Datatape

I got my teaching assignment for the fall and picked out my courses. I'm all abuzz with excitement. Now I just have to get through six. Hours. Of final portfolio conferences today and I'm home free.

I have to fulfill two foreign languages for my program, but thankfully they allow the fulfillment I did for my M.A. (in Spanish) to count as one of those. For the other, since I'm a Southern lit specialist, French is definitely going to be the most useful, so I'm brushing up on that. I plan to work on it slowly over the next year or so and test out sometime next summer.

The program I'll be attending is pretty well-structured and they've said it's extremely rare for someone to take longer than five years to finish the degree. Everyone is generally done with coursework by the end of the second year, does exams in the third, and then has two years to write the dissertation. Obviously, there are exceptions to the rule, but the faculty works very hard with the students to make sure they stay on track to graduate in five years. By comparison, the school I currently work at just hired on an ABD student to act as the Writing Center director; she's in year seven and still dithering about how to finish her dissertation. Every school is different, and the best way to figure out how long it takes is to talk with the current grad students; they're the ones who have to actually finish the degree, so they'll be very in-tune with how much longer they've got.

Look at this GoogleDoc! Look at it! All of these people going to all of these great schools! I'm a little verklempt. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UN6wbbIFRmKTvGb_zPMgRdWmVf-pkTO0fU8ikGshkPM/edit

I think the problem is you're spending too much time thinking about them in comparison to each other, so here's what my advice is: Tomorrow, spend all day thinking about going to Buffalo. Think about every single good thing and every single bad thing. Don't even let West Virginia cross your mind. Sunday, spend all day thinking about going to WVU. Think about every single good thing and every single bad thing. Don't even let Buffalo cross your mind. At the end of Sunday, think about which one gets you more excited and which one gets you in a better position for what you want to do. There should be one that comes out on top, even if it's not by much. That's where you go. Then send off your emails, click "accept" for one, "decline" for another on the websites, drink a bottle of gin and go to bed.

I've declined my funded offer. Hope this helps somebody out who got admitted without funding.

Thanks, you guys! It's such a relief to finally make a decision and know for sure where I'll be. I kind of feel like this.

Officially attending the University of Nevada, Reno!

I declined Texas Tech tonight. Don't know if that'll help anybody, but here's hoping.

I've been trying to keep this up-to-date. Here's the GoogleDocs document again: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UN6wbbIFRmKTvGb_zPMgRdWmVf-pkTO0fU8ikGshkPM/edit

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I also got funding from Georgia State and am going up for a visit next week. After that, I plan to make my decision, one way or the other. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. Kind of feels like I'm going to do the pee pee dance, but in a good way.

I wouldn't worry too much. These are the same professors who were on the adcom and who are working to woo you so heavily, so they probably really want the chance to work with you again. A number of students at my Masters institution made the jump from undergrad to M.A. and they were treated no differently than students like me who got their Bachelors elsewhere. You will be challenged and pushed more than you ever were in undergrad, no matter who you choose to take classes with. That is the best way to treat it like a new adventure: you will be going back to a familiar place but with a totally new set of goals and a much more focused educational course. As for going out on the job market, I think it's a legitimate concern. In all candor, there will probably be a few institutions who toss out your application because of it. With that being said, while researching schools I have seen a number of professors at all levels, including R1s, who got all their degrees from one institution, so it is by no means a job-killer. The best thing to do is just let your research and scholarship speak for itself and give them no doubt that the reason University of X brought you back as a PhD student is because of your academic excellence, not because they liked you.

I'm declining my waitlist at Tennessee today. Doubt it will help anyone, since I'm fairly far down, but there you go.

If your thesis advisor is going to be one of your letter writers (and he probably should be), ask him to make a point of that in his LOR, that an incomplete is just his practice and merely reflects the fact that you were progressing satisfactorily toward the thesis.

Here's a thought: if you are already looking into moving to Washington, would it be possible for them to defer your admission for a year so that you can live there long enough to quality for in-state tuition? I don't know if that would work or not, but surely the amount for in-state tuition HAS to be a significant amount less than $27K. I took out $17K in loans for my entire, unfunded Masters in-state and I'm going to be paying that back over 10 years. $27K would probably be at least 15 and probably closer to 20 years once you get out of your Ph.D.

A couple of weeks ago, I emailed Dr. Thomas directly and this is what he had to say: "In regard to Graduate Teaching Assistantships: at this particular moment, we simply don’t know what our funding situation is. I’m told that it will be the end of the month before we’ll be accurately informed about how much funding we’re going to get for GTA support and thus how many assistantships we’ll have for incoming students. I wish it were otherwise, but for now all I can say is that I hope we’ll be able to fund you, but I don’t yet know if we can. I’m sure you’ll have other possibilities, and so please keep me informed about your intentions. I’ll let you know something more definite as soon as possible, but, again, as I’m told, it may be the end of March before I can confirm anything with regard to funding." Which I basically took to mean:

Yes and no. Texas Tech has indicated that I'm very likely to receive an offer, but I have no real idea about Tennessee and will need to check back in with them to see if there's been any movement on the waitlist. That's another reason I'm hesitant to accept an offer - I want to know for sure what my options are.

Yes, but I think that's natural. It's a huge decision that will determine where you'll be the next five years. I've been very hesitant on pulling the trigger, even though I am leaning more toward one school I've been accepted to than the other. Also, since we're on page four already, here's the list for people to add themselves to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UN6wbbIFRmKTvGb_zPMgRdWmVf-pkTO0fU8ikGshkPM/edit

Good God, yes - email her as soon as you can. There is absolutely nothing wrong with letting someone know that. I have a very severe but uncommon food allergy myself (banana) and always ask before taking a bite of a baked good ever since somebody didn't tell me what was in hummingbird cake. I guarantee you, asking her in advance is much more courteous than sitting there at the restaurant, quietly sipping a glass of water, while everybody else awkwardly eats a meal.

There are many here who will sing the praises of the Chicago MAPH, and it does have an impressive track record of getting students into phenomenal schools for PhD programs. It is certainly the more prestigious program. With that said, the difference between $16,000 in debt and $45,000 in debt is absolutely huge - possibly in the realm of 15-20 more years of paying it off huge. UC Boulder is also an excellent program and you have the additional benefits of being closer to your support system, you'll get to TA for a semester to alleviate the costs of your tuition, and (most importantly) since your goal is to teach at a community college, you won't be paying through the nose and taking on an immense amount of debt. All other things being equal, and if you don't want to reapply to try and get a funded MA offer somewhere, go with Boulder.

I - I'm sorry. I couldn't resist.

Yes. There were eight initial acceptances and I went out for visiting weekend on March 1. I would advise your friend to shoot a message to Cheryll Glotfelty, who's been extremely forthcoming with information this whole application cycle. Those of us who did go out for visiting weekend had a great time and all seemed to enjoy the program, but unfortunately I can't tell you about what the others are thinking and whether there's been any movement on the waitlist. Personally, I am leaning toward UNR, but I'm not going to commit until I get funding information from my other acceptance and have a good idea about whether I'll get an offer from either of my waitlists.