DorindaAfterThyrsis

When I decide where I'm going, I'm treating myself to a "So Long, Toronto! Goodbye, Canada!" party wherein my coterie of pals and I will spend a weekend doing every silly touristy thing in Toronto, and making conscious efforts to enact every ridiculous Canadian stereotype so that I can get my fill of Canuck-isms before I'm off to the Big Bad US of A. The weekend will conclude with me cooking a giant dinner, and all getting ridiculously drunk, and giving heartfelt (but slightly slurred) speeches about how much our time together in Toronto has changed us for the better, and how simultaneously wonderful and terrifying it is to be leaving the Very Good Thing that I have going on here in the TDot. There will be tears. Oh yes, there will be tears.

I just snorted coffee through my nose. This sentence made my day.

All my current tattoos are text, and I plan to continue the trend with my next one....which I plan to get once I've made a decision about where I'm going to grad school, and once I actually have my BA in hand I'm thinking something from Donne or Milton, but not sure where to put it yet.....forearm was my first thought, but having a visible Donne tattoo in an Early Modern department might be a bit much. I don't want to be "that" kid, ya know? Perhaps I'll have to hide it better..... As for piercings, I've been slowly but surely de-piercing myself for the last few years......but I think I'm at a place that I'm cool with for now.

Yes. A thousand times, yes. I have a paper (admittedly a short and not-too-important one) on Stein due tomorrow morning for the ONLY class I'm taking right now that I actually need to pass in order to get my official "You've Graduated! Good Job!" stamp.....but I can't even get started because I'm now obsessed with this forum. Farts. On a related note, anyone have anything brilliant to say about "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas"? I'm sooooooooo not a modernist, nor am I into novels. Or Gertrude Stein. *sigh* I look forward to the days when all I ever have to read/write about is 17thC lyric poetry....... Fuck you, novels. Fuck you. And while I'm at it, fuck you, twentieth century. You sucked. (Can we swear on these boards? If not, and I'm about to be booted....'twas lovely reading you all.Best of luck. Now I can get some damn work done! )

This should maybe have its own thread, but its mostly related to this topic so I'm going to keep it here for now I'm super-freaked about the school visits/recruitment weekends I'm going to be attending at the end of the month! I'm pretty shy and socially awkward at the best of times, and tend to shut down almost completely when in unfamiliar/challenging/competitive environments (yes, my grad school experience is going to be brutal.....I know)..... People often interpret my shyness/quietness/reservedness as stand-offishness/unfriendliness/coldness (so I've been told)....What are some little (and not too challenging!) things I can do to make a good impression? I've already been accepted, but I don't want my first interaction with my potential colleagues and profs to be "Oh yeah....she's that weird/quiet/bitchy chick from Canada who didn't say a word the entire weekend....." Also, I'm staying with current students on my first trip (in a dorm on the second), and for all the reasons mentioned above, I'm thinking it's going to be an awfully awkward experience. I'm just not chatty! I don't do small talk (or big talk, for that matter)....but I would like to make a good impression on my host and have absolutely no idea how to overcome my shyness. My conversational skills are literally non-existent. *sigh* I hate interacting with people in the real world. I know that a lot of my shyness stems from lack of confidence/imposter syndrome (especially when interacting with profs)......does anyone have any tips that might help me? This is clearly something I need to deal with BEFORE entering a career in academia... HELP! Make me a socially functioning human in two weeks!

I'm 27, will be 28 by the time I start my program. I feel old, but considering I didn't begin my undergrad until I was 23, I'm used to being in a group of intellectual peers who aren't my chronological peers. It makes me feel like a granny sometimes, but I'm well rehearsed at checking my ego and vanity at the door (as well as my temptation to look patronizingly on my younger classmates), and just getting on with the work. My life before I decided to pursue my BA (on a total whim..) was in an entirely unrelated field, and one that is very time-sensitive, and it therefore didn't help my applications any as I didn't spend my pre-academic years doing relevant/useful things...but it certainly helped me to settle down my desires and plans and know exactly what I want. We all get here in our own way, and we all want different things out of our experience. I don't subscribe to theories that insist there is a "right" or "optimal" age for grad school.

This is a hugely informative thread. Awesome! I've been accepted to Duke, and am considering the offer and will be travelling to Durham at the end of the month (my first time to the South! Prepare for the Canadian invasion!), and I'm wondering if you helpful bunnies have anything you'd like to contribute about the following: -more suggestions for vegans! I admit that in my stereotyped vision of the South, getting by as a vegan might be a little difficult....but Gellert has challenged my assumption on this. I'd love to hear more about how easy it is to eat out in the Durham-area without getting quizzical "What's a vegan?" looks. (I get them here in Toronto a lot, too....so this question isn't only a product of cultural stereotyping ) - how bike-able is Durham? I'm a pretty hard-core cyclist (and commute by bike year-round in Toronto...yes, even in winter), and would love to be able to continue to get around on my bike. Are there lots of bike lanes in Durham? Wide streets? A thriving bike culture?? What's the terrain like? - I grew up on the West Coast, and am a very avid hiker/backpacker/outdoor adventure woman. How accessible it Durham to areas where these activities are possible? The more remote the better (i.e. I'm not a big fan of gentle strolls on gravel footpaths, and won't camp anywhere where you are able to actually drive into your site ) - This could be a long shot but: I'm entering academia from a career as a professional modern dancer. The dance scene in Durham seems a little thin (based on my cursory google searches). Anyone have any insight on if there is any sort of professional dance community in Durham and the surrounding areas? I need to be able to take good, advanced or (preferably) professional-level classes in modern or ballet technique pretty much daily.....and it's looking like that might not be possible in Durham. Am I missing some hidden gem of contemporary dance in North Carolina?! Help!

There's a lot of good info/advice in this thread, but I think it can't be stated enough how instrumental your writing sample is. Both of my acceptance e-mails from the Profs and DGS' at the schools I got into made a point of mentioning my writing sample...and considering how mediocre I consider the rest of my app to be (slightly above average (among GSchool applicants) GPA; high GRE scores; enthusiastic LORs, but not from rock-star or famous profs; SOP that was barely coherent; and no history of publication, presentation, or any sort of "experience" in the field), I'm pretty confident that I got in on the strength of my writing sample alone. I submitted a sample that was VERY closely in line with the research interests outlined in my SOP, and I think this is important. It gives the adcom a glimpse of what you're actually capable of in the areas that you plan to work. I had better papers that I could have submitted (and those papers would have actually met the length requirements.....unlike the one I did end up submitting ), but decided against them because they were unrelated to the research that I plan to pursue. In my opinion (and what the hell do I know?), it's better to submit a good paper that has relevance to your stated interests, than a great paper that is tangential. Best advice I got from a current prof when picking his brain about applications: "Use your SOP as a chance to show your readers how to read your writing sample." I.E. the SOP exists to illuminate the assumptions, interests, and theoretical concerns which are inherent your writing sample. You only have a very limited amount of time and space to prove to them what you can do.....my strategy was to go narrow, rather than broad. tl,dr: Adcoms are mostly interested in how you think, and how you write. They want to know what kind of work you can and will do. All the other stuff ("experience", volunteering, life story, etc) makes you a lovely person, but isn't going to make or break your application. Work on your writing sample. A stand-out piece of work shows hard evidence that you can actually contribute to the discipline in the ways your SOP advertises. A great writing sample can make up for a LOT of other ills. This is, of course, all just my opinion.

Hey, dudes. Thanks for all the info so far in this thread. Very helpful! I'm considering accepting my UChicago offer (visiting campus at the beginning of March will help me solidify my decision), but just wondering if someone can help clarify a few terms that keep popping up in this thread and put them in context for me. - I've been living in Toronto for the past 8 years, so I'm no stranger to winter. Typical "cold" days here mid-January/Fenruary get down into the -15ish celsius range (colder with the wind chill)....is this similar to Chi-town, or is it colder there? - In terms of "safety", I'm not sure what to think with all the mixed reaction here. I've lived in a Big Bad City (in a neighbourhood some would consider sketchy, but that I love) for close to a decade, so I'm assuming that Chicago can't be as "unsafe"/scary as this thread makes it seem.....but maybe I'm just naieve? Or maybe Toronto is just a very safe city? Can anyone provide some context about this issue of "safe" vs. unsafe neighbourhoods? I'm tempted to believe (like a poster mentioned a while back) that "rough" is often being used here to mean "non-white".....but I don't really know for sure. Long story short: I'm a pretty tough cookie, and not scared of much.....do I need to start being scared before I move to Chi-town? I will most likely live in Hyde Park (at least for a year, while I get to know the city better), but I'm open to other neighbourhoods. - I'm a vegan, so I'm happy to hear that there seem to be good produce markets around campus. Yay for a farmer's market!! Anyone know of any services similar to this one that serve this Hyde Park area? I'm kinda militant about eating local/organic and really love this company and don't want to go back to eating supermarket veggies (the horror!), so finding a similar gig in Chicago would be ideal and would make the transition much smoother! - I'm a (fanatic? rabid? insane?) commuter cyclist, so I'm very pleased to hear about the bikability and low bike-theft rates (Toronto is NOTORIOUS for bike theives). I bike year-round here in T.O. (unless it is literally impossible to do so because of snow), and I imagine I will continue to do so in Chicago if I end up there....any thoughts/insights on the terrain of the city? Is it hilly? Flat? Does the lake front bike path get me downtown? Are drivers in the city generally pretty bike-aware? How long does it take to get from Hyde Park to downtown via bike (I'm generally pretty fast)? - I'm entering grad school after a career as a professional modern dancer. I know Chicago has a great dance scene (one of the reasons I'm seriously considering UChicago), but if anyone has any insights about the best places to take class (professional level....not "adult" recreational) in either modern/contemporary and/or ballet, I'd be much obliged.

*quizzical look* "Wait. Did I read that correctly?" *squints at paper* "Quote: 'I am interested in studying the lyric poetry of John Donne because his manipulative, aggressive, too-clever-by-half, but so-freaking-charming-he-makes-your-brain-explode poetic demeanor is remarkably similar to the personalities of the last several men I've dated, and I seem to be genetically incapable of avoiding colossal jerks of this nature' End quote.......This girl's a crazy bitch with some serious intimacy issues. NEXT!" (OK, so I didn't write exactly that in my SOP....but that's the general sense of it! I'm just hoping there's some ladies on the adcoms who understand where I'm coming from )

Okey-doke: So I'm an utter newb at this whole Grad School cult(ure) thing. I've been invited to two Open House/Recruitment Weekend/Admitted Students Day-type thingies (from schools that have both made offers to me), and am seeking advice on what to expect, what sort of questions I should ask while there, and (shallow being that I am) what the frak should I wear?!?! I'm typically a chucks, jeans, and a baggy tank kinda gal.....but something tells me that this garb might not be appropriate for this purpose. I know they can't revoke my admit decision because I look like a schlub, but I figure (OK, let's be honest....I didn't "figure" anything....my more socially-functional friends have told me. In no uncertain terms) that I should try to look "professional" when I go on these trips. So.....what does "professional" mean, in this context? Do I need heels? A jacket/blazer thingy? Or should I just say "screw it" and show up looking like I actually look, in ripped jeans and a ball cap, so that I feel comfortable and not like I'm playing in Big Sis's closet? It's not like they're not potentially going to see me in my *ahem* natural habit every day for the next 6+ years...... tl;dr: HELP! Tell me what to expect during "Recruitment Weekend".