Fall 2014 applicants??

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

Oh my God, I already started checking the Results page!   

[smellybug]

You guys, I say this with love-- chill out. I know it's easier said than done. But you need to relax. You've got months ahead of you, and the decisions are out of your hands. (Especially considering that, given the reality of the English academic job market, not getting in may very well leave you in better shape than getting in.)

Truth. I still believe in the whole endeavor, but there's also this:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/04/there_are_no_academic_jobs_and_getting_a_ph_d_will_make_you_into_a_horrible.html

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

Seriously, how do you pronounce Ntozake Shange  ???

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

Seriously, how do you pronounce Ntozake Shange  ???

n-to-zaki shan-gay

 

[Katia_chan]

n-to-zaki shan-gay

 

I love your username. Just saying.

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

I love your username. Just saying.

Perhaps it should be "New Kidneys" now.

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

Does anyone know if English programs always interview applicants before finalizing their decisions? I really really suck at interviews, especially on Skype. If so, can you name some schools that definitely make interviews? 

[ComeBackZinc]

Interviews for English PhD programs are very rare.

[Snglo-Aaxon]

Does anyone know if English programs always interview applicants before finalizing their decisions? I really really suck at interviews, especially on Skype. If so, can you name some schools that definitely make interviews? 

Emory

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

Interviews for English PhD programs are very rare

 Thanks a lot, I'm relieved. 

[jazzyd]

I think most programs are smart enough to realize they'd hardly accumulate the best crop of grad students if they relied on sociability as a factor of who gets in or not.

[ProfLorax]

Have y'all seen this yet? http://lolmythesis.com/ Because it's golden. 

 

People sum up their theses in one sentence. Some examples:

 

Fake science sounds an awful lot like real science, except it’s fake. --Archaeology

 

Rats like cocaine. --Psychology

 

Toni Morrison just really kills it. --English

[jazzyd]

"Things run we; we don’t run things"

 - Art History, Theory, and Criticism, Stony Brook University

 

Hi-lar-ious

[champagne]

"Letting animals poop near water increases the amount of poop and E. Coli in the water."

 

"We found out that fish that look different are different species."

 

I'm relieved that the science theses were even more ridiculous than the humanities ones. 

[poliscar]

"What a novel about Pavlovian boners can tell us about alternative social conditions." 

Leave it a thesis about Pynchon to sound the most ridiculous; so much love for Pynchon...

[gk210]

random non-sequitur coming your ways...anyone applying to Syracuse's English program for Fall 2014?

[champagne]

"You've come too far to care what they say."

 

I like this song, because it gives me encouragement. Y'all are almost done with it! Remember that there are beautiful things in the world despite your current milieu:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbHg5WbKKO4

[rhetoricus aesalon]

random non-sequitur coming your ways...anyone applying to Syracuse's English program for Fall 2014?

 

Uh, kind of. I'm applying to their composition & cultural rhetoric program, which is technically separate from the English department. Syracuse is one of few schools to separate English and rhet/comp, and I believe it was the first.

[gk210]

Uh, kind of. I'm applying to their composition & cultural rhetoric program, which is technically separate from the English department. Syracuse is one of few schools to separate English and rhet/comp, and I believe it was the first.

oh nice right on. yeah i'm applying for the MA English department...i think its awesome they pay attention to MAs and actually do offer funding (or at least what i've read.) i just hate that personal essays are pretty much normal statements of purpose essays broken down into three parts (500, 600, 800 words)...including a teaching statement. it's tough...i've never really written a statement explaining why exactly i want to teach. either way, syracuse is my number one right now...i'd do anything to get into their program and cohorts. i just need to finalize my essays which i find tougher to complete when i have to shove everything i want to say in less than 800 words. 

[Katia_chan]

I can't look at my SoP again.   I just can't...

[Romanista]

How is everyone approaching the "what other programs are you applying to?" question? 

 

I'm planning on not listing all of them because I'm paranoid that the adcoms (particularly for MA programs) will think "this fellow is applying to a lot of programs so we needn't admit him since he will probably go elsewhere."

[champagne]

How is everyone approaching the "what other programs are you applying to?" question? 

 

I'm planning on not listing all of them because I'm paranoid that the adcoms (particularly for MA programs) will think "this fellow is applying to a lot of programs so we needn't admit him since he will probably go elsewhere."

I haven't filled any of them out. I can't see how it would benefit me or the Adcomm in making a decision.

[ghijklmn]

It can be helpful for them when putting together a funding package. If they see what other schools you applied to and make a guess about which ones will want you, they can have a better idea of what their competition is.

[champagne]

It can be helpful for them when putting together a funding package. If they see what other schools you applied to and make a guess about which ones will want you, they can have a better idea of what their competition is.

Ahh, true.

 

I guess I'm just scraping by for whatever I can get as far as acceptance and funding goes, and not letting them know this in my application is better than cluing them in on that fact up front. That, at least, gives me solace enough to sleep minimally.

 

If they ask personally, I would be glad to give them that information. Until that unlikely time approaches, I would rather my abysmal application give them cause for rejection rather than lack of competitive funding on their part.

[rhetoricus aesalon]

I could imagine this might also give them an idea of who else you see yourself working with. Since academic worlds are small--especially at the subfield level--I'm assuming people will know each other's programs and be able to gauge how well you have pinpointed your interests, your potential, and your value.