Fiona Thunderpaws

I can't blame you, crows are awesome. There's quite a few of them where I live now, and sometimes I go out just to watch them. I also think they have a sort of unassuming majesty. They're really interesting animals! I've seen them work together to drive out read tails in my yard. Though that article brings them to a new level of terrifying yet cool. I bet he didn't know it at the time, but that Whitman quote is just destined to be a be a tattoo. My friend's a writer and has 'no day without a word' in Latin on his forearm. It's a work reminder, with the added bonus of looking awesome! I'm tempted to get a crest of Florence (I studied abroad there and it was really moving and contributed a great deal to my desire to go on into graduate work) or a cat's paw print... But I'm worried if I do the latter I'll seem even more like the crazy cat lady I secretly kind of am. And yeah-thinking of tattoos is way better than freaking out over waitlist things we have no control over.

I know this is a little premature, but if someone doesn't mind, could you PM me your impressions of the faculty/cohort atmosphere after visiting weekend? I would really appreciate it! Also, I hope you all enjoy the visit, and see a few of those mythical white squirrels!

I like your ideas! I have been seriously considering getting one should I get in. (Hell, even if I don't.) I imagine Whitman has a lot of personal meaning for you based on your profile picture, but what about the crow? I've never gotten a tattoo before so I'm interested in how people reached/are reaching their decision for what to get.

Trip-- I'm jealous you at least don't have to start worrying again until the 10th! (Also, the 10th seems like a strangely arbitrary date but whatever Rutgers.) UTA's visiting weekend is tomorrow, and I know from this weekend onward I'll be in total freakout mode until the 15th. Which isn't that long, but still... Cread--I really hope everything works out for for you and your husband. I admire people who go through this with serious partners, I don't think I could make it work... On a totally unrelated note, if I get into grad school, what sort of tattoo should I get to commemorate the experience? My friend suggested I get 'waitlisting in NOT the end' done, but somehow I disagree.

I think more people declining can only be a good thing for you! Also-- I wish I had a high school friend I could lament with. My friends are sick of listening to me rant and putting up with my superstitions!

So did UTA. Providence is on our side, good sir! Lolo and Datatape's schools are in a brutal Hunger Games style fight to death for them, because they're THAT awesome. Anxious_Aspirant's school is draining money out of the STEM departments to offer him/her the largest fellowship they have ever offered EVER. Today is our day, friends!

This has been my story for the past 5 weeks or so now. I'm an all-or-nothing kind of girl, so I'll either go to my top choice or continue waiting tables for the foreseeable future. I feel like I'm one of the nerdy kids in High School hoping for an invite to the cool kids' party!

When I choose places to apply to, this was my process. Take it with a grain of salt! I made a giant list of schools, and then pared it down with these points. 1. Funding. Funding is/was really paramount for me, for all the general reasons, but also because I have student loans I was to continue paying off, and I have paltry savings. I know I couldn't supplement my income with anything set aside, and anything I did set aside would go to loans. 2. Faculty/Department Atmosphere (or what you can gleam of that online, anyway) My research interests are kind of strange. I'm a Gender/Sexuality person with subfields in postcolonial (mostly Arabic lit) and pop culture. While pretty much every program has a Gender/Sexuality subfield, looking for places that would be open to my other two interests was challenging. In addition, I knew I needed a program that welcomed interdisciplinary stuff and offered a lot of freedom to its students, because that was the sort of environment I would thrive in. 3. Placement. Where were the recent grads going, and were they even graduating? 4. Workload. If it was possible, I poked around the department website and found out how the semesters were structured, and judged how I thought I could cope with it. Some programs were more rigorous than others, and others didn't seem to offer enough (like lack of teaching opportunities.) 5. Location. I'm easily affected by my surroundings, and while focusing on location at all seems a little silly, I knew it would really impact my studies.Neither bustling, distracting cities nor really rural places are my thing, so I kept that in mind when I was applying as well. Once I did all this, I had a pretty solid list of programs, but a lot of them were pretty highly ranked. Not that this was an issue, but I was worried about my chances of actually getting into any of them. I debated whether or not to throw in a 'safety' school, but ultimately decided against it. I asked myself if I would be happy going to my safety school if that was the only option I had--and the answer was no, not for any of the 'safety' places I was considering. If it came to me not going to grad school in the fall, or going to a place that I didn't think would be an ideal match for me, I knew I would rather lick my wounds and try again later on. You can apply many times, but you only go to a PhD program once.

Bdon, when I saw this board updated my heart stopped! I hope where ever you go, it's just as awesome as Texas. (Judging from your signature, it will be!)

I second this. I was talking to some Chemistry people before my test, and the one kid said he was shooting for the 20th percentile, and I made some sort of snide comment that easily obtainable goals were the best goals when it came to tests, and he turned to me and said "no seriously, I'll be delighted if I make the 20th percentile." I have never so happy to be in the humanities.

Firstly, congratulations on your awesome acceptances! Secondly, I think I would ask yourself if the top 10 programs would really be a better fit for you than the ones you've already gotten into. You've acknowledged that you think both Chicago and Rutgers are a good fit for you, and they are very highly ranked programs themselves, and it is no small feat to be accepted into either of them. My personal inclination is that taking on debt unless you absolutely have to isn't the best path to take when to comes to humanities PhDs, and I would be very, very cautious of doing so. There's no guarantee a second round of applications will get you into the top 10, and in the worst case scenario you could end up in debt and still not have any acceptances to places you'd want to attend.

Honestly, if I thought the general GRE was inconsequential, it is nothing compared to how ridiculous I think the lit GRE is. This isn't to say that you should ignore it completely of course, but if I were to rank the importance of application materials and how much time I should have devoted to working on them, it would probably be writing sample > SOP > General GRE > Lit GRE. Beyond that, I was surprised by the amount of reading comprehension and grammar stuff on the test. Luckily, studying for the general GRE helps with this to an extent. My abilities to figure out the meaning of passages and such helped me way more than knowing a bunch of names and works and devices. Seriously, you could spend YEARS studying for this test and still do badly. I scored in the 49% percentile and am waitlisted at a top 20 program, and while I didn't have the most successful season, I KNOW this was because of my SOP and writing sample. I'm not on an adcom obviously, but I really doubt any school is going to read through a mindblowing SOP and writing sample and go "wow, she's amazing, but she got a 400 on the lit GRE... I don't think we should take her." Honestly, if a school actually did that, I don't think it's the sort of program I would want to immense myself in anyway. Sorry, this post as gotten a tad divergent. The lit GRE is just so nonsensical and ridiculous... In a nut shell my advice is, (a) study a little, but not at the expense of other parts of your applications, ( take timed practice tests, because being able to do things quickly is paramount when you're actually taking the test, and © no matter how badly you do, I don't think it's worth retaking the test at the detriment of your other applications materials and bank account.

Before I wrote my personal statement, I asked my friends who had applied before me if I could have their SOPs so I could get an idea of how they were written. Then I drafted the stupid thing about 10+ times. Then I begged these wonderful friends from before to look at it, along with my professors, and I drafted it a few more times. There's a lot of drafts involved.

Bigrelief--I missed your post somehow, congratulations! Judging from where you've declined, you've got some kick-ass offers to pick from! I take my hat off to you, sir or madame.

That about sums it up, doesn't it? EDIT: For better or worse though, as a friend of mine pointed out today, it's two weeks until the 15th which is better than before... I guess.

I don't see how that could NOT be cool. I'll bring the graham crackers!

In Ithaca, we can still make this happen!

Summer school still exists at the graduate level? This makes me happy.

One easy way to study without devoting hours of time to the books is to keep a running list of words you're not 100% sure of from your readings. When I read for class, I kept a little notebook next to me and scrawled them down in there, then later on I went back and looked them up in a dictionary. Sometimes if I were reading in front of my computer, I would just do it right there and have the added benefit of seeing the word in context. As Lit people, we have a huge advantage over other people taking the GRE because deciphering stuff through context is what we do. Also, I would say the verbal part of the GRE is the most important aspect (in light of the little importance GREs have anyway) so I would make that the focus of your studies. When you take it too, it will ask you if you want the scores sent to 4 schools for free, and I would definitely take ETS up on that too because those scores are EXPENSIVE to send. I spent another $100+ dollars sending the stupid scores to schools. ETS is ridiculous. I hate them.

For my writing sample, I expanded a paper I wrote in the spring semester into a 20 page, much better paper over the summer. The professor of the class I wrote it for is one my my mentors, and he was happy to communicate with me via email the whole summer to help me whip it into shape! Write some really kick-ass papers this year, then worry about expanding them into writing sample quality later on. Sometimes the stress of knowing you have to create a writing sample can be a roadblock! I echo the sentiments of this years applicants--the GRE is a ridiculous, and try to do your best on it, but don't freak out over it. Definitely don't spend more time on it than your writing sample or SOP.

Hey there Andie! I'm a straight up English lit person, so I can't answer your specifics about Comp Lit programs, there's actually quite a few English programs that encourage interdisciplinary work--UT Austin and Pittsburgh come to mind, and I'm sure there's plenty more. Language requirements differ from school to school, so it's hard to get a broad idea of what schools want. But I think the fact that you'll have studied three as an undergrad will only enhance your application! My undergrad university had an extremely unstructured major as well, but I don't think it was an issue for my applications. Instead of taking required courses, I was able to focus on classes that built my individual interests, and knowing what I wanted to study was definitely a plus for my SOP. I don't think I would have been able to pin my exact interests if I hadn't been given the freedom to discover them on my own. Again, it's hard to know exactly what programs want in a general sense, but while some may favour a broader knowledge of literature, they all want you to have specific interests, so keep that in mind!

I think I already have that book! And you're right, as usual. I'm just getting to the end of my patience/sanity, as I'm sure everyone else on this thread is. It's hard to stay positive when everything's so uncertain! I think it's time to bake some cookies... I wish I could leave them out for everyone here!

This is also very true, my apologies! I guess I just long for the assurance of that one acceptance. I feel like I'm trying to get this school to go out with me... "Does he like me? Does me like me more than her? Why won't he call?!"

Cquin--I was just talking about that phenomenon with someone else! We attributed it to the dubious magic of the waitlist, where somehow getting in off the waitlist feels more like an accomplishment than being accepted outright, despite the fact that is not the case. Meg--it is absolutely an accomplishment! I wish you the best of luck with Yale. We've got this, everyone!