lxs

THIS = THE WORST

That's great to know, thanks!

didn't someone say at one point in this (very long!) thread of messages that their notification was sent after 5pm last year? or should we give up for today at 5?

Thanks so much for getting this started, fondizzle!

Hi, Is there any way we could start a google doc now? Even though we haven't yet begun to hear results, it would be nice to know how many others from this group applied for each grant in each country. Not sure if we need to use a pre-existing doc but if not, I would be happy to start one myself for people to input info. Just a thought.

.

I'll be there too, for art history.

thanks everyone! so, where is everyone sending letters to today?

thanks, I'm excited to hear this from someone already at CUNY! what's your field? I'll be headed there for art history.

well, alright.

so I had a lengthy meeting with one of my profs today about whether or not to accept CUNY's offer without funding and by the time I was done, I had completely resigned myself to taking out more loans. I came home and checked my email, and lo and behold, I FINALLY got full tuition plus a stipend. THANK EFFING GOD. I can't believe that it took up until TWELVE HOURS before april 15th to figure it out, but i am FINALLY going to grad school with funding! thanks again to everyone for being supportive through literally MONTHS of me lamenting my grad school situation!

are you definitely more interested in NYU? if you haven't OFFICIALLY accepted BMC, and you definitely like NYU better then i say go for it! i'm always worried about being annoying, rude, etc. with grad school stuff, but my boss always says "your future is more important than good manners."

hey vangogh - I'm dealing with essentially the same thing with cuny, and I have a MA too - I really feel your pain! I think I'm going to do it as well. the tuition is dirt cheap plus enough of my MA credits transfer that I shouldn't have to spend too much time in coursework and can start adjuncting to have my tuition paid. not ideal, and I'm still not 100% sold on doing it, but it's what I'm leaning toward at this point. c'est la vie!

Can anyone comment on the reputation of the CUNY Graduate Center? FYI, my field is art history. According to the Chronicle for Higher Ed, it's rated 9th for arthi, but I just want to be 110% certain of what I'm committing myself to. It seems like a solid program, but it's hard to get the idea out of my head that I HAVE to go to an Ivy if I'm ever going to get a job. It's my only offer and I think I am going to accept on Tuesday.

charis, I finally heard back and she said it didn't look like they were going to be able to offer me a place. she said that most people apply to the program to work on modern art, and that the guy i applied to work with was already too overloaded with advisees. as far as the financial aid package, that sounds pretty good...i'd imagine you just apply for dissertation grants and fellowships and/or work after you finish up your coursework.

charis - I don't know what is up with UM. I emailed the prof and she never responded so I emailed the department admissions coordinator and she never responded either. I've tried to call for three days now but no one answers the phone. uhh....am I still on the wait list? I'm really not impressed by their ability to communicate.

hey chagrin falls, what exactly does the fellowship you were offered entail? i'm not entirely surprised that i haven't been offered one, both because i've had such horrible luck elsewhere and because the prof i applied to work with was on sabbatical and not involved in the decision making process this year. i really can't decide! the TA gig sounds much better for me than adjuncting. you bring up my fear, as well, about applying next year. i don't know what i would conceivably do between now and than that would make a huge difference. i went over my SOP and writing sample time and time again with different faculty members/advisers, i re-took the GRE, i have both museum and teaching experience, i have five publications and four professional and grad student conferences, i have a MA. no one has shown any interest in my research interests, though, and i honestly don't know where else i could apply next year that has a reputation good enough that i could get a job someday and where i could pursue the kind of studies i'm interested in. CUNY is one of three schools i found where there's someone actually teaching courses on german art (my interest) on a regular basis. many have suggested working on a german project with a french specialist, but that really did not work out for me. at all. as well, a lot of the schools i applied to offer support in the means of tuition remission mostly, so i could really just be in the same boat next year, stuck with a way to come up with living expenses. everytime i think for sure that i've come up with a decision, i second guess it. CUNY is a great fit, and it sounds like i could make it work....but what if i can't? i don't want to shoot myself in the foot academically. who did you apply to work with at CUNY? feel free to PM me...i'd love to obsess over the school a little more

I'm having something of a decision-making crisis and am wondering if any of you who know of my ongoing grad school saga would be willing to offer opinions. I have an acceptance at one of my top choices (CUNY) which is a great fit for my interests. they are not offering me funding, but the more I have read, their funding package sounds pretty terrible anyway (just tuition remission and paid adjuncting). I wrote to the prof. I would be working with there, and told her my concerns about funding and asked if she had any ideas. she suggested I contact a few of her students, and one of them wrote back right away, and told me that there are other options and that she, for example, TAs a class and gets tuition remission and a hourly rate for it - sort of like their funding package except without the experience of adjuncting. I could also work a part-time job at a museum or something (I'm most interested in museum work, have lots of experience) to pay my rent. half the people I talk to say I should go for it and the other half say that I should hold out and apply again next year in hopes of getting full funding plus stipend somewhere. many also say that I am going to go insane if I have to work part-time while going to grad school. I did work almost full-time during my MA, but my program was not very strenuous. what would you do??? I took out loans for my MA so taking out more isn't an option. my parents are also not willing to help me out financially. I want to go to grad school so badly and this school is such a great fit. I have invested so much in this process both financially and emotionally that I can't imagine doing it again, but if there is something better down the road, maybe I should? AHH!!!! if anyone could offer an opinion, advice, etc, I would be incredibly appreciative.

I emailed the chair of my program and asked. He told me they were offering me NOTHING so I don't think I'm going to be able to go. Bummer

I don't mean to sound snarky at all, but I think most people take out loans for their MA. You're lucky you got half tuition. Only one person in my MA program was offered full-funding per year, and it was an all or nothing scenario.

stylefaxee- where'd you work on your German? classes are so expensive. i took one at the Goethe Institut last fall but didn't continue there...I wasn't that into their teaching style.

hey chagrin falls... so are you definitely going to CUNY? I wrote to the chair, who told me that he "could not be optimistic" about funding and that right now they had nothing to offer me. I've analyzed the message TO DEATH and still haven't come to any solid conclusions...does this mean I'm at the bottom of the list for funding, is he just trying not to get my hopes up? I have no idea! even if they would just pay for my TUITION, I would do what it took to live there, but I just can't get over the idea of taking out more loans. ugh. I hadn't thought of working full-time, though...I will definitely consider it before I give up entirely. I am just terrified at the thought of moving to NYC and not being able to find a job and blowing through my savings in a month. on a side note, are you from chagrin falls in ohio by chance? I went to school nearby, and my ex boyfriends parents live there

well, i found out the only program I was accepted to is not offering me any funding. I am 99% sure I will not go - I only had partial funding for my MA and just can't see taking out any more student loans. is anyone going without funding? I know there were some issues with NYU not giving any. It really seems like it's loans or nothing. ugh.

I liked the grad center when I visited. the building is huge and really nice and you can't beat the location. i was only there for maybe 2 hours total, so I didn't take a tour or anything like that, but what I did see, I liked. honestly, from what I've heard their funding sounds terrible but like you, I'm in love with the faculty and as long as they give me something, I'll probably end up there anyway.

charis - are you 110% certain that academia is what you want to do with your life? if so, I would go with BMC. if you aren't 110% sure, I would do a MA first. that's what I did, and the MA experience really weeded out the people who weren't entirely convinced that they wanted to do academia. many people got burned out and decided to go another route. on the flip side, BMC is an excellent school (have you visited - gorgeous and a great reputation!) and from what I heard, it sounded like an offer of a fellowship is a true honor as not everyone is provided one. have you visited both programs? is debt an issue (ie do you have loans from undergrad)? FWIW, I don't think my MA made much of a difference at all when I applied to PhD programs, in all honesty. I am almost definitely going to have to redo it anyway. the terminal MA program was really useful for me in first, making me absolutely SURE that I wanted to start down a career path that requires a longterm commitment, second, helping me really define and pinpoint my research interests/field, and finally, getting work experience/research skills/publications.