Fall 2015 Applicants

[omensetter]

Did all other University of Chicago applicants get the email re invites for interviews going out this coming Monday? I don't think they've interviewed before; I wonder what made them decide to do so this year.

[fancypants09]

Did all other University of Chicago applicants get the email re invites for interviews going out this coming Monday? I don't think they've interviewed before; I wonder what made them decide to do so this year.

Could you specify what department this is for? Applied to Comp Lit and a national lit department there but no word for interviews.

[snyegurachka]

Did all other University of Chicago applicants get the email re invites for interviews going out this coming Monday? I don't think they've interviewed before; I wonder what made them decide to do so this year.

 

 

Definitely not....

[Space_Girl]

I got the email, but had the impression from its wording that they sent it out to all applicants. I applied to English, not Comp Lit. 

Edited January 24, 2015 by Space_Girl

[omensetter]

Yeah, I applied in English. The wording certainly made it sound like it went out to everyone.

[Dr. Old Bill]

Did all other University of Chicago applicants get the email re invites for interviews going out this coming Monday? I don't think they've interviewed before; I wonder what made them decide to do so this year.

 

I didn't...

[sillyrabbit]

Crazy! I wonder if any other English PhD programs are also interviewing this year...

[Dr. Old Bill]

*crawls under a rock* I'm not sure I can stand it. What's going to hurt more, the waiting or the knowing??! I'm so scared...

 

 

I know there's a load of time left...but it's starting to get to me a little too. Waiting was fine when none of the places I applied to had reported yet. Now that UWM has, it's another story. Knowing that it could be anywhere from a day to ten weeks before I get an acceptance...yikes!

 

I promise I'm not going to freak out (publicly, at least!) about every little acceptance / rejection...but yes. I'm with you, fellow octopus...

 

[unræd]

Speaking of interviews: I have a Skype interview coming up in the next week for one of my programs (not an English department). Those who have already done interviews in this or prior seasons, what sort of questions are generally asked? How'd you prepare? Any tips/advice?

 

I just reviewed my SOP for the school, since I hadn't looked at any of my materials since submission, and: oh my God. Don't do that, people, unless you have to. 

 

shudders

[Dr. Old Bill]

 

 

I just reviewed my SOP for the school, since I hadn't looked at any of my materials since submission, and: oh my God. Don't do that, people, unless you have to. 

 

shudders

 

Yeah, I've had to go back and look at a couple of applications for various reasons, and I've been pointedly ignoring the WS and SOP portions. Meep.

[Space_Girl]

I didn't...

 

Wyatt's Torch, did you apply to the English program? It looks like Comp Lit aren't interviewing. 

[Dr. Old Bill]

Wyatt's Torch, did you apply to the English program? It looks like Comp Lit aren't interviewing. 

 

Yes, just plain English.

 

I'd be curious to read the email, but then again, if I didn't get it, I clearly didn't get it for a reason. Not that anyone could know what that reason is, mind you...

[thepriorwalter]

At (a non-english humanities department at) Yale, what they have done in the past is select candidates they are sure they will accept and then interview competitively between candidates who are more on the cusp. Perhaps Chicago, who has never interviewed before (been there, done that, have the rejection letter to prove it), is doing something like that. Of course, I don't know. It's one possibility among many. But there is precedent!

[Dr. Old Bill]

At (a non-english humanities department at) Yale, what they have done in the past is select candidates they are sure they will accept and then interview competitively between candidates who are more on the cusp. Perhaps Chicago, who has never interviewed before (been there, done that, have the rejection letter to prove it), is doing something like that. Of course, I don't know. It's one possibility among many. But there is precedent!

 

Thank you for the much-needed dose of hope! It's like a drug...an opiate. A hopiate, if you will.

[kurayamino]

Did all other University of Chicago applicants get the email re invites for interviews going out this coming Monday? I don't think they've interviewed before; I wonder what made them decide to do so this year.

 

I also did not get an invite for an interview, but I wish you the best of luck for Monday!

[Hannalore]

It seems rude to be obsessively checking and reading this thread without popping in and saying hello! Congrats to the admitted applicants, you lucky bastards. Every time I see a school pop up on the results page that someone in here was waiting for I get so excited for you guys. That's not creepy, right? Probably a little creepy.

[sillyrabbit]

It seems rude to be obsessively checking and reading this thread without popping in and saying hello! Congrats to the admitted applicants, you lucky bastards. Every time I see a school pop up on the results page that someone in here was waiting for I get so excited for you guys. That's not creepy, right? Probably a little creepy.

Welcome! And not creepy at all...I'm rooting for you as well!

[Ramus]

Speaking of interviews: I have a Skype interview coming up in the next week for one of my programs (not an English department). Those who have already done interviews in this or prior seasons, what sort of questions are generally asked? How'd you prepare? Any tips/advice?

 

I can only speak from the one experience I had with a program interview; I'm sure much of what goes on varies by program.  I'll also say before I go on that my interview was an in-person interview - I don't know how doing an interview over Skype will alter things (outside the obvious, like not having to shuttle around between different events). 

 

Notre Dame has an entire interview weekend, which involves several program information sessions, panel-style Q-and-A's with current graduate students, informal dinners and lunches, and three one-on-one thirty minute chats with individual professors who specialize in a subfield at least somewhat related to your field.

 

Questions varied by professor. The first professor I met with was a Dante scholar, so we didn't get into the nitty gritty of the state of criticism or anything like that. He mostly asked me questions about my teaching philosophy -- which, as a twenty-one-year-old college senior, I didn't have the faintest clue -- and how I would explain/justify the value of pre-modern lit to undergraduate audiences. Going into the weekend, I didn't think I'd be expected to figure out how to teach before I'd actually been in front of the classroom, so I made up some vague BS on the fly. I'd suggest that you at least talk with your professors about teaching philosophies if you don't have one in place, as the question might get brought up, especially if you have an MA.

 

The other two interviewers asked me specifics about 1) what I was interested in, 2) my methodology, 3) plans for expanding my research, 4) and specific questions about my writing sample. My advice for addressing each is the same: practice what you're going to say and anticipate potential objections. For example, I primarily employ something like a historical formalist angle in my own writing and research; one of the questions an interviewer raised was whether my approach offered a way of addressing the presentist challenge in early modern studies, which has been dominated by historicism for thirty years. As an undergrad with no sense of the state of early modern studies, I had no F'n clue how to answer that. So my advice is to have, at the minimum, a sense of what people are doing in the field now (last five years, not last twenty-five) and be able to situate your own work in relation to that.

 

And just a bit more about #4. When I applied to graduate programs the first time two years ago, I had never written a paper that was more than twelve pages long, so my writing sample was written from scratch a couple weeks before my first applications are due. The idea I wrote on was an interesting one, but it wasn't very well researched and needed more time to incubate before it was sent off. Well, as chance would have it, it essentially staked out a position directly counter to that one of my interviewers (a big name in Milton studies) had outlined in a book published a couple years before. So, naturally, when we sat down to chat, he pulled my writing sample up on his computer, and went page-by-page asking questions about the claims I was making. I didn't stand my ground and essentially said "I'm not entirely sure -- you're probably right in your book when you take the opposite position." Needless to say, this didn't go well at all. But the takeaway, again, is that you need to be very sure of your writing sample and be able to defend it if it gets brought up in discussion. 

 

And, again, Skype interviews probably won't go down exactly the same way as my interviews did. If you're worried about staying on message (I know I ramble when I'm nervous), you might print off a bulleted list of subjects or main points to come back to. Just a thought.

 

Hope this all helps with you prepare! Good luck! 

[Ramus]

Hope this all helps with you prepare! Good luck! 

 

 

No matter how many times I proofread something, spelling/extra word errors escape. This is why I hate emailing professors....

[Dr. Old Bill]

Just got an OFFICIAL rejection from UW-Madison.

[HesseBunuel90]

I just was rejected as well. Oh well; still 16 schools left.

[Dr. Old Bill]

I just was rejected as well. Oh well; still 16 schools left.

 

Looks like you and I are going to be acceptance / rejection buddies, Hesse! We both applied to 17 places, and there's a fair amount of overlap in our programs (though vastly different specializations, fortunately). Sorry to hear you missed the cut as well. I suppose there is some consolation in knowing that only 12% were made offers. Some consolation. Admittedly not much!

[inkgraduate]

I, too, received my Madison rejection this morning. Oh well. Living in Wisconsin would have been a bit of a struggle for me anyway. I go into hibernation if it drops below 50 degrees.

[unræd]

Hope this all helps with you prepare! Good luck! 

 

This is very helpful--pretty much what I expected, so it's nice to know I was on the right track in terms of issues to think about! Thanks!

[sillyrabbit]

Speaking of interviews: I have a Skype interview coming up in the next week for one of my programs (not an English department). Those who have already done interviews in this or prior seasons, what sort of questions are generally asked? How'd you prepare? Any tips/advice?

 

I just reviewed my SOP for the school, since I hadn't looked at any of my materials since submission, and: oh my God. Don't do that, people, unless you have to. 

 

shudders

 

I've only had one Skype interview for an Am. Studies PhD program, so I can only speak to that. It was very quick (around 20 minutes), and it was with both the DGS and the Program administrator. They basically only asked me one question ("Why us?") and left the rest of the time for me to ask questions. I *think* the purpose of this interview was to confirm my interest/fit in the program. It was a great chat, and overall, nice to meet people on the other side. 

 

As for preparation, I felt that as long as I knew my SoP, my sample, and generally the intellectual priorities of the program, I would be fine. That turned out to be the case.