desaparecido

I'll totally help in any way I can.

Protocol aside (I think it's clearly do-able to switch your decision, though I'd personally be wary of burning a bridge with a great school like BC), I completely side with your advisor regarding the one-year MA. I'll probably get jumped on for saying this, but paying for your MA really isn't the worst idea in the world. It's only two years, and I think it's the best possible investment you can make in this case. As has been discussed elsewhere on this forum, doing a one-year MA will likely be a two-year commitment anyway, as I can't see you getting really strong letters of recommendation or a much stronger and/or refined writing sample or SOP while trudging through your first 2-3 months of graduate-level coursework (seeing as your applications will likely be done sometime in November, before any seminar papers are done and before your MA professors will be able to effectively evaluate any of your work). And as much as folks say one's interests will shift during the PhD program, I think there's a more drastic shift during the BA-MA years, seeing as your MA thesis will likely be your first real in-depth, expanded writing project (unless your undergrad institution had serious writing requirements, though; I think my UG thesis was ~28 pages vs. my 80-page MA thesis, which had an unimaginably strong impact on my research focus). I mean, the call is ultimately yours, but I think accepting BC's two-year program, even unfunded, is a much better decision, personal investment-wise, than Rochester's one-year program, even if you had both offers at the same time. Good luck!

"Dear applicant" is the worst. Tactless. Or perhaps the second worst. I received a wait-list letter from a school (not Penn State) that reversed my first and last name, and spelled my first name wrong. I immediately emailed the school and took myself off the wait-list out of spite (and the fact that I received an acceptance from a more preferred program already).

It's a huge wait-list, and it seems to be a regional trait. LSU traditionally has a large wait-list, and I was told that Tennessee had a 50-person wait-list this year as well. Hm.

Which panel? And that's very weird, hah.

You should hit my panel if you go! I'm presenting on the "Authenticity, Autobiography, and the Self" panel in the afternoon.

Is anyone else here presenting at this? I just got the program last night and it's looking like an awesome bunch of panels.

This. Yes. Remember when we were all super stressed? Like, pretty much every day since November, and until ~12 hours ago? This is so much better. We all need to get celebratory drinks. All the GradCafé folks in the NYC area. We all deserve all of the drinks.

Heyyy, don't forget that you can all visit us out in Stony Brook, too! Or maybe I'll just invade NYC portion of the consortium. Either/or.

Congrats, bud! So awesome that everything is falling into place for folks.

Just accepted an offer from Stony Brook University! *faints* It's over, finally.

Oh wow! Congrats! That's awesome.

Thanks! I'm going for lit - American modernism and cognitive studies, mostly. They didn't tell me anything much about the cohort, really. It was a very late acceptance, I know that much. I got an email the afternoon of March 26th, so it wouldn't surprise me if they're arranging things right up until this weekend - let me know if you figure out the website (I haven't been on there at all). Good luck!

I turned down an offer from Georgia State about a week and a half ago. Solid program, but the funding package is really rough: $15,000 for 2/2 plus 100 hours of "professionalization," which is basically, from how it was explained to me, time spent editing, in the writing center, etc. You can choose to not do the professionalization aspect, but the stipend goes down to $13,000. The DGS is a super awesome guy and told me when he called me with the acceptance that he considers the funding package to be pretty bad and he's doing all he can to have the graduate school rework the offer, so he's certainly fighting for the program. Program-wise, it's very good, but I don't know how well one can live in Atlanta plus have enough time to adequately complete coursework with that heavy of a workload - again, the 2/2 is one thing, but an additional 100 hours (DGS told me it breaks down to roughly 6 hours per week) of additional duties is a bit over the top.

I've never heard this before, and this also hasn't been my experience by any means. I got my MA from a program that also offers a PhD, and the majority of the professors I had were very much involved and interested in working with MA students, particularly those of us who were working on theses and interested in moving onto PhD programs, whether in the same program or not (I can't think of one that wasn't, in fact). I'm very glad I went to this particular program for my MA, as I think getting to work with the professors I worked with was a valuable experience that really helped me along in many ways. At the same time, I didn't want to stay there for my PhD, and the professors I worked with were totally understanding and were still very much willing to work with me, despite the fact that I wouldn't be around after the second year. While the school I got my MA from isn't a top 20, it is a respected program with some top-notch professors. I got into several of my top-choice PhD programs (many of which are more well thought of than the program I got an MA from), so I think to advise people to avoid getting an MA from a program that offers a PhD is misguided at the very least.