Fall 2013 English Lit Applicants

[skybythelight]

Hey, the occassional program does send out letters on Saturdays. I told myself that all last weekend, but I'm not sure if knowing an answer might come in felt better or worse...

I'm not sure, either. Looks like we applied to a few of the same programs. You've heard from Minnesota?

[BrookeSnow]

Seconded. I've been told that, in the first few weeks after the deadline, admissions committees only look at writing samples and personal statements.

 

Thanks I think I needed to hear that.

[Katia_chan]

Northwestern is calling. I can't take my phone off silent...I just can't.  I hate phone notifications so much...it's so much easier to look away from my Email.  I'm going to go gibber in private now.

[InHacSpeVivo]

I'm not sure, either. Looks like we applied to a few of the same programs. You've heard from Minnesota?

Yeah, but I applied to the American Studies program. I'm not sure when the English Department is notifying.

 

Also, looks like Vanderbilt rejections are trickling in...

[jrockford27]

Oh man.  I haven't gotten a Vanderbilt rejection yet...  still waiting for the hammer to fall...

[CodeBlue]

Rejected by Vanderbilt, thank GOD. Applied because it was free and I lived in Nashville for a few years: they don't offer anything I'm interested in. I was afraid I'd actually get in.

 

Would've been a nice safety, but safety is wildly overrated.

We'll see if anyone says yes. If not, c'est la vie, eh?

My condolences to those who had hoped to study there and was rejected.

[asleepawake]

Oh man.  I haven't gotten a Vanderbilt rejection yet...  still waiting for the hammer to fall...

 

Maybe it will be good news! A LOT of rejections seem to have gone out at once...

[jrockford27]

Maybe it will be good news! A LOT of rejections seem to have gone out at once...

 

Vandy is the school with the advisor that I think would be the best fit in the country to advise me on my proposed project.  This is torturous to wait for.

Edited February 1, 2013 by jrockford27

[InHacSpeVivo]

Vandy has the school with the advisor that I think would be the best fit in the country to advise me on my proposed project.  This is torturous to wait for.

 

Good luck to everyone still waiting! It's am amazing program. This was definitely a bummer for me because my writing sample was related to Southern Lit. Oh well... I figure if you don't hear anything today no news is probably good news in this case!

[asleepawake]

I'm not sure if the overall program was a good fit for me, but I would have loved to have worked with Colin Dayan. Oh wells. It was a reach school for sure.

[practical cat]

Vandy is the school with the advisor that I think would be the best fit in the country to advise me on my proposed project.  This is torturous to wait for.

Same here. I want this one so much.

[bluecheese]

Best of luck! I hope you get positive news from Vanderbilt over the next couple of days. If you haven't been rejected yet, that is probably a good sign.

[Mercyhurst2010]

Also rejected by Vanderbilt. This was a tough pill to swallow, even though I knew this program was one of my bigger reaches. It was my top choice, and it was also my first response. Oh well. 12 other options to go, so I'm hoping maybe I'll get good news somewhere else in the near future.

[TripWillis]

Rejected by Vanderbilt, 

 

Would've been a nice safety, but safety is wildly overrated.

1) Vanderbilt is definitively not a safety.

2) There are no safeties.

[bluecheese]

On 2/2/2013 at 8:32 AM, TripWillis said:

2) There are no safeties.

So true. Even second tier schools can be extremely hard to get into.

 

For example: UC Boulder made 4 initial offers out of an application pool of over a hundred last year. Those are some nasty odds.

[bfat]

Ugh. It's Saturday. I guess we should try to enjoy our two newsless days.

 

 

 

Also, happy Groundhog Day! Hope everybody gets it right the first time around.

[asleepawake]

It is true there is no "safety" in the sense that you are all but guaranteed an acceptance given your numbers, like there is with law school and undergraduate programs. However, applying to Yale is not the same as applying to, say, the University of Southern Mississippi. I'm sure USM has many strengths, but an Ivy it is not, and its number of applications must be pretty small comparatively.

It is, however, true that many schools ranked in the 20s to 50s are nearly as competitive as top 20s, so nobody should be considering those schools safeties (or any, really, but you CAN consider some schools more likely than others). Where did that number from for Boulder? I thought they took more than 4. That's depressing news!

 

Vanderbilt isn't a safety for anybody. Ever. Anywhere. Vanderbilt is the Powerball.

Edited February 2, 2013 by asleepawake

[practical cat]

 Vanderbilt isn't a safety for anybody. Ever. Anywhere. Vanderbilt is the Powerball.

It's the Stansbury of the southeast.

[Swagato]

I'm not in English and so do not know the details of the English academic community, so could someone offer a summary of the aura surrounding Vanderbilt? Is it one of the stratospherically-highly rated programs, and similarly difficult to get into? Why is Vanderbilt the Powerball?

[asleepawake]

I'm not in English and so do not know the details of the English academic community, so could someone offer a summary of the aura surrounding Vanderbilt? Is it one of the stratospherically-highly rated programs, and similarly difficult to get into? Why is Vanderbilt the Powerball?

 

Well, that was a bit of hyperbole. But Vanderbilt does not charge for applications and therefore gets a lot of extra applications, from both the highly qualified and the not-so-much. Vanderbilt is well-respected and pretty highly ranked, but it is among the tip-top of the most selective. Peterson's shows 429 applications and 13 admits between both the PhD and the MA at last record (3% overall, probably a bit lower for PhD and a bit higher for MA). I would say all top programs are gambles, though.

Edited February 2, 2013 by asleepawake

[jrockford27]

I think the selectivity pct. is very much influenced by its high volume of applicants due to the whole "free application thing."

 

You'll notice in past years, in the comments of rejections, things like "only applied because it was free."

 

I wonder what the pct. would be if you winnowed out the "non-serious" and "only applied because it was free" crowd.  I'm sure it would be in line with the normal acceptance rate of respected English programs.

 

Certainly not a safety school though, unless, I suppose, you're absolutely stratospheric in your expectations for yourself!  Though it was funny to see someone in an earlier post call one of my very favorite programs a safety school, ha.

Edited February 2, 2013 by jrockford27

[waparys]

I think this is why Harvard has such a high application fee--to weed out people just applying "because it's free." 

 

Serious offers only, that sort of thing. 

[asleepawake]

But Vanderbilt no doubt gets some good applicants from that "free" crowd, and no doubt a lot of people have sour grapes after the fact. I'd have paid good money for that rejection, Vanderbilt!

Edited February 2, 2013 by asleepawake

[waparys]

But Vanderbilt no doubt gets some good applicants from that "free" crowd, and no doubt a lot of people have sour grapes after the fact. I'd have paid good money for that rejection, Vanderbilt!

Oh of course, I didn't mean to imply there weren't any worthy candidates. But for some applicants it was certainly just an "oh I'll throw my name into the hat, you never know what could happen."

[Swagato]

Ah, that explains things a bit more. Still, 429 applications isn't so abnormal. Columbia's Dept. of English specifically states that they receive ~700 applications (and I don't think Columbia makes it free to apply).