dazedandbemused

It's not really necessary in my program, but if you submit it before the priority deadline, my state has a $2000 grant that you can get every year. I would check to see what kind of extra funding your prospective programs have at the university level because that can be a HUGE help.

You know, I've been thinking a lot about this idea of how dedicated we should be to our PhD, and I've decided I really don't care if it bothers people that I'm not salivating over the ivory tower. I'm lucky that my program at least maintains a pretense of caring about alt-ac careers, but nonetheless, if getting another degree puts them off, I'm certainly not gonna let that dissuade me from making myself marketable. You want to do it, I say gather all the info and figure out the best way to go for it.

I've been thinking about this too; I'm leaning heavily toward an MBA, but I'm not sure if I could ever make it work. The workload in my program is definitely full time, and something tells me that I just wouldn't be able to convince anyone to let me do it while keeping my funding, even if I waited until I was ABD.

I did the HMB program for English last year, and as far as I remember (keeping in mind this was almost two years ago) I didn't hear back until either middle or end of May. I also didn't hear from the actual English dept. until after I accepted the offer; everything went through Philippa. They sent the acceptance by mail, too.

Holy shit dude; are you me? I could have written this entire post--couldn't care less about weddings, never wanted kids, have religious friends/family constantly telling me that I'll get over it...I was so happy to start my PhD and get out of the Christian education environment. I got an ablation a year ago, so I just casually mention that to people and they shut the hell up. Also, throwing my two cents into the mirena ring, I have one and it was only painful for a couple of hours after insertion. You honestly can't even feel it, and after a few days of discomfort from it "settling in," I don't even notice anything.

In my program, the first and second year cohorts, with a few third and fourth years mixed in, get drunk together every Friday. We also spend a lot of time together in smaller groups. I know it's pretty unusual compared to many other programs, but I love it.

So what you've said in the above is that you don't share things with anyone because you're scared they'll judge you as hard as you would judge them. But you're also terrified of a life of faking it. Has it ever occurred to you that they can feel your judgment and insincerity in your interactions? I can usually tell when people are playing a game of one-upmanship with me, and I straight up refuse to engage in even casual friendship with those people. I am a huge believer in having friends that I can tell any and everything to, even if it's the height of embarrassing. As a result, I know I have somewhere to turn when shit hits the fan, and I don't have to be sad that there's no boyfriend in my life to fill that space for me. It doesn't sound as though you need a boyfriend--I think what you need is to be a better friend and make better friends. When you've got a great support system, the things that feel like the end of the world will be far less horrifying for you, IMO.

Ah, the thread that keeps on giving. The fact that you feel comfortable word vomiting the things quoted above on a semi-professional forum just astounds me. Don't get me wrong, I know this is a place for people to vent and chill, but do you honestly feel okay being the person who feels hate just because a guy might not be dating in his "range"? Ever heard of, I don't know, liking a person as an actual individual and not a number on an attractiveness scale? Seriously, ranges are a stupid concept. That's kind of the whole point of attraction; if we all were into the same people, the human race would be in a lot of trouble. I'm disgusted that you can even refer to another human being as a "2" as though that's perfectly acceptable. Just because there are worse people in relationships, doesn't mean you somehow deserve a relationship. Nobody "deserves" a relationship. They just happen. You can date every man within your 100 mile radius, and it still might not happen for you because there's no compatibility. It amazes me that someone my age and in similar circumstances could be so lacking in self-reflection. For the most part, I've thought this thread was funny, but I'm honestly just appalled at this point.

I have like, 40 cents to throw into this conversation, so bear with me. I applied to grad school twice. The first time I applied for fall 2012, I was coming from an undergrad that no one has ever heard of and even though I got a great education, my professors are so outside of the current movement of the field that I wasn't really equipped to make a good application. Out of my twelve apps, I got one waitlist and four consolation MA acceptances, one of which was NYU. I seriously considered accepting them and even visited the department during that spring. I came away from that visit with two major convictions: going that much in debt for an MA was madness and the attention paid to the terminal MAs would probably not be worth my time. When the MA student who was showing me around told me that some people were working two or three jobs to make ends meet, I realized I was in crazy town. If that's not a cash cow, I don't know what is. I'm sure people with less debt than I have might be willing to make it work, but I wasn't down for that. After that, I decided to accept an offer for the MA at Boston College, which offered the chance of maybe being funded in the second year (I later learned that that funding required a lot of work for an unlivable amount of money), but I got lucky and received an offer for a funded post bacc at University of Pittsburgh. Which brings me to my next few cents: if you feel that, for whatever reason, you are underprepared for PhD apps, do an MA or a post-bacc, but I truly believe that funding is an absolute must. I never could have gotten into my program without the classes that I took last year and the copious help that I received from various profs at Pitt. Not having to worry about where I was going to get money from was a huge relief, and I can't begin to express how glad I am that I didn't do either of those MAs. Don't let desperation freak you out, like it almost did for me. That money might not seem like an obstacle now, but when you're thirty or forty or whatever and you're an adjunct (as most of us might be), you're going to be really pissed that you're paying off over $50,000 in loans. Also, if anyone's interested, this is the program I did at Pitt. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone lucky enough to get it offered to them.

Protip: if you aren't a whiskey person yet, grad school will probably make you one. I went from a white wine to a Black Label girl in 6 months. Not that I'm complaining.

A couple of years ago, a user on here (can't remember their name or I would credit them) compiled the most kick ass, comprehensive list of questions ever. I saved it to my desktop, because I was so impressed! I'd also second that you should look for happy grad students. I ended up choosing my program over one with much better funding because I wanted to be in a place where I could have a good life as well as a good education. As soon as I saw how strongly they value camaraderie here and got to spend time with my then-future cohort mates, I knew I was golden.

Frankly, I'd be amazed if you heard anything before the beginning of next month. Both of the MAs that you mentioned applying to tend to have cohorts composed largely of rejected PhDs offered admission to the MA program, and those responses tend to be the very last ones to come out.

They do! And since they don't accept more people than they intend to matriculate, it's super common to get in off the wait list. I think about a third of my cohort, and half of the year before, was wait listed.

Technically, any MA notifications are for the PhD program, because we don't have a separate terminal MA. Other than expected length of time in the program, they don't really differentiate between us MA peeps and the PhD stage people right out of the gate. Also, I wouldn't freak out too hard if you don't hear today, because results trickled out veeeeery gradually last year. People started hearing back on a Thursday, and I didn't hear anything until the next Monday, right as I was on the edge of nervous collapse.

Unless it's a new thing, I don't remember there being a strict subject score cut off for UT. Lord knows I, and a number of people I know, would have been screwed if there was!

That is an amazing idea for a project! I've recently been fascinated by the way that allies engage with social media (leaving that purposely super-vague), but I'm still in the early thoughts portion of building a paper. If ever you do form that panel, let me know because I'd definitely want in.

I wouldn't let implicit rejections get you too down. While they are often a sign that you haven't gotten in, there's still a chance that things are up in the air. I got an acceptance last year almost a month after everyone else had heard because they were trying to finalize some diversity funding, so you really never know.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson was one of the best books I've ever read. I actually just finished rereading TFIOS yesterday; still amazing. The Divergent series was a HUGE waste of my life and I'm still really pissed that I read the whole trilogy. The best newish book that I read recently was Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. Do y'all have any new YA to recommend?

At moments like these I wish I studied rhetoric, because this thread is fascinating. I have learned so many many things. For example, I had no idea that a 23-year-old woman on the verge of attending grad school could somehow also think that feminism is bad. Meanwhile, your 1950s self probably wouldn't even have a degree. But, um, dream big, I guess. #privilege (Since we're apparently doing hashtags now).

If this helps anyone, it is possible to extend your student membership. I was about to get moved to a regular prime membership ($80) earlier this year, but I just had to send them a PDF of my PhD acceptance letter and the student rate was extended for another three years! I'm a crazy Amazon over-spender, so this was great news for me.

Yes, I'm at UT! It's fantastic here, so I wish you luck. If you have any questions about UT, I'd be happy to answer them through PM.

I think this is really something that has enough pros on both sides that you'll just have to decide which makes you most comfortable. If you really feel like you've got a grasp on that person's work and want to make it clear that you'd like to work with them, then do it. I got the same advice as you and ended up taking it because my interests were such that I didn't feel comfortable just choosing 2 or 3 people to mention. I only got into two PhD programs and three masters. I don't know if I would have gotten into more if I had named people, but I did get into my dream program, and I'm loving it.

Okay, I'm really confused about the point of all the threads that you make...are you asking for advice? Input? Solidarity? Group sharing? You know this isn't twitter, right? I'm not trying to be combative, I just don't get it.

I decided to take two theory seminars this semester, so I'm pretty much knee deep right now, but not overwhelmed yet It's been a pretty great semester all around. Getting used to standing in front of a classroom full of students was nerve-wracking, but it's also confirmed my feelings about teaching being awesome. We've got about a month and a half of the semester left, so it's now full speed ahead with my final papers, plus I've got my fingers crossed for a panel that I submitted with a few friends from Pitt. We just did our advising for next semester, and I'm ridiculously excited about not being on campus at 9 AM everyday! It's the little things.

Isn't it a great feeling? I don't know what I'd do without some of my cohort!