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Florida vs. Delaware...oh the agony...


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Alrighty. I'm in a pickle. I've now heard back from all of the schools I applied to. Out of the 11, I was accepted to 3. The fact that all of the rejections came before any of the acceptances notwithstanding, I feel more than privileged at the moment. Honestly, I'm sitting here waiting for the someone to contact me with apologies for making the mistaking of sending an acceptance letter to the wrong person. So far, so good.

Self deprecation aside, I'm in need of advice. I'm trying to decide between two programs: The University of Florida and the University of Delaware. Before you give any suggestions, let me paint a picture for you...

Both Delaware and Florida are MA programs with the option of possible PhD admittance after reapplying through an internal application. Judging by what I gathered from the professors I talked to, getting admitted to the PhD program is pretty much a given if acceptable progress is made during the MA. The problem lies in the differences in funding. U Delaware invited its prospective students to a recruitment weekend to meet the current grad

students and faculty. They paid for travel, hotel stay and meals. They also had a discussion panel, provided a tour of the library and museum and held a reception dinner for us at a nice little brewery (booze included). U Del offers a $14,600 assistantship and a guaranteed $4,500 summer research fellowship.

As far a U Florida is concerned, the professor who I would be working with contacted me with all the details about his research interests and funding specifics. He initially told me that U Florida gives a $9,200 assistantship, that the department did not have funding to for a specific recruitment program, and that, if I could make my way down to Gainesville, he would arrange for me to meet some graduate students and faculty. He told me that he liked my research interest and that he was using Octavia Butler (the author of the primary text in my thesis) in a chapter of his next book. After expressing my problems with funding, he later intimated that the committee decided to offer me an extra $3,000 a year for the next 3 years (assuming I would continue on for the PhD).

After visiting Delaware and getting to know the people who I would be sharing classes with for the next couple years, I was blown away. The place was beautiful, the faculty was friendly and the prospective students were amazing. In them, I felt an overwhelming sense of geniality that put me at ease and made me less apprehensive about the whole thing. From what I gathered in the conversations and short overnight stay, we seemed to click rather nicely.

I've had no such experience with Florida because I really have no way of getting down there. They don't provide any sort of compensation and my parents are acting shady with their funds...they're really,really rooting for Delaware. The professor in Florida admitted that it would be very difficult for me to get into the PhD program If I was not already there because of the internal application for attending MAs. Still, if I chose Delaware, that would probably be what I'd eventually do.

I wanted to know what you would suggest. I haven't talked specifically to the person I would be working with at U Delaware, but the funding package and recruitment weekend is making me feel like they really value their students. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that the university of Florida is better know for their department, especially in what I may be doing in the future. I could be wrong though, as I have no specific way of knowing the relative standing of any English department. I'm stumped. What say you?

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Hi! Florida is my undergraduate alma mater, and I really adored it, but you may want to bear in mind the budget crunch that UF is experiencing. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is in the middle of digging itself out of debt, and now the state legislature is cutting funding due to the downward spiral of the economy. When I was a student, my professors were less than thrilled with the money crunch, and the English Dept. was hit particularly hard by the CLAS debt.

It sounds as if you've gotten good funding -- which means that you must be an excellent candidate, as UF is tightening its purse strings -- but as you seem to be basing your decision on the prestige of the department, you may want to bear in mind that UF's English department's position in the rankings may be affected by the current budget squeeze.

With that said -- UF has a great English dept, and there are a ton of professors working on SF. If you feel that your advisor and his colleagues would be good resources for your research, than you should try to get down to UF and see the dept for yourself. But it sounds as if you really hit it off with the Delaware people, and it sounds as if they're offering everything that you're looking for. So maybe your decision is already made?

(Also, something to bear in mind: how are you with heat? Because in Newark tomorrow, it's going to be a high of 53 degrees. In Gainesville, 72 degrees...and that's fairly chilly for Gainesville. UF students wear flip-flops year-round. Some people don't do well with the heat and humidity.)

(Also: lots of alligators on campus. But they're mostly small and slow-moving.)

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It sounds like your choice has been made for you. Then again, I would like to know the situation with your Delaware advisor before chiming in -- was he unavailable during the visit weekend, or will he not get back to you? Advisor fit is probably more important than school reputation, in my opinion.

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Thanks lintseed2008. I've heard things here and there about budget problems and funding stuff, but I had no idea if it was affecting the English department at Florida. It's good to get insider's information :) Since you've attended, you'll probably know the professor (Phillip Wagner) who contacted me. He seems like an awesome guy, and I'd hate to pass up the opportunity to work with him, but Delaware seems to be in the opposite situation in that they have overflowing coffers and seem only to be getting more and more financially stable. Dag blasted monetary concerns... As far as advisers go minnesotan, the people in Florida are right up my alley. Most of their focus is centered on speculative fiction-ish contemporary studies/ literary and political/cultural theory. Their program is pretty much the opposite of traditional, while Delaware's isn't, in many respects. They have a strong emphasis on material culture and the history of the book. Still, there are a couple people with whom I could work. I guess, at this point, I'm leaning toward doing the MA at Delaware and re-applying for the PhD in Florida.

My problems with that are:

1. I'm not by any means guaranteed a spot at Florida for the PhD. If anything, getting in will be more difficult, because they give preference to already attending MA students.

2. One of THE guys I'd most like to work with (Phillip Wagner) is in Florida. I have a couple more hopefuls at other schools, but those schools are probably even harder to get into (Pitt, Rochester, Vanderbilt...)

3. I'd miss out on forming a bond with people I'd eventually have to work with/colleagues I'd eventually be bouncing ideas off of.

4. I'd also be missing out on the weather....I'm a summer baby.

Rankings aren't really my top priority as, now, many of them, (save the staples) are probably in flux anyway. Still, it'd be interesting to know the difference between Florida and Delaware, in that regard. I have a feeling that Del will be moving up in the near future, as the department is really getting legs under it and making financial and administrative moves toward greater selectivity. Anyone know their standing relative to each other?

All in all, despite my inclinations, I'm still on the fence with this one...inundate me with suggestions. My banks are arid from a lack of sober advice.

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but Delaware seems to be in the opposite situation in that they have overflowing coffers and seem only to be getting more and more financially stable. Dag blasted monetary concerns... As far as advisers go minnesotan, the people in Florida are right up my alley. Most of their focus is centered on speculative fiction-ish contemporary studies/ literary and political/cultural theory. Their program is pretty much the opposite of traditional, while Delaware's isn't, in many respects. They have a strong emphasis on material culture and the history of the book. Still, there are a couple people with whom I could work. I guess, at this point, I'm leaning toward doing the MA at Delaware and re-applying for the PhD in Florida.

My problems with that are:

1. I'm not by any means guaranteed a spot at Florida for the PhD. If anything, getting in will be more difficult, because they give preference to already attending MA students.

2. One of THE guys I'd most like to work with (Phillip Wagner) is in Florida. I have a couple more hopefuls at other schools, but those schools are probably even harder to get into (Pitt, Rochester, Vanderbilt...)

3. I'd miss out on forming a bond with people I'd eventually have to work with/colleagues I'd eventually be bouncing ideas off of.

4. I'd also be missing out on the weather....I'm a summer baby.

1) Nothing in life is guaranteed. Your application in 2 years could look more attractive to them than your current stuff.

2) Profs move schools, your stats will change, you'll make connections, etc. Never rule out anything.

3) You can still bond with them at conferences and stuff.

4) Weather is important but so is getting the best career preparation you can.

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Thanks for the advice :) It really helped in my decision. There's nothing like having the support of people who can see over your personal maze. It definitely makes all the twists, turns, and dead ends a great deal easier to navigate. Delaware...here I come.

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This would be an EASY choice for me, personally. UF is not a great school for undergrads, but IMO is an EXCELLENT top flight-research based university for graduate work in most any climate. The university itself has a great reputation among academics, and does a very nice job of placing many M.A. level grads at the top-choice PhD school.

On the other hand, my experience in the northeast is the school where all the dumb NJ kids go after HS because they can't get into anywhere else, and besides a Kegger at Rehobeth sounds good. It's also where they say the rest of them end up in grad school after they can't get into Rutgers grad. I'm not saying that is my opinion, but rather than I have heard that anecdotally many times over in normal conversation. In summation, IMO UD has that rep all that way though whereas UF does at the undergrad level only.

I don't recommend you put too much stock in our opinions though. Go with your gut. Email current grad students at UF to be able to compare them and their opinions to what you already know of UD. If you do good work, network, publish, and bust your hump you will get into a PhD program no matter where you go. The door is never really close, it just gets heavier and sturdier sometimes.

Good luck!

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