IneluctableModality

Well, I was in something like your situation last year (shut out of a bunch of Ph.D. programs but offered an unfunded MA spot at a pretty amazing school) -- In the end, I took the advice of everyone on these boards and decided to not go into debt. Given my personal circumstances, I think that was probably the right thing to do, but, to make the facile point that so many others here have made, it really depends on the situation. In your situation, I would lean towards waiting. I remember what it felt like to consider the prospect of waiting another year to reapply. It sucks. It feels like being sentenced to purgatory. But it's just so hard to predict what will happen over the course of a year. I got a great job in book publishing in New York, and now my work will actually pay for me to do an MA part-time (I'm hoping for NYU but we shall see...). Point is, I never in a million years could have seen this coming, and everything worked out great. I was so stuck last year in the mindset of must-start-grad-school-RIGHT-NOW that I almost decided to take on a ton of debt and move to a strange, unfamilar city with no financial support. So I guess my real point is that being super set on starting grad school right away can lead us to make not-great decisions sometimes. That said, UW is a great school. I'm from Seattle and I love that place so much. I know several professors and a guy in the Ph.D. program -- he is one of the happiest grad students I know. Cost of living is pretty affordable (at least in the eyes of someone who now lives in New York), and although it's true that the place is pretty cash-strapped, I think the MA offer is worth some serious consideration.

I'm only applying to one MA program (NYU) and going craaaaazy waiting. Thanks to the magic of grad cafe, we can at least look at when people were notified last year, but it's a little difficult to tell the people who were condolence-accepted to the MA and rejected from the PhD from those who were simply accepted to the MA because they only applied to the MA. I'm guessing (but I'm not entirely sure) that the MA-only applicants have to wait longer, which is a huge bummer. Does anyone have experience enough to say how this typically works?

Same situation as Lyrus. I got rejected everywhere else. No clue what I'm doing. It would probably be a terrible idea... SIGH. UVa is SO AMAZING, though.

Oh wow: no joke, both those things are true for me, as well! Last name starts with G, British/Irish 20th cen. Lit. specialty. I'm still waiting for a response. So who knows what the hell they're doing...

You know what? I am going to have HOPE that somehow, in some weird turn of events, I might still have a chance here. I need that right now. Been rejected from ten other schools; this is the last one on my list. Once I'm rejected here, I'll have nothing to do but that saddest of all activities: making a new list of schools for next year. WHO'S WITH ME??

AHHHH. Thanks UT Austin for doing the same thing as Columbia... Why can't they send out all rejects at once like a good, old-fashioned admit committee?