2019 Applicants

[illcounsel]

Just secured housing!! It is all starting to feel so real in the best way. My DGS has been out on parental leave so there has been mostly silence from my program, but having a cute little house is making things feel much better.

[havemybloodchild]

1 hour ago, illcounsel said:

Just secured housing!! It is all starting to feel so real in the best way. My DGS has been out on parental leave so there has been mostly silence from my program, but having a cute little house is making things feel much better.

Dude you’re so on the ball! I’m not going down until next month to look for housing. Wish I had it all sorted now though, that’s for sure. Congrats on your cute house!

[illcounsel]

On 5/3/2019 at 3:48 PM, kendalldinniene said:

Dude you’re so on the ball! I’m not going down until next month to look for housing. Wish I had it all sorted now though, that’s for sure. Congrats on your cute house!

My school is in a pretty small college town with a tough rental market, so I looked as soon as I committed. If it was a bigger city, I am sure I would have been more relaxed on the timeline!

[illcounsel]

I just received my TA assignment and........ it's in my field!!!! YAY

[Bopie5]

Anyone else kinda going crazy with anticipation for the fall? I have a ton I still have to do, and I'm grateful to have the summer to decompress, save money, do research, etc. But also there's a part of me that just wants to be there already.

[jadeisokay]

i'm in chicago already and couch-surfing until sunday when i can sign my lease and start moving in! it's been fun running around chicago for about a week now applying for jobs and touring apartments. i have an interview tomorrow with a super-renowned restaurant group for a server position and i'm crossing my fingers like crazy. i miss reading for fun/research, but it can wait until i'm settled. right now, i'm still in shock that i live here for the next two years.  i'm so excited for you, @Bopie5- enjoy the summer :] 
 

Edited May 14, 2019 by jadeisokay

[Bopie5]

@jadeisokay Wow I'm so excited for you too! Chicago is truly such a great city. Good luck on your interview today--let us know how it goes!

[snorkles]

10 hours ago, jadeisokay said:

i'm in chicago already and couch-surfing until sunday when i can sign my lease and start moving in! it's been fun running around chicago for about a week now applying for jobs and touring apartments. i have an interview tomorrow with a super-renowned restaurant group for a server position and i'm crossing my fingers like crazy. i miss reading for fun/research, but it can wait until i'm settled. right now, i'm still in shock that i live here for the next two years.  i'm so excited for you, @Bopie5- enjoy the summer :] 
 

Congrats! You're way ahead of the game. How was the housing search in Chicago? With the commute times and parking, I can't see how anywhere but Hyde Park would make sense. I'm looking to start the search in mid-July.

[havemybloodchild]

Congrats @jadeisokay for getting all settled in Chicago! I watched the third season of easy yesterday and the whole time was like, damn, I could have lived in that city. Like I’m confident I made the right choice but, damn, Chicago is just the best.

As for what @Bopie5 was saying, yes I relate!!! I’m hoping to sign a lease starting July 1 so I can move in/decorate/explore before classes start the end of August. Honestly if I could snap my fingers and be in my new apartment (whatever it will be), starting my new life right now, I would do it. 

This is the fun part!!!

[jadeisokay]

7 hours ago, snorkles said:

Congrats! You're way ahead of the game. How was the housing search in Chicago? With the commute times and parking, I can't see how anywhere but Hyde Park would make sense. I'm looking to start the search in mid-July.

it was hard, but i luckily got hooked up with a friend of a friend looking too and she found us somewhere that i absolutely adore as well through a private owner. we'll actually be a ways north of campus area but still an easy commute via metra.  if you haven't checked out the maroon marketplace, that might be helpful if you're really eager to stay in hyde park. i had tried and it seemed most places didn't open up before july. 

i got the gig! 40 hrs a week starting tomorrow through september for a pop-up concept, and i explained my availability will of course change then but if we mutually work out there's potential room to stay on part time. i am SO excited.

Edited May 15, 2019 by jadeisokay

[ArcaMajora]

Also very excited for the upcoming Fall too Actually getting more real as the days pass haha. I've gotten first signs of life from UC Irvine post-4/15. It won't be long til I get my institutional e-mail, housing assignment, and I just submitted my request to enroll for English seminars for the upcoming Fall. If everything falls through, I'll for sure know my schedule and living arrangements my mid-June or July.

Can't believe I can call myself an official graduate student. It's surreal.

Excited for all of you as the summer progresses. This really is only the beginning of a journey tbh.

[dilby]

I just signed my lease in New Haven! At the beginning of June, I'll be moving out to the Texas countryside for three months to perform Shakespeare plays all summer, and then I'll be making a very condensed move to the northeast, just in time for registration.  

[havemybloodchild]

I got to register for all my classes and no one understands my wild excitement.  ? Especially when I looked at the bill and it kind of all washed over me what a financial investment is being made in me, my work, and my future.  It’s unreal.

Like @ArcaMajora I too can’t believe I actually get to call myself a graduate student.  I looked at my interview invite email from SMU again the other day and just cried and cried haha. How is this real life? What an incredible journey we’re all beginning ❤️

Edited May 15, 2019 by kendalldinniene

[WildeThing]

I’ve got my housing down, waiting for my visa and other administrative stuff. Excited to register for classes already and get all the final which will hopefully be soon.

[illcounsel]

What classes are everyone taking in the Fall? In addition to the Intro to Graduate Studies that I am sure most of us have, I am taking a class on Eco-poetics and one called Global Chaucer which looks at international influences on Chaucer in the Middle Ages and his global significance since. 

[dilby]

Western and Postcolonial Marxist Cultural Theory, Literature and Philosophy from Locke to Kant, the Film department's required theory seminar (taught by Dudley Andrew!!) and one additional film course (the list isn't out yet). Although I should say that at Yale they have something called "Shopping" which is a two-week period at the start of the semester where you can sit in on classes before deciding whether to fully register. So who knows!

[madandmoonly]

I haven't gotten many new emails since April, so there's not much going on on my end... I have, however, probably memorized their website, graduate student handbook, and all the degree requirements for the next ~5 years, at this point... Yeah, I really need it to be August now.

[havemybloodchild]

Advanced literary studies, a pedagogy course, American lit 1965-present, and survey of criticism. ????

[victoriansimpkins]

 

I'm taking a pedagogy course, my intro to grad studies course is based on Mary Shelley, and vampire in fiction and film. This first semester is tailored so well to my interests. I can hardly contain myself. 

Hopefully securing housing next week -- fingers crossed.

[Bopie5]

I'm taking Intro to Theory Across the Discipline of English, US Empire and Contemporary American Lit, and What Is Poetry. So excited about all of them honestly.

[eddyrynes]

International students! How are you deciding which of your books you absolutely have to bring with you to grad school in the US? Too many of my books spark joy, and definitely not enough luggage space ?

[punctilious]

19 hours ago, dilby said:

Although I should say that at Yale they have something called "Shopping" which is a two-week period at the start of the semester where you can sit in on classes before deciding whether to fully register. So who knows!

Harvard has the same, and it basically seems like an excuse to allow a ton of undergrads to show up for a week to classes they probably shouldn't be in lol.

[WildeThing]

I'm not sure yet because we can't register for course until later in the summer, but right now I'm thinking about Contemporary Af-Am Fiction, Multiethnic American Fiction, and Feminist Theory. There's also a very interesting Black Lit and Culture course in the History department which would be great. Honestly, I'm having a hard time deciding whether to take all the courses I'm interested in and satisfy the requirements later or divide it equally. Is anyone else anxious about this? For instance, I have three requirements and there are some good courses I could take now that would satisfy them, but I also really want to take courses in my field. If I put them off, perhaps the required courses won't be as interesting (or they might be MORE interesting), and perhaps later there won't be any courses in my field (or there will be amazing ones and I'll have to pass to take another course). I'd love to get a 4 year course plan so I can make efficient choices.

2 hours ago, eddyrynes said:

International students! How are you deciding which of your books you absolutely have to bring with you to grad school in the US? Too many of my books spark joy, and definitely not enough luggage space ?

Gonna wait until I know what books I'll need for my courses and take those, plus anything that seems like it might be useful for them. If there's room, I'll take some for general reading, especially if they're hard to find in libaries and such, or have notes I could use. I'm planning on just gradually taking more and more and asking people who come and visit to bring some when they come. Since there's still time until I have to work on thesis/comps, I can wait with my core texts.

[madandmoonly]

It's amusing that some of us are already set up for the fall semester & I just got an email today asking for my official transcripts so I can actually be a real Ph.D student now. lol. (They're busy, I know, it's totally fine. ) 

1 hour ago, WildeThing said:

I'm not sure yet because we can't register for course until later in the summer, but right now I'm thinking about Contemporary Af-Am Fiction, Multiethnic American Fiction, and Feminist Theory. There's also a very interesting Black Lit and Culture course in the History department which would be great. Honestly, I'm having a hard time deciding whether to take all the courses I'm interested in and satisfy the requirements later or divide it equally. Is anyone else anxious about this? For instance, I have three requirements and there are some good courses I could take now that would satisfy them, but I also really want to take courses in my field. If I put them off, perhaps the required courses won't be as interesting (or they might be MORE interesting), and perhaps later there won't be any courses in my field (or there will be amazing ones and I'll have to pass to take another course). I'd love to get a 4 year course plan so I can make efficient choices.

I'm thinking about this problem a lot too! Mostly about the pre-1800 and post-1800 reqs (I need two courses in each), coupled with the fact that I plan on pursuing two different certificates which both have different course requirements as well. Along with all of the regular required courses + stuff that just sounds interesting.... Basically I'm gonna need a lot of guidance from whomever my advisor is about which classes to take. ? 

Me, trying to figure all this out in my brain:

[jadeisokay]

registration isn't for a while but i know i have a required intro to critical thought/theory course, whichever russian course i place into, then i need to poke a bit through the catalog and map out a happy point between a schedule that fits me and is stimulating/fulfilling.