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Post-Acceptance Stress & Misc. Banter


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Is anyone else feeling totally at a loss for how to decide between programs? At the moment, I am leaning towards Rutgers, because they gave me a superior financial package. Does anyone have any general advice for how much to 'follow the money'? I really like all the programs I've been accepted into and there's not one I like wildly over the others.

Follow the placement rates!

Oh, and the fit...;)

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Follow the placement rates!

Oh, and the fit... ;)

Yep. But also make a pro-con list, and then, like me, potentially find yourself more confused than before <_< . But actually do it, it helps a bit. Include where you'd rather live, cost of living, how many professors are at each place in your area of concentration (they do move schools/retire/etc., so you want to make sure that you don't only have one POI at a school and face the possibility of being stuck somewhere with no one to advise you, or having to transfer), funding, placement, fit, archives/libraries/proximity to others/consortium resources, dissertation year grants, summer funding, travel funding, years of funding, completion rates, ranking (if you care about it) etc etc etc. I too, am very tempted to follow the money, but I'm trying to remove that from the equation in my head, at least until after I've completed my campus visits. It's too distracting a variable, and too tempting to ignore many other important factors in favor of being a little more comfortable financially (though I acknowledge that is SO important too).

Sometimes, I just want someone else to choose for me. Any takers? :ph34r:

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Out of curiosity, myriad, what are your 4 funded MA programs? I have Wake Forest and FSU who are giving me a full ride, and Brandeis who's giving me partial funding. Aaand I have no idea what to do. I'm trying to tell myself that, ultimately, where I receive my MA is not as important as where I receive my PhD (right, y'all?) but I'm still going crazy making a decision.

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Yep. But also make a pro-con list, and then, like me, potentially find yourself more confused than before <_< . But actually do it, it helps a bit. Include where you'd rather live, cost of living, how many professors are at each place in your area of concentration (they do move schools/retire/etc., so you want to make sure that you don't only have one POI at a school and face the possibility of being stuck somewhere with no one to advise you, or having to transfer), funding, placement, fit, archives/libraries/proximity to others/consortium resources, dissertation year grants, summer funding, travel funding, years of funding, completion rates, ranking (if you care about it) etc etc etc. I too, am very tempted to follow the money, but I'm trying to remove that from the equation in my head, at least until after I've completed my campus visits. It's too distracting a variable, and too tempting to ignore many other important factors in favor of being a little more comfortable financially (though I acknowledge that is SO important too).

Sometimes, I just want someone else to choose for me. Any takers? :ph34r:

Also, while making this list, you might want to check out greekdaph's pretty exhaustive list of questions on this thread:

It has really helped me get information so far.

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Out of curiosity, myriad, what are your 4 funded MA programs? I have Wake Forest and FSU who are giving me a full ride, and Brandeis who's giving me partial funding. Aaand I have no idea what to do. I'm trying to tell myself that, ultimately, where I receive my MA is not as important as where I receive my PhD (right, y'all?) but I'm still going crazy making a decision.

I'm from Canada, so they're all Canadian schools: Queens, UAlberta, Dalhousie, and York. I applied to them as back-ups in case I didn't get into any American PhD programs (I'm in Af-Am and Af-Diaspora lit, so being in the States matters), so I've declined them all. Still waiting to hear from UToronto. I'd say where you take your MA matters, but it matters more what sort of work you produce and what kind of recs you garner while you're there. Not that I know, as I haven't taken one, but that's what I would guess. Go-Pro-Con-List-GO!

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Yale finally got back to me:

:angry: Stupid Yale. Were you just Am Studies or Af-Am studies or a joint program? I'm still waiting to hear about the combined English/Af-Am, called again today and they apologized for taking so damn long, results in the next week. Stupid, slow, Yale.

(I now retract that 'stupid' in an effort to appease the forces of the cosmos which I believe, in my dilapidated state of mind, may actually affect Yale's decision via some sort of karmic retribution)

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:angry: Stupid Yale. Were you just Am Studies or Af-Am studies or a joint program? I'm still waiting to hear about the combined English/Af-Am, called again today and they apologized for taking so damn long, results in the next week. Stupid, slow, Yale.

(I now retract that 'stupid' in an effort to appease the forces of the cosmos which I believe, in my dilapidated state of mind, may actually affect Yale's decision via some sort of karmic retribution)

I went with just straight Am. Studies, though I was tempted to do the American/Af-Am bridge program. The problem is, my areas of interest are still a little too broad at this point to dive into that, so I expressed interest in it, but ultimately went with just a straight American Studies slot. At any rate, I'm not surprised I didn't get in in the least. 1) It's Yale; 2) I probably sounded kind of all over the place in my SoP

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I went with just straight Am. Studies, though I was tempted to do the American/Af-Am bridge program. The problem is, my areas of interest are still a little too broad at this point to dive into that, so I expressed interest in it, but ultimately went with just a straight American Studies slot. At any rate, I'm not surprised I didn't get in in the least. 1) It's Yale; 2) I probably sounded kind of all over the place in my SoP

TripWillis, this might be weird since I've never actually had an exchange with you on these boards, but I was really hoping you'd get into Yale. Mostly selfishly, as I wanted to meet the famous TripWillis in-person one day... anyway, just wanted to say that it is definitely Yale's loss, and your other three awesome choices' gain! Good luck with a tough decision :-)

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TripWillis, this might be weird since I've never actually had an exchange with you on these boards, but I was really hoping you'd get into Yale. Mostly selfishly, as I wanted to meet the famous TripWillis in-person one day... anyway, just wanted to say that it is definitely Yale's loss, and your other three awesome choices' gain! Good luck with a tough decision :-)

Thanks, and enjoy Yale! That must be really exciting. :D

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I started looking up classes on my phone on the treadmill at the gym yesterday and almost started crying I was so excited. Needless to say I had to put the phone away after that.

Edited by hazelbite
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Here, it's not like this is a secret or anything. Spoilered to spare people who don't care.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT-- GRADUATE COURSES -- FALL 2012

Intro To Engl Studies MWF 03:30 PM-04:20 PM PR Schneider

Prac In Tch Literature Arr Hrs A Sagar

Prac Teach Cr Writing T 03:00 PM-04:15 PM DO Platt/SD Solwitz

Prac Teach Written ESL Arr Hrs AJ Silva

Prac Teach Oral ESL Arr Hrs AJ Ginther

Prac Tchng College Flm Arr Hrs LA Duerfahrd

Prac Teach Linguistics Arr Hrs SF Hughes

Prac Wrtng Lab Tutor Arr Hrs LS Bergmann

Prac Teach World Lit Arr Hrs CS Ross

Teach First-Yr Comp I TR 09:00 AM-10:15 AM LE Haynes

Teach First-Yr Comp I TR 09:00 AM-10:15 AM RD Johnson-Sheehan

Teach First-Yr Comp I TR 09:00 AM-10:15 AM JW Cushman

Teach First-Yr Comp I TR 09:00 AM-10:15 AM KM Leon

Teach First-Yr Comp I TR 09:00 AM-10:15 AM LA Pinkert

Approaches/Creative Wr TR 03:00 PM-04:15 PM DO Platt/SD Solwitz

Prof Writing Practicum TR 12:00 PM-01:15 PM MJ Salvo

Intro Engl & Gnrl Ling TR 03:00 PM-04:15 PM V Raskin

Hist Of Engl Language MWF 10:30 AM-11:20 AM MK Niepokuj

Engl Syntax Syntac Thy MW 04:30 PM-05:45 PM EE Benedicto

Adv Professional Writ TR 01:30 PM-02:45 PM JL Bay

Engl Sec Lng/Theor Fnd TR 03:00 PM-04:15 PM AJ Silva

Early 18 Cent Lit M 06:00 PM-08:50 PM M Powell

Milton MWF 02:30 PM-03:20 PM AA Duran

Zora Neale Hurston MWF 10:30 AM-11:20 AM JL Freeman Marshall

Amer Lit Cul 1820-1860 W 06:00 PM-08:50 PM DA Pacheco

Modern American Poetry TR 12:00 PM-01:15 PM WS Flory

Historical Linguistics T 04:30 PM-07:20 PM JD Sundquist

Sociolinguistics TR 01:30 PM-02:45 PM FD Roberts

Contemp Crit & Theory MW 04:30 PM-05:45 PM A Plotnitsky

Tragedy T 06:30 PM-09:20 PM S Goodhart

Directed Writing Arr Hrs/Credit TS Conard-Salvo

Prospectus Writing Arr Hrs/Credit PR Schneider

Directed Reading Arr Hrs/Credit

Int Composition Theory TR 10:30 AM-11:45 AM KM Leon

Postcolonial Lit Of The City M 02:30 PM-05:20 PM A Sagar

Contemp Amer Fiction TR 03:00 PM-04:15 PM JN Duvall

Introduction To Inquiry T 06:30 PM-09:20 PM AJ Silva

Lyric Poetry TR 10:30 AM-11:45 AM BI Allert

Sem In Poetry Writing M 11:30 AM-02:20 PM MJ Boruch

Sem In Fiction Writing W 11:30 AM-02:20 PM P Henley

Middle English Lang TR 03:00 PM-04:15 PM RA Malo

A Reading Of Beowulf MWF 11:30 AM-12:20 PM SF Hughes

Qualitative Research W 06:30 PM-09:20 PM DS Atkinson

Classroom Com ESL TAs TR 07:30 PM-09:20 PM

Comp St: Modern F 11:30 AM-02:20 PM PA Sullivan

Experimental Syntax MWF 02:30 PM-03:20 PM EJ Francis

Natrl Language Process TR 04:30 PM-05:45 PM V Raskin

Second Language Acquisition M 06:30 PM-09:20 PM DS Atkinson

Trans:Ital Romant Epcs Shakspr T 04:30 PM-07:20 PM CS Ross

Victorian Lit - Verse Novel W 06:00 PM-08:50 PM DF Felluga

Seminar In Visual Studies R 06:00 PM-08:50 PM CJ Lukasik

Globaliz&Post-Global Studies MWF 11:30 AM-12:20 PM AJ Lopez

Sem Language Testing TR 10:30 AM-11:45 AM AJ Ginther

Burke T 04:30 PM-07:20 PM TJ Rickert

Minority Rhetorics M 11:30 AM-02:20 PM S Blackmon

Professional Writing Theory TR 10:30 AM-11:45 AM MJ Salvo

Rhetorical Methodologies W 11:30 AM-02:20 PM PA Sullivan

Hutton Lecture Rhetoric & Comp R 03:00 PM-05:50 PM TJ Rickert

Reading The Midwest M 04:30 PM-07:20 PM CP Knoeller

Rsrch MA/MFA Thesis Arr Hrs & Credit

Research PhD Thesis Arr Hrs & Credit

Post Prelim Group Meeting W 03:30 PM-05:20 PM PA Sullivan

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Ack - I threw my back out and am now bedridden for the weekend, at least. We're going into reading period at my undergrad, so there isn't much studying or work that I have at the moment. Anyone have any recommendations for movies available on Netflix or readings I can access without having to leave my bed? ;)

Edited by pelevinfan
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