Fall 2020 Theater/Performance Studies PhD

[dancing queen]

Hey all!

Any info about the quality of the program at U. of Toronto would be of great help! Does it match up with, say, CUNY?

 

Thanks!!

[theatregrad18]

18 hours ago, dancing queen said:

Hey all!

Any info about the quality of the program at U. of Toronto would be of great help! Does it match up with, say, CUNY?

 

Thanks!!

I guess you’d have to define what you mean by “match up.” In the humanities (but especially in TAPS) there’s not really a tier or rank system that makes one program wholly comparable to another. There’s too much specialization for that kind of hierarchy to happen. Both of those programs are great in respective areas. For example, UT has awesome faculty when it comes to preparing students for publishing. Could you be more specific as to what you’re looking for? 

Also, I just got a UW interview!  Excited. 

[dancing queen]

8 minutes ago, theatregrad18 said:

I guess you’d have to define what you mean by “match up.” In the humanities (but especially in TAPS) there’s not really a tier or rank system that makes one program wholly comparable to another. There’s too much specialization for that kind of hierarchy to happen. Both of those programs are great in respective areas. For example, UT has awesome faculty when it comes to preparing students for publishing. Could you be more specific as to what you’re looking for? 

Also, I just got a UW interview!  Excited. 

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I guess I should have been more clear. I am a dancer with interests in cultural studies and of course performance studies. However, I don't want to be in a department with too much of an emphasis on Theater. My interests match up with the faculties in UT and CUNY. However, several people tell me that CUNY is more well-known and has a higher "prestige" than UT in our field. I don't really know what it means exactly. Anything in this regard would be great.

Edited February 20, 2020 by dancing queen

[promenade]

53 minutes ago, theatregrad18 said:

I guess you’d have to define what you mean by “match up.” In the humanities (but especially in TAPS) there’s not really a tier or rank system that makes one program wholly comparable to another. There’s too much specialization for that kind of hierarchy to happen. Both of those programs are great in respective areas. For example, UT has awesome faculty when it comes to preparing students for publishing. Could you be more specific as to what you’re looking for? 

Also, I just got a UW interview!  Excited. 

Hi! Thanks for your posting! Although I'm not dancing queen, who originally posted a question about UT and CUNY, your answer has been helpful as I was also curious about UT. Could you explain a bit more about what you meant by "UT's faculty is especially awesome when it comes to preparing students for publishing"? Many thanks and good luck for your interview with UW!!!

[theservantwaits]

Hello again--I got no love from my last post, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try again. Plus I'm quite nervous as I wait for some final responses.

Has anyone heard from Bowling Green, Ohio University, or U of Minnesota?

My friend is waiting to hear from U of British Columbia and York University--how about those?

Anyone? Anything? Bueller?

[promenade]

33 minutes ago, theservantwaits said:

Hello again--I got no love from my last post, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try again. Plus I'm quite nervous as I wait for some final responses.

Has anyone heard from Bowling Green, Ohio University, or U of Minnesota?

My friend is waiting to hear from U of British Columbia and York University--how about those?

Anyone? Anything? Bueller?

Hi! Are you meaning Ohio State University? Then a friend of mine has received the offer from there. I myself got the offer from the University of Minnesota. But it was unofficial. I guess the official letters haven't been sent yet.

[theservantwaits]

Congrats on U of Minn! Also: darn! I guess I didn't get in there.

And I meant Ohio University, not Ohio State University. Different schools.

Wow this waiting is brutal. 

[theatregrad18]

On 2/26/2020 at 11:53 AM, promenade said:

Hi! Are you meaning Ohio State University? Then a friend of mine has received the offer from there. I myself got the offer from the University of Minnesota. But it was unofficial. I guess the official letters haven't been sent yet.

Yay for Minnesota!!! I have a friend who absolutely loves it there. Congrats!  

[promenade]

23 hours ago, theatregrad18 said:

Yay for Minnesota!!! I have a friend who absolutely loves it there. Congrats!  

Thanks so much! I hope your interview with UW went well! :)

[theservantwaits]

Anyone else nervous about having to make a choice without being able to visit the schools where they were accepted? My friends and I wanted to visit our top choices in the coming weeks, but with flying being risky/challenging and so many schools moving to online classes, visits aren't really possible.

Are we the only ones stressing about this? 

[promenade]

On 3/14/2020 at 2:39 PM, theservantwaits said:

Anyone else nervous about having to make a choice without being able to visit the schools where they were accepted? My friends and I wanted to visit our top choices in the coming weeks, but with flying being risky/challenging and so many schools moving to online classes, visits aren't really possible.

Are we the only ones stressing about this? 

Me. I'm in a similar situation, more because one of the schools is outside of the US... Do you also have deadlines for your decisions?

[theservantwaits]

Hey, @promenade - our schools are in America, but they are all pretty far from where we are. And flying seems like a really bad idea. Also, since every college has canceled normal classes in favor of online learning, visiting campuses seems pretty pointless. 

We're trying to at least schedule calls / video chats with people so we can get a feel for things. But we're likely going to have to make a final decision without seeing all the options. 

Deadlines are April 15th for all of them. But I don't imagine the world will be any better than it is now in a month. 

I hope you feel like you can make an educated decision. One of my friends is pretty sure where he's going. But two of us are still juggling offers. It's so hard to figure out the best move!

 

[theservantwaits]

I've got an ethics question for the group. I got into a little debate with my friend who is 99% sure which offer to accept. I was wondering what other folks think:

I think:  if my friend has 3 offers and knows the "top 2", then my friend should turn down the third offer. That way, if someone else is on the wait list, then they might get a nice surprise in the form of a new acceptance before April 15th.

My friend thinks:  "I don't have to give anyone an answer at all except for the school whose offer I accept."

Maybe this is a question for reddit's "AITA" thread....but does anyone have any experience/thoughts on this stuff?

[promenade]

33 minutes ago, theservantwaits said:

Hey, @promenade - our schools are in America, but they are all pretty far from where we are. And flying seems like a really bad idea. Also, since every college has canceled normal classes in favor of online learning, visiting campuses seems pretty pointless. 

We're trying to at least schedule calls / video chats with people so we can get a feel for things. But we're likely going to have to make a final decision without seeing all the options. 

Deadlines are April 15th for all of them. But I don't imagine the world will be any better than it is now in a month. 

I hope you feel like you can make an educated decision. One of my friends is pretty sure where he's going. But two of us are still juggling offers. It's so hard to figure out the best move!

 

Thanks for this, @theservantwaits. Yeah, it's damn hard and taking me unbelievably long! My deadlines are also April 15th. I was actually visiting one of the schools this week but canceled my flights since, as you said, it didn't make sense to visit them in this situation. For the past few weeks, I had Skype/phone conversations with both schools. Have you also talked to your advisor or theatre colleagues in your previous program? That helped me a bit, although I am still thinking... lol

Edited March 16, 2020 by promenade

[Bucky Waters]

38 minutes ago, theservantwaits said:

I've got an ethics question for the group. I got into a little debate with my friend who is 99% sure which offer to accept. I was wondering what other folks think:

I think:  if my friend has 3 offers and knows the "top 2", then my friend should turn down the third offer. That way, if someone else is on the wait list, then they might get a nice surprise in the form of a new acceptance before April 15th.

My friend thinks:  "I don't have to give anyone an answer at all except for the school whose offer I accept."

Maybe this is a question for reddit's "AITA" thread....but does anyone have any experience/thoughts on this stuff?

OMG, yes. Proper acceptance etiquette is to hold on to no more than two (some websites suggest one!) acceptances at a time. It's both a courtesy to those on the waitlist AND to the schools as they try to line up the best candidates for the program. Your friend should absolutely do the right thing and release the third, least desirable offer (and maybe even the second).

Also, the world of academics is smaller than your friend thinks. It would be so very rude to not answer an offer of admission at all. 

[theservantwaits]

Thank you, @Bucky Waters ! I am cutting and pasting this and sending to my friend.... 

I really appreciate the response. This hits close to home since my other friend is on the wait list for a top choice. They don't want to wait until April 16th to find out if they got in!

 

[theservantwaits]

@promenade - Yeah, right now it's all about phonecalls and skypes! Mostly professors, but someone suggested we also talk to other students in the program, and we need to get on top of that.

I only wish I could see all these towns. Although someone said to me "well, you'll be working so hard that the town won't matter much!" And I guess they have a point. Still, it would be nice to enjoy the place in terms of the culture, weather, people, etc.

[thea2020]

Anyone sitting on an offer from Pitt that they plan to decline? It's my top choice, and I'm increasingly anxious here in the wait list. Thanks and stay healthy, everyone!

[theservantwaits]

Crossing fingers for you, @thea2020 . I have a friend on a waiting list who is feeling the same way. From what we've heard, those offers often come after April 15th which can make them tricky to navigate if you've already accepted another offer. So I hope you hear something definitive before then.

Activity on here seems to have slowed down. Is anyone else still waiting for offers? Maybe we can help eachother if we've heard from schools? 

I can start: has anyone heard from UC San Diego or UC Irvine? That's the one pair of schools that's still a mystery here. Haven't heard about any accepted, rejected, or waitlisted people when it comes to Theatre PhD's. Anyone have intel? Even bad news would be appreciated at this point.

[theservantwaits]

Did someone log that they got accepted to University of Missouri - Kansas City? Only wondering because I think the program at Mizzou is only on their Columbia, Missouri campus. I checked again and I don't believe UMKC has a Performance Studies PhD program.

[Jickey]

Has anyone received an offer from Columbia University's Theatre Program and planned to decline? Waitlisted here! Thank you everyone!

[PSPhD]

I hope everyone is doing as well as possible under the circumstances. With the April 15th date past, I wanted to share a brief description of the application/interview process for anyone who might be looking at this thread for information while applying next year. 

I applied to the MA at NYU, and the PhDs at Tufts, Brown, and Stanford. Ultimately, I decided on Stanford (so excited!), but ALL of the programs I interviewed with/visited were incredible and I could not recommend them more highly. I will include the dates that everything happened for me, as well as some info on the process, and some of the interview questions that were asked, below. 

Tufts, PhD (Theatre and Performance Studies)

The invitation to interview (Skype) was sent via email on January 11. The interviews took place January 16-22. Questions were sent out beforehand and included: “How do you see a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies as part of your personal trajectory?”, “What are major topics or themes in Theatre and Performance Studies that you are excited to explore and why?”, “Can you tell us about a cultural object, event, text that you are really excited by or interested in?”, and “Describe a collaborative exercise you worked on (theatre could be one) and how you saw your role in that collaboration.” Acceptances came out January 27th. Admitted students (4 of us) were invited to visit campus in early March to attend classes, meet with faculty, and tour the campus.

Brown, PhD (Theatre and Performance Studies) 

The invitation to interview (Skype) was sent via email on January 22. The interviews took place January 27. Questions ranged from the general (Why Performance Studies? Why Brown?) to very specific and in-depth questions about my research. An invite to visit campus for a final interview was sent out January 31st, and the visit took place mid-February. The visit (6 candidates invited) included student and faculty panels, tours, the opportunity to attend a class and speak with faculty one-on-one, and a longer interview. Results came out around 10 days after the visit with some accepted and some offered waitlist. 

Stanford, PhD (Theatre and Performance Studies) 

The invitation to interview (Skype) was sent via email on January 17. The interviews took place in late February, and questions included: “If you were given a small budget to create a performance, what would you do?”, “What is the best and worst performance you've seen recently?”, as well as more general questions such as “Why TAPS?”, “What period is your research grounded in?” etc. Invites to visit campus at the end of February were sent out February 7th. The visit (5 candidates invited) included tours, student panels, and the opportunity to speak with faculty, including 5-6 one-on-one interviews/info sessions. Results came out on March 10th, with some offered spots and some waitlisted. 

NYU, MA (Performance Studies)

No interview, acceptances came out March 16.

Best of luck to everyone in this and future application seasons!!! 

Edited April 16, 2020 by PSPhD

[theservantwaits]

I hope most people have sorted out their offers and everyone is happy with their decisions. It's all starting to feel very real!

But I have to vent:  schools who never even bothered to reply are infuriating! If I'm not accepted, that's fine. But two schools never accepted, rejected, or gave any response at all. Even after a friendly follow up note to check my status in early April. That's messed up.

Vent complete. Good luck to everyone!