2019 Applicants

[Bopie5]

8 minutes ago, WildeThing said:

The IRT deadline is in March, I hadn't even heard back from everywhere when I applied but I figured I'd try and think about it later. I wound up getting accepted so that pushed me to try again, since it made the cost less prohibitive and increased my odds.

WOW! This looks amazing. I'd never even heard of this. Thank you so much--it sounds like this is an incredible resource and opportunity. Just bookmarked the link! It sounds like this would not only greatly improve my apps, but would also foster a lot of personal growth and accurate self-perception when it comes to academia and applications. Bet those skills can easily transfer to future job applications and cover letters, etc, as well!

Also, your post is so thoughtful and helpful, it should be a pinned thread somewhere on how to deal with rejection and try again.

[Bopie5]

19 minutes ago, kendalldinniene said:

Having people you respect in your court and a plan for how to persevere is the best way to process, in my opinion.

Agree, this seems crucial (and has already been crucial throughout my app process). My professors have been absolute angels, going so above and beyond to help me. Still working on writing out all of the thank you notes I want to give them!

[WildeThing]

Thank you! I'm glad it helped, though hopefully you don't ever need any of it. Honestly though, any wisdom in that process has come from ages on Gradcafe and the wise posts of previous applicants like Old Bill and Warelin (to name just two).

[mandelbulb]

since we're sharing rejection stories, here's mine:

in 2014, i applied to 5 MFA fiction programs and was rejected in late february, throughout march, and one day before the April 15th deadline. it was really crushing. however, i'd already made plans to travel to Paris with a friend in a MA art history program in the UK and we had a lot of conversations about grad school and dream careers. i also talked to a mentor of mine since my freshman year of undergrad, and he asked me as well to think about where i wanted to be in 5 years, in 10 years, in 15 years. so in 2015, i applied to 8 MFA fiction programs, 4 MA English programs, and 1 English PhD program. I was rejected everywhere except the 4 MA programs. i was accepted with limited funding from 3 and waitlisted from the fully-funded 4th. eventually, i got off the waitlist. while all the rejections sucked a lot, the acceptances i did receive more than made up for it. the 2014 run ended up being a great learning experience, albeit a soul-crushing one.

so last year, after talking to my thesis adviser and my graduate adviser, i decided to go for a test-run of PhD applications. that's at least what i told myself what i was doing! it did not work! i applied to 5 English PhD programs and received rejections starting early february. my last rejection was in late march, which was later than other rejections. the downside of these rejections was that i'd sent an early draft of the first chapter of my thesis, and so it made working on it in the winter and spring incredibly difficult. in the end, i changed a lot about my thesis, and i feel very much that what i'd sent was good but not quite good enough. i was encouraged to follow-up with my POI from a close friend who's currently a PhD candidate there, and when i did, i learned that my POI had been very interested in my work and had been impressed with my writing sample. this little tiny bit of hope is why i'm applying again this year. 

tldr; the downside is that rejection really fucking hurts, but the upside is that often you are a much, much better candidate the following cycle because you have experience writing SOPs now and you're rarely starting from scratch, your WS should be better by virtue of you continuing to work on it and the additional time you've now sat with your material/thoughts/questions that'll be reflected in your revisions, and you'll just have a better idea of what "fit" really means to you.

if i'm being honest, i'm not as anxious as i was last year. i have a much better idea now than then what i'll do if this all doesn't work out, and that helps a lot.

 

On 1/1/2019 at 2:18 AM, flungoutofspace said:

On a side note, this really cracked me up, because my best friend's a psychologist who can't tolerate any serious mention of Freud, whereas half — if not all — of the work I do now can be traced, in one way or another, to his theories... so she teases me a lot about it. 

this sounds like me... i tease myself for this all the time.

[WildeThing]

That's rough, I'm impressed you've shown such perseverance! But that POI love sounds amazing, hopefully this year works out with them in your corner!

[pdh12]

@WildeThing omg You Get Iiiiiit.

Yes, I 2nd/3rd/4th the sentiment re: everyone should just spew on here because it feels safe-productive. 

To contribute to the ''here's what happened'' offerings: 

A few years ago (senior year undergrad) I applied to a motley handful of programs (a few comp lit/english PhDs, a few creative writing MFAs), and was ostensibly naive re: how 'grad admissions' really worked. The results were mostly rejections with a few half-//unfunded acceptances (and 1 horrifyingly botched interview). I waited it out and, long-story-short, ended up getting 2 Masters. So now I feel more ready // more equipped to take on PhDs this year...I might be able to help field questions about the process or hash-out plan Bs if anyone's interested. Rumor has it that PhD apps are less a crapshoot than their MFA counterparts...here's hoping.

Love reading everyone's comments! It's gonna be Hella exciting when y'all actually get accepted (let us know!)

edit: and if those "survey" results are to be believed, it seems like some of our collectively applied-to programs start notifying as early as mid-Jan!! (??). has anyone gone down the deep end and spreadsheeted anticipated notification times?

 

Edited January 3, 2019 by pdh12

[jadeisokay]

it seems like for my schools it's anywhere from mid feb to mid march. i'm going to be in philadelphia the first week of march with my mom for our birthday vacation and told her already we are not discussing anything related to school for five days. penn seems to be anywhere in mid/late february to march. 

[disidentifications]

8 hours ago, mandelbulb said:

this sounds like me... i tease myself for this all the time.

to be honest, i do too. (is it possible to think freud's a bit of a phooey whilst absolutely loving psychoanalytic theory at the same time..?) 

12 hours ago, WildeThing said:

Also, I have been obsessing over these apps now that we're in 2019, which, in case you didn't realize, is the same year we would be starting our PhDs, should we get accepted. Like, holy shit. In similar Panicville news, it's fucking January 2019. First responses could be out in about two weeks (I've got Emory down as a mid-late January interview notifier). Most if not all the places I've applied were done notifying acceptances by the end of February, which is NEXT MONTH. Why is no one else here? Panicking? I've been living on a diet of school reviews, undergrad acceptance reaction compilations, program websites, and gradcafe deepdives for the past few days.

i'm currently working on my applications to oxford and cambridge (the latter has just been submitted) to take my mind off this immense anxiety, except the process has had me scrolling through thestudentroom (the uk version of collegeconfidential, which also includes a forum for postgrads) and panicking even more. it doesn't help that oxbridge actually does rolling admissions, which means some applicants to other courses have already received their admissions decisions. given that i'm already pulling my hair out over this, i can't imagine how the coming weeks will be like as responses start trickling in... *breathes into paper bag* 

[WildeThing]

On 1/2/2019 at 6:27 PM, pdh12 said:

 

edit: and if those "survey" results are to be believed, it seems like some of our collectively applied-to programs start notifying as early as mid-Jan!! (??). has anyone gone down the deep end and spreadsheeted anticipated notification times?

 

Oh, of course. I don’t have a spreadsheet but I made a note on my calendar of when to expect (good) news from my programs, and it does seem like some people will be receiving good news in less than a month.

[Bopie5]

6 hours ago, flungoutofspace said:

(is it possible to think freud's a bit of a phooey whilst absolutely loving psychoanalytic theory at the same time..?) 

imho, definitely! I love psychoanalytic crit, especially for poetry, but I think Freud (and tbh, Lacan as well) are especially off the mark in terms of their theories of femininity! But so much psychoanalytic theory rests on Freud/Lacan/Lacan’s use of Freud that I appreciate their work even though I find parts of it sexist and/or troubling. Personally, I think Freud is still a compelling writer even though I’m not a fan of the centrality he gives to the threat or discovery of “castration.” My roommate’s a psychology major and she definitely thinks Freud’s theories are a big pile of bullshit, but was fascinated to learn how important he is for the foundation of psychoanalytic crit!

[conraddy]

Humongous thanks to @WildeThing and @kendalldinniene for those coping stories. I'm especially worried because I'm going to be studying abroad next semester, which will hopefully take my mind off of grad school stuff, but which I also worry will remove me from my entire support system (profs/friends/family) so that when I get all the bad news, I'll have way too much alone time to let the rejection fester. I guess we'll see, and it'll be a growing experience either way.

Also, re: decision dates, I know the Duke English department says on their website that they shoot for the January 19-23 window to have all decisions sent out. *nervously* No I don't have a countdown on my phone... why do you ask?!? Other than that, all the programs I've applied to say February-early March. 

And a question: I've seen some people post on here that they've gotten feedback from adcomms on their applications after getting no's back. What's the protocol for asking for something like that? Emailing the head of graduate studies in the department, or your POI specifically, or what? I feel like that would be really nerve-wracking, and I'd be scared of annoying them by making them spend more time with prospies than they had to (I've heard it's a universally dreaded process for profs to sit on adcomms in the first place). Do any of you guys have experience with that?

[WildeThing]

23 minutes ago, conraddy said:

Humongous thanks to @WildeThing and @kendalldinniene for those coping stories. I'm especially worried because I'm going to be studying abroad next semester, which will hopefully take my mind off of grad school stuff, but which I also worry will remove me from my entire support system (profs/friends/family) so that when I get all the bad news, I'll have way too much alone time to let the rejection fester. I guess we'll see, and it'll be a growing experience either way.

Also, re: decision dates, I know the Duke English department says on their website that they shoot for the January 19-23 window to have all decisions sent out. *nervously* No I don't have a countdown on my phone... why do you ask?!? Other than that, all the programs I've applied to say February-early March. 

And a question: I've seen some people post on here that they've gotten feedback from adcomms on their applications after getting no's back. What's the protocol for asking for something like that? Emailing the head of graduate studies in the department, or your POI specifically, or what? I feel like that would be really nerve-wracking, and I'd be scared of annoying them by making them spend more time with prospies than they had to (I've heard it's a universally dreaded process for profs to sit on adcomms in the first place). Do any of you guys have experience with that?

I was in the same boat last year. Admittedly, by the time I left I already had implied rejections but all of my main responses came when I was alone. As I said, I’m big on repression so I don’t enjoy swimming around in the misery and talking about it with others, especially since I already knew everything people said (it does not reflect on you as a person/scholar, etc). It will be tough but you will have other things to do, and if not, setting aside a show to marathon wouldn’t hurt (unless it’s Gilmore Girls with the scene where Paris gets accepted everywhere, or Gossip Girl, where these privileged rich kids get placed at the Ivies of their choice and make faces at NYU).

As for feedback, I was too scared of asking for it. When I reapplied I wanted to contact some schools, especially the one that offered me an  MA spot, to figure out what went well/badly. I was very much discouraged from doing that by an IRT advisor.

 

[Musmatatus]

It is definitely encouraging to see a lot more posting going on here! This is my first time applying, so it's very  comforting to hear other people's coping stories. At this point, it seems like the most reasonable option is to plan for applying again next year, and I'll definitely take a look into IRT. 

I'm trying to take my mind off grad school, but somehow everything I stumble upon is tangentially related--I just checked out a book called Dear Committee Members filled with satirical LORs! 

[havemybloodchild]

1 hour ago, conraddy said:

Also, re: decision dates, I know the Duke English department says on their website that they shoot for the January 19-23 window to have all decisions sent out. *nervously* No I don't have a countdown on my phone... why do you ask?!? Other than that, all the programs I've applied to say February-early March. 

 

I may or may not have gone through last year's results pages to see when each of my programs were likely to get back to me, and added that information to my grad app spreadsheet.  And then color coded the spreadsheet depending on those dates...anything to make myself feel like I'm doing something!

Edited January 3, 2019 by kendalldinniene

[placeinspace]

I'm at a point where I'm just waiting for the inevitable rejections to come in so I can move on with my life and acknowledge I at least tried to pursue my dream. I knew this was a long shot but it's the waiting that's killing me!

 

As a side note, for anyone who was on the boards last cycle, did anyone on here get into Chicago? I combed through the boards but only seemed to see rejections from the Chicago PhD. It'd be very interesting if not a single person accepted last year was on GradCafe, though I suppose statistically it's possible.

Edited January 3, 2019 by placeinspace

[bernardthepug]

Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but I think I have a somewhat unique perspective on this whole process and coping with everything. Maybe it'll be relatable or illuminating to others.

Basically, I just don't feel crazy stressed about getting an offer or not--I think I'll be at peace with whatever happens. Sure, I've been doing the background research on PhD programs, retaking the gre, and slowly working on apps since last June, but if it's not meant to be it's not meant to be. I can't imagine going through this process again (I truly commend the people that do go through it more than once). Applying to PhD programs has been such an incredible amount of work, and in a lot of ways I'm proud of myself for getting through it all, as there were definite moments when I wanted to just give up b/c I didn't think I could actually get it all done. But I've stayed motivated by reminding myself that academia is what I enjoy, what I'm good at, and what I can envision myself doing as a career.

To that end, by working on these apps I've learned so much about myself--my interests, my goals, and perhaps even a sense of what my purpose is or could be in the near future. For what I could potentially lose financially with submitting applications, I feel like I gain back in what I take away personally moving forward in life. I'm an ecocrit/environmental lit person through and through, and I think i've come to realize that I can do good for environmental issues in so many different ways. If it doesn't end up being through literature, then I'm almost positive it'll be in some other way. On top of that, I'm finishing up my M.A. in the Spring, and I think that alone gives me some confidence that I will be able to find a job (which was a definite a struggle coming out of undergrad). On that point, I really do recommend completing the M.A. first, if that's your only option. The M.A. was such a great stepping stone for me to iron out my interests and spend time working on projects in the field I'm passionate about, which I'm hopeful has made me a better applicant for PhD programs now. Not to mention, the 2 years (a bit less) for the M.A. absolutely flew by and I honestly can't believe it's almost over already!

At any rate, I wish there was something I could do or say to alleviate others' stress and anxiety over this process and the uncertainty it brings. But the fact that you are all here and invested so much seems indicative of the fact that you all did everything you could in this cycle, and hopefully you all feel confident that it'll work out. I'm definitely rooting for everyone's success, and I'm excited to see the positive results start rolling in.

 

 

[Musmatatus]

@bernardthepug Thank you for chiming in! I like the idea of thinking of the application process as a learning experience. 

[Bopie5]

So who else just now got the email from humanitiesadmissions at Chicago and briefly panicked!? I read and reread the application receipt email making sure it wasn't saying anything bad haha! Looks like we'll be hearing mid-Feb.

Edit: Whoops, didn't realize there was a whole thread for this! Sorry friends.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Bopie5

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, Bopie5 said:

So who else just now got the email from humanitiesadmissions at Chicago and briefly panicked!? I read and reread the application receipt email making sure it wasn't saying anything bad haha! Looks like we'll be hearing mid-Feb.

Edit: Whoops, didn't realize there was a whole thread for this! Sorry friends.

Yup! Got it too... I guess it's just a standard receipt email, but still it made me age like 2 years in an instant.... the wait is killing me! ?

[pdh12]

ok y’all—actual nightmare just came to life. Turns out I left alllll the letter references on my Penn State app BLANK!

but...I was informed of this oversight by a POI, rather than an admin person...could this be a good omen?! am i clinging to this morsel delusionally? ehhahdbaldhisjejdosi

[Musmatatus]

35 minutes ago, pdh12 said:

ok y’all—actual nightmare just came to life. Turns out I left alllll the letter references on my Penn State app BLANK!

but...I was informed of this oversight by a POI, rather than an admin person...could this be a good omen?! am i clinging to this morsel delusionally? ehhahdbaldhisjejdosi

Either way, it seems like you're getting a chance to fix it!  

[ArcaMajora]

Been a while since I posted, but I wanted to check into Grad Cafe as I am currently applying this cycle I have applied to seven schools, and I can't lie I've been doing all I can not to think about the thought of being shut-out (but I have been laying preliminary plans, in which the IRT link posted in this thread has especially inspired me should things not fall into place)

I'm an Americanist interested in 20th and 21st century poetry alongside queer theory. I primarily work in queer poetics from the modernist era to the present moment, asking questions about the state of postmodern poetics and the future of queer poetics itself (as well interrogating the notions of archive, archival work, and how a queer perspective on poetics upends, deconstructs, and reconstructs the notion of genre). In short, I love all things poetry and poetics related, and am an especially big fan of poets such as Hart Crane, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and the like. To list them all would turn this post into an essay haha, and I've spent far too long explicating my interests in my SoP that I'm still in my phase of 'ok, I need a break from going way in-depth about my scholarly interests.'

I decided to take a gap year. I wanted to apply last cycle, but Senior year of undergrad was stressful on too many fronts. Thesis, work obligations, family. Upon further reflection, I don't think I had quite a strong handle on my interests either... It was really only after finishing my undergraduate research that I had that final eureka moment where I felt most at home in poetry. I've always had a preference for it across all of my undergraduate classes, as many of the classes where I felt comfortable with was analyzing and discussing poetry at any length from any time period. However, I always felt doubtful about my own research interests, and questioned if moving forward with graduate study was the right thing to do. It wasn't until seeing my thesis complete, seeing its introduction to publication, and realizing I felt most comfortable being a 20th and 21st century Americanist was where it clicked.

Good luck to all of you This process has been fraught with stress, and I can't deny that I've been second-guessing a lot of the decisions I've made (the GRE was its own hell, the GRE subject test even moreso. The WS... *screaming*), but I really hope many of you get into the dream programs you want to be in.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Ranmaag

[mandelbulb]

@placeinspace i think a lot more people apply than actually report, and a lot more people report than they do hang out in this thread lol 

@bernardthepug very relatable. thanks for sharing!

@Ranmaag welcome to the thread and good luck to you!

 

i'm going to be sending off my final application once i get home (payday!!!) and i'm afraid i'm not going to know what to do with myself. december was defined by applications. rather than allow january to be defined by anxiety, here's to hoping i can adequately distract myself with alcohol cough i mean friends.

[havemybloodchild]

Got a very generic email from U Chicago about their MA program today...wondering if they've already cut me from PhD consideration (wouldn't be surprised), or if this is a regular email they send to every applicant?  Anyone else get this email?

[jadeisokay]

yep! i was half-awake when i read it so it took a full minute to realize it was just a generic mass email.