2019 Applicants

[lyonel_]

not sure if it's a troll, but someone posted an interview for U Chicago to the results board...

[Bopie5]

3 minutes ago, lyonel_ said:

not sure if it's a troll, but someone posted an interview for U Chicago to the results board...

It seems too early for that...but maybe they just really got on it? Will have to see if any more come in over the next few days to know for sure.

[placeinspace]

Wait where is the results board... what am I missing...

[Warelin]

1 minute ago, placeinspace said:

Wait where is the results board... what am I missing...

https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/

[placeinspace]

1 minute ago, Warelin said:

https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/

I have NEVER been to that page before so this is groundbreaking. Thank you!!

[Bopie5]

3 minutes ago, placeinspace said:

I have NEVER been to that page before so this is groundbreaking. Thank you!!

Be careful--this page can be a major stress-inducing rabbit hole...one night I was awake until like 3am looking at every result from each of my schools for the past like seven years, trying to determine if I'm competitive and when I can expect to hear back.

[Warelin]

6 minutes ago, Bopie5 said:

It seems too early for that...but maybe they just really got on it? Will have to see if any more come in over the next few days to know for sure.

Chicago tends to send requests for interviews within a day. Chicago tends to send rejections in early-mid February. This does seem early though. There's always seem to be one false start. Last year, it was someone claiming Harvard sent them an acceptance in Early January. The board went crazy. 

[placeinspace]

Just now, Bopie5 said:

Be careful--this page can be a major stress-inducing rabbit hole...one night I was awake until like 3am looking at every result from each of my schools for the past like seven years, trying to determine if I'm competitive and when I can expect to hear back.

I truly have nothing better to do with my time right now so I might as well obsess over that page! ?

[placeinspace]

1 minute ago, Warelin said:

Chicago tends to send requests for interviews within a day. Chicago tends to send rejections in early-mid February. This does seem early though. There's always seem to be one false start. Last year, it was someone claiming Harvard sent them an acceptance in Early January. The board went crazy. 

I don't understand why people would lie like that. What do they get out of it??? This site is basically anonymous, what's the payoff?

[Warelin]

Just now, placeinspace said:

I don't understand why people would lie like that. What do they get out of it??? This site is basically anonymous, what's the payoff?

I have no idea. I think a lot of it is that they seek to disrupt the order and create chaos within the community. You'll see the same thing happen when people get waitlisted. They either tend to ask people to withdraw or bash the school in hopes that someone withdraws so they can have a spot. In more cases then not, the thing they're bashing the school on is untrue and causes the school a lot of damage for future applicants.

[Bopie5]

12 minutes ago, Warelin said:

I think a lot of it is that they seek to disrupt the order and create chaos within the community. You'll see the same thing happen when people get waitlisted. They either tend to ask people to withdraw or bash the school in hopes that someone withdraws so they can have a spot.

Eeek. I can see how anxiety and frustration and insecurity could cause those kinds of movements toward the chaotic. Also, at this point in the process we're largely powerless, so I could see how someone could want to feel like they had control over something, even if that something is the anxiety of others. I think it's important for all of us to keep in mind that what will be, will be. Not to get too esoteric/New Age-y, but if we let go of the need to see time as linear, you could also say that in some sense, what will be already is. Even without that, at this point, we've done all we can.

Whether or not we get accepted, all of us are thoughtful, intelligent, gifted people who can do good in the world and for ourselves whether or not we go to grad school. It feels so all-important but also ultimately grad school isn't the only path to a meaningful and fulfilling happy life. 

Trying to keep all of these things in mind as decisions start to roll in. Just gotta keep deliberately reminding myself that I'm a whole human who isn't only defined by their research and academic pursuits haha.

[dilby]

19 minutes ago, Warelin said:

I think a lot of it is that they seek to disrupt the order and create chaos within the community.

[lyonel_]

6 minutes ago, Bopie5 said:

Whether or not we get accepted, all of us are thoughtful, intelligent, gifted people who can do good in the world and for ourselves whether or not we go to grad school. It feels so all-important but also ultimately grad school isn't the only path to a meaningful and fulfilling happy life. 

Trying to keep all of these things in mind as decisions start to roll in. Just gotta keep deliberately reminding myself that I'm a whole human who isn't only defined by their research and academic pursuits haha.

Ugh. You seem like such an optimistic and positive person– definitely needed right now. The idea that I'm not defined by my academic pursuits, regardless of the decisions, has been one of the hardest parts of this process, to be completely honest...

[pdh12]

i’m sorta grateful to the eerily early reportage, though...something, albeit imaginary, to chew on?  and it doesn’t seem too far-fetched that people would start getting interview requests from some of the earliest deadline schools. I think the earliest I applied to was Berkeley, December 3rd (comp lit). I was hoping that would mean an earlier decision... we were doing so well conjuring a safe purgatory here!

 

@dilby et al i fully encourage all gif-medium forms of expression and emptional channeling.

[disidentifications]

how is it that every time i'm not on this site, so much happens????

it's 2am here and now im frantically refreshing my email, even though chicago hardly ever sends out interview invitations till late jan! (i'm genuinely hoping that was a false alarm, though of course, i'm not counting on getting into chicago either). 

1 hour ago, punctilious said:

Yes! He took American Modernism with Alworth this semester and is hoping to be a TA for that course in the future, and he'll (hopefully) be taking Media Theory with him this coming semester. I was really jealous when he attended some event earlier in the semester where Alworth lectured about book covers. I find that super fascinating.

i'm just as envious to hear that he got to attend the lecture on book covers, since that is something that i'm similarly fascinated by. as someone who does judge books by their covers — but only as a credit to the many designers and editors whose hard work is so often ignored — i'm so intrigued by how such frequently overlooked visuals form in readers first impressions that subtly inform the way we read. 

1 hour ago, punctilious said:

P.S. Husband actually applied to Edinburgh, Cambridge, and Oxford (plus TCD) masters degrees his first round! He ended up deciding against attending because of the lack of funding, but cool to see you're applying to a lot of those too.

ugh, the lack of financial support for international students at uk institutions is definitely a concern, but there are certain woolf scholars at oxbridge whom i'd (almost) die to work with, so i'm hoping that some luck on the funding front will come my way. 

1 hour ago, Bopie5 said:

Yes, I'd love to swap research! Two years ago I wrote an analysis of Frankenstein that plays on dynamics of motherhood and birth-giving in the text, but I wasn't familiar with Kristeva at that point, and I'm really intrigued by your extrapolation to the autobiographical! PM me and let's swap work!

to be honest, because i couldn't fit very much of the latter part of my idea into my assigned word limit (and because i'm wary of over-reading autobiographical elements into texts), there isn't as much of it as i'd like. but yes, let's swap work! 

[placeinspace]

FWIW I filtered Chicago on the results page and last year the earliest interviews were Jan 22. So it does seem mighty early for a legit interview offer.

[Bopie5]

6 minutes ago, flungoutofspace said:

(and because i'm wary of over-reading autobiographical elements into texts), there isn't as much of it as i'd like. but yes, let's swap work! 

Ah, I feel you there--the lingering effects of the dominance of New Criticism amiright?? I'll send you a message to swap research! ☺️

24 minutes ago, lyonel_ said:

Ugh. You seem like such an optimistic and positive person– definitely needed right now. The idea that I'm not defined by my academic pursuits, regardless of the decisions, has been one of the hardest parts of this process, to be completely honest...

Thank you! I'm trying to be haha. That's been one of the harder parts of the process for me too--everything about myself becomes something to work into a CV! I literally had a small modeling job for a local business yesterday and my first thought once I finished the shoot was "Could I put this on my CV" lmao. So it's not even just my academic pursuits, but also literally everything that I do...trying to resist commodifying all of my experiences, and trying to separate my valuation of myself and my experiences from their potential relation to my academic career.

[Musmatatus]

@flungoutofspace Will look into David Alworth as the text/image relationship is definitely of interest to me. @punctilious Thank you for weighing in your with your husband's experience so we can live vicariously

@lyonel_ I'll look into Shelly Streeby's work too--I've read an article or two of hers before! Is she one of the people at UCSD that you're hoping to work with? 

RE: Chicago--One of my letter of recommendation writers did his PhD there, and described it as "masochism masquerading as education." From his description, everyone seemed to try to play mind games, so I would ignore the interview post for now! 

[disidentifications]

7 minutes ago, Bopie5 said:

Ah, I feel you there--the lingering effects of the dominance of New Criticism amiright??

of course... sometimes, reading the author's life into their work has me feeling like: 

(but then again, that results board update also has me feeling the same...) 

[placeinspace]

3 minutes ago, sugilite said:

RE: Chicago--One of my letter of recommendation writers did his PhD there, and described it as "masochism masquerading as education." From his description, everyone seemed to try to play mind games, so I would ignore the interview post for now! 

Well, that's rather disheartening to hear from an alum of the program.

[Musmatatus]

Just now, placeinspace said:

Well, that's rather disheartening to hear from an alum of the program.

Oops--so sorry, should have mentioned that he also went there decades ago (he's a full professor now), so it may have changed significantly.  

[disidentifications]

6 minutes ago, sugilite said:

RE: Chicago--One of my letter of recommendation writers did his PhD there, and described it as "masochism masquerading as education." From his description, everyone seemed to try to play mind games, so I would ignore the interview post for now! 

yikes. but quite frankly, is it ever possible for one to find a place that is completely devoid of departmental politics? i'm genuinely asking this because it is a concern of mine and some of my friends, especially given the whole avit*l r*nell fiasco that went down in nyu's complit department last year... (whatever it is, however, i'm hoping that my next few years will be relatively politics and drama-free.) 

[Bopie5]

5 minutes ago, sugilite said:

Oops--so sorry, should have mentioned that he also went there decades ago (he's a full professor now), so it may have changed significantly.  

I talked to a Michigan PhD student who has friends in the Chicago program and knows some faculty, and she said that her impression (granted, this is an outsider's impression, mediated to all of you by me, so take this with a grain of salt) is that while the program used to be incredibly intense and internally competitive, that the department is trying to move away from that kind of culture. Apparently the way they used to do the PhD program was that they'd accept a decent amount of people into the program, but then have most of them leave after completing the MA. Haven't backed up her claim with any research of my own, but I can see how that level of intensity and competition for spots would lead to a "masochistic" program. But the Michigan grad student I talked to said that they've moved away from that model, and are working to have a somewhat more collaborative environment.

Again, all of this is hearsay, but at least it's heartening hearsay!

[lyonel_]

12 minutes ago, sugilite said:

@lyonel_ Is she one of the people at UCSD that you're hoping to work with? 

 

She is! However, in my research, I'm less focused on just the visual culture aspect of her work and more so on sensational mediums 

[placeinspace]

5 minutes ago, flungoutofspace said:

yikes. but quite frankly, is it ever possible for one to find a place that is completely devoid of departmental politics? i'm genuinely asking this because it is a concern of mine and some of my friends, especially given the whole avit*l r*nell fiasco that went down in nyu's complit department last year... (whatever it is, however, i'm hoping that my next few years will be relatively politics and drama-free.) 

Honestly, I don't think it is. I've worked in many offices in my career with varying amounts of the same drama that I truly believe anywhere there's a bunch of people, there will be politics and drama. I expect grad school will be no different. 

As a side note, I had planned to apply to NYU but after reading the stuff on that disaster I decided not to. It wasn't so much the drama as the complete lack of accountability from the admin. I'm not interested in being somewhere that's basically a free for all for important people.