1Q84

Just wanted to give a shoutout to The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Jane Krakowski brings joy into my life... and now so does the former-D'Fwan. The "Dong" character is just so heinous, though.... just the worst writing

Wow. I just did my first campus visit and had so much FUN! It was a really tremendous faculty and school that I was unsure about at first. It's definitely complicating my thoughts about potential decisions anytime soon.

Well, okay! Glad you didn't get into a university in the most racist place in Canada, especially after applying (I assume, in earnest).

Might want to connect with this person!

Clearly Canadian soil is a good luck charm... stay there longer! Congrats!!

Okay, cleared out my Wednesday and will officially be attending! Excited.

Can we charge $200/hr?

Obviously, I'm not the best person to be speaking about this, but I can only re-iterate what others have said about being very, very specific about one's interests--and, if not, making sure to explicitly wrangle in advance with the imagined-puzzled-looks that adcomms might have about your SOP. I reckon your supposition about turning off both prosodists and early modernists with your articulation of your interests might be correct. I had to make a choice to apply as an early modernist (since that's where the bulk of my work has been) even though my more recent passion has been modern American cultural studies. When I corresponded with POIs, I always asked how they felt about these two disparate interest. The schools with the POIs that said they saw it as a strength (in an interdisciplinary way) or advised that I devote a section of my SOP to explaining the (what they said was an exciting) theoretical confluence between the two fields were, not surprisingly, the schools at which my app had the most success. The schools that seemed a little more confused or less enthused about my disparate interests rejected me probably for that reason (among others). On the subject of app season self-reflection, I don't think my SOP or my way of articulating my interests was what held me back: it was a crappy WS. I wrote it in about two-three weekends during a busy stretch of a semester. If I had more time to fine-tune it and fix up obvious problem areas, I think I might have fared a bit better. PS. I do want to ask you as well about your WS: you say it was based on intentionality in three of Shakespeare's sonnets. Does this WS actually demonstrate skill in transhistorical prosody? It seems rather confined to the early modern period.

I gather a majority of campus visits are taking place this week so I'm really hoping folks will have a good sense of where they don't want to go and notify them by next week.

The album's out and it's really good!

Thanks for saying this... and it's a good reminder that my letter writers' support is not always merely professional support. I actually can't wait to buy them some small gifts and write thank you cards. I'm so grateful to them!

Congrats morristr and all others pulling the trigger on final decisions. So excited for yall!

I think the only point of interest for me was the inclusion of Toronto and Oxford in the results, since they often are not. Otherwise, yes: crop, meet dead horse. Edit: crap, I really didn't mean to down vote you Appplication!! Fat fingers on mobile. Sorry

Totally agree. One of my letter writers has a visible reaction of disappointment when I update him on my notifications. Two of them have told me that my letters were "the strongest they've ever written" so I guess the unspoken assumption is that my other app materials were lacking :/ Sigh, guess it's just another form of rejection to deal with... On the plus side, it's making me so @#%#$$% inside that it's pushing me to work 1000x harder going forward in order to redeem myself.

"And there in a puddle at your feet is a preview of what my first paper of the semester will be."

Hoping for your speedy (and success-filled) arrival at the end!

Okay, I keep hearing this. Going to have to watch Whiplash for sure! AGH. How did I forget Fresh off the Boat? It's one of the the only shows I look forward to week to week, especially because of Wu. Oh oh oh and RuPaul's Drag Race just started back up!

Agreed! I'm thankful that it wasn't a complete shut out for either of us. In fact, I think I'm going to treat myself to some nice scotch tonight for surviving getting all notifications back.

I just watched (now Oscar-winning) Ida. I thought the cinematography was gorgeous but didn't like the rest of it too much. I would've preferred if Timbuktu or Leviathan won. Birdman was lots of fun! Two Days, One Night with Marion Cotillard is one of my favorite movies of the past 5 years, hands down. (And as for trashy pulp TV, I'm dying for Scandal!)

Thanks! There's a lottery for parking permits, though? Jeez... so no one is guaranteed even a permit, let alone a spot? Especially if you're Asian. Lots of high profile stories of Chinese students being targeted for "being rich."

Sigh. Well there it is: the official UCI reject And we're done, folks! Pack it up.

I haven't. I'm actually waiting to hear back from "HBH" (love that acronym) about some questions I had about the program before I decide if I'm going to make the trek over. Tina said she would give me a call... hmm.... The plan for going, however, is to get to Union Station and take the train out.