Heather Hoffman

Thanks for giving me more details on your SoP. Mine was not specific to anything at all at UCSB, not even mentioning institutional factors. This was a problem with all of my applications, one I will definitely correct when I try again next year. Here's hoping you get your top choice, but if you don't, UCSB is an awesome school, IMO.

Thanks for all the encouragement, this is a great thread and is definitely helping me out. Also, when I hear about one of you (or someone here) getting an acceptance, I'm starting to feel this wonderful sense of "Congrats! You worked your ass off for that and you deserve it! As for me, I tell myself, "It's their turn this year, it will be my turn next year." I'm okay with taking turns. I really believe this will happen someday. I just do.

Congrats to both of you Bayo, are you officially accepted at UCSB? It sounds like it. My understanding is that UCSB has an awesome program. Just curious, did you contact anyone at UCSB before/during the application process? I'm just wondering so I have a better idea how to approach the school next year.

I woke up at 5am crying this morning, couldn't go back to sleep. I have an campus visit/interview on Thursday, so that's good, but I am 99 percent certain that it's for a wait list position only, and the cherry on top is I'll be spending the day with people who've already received their acceptance letters for the program. So it will be day of me smiling and saying "Yeah, it's a great program! You should go!" while on the inside I'll be saying "don't go! don't go!" Now I'm blasting Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" album. It's helping. Next step: work on M.A. Comprehensive Exam studying, interview prep (dammit, I'm not going down without a fight!) lesson planning, and resume polishing (ah, Plan until I'm exhausted. Here's hoping burying myself in work is the ticket today. Because the alternative is culring up in bed with TV and depression, and dammit, I refuse to do that. It's not over till it's over, and if I get rejected from everywhere, I know what to do next year. I'll apply to more schools, I'll have a better SoP, and I'll make contact with profs in the programs I'm applying to early in the season. In addition, if I'm not in grad school next year, I'll be a classroom teacher... and honestly, there are worse fates.

Okay, um, yikes. I got invited to UC Riverside's Graduate Recuritment Day... where I figure they will do informal interviews to see if they want to accept me and the other applicants on the short list. I just found out that one of the other short list people they invited got an acceptance letter to the program yesterday... and I haven't gotten anything. Not. A. Thing. Am I going to be hanging out and eating lunch with a mix of people who have acceptance letters and people who don't have acceptance letters? Is this a common practice? I've never heard of such a thing. Feeling really down right now. Would really like to know what's going on.

The results survey has a lot of UCLA comp lit activity on it, I applied there but I haven't heard anything yet. If I don't hear anything by Feb 24 I'm gonna call to see what's up. Anyone applying to USC? If so, does your application have a new message saying they're only sending out decisions via postal mail? I know one person on here got into USC Comp Lit and I think (maybe) they emailed that person.. so it's all very confusing. Also, anyone hear back from UCSB or UCI?

Hi, I'm applying to the Comparative Literature PhD program, so I'm not sure if the masters thing applies. As for logging in with the USC ID, no luck, I tried a few different places on the USC site and it keeps saying it's not a valid USC ID - this is the one they sent me a few weeks ago. Anyway, guess I'll have to wait for postal mail... ugh.

Okay, this threw me for a loop. Today, USC added this bit under the"Application Status" section of my application: "You will receive notification of your admission decision soon via postal mail. Please note that the Office of Admissions provides final decision notifications by letter only. We do not disclose admission decisions via e-mail, telephone, or any other means." This doesn't remotely jibe with the results survey, where people are getting a lot of emails from USC, especially in the last few days. Anyone know what the deal is here? I'm assuming rejection, of course, and thanks to the holiday weekend, the soonest I'll get this letter is Tuesday. Ah, well. That's two unoffical rejections down, three to go.

From an essay on "Ode on a Grecian Urn": The poet imagines a setting of the little town emptied of its folk. Then goes on to say, “thy streets forevermore Will silent be; and not a soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.” He is saying art is deserted here and will never be able to return. The sad part is, the student's entire paper revolved around the concept that "Art isn't there." So, um, he has to write the entire paper over... Another student wrote a paper on World War II where she talked about how the Beaches of Normandy are next to the Arctic Ocean. When I got out a globe and showed her how, um, that isn't true, she realized that she'd mixed up Normandy with Norway.. but she was still reasonably certian that major battles during WWII happened near the Arctic Pole...

Hi, thanks for your kind words and good advice. I spoke to Michelle on February 8, actually, and she said (bascially), "Don't call us, we'll call you within 2 weeks." So I figure if I don't hear anything by Feb 24, I'll give her a call and ask about the wait list. The truth is, I screwed up the timing with UCLA. I didn't contact any of the profs there who do research in my area until February 8, and by then many acceptances and wait list notices had already gone out. Honestly I just didn't realize how early I had to start the process. If I get rejected by all 5 schools I applied to this year, I'll definitely start contacting profs much earlier next year.

Thanks for the insight, I was worried I'd have to spend all weekend trying to filter the Spanish out of my Italian (this is what happens when you are an American fluent in Italian living in Southern California - the Spanish keeps creeping in). And congrats on getting on the wait list, I know someone in that program and she really liked it. I don't think I have the numbers for it, so I'm expecting a rejection soon. I wonder how it works with a wait list? This is my first time applying to grad school so I'm new to the whole system. What are your chances, you think, when you're on the wait list?

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement. My chin's still on the floor, although working on my plan B is perking me up a bit. I guess I honestly would rather work on plan B then just sit around and wait. If by some miracle I do get into a PhD program, the Plan B work isn't really time wasted IMO. And if I don't, my plan B honestly doesn't suck too bad either, and I can always try again next year.

Hey, just curious, anyone hear from USC, UCLA, or UCI Comp Lit? I also applied to UCSB, but I think from reading this forum I'm going to assume that those spots are taken. There are a bunch of UCLA acceptances on the results survey, so I'm assuming that I'm rejected from there as well, although I haven't heard anything from anyone yet. I was an Italian major for 2 years, did a lot of upper division work right away since I entered the program fluent. Then switched to English major, graduated from UCLA in 1995... so I have a lot of Italian coursework on my transcript... but my language skills are a bit rusty. Nothing I couldn't spruce up with a summer intensive, but I'm curious - for those of you who've had comp lit interviews, do they talk to you in your second language? I have an interview coming up where the prof doesn't speak Italian, but it's a long day, perhaps they'll swing me around to the Italian prof as well. Good luck to all..

Honestly, that's the scariest part for me - no late acceptances for any of my schools going back 4 years. So if they do have any kind of wait list, most of the people on that are probably rejected. I'm sorry to sound so negative, I just feel like I need to accept reality and focus really strongly on plan b.

I just checked the Results survey going back to 2007. None of the schools I applied ever accept anyone after March 1. Most send out acceptances in late Jan-early Feb, and send out their rejections between mid Feb-March 15. So at this point I've officially given up hope. I haven't heard anything, but I've passed by the "acceptance window" for these schools. Incredibly sad right now. Reciting anticipated rejection letters in my head. Trying not to cry. Next year, I will do a lot better, I will do so many things differently/better. For now, I need to update my resume and start pounding the pavement for a "real job." Sniff.

I'm invited to a "recruitment day," I got the invite after a long phone interview where I discussed my research in great detail. I asked if I should bring anything to the recruitment day, and they said no, just be prepared for a full day of stuff. I assume there will be interviews of some kind, either formal or informal. The thing is, I've been through the C.V.s of all the profs, and no one is doing research in my exact area... so even though I can speak about my research very well, as I've been doing it for 2 years straight now, I don't think I can link it *strongly* to anything the current faculty is doing... so I'm scared I'll either sound like I'm reaching - I have a series of "reaching" notes for 6 faculty members' current research, including my POI, or that I'm from another planet. I am interested in the research these faculty members are doing, honestly I love reading their work and there are some tenous connections in postcolonialism and gender studies, but I'm scared if I go into that too much and about how I could pursue what I do in their direction, that I'll come off as too broad. Essentially, I'm panicking. During the phone interview, I didn't try to link my research to the faculty there at all, just talked about what I've been doing for the past 2.5 years. The POI who interviewed me said she found what I said "interesting" and "Fruitful," and I did get the invite to recruitment day.. it's just.. I just have no idea how to link them to me, or even if I should. BTW I chose this school because it's geographically close to my kid, I can't leave the geographic area due to custody stuff with the ex. So I don't have the luxury of pursuing programs in other parts of the country that have faculty that are actually doing what I'm doing. Any advice/insight would be helpful...

How often does the graduate school of a university reject someone the specific department reccomends for admittance and funding? That is to say, is the "graduate school approval" step a rubber stamp, or is it a bigger deal? Just curious...

Okay, I'm fairly convinced that I've been rejected by a few schools but they haven't told me anything yet. My area of study - Comparative Literature - is pretty small. Many schools only admit 10 or less PhD students a year, so I'm pretty worried that I've been rejected by a few places already. According to the results survey on here, UCLA, UCI, and USC have accepted a bunch of people within the last few weeks. I don't think they have any spaces left, so why haven't they rejected me? What's that all about? Also, many of those accepted students got funding. Could it be that I still have a chance of getting in without funding? If so, quite honestly, I'd take out loans and go for it. Another school I applied to, UCSB, has accepted a couple people, so they might have spaces left. Last but not least, according to the results survey here, UCR has not accepted or rejected anyone yet. They invited me to their recruitment day. They're paying my travel expenses, so I'm hoping that means I'm on the shortlist, as they have an amazing program. I'm scared to death that I'll get, like, 4 rejections this week. Any advice/insight into this would be extremely helpful. Thanks, Heather