shortstack51

I applied to UMass Amherst for general English Lit (PhD). I may call them to see if they've gotten everything on Monday because their website is pretty unclear. It lists "resume" and "statement of purpose" separately from the general online application and has no submission date for them. I should have started calling places sooner--my Boston College notice on how to check application materials ended up in my spam, which I didn't realize until today. As a result, I didn't realize that there had been an issue in delivering my GRE scores until now. I've e-mailed GSAS admissions, but I don't have a lot of hope. I'm going to assume they've already gone over applications. Very upsetting.

Reading this thread has given me some hope. It's 1 AM and I've been up obsessing over my applications, even though I know I won't hear back for another month at minimum. I'm at a mid-ranking school for MA (somewhere in the low 40s I think for graduate English programs). I was not funded, but I do work as a TA, tutor, and GA at my school and have done so for both years. I applied to 10 or 11 schools, only a couple ivy (NYU, harvard, princeton), and otherwise just a lot of top 30 funded programs (as I was told to do by the professional development person in my department). My BA was from an unranked school with no graduate English program at all, and I was rejected from all but 1 school when I was first applying to MA programs. I was told that an MA from my school would actually help quite a bit since my school has enough name recognition to apparently put my name towards the top of the pre-cut app list (past MA students have gotten into UCLA, Princeton, etc). However, there were some programs that asked students with MAs not to apply at all and some that said they would only accept 24 credits of previous MA work (my MA is 30 credits, plus the 0 credit thesis course), so I've started to get pretty nervous. My program has a PhD program that requires a separate application to enter after the MA, though it's been implied that I should be accepted into it if all goes well (good funding as well, also a stellar 80% of full-time job placement, 60% tenure-track). Hopefully, my current school will be at least one acceptance I can expect. I have some worries keeping me up, though: for example, what happens if I don't get accepted into a program (or into a program with good funding)? Since I was unfunded as an MA, my loans are through the roof. It will take me until I'm 50 or so to pay them off. I know you can defer loans if you can't afford to pay them back, but it's really stressful to think about flailing around in the job market with an English degree and little direction with a massive amount of loans and loan interest to pay back. This is, of course, aside from the fact that I also very much want to get my PhD and to pursue my interests and course of study. Additionally, because I work so much in order to pay living expenses on top of a full-time course load (30-40 hours of work a week plus 3 seminar courses), I did not have as much time to devote to my application as I would have liked in the fall. I'm nervous that my statement and writing sample are not as on point as they should have been as a result. I had some help from faculty, but the faculty at my school were equally busy and I didn't get as much assistance as I would have liked (one of my rec providers was almost 2 weeks late on a few of my apps). Anyway, sorry to unload my anxieties on you all, but these things have really been weighing on me going forward. I stay awake at night worrying about my applications and just waiting for that first rejection to appear. I'm quite young for a graduating MA student, as I understand it--I'm 23 and one of the two youngest people in my program--so I just also feel like I don't really have any real life experience to balance out the monstrous application process. I feel like I'm going to wake up with gray hair one morning.

Hi everyone! I've been accepted to Fordham's English MA program and I'm pretty excited, though I am a little stressed about the funding. But between loans, a part-time job (hopefully), and affordable off-campus housing, I think I'll make it! (PS - PM me if anyone's in a similar situation) I just wanted to see if anyone else is intending on going to Fordham next year or if anyone was thinking about it. My concentration is (British) Romanticism, though I'm sure that will come much more into play later on. Considering I want to be a teaching professor, Fordham is probably a very good fit for me. Just wanted to see who else is out there!

I'm still waiting to hear back from UC Berkeley, which is making me nervous. I know last month the strong candidates heard back, but the website says my page will be updated once an admissions decision has been reached. Still no decision apparently. Considering I've only been accepted to one school so far and haven't even gotten the letter yet (which was only a MA program - I applied to Berkeley's English PhD program), I'm starting to freak out a little bit. How long should I wait before calling the school? If I've been rejected I'd rather just find out via e-mail or phone now instead of waiting. April 15th is coming up mighty fast and I need to figure out what I'm doing.