Datatape

I got a rejection-off-the-waitlist letter last night where Dr. Trefzer said they had finalized their cohort.

Guess I'm joining this thread now: just found out the last school I was waitlisted at has a waitlist a mile long and I'm dead in the middle. Hopefully applying for 2013 bears a little more fruit than 2012 did.

I called last week and left a message for the graduate secretary, asking her to call me back. When I didn't hear anything for a while, I emailed the DGS directly, ccing the graduate secretary. The secretary is the one who emailed me back.

I'm officially done for the year. I just heard back from LSU that they have approximately 50 students on the waitlist and I'm dead in the middle. That was my last real chance at getting in anywhere. In a way, it's incredibly relieving to be free from the wondering and waiting, and in another way it is so, so, so incredibly disappointing and embittering that everything I did wasn't enough.

Anybody going to claim that acceptance?

We should all be so lucky to be in such a dilemma. That being said: go with UNC. They clearly want you more, you'll be in one of the richest acadmic sections of America, you'll have access to absolute top-notch professors and (probably most importantly) UNC has a stellar placement rate. UNC was probably my top school until I soured on them because of how they handled the rejection process.

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.

I suspect because of Good Friday we may not hear anything this weekend. I stupidly called and left a message with the graduate secretary at LSU yesterday, then had a facepalm moment when I realized she probably wasn't even coming into the campus.

"April is the cruelest month."

Nothing here, but I'm not surprised. I was told my chances of getting off the waitlist with funding were slim; it's not a no, but it's as close to a no as I was going to get.

Radio silence.

Obviously, the most gracious thing to do would be to not go, but since you've already paid for the ticket and plan on getting reimbursed for it, the least you can do is go and see the campus. Think of it as a chance to get to meet some people and make a good impression. And yes, don't duck out to the library - it's tacky.

Just to reiterate what people have already said: the MAPH is so intense that even though it's only a year, you'd not have the time to put out really strong applications for the 2013 year, so the earliest you'd be able to reapply is 2014. Rutgers is a phenomenal school, you won't be taking on debt, and you can get started right away on your Ph.D. A professor of mine gave me the advice that it truly doesn't matter where you get your Ph.D. from, all that matters is that you got your Ph.D. Since you've stated Rutgers is a great fit, I'd go with that: there's no point in taking on tons of debt when you've got an admit at a terrific school in hand.

Thanks for the update, thegirlintheafternoon. Do you mind if I ask where you're thinking of going? I obviously didn't get news from Ole Miss, but if you're thinking Kansas, that might open up a 'Bama slot.

Ain't that the truth.

I'm biting my nails down to the elbow at this point, because I'm pretty sure this is just about the only school I've got a chance at making it off the waitlist. Come on, LSU, do me a solid, please.

I was fortunate enough to make it through undergrad without owing a dime in student loans (very, very inexpensive state university, working full-time, supported by parents), but for my M.A. I elected to go to a very small, private college that doesn't support their Master's students, so I did have to take out about $16,000 in loans. It's split half down the middle, $8,000 subsidized and $8,000 unsubsidized. I don't recommend people doing what I did, but I don't regret my decision: the education I've gotten here and the relationships I've cultivated I'll carry with me for the rest of my academic career. As for the Ph.D., however, you do whatever you have to do to get funding: apply for fellowships, apply for extra funding, pick up a spare job - whatever you have to do to get that funding, you do it. Most of us are going to have to move to a new city or new state to attend these schools and that cost will rack up fast. I've mentioned elsewhere a professor I had who elected to take an unfunded Ph.D. - she's been paying her student loans since 1990 and will be paying until 2032. You will never get rid of student loan debt.

"He is not even in their English Department. They gave him his own Department of Humanities because nobody could frakkin' stand him." I think every faculty member and grad student in the English Department at my school can quote that video, word for word.

Would you? That'd be ducky. And as for the grey hairs, I think they're a prerequisite. Ain't nobody making it through this without resorting to Nice 'N Easy.

Haha, no worries. I only wish I had the options open to me that you did. Right now, I'd just settle for getting into a school.

No, no, that makes total sense. Me personally, if I were in your position, I'd think long and hard about which faculty at each school could help out with the weaker field, i.e. is there anyone at Stony Brook who's published in postbellum Southern lit and is there anyone at Ole Miss whose work has touched on cognitive approaches? If the answer to both is yes or the answer to both is no, then you probably need to think about what's more important to you: is it to have a really strong base of Southern postbellum studies that you can then apply some cognitive theory to or is it to really get a strong base of cognitive theory that you can then apply to Southern postbellum lit? I'm not much of a theory person, so I can't help you with weighing one or the other, but if it were me, I'd try to consider what the bigger picture is when envisioning my ultimate idea for a dissertation and doctoral work. I hope that helps.

Ole Miss is a fantastic program if you're into Southern Lit/Southern Studies, Readwritenap. I met Kathryn McKee at a conference we both attended last year and she really got me interested in applying to Ole Miss. They don't have a huge stipend, but the cost of living in rural north Mississippi isn't that high, either. This was my number one choice in spite of the lower stipend.

A friend of mine applied to Notre Dame for poetics and she hasn't heard anything yet. Don't know if that helps.

I have a friend who worked in the deli at a supermarket in New Orleans. When I told him there's a chance I might get into LSU, he volunteered to take one of their rotisserie chickens, throw it at the grave of Marie Leveau and run like all hell. That was the best laugh I've had in a long time and one I really, really needed.