Fall 2014 applicants??

[cbttcher]

Yes, but even once you have the intermediate exam and if you decided to leave school then, you don't have an actual degree because being half-way through your studies doesn't qualify you for anything.

 

Yes! I forgot to write that.

[Horb]

Yeah, my friend's fiancé is German studying at Bonn and he is studying English. He had to do latin too. I feel bad, but I had to study German (or any language) for 4 semesters for my degree, so I think it just depends on UNI standards.

[despejado]

Does anyone know if MA programs accept applications for the spring, or do they also start exclusively in the fall?

[andrewcycs]

Shortstack!! Since you're already in New York, go ahead and stop by NYU and order them to let me into their program by this evening.

I'll make it worth your while! I'll give you a cookie.

[Ozymandias Melancholia]

Does anyone know if MA programs accept applications for the spring, or do they also start exclusively in the fall?

Depends on the program. Some MA programs have rolling admissions; however, the downside of programs with rolling admissions is that they rarely offer funding in that scenario. 

[despejado]

Depends on the program. Some MA programs have rolling admissions; however, the downside of programs with rolling admissions is that they rarely offer funding in that scenario.

Well poo. I'm just trying to be logical and think of some back-up plans that don't require me to take a year off doing nothing. I should've applied to a few MA programs when I sent out PhD apps.

[shortstack51]

Shortstack!! Since you're already in New York, go ahead and stop by NYU and order them to let me into their program by this evening.

I'll make it worth your while! I'll give you a cookie.

Haha no problem. I will do anything for cookies! I'll storm Washington Square and refuse to leave until they admit both of us

I hope we hear back today or tomorrow. They're a reach and I'd like to know ASAP whether to squash my foolish hopes.

[ArthChauc]

This isn't really on topic, but I have word that people who haven't heard back from Nebraska yet will be hearing back today. 

 

My guess is that rejections are going out. 

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

Well poo. I'm just trying to be logical and think of some back-up plans that don't require me to take a year off doing nothing. I should've applied to a few MA programs when I sent out PhD apps.

I forget your interests.

Annnnd as much as I'd like to keep it to myself so I have some chance of getting in... I just can't do it.

Sooo, U.Memphis has a funded MA in several English fields. The deadline for assistantships is March 1st.

It's sort of the ace up my sleeve - if no where else in the next few weeks I'll toss another application in.

 

[despejado]

I forget your interests.

Annnnd as much as I'd like to keep it to myself so I have some chance of getting in... I just can't do it.

Sooo, U.Memphis has a funded MA in several English fields. The deadline for assistantships is March 1st.

It's sort of the ace up my sleeve - if no where else in the next few weeks I'll toss another application in.

You are such a golden angel for sharing this. That's pretty wonderful news! Fingers crossed you don't have to utilize that option and neither do I.

I'm an Americanist with a focus on Southern Literature and the progression of masculinity from the civil war to the turn of the century.

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

You are such a golden angel for sharing this. That's pretty wonderful news! Fingers crossed you don't have to utilize that option and neither do I.

I'm an Americanist with a focus on Southern Literature and the progression of masculinity from the civil war to the turn of the century.

That sounds interesting - I'd like to read/take a course on that.

Memphis may not be a perfect fit - you seem to have focused your studies pretty well and the MA is a little more broad.

But you can certainly be the judge of whether it is worth it or not to apply.

[ArthChauc]

Just got my first rejection. Ugh. So long, Nebraska. 

[ArthChauc]

Oh cool, and another rejection! 

[despejado]

That sounds interesting - I'd like to read/take a course on that.

Memphis may not be a perfect fit - you seem to have focused your studies pretty well and the MA is a little more broad.

But you can certainly be the judge of whether it is worth it or not to apply.

Yeah, I am pretty focused but I wouldn't mind filling in some gaps and broadening my knowledge, especially if it helps make my apps look better next round, ya know?

[cbttcher]

Does anyone know if MA programs accept applications for the spring, or do they also start exclusively in the fall?

 

Apparently, the school where I did my MA extended their deadline but I would contact them immediately.http://www.clarku.edu/graduate-admissions/apply/requirements/ma-english.cfm It's a small, private liberal arts college in Massachusetts.

[Strong Flat White]

Fit is relevant only from the school's point of view, not the applicant's.... 

 

Ex-ACT-ly. Thank you, SleepyOldMan, this is precisely what I've been driving at. I apologize if it has rubbed some the wrong way. I don't mean to be cynical about the process, but I do think that there are competing accounts bouncing around that need resolution. In any case I certainly admit to being confused, and I think that clarifying the rhetoric and the process is indeed productive. 

 

So...it goes like this. From the applicant's point of view, one should not apply to places where one cannot see oneself - in whatever way that is determined, which is of course totally subjective. I sorta thought that went without saying, but hey, let it be said. But, since it has been pretty well established (at least in my opinion, though I am still open to knowing how/if others see it differently) that there is really no way to know how your application might fit a department from the school's point of view, then it stands to reason that you send your absolute best work out and hope that someone deems it a good fit.

 

Now, not to beat the dead horse, but if this is all accurate, then yes, you are likely to fare better by applying to more schools. Doubling your applications could certainly seem extreme and get expensive in a hurry...or, it could seem totally reasonable.  If you double from 6 to 12, that's one thing...doubling from 18 to 36? Quite another. However, I think it's an altogether third thing to come round and insinuate that 15 rejections is indicative of your problematic application and that a 16th school would be a wasted application fee. Let's give folks some benefit of the doubt, no? I've tried to be a really big proponent of assuming that people know what the hell they're doing.  Wasn't it just a few posts back when someone lamented being told by the bitter soul on the results board that the job market sucks?  I will tell you, my bid for a big application cycle has nothing to do with my having been rejected to a whole bunch of schools and my inability to look in the mirror and figure it out. That's not what's going on here, so that's a hypothetical that doesn't do much for me.  Besides, nobody can know these things, and if we assume we're not dealing with a clueless applicant who is blind to larger problematic issues, then frankly the only way to find out is to apply. The only other alternative here is a pedantic one, even if a well-meaning pedantic one. And finally, judging by some comments, one more application fee in the $60-$100 range is basically the end of the world. That may be, but then the conversation has taken a decided turn away from all things fit and odds and probability and toward all things being broke as hell. I've been there, too, and I feel ya. Tight is tight, and it's not a fun place to be. But if it's really that dire, then I would suggest that we have an altogether different kind of conversation going on. That would be my impression anyway.

 

For my own part, I shall be casting a pretty wide net. I haven't yet, but I will later, for the '16 intake cycle. Should be fun!

[despejado]

Apparently, the school where I did my MA extended their deadline but I would contact them immediately.http://www.clarku.edu/graduate-admissions/apply/requirements/ma-english.cfm It's a small, private liberal arts college in Massachusetts.

That sounds awesome! Thank you tons.

[Tweedledumb]

Random thought: Is it just me or do the majority of people seem to be swapping their Verbal/Quantitative scores on the Results Board? I know I accidentally switched my numbers when submitting a result, but it seems like others are having the same issue. I get so confused by these Quantitative geniuses who are accepted to English programs with average Verbal scores 

[shortstack51]

Random thought: Is it just me or do the majority of people seem to be swapping their Verbal/Quantitative scores on the Results Board? I know I accidentally switched my numbers when submitting a result, but it seems like others are having the same issue. I get so confused by these Quantitative geniuses who are accepted to English programs with average Verbal scores 

On the GRE scores page on the ETS website, they list verbal first and quantitative second, but on the results submission form the Q is first and V second. I think we're all just so used to listing V first that we stop and get confused when asked to submit Q first.

[Kamisha]

Bye bye, Nebraska. I didn’t really want to live in Lincoln anyway  

[davidipse]

On 2/6/2014 at 11:57 AM, Strong Flat White said:

... it has been pretty well established (at least in my opinion, though I am still open to knowing how/if others see it differently) that there is really no way to know how your application might fit a department from the school's point of view, then it stands to reason that you send your absolute best work out and hope that someone deems it a good fit.

 

In theology they distinguish between, as they put it, Cataphatic (positive) and Apothatic (negative) definitions of God, who shares probably much more than two letters with graduate school in terms of influence over us the meek.

 

So if one can't see what fits (though that's still contentious), one might try seeing what doesn't fit. I would in no way, were I applying to Duke or Chicago, "submit my best work and hope for the best;" merely in terms of number of faculty, those departments lean heavily towards theory, while I find my strengths have always been in dealing with concrete language and historical data.

 

The best essay I wrote, not just in my opinion but because I edited it and had others help edit it heavily for publication, is on a novel. I didn't use it in any of my applications because I was applying to study poetry.

 

And, since there is always more to you than you can put in a 500 words SOP, "fit" can be a factor in what aspects of yourself and your work you choose to emphasize. This isn't being insincere, inasmuch as that emphasis would probably end up being the effect of getting an education in department A rather than B anyway. In other words, if you have even latent or marginal interest in the digital humanities, this interest will probably intensify if you study at Stanford rather than, I dunno, anywhere else.

 

In short, we're not helping ourselves by insisting we can avoid thinking about what a department will think of our fit with them—however elusive or speculative a concept this might be.

[Kamisha]

Oh cool, and another rejection! 

 

What school besides Nebraska? Sorry

[ArthChauc]

What school besides Nebraska? Sorry

 

St. Louis. I had a feeling both of them were coming, though. One of the benefits of GradCafe--the blow is softened. I knew not to get my hopes up when I received an email from Nebraska this morning because of the results board--it was actually more bearable this way. 

 

Two down, ten to go. That number is shockingly small. 

[Kamisha]

St. Louis. I had a feeling both of them were coming, though. One of the benefits of GradCafe--the blow is softened. I knew not to get my hopes up when I received an email from Nebraska this morning because of the results board--it was actually more bearable this way. 

 

Two down, ten to go. That number is shockingly small. 

 

Yeah. I was hoping that something good would come of UC-Davis today because there were people from there checking out my profiles yesterday. However, I see that a wait list notification is up and I haven’t heard anything. This is discouraging. 

[Katia_chan]

St. Louis. I had a feeling both of them were coming, though. One of the benefits of GradCafe--the blow is softened. I knew not to get my hopes up when I received an email from Nebraska this morning because of the results board--it was actually more bearable this way. 

 

Two down, ten to go. That number is shockingly small. 

 

I'm so sorry.  But try to keep hoping--you still have 5/6ths of your schools left to hear from.  All is nowhere near lost.

 

(...for some reason looking at it in fractions always helped. At least until it was a number where I didn't know how to figure out the fractions. And then *that* reminded me why I was getting an English degree).

 

But double-rejections days suck massively. Do something nice for yourself today. (I ate cake and fed my rejection letters to my roommate's rabbit).