toasterazzi

There are definitely a lot of Film programs that are intertwined with English departments. You might also look at some interdisciplinary/American Culture Studies/Pop Culture Studies/Comparative Studies programs. I explored a lot of those options when I was doing my applications since I primarily work on TV and Film. I did look into some film and media programs, but I found that I often did not have the necessary background to necessarily be the right fit for a lot of those programs. However, I'm at Ohio State, and I'm in the English Department. I think it's a really great department for numerous reasons, and I'd be happy to discuss them with you if you'd like to send me a message. We have a Film program but not a Film department, so you can apply to whatever department makes the most sense for you and still work on/take classes in Film. There have been people in my classes from several departments/programs, such as English, Folklore, Creative Writing, Italian, Women's and Gender Studies, Comparative Studies, and so on. Because my undergraduate degree and master's degree are in English, I think it made the most sense for me to apply to the English department, but there are numerous possible options.

I initially planned to apply to around 10 schools for the PhD, but the cost got in the way. I ended up applying to six schools. From what I've observed though, there's no magic number or guarantee. I've seen people on here apply to 20 schools and strike out, and I've seen other people apply to three schools and get into all of them. When I applied for my MA, I did exactly one school and got in. With my PhD apps, I was accepted by two schools outright, waitlisted at another, rejected from two, and I never heard back from one. I will add that the CIC fee waivers can be really useful depending on what schools you're applying to: https://www.cic.net/students/freeapp/introduction. They helped me out quite a bit.

I'll be at PCAACA in March

I applied to 6 schools for the PhD. I initially wanted to apply to 10, but my funds would not allow me to do so. I got a couple waivers CIC, which helped quite a bit. I ended up getting into 2 schools outright, waitlisted at 1, rejected from 1, and in perpetual limbo at the last school.

Yeah I would say electric can run pretty high in some places, especially in the winter, but water really shouldn't be very high. My husband and I have never paid more than $30-35 per month for water here.

I have a Dakine backpack that I love. They have usually have so much space and so many compartments that everything fits nicely. Plus, they have several affordable options. You can check out a bunch of them here: http://www.ebags.com/category/backpacks/b/dakine?origin=left_nav

It really just depends on the landlord. A lot of times, in my experience at least, they don't actually require actual proof of paystubs or whatever. You just have to put down the amount on the application. Additionally, some applications are really detailed and might want you to include like a copy of your ID or whatever, but some others just want your most basic info. Generally, they'll run a credit check so they'll know if you have a decent track record. And if your credit score isn't where they'd like it to be, they might request that you get a cosigner. When my husband and I moved here last June, we had some savings, but neither of us had a job lined up yet, and they knew I wouldn't be getting my stipend until August. We were still able to rent a place in the range you're talking about.

The summer before I started my program, I didn't really do anything school-related. However, I did work as much as I could. I don't know everybody's financial situations in here, but I knew I wouldn't be getting paid until the end of August. That meant that I needed to gather up as much money as possible for moving, bills, etc. So that was pretty much my primary focus.

Hey folks! I imagine that most people in this thread have also been following the news in Baltimore. Here's a link to some related resources: Baltimore Syllabus

I think my time spent in my MA program really helped me to focus my research interests and provided me with more direct interaction with professors than I ever had in undergrad. I also got additional teaching experience, which really helped me to sort out my distinct preference for teaching college students instead of middle schoolers (though the two groups aren't always distinguishable lol). And I started my MA before I got into Grad Cafe, and I didn't really know much about conferences or publications or anything, and my MA helped to sort all of that out. I don't really know whether I would've been accepted into a PhD program if I had applied to one, but I will say that I felt more prepared starting my PhD program with my MA than I probably would've felt without it. My MA didn't offer an exam option, but we did have the option to choose between doing a Master's Paper (30ish pages) or a Thesis (70+ pages) or a creative project (for the MFAs). The general prevailing advice was that if you were pretty going to go on to the PhD, then you should do the thesis.

Huzzah! Welcome to the family. Feel free to send me a message if you have any OSU/Columbus questions

OSU's visit day is tomorrow, so folks might see some movement in the next few days or so.

Former Hoosier here! I lived in Indiana for most of my life (minus a year in Illinois and now I'm currently in Ohio), and to be completely honest, I have very little love for the state for any number of reasons. However, I will say that Bloomington is a pretty nice place to be, and IU is a great school. I went to camp at the university for a couple of summers, and I've also visited a few times as an adult. There are tons of trees around Bloomington, and it gets really beautiful there in the spring and the fall. Now I will warn that the majority of Bloomington IS IU. Once you get off campus, there's not much going on. Luckily, there's pretty much always something going on at the campus, and it has numerous great resources for anybody that happens to be academically-inclined. If all else fails, Bloomington isn't that far away from Indianapolis, which has some good stuff going for it as well. And for longer trips, Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, etc. are all within easy driving distance. As has already been pointed out, one of the great things about the midwest is the low cost of living. The highest rent I ever paid for an apartment when I lived there was $549 plus utilities. On the other end of things, the winter is pretty hellish and there's not really a way around that haha. Indiana in general is pretty White/Christian/hetero, but you'll probably find a good deal of diversity in Bloomington because of the university. And despite my firm belief that Indiana would probably be one of the last states to do it, they actually already have same sex marriage, which was almost as shocking as when the state went blue in '08 haha. I will mention though that there's a lot of tomfoolery going on there in the public school system at the highest levels of the state government. I'm not sure how that'll all shake out, but it's worth keeping your eyes open. If you have any other questions about Indiana/midwest life, feel free to send them my way, and I'll try to help any way I can

Everything. I mean that almost literally lol. I'm currently DVRing/watching Black Sails, Once Upon a Time, Secrets and Lies, Shameless, General Hospital, The Voice, Jane the Virgin, Scorpion, Fresh Off the Boat, Pretty Little Liars, Agents of Shield, Being Mary Jane, The Challenge, American Idol, Survivor, Criminal Minds, Empire, Blackish, Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Chicago PD, Gotham, The Blacklist, American Crime, Elementary, Cristela, Girl Meets World, The Fosters, and Glee. I'm pretty current on almost all of those except OUAT, Shameless, Jane the Virgin, and Black Sails. Probably going to catch up on those over spring break. I was also watching How to Get Away With Murder, Sleepy Hollow, Masterchef Jr., and Agent Carter, but all of those recently wrapped up their seasons. On top of all that, I'm also in primarily media-related classes this semesters, which results in me watching a approximately ten hours of movies and tv shows every week. So yeah...I watch a lot of stuff...lol P.S. The Golden Girls is probably one of my favorite shows of all time

I think that, as much as anything else in the process, happiness is an important factor. Part of my own decision making with the schools I applied to for both my MA and my PhD had to do with access to my family. We've been through a lot in the last few years, and even though I only tend to go home a few times a year, it's nice to know that I can get back there if need be within a few hours' time. Eventually, I do see myself possibly moving farther away, but for right now, I enjoy the relative closeness. And if that's important to you and the slight monetary different isn't that earthshattering for you and the academic opportunities are fairly equal, then I'd say go with the place that'll make you happiest. FWIW I went to an unranked school for my MA and got into a school in the 20s for my PhD, so if you're worried that the lower ranked school may prohibit you from getting into whatever PhD program you desire, it may not be so much of a barrier. Granted, I can only speak for my own case, and there are no guarantees either way.

The best part about that Slate post for me is where the guy talks about leaving the fact that he got his MA at Indiana State off his resumé because he's been told that he'll fare better on the market without it. I got my MA from Indiana State. *sigh*

I don't know specifics about Madison, but I do think they have a pretty big department like we have at OSU. Between MA/PhD, MFA, and PhD students, my cohort is like 33 people. I think there's like 120ish grad students currently in the program overall.

I only did one visit last year and I'd say most people were dressed fairly casually. I think I wore like dark jeans and a sweater. Some people wore tshirts. Some people wore skirts or dresses. I don't recall anybody being especially fancily dressed and nobody seemed to care one way or the other. As for shoes, I'd definitely recommend something comfy. A campus tour was part of my visit, and there's no way I'd personally want to traipse around any campus in heels lol

I didn't really do any negotiating (though I did somewhat generally talk to one of my acceptances about the fact that one of the reasons I probably would end up somewhere was due to a better funding package). I mostly just wanted to chime in here and say that if anybody has any questions about funding at OSU/affordability of Columbus/etc., feel free to drop me a line

Pills definitely grew up on me. I just don't think it should've been a single. My favorite thing about Pinkprint though is Nicki really digging back into her rap roots. I may not love all the songs, but she goes hard on pretty much all of them, and I dig that. It's also, as she has said in interviews, her most personal album. And I think that really comes through in a lot of the songs with talking about the break up, the abortion she had when she was younger, etc. (and I mostly just like to pretend Chris isn't there lol)

I liked the Pinkprint quite. There are definitely some songs I could do without, and I don't understand who was in charge of determining the singles because I think there are far better songs on the album than Bed of Lies of Pills N Potions.

Definitely always Beyonce (duh!). I also have a lot of Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, and J. Cole on regular rotation. I've also been on a Missy Elliott kick since the Super Bowl. And I regularly listen to The Read podcast. It's one of my favorite things. And of course, I rapidly consumed Serial like just about everybody else haha.

Unless you get an official rejection, I'd say there's still cause to hold out hope. I know it probably takes a while for our DGS to get in touch with everyone (he's a busy dude haha), and as allplaideverything said, he likely is contacting the fellowship folks first. I think I mentioned on one of the threads that I feel like rejections went out within a couple weeks of acceptances last year, so I feel like everybody should have some idea of where they stand with OSU relatively soon. As opposed to some other schools where it gets dragged out forever (I even had one school that never notified me of anything last year lol. Good times).

I want to say that rejections last year went out within a week or two after acceptances. I'm not sure about waitlists though.