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This is not related to acceptances and rejections, but I won a prize at my school today! For "exceptional academic excellence in the English department." And a friend of mine says his faculty mentor told him that this particular prize can really be a leg up during admissions to my department's graduate program, which is my first choice, so... fingers crossed?! I hope I hope. I would withdraw all my other apps if I got in and got funded, I don't even CARE that it's less fancy to stay at the same institution for undergrad and grad school.

 

I think I'm going to use the money to fund my trip to Glasgow for the conference I got accepted to. I have to say, I wish I'd won all these things BEFORE I submitted my applications!  :unsure:

I see that you got into Cambridge.... did you apply for funding? at least it's an admission -- but as far as I know funding might have to be applied for separately. The good thing about UK is that you don't have to do all the drudge work that comes with the US system (cheap labour) so there might be that to consider.

 

Congrats and good luck! :)

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I got a request for a second writing sample from UC Riverside! I didn't know this was a possibility, so it's exciting and terrifying. I am not under the impression that they're asking all of their possible admits, and I am under the impression that they'll be making a decision relatively soon (but not immediately soon).

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I got a request for a second writing sample from UC Riverside! I didn't know this was a possibility, so it's exciting and terrifying. I am not under the impression that they're asking all of their possible admits, and I am under the impression that they'll be making a decision relatively soon (but not immediately soon).

 

And yet another thing to be paraoid about... ;-)

 

Congrats! I figure at this point any positive steps are very happy news. Thanks for sharing, and good luck!

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This is not related to acceptances and rejections, but I won a prize at my school today! For "exceptional academic excellence in the English department." And a friend of mine says his faculty mentor told him that this particular prize can really be a leg up during admissions to my department's graduate program, which is my first choice, so... fingers crossed?! I hope I hope. I would withdraw all my other apps if I got in and got funded, I don't even CARE that it's less fancy to stay at the same institution for undergrad and grad school.

 

You smartypants! :) Congrats!

 

I got a request for a second writing sample from UC Riverside! I didn't know this was a possibility, so it's exciting and terrifying. I am not under the impression that they're asking all of their possible admits, and I am under the impression that they'll be making a decision relatively soon (but not immediately soon).

 

Wow. Is this common? Never heard of that happening before. A second, completely different WS? Sounds like a good sign of interest in your app, though!

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Wow. Is this common? Never heard of that happening before. A second, completely different WS? Sounds like a good sign of interest in your app, though!

 

I don't think this is common, though this is my first (PhD) application season, so I'm not sure. I'm coming from an MFA, and all my recommendations are from creative writers, so I think they want to see more evidence of me as a critic/scholar before making a decision. Sure makes me wish I'd had a lit person write me a letter!

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I don't think this is common, though this is my first (PhD) application season, so I'm not sure. I'm coming from an MFA, and all my recommendations are from creative writers, so I think they want to see more evidence of me as a critic/scholar before making a decision. Sure makes me wish I'd had a lit person write me a letter!

 

Maybe, but as In hac spe vivo said, this can only be a good sign. They clearly see potential or they wouldn't bother contacting you! I'm keeping my tightly fingers crossed!

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Yes, congrats Allplaideverything! Like the others, I also think this can only be a good sign. I suspect you are correct in that they just want to see more evidence of your critical writing abilities...which is understandable.

 

Fingers crossed for you! I lived in Riverside for about a month, and the area around the campus is lovely...plus being an hour or so away from L.A proper is such a delight.

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Can anyone who applied to Vanderbilt help me out?  Either the application website is formatted in a way that does not show it, or I didn't submit my SOP!!! I emailed the appropriate graduate staff member about it, and I'm waiting to hear back. Can anyone tell me what their application page looks like? If it looks similar to mine, it will ease my mind until I hear back. If it doesn't, at least I'll know I screwed up.

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I'm with you cjmullis. I think (hope) it just doesn't show up. I know I submitted it; if I hadn't, the application would not be complete.

That makes me feel SO much better! Thank you for sharing! I'll let you know what I hear from them.

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I have come out of lurking to ask a question about the gdoc!

 

I was going to put in my info, but I was wondering if we want to split comp/rhet and literature into two separate sheets. I only wonder that after looking at the SOPs that are already listed -- I feel like comp/rhet and lit take really different tactics when writing those!

 

Anyway, good luck in the admission season!

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I have come out of lurking to ask a question about the gdoc!

 

I was going to put in my info, but I was wondering if we want to split comp/rhet and literature into two separate sheets. I only wonder that after looking at the SOPs that are already listed -- I feel like comp/rhet and lit take really different tactics when writing those!

 

Anyway, good luck in the admission season!

 

it's per program, so maybe that doesn't matter?

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I was hoping we'd get American Studies posters too; it seems to make sense to include them all together given that, while some schools seperate out individual areas of study, a great many programs put things like American Studies, Film, and Rhetoric under the larger, English umbrella, so to speak.

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I was hoping we'd get American Studies posters too; it seems to make sense to include them all together given that, while some schools seperate out individual areas of study, a great many programs put things like American Studies, Film, and Rhetoric under the larger, English umbrella, so to speak.

 

Meh. In theory, I agree -- the humanities are naturally highly interdisciplinary -- but it's a slippery slope. If American Studies is included under that umbrella, then Medieval / Renaissance studies has to be as well. And probably European Studies. And Cultural Studies in general. Maybe even Linguistics, for that matter. I can see comp/rhet getting separated out as being firmly "English" but not literature...but any more than that seems needlessly fractious, given the objective of the Google Doc.

 

Just my two cents, of course. :)

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Meh. In theory, I agree -- the humanities are naturally highly interdisciplinary -- but it's a slippery slope. If American Studies is included under that umbrella, then Medieval / Renaissance studies has to be as well. And probably European Studies. And Cultural Studies in general. Maybe even Linguistics, for that matter. I can see comp/rhet getting separated out as being firmly "English" but not literature...but any more than that seems needlessly fractious, given the objective of the Google Doc.

 

Just my two cents, of course. :)

 

That is very true. Given the interdisciplinary nature of my interests, I applied to English programs with areas of focus that include all of those you listed, but it can get a bit much in thinking about it. For example, I just checked, and one of the programs to which I applied has 18 areas of sub-study under "English."

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Thanks for the congratulations on my prize, everyone! You're all so sweet.  :wub:

 

I see that you got into Cambridge.... did you apply for funding? at least it's an admission -- but as far as I know funding might have to be applied for separately. The good thing about UK is that you don't have to do all the drudge work that comes with the US system (cheap labour) so there might be that to consider.

 

Congrats and good luck! :)

 

Oh - on the contrary, US schools remain my top choice because UK schools don't offer pedagogy training and teaching experience. My mentor, who got her Ph.D. in the UK, specifically told me that it's harder to get a US TT job with a UK degree due to the UK emphasis on research without pedagogy. While it's possible to apply for and acquire such training at a place like Cambridge, the process is much more difficult. I don't consider it drudgery, at least not at the (admittedly well-funded, and thus less teaching-intensive) programs I applied to... and at my undergrad alma mater, my top choice, I would be more than happy to give back to the department by teaching!

 

That said, I have also not heard about funding from Cambridge. I was not awarded the Gates, so my only options would be Cambridge Trust or Trinity (the college I was assigned to) scholarships, which aren't announced until quite late - maybe April? At which point I hope I will already have been accepted at a US school.  :)

Edited by hreaðemus
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Oh - also, about the GDoc! There is this awesome feature called the "filter" function, which allows you to sort entries by column - so I think comp lit or American studies people should feel free to enter themselves if they like. I went ahead and turned it on, and added an extra "Department" category. If you only want to view one category of entry (say, Comp Lit), you just sort by that keyword to get the results you're interested in.

Edited by hreaðemus
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Oh - also, about the GDoc! There is this awesome feature called the "filter" function, which allows you to sort entries by column - so I think comp lit or American studies people should feel free to enter themselves if they like. I went ahead and turned it on, and added an extra "Department" category. If you only want to view one category of entry (say, Comp Lit), you just sort by that keyword to get the results you're interested in.

 

Thanks for sharing your Gdoc expertise! :)

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Aww, see, we just need to emulate these cute animals. They don't care about getting into top programs, why should I? :P And I move we have a thread of happy images and gifs to stare at after rejections.

 

Now to figure out how to shift back into "I AM SO EXCITED TO TEACH YOU FRESHMAN ABOUT NARROWING PAPER TOPICS!" mode before my next class...

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I don't know why, but seeing some of the numbers and comments of the accepted folks always surprises me. They're so damn impressive. That should be obvious, and yet most of the acceptances so far have blown me away (based on the scant info on the results page, that is).

 

Congrats to that Duke acceptance with the 170 verbal GRE, an MFA, 14 publications, years of teaching experience and presentations! :)

 

 

 

 

 

:blink:

Edited by Wyatt's Torch
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