Fiona Thunderpaws

I feel like we're going into battle.

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother!"

I think I'm just going to get a big bag of marbles and start leaving a few of them wherever I go. Doubt very much I'm going to remain intact until Sunday.

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.

I'm a mix of gender and sexuality studies, Arabic post-colonial, and American popular culture/20th century fiction.

I think this is my favorite thread going right now. It's so good to see so many folks getting good news this late in the game. Congrats, all!

Catholic University of America, Ph. D, Renaissance Literature. SO. EXCITED.

I got offered an ECF from CUNY early this week and I accepted their offer today. So excited and happy!

WUSTL!

Well, it's official. I just accepted my offer at UNC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO EXCITED!

I've got the muted horn of trystero on my arm. Only literary one so far...

fulbright in frankfurt for a year, then yale comp lit phd, which has authorized a deferral. peace out grad cafe.

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!

University of Kansas for my MA. I'm so excited.

I've been lurking on here the whole time, except in the SMU thread, but I just wanted to say I just got accepted off of SMU's wait list and I will be accepting their offer.

Can we get some LSU declines??? Purdue??? Come on, peeps. Throw me a bone! Love ya, mean it!

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.

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.

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

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

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!

He's Just Not That Into You: Graduate School Edition

Seriously though, I know what you mean. If/when you get off the list, though, don't sell yourself short because you were waitlisted (or your peers, obviously). That's all I meant.

I thought I had my decision made until I was waitlisted at Georgetown. Now, because I can't have it, I want nothing more than to get in. Quit playin' games with my heart, Georgetown.

Greg--we are all on the same boat of soaring hope and crushing uncertainty here. Though technically, I guess we're in the Lit/Comp/Rhet boat, but we're still sailing the same sea... I have no idea if being international or not helps, but good luck!

GuateAmfeminist--Thunderpaws is my pen name, in fact, so they'll know EXACTLY who you're talking about. That's super exciting and somewhat terrifying you're visiting though! I think I'm going to shoot Lesser an email later that week to remind me that I'm in love with UTA and will do anything to live out my epic academic romance for real (however I might word it differently)!