merit, I chose not to include it. I still did fine. Conversely, I know people with equal amounts of unrelated activities who disagreed about its relevance to their application and therefore chose to include all of it on their CVs. They also did fine. I applied with only a BA, so maybe that factors in, but long story short, if you think it will help you, include it; if you think it might not, leave it out. My instinct is that its unnecessary and will look like filler (even if its not), especially since you have MA things to include......but it's your call. I imagine you can find many examples of success for both sides of this issue. Good luck!

I like the idea of this bear school. Grizzlies make excellent b-ball players, as my former city will enthusiastically attest. Also, I hope you and your fellow Sabres fans are enjoying our Young Cody. We were all rather fond of him in Canuckland, and a little miffed (to put it mildly) to see him traded away so unceremoniously. Not quite "Hey, let's start a massive riot!" miffed, but miffed nonetheless... This is good food for thought. Thanks! Also, people on these boards have good memories for remembering where fellow posters did/did not get in (despite my admitedly futile after-the-fact attempts to be a little more cagey with info sharing ). I am impressed with people's ability to keep track of this... I like the way you think. I'm more of a beer-as-hockey-accompaniment kind of gal, but perhaps the increased intensity of graduate study will elevate me to a whiskey + hockey girl. So, what other things (quirky, silly, or otherwise) are people inserting as columns into their pro/con tables? Keep the ideas coming! (I'm literally compiling a list of people's suggestions. For reals. )

Why isn't this a real school? I want to go there.... And, like you, I think social/lifestyle factors are going to be a big part of my decision since I'm so stymied on the academic/professional side of things. I'm sure I'm an idiot for even considering it, but two of the things on my "Decision Metrics" list include: - general hockey environment (this includes things like how many bar fights I'll get in for being a Canucks fan, how cheap tickets are for the nearest major AHL or NHL franchise, how often my team visits, how generally annoying I find fans of the "home team" in a given city, etc) - ability to have a (big) dog. These are serious considerations for me, abashed though I am to admit as much... And (wouldn't you know it) the pros/cons in each of these two areas for my schools balance each other out in equal but diametrically opposite ways. The University of Good Hockey Town is less pooch friendly (at least given the living arrangements I would have there), while the University of Having a Big Dog is a hockey wasteland....so, of course, no help there. ARGHAHHGHAH!