Fall 2013 English Lit Applicants

[BookGeek]

@dmmar- This: I, of course, have no idea what your individual situations are, and don't presume to know, but if it makes anyone feel any better, this is my third round in applying to graduate schools. The first round, I was rejected everywhere. The second round, I was rejected from all the PhD programs, accepted to an interdisciplinary MA program at NYU with no funding, and accepted to a MA program at a totally unknown school in my area. I ended up doing the MA program in my area, and after working like crazy and getting good grades in all my courses, developing a much better writing sample and personal statement, plus letters from professors who knew my most recent work and really supported me, only now, in my third round of PhD applications, have I been accepted *anywhere*. I know a lot of people (including professors I admire) who also had to go through a few rounds of applications.

This is really inspiring & helpful. Thank you for sharing

Edited February 21, 2013 by BookGeek

[asleepawake]

Congrats dmmar!

 

For those curious about Buffalo, my online application has finally started to reflect my acceptance today... so I guess your hawk eyes were right that some kind of update was coming. I'm not sure what this means for everyone else, but they  could be doing waitlists or MA decisions.

[DontHate]

Why didn't I get into SUNY-Buffalo?!??!? I'm so pissed. I guess I should've sent in an application there.

 

Well, you live and you learn.

[asleepawake]

The bad news is that if you don't apply, you don't get in... the good news is you don't get rejected.

[NowMoreSerious]

Why didn't I get into SUNY-Buffalo?!??!? I'm so pissed. I guess I should've sent in an application there.

 

Well, you live and you learn.

I hear they are picky about only accepting people who've applied there. At least that's what a professor who came from there told me.

Edited February 21, 2013 by ImWantHazPhD

[jazzyd]

Congrats to the recent Yale acceptances. I not the least bit green. Nope nope 

 

But in all seriousness, that's awesome news.

[DontHate]

Congrats to the recent Yale acceptances. I not the least bit green. Nope nope 

 

I'm sure you'll get in there next year

[thestage]

whatever will he do with such undistinguished schools as northwestern, chicago, UCLA, and Brown fighting over him?  if only the world could understand.

[Mercyhurst2010]

Wait, what!? Who got into Rice? Congratulations, first of all. But now that I see the Rice acceptance on the results board, my anxiety level has gone through the roof. After my Vanderbilt rejection, my next top two choices were Rice and Maryland. Well, Maryland gave out acceptances today (anyone think there could be more?) and I didn't hear anything. And apparently Rice notified as well. I sure hope this isn't the end for either of these schools. Happy day-after-my-birthday if it is! (Rant over.)

 

Congrats to all of today's admits, by the way. Seems like lots of people got into Michigan--great stuff!

[DontHate]

Why don't the adcomms observe any of our birthdays!?!? A$$holes!

[thestage]

I had to take the GRE on my birthday in 2011

[jazzyd]

I'm sure you'll get in there next year

 

oh if only... *cue dream sequence*

 

whatever will he do with such undistinguished schools as northwestern, chicago, UCLA, and Brown fighting over him?  if only the world could understand.

 

funny. curious as to why I keep getting ID'd as a guy though, I thought the username change was hint enough?

[thestage]

I default to masculine pronouns unless I have a reason not to.  yes, at least ten people on this forum are going to think I'm a monster for this.

Edited February 21, 2013 by thestage

[DontHate]

I always think it sounds hella awkward to call a single person "they." But that's just me. The same person who casually inserts norcal slang into otherwise inoffensive sentences.

[Datatape]

I default to masculine pronouns unless I have a reason not to.  yes, at least ten people on this forum are going to think I'm a monster for this.

 

[InHacSpeVivo]

Why am I out of up votes?!?!?!

[KeelyMK]

I default to masculine pronouns unless I have a reason not to. 

out of upvotes but I've always done this and always will.

[asleepawake]

I always think it sounds hella awkward to call a single person "they." 

 

 

I direct you here.

[thestage]

 

I direct you here.

 

well, with a mindless gif and a link to a screaming polemic against a position no one here has even addressed much less evinced, I sure am convinced.

[asleepawake]

well, with a mindless gif and a link to a screaming polemic against a position no one here has even addressed much less evinced, I sure am convinced.

 

I get it. You don't like gifs. You're too smart and serious and such. I direct you to the same gif for my response. 

 

Defaulting to "he" or "he or she" is an implicit statement against the usefulness of the singular they. The link I sent you to is hardly a "screaming polemic." It's a decent write-up of a bunch of the reasons why singular "they" is perfectly fine, and includes a couple of reasons why it ought to be preferred in some cases. 

Edited February 21, 2013 by asleepawake

[thestage]

people usually do defend stupid things by attacking smart people.  as a PhD hopeful, one would imagine you'd be familiar with this.  see, the magic of your deal with it gif is you can use it for anything, as you've aptly demonstrated.  I could turn around and use it on you!  man, these things are great!

 

but no, sheer stupidity is not my primary objection to gif overload.  do wait a minute, this is relevant.

 

Defaulting to "he" or "he or she" is an implicit statement against the usefulness of the singular they.

 

What grounds do you have for this ridiculous statement?  Is the reverse also true?  Your link carefully avoids making that mistake.  Because it would be stupid.

 

 

The link I sent you to is hardly a "screaming polemic." It's a decent write-up of a bunch of the reasons why singular "they" is perfectly fine

 

Well, for one, I would consider sentences like "The only problem with this view is that all you’ve managed to learn about English is how to get your brain to release some satisfying endorphins every time you blindly regurgitate some authority figure’s unjustified assertion" and "You’re not helping; you’re just getting someone to pretend to agree with you long enough to shut you up." to be polemical in the colloquial sense.  More directly, this essay/thing is opposing a very specific mindset that it presumes to be dominant, which is the For Real definition of a polemic.  The position that it happens to be opposing, as you've noted, is one which states that using the word "they" as a singular neutral pronoun is incorrect based on rigid historical grammatical tradition.  Which is a position that no one here happens to be holding.  The post even finishes with this bit:

 

"You can even just stubbornly plow on, using he as a gender-neutral pronoun until you grow tired of people pointing out that it isn’t really.  I don’t care, and you’re not grammatically wrong.  But you’re just making a fool of yourself when you go around telling users of singular they that they’re wrong, because they’re not."

 

Never mind that this is literally incoherent: it is in point of fact telling me that I can continue to use "he" in a gender neutral sense.  Well ok, then.  I will.  Glad we cleared that up.

 

You objected to Donthate's post, which at no point makes a prescriptive judgment.  The word "awkward" evinces an aesthetic position, which has nothing to do with anything you've linked.  In fact, to insist that she use "they" in a manner you approve of is to be prescriptive.  If you want to do that, you probably shouldn't link to a blog with the phrase Prescriptivism Must Die! in its header.

Edited February 21, 2013 by thestage

[Taco Superior]

Wow.

[kaputzing]

I decided many years back to be more gender-sensitive in my pronoun usage. However, and this may sound odd to many, I feel more uncomfortable these days using "s/he" than using "he." After becoming acquainted with those who identify outside of the gender binary, "s/he" now doesn't strike me as particularly gender-neutral anymore, since it presupposes a gender binary. But gender-neutral pronouns are still incredibly awkward to use.

 

In conclusion, now I just practice English gymnastics in order to avoid pronouns altogether if necessary. Or I just go with the singular "they" if I must, but never without wincing.

[blakeblake]

My tactic is to choose either he or she, hopefully in equal measure.  Singular they still rubs me the wrong way, even though I recognize its usefulness and think it's only a matter of time before it becomes the only "correct" word to use in cases of ambiguous or genderqueer gender.

[DontHate]

They used in contexts like "everyone" doesn't sound awkward to me. Everybody/everyone to me sounds like "todos" in Spanish, it represents an infinite number of people, so they sounds right. I think the only time that they sounds like an awkward construction to my ears is when it's used to describe a single, specific person. Ex: "Asleepawake uses gifs because they like them a lot and they just want everyone to 'deal with it,' so to speak."

Edited February 21, 2013 by DontHate