GuateAmfeminist

AZ is a beautiful place to live 9 months out of the year - try to stay exclusively indoors or go somewhere else for 3 months if possible. I hate the politics here and the education system is not very good (I should know, I'm a HS teacher here) but you can see the desert, mountains, pine trees, snow, etc. all in one day if you time it right. The Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Sunset Crater, Meteor Crater... there are so many wonders to be seen. I am so glad I have lived here the last 3 years and I hope you enjoy it! Congratulations on deciding your future :-)

Fiona - I am actually going to visit UT-A on April 4th (only for 4 or 5 hours though) and will be meeting with Lesser and hopefully some of the other professors. I am so excited and nervous! I wonder if I can put in a good word for both of us while I'm there... they'll probably know who I'm talking about if I bust out "Fiona Thunderpaws in Women, Gender, and Lit" right?

I don't think adcoms do worry about things like socioeconomic status or race per se - they obviously look particularly at materials that rarely broadcast human diversity, but rather intellectual diversity. I do think that university admins in general think about "diversity" in race, class, etc. so I'm sure that has to effect things somehow.

Wow, that is so helpful and amazing. I appreciate your willingness to give so much information. I am definitley visiting - I am coming for the morning of Wed, April 4th. Did/do you go to UT-SA?

I was admitted into the UT-San Antonio English Ph.D program but I don't know much about its reputation. I have one professor (who wrote 1 of my LOR) who recommended it (and apparently she has a lot of friends who either work at the department or went there) but other than that, I don't know anyone else who knows about it. It's difficult to find any info about it on-line. Is there anyone out there who knows anything about this school (reputation in academia, placements, etc.) or can connect me with contacts. I am obviously probing the school but want an outsider viewpoint. Thank you ahead of time!

I was just thinking about this today! It has to be a rejection but why don't they just tell me - it's my last hold-out.

Congrats to you! I am in the same boat as you for the college thing and it makes it real tough and easy to succumb to the negative voices because we are surrounded by people who have zero experience in this field. I personally have been lucky to avoid some stupid mistakes in the college and grad school process just due to my lack of connections and ignorance. I sometimes feel like articles like this are meant to keep the elite as the only ones in academia. But sorry for my rant, thanks for posting - now I don't feel so alone!

Yeah, I'll definitely wait - I hope at the end of this that you and I get to meet at UTA though!

I know that I am in a weird spot now - I just got accepted to UT-San Antonio's PhD program (which is a great fit but I really haven't heard much about it reputation-wise) and it looks like funding is going to be good. However, I just LOVE the idea of getting off of the waitlist at UT-Austin. Their English department's E3W program is the only major school I've seen with such a program - and of course, the ranking and prestige is higher. Of course, what if they don't tell me until April 15th or later?? Ugh. Too much stress.

thanks so much for the sites and suggestions! I will look into those immediately.

I am on a waitlist right now, and may need to do a second round of apps next year. What are the best sources to learn about upcoming conferences so that I may be able to present at a few, network, and add to my CV?

If Pitt is your probable top choice, I would wait. I am assuming it is top choice because of the quality of the program, not because it's near your SO's possibles

I would look at the board for the people in the sciences or look at the results survey to see if your schools have posted acceptances. This is for Literature/Rhetoric applicants so we don't really know what's going for Engineering applicants.

@dokkeynot, thanks for the info and congrats on your acceptance. Hope we meet at UT-Austin *fingers crossed*

Question: Does anyone know how many people were admitted to UT-Austin overall (i.e. - how big they want this year's cohort to be) for English? Also, when exactly is the admitted students weekend (don't want to go there to stalk or anything, but want to get an idea of when the waiting list people should start waiting for an E-mail/call)? I have seen something like April 7th, but want to be sure.

Let me know if you can get contacts for grad students (I've got nothing on that end either) because that's really who I want to talk to, especially if the profs aren't taking questions. I am the first person in my family to graduate college, let alone apply to grad school and my husband and I are pretty isolated from others applying to Ph.D programs, so finding this forum (though I found it way too late) has been my only way of having some sort of community. I hope the best for you and hope we can both meet at UTA!

and for some reason I replied to the wrong post... guess I'm too distracted by the waitlisting. Also, I have been wait-listed for less than a week and it has felt like a month... anyone else feeling that?

I also am a huge feminist theory person! I put down Ethnic and Third World Literature as my primary field and Women and Gender as my secondary. I'm not sure though... when I think about the field exams, I'm wondering if I should do E3W and American Lit? or Women and Gender. I'm not a drinker, but I'd be happy to have a soda while you get wasted haha. On another note, have you been able to get any solid contact from anyone after the waitlist? I have tried E-mailing to get grad school contacts and E-mailing professors but only have had them forward them to Lesser who hasn't responded.

I know how you feel... I'm waiting for UT-A, too and right now it's seeming like there or nowhere. I hope we both get in!

Thanks, I just didn't want to have false hope. *Sigh* this waiting game is excruciating...

My husband and I are applying to grad school after 3 years of teaching (2 of them through TFA). We are applying to different programs (me English, him Political Theory), so that has been a big factor - we both need to be going to school in the same area so we tried applying to multiple schools in the same city (ex. Chicago). However, this hasn't been working so well. UT-Austin is our only semi-"hit" since he got in and I'm on the Wait List. It would seem like real life experience would be a plus to your resume but that real-life experience sure makes it hard to get back to college...

So, I saw that back in early Feb that 5 people posted acceptances and 5 posted "short wait list" but haven't seen any posts on the forum since. This is my first time applying and I am isolated from other grad school hopefuls, does anyone have any idea how Berkeley does things? Should I be thinking "implicit no"?

Thanks so much for the posts and info, it gives me a great idea of what I should be doing to give myself the best chance. We wait-listers just need to stay positive and advocate for ourselves!

I posted the Wait List that I received today. I am interested in the Ethnic and Third World Lit Program, as well as Gender. This is my first non-rejection. My husband and I are both trying to get in to schools together and this would be the first one to actually work (he got in for Political Theory)... So, if you're a E3W person who got in somewhere else, can you give me your spot? I'm just kidding (mostly) but I do really love this program and would be so happy to study there.