Fall 2013 English Lit Applicants

[feraleyes]

I don't know if its appropriate to ask this question here but please humor me on this one. I am an international applicant and I have recently been accepted into the PhD program at University of Florida with a fellowship offer the first year and a TA for the next 3 years (I have an MA). My question is with regards to the reputation of the program in the field of English programs. I know it is ranked 52 on the US News rankings but I guess I need more information than just figures and numbers. What has their placement record been like in the last few years and those who have been placed do they generally get tenure track?

 

P.S.: my area of interest is posthumanism , postcolonialism and the subaltern. If that is of any help.

[ComeBackZinc]

Did you see this?

 

http://www.english.ufl.edu/programs/grad/placement.htmlhttp://www.english.ufl.edu/programs/grad/placement.html

[It's (Not) About Me]

Thanks, I really hope it works out for me!  Question: have you started planning which events you will and will not attend at the Open House?  Some of them overlap, so it's not possible to attend everything (and the itinerary states that we're free to pick and choose what to attend).  For example, the first day there's a graduate seminar by Dr. Flaxman that conflicts with a visit to a wine bar.  Now, the former is surely more academically useful than the latter, but still...

 

And have you emailed professors to request course syllabuses and/or to arrange one-on-one meetings?  I haven't done either; I need to soon. 

 

Basically, 1) I don't know what the hell I'm doing, 2) I'm extremely nervous about this campus visit, and 3) I'm hoping you'll be able to offer solidarity/advice. 

 

ETA: Oh and you can PM me if you prefer.

Sorry I've taken soooo long to respond to this, because I am actually REALLY interested in discussing the Open House/freaking out/being clueless together. Haha. PMing you right now!

[feraleyes]

@ComeBackZinc I did but since I am an international student I don't know if the names of the universities posted here are well respected and the frequency of getting tenure tracks is standard or below average. Perhaps you could shed some light on this based on this link?

[bluecheese]

Hey, It's (Not) About Me (and whoever else), could you add your funding information into this document?

 

We're missing up to date info on UNC - Chapel Hill, etc.

 

 

[i thought I'd post it here in case people weren't checking the other forum].

[blueberryscone]

Hmm--anyone want to claim those UVA acceptances? Was that off the waitlist, or out of the blue?

[ladymedieval]

I'll claim one of them! I was told I was toward the top of the waitlist and I got notified today.

[blueberryscone]

Neat!  I guess I've given up on the holdouts, but I'm taking movement on any and all waitlists as a good thing.

[Cactus Ed]

Can anyone claim to posting the CU Boulder update on the boards? Are they seriously not doing anything with offers/notifications until after April 15th? Because if so, screw 'em... I'll just remove them from my consideration. I had been hoping for a waitlist so I could at least consider them, but their horrendous communication with applicants making me less interested. I mean, are they expecting to only pick up students after the 15th that haven't gotten in anywhere else?

[ladymedieval]

Neat!  I guess I've given up on the holdouts, but I'm taking movement on any and all waitlists as a good thing.

 

Yeah--I'm still waiting to hear from UMD too. I called them last week and they said they would be notifying everyone in the next 2-3 weeks (which of course does nothing for anyone's nerves). And as far as waitlist movement goes, I've heard that there is usually more movement the closer we get to April 15, so definitely don't lose hope!

[blueberryscone]

Yeah--I'm still waiting to hear from UMD too. I called them last week and they said they would be notifying everyone in the next 2-3 weeks (which of course does nothing for anyone's nerves). And as far as waitlist movement goes, I've heard that there is usually more movement the closer we get to April 15, so definitely don't lose hope!

UMD said they'd notify everyone within two weeks to me, too...three weeks ago.  *Sigh.*

[asleepawake]

On 3/18/2013 at 2:33 PM, Cactus Ed said:

Can anyone claim to posting the CU Boulder update on the boards? Are they seriously not doing anything with offers/notifications until after April 15th? Because if so, screw 'em... I'll just remove them from my consideration. I had been hoping for a waitlist so I could at least consider them, but their horrendous communication with applicants making me less interested. I mean, are they expecting to only pick up students after the 15th that haven't gotten in anywhere else?

 

Yeah, what's that all about? They're now the only program I haven't heard from. You would think they could at least reject some of us. I'm just counting it as a rejection, because even an acceptance at April 15th wouldn't matter, since I will have already made a decision.

[Deadinthewater]

Anybody else get an eerily personalized email about UChicago's MAPH?

[Fishbucket]

Anybody else get an eerily personalized email about UChicago's MAPH?

 

Sorry, my bad. I sent that to you.

[kayrabbit]

Anybody else get an eerily personalized email about UChicago's MAPH?

Haha I did. It was almost nice, but the way the writer described my writing sample was "on what thing theory illuminates about 'Prufrock.'" My sample was on "Preludes," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Waste Land," and "The Waste Land" dominates a lot of the discussion, so that was kind of weird.

[christakins]

Anybody else get an eerily personalized email about UChicago's MAPH?

 

I got one last week. It was a little too long and now seems decidedly less personalized than I thought...

[Fishbucket]

haha, thing theory is a thing now. 

[Deadinthewater]

Shut up fish bucket.

Yes, it was really dry and mechanized, and then all of a sudden they would reference my writing sample. "I very much enjoyed your admissions file, especially the part about Ranciere and aesthetics and interestingness."

[thestage]

In other words, they had a form letter with one interchangeable "I loved X about Y" sentence to entice you.

I don't think they mentioned anything about my writing sample when they tried to get me to go there last year

[midnight]

haha, thing theory is a thing now. 

 

Haha, now? Albeit controversial, it's been a thing, at least in the nascent sense, for a long time (e.g., Heidegger).

[kayrabbit]

Shut up fish bucket.

Yes, it was really dry and mechanized, and then all of a sudden they would reference my writing sample. "I very much enjoyed your admissions file, especially the part about Ranciere and aesthetics and interestingness."

Yeah, exactly. It was like a very, very long advertisement for the program with some personal bits thrown in to make it seem as if it had purpose beyond selling the MAPH.

[Swagato]

You all just got the standard MAPH letter. There's a part in it that is customized to your individual applicant profile, and may mention faculty of interest to you, but other than that it's a standard letter. Definitely don't dismiss MAPH out of hand, though. Recent placement has been very, very impressive (both to PhD programs and non-academic positions). Plenty of discussions on this forum.

[kayrabbit]

You all just got the standard MAPH letter. There's a part in it that is customized to your individual applicant profile, and may mention faculty of interest to you, but other than that it's a standard letter. Definitely don't dismiss MAPH out of hand, though. Recent placement has been very, very impressive (both to PhD programs and non-academic positions). Plenty of discussions on this forum.

Yeah, even though the part about my interests didn't seem particularly genuine, the letter itself did make me think about the advantages of the MAPH. If I didn't have offers to any PhD programs, I might have considered taking on the financial burden of the program. But I'm glad that's not the case, because that kind of debt just to get placed in a PhD program in a year or two is a really scary thought for me. Not that I don't think anyone should do it. The program sounds great and I feel like it would almost guarantee (almost because there are no guarantees in this process) admission to a PhD program for a promising student who completed it. But it's definitely not a viable option given my situation. I should probably let them know that, ha. This whole process has made me so paranoid that I've been afraid to decline anything.

[Deadinthewater]

You all just got the standard MAPH letter. There's a part in it that is customized to your individual applicant profile, and may mention faculty of interest to you, but other than that it's a standard letter. Definitely don't dismiss MAPH out of hand, though. Recent placement has been very, very impressive (both to PhD programs and non-academic positions). Plenty of discussions on this forum.

 

I was only trying to say that the letter reads a little awkwardly, that it's worth a laugh. Wasn't trying to say anything about the program itself.

 

It's just that it reminds me of a fiction writer from where I live. The other day while at a reading he presented his general form suicide letter, for people who are thinking about killing themselves but can't write:

 

"My relationship to this world was once symbiotic--but when? I cannot recall. When? It was a time when Desire burned bright above me like some distant star that I was climbing toward, and am now only floating away from, having passed it unnoticed like two ships in the night. I write to you now as a parasite; or is it the world itself? Yes, I have endured the pain of its cruelly indifferent hostility for too long. That is why I, (INSERT NAME HERE), am choosing to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them. I apologize to (INSERT PEOPLE YOU LIKE HERE); it was not you, it was simply my (INSERT FAILURES HERE)"

or something like that.

[kayrabbit]

In other news, I received a call from NYU to basically get a decision from me on their MA program. The professor was very nice and, once I told him I had a PhD offer, he suggested I might want to give a firm decline so someone else could receive the funding I was offered. Happy to oblige!