Datatape

Like I said, I've only applied to two of those schools (Florida and Kentucky), so my opinion may be off. If you've looked into all those programs in detail, you should trust your own judgment much more than mine.

Rankings are obviously varied and only give an idea of the program's overall prestige. These do not take into consideration strength in individual areas and can be misleading. For example, one of the schools I've been accepted into, Nevada at Reno, is ranked #125 on the USN&WR. Most people on this forum would recoil in horror at the thought of attending such a low-ranked school, but UNR is the #1 program in the entire country in ecocriticism, which is what I want to study. Further, they have a phenomenal placement rate of over 85%, as in the fourth and fifth year, all PhD students go through a series of workshops designed to prepare them for the job market, such as how to respond to a job ad and how to approach an MLA interview. UNR is a very, very low-ranked program, but its graduates are getting jobs, many of them tenure-track, in the first year on the market. Now, to address your question. I would, hesitantly, rank your individual schools from best overall impression to worst as follows: Penn State Syracuse Florida Missou Kentucky Minnesota Florida State Admittedly, I have only applied to two of these schools, so I haven't done a huge amount of research on the other five. But as an outside observer, that is how I would look at the programs. That could change dramatically based on what your primary research interest is.

Nevada. Cheryll Glotfelty is one of the founding scholars of ecocriticism and she's the DGS at Nevada.

Yep. When I was applying the first season, there was a SOP workshop I went to at my college where the chair of the Russian Studies Department spoke briefly and said that he wrote a very narrow, focused SOP and did not get into many of the schools he applied to, but all the schools he did get into were exceptional fits and had faculty who were excited to work with him.

Okay, I laughed.

edit: totally misunderstood the question You'll get used to us fairly quickly. We'll all be impressed by your accent and ask you to say things like "vitamin."

I had the same situation: non-prestigious SLAC for my MA, and I compensated by choosing a very specific cross-section of interests and applying to programs that were strong in one or both of those fields. I definitely do not have a huge number of options, but one of the schools I got into is the #1 school in the country for ecocriticism, so I cannot complain about that.

Actually, Reno is lovely. I was really surprised when I went out there; there's tons of outdoor activities to do (Tahoe is only about 30 minutes away), a beautiful climate, and stunning mountain panoramas around the entire city.

It depends on what you want to do. GSU overall has the best reputation, but I went to UCF for my undergrad and might be able to give you some insight on how strong the department is in what your interests are. FAU has probably the worst reputation of the three.

My BA is in English, but with a focus on Creative Writing, not Lit. With that being said, I focused entirely on Lit in my MA, so I don't think it made too much of a difference in my PhD applications.

Yes, I emailed the DGS, who was apologetic about the fact that nothing had been sent. GSU has not yet given the English Department their final budget for the year, which means they have no idea how many students they can admit with funding versus without funding. I did get an email from the graduate school, but I don't know that I would have necessarily gotten anything from the English Department if I hadn't emailed.

Thanks for the support, guys. It stung a lot when I got home and saw that email waiting, but after taking solace in the arms of Marie Callender, I'm feeling less terrible. I wanted LSU, but they didn't want me, and I can accept that. I can also accept that consuming an entire jar of marshmallow fluff is aiding me on my road to dealing with my stages of grief.

If anyone else is waitlisted at Texas Tech, I got an email from Dr. McFadden this morning. Four initial offers went out and there are four of us on the waitlist. I don't know what the situation with anyone else is, but he said that there is only one student in my field (LSJE) who got an initial offer, so if that student or any two other students reject their offer, I'm likely in. The waitlist is not ranked and they're trying to organize it so they have a variety of incoming students.

Just got rejected. I'm pretty shocked; I was waitlisted last year on a much weaker application and this was my #1 choice.

It depends on what you're being required to teach. If you're teaching two different courses in one semester, that's much more work than if you're teaching two sections of the same course. Obviously, it's always more work to teach two classes than it is to teach one, but this semester I'm adjuncting two sections of the same course in addition to holding down a full-time office job, which certainly takes up more time than going to classes would. If it's 101 (or the equivalent), you may just be teaching from an existing syllabus and therefore will only have to come up with lesson plans as you go through the semester. Now, with that said, obviously the more time you have for yourself, the quicker you will be able to progress to the degree. Once you finish with coursework, it's easy to fall into the trap of just continuing on with what you're doing, particularly if you're teaching two sections each semester, and not making any real progress on your dissertation. You should almost certainly be making at least $15,000 a year in the stipend if they're requiring two classes a semester, and should look to see if there are opportunities for funded breaks once you reach the dissertation stage. If they expect you to toil away for peanuts and don't offer any funding to provide you relief from teaching (even if it's just one or two semesters) when you're finished with coursework, I would advise you to consider your other offers more heavily. No stipend is going to keep you in champagne and caviar (except at Bryn Mawr, natch), but neither should it be completely disproportionate to the amount of work you're providing for the university.

Depends. Could be a great way to get in somewhere that specializes in trauma studies.

tie: Have you checked the website we got the link to after applying? That was how I found out I was in; I still haven't gotten anything from the English Department. https://webdb.gsu.edu/applicantstatus/?refresh=true

This thread may help you out quite a bit in that regard, MissH:

That's better than last year; I think they were only offering 10.5 or 11 when I applied. And yes, it's dirt cheap to live around Oxford.

Dibs on "Eufloora Welted."

If you can't be with the one you love, honey badger, love the one you're with.

I did just that, but phrased it as "could you give me an idea of when I might expect to hear back on the results of my application?" If you're rejected, it'll take them all of thirty seconds to copy-paste the rejection letter into a response email.