toasterazzi

Yeah I still have all my old emails, and Dr. Garcha notified me about the fellowship nom when he called me. Then I received email confirmation of the nom about a week or so later (early February). And then I received an email notifying me that I'd actually been awarded the email at the beginning of March. And then the Open House was toward the end of March, and I personally confirmed my decision to attend OSU within like two days of attending the Open House. I really, really loved the Open House lol.

Speaking of Google docs, here's one from a couple years ago about funding info that people might find relevant: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al9pLrYezRcSdGdUTk0zWk5QVUJFSGxVZ2FJQ1QwWFE#gid=0

Awesome! (and yeah, dude doesn't sleep lol)

Conversely, he called me at like 9:50am, right before I was about to go teach haha. I sometimes wonder when that man actually sleeps...

I just wanted to jump in and say that though OSU does tend to accept many folks relatively early, I do know people in my cohort who were notified later. I also know some people were initially waitlisted. And there are certain fellowship requirements that might contribute to some people being notified earlier than others. I say all this to point out that there's still plenty of time, so hope is not lost

Congrats! As I said to the others, lemme know if you have any OSU and/or Columbus questions.

Haha I knew they'd be coming soon. Congrats to both of you and anybody else who has been accepted. Feel free to send any questions you have about OSU/Columbus my way

So last year, I graduated from my MA, got married (twice. lol. basically, we had two ceremonies due to travel restrictions for some of our family members), and moved to a new state for my PhD program within the span of about two months. I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing all of that at once lol, but we did it that way because we wanted to get married in the state where all of our family was rather than trying to have them all come to a different state. As far as the wedding planning goes, I didn't really find it that stressful (except monetarily *sigh*), but we also had really lowkey ceremonies. The first one was at the courthouse, and the second one was at a small local venue. We had help from our friends to decorate, and one of my best friends took care of getting the cake. We got bbq/sides from one of our favorite local joints. And that was about it. If you're having a bigger deal, I imagine it could get a bit more hairy, but as long as you have help, I imagine it should be fairly manageable. Also, I don't really see a problem with taking a long weekend for your wedding

I know everybody's anxious about the acceptances right now, and I don't know if this info will help or make it worse lol. At any rate, for anybody that applied to Ohio State, I went back through some of my records and found that I saw that I was accepted on the website on January 23rd last year (I'm not sure how long the info had been up. I just found it in one of my random visits to the site), and I got the official acceptance phone call on January 27th. So it's entirely possible that you all will hear from them in the next week or so. (I'll also add that some people were notified way later, but most of the people were contacted around the same time I was as far as I know.)

My husband and I had been together for almost 3.5 years when I started applying to PhD programs last fall. He's always been 100% supportive of my career path, and we'd moved for a job for me earlier in the relationship, so I knew it wouldn't be that much of an issue for us. I did consult him about the various locations I was considering, and for the most part, he was open to just about everywhere. Though he did have a clear favorite, which is funnily enough, exactly where we ended up . When we were planning our move earlier this year, there was a lot to juggle, especially since we were getting married around the same time (I would NOT recommend doing this lol). We saved as much as we could, and I worked a part time job after the semester ended to get us some extra moving money. Finances were TIGHT for most of the summer, but by the end of July, my husband had landed a full time job in our new town. It wasn't the easiest, and I almost went nuts without having the Internet haha, but we made it work. We've already discussed post-grad school life, and he's made it clear that he'd be willing to move wherever I get a job or a postdoc or whatever. We started our relationship doing the long distance thing, but neither of us is especially keen on going that route again. The only thing we're still really trying to sort out is the theoretical kids. We want to adopt, and we know how lengthy the process can be, so we're trying to sort out the best time to get that ball rolling.

And another: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/08/how-to-teach-kids-about-whats-happening-in-ferguson/379049/?single_page=true

Here's another collection of resources from the NY Times: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/the-death-of-michael-brown-teaching-about-ferguson/?_r=0

Haha this was me last year. I did 6 as well. I almost did 7, but I got my first acceptance before the due date for that last one

I don't have anybody in particular to recommend, but I will suggest that you avoid Olentangy Commons. That's where I currently live, and while you do get a decent amount of space for the amount of money you pay, their maintenance is quite poor. I'm planning to move as soon as my lease is up.

I guess I lucked out with my dept in the sense that people (at least the one's I've interacted with thus far) seem to be really aware of the different interesections and such. And they are actively anti notions of being colorblind, postracial, etc. Now I am in a huge program, so there's probably some detractors, but amongst the chunk I've interacted with, most folks seem to be on the right track. As for the n-word, my dept had a seminar on trigger warnings a couple months ago & it was a PACKED room. Part of the discussion dealt with using the n-word in class and the many ways in which academia doesn't recognize the particularly difficult experience that it can be to be a black or brown student in a classroom of people that don't get it. Most of the instructors who talked about the word expressed that they don't allow it to be used & other people expressed the hurt that they felt in classrooms where the word was used. There wasn't any sort of resolution to be had here, but it was a great discussion that I think really opened some people's minds. dazedandbemused, maybe a similar discussion can be broached in your program?

I've become extra invested in my activism in the last few months. I've long been involved in certain causes, but as a Black woman in America, these last few months have really kicked me into high gear. I've benefited from being in a program that has scholars who are really passionate about activism as well. And I see their examples of thriving in scholarship while also protesting and such as something that I can really aspire to be. Also, a lot of the people in my cohort are equally passionate and that helps to create a great environment. I've been collecting resources for future writing as well as possible classroom use in the future, and one of the best things I've come across is: http://zinnedproject.org/2014/11/teaching-about-ferguson/. They've collected some great resources there. Also, check out #fergusonsyllabus on Twitter.

Ahem: Harry Potter fans can apply to the Hogwarts-inspired College of Wizardry

I'm trying to remember what my OSU status said last year, but I'm blanking. I will say though that all of the folks involved with grad admissions in the English department are awesome. So if you want to make an inquiry, I'm sure that'd be fine.

I spent most of my waiting time last year focused on writing my thesis and teaching while somewhat obsessively checking the results board a few times a day. I will say though that it becomes much easier (in my opinion at least) if you're lucky enough to get a relatively early acceptance. I got my first one in January & it took so much pressure off the entire situation. As for how they notify you, it really is a mixed bag in my experience. I got a mix of emails, phone calls, and even an actual letter last year.

OSU was definitely the first school I heard from last year in mid to late January, and they really do make every effort to get in contact with people sooner rather than later.

I expressly refused to apply to schools that required the subject test, and I feel absolutely no qualms about that. I applied to Ohio State, Michigan State, Middle Tennessee State, Pitt, University of Missouri, and Bowling Green. One of them (I think it was Pitt) even was pretty dang vehement in their info absolutely not wanting to be sent the subject scores haha. As for waivers, I was also going to mention the CIC one. I made use of it, and it was pretty quick and painless. Here's the full list of schools that you can possibly get waivers from through them: University of Chicago University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Indiana University University of Iowa University of Maryland University of Michigan Michigan State University University of Minnesota University of Nebraska-Lincoln Northwestern University Ohio State University Pennsylvania State University Purdue University Rutgers University

Congrats! Sending all the good vibes to all of you! And try not to freak out (too much!) if it takes a while to hear from schools. I didn't hear from my first school until end of January and the last school contacted me in like May lol (well, there was one school that never contacted me, but I just like to pretend that was an anomaly haha). So that whole thing about patience being a virtue is definitely something worth hanging onto for the next seven months or so.

I took out additional loans during my MA because even though the program was funded, it was still under what I really needed to survive. However, the funding package for my PhD program is much better, so I decided I wasn't going to do anymore loans. Back in the spring, I emailed my department to see if it was necessary to fill out the FAFSA (this was after I knew what school I was going to and past my state's mostly meaningless deadline), and they told me that it wasn't necessary. Obviously, the case might be different at other schools.

I did my applying last season, and I mostly applied to English programs, but I did apply to BGSU's American Culture Studies program as well. For my particular interests, which are not strictly literary, I saw a lot in that program that would've worked for me. I also considered some other cultural studies/American studies programs, but I ultimately ended up being sort of limited in the amount of schools I could afford to apply to.

My picture comes courtesy of Beyonce. Because she's awesome. The end.