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athousandlemmings

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Posts posted by athousandlemmings

  1. With regards to the writing sample length requirements, what if only one or two schools provide an unusually high maximum length? For example, I'm pretty certain I know exactly where I want to apply this fall. Most of the schools call for approximately 15 pages. However, Brandeis, as margarethale has already stated, has a 35 page maximum, and I think she made an excellent point that falling too short of that maximum would be risky. Brandeis does allow for two shorter essays, but I'd much rather submit something of a more substantial length, especially since I'm applying straight out of undergrad, where I normally didn't write papers more than 15 pages long. There was one paper in particular I wrote during undergrad that I really enjoyed writing, and it has a lot of relevance to where my scholarly interests lie. So my plan was to improve on it this summer, expanding it to 15-20 pages--but then there's Brandeis. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the best course of action to take would be? Would I be better off expanding the paper to ~35 pages for Brandeis and then creating a condensed version for the other schools? Should I focus on producing the sample for the schools with the shorter maximum requirements first and then focus on Brandeis? The best possible solution is probably right in front of me, but I'm struggling to see it.

    I was accepted into Brandeis with an 18-page paper. I think that the high limit is mostly so that students wanting to use a thesis or senior project for a writing sample can do so without the awkwardness of massive trimming or excerpting. I think anything close to ~20 pages would be fine.

    Also, good luck with the app! It was a very difficult decision turning them down.

  2. Agree with Sherlock, of course. They only have the first season on there (at least last time I checked).

    The version of Coetzee's Disgrace on Netflix (with John Malkovich) is pretty good, but it's one of those where you're doing yourself wrong if you don't read it first. Couldn't even finish the film version of Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. Considered watching Naked Lunch ...

  3. I picked up a copy of the PR guide to the Lit GRE. Figure I may as well start tackling that beast WELL in advance of the October test date to which I'm committing. My coursework was pretty deficient in theory and, er, modern literature (where modern = anything after 1600) so I've got quite a lot to do!

    I know of Vade Mecum and Hapax Legomena.

    Anyone have any advice for approaching this test?

    I've taken it twice, and the thing that I struggled with both times was the grammar/rhetoric stuff. Not hardcore grammar/rhetoric, but there were a few more rhetorical and poetic devices than I had hoped for.

    Also--and this seems to be the case with everybody I know that's taken the test--know your old British stuff. Have at least a familiarity with Old and Middle English lit (and languages!), and know Renaissance/17th Century poetry pretty well. I've seen at least five different Milton poems referenced on the tests.

  4. This! A small part of me wants to take my offer with the most funding just to offset moving (or leaving/trying to sell everything and buying all new furniture) costs. Plus visa costs, airfare, damage deposits, blah, blah, blah.

    I'm pretty happy that my top choice among acceptances is offering the most money ... but I'm still in the "leaving/trying to sell everything and buying all new furniture" boat. I'm pretty okay with getting rid of all my furniture--though I'm going to miss the queen-sized bed I got for free--but my main conundrum is what to do with my books. When I moved from my undergrad to my MA program, I loaded all the books I had (half as many as now) into my brothers car, and the car tilted all the way back on the back wheels. Now, how the hell am I going to transport my library four times as far away?

    Has anybody dealt with this? I'm thinking of doing a bunch of those UPS flat-rate boxes ... I can't imagine going through a PhD without all the books that got me to this point (and that many that I bought with a PhD in mind).

  5. I just got a second rejection e-mail from BU, and they're sending a letter in the mail. What... why... what is the rationale behind that? To demoralize you by rubbing it in your face and to fill you with false hope by sending you emails with non-descript subject lines? God, if I were 0-fer and clinging for hope, an unopened email like that would tell me: "WE MADE A MISTAKE! WE MEANT TO ACCEPT YOU!" :P

    Jerks.

    Got the e-mail too. The worst part was having to log back online to the rejected application to get my ID because it was password-protected. Felt like opening up a coffin in hopes that something in there is still alive.

  6. Speaking of airplanes . . . is anyone else freaking out about the idea of moving? I was lucky enough to get an acceptance very early on, but it's certainly given me plenty of time to obsess over the fact that this is really, actually definitely going to happen - - and soon!

    Add to this that I only applied to one school in my home state, and that I almost certainly will not be able to afford to visit programs before April 15th, and that I have quite literally only seen snow three times in my entire life . . .

    In the same boat (lived in the snow for awhile though, but I've spent most of my life in CA). Trying really hard to get a friend with a van to go on a road trip cross-country with me so I can take my library ... can't imagine paying for shipping for all of these things, or leaving them behind.

  7. it feels great to know that two programs think I'm at least somewhat capable of doing the adult scholarly thing.

    Ditto ... now to convince myself that I'm capable of that.

    I definitely sounded like a baboon on the phone. The DGS was like, "We're really impressed with your work and excited to work with you." I completely shit the bed and my response was something like, " :wacko: It feels really good to hear you say that :huh: ." I couldn't come up with, "Thanks, that means a lot." Nope. Feels good to hear you say that. :mellow:

    And maybe we'll both be in the Boston area! Would love to get to know some you folks on here.

    Yea, I think I thanked her about 50 times in 20 mins :o but she was really cool, talked to me about doing her PhD at Berkeley (about an hour from where I'm from) and the weather adjustment from CA to Boston. I also found it really encouraging that she talked about my personal statement in detail, mentioning what different professors liked about what I had to say, and invited me to specific classes (giving me times and everything) for my visit. Vindication, thy name is Tufts.

    And ya, it's looking like a bunch of people on here will end up in the Boston area, so when it's all said and done it'd be nice to have a GC Boston takeover :ph34r:

  8. I just want to say: after the second one it feels more real. After getting in at Amherst, my reaction was more like, "Oh man, no matter what else happens, at least I know I'm not working in a grocery store next year!" But after getting in at BU, my reaction is more like, "Holy shit I got in to a fuckin literature PhD program!"

    I completely agree. The first acceptance was more relief than excitement. For the second, I was so excited I couldn't come up with anything intelligent to say to the DGS. And, having been accepted now to two of my top four choices (rejected from one other, still waiting for the last), I'm much less concerned about the remaining offers than I was between the first two. Now, my biggest stress is how the hell I'm going to afford moving cross country, and whether I can find roommates that don't listen to dance music all day and night.

  9. I also didn't know this. Having an MA AND pegging myself as an Americanist did me no favors here, I'm afraid. Still haven't got my rejection email, but my last name is late in the alphabet.

    Just got my rejection email, as both an MA and an Americanist.

    Why don't they just advertise that they're anti-MA? I've seen a few places while researching that advertise that, and I didn't spend the hundred-plus dollars to apply/order transcripts/GRE. Oh well, can't be bitter, looks like I'll be down the road.

    Good luck those still waiting!

  10. Of the Victorian novels, I've only read Dickens (Great Expectations and David Copperfield), Eliot (Adam Bede), and Hardy (Tess and Jude), and those completely outside class for my comprehensive exam. So no Brontes, no Austen (technically not Victorian), no Gaskell, no Thackeray (who I don't think anybody reads anymore anyway).

    Also, and I'm trying to remedy this, never read anything by Woolf.

  11. On 2/19/2012 at 7:30 PM, spasticlitotes said:

    I just got home from Anthropologie. It was soothing balm for my ripped and torn heart. (I've heard nothing.)

    Has anyone heard anything from the following schools: WashU, U of Oregon, U of Washington, GW, Northeastern, SUNY Stony Brook, Indiana (Bloomington), or UConn?

    *sigh*

    Waiting on UConn as well ... looks like they start notifying at the end of the month (26th-28th or so), with acceptances via email and rejections via snail mail

  12. My phone just rang.

    Blocked number.

    I suffered a mild heart attack.

    I answered.

    It was my bank telling me to pay my damn credit card bill.

    :mellow:

    True Story.

    I've done that a couple times the last few days ... I hate it when they ask "May I speak with ____" and my heart goes all aflutter, and then the bastard says "this is Mike from Charter Communications and we're calling about your internet bill"

    Gonna pay it even later just for vengeance

  13. And while on the Shakespeare topic, NEVER watch the film Prospero's Books by Peter Greenaway (unless, I suppose, you're interested in overly artsy interpretations). Had to watch it in a class, and the tempest at the beginning of the film is caused ... by a 7ish-year-old boy swinging naked over a pool and urinating on a toy boat. :/

  14. I recently saw Ian McKellan's Richard III on Netflix, which I thought was a pretty cool character study on his part.

    I agree! There have been some pretty cool Shakespeare film interpretations recently. That one and Anthony Hopkin's Titus (the Marcus/Lavinia scene especially was interesting) have been my favorites.

  15. Aw, haha. Yes! There's a results board! On the top menu where it says "Results Survey." Search "English" to watch all the action unfold. Although, you may want to spare yourself, I now can't help but refresh hourly...

    You only refresh hourly? I spent my office hours today with my e-mail up on one side of the screen and the results refreshing every five minutes or so on the other. Fare thee well productivity.

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