UCLA

[tumtumtrees]

I received an email (sent 11:59 pm) linking me to the official acceptance letter.

I haven't seen any results postings for UCLA. Just curious as to whether anyone else received word.

[noxrosa]

I received an email (sent 11:59 pm) linking me to the official acceptance letter.

I haven't seen any results postings for UCLA. Just curious as to whether anyone else received word.

Congratulations! Your post made me check my status, but alas nothing updated on mine...

[tumtumtrees]

Congratulations! Your post made me check my status, but alas nothing updated on mine...

Thanks! I've checked with people I know, and it looks like I'm the only one who got news. Then again, UCLA sent out the email late last night, so maybe people haven't checked their inboxes yet. Good luck!

[lolopixie]

congrats.

[crutch]

Thanks! I've checked with people I know, and it looks like I'm the only one who got news. Then again, UCLA sent out the email late last night, so maybe people haven't checked their inboxes yet. Good luck!

Huge, huge congrats, tumtumtrees!

I'm hoping to receive good news from UCLA soon as well, but I'm not counting on it. Felicity Nussbaum informed me a few months ago that they only accept (at most) one student in my field each year, so the chances just aren't very good for me.

Speaking of that - what's your field, if you don't mind? If you're the same as me, I know I'm out of the running already!

[jprufrock]

I also got an acceptance, sent at 11:59PM last night.

EDIT: Anyone know of the funding situation?

EDIT: EDIT: Found it:

The Department of English admits a fully funded class and all applicants are automatically considered for a number of funding options. The Cota Robles Fellowship application is the only applications that must be independently completed if you wish to be considered for this award.

For information about fellowships not administered by the Department, see the

Financial Support section of the UCLA Graduate Division website

Be particularly aware of deadlines and special requirements, since applications are due at widely varying times of the year, and many grants and scholarships serve only certain populations. The deadlines for most UCLA departmental and university-wide scholarships, assistantships, etc. fall in December. This means that you should begin looking for financial aid well in advance of the year in which you will be needing it. Most Fulbright Dissertation Grant deadlines are in October.

The English Department criteria for the awarding of merit-based fellowships in the first stages of the program include quality of recommendations, skills evident in writing samples, and levels of test scores and grade-point averages. Teaching assistantships are awarded on the basis of merit. Criteria include grade-point average, progress toward the Ph.D., and evaluations of any preceding teaching assignments by students and observing professors. Ordinarily, a student in good standing may hold a teaching assistantship for nine successive quarters and no more than twelve total quarters. Dissertation-stage fellowships, the sine qua non for which is advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D., are awarded on the basis of the merit and feasibility of the project, the quality of the supporting recommendations, and the student's recent achievements, as witnessed by faculty evaluations, grade-point average, publications, and involvement in the profession.

UCLA Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan (GSHIP) coverage is included in the fee award portion of department fellowships and the fee remission benefit of Teaching Assistantships. (TA positions must be at least 25% of full time for fee remission benefits to apply.)

Applications for need-based aid can be found at the Financial Aid Office, A129 Murphy Hall. Even those with teaching assistantships are sometimes eligible for aid.

Edited February 9, 2011 by jprufrock

[tumtumtrees]

I also got an acceptance, sent at 11:59PM last night.

EDIT: Anyone know of the funding situation?

EDIT: EDIT: Found it:

Congratulations. The acceptance letter has very little details. I am assuming an email or a call concerning our financial package will be coming soon.

[crutch]

Thanks! My area is Caribbean literature, postcolonial studies, and gender.

Well, we're in two different fields (my SoP focused on the link between celebrity and material culture in 18th-century British drama), and it seems as though there were more than just 2-3 UCLA acceptances last year, so I'm going to assume that there are more on the way and that I still have a (very small) chance of acceptance. Congrats again, guys! UCLA is one of my top 3 or 4 schools - you should be quite proud of your achievements!

[sausundbraus]

I got my acceptance email at 2pm today. 18000 + 3000 for the summer for the first year. TAships and dissertation fellowships after that (no specific number given). I think I just had a heart attack.

[margate]

I got my acceptance email at 2pm today. 18000 + 3000 for the summer for the first year. TAships and dissertation fellowships after that (no specific number given). I think I just had a heart attack.

I got an e-mail with roughly the same information. And had basically the same reaction.

[crimsonsneakers]

Congrats, admits! Any chance you know how many were admitted?

[crutch]

Wow - I'm in, too! I can't believe it... this year is SO different from my 0/14 round of apps last year!

[Tybalt]

Wow - I'm in, too! I can't believe it... this year is SO different from my 0/14 round of apps last year!

Which begs the question, what did you do different this year? As someone who is looking at a possible 0-11 this season (no notifications, but 5 of my 11 have notified acceptances), inquiring minds want to know and what not.

[margate]

Which begs the question, what did you do different this year? As someone who is looking at a possible 0-11 this season (no notifications, but 5 of my 11 have notified acceptances), inquiring minds want to know and what not.

I don't know how relevant this is, because I went 0-for-too-many in a different field last year (Classics), but: after a series of life crises in which I realized -- after submitting applications but before hearing back from any -- that I probably would be miserable in a Classics PhD. program (for which my Latin was probably too weak anyway; I'm a Hellenophile thru and thru). And eventually I realized I still wanted to teach, and that I should never have talked myself out of English programs, blah blah. But last year I didn't even know why I wanted to go to graduate school. And that came through in every part of my applications, I think.

The biggest difference is that I now have some idea of what a statement of purpose is. Compared to what I wrote this year, I'm embarrassed at the thought of anyone reading what I sent out last cycle. This is going to sound stereotypical, but: be FOCUSED and be CONFIDENT. Try to avoid saying what everyone's thinking. Last year's were trite and rambling; this year's were tight and knew what they were about. (Even if I'd gotten in nowhere, I'd feel this way about SOPs -- in fact, I was worried they were still trite and rambling.)

My writing sample was also much stronger: last year's was a good paper (I presented it at a conference and got a lot of positive feedback), but nowhere near the quality of what I used this year, the strongest chapter of my undergraduate thesis (which is about Greek poetry from the Archaic period -- so not everywhere seems to want your sample to match your interests).

Finally, and no one really wants to hear this, but not applying as an undergraduate (while losing my mind trying to write a thesis) was a big help. Even my extreme under-employment was useful: I had plenty of time to work and worry, all in the same day. Not to mention that I didn't even write my writing sample until this time last year.

And keep your chin up. I was convinced I was going to have no options other than Buffalo's M.A. program until about 1:45 this afternoon. And if there was any thought worse than no option for next year, it was my only option being PAYING to live in BUFFALO. (I dug my car out of several feet of snow last Thursday; I'm still traumatized.)

[jprufrock]

I got my acceptance email at 2pm today. 18000 + 3000 for the summer for the first year. TAships and dissertation fellowships after that (no specific number given). I think I just had a heart attack.

What do you think of the funding?

I seems a bit low for the LA area... so I initially thought that's what your heart attack was about. But it's probably from the happy shock of acceptance!

Congrats to you!

[crutch]

Which begs the question, what did you do different this year? As someone who is looking at a possible 0-11 this season (no notifications, but 5 of my 11 have notified acceptances), inquiring minds want to know and what not.

Well, I'll be brief, but here are the main things I did throughout the past year that I think have helped my applications this time around:

-Got a job as an academic advisor at a middle-of-the-road university

-Got a job teaching part-time as a freshman-level English instructor at a local community college

However, the biggest things, I think, are those listed below:

-Wrote individual purpose statements for each school to which I applied. Each statement listed faculty members I admired and works that they've done that have influenced my own methodology. I also emailed back and forth with several POIs for almost an entire year before application committees started meeting.

-Wrote a completely new writing sample. My old sample was well written, but it was just going over things that scholars have known for years. For my new sample, I made sure to read book upon book upon book of the very latest criticism in my field. I then incorporated that into my sample in order to make my argument relevant to debates that are actually taking place in 18th-century studies.

-I dropped one of my referees and picked up a new one. The old one wasn't in my field, while the new one is. The new referee read over all of my work from my previous master's course, critiqued it, critiqued my SoP, critiqued my writing sample, and basically just helped make everything in my package better.

-I got advice from Gradcafe members!

One thing I didn't do:

-I didn't retake the GREs. I'll be frank: my scores on the tests are very average (630 verbal - 91st percentile, 640 subject - 82nd percentile, I think). I took both the general and the subject test over 3 years ago, before my master's course. I think I would score much higher now, but I honestly didn't have time to retake them (one full-time job, one part-time, two toddler-aged children, etc.!). One of my referees informed me that he didn't think it was a big deal and that the scores aren't nearly as important as the SoP and writing sample. He was right.

I hope that helps! Keep your chin up; I know how hard it can be! Also keep in mind that sometimes it is just luck of the draw.

I typed this out really quickly, so hopefully it makes sense and doesn't contain too many typos!

[TC3]

-Wrote individual purpose statements for each school to which I applied. Each statement listed faculty members I admired and works that they've done that have influenced my own methodology.

I second this. I wasn't accepted at UCLA, but I was accepted by a program that rejected me two cycles ago *and I sent the exact same writing sample* with only minor stylistic revisions. Sure, I've accumulated some more lines on my CV since then, but I'd say that the *major* difference was the SoP. The first time around, it made no sense of my academic history and my research narrative, and I pretty much sent the same thing to every program. This time around, I read books/articles by POIs and framed my "fit" with nuance (not the "your program is cool and so am I" approach that I took two years ago).

[tumtumtrees]

Was the financial package in your letters? My letter says nothing...

[jprufrock]

Was the financial package in your letters? My letter says nothing...

Mine says nothing as well. I e-mailed the grad department and got this in reply from Felicity Nussbaum:

"We will be sending you a letter detailing our funding package sometime next week. We are still awaiting final approval of the package from the Graduate Division. Rest assured that you are admitted to our program, and that we look forward to meeting you."

[tumtumtrees]

Mine says nothing as well. I e-mailed the grad department and got this in reply from Felicity Nussbaum:

"We will be sending you a letter detailing our funding package sometime next week. We are still awaiting final approval of the package from the Graduate Division. Rest assured that you are admitted to our program, and that we look forward to meeting you."

Same here. Did you fill out a FAFSA? I haven't, so I asked the graduate assistant whether I would need to in order to be considered for fellowships, and she forwarded my email to the graduate advisor. If it is really $18K + $3K, I might really have to mull this over.

[jprufrock]

Same here. Did you fill out a FAFSA? I haven't, so I asked the graduate assistant whether I would need to in order to be considered for fellowships, and she forwarded my email to the graduate advisor. If it is really $18K + $3K, I might really have to mull this over.

I filled out the FAFSA, but only last week so I doubt they have it.

Are you, too, thinking the stipend might be too small to live in LA?

It could be that you and I are competing for some invisible fellowships, as we were notified a bit earlier. I doubt that they would've told others the 18k/3k info. and not us unless there was this sort of reason.

[tumtumtrees]

I filled out the FAFSA, but only last week so I doubt they have it.

Are you, too, thinking the stipend might be too small to live in LA?

It could be that you and I are competing for some invisible fellowships, as we were notified a bit earlier. I doubt that they would've told others the 18k/3k info. and not us unless there was this sort of reason.

I think we may be competing for fellowships. On my application, I checked a couple of boxes to be considered. I live in LA, and that figure is peanuts. I knew the figure when applying, but I was merely focused on getting admitted to a program. If UCLA is my only option, I will have to plan on having side gigs. I don't know how the current students live on that figure. It may be feasible, but certainly not comfortable.

[crimsonsneakers]

Terribly rejected, terribly generic, terribly drunk. Congrats to the admitted...

[ahlacruz]

Man sending out rejections on a Friday night is not cool

[shepardn7]

I think we may be competing for fellowships. On my application, I checked a couple of boxes to be considered. I live in LA, and that figure is peanuts. I knew the figure when applying, but I was merely focused on getting admitted to a program. If UCLA is my only option, I will have to plan on having side gigs. I don't know how the current students live on that figure. It may be feasible, but certainly not comfortable.

I also live in LA and 21K doesn't seem painfully low to me, all things considered. Then again, my past stipend was $10K in another town, and that was brutal. I think it's probably doable for most childless people. If you have a partner or roommate to share the expenses, that is (yes, you'd have to share an apt with another English student, because the number is peanuts if you want your own apartment). I live on the lowly east side with my boyfriend, and my rent is about $1250, so split that in half and get $625, plus about $50-70 a month for water/electric in the winter (less in summer), and $30 a month for internet. Then, I guess add cell phone and car insurance bills. When I subtract my own numbers from $1750, I have about $960 leftover for everything else. That seems enough to live on, at least for my boring lifestyle. Maybe not very comfortable, and not enough to save, but enough to prevent me from getting a second job. Am I missing a big expense here?