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Declining UT Austin. I know someone on here's on the waitlist, so I hope you get in!

I'd go with B. If A costed less (maybe in the realm of $10-20k), then I would consider it... but $40k is something you'll be paying off for 20 years on a social work salary.

By the way, Rose: have you considered applying as a Near Eastern Studies PhD rather than Comp Lit? I'm not sure what the numbers look like for NES, but for example, in German at Northwestern about 50% of applicants are accepted rather than 8-10% in Comp Lit.

Nope, you can just hover over my username link, and there'll be an option to "send message."

That sounds like an awesome opportunity! (Sorry, I realize I'm not a Fall 2014 applicant, but I hope that's okay.) Why on earth would you not do it, especially if it's fully funded?

No problem! You can PM me.

Basically top of the wait list. Sounds like you might have a good shot, though!

Double good news! (As in, congrats for getting accepted, and someone else gets to get in now!)

How's Edgewater? And how long does it take to get to Northwestern from there?

PM sent.

I would say that since you (at this point) are not sure about going on to a Ph.D., the public Ivy seems to be a better choice. An MA can be great for exploring your interests. You should go where the work excites you! $14k in DC is also insane. Furthermore, I think you're talking about Georgetown? If so, it's a great school, but the other one sounds like a good one, too. Don't forget that in grad school, it's who you work with and your subfield ranking that matter. If there's no one at school A who works on DH, then it might not be as easy to ease into that for the PhD. About your qualms concerning the size of the cities: it's only two years! 100,00 people isn't tiny, and you can apply to PhD programs in big cities after that if you want (and hopefully get more money). Good luck!

Definitely more than one. What professors at all the schools I was accepted at commented on was the fantastic "range" of my abilities and interests. They flat out said that what made me an attractive candidate was that I wasn't fully formed yet and could work with lots of different people.

I lived in a 225ft2 apartment for a year, so to me 390 is pretty darn good!

Penn State is a great program! So is Dartmouth, with the difference that Dartmouth is a terminal MA. Do you plan on going on to your PhD? My thought is that the MA at Penn State basically feeds into their PhD program, which is fantastic and only getting better. I don't know as much about Dartmouth.

Awesome! Congrats! Let us know, will you?

I keep hearing this! I visited too, but although I liked the city and campus, I didn't fall in love like I had expected. But I'm glad you did! I don't really love any of my schools. I like them all about equally and for different reasons. SO HARD.

Declined Penn State Comp Lit. Hope that helps someone!

My situation was actually very similar to the OPs. I did the bare minimum for an English major at my school (8 courses) so that I could add two other majors. I didn't take a single survey course, and my knowledge of the canon is also very spotty. I also took very few courses in the area that I wanted to specialize in, and it worked out fine for me. (Then again, I applied for Comp Lit, so maybe my story doesn't work 100% for you.) Good luck!

Man oh man. Jiajia: at this point, if you get will you consider going? I see you have other really awesome offers!

Word. I called Michigan today because I hadn't heard anything from them, and I'm on their wait list. I know they admitted seven people, and there are four or five of us in limbo. Is anyone else in this situation?

Is anyone else having a really hard time composing e-mails to schools they are declining? I feel so bad! But of course, I don't want to dilly dally too much for the sake of the waitlisters...

Madison for sure.

Other programs I can think of that fund all their students include Washington University in St. Louis, Penn State, and Northwestern, but I'm sure there are plenty more. I'm pretty sure that UT Austin also funds nearly all, if not all, of its students. For example, they were required to admit fewer students this year due to budget cuts. As for rankings: I'm sure you've already heard this before, but undergrad and grad rankings can vary enormously. And with Comp Lit it's especially hard to gauge because there are no rankings per se - just the NRC survey reports, which are kind of wacky anyway. If you want to know about the overall prestige of undergrad to grad schools (which is usually based just on undergrad stats), the schools I got into were ranked about the same as my undergrad institution or a little lower. However, the ones with the lower undergrad rankings are higher ranked according to the NRC, so shrug. My B.A. was in English, French, and German.

Thanks for this. Thing is, I think I could live on that money. It just wouldn't be comfortable. I have tried to see if there is more funding, and one of my POIs has taken it upon herself to negotiate on my behalf -- so we'll see if anything comes of that!

I think base funding is identical from Comp Lit to English. I have actually visited both schools, which has just made it harder! I liked Austin, but I feel like I'd need a car (am a terrible biker) but don't know if I could afford it. I guess the question is: if both programs are about equal in prestige, but one happens to have better placement for whatever reason and is in a cool city, is it worth choosing over really generous funding at the other? I know this is a very personal question, but I just feel no closer to making my decision post-visit!