dazedandbemused

Seven hours later, and I'm finally back home! Fiona, it was great to meet you! And can I just say, if the real fiona is as fabulous as your picture, I will have to meet her too. marlowe, it's too bad we didn't get to meet, but I think I might have glimpsed you from across the room. And Guate, I'm 99% certain we spoke at length, but you may correct me if I'm wrong. Great times all around! Yes, my search was successful! I used apartment finders service; if you use them, ask for Melodie, because she was great. I was amazed that I found two great places to choose from; right now it's between a bigger place in Far West or a teeny place in Hyde Park. I didn't think I'd like the tiny place, but I think I could really make it work in a place like Austin where I'd be much better able to get out and about instead of being holed up in my apartment warding off the cold. The bigger place was really nice, right on the shuttle route, across the street from the HEB and they had two one bedroom plans; 481 sq feet for $635 and 611 sq ft. for $685. Considering the crazy numbers I was hearing before I got there, those are not bad. I think I might go with the small place though, just because I have very little stuff; It's in Hyde Park, as I said, and it's only 390 sq. ft., but the rent is $585! Pretty darn fantastic. I'm really in money saving mode right now, so I was very excited. She did warn me that things are moving very fast, so it's best to get in there as early as possible if you don't want to be paying through the nose. Then again, it sounds like Fiona's method really worked out for her, so you could try that too. Have you decided to attend yet?

Well, I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I've been converted to the Austin way of life! I had tons of fun, you guys are awesome, and I think I found a great place to live. All in all, not a bad two days. I know I met Sursie (I wish we had the chance to talk more!), but I don't know if I met brigadierpudding, although I might have a guess (I think I might have been sitting next to you at lunch). ghijklmn, I don't know if this means much to you, but I'm turning down awesome money for Austin; if you love it, you should too.

Does your guaranteed spot in the PhD program include a guarantee of funding? Because from the results search, it looks like a number of people who got accepted for the PhD didn't receive funding, and I would never go to a program that 1) doesn't fund all of their PhDs and 2) doesn't explicitly tell you exactly what kind of funding you have ahead of you. Honestly, I had 27k in debt from my four years of undergrad, and I think that's a lot. A PhD has seriously diminished returns compared to a BA. I almost took an MA offer last year that would have cost me 20k in loans a year; I can't even begin to describe how happy I am that I didn't. Seriously, I know it's just piling on at this point, but don't do it.

Ah, I can see why you would be reticent. It's awesome that they're giving you hope; I hope things work out! Definitely Madison. That program sounds amazing and I think it's one that's continually getting better, you know? Plus, one of my friends is heading there in the fall and she said that the visit weekend was really amazing and everyone was super friendly. Not that UMass isn't full of great people, but I'd personally go to Madison.

I just got an email from their graduate organization, but still no word about funding. They mentioned coming to visit, but if there's no reimbursement, it's not going to happen. If I don't hear anything by Thursday afternoon, I'm just gonna send my thanks, but no thanks to the DGS. Did they offer you any specific numbers about funding or just a vague offer of more money if you come?

Are you still holding out any hope for your waitlists to convert?

When I first moved to Pittsburgh, I was warned to stay away from JJ Land. The person I spoke to had rented from them, as well as done some repair work for them to offset their rent, and he said they can be some of the worst landlords. Almost as bad as Lobos, which I have never yet heard a good word for. Often the best places are from the landlords that either don't have websites or don't really keep their websites up to date. You kind of just have to visit the area and speak with as many realtors as you can. Also, try out landorslum.com if you want information about different landlords; it has a bunch of anonymous reviews of various landlords and, though I would take it with a grain of salt, it helps to know which land lords are actually slumlords.

lol, cheap place to live? Where have you been living, NYC? LA?

Ah, ok. I've had a lot of issues with the funding too, but I don't know how similar English is to Comp Lit. Honestly though, I think my offer from UT adds up to more money overall than my others, though I'm still not psyched about only having 95% tuition paid. I figure, I can live off of 13k for the first year because the stipend goes up 3k in the 3rd year and the summer funding kicks in during the second summer. Also, as someone else mentioned in another thread, I had to come to grips with the fact that UT is a state school in a red state. Any money they have is probably not going to the humanities. I'm personally leaning to UT because their job placements are way better, their program's structure sounds like one in which I can pace myself while I grow as a scholar, and better, more recognizable potential advisors. Also, the weather. And the Mexican food. Did I mention I hate snow? Have you had a chance to visit and take stock of the department yet? That might make your choice for you.

Wow, is Comp Lit 13k for the whole five years??

Me too! I'm having a hard time concentrating on my coursework to be honest. How did your other visits go?

Thanks for the info! I guess I'll keep my hopes up then; this is her third app season so I'm hoping she'll have some success.

Was it really this past weekend? That's very strange. I honestly don't know what to think at this point; it was kind of a weird short phone conversation and I haven't received anything in writing at all. Oh well, I'm not going to cry about it I guess; I don't know if I'd want to be in a program that seems not have their shit together. I'll wait and see what she has to say about funding at the very least. Were you accepted?

I got a phone call from them last week. They said they've been slow getting notifications out because they wanted to get the supplemental funding lined up before calling people. I don't remember the name of the person who called me, but she said they were still going to be notifying this week once the money is figured out. She said she'd call back again this week, so I'll let you know if I hear anything else.

I love her professor is in website! I'm also really glad that she refrained from the usual "don't go to grad school" song and dance routine that tenured people like to pull. Great article.

I'm still hoping that one of your waitlists work out! I totally have an awesome gif saved for when you get accepted And yes, there is always a good time for alcohol.

I don't know about you, but I had a lot more good times than bad times this year. I think the last few weeks have been a bit less fun, as the people with interesting things to say have stopped posting as much, while the trolls have found themselves with nothing better to do.

Does anyone know how many people were accepted to Nevada-Reno and whether they already had their visit weekend? I have a friend who's apparently at the top of the waitlist there, but she doesn't use gradcafe and could use some good news. At the least, does anyone know whether there's the chance of any movement on the waitlist?

Hey Fiona, did you have to spend a couple of days walking around Austin during the summer to find that place?

This is truly beautiful. Thank you internet gods!

I still haven't heard from UConn yet. I really hope they actually processed my application this year, since they never did last time.

I wish I didn't know people who legitimately believe this stuff. Madonna's performance last year blew up my damn facebook feed.

Do any of you know what the grad student housing is like? It's awesomely cheap, but do you know if it's overrun with families with kids or really rundown? My experience with grad housing has not been the best.

I think it really depends on what you've chosen as the metric for the NRC rankings. There are five or six options (if you're using phds.org) that could drastically change the way the rankings look. For example, if you rank schools based on student outcomes, the Ivies disappear from the top of the list.

Kent State is at #113 and Ball State is at #134...how is that well ranked? For what it's worth, the only person I know doing a PhD at Ball State is a rhet/comp PhD and she already had a tenure-track job lined up before she started.