Fellow Vanderbilt rejectees

[Homeless]

Were your rejections cc'd to a professor from the department to? She (who'll be nameless for the moment) doesn't seem to have been head of grad admissions or anything,so does anyone know why?

And yay, I finally heard back from a school.

(Guess I'll try getting a TEFL degree...)

[marlowe23]

Mine just seemed to be a standard form. I was expecting it not having heard from them last week. It was one of my top choices but I'll live!

[marlowe23]

Oh -- the CC is the graduate director of the English department.

[Homeless]

That's too bad Marlowe23. I liked them, but I could see how I wasn't a great fit. Of course, it would've been nice, they seem like a great program. Now it's back to waiting.

[marlowe23]

It's OK -- I have an acceptance so I can't feel too bad. I'm still waiting to hear from 6 I applied to. The acceptance has definitely made it easier though.

[marlowe23]

Who are you still waiting to hear from?

[Homeless]

Stanford (though I can already guess) Brandeis and Rutgers. I applied to a couple of MA programs too.

By the way, I just got a very charitable email from the DGS about my application after I asked for advice. It basically confirmed my suspicions that I wasn't a great fit and that my SOP wasn't as focused as it should've been. Something to keep in mind for next year.

[Homeless]

She also sent me this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/07/19/what-if-college-tenure-dies

[marlowe23]

Hm -- that's, helpful?

[marlowe23]

The link--I mean.

[rawera]

Is there any way to interpret that link other than a "are you really sure you even want to do this?" way? Which is obviously a comment on the discipline/industry (ha), not you Homeless.

You already got feedback from Vanderbilt? Pretty nice turnaround. I suspect I'll ask later on, and will receive the same reasons you were given. But as you said, something for next year.

[Homeless]

The turnaround was surprising, and really nice. Plus it was pretty clear that she actually looked over my file and didn't just send out a form.

Here's what she wrote about the link:

I must also say in all good faith that the job market has been difficult for

entering PhDs over the past twenty years and the number of good jobs (that

is, tenure-track jobs has been narrowing over the same time period.) Both of

these trends have accelerated notably during this recession... I do want to

indicate that getting a PhD takes up a big chunk of time and that the

promised career may well be harder to achieve than getting into our program

All of which seems pretty much right to me.

P.S. Hope it's okay that I posted that.

Edited February 14, 2012 by Homeless

[Julianne Pigoon]

Anyone that got a tailored email should probably feel pretty good. I gave up my Vanderbilt candidacy early on when I sent the wrong PDF of my sample that had (cites) all over the place. I was mortified, and emailed the correct copy right away. Even still, with the volume of applications they had, I'm sure they were unable to even deal with anything so discombobulated. I got a standard rejection, but I was happy to have been rejected at all given their track record.

So...congratulations to those that got rejected personally?

[Homeless]

Julianne, just to be clear, I sent an email asking for advice about my application after the rejection emails. I got the same mass email as everyone else.

[lyonessrampant]

Look, just being realistic, but in my required course in the fall, we all confronted job stats head on. It doesn't matter where you go right now, but TT jobs are hard to find, so it is important to know what you're getting in for. In my opinion, no matter what, you get 6 years of funding (in my case) and that's better than most who are stuggling to find a job with any security, but that doesn't mean a guarantee long term. The market sucks, so you should be aware of that.

[marlowe23]

I just assumed we had all read those articles anyways, but agreed with all that's been said.

[rawera]

yeah, that's what I thought too.

Any one know anything about PhD then prep school teaching? I don't think I'm opposed to that sort of job once I have the PhD proof that I for whatever reason need.

[lyonessrampant]

Most prep school teachers (at least the fancy prep schools) have Ph.D.s, so if you want to go that route, I think you're on the right track!