English Lit PhD Fall 2009

[Boz]

For the record, if I had to pick a top choice it would be UVA.

U-V-A! Go Hoos go! (If you ever go to the football games, you'll learn the cheer). UVA alum here, just supporting my school I also applied to a ton of schools (14), including my alma mater. Best of luck!

[lauras]

Minnesotan,

Thanks for pointing out the typo. I'll repost the info when I have time to proofread thoroughly.

[stella]

I think I love you.

This all makes perfect sense, and I know we've all heard variations on a theme of how Adcoms work, but at this juncture of the process I am embracing affirmation in all its forms.

[lauras]

Ha ha ha! Luv ya too!

Isn't it weird to discover that sometimes the universe is fair and rational?

[Minnesotan]

If your SoP is a PoS, I wouldn't bother applying.

[commoner]

Word!

Or you end up like me, starting completely over the next year, couple grand in the hole.

[Minnesotan]

Poor commoner. Man, if you don't get in this year, let me know. I'll bribe someone in my program to give you an admission with funding. =)

[katanianQ]

here's my list:

columbia

stony brook

duke

wustl

penn state

university of florida

queen's university belfast

cambridge

oxford

university of london

st. andrews

I'm into 20-21st c fiction with a focus on British/Irish/some Scottish.

It's crazy to think about what a huge impact these decision letters will have on all of our lives.. i could end up in sunny Florida, freezing (but beautiful) Scotland, or sitting exactly where I am right now. In a basement apt. Oh dear.

[commoner]

Poor commoner. Man, if you don't get in this year, let me know. I'll bribe someone in my program to give you an admission with funding. =)

Hee hee. Bless you. I will come a-knockin.

c.

[Boz]

So, us literary types have been a little quiet for the past three days. This period between app deadlines and notifications is awful! I figure that the first possible thing I'll hear about will be the phone interview with Northwestern in late January/early February (if I even make it that far in the admissions process)--Eek! Did anyone here apply there last year and get an interview? Any words of wisdom? For once, I'm actually looking forward to Valentine's Day (i.e. Singles Awareness Day), since I've heard that there are usually a flurry of responses around then (of course, if these are rejections, then V-Day will suck even more).

Also, most of my schools have online systems for tracking the receipt of materials, but a few of them don't. I emailed Berkeley awhile ago and the secretary wrote back saying that they get too many apps for them to be able to confirm that each app was complete (she added that in some cases, individuals would be contacted if missing materials were needed). I haven't contacted the other schools with no online system--Harvard and Brown--and I was thinking that their response would be similar to Berkeley's. Should I bother? Of course, I would like to make sure that they received my things (which I mailed out over two weeks before the deadlines), but I also don't want to be another annoying applicant pestering the secretary. And has anyone else noticed that Columbia just doesn't update their "Application Status" form, ever? Or is this just me?

On a different note, I was checking out the "Who Got In" LiveJournal page from last year, and whoa, was I impressed with the places that people had been accepted to! It was strange to actually read someone's announcement that he/she had received an offer from Yale. After I got over my jealousy, it was just nice to be reminded that dreams do come true. I feel like the grim statistics--"20 acceptances out of a pool of 300+"--can often get us feeling disheartened, but for strong applicants there's always hope despite the odds. One person on LJ was describing a phone call from a certain professor (with whom, as a matter of fact, I would LOVE to work) who personally congratulated this lucky individual on his/her acceptance. Wow! So, anyway, I just wanted to introduce a little bit of optimism to the board, since I know that it's easy to fall into the Slough of Despond (not a Pilgrim's Progress fan, but I thought that it was appropriate) on the long road to grad school.

[catherinian2]

It was strange to actually read someone's announcement that he/she had received an offer from Yale.

Were you referring to C, V, and D? Hopefully without imposing too much on their privacy, two of those were candidates who had applied the year before, and got in nowhere. Quite a different result the following year, since both had the luxury of turning down Yale.

[Boz]

Were you referring to C, V, and D? Hopefully without imposing too much on their privacy, two of those were candidates who had applied the year before, and got in nowhere. Quite a different result the following year, since both had the luxury of turning down Yale.

I remember reading the success stories of all three. I'm glad that things turned out so well for them the second time around--if worse comes to worse and I have to reapply next year (*groan*), it's good to know that the tables can turn. If you don't mind my asking, what did they do in the interim period to make themselves stronger applicants? MA programs? You can PM me if you want.

[lauras]

One thing you can do, if you are in the unfortunate postion of getting in nowhere, is to apply to the same schools as well as add a few additional safety schools.

Some schools have an elaborate point system to evaluate a cut off for the many applications they recieve before they even go to the department (rather than picking some arbitrary measure like GPA or your GRE score). Often, one of the evaluation criteria is "did this person apply last year."

Though it may seem counter-intuitive, applying to the same schools that already rejected you the first time might give you a few extra points on your entire application evaluation the second time and this might get your application past the general admission office cut-off threshold and into your department's short stack.

[catherinian2]

If you don't mind my asking, what did they do in the interim period to make themselves stronger applicants? MA programs? You can PM me if you want.

Among the ones that I know, the situation is quite unique. The MA degree might be an advantage, but more likely, their writing improved dramatically. In short, they became better scholars, and thus more attractive candidates. I've seen the SoP's of one of them (for both rounds), and it's pretty obvious that she/he didn't simply pad the CV, but became a much more thoughtful and interesting scholar. Apologies for the vagueness, but I'd paranoid about my own privacy, so I'd tend to err on the side of caution when discussing someone else as well.

[immersion]

I'm really concerned about your language here--the "ivies" aren't somehow substantively better than a state schools. Itsreally all about- and you prolly already know this- department quality...just wanted to chime in!

[kfed2020]

Has anyone else gotten into Duke?

I'm so surprised and overwhelmed.

[dowjonesindustrial]

Got into UC Davis today and am thrilled to start 1/1! One other poster evidently did as well... wonder if we might talk later on.

[kfed2020]

Congrats! Davis is a wonderful program.