Fall 2013 English Lit Applicants

[asleepawake]

Oh, yeah-- you guys are totally "engaging in a debate." I mean, my mind is blown by the dialogue. Asleepawake has shown all the argumentative nuance of a Fox News segment. 

 

Oh, now you're just trolling.

[pomoisdead]

Come on guys, don't make me feel bad about my revolutionary paper on how memes are the new communicative medium. You'll kill my syllabus proposal for Fall.

[squire_western]

Oh, now you're just trolling.

 

So are you.

[asleepawake]

Fox News don't have nearly as many gifs - let's give credit where credit is due.

 

[ishmael]

So... anyway... looks like there's been no word from UNC Chapel Hill tonight... disappointing.

[KeelyMK]

Wow, that sounds amazing; I've always wanted to get involved with improving the foster care system and the ability of older kids to actually get into college. Do you know of any organizations that operate on a national level?

 

I don't, and I wish there were. Honestly, it's something that I'm very passionate about changing because former foster youth are one drain on our social programs and economy that is almost completely preventable. We are 2-5x more likely to be homeless, uninsured, on welfare, unemployed, uneducated, and psychologically unstable/drug and alcohol dependent. (I've been through all of the above-mentioned).This is mainly because of the instability in foster care - most kids, including myself, move to multiple new homes per year, where they (we) can't earn enough credits to graduate and are forced to earn a GED, then "age out" of the system with no follow-up, regardless of whether we have anywhere to go. 

 

Some Unis and CCs have programs like the one I volunteered for, but they are ENTIRELY privately funded, with no state or federal help beyond Pell Grants and such. A quarter of a million kids per year age out of the system in this country, and most become nothing more than those dire statistics BECAUSE we were never expected to. As soon as I entered foster care, they gave me psych meds and birth control instead of textbooks or positive words. 

 

Again, sorry, please let this thread be happy and shiny again lol. I didn't mean to cause a thing. If you're interested in former foster youth statistics, I can PM you the 20pg research paper I did on it last year. In the meantime, **think happy thoughts** I really do hope the very best for everyone. 

[squire_western]

 

HA! Good one. 

[Hootenanny]

Long time lurker, but had to post. I hope I'm not the only one who hopes that diversity is factored into acceptances. I'm wading through waitlists like a champ right now, and the thought has crossed my mind that my white maleness could have a hand in that fine line between paradise and purgatory. But I specifically avoided programs with low diversity scores. I don't want to spend the next period of my life studying literature with a cohort that's not diverse. What's the point of collaborating with folks that bring the same thoughts to the table?

 

Now, race does not straight up equal diversity, but we're lying to ourselves if it's not a factor. I'd actually push for more comprehensively documenting applicants range of diversity (a la Yale's diversity statement), since the only thing worse than discussing literature with a bunch of 20-something liberal white kids from the suburbs is discussing literature with a bunch of 20-something liberal kids of different ethnicities from the suburbs.

[justkeepswimming]

It doesn't take much of an extension of logic to see why this question is silly. So we can't take offense to the ideas coming out of somebody's mouth unless they are directed towards us?

 

This entire conversation started because of a perceived slight that was, in fact, non-existent. Of course we can take offense to things that aren't necessarily directed towards us. It just seemed to me that asleepawake was insisting on taking personal umbrage because DH's comments were "very thoughtless" with respect to Keely. Again, I'm not debating the necessity for discussing AA. This forum is just way too hypersensitive about people stepping on other people's toes. 

[DontHate]

Keely, it wasn't you who turned the thread into an argument. It was me. And I'm not sorry!

[NowMoreSerious]

If you really feel shitty about being a "diversity applicant" then you don't have to apply as one. But I don't think you should feel shitty about it. Being underrepresented is as good an edge as any other in this largely random process. I was commenting on it because AA is a factor in the application process and I wanted us to be able to fearlessly discuss it. Nobody else would probably have brought it up if I hadn't. 

I'd argue that growing up white from a middle to upper middle class (or higher) family is a far, far larger edge than any other, which is why the discrepancy in applicant numbers is so wide, and which is why so many graduate programs, even with these diversity initiatives, are still predominantly white. Far larger than AA, which is nothing more than a band-aid policy that often hides and obscures larger systemic, historical, and cultural problems. I'd even argue that one of AA's biggest effects is creating even MORE resentment from small minded people against "minorities" who have success and often have their intelligence and hard work questioned at every step of their lives.

[squire_western]

Come on guys, don't make me feel bad about my revolutionary paper on how memes are the new communicative medium. You'll kill my syllabus proposal for Fall.

 

Could you include some research on memes as communicative mediums in Sherlock Holmes fan fiction on tumblr? (I'm asking for a friend). 

[thestage]

I think english programs should only accept diversity applicants.

 

based on the kinds of scholarship the discipline currently favors, you could rationally argue for this.

[asleepawake]

Again, sorry, please let this thread be happy and shiny again lol. I didn't mean to cause a thing. If you're interested in former foster youth statistics, I can PM you the 20pg research paper I did on it last year. In the meantime, **think happy thoughts** I really do hope the very best for everyone. 

 

I think we're done with this one. The tone of this form is so much more civil than 99% of the internet, so it's all cool. 

[dazedandbemused]

I don't, and I wish there were. Honestly, it's something that I'm very passionate about changing because former foster youth are one drain on our social programs and economy that is almost completely preventable. We are 2-5x more likely to be homeless, uninsured, on welfare, unemployed, uneducated, and psychologically unstable/drug and alcohol dependent. (I've been through all of the above-mentioned).This is mainly because of the instability in foster care - most kids, including myself, move to multiple new homes per year, where they (we) can't earn enough credits to graduate and are forced to earn a GED, then "age out" of the system with no follow-up, regardless of whether we have anywhere to go. 

 

Some Unis and CCs have programs like the one I volunteered for, but they are ENTIRELY privately funded, with no state or federal help beyond Pell Grants and such. A quarter of a million kids per year age out of the system in this country, and most become nothing more than those dire statistics BECAUSE we were never expected to. As soon as I entered foster care, they gave me psych meds and birth control instead of textbooks or positive words. 

 

Again, sorry, please let this thread be happy and shiny again lol. I didn't mean to cause a thing. If you're interested in former foster youth statistics, I can PM you the 20pg research paper I did on it last year. In the meantime, **think happy thoughts** I really do hope the very best for everyone. 

 Yes, please PM that to me; I'd really appreciate it! I wish there was (or maybe there is?) a program that works on getting kids who aren't babies adopted; I just think it's so ridiculous the way that people are desperate to have children, but what they really want is a little tabula rasa that they can make cooing noises at while so many older kids are basically ignored all across the country.

[justkeepswimming]

I think we're done with this one. The tone of this form is so much more civil than 99% of the internet, so it's all cool. 

 

I see what you did there. 

[NowMoreSerious]

This entire conversation started because of a perceived slight that was, in fact, non-existent. Of course we can take offense to things that aren't necessarily directed towards us. It just seemed to me that asleepawake was insisting on taking personal umbrage because DH's comments were "very thoughtless" with respect to Keely. Again, I'm not debating the necessity for discussing AA. This forum is just way too hypersensitive about people stepping on other people's toes. 

For me personally it is not so much I took offense as I think it's useful and productive to be critical. Hypersensitivity is a word often wielded against people who feel the stakes of racism/sexism and speak up about it. It isn't a bad thing that people feel emotions or feel strongly about certain things.

[pomoisdead]

Let's face it, now that we know Keely is white we simply hate them because they have a good work ethic and got accepted everywhere. Oh, and no one gives a shit about their research interests. Now who's trolling, eh? Eh?!

[asleepawake]

This entire conversation started because of a perceived slight that was, in fact, non-existent. Of course we can take offense to things that aren't necessarily directed towards us. It just seemed to me that asleepawake was insisting on taking personal umbrage because DH's comments were "very thoughtless" with respect to Keely. Again, I'm not debating the necessity for discussing AA. This forum is just way too hypersensitive about people stepping on other people's toes. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqIF8yGtcW8

[justkeepswimming]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqIF8yGtcW8

 

I truly admire your ability to come up with an appropriate response via a YouTube video in just ten minutes. Bravo. 

[asleepawake]

I truly admire your ability to come up with an appropriate response via a YouTube video in just ten minutes. Bravo. 

 

Hopefully by the time I write my dissertation I can just put a youtube video in between each paragraph.

[justkeepswimming]

For me personally it is not so much I took offense as I think it's useful and productive to be critical. Hypersensitivity is a word often wielded against people who feel the stakes of racism/sexism and speak up about it. It isn't a bad thing that people feel emotions or feel strongly about certain things.

 

I agree with you and I see what you're saying--my apologies for coming off that way. To be clear, I don't mean to invoke it against those who are URM in any shape or form. It was just a frustrated comment in reaction to general hypersensitivity of this forum towards nearly every other comment (exaggeration) posted.

[practical cat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqIF8yGtcW8

I made a Gertrude Stein!

Congrats again, Keely and good luck on the decisions.

[TripWillis]

This whole protracted debate is obnoxious and rife with cliché. Generally, I agree with asleepawake -- DontHate's original post implied that Keely got into schools because of affirmative action. It was apparently not a personal slight, but since we have no access to the ad-comms or the applications, we truly have no way of knowing, so it's a moot point. Diversity fellowships are not necessarily funded by state or federal sponsored AA programs, either, so unless I knew more, I'd have no way of making a judgment, and I'm not sure why it would be relevant to a more general debate about AA.

 

Having a dialogue about affirmative action and diversity in higher education is obviously important, but rather than starting with offhand assumptions, we should have it earnestly.

 

((For anyone who's interested, I'm for AA programs. Slavery was only abolished 150 years ago; the south was de jure desegregated about 60 years ago. There are only a few generations between today's minorities and oppressed peoples, and in the case of some groups, there are zero generations. There has been no time for many groups, such as African-Americans, to accrue and pass down wealth from generation to generation, provoking perpetual, snowballing uneven development based on bias. Economically speaking, structural inequity has made achievement institutionally more challenging for some than others. What's worse, certain people have an attitude that we live in a post-racial society just because Barack Obama is president and, thus, they are redacting their support and efforts toward resolving structural inequity. Like with gun control, AA is a band-aid on a more pervasive problem, but since no one is interested in fixing the pervasive problem (it would require an enormous political overhaul), the band-aid will have to do what it can))

Edited February 13, 2013 by TripWillis

[NowMoreSerious]

I agree with you and I see what you're saying--my apologies for coming off that way. To be clear, I don't mean to invoke it against those who are URM in any shape or form. It was just a frustrated comment in reaction to general hypersensitivity of this forum towards nearly every other comment (exaggeration) posted.

No apologies needed we are all thinkers here--just trying to make it. I just wanted to point out that the language you are using falls under a certain context, at times.