Comparative Literature, 2013

[Marie-Luise]

What about Notre Dame Literature?

 

Notre Dame literature has invited people for interviews next week. if you have not gotten an invitation, then I am sorry to say that you haven't made it this time.

[getoutofmyhouse]

Anyone want to claim the Harvard acceptance?

[Marie-Luise]

Anyone want to claim the Harvard acceptance?

 

Yeah anyone want to claim it?

[vvvooommm]

Anyone want to claim the Harvard acceptance?

 

I don't want to put personal details on here, but I will claim it.

[getoutofmyhouse]

Any other details we can know? ;-)

[vvvooommm]

Any other details we can know? ;-)

PM me

[katzeschatze]

Another Emory rejection? Does anyone know what's going on? I guess I should just email the department...

[Marie-Luise]

So one acceptance is up, how soon is if safe to

 

a) assume you didn't make it

 

contact them to see if you didn't make it

 

c) request feedback on your application

 

Suggestions welcome!

[Swagato]

As the past results will have shown you, Harvard tends to notify either all at once or very closely grouped together. I would give it a week before contacting anyone you may have been in touch with. Even then, a reply is by no means guaranteed. I would not bother anyone with feedback requests until at least late April. Departments will be occupied with sorting out the incoming cohort.

[Vincenzo Salvatore]

Notre Dame literature has invited people for interviews next week. if you have not gotten an invitation, then I am sorry to say that you haven't made it this time.

Thank you, and do not be sorry. It is actually a relief, because I have already decides where to go and it was my top choice.

[pruzhalskii]

Thank you, and do not be sorry. It is actually a relief, because I have already decides where to go and it was my top choice.

What is your top choice, Vincenzo? I think your choice will dictate mine...

Edited February 27, 2013 by pruzhalskii

[ghijklmn]

So I finally broke down and called one of my remaining schools to check on my status, and the response was cryptic. The secretary said a decision had been made on my application, but that she wasn't authorized to make it known yet. I then asked if all the acceptances had gone out, and she said some, but others not. Apparently I should hear sometime this week.

 

I'm thinking this means rejection, right? 

[getoutofmyhouse]

So I finally broke down and called one of my remaining schools to check on my status, and the response was cryptic. The secretary said a decision had been made on my application, but that she wasn't authorized to make it known yet. I then asked if all the acceptances had gone out, and she said some, but others not. Apparently I should hear sometime this week.

 

I'm thinking this means rejection, right? 

 

Which school?

[ghijklmn]

Which school?

 

That was Michigan.

[getoutofmyhouse]

You're waiting for Brown, right?

[ghijklmn]

Nope, just Michigan and Yale. Such stragglers! Who are you waiting on?

[getoutofmyhouse]

Yale, Brown, Harvard, Princeton, and U Washington... Beginning to consider my soon-to-be life in New Orleans as a masseur and fiction writer. 

[Fishbucket]

It looks like Yale and Harvard have already sent out acceptances. Are you considering those as implicit rejections yet?

[getoutofmyhouse]

It looks like Yale and Harvard have already sent out acceptances. Are you considering those as implicit rejections yet?

 

Not particularly.

[ghijklmn]

It looks like Yale and Harvard have already sent out acceptances. Are you considering those as implicit rejections yet?

 

Basically. I think the best I can hope for is a wait list, but I'm not holding my breath on those two. 

 

 

 

Yale, Brown, Harvard, Princeton, and U Washington... Beginning to consider my soon-to-be life in New Orleans as a masseur and fiction writer. 

 

Seriously. I have actually half seriously considered doing a complete 180 and becoming a massage therapist. Sigh. Maybe if this whole academia thing doesn't work out...

[Marie-Luise]

Not particularly.

 

I also have received no news from Harvard, but actually AM considering it an implicit rejection. I don't particularly feel like emailing the department, although I'd rather have an official rejection now. Apparently there is some sort of budget meeting going on tomorrow regarding funding, but I don't know if the one acceptance on here was notified as the first person or as the last person.

I thought I was a perfect fit topically for my POI and that I had the skills they wanted too.

If I get rejected, I assume is for any combination of the following reasons:

 

1. It's for a second PhD and Harvard doesn't want to do this

 

2. My GRE was too low (69%V/27%Q/4.0W)

 

3. My writing sample was too weak

 

4. This one is tentative: maybe I wasn't explicit enough in my writing sample

 

5. I said I wanted to focus on Med Latin although my training is in Celtic; I have done a number of Latin courses

 

6. I have no publications even though I am at the end of my PhD.

 

That's what I think. I have great language skills and really good letters of rec. So, I don't think they were the reason.

 

And then people kept saying how political these meetings get; that profs will fight other profs to get certain candidates in.

 

I will reapply next year.

[Swagato]

You applied to Harvard Comp Lit with 69% V 27% Q and AW 4.0?

 

I'm not at all saying that you're a bad applicant or anything, but those numbers would raise eyebrows at much lesser places. Also, why are you at the end of your PhD and not a single publication? I know that the humanities do not require publications as frequently as is common in the sciences--still, it is common to have at least one or two by the time you are finishing up. I imagine Harvard and the like will expect this.

 

Anything else is intrinsic to your application and you will only discover this by asking them candidly for feedback.

[Marie-Luise]

You applied to Harvard Comp Lit with 69% V 27% Q and AW 4.0?

 

I'm not at all saying that you're a bad applicant or anything, but those numbers would raise eyebrows at much lesser places. Also, why are you at the end of your PhD and not a single publication? I know that the humanities do not require publications as frequently as is common in the sciences--still, it is common to have at least one or two by the time you are finishing up. I imagine Harvard and the like will expect this.

 

Anything else is intrinsic to your application and you will only discover this by asking them candidly for feedback.

 

As an international student I found the GRE incredibly hard; we aren't used to this type of standardised testing.

 

As for publications, in the UK/Irish system PhDs work differently and in my programme we weren't particularly encouraged to present/publish until well into the PhD. This is changing now and I wish I had known this earlier. A lot of people start publishing articles once they have finished the thesis. The attitude is pretty much "wait until you have something to say". 

I am not trying to find excuses; I should have known that American universities and especially Harvard don't really care for the differences. They want everyone to conform to their system.

[jiajia]

Regarding Michigan, I saw both rejects and accepts at research results. For those of us who haven't received anything yet, I guess it means we are on their waiting list? Any thoughts?

[Swagato]

As an international student I found the GRE incredibly hard; we aren't used to this type of standardised testing.

 

As for publications, in the UK/Irish system PhDs work differently and in my programme we weren't particularly encouraged to present/publish until well into the PhD. This is changing now and I wish I had known this earlier. A lot of people start publishing articles once they have finished the thesis. The attitude is pretty much "wait until you have something to say". 

I am not trying to find excuses; I should have known that American universities and especially Harvard don't really care for the differences. They want everyone to conform to their system.

Ah, I see. I trust I did not come off as too arch in my comment earlier. Not getting accepted to Harvard (a possibility) is definitely no reflection on your merits. For what it's worth, I am (was) an international student as well, in 2005. I've since changed residency status, but when I took the GRE in 2009, it was still as an international student. I don't know where you're from, but I found that the GRE rewards simply playing by the GRE rulebook. You're discouraged from writing in your own voice and it works best if you simply spit out a rather banal essay in the GRE style. You may want to take it again, if you decide to reapply. 

 

As far as publications go, I can't really help you there--I'd suggest speaking to any faculty member you've been in contact with. I'm sure Harvard, like any top department, has international representation in their student body, so it may be worth reaching out to them.