2022 Applicants

[Submarina]

Just now, thursdaysnext said:

I was waitlisted at Austin several weeks ago and what they told us was that they were very conservative this year about how many people they admitted, and that they had a very small waitlist. So its totally possible that more waitlists and acceptances are coming!

Yes, apparently they only sent out nine accepts. I likely won't be going, just so you know; I have to talk to the DGS about funding, but what they've offered me is substantially less than what I'm getting from other programs, so unless that changes I will turn them down.

[OperaGhost]

37 minutes ago, Submarina said:

Yes, apparently they only sent out nine accepts. I likely won't be going, just so you know; I have to talk to the DGS about funding, but what they've offered me is substantially less than what I'm getting from other programs, so unless that changes I will turn them down.

Thanks for this useful information about Austin! I hope they offer you better funding

I also wonder: are acceptees to any program able to negotiate their stipends? I know that’s very normal for jobs, but Im totally clueless as to whether that’s appropriate for potential students / how to even go about it 

Edited February 24, 2022 by OperaGhost

[Shake829]

19 minutes ago, OperaGhost said:

Thanks for this useful information about Austin! I hope they offer you better funding

I also wonder: are acceptees to any program able to negotiate their stipends? I know that’s very normal for jobs, but Im totally clueless as to whether that’s appropriate for potential students / how to even go about it 

I don’t think you can; they’re in no rush to up their price. Instead of doing that, they’ll just exhaust their waitlist until they find someone who will take it. Last cycle, I was accepted to one program. The stipend was really low. I was on a Zoom call with the DGS, and I mentioned the stipend (didn’t say it was low—just confirmed the amount). She then said that she knows the amount is low and told me that if I had a better offer, I should take it (not in a rude way, but more in a sympathetic “I know that this is not livable” way), but I should let them know asap so that they can give the funding package to someone else. She didn’t mention the possibility of upping it—just said that if I had something better, I should take it, and they’ll just find someone else. Basically, they know that there will be someone who will take it just to start grad school. Know your worth and don’t do anything that’ll financially constrain you. As you can tell, I’m here again, so I didn’t take it, ha. 

[OperaGhost]

47 minutes ago, Shake829 said:

I don’t think you can; they’re in no rush to up their price. Instead of doing that, they’ll just exhaust their waitlist until they find someone who will take it. Last cycle, I was accepted to one program. The stipend was really low. I was on a Zoom call with the DGS, and I mentioned the stipend (didn’t say it was low—just confirmed the amount). She then said that she knows the amount is low and told me that if I had a better offer, I should take it (not in a rude way, but more in a sympathetic “I know that this is not livable” way), but I should let them know asap so that they can give the funding package to someone else. She didn’t mention the possibility of upping it—just said that if I had something better, I should take it, and they’ll just find someone else. Basically, they know that there will be someone who will take it just to start grad school. Know your worth and don’t do anything that’ll financially constrain you. As you can tell, I’m here again, so I didn’t take it, ha. 

Thank you! This is good to know. It truly does suck how little power we have in this process; The GSA at my current university is petitioning for a living stipend, so these issues are hot and heavy on my brain.

Best of luck to you and to everyone else hunting for a decent funding package! “Know your worth” is a great phrase to keep in mind if a university is asking you to live on pennies  

[illcounsel]

1 hour ago, OperaGhost said:

Thanks for this useful information about Austin! I hope they offer you better funding

I also wonder: are acceptees to any program able to negotiate their stipends? I know that’s very normal for jobs, but Im totally clueless as to whether that’s appropriate for potential students / how to even go about it 

In my experience, generally you can negotiate your stipend IF you have more lucrative offers from other programs you can use as leverage. I guess think of it less as a negotiation and more of a "Can I get more funding to match my other acceptances?"

I did this with many of my MA acceptances and was able to get significantly higher funding at the school I attend now. Basically, I reached out to the DGS at the time and explained how excited I was about the program but that their financial offer wasn't as high as others. The DGS requested that I send them the official funding letters from other schools. After that, I was awarded a higher base stipend and summer funding. I have heard there is a similar practice at the school I will most likely be attending this fall.

If you have higher offers at other places, go for it! While you might feel unprofessional doing it, it is a normal practice in our field. There isn't a worst case scenario as you've already been accepted and the upside is potentially high. Not every school may be able to offer a higher amount, but it is totally worth trying. 
 

[illcounsel]

Can anyone here claim the UBC acceptance on the board? Curious if they are a Canadian applicant / any other details of the acceptance. Thank you!

[Submarina]

1 hour ago, illcounsel said:

In my experience, generally you can negotiate your stipend IF you have more lucrative offers from other programs you can use as leverage. I guess think of it less as a negotiation and more of a "Can I get more funding to match my other acceptances?"

I did this with many of my MA acceptances and was able to get significantly higher funding at the school I attend now. Basically, I reached out to the DGS at the time and explained how excited I was about the program but that their financial offer wasn't as high as others. The DGS requested that I send them the official funding letters from other schools. After that, I was awarded a higher base stipend and summer funding. I have heard there is a similar practice at the school I will most likely be attending this fall.

If you have higher offers at other places, go for it! While you might feel unprofessional doing it, it is a normal practice in our field. There isn't a worst case scenario as you've already been accepted and the upside is potentially high. Not every school may be able to offer a higher amount, but it is totally worth trying. 
 

This is my understanding as well. The only reason I can negotiate with Austin is because I have other substantially higher offers. With that said, some programs are really not flexible about money. Columbia, for example, is offering the specified minimum in the union contract that was just negotiated last month. If it took a year long + strike and a union to get them to offer just that, I expect that they don't have the resources to offer any more. Cornell also offers exactly the same to every applicant and they were pretty clear that they were offering all they could. It's complicated; departments don't directly have power to change stipends that are decided by the admin of the graduate school, but they can try to get you more fellowships etc. Austin seemed flexible to me because there were various fellowships they offered for some years and not others that were in addition to the base TA salary. But maybe it's not. I'll let yall know.

[HOPEFULLPHD2022]

On 2/23/2022 at 1:27 PM, forgottenworks said:

Has anyone who interviewed at UCI heard anything? I thought we were supposed to hear back last week but maybe I misheard, or they're just taking longer to decide than expected.

same here, I got interviewed in late Jan and haven't heard back from them since then. I'm getting anxious

[OperaGhost]

Hey all! I emailed Penn state other day and they said they were still reviewing apps / making final decisions. Things will be finalized by the end of March if anyone was wondering. 

Congrats to the one acceptee on the board if you’re out there! I love to see a fellow early modernist thriving ?

[sadevilminion]

Boulder being a little careless with the spam email this morning ?

[Shake829]

Looks like UPenn is starting to call their admitted students. Good luck everyone! I hope that at least one of us gets one of those calls!

[Shake829]

My unfortunate anecdote for the day: Received a phone call from a PA phone number. I always figure these calls are spam so to not get my hopes up, I let them go to voicemail. The number leaves a voicemail. My heart drops. The voicemail was from a friend who recently moved to PA and changed their number ????

[Waffwaff]

Do we think the Penn acceptances are over? I only saw a couple posted, but I saw in past years they sent them all out on same day :/. Not feeling great lol

[CobaltRavPhD]

Does anyone happen to know the cohort size for PhD English at UConn? I'm in waitlist hell right now???

[thursdaysnext]

14 hours ago, CobaltRavPhD said:

Does anyone happen to know the cohort size for PhD English at UConn? I'm in waitlist hell right now???

I don't know the specific cohort size for the PhD but I believe that the graduate cohort in general is 15. What is your subfield?

[Hard times!]

13 minutes ago, thursdaysnext said:

I don't know the specific cohort size for the PhD but I believe that the graduate cohort in general is 15. What is your subfield?

From what I heard that 15 includes both PhDs and MAs... So, probably about 7-8 for PhDs.

[CobaltRavPhD]

22 minutes ago, thursdaysnext said:

I don't know the specific cohort size for the PhD but I believe that the graduate cohort in general is 15. What is your subfield?

Rhetoric and composition, writing studies.

[xdfaddsbads]

Accepted to Clemson. Offer is pretty good cost of living is lower than my other acceptance at Austin, not sure if anyone here applied to their RCID program. If anyone has opinions thoughts on either school would love to hear from you!

good luck everyone!

2a/5p

[taylorjunebug]

Question for y'all:

One of my undergraduate papers was recently accepted by a national conference. Would it be odd for me to email the DGS of a master's program I applied to letting them know? According to the timeline provided on the school website, applications only started being reviewed about a week ago, but I don't want to seem pretentious or bothersome. 

[Shake829]

3 hours ago, taylorjunebug said:

Question for y'all:

One of my undergraduate papers was recently accepted by a national conference. Would it be odd for me to email the DGS of a master's program I applied to letting them know? According to the timeline provided on the school website, applications only started being reviewed about a week ago, but I don't want to seem pretentious or bothersome. 

Add it to your CV and email the DGS asking if you can update it for your application. 

[Shake829]

For those accepted or waitlisted at CUNY, are you going to the virtual open house?

[xdfaddsbads]

Just heard from George Washington accepted waiting for funding details. Anyone else apply there who is researching crip theory?
3a/1r/4p

[heterotopia]

Hi all! I just emailed to take myself off of UMD's waitlist. Hope this helps someone else out!

[phdapplicant321]

What kind of key questions are people asking faculty/students? 

[Hard times!]

@Shake829Any updates on NEU?  Whatever is the matter with them? Pretty sure it's a rejection for me but why this drag?! They usually release their decisions by February... ?