1Q84

My brain is a little too fried to think straight but this thread seems to be a wonderful and comprehensive compendium of advice on the app process. Hope it helps!

Was very saddened to hear Mitchell was hospitalized yesterday. Light a candle, sing a song, send some good thoughts to Joni!

Please do!

It's certainly doable if you live with roommates! (source: Toronto native for a long time) I don't think I should've applied either but mine was a last minute (re: day before deadline) hail mary just in case! I'd be able to live with family or something, worse case scenario.

I can be of no help but just wanted to say love the (I hope) Nick Cave referencing username! (And my fingers are crossed for you!)

Yep.

AHHHHH!!!!!!!

stuff left

I was merely expressing my frustration. This is called the venting thread, right? No need for you to be a jerk about the wait list torture that I'm going through right now, especially considering you're not in the same position. It's not "spam." I'm not out in the English forums pressuring people and telling them to make a decision already. I'm in the venting thread talking in general about my frustrations in the application process. Get over yourselves, both of you.

Without even seeing your responses, I impulsively emailed the DGS last night in a fit of impatient despair. Hopefully I can get some more clarity from her soon! This is really tearing me up.

Dear fellow F15 folks (accepted, rejected, and waitlisted):

Thanks for responses, folks! I think I've reached this point too! I'm wondering specifically about contacting DGS vs. head of adcomm. Did you only speak to the former, not the latter at all the schools? I've only spoken to head of adcomm, not DGS... erggg I hope that hasn't been interpreted as lack of interest in the program.

An additional quick question: have you all been in contact with the DGSes or the head of the adcomm (or both) at your wait list schools?

Not sure where to post this but a brutal and depressing read from VICE: Striking Grad Students on What It's Like to Live on $15,000 a Year Luckily, York U has been successful in striking for their demands. Toronto on the other hand... still going. Another one, from the perspective of two grad students. University of Toronto: Boundless Exploitation–“Business as Usual” IS the Problem

Spring Break starts for me this week! But with a 2/2 load and a thesis and two seminar papers due rather soon, I'm thinking my break will probably play out like this:

It is more common than not to have schools accept transfer credits from an MA degree. There is always a maximum number of credits that can be transferred and most US schools will accept credits from other US schools (though not all). It certainly would become trickier transferring international credits to a US institution, making me think it's not altogether encouraged by departments. ETA: Yes, apologies, should have noted I'm speaking from English Ph.D. standpoint only! (Thought that was a rather general standard, but I guess not!)

ARGGGGHHHHHH. Slow, selfish people who are "marinating" with their decisions about grad school offers: just. decide. Do you not realize that there are dozens of people waiting on YOUR decision, whose whole future 5-6 years depend on you, much like the way you were once at the whim of adcomm decisions?!

Either that or have a "soft" deadline for decisions (that's actually somewhat hard) on, say, April 10. Then, the next five days can be for shuffling around and finalizing a cohort. Hrmm. I guess I'll have to stay in extra close contact with the DGSes of my schools of interest.

That's what I don't get. There will undoubtedly be folks who wait until 3 or 5pm the day of to make their final decisions. What happen to all the schools that they turn down? There must be some shuffling/batch of acceptance offers sent out after April 15, no? Does this not mean that a bunch of us will have to roll the dice and wait for an offer that may not come all while giving up the certainty of our actual admissions offers? If so, how is this the system we're working with? It seems unnecessarily cruel!

This is one thing I'm maybe not grasping fully. So everyone has until April 15 to make a decision. What happens after that day? Obviously some of us may be waiting for offers that will only come after people receive all of their offers, which means we will for certainly be waiting until after April 15. How the heck am I supposed to navigate this messy confluence of dates? How late do some offers come after the 15th? Ack!

fail whale

That statement was a somewhat flip rhetorical gesture towards those who have consistently stated (ad nauseum) that the job market discussion has been repeated over and over, across multiple threads to the point of death, making it unworthy of further discussion. I, as you will know from reading my posts, have been arguing that the OP's warnings and job search experiences are highly valuable to us who haven't begun our degrees yet. Or did you not read the whole thread?

HOORAY!

Since the conversation seems to be heading into questioning whether certain individuals were duped or not duped by the system, I thought I'd point out a broader consideration of the discussion: Clearly, we on TGC are very much in-the-know about the majority of horrors of an academic career. But, in discussing alt-ac options or revolutionary action within academia, we have to consider those folks that aren't on TGC and haven't thought about these issues at all. I know an astounding number of grad students and prospective grad students IRL who are unaware of even the most basic aspects of life after a Ph.D. and still manage to garner several acceptances. They certainly won't be asking the questions that OP listed nor the ones that kurayamino asked during her Open House experience. Our conversations here can prepare those of us that care to speak more knowledgeably about it in real life. Obviously from the passion in this thread, we have all thought about the issue deeply and care very much one way or another. There are a huge number of students who retain the now-dated mindset that Ph.D. holders all settle easily into middle-class, "life of the mind" luxury. Such outcomes were possible 10-20 years ago but certainly not anymore. Unlike us, those students are still blissfully unaware, and they may arrive at the same sad conclusion that OP has when they enter the job market. (Also, I hate to invoke the "go-back-to-Russia" argument, but if these threads about the job market really, reaaaaalllly bother you so much because they apparently have been discussed to death, you are free to ignore them. No one is forcing you to partake in this conversation. And I'm not sure where the idea came from that people in this thread are "scaring" people away from academia. Everyone here is free to make up their own mind after a careful consideration of the facts. Besides, this conversation is being well-contained within clearly marked threads. If you think you know all that has been said here, just back away and discuss other things elsewhere.)