Decisions

[CarolineNC]

Hi CarolineKS! Congrats on all your acceptances. I'm fairly familiar with the UNC program for various reasons and live around the area. If you have any questions about the program, lifestyle, atmosphere, or how far the stipend goes and the availability of outside monies beyond the stipend (I have experience in that too), let me know. 

Thanks! I will take you up on that if I get in off the waitlist. Oh how I want to get in. So bad so bad. so bad. 

[lyonessrampant]

The stipend at Davis beats Austin and chapel hill's by quite a bit, but I feel like I need to go with the school that's ranked the highest. Is that dumb?

Rank matters in terms of perception of prestige, but those schools are all pretty close together, so I wouldn't give a lot of thought to rankings.  I'd focus on stipend, yes, but make sure to factor in cost and quality of living.  There are indicators online that you can use.  Additionally, visit and see which program appeals to you most.  Get information about placement rates, student support, additional funding and research opportunities, etc.  The list of questions below may be helpful in terms of things to consider when weighing programs.  I'd look at that list and take into account things that are personally important to you and then choose on the basis of those reasons rather than rank, especially since these three programs are all well known and ranked similarly.

 

-PLACES TO STUDY AND WORK

-Where do most people do their writing and reading?

-What study spaces are available? Do students get a carrel? Do those who teach get or share an office?

-LIBRARY

-What is the library system like? Are the stacks open or closed?

-What are the library hours?

-Are there specialized archives/primary sources that would be useful to my research?

-Are there specialist librarians who can help me with my research?

-FACULTY

-Are the faculty members I want to work with accepting new students? Are any of those faculty members due for a sabbatical any time soon?

-Are professors willing to engage you on a personal level rather than just talking about your work?

-Are there any new professors the department is hiring in areas that align with my interests?

-Students’ relationships with their professors – are they primarily professional, or are they social as well?

-FUNDING

-Is funding competitive? If so, do students feel a distinction between those who have received more generous funding and those who haven’t?

-How does funding break down among the cohort? i.e., how many people receive fellowships?

-How, if you don’t have much savings, do you make enough money to live comfortably?

-Are there external fellowships one can apply to? If so, what is available? Does the program help you apply for these fellowships? How does receiving an external fellowship affect internal funding?

-If people need more than five/six years to finish, what funding resources are available? (For instance, Columbia can give you an additional 2-year teaching appointment.)

-Do you provide funding for conferences or research trips?

-How often is funding disbursed? (i.e., do you get paid monthly or do you have to stretch a sum over a longer period of time?)

-COHORT

-Do students get along with each other? Is the feeling of the program more collaborative than competitive?

-Do students in different years of the program collaborate with each other, or are individual cohorts cliquey?

-How many offers are given out, and what is the target number of members for an entering class?

-Ages/marital status of people in the cohort – do most people tend to be married with families? Are there younger people? Single people? What sense do you have of how the graduate students interact with each other socially?

-Do people seem happy? If they’re stressed, is it because they’re busy or is it because they’re anxious/depressed/cynical/disillusioned?

-Is the grad secretary/program administrator nice?

-What is the typical time to completion? What are the factors that slow down or speed up that time?

-I’ve read that there are two kinds of attrition: “good” attrition, in which people realize that the program, or graduate study, isn’t right for them and leave early on, and “bad” attrition, in which people don’t finish the dissertation. What can you tell me about the rates of each, and of the reasons why people have chosen to leave the program?

-JOB MARKET/PROFESSIONALIZATION

-What is the placement rate? How many of those jobs are tenure-track?

-What are examples of institutions in which people in my field have been placed?

-How does the department prepare you for the job search? Are there mock interviews and mock job talks?

-Are the people helping you navigate the job search people who have recently gone through the process themselves?

-If you don’t get placed, is there anything the department can do for you? (e.g., can you stay an extra year?)

-How does the department prepare you for and help you attain conference presentations and publications?

-SUMMER WORK

-What is encouraged/required?

-If there separate funding/is the year-round funding enough to live on during the summer?

-Do people find themselves needing to get outside work during the summer in order to have enough money?

-Am I expected to stay in town in the summer, and what happens if I don’t?

-LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT

-What is done to help people who don’t have language proficiency attain it? Does the university provide funding?

-What is the requirement, and by when do you have to meet it?

-Given my research interests, what languages should I study?

-When do you recommend doing the work necessary to fulfill the language requirement? (i.e., summer before first year, summer after first year, while taking classes, etc.)

-LOCATION REQUIREMENTS

-How long are students required to be in residence?

-How many students stay in the location for the duration of the program? (i.e., how many dissertate in residence?)

-How is funding affected if you don’t stay?

-Incompletes on papers at the end of the term: What is the policy, how many students take them, and how does this affect progress through the program?

-TEACHING

-What sort of training is provided?

-What types of courses do people teach?

-Does teaching entail serving as a grader? Serving as a TA? Developing and teaching a section of comp?

-How are students placed as TAs? Is there choice about what classes you teach and which professors you work with? Do classes correspond to your field?

-How many courses do you teach per semester/year?

-How many students are in your classes?

-How does the school see teaching as fitting in with the other responsibilities/requirements of graduate study?

-How do students balance teaching with their own work?

-Is the department more concerned with training you as a teacher/professor or with having cheap labor to teach their classes?

-How, if at all, does the economic downturn affect teaching load/class sizes?

-What are the students like? Can I sit in on a course a TA teaches to get a sense of them?

-METHODOLOGY

-Is a theory course required?

-What methodology do most people use?

-Where, methodologically, do you see the department – and the discipline – heading?

-Is interdisciplinarity encouraged, and what sorts of collaboration have students undertaken?

-Typical graduate class and seminar sizes

-What should I do to prepare over the summer?

-Ask people I know: What are the questions – both about the program itself and about the location – I should ask that will most help me get a feel for whether this is the right program for me?

-Ask people I know: What do you wish you knew or wish you had asked before choosing a program?

-Is the school on the semester or the quarter system, and how does that affect classes/teaching/requirements?

-What is the course load for each semester, and how many courses are required?

-What kind of support is provided while writing the dissertation? I worry about the isolation and anxiety of writing such a big project. What does the program do to help you break the dissertation down into manageable pieces, and to make the experience less isolating?

-What do writing assignments look like in classes? Do they differ based on the type/level of class and/or based on whether you intend to specialize in the field?

-Ask professors: what have you been working on lately?

-Ask professors: What is your approach to mentoring and advising graduate students?

-How long are class meetings?

-How often do professors teach graduate courses?

-Are course schedules available for future semesters (10-11, etc.)?

-Can I see the grad student handbook? Are there any other departmental documents – such as reports on the program prepared for accreditation – that I can see?

-QUALITY OF LIFE

-Prices – how does the cost of gas, milk, cereal, etc. compare to other places I've lived in?

-Cost and quality of typical one-bedroom apartment.

-What does the university do to provide you with or help you find housing?

-When (i.e., what month) do people start looking for an apartment for the fall, and where do they look?

-Is it easy to find a summer subletter?

-How close to campus can—and should—one live?

-What grocery stores are there in town?

-How late are cafes, bookstores, malls, restaurants typically open?

-What do people do to make extra money?

-Does the town have more of a driving or a walking culture? What is parking like near campus (availability, ease, cost)?

-Where do most English grad students live? Most other grad students? Most professors? Where is the student ghetto? Do most students live near each other, or are they spread out far and wide?

-How far does the stipend go in this location?

Edited February 22, 2015 by lyonessrampant

[empress-marmot]

I did land a cushy fellowship and it doesn't feel decisive. What if it doesn't allow for enough teaching?? What if that prevents me from getting a job?? Yes, I am playing the world's tiniest violin as I type this.

 

 

I understand! My university told me explicitly that I wasn't allowed to work while I had the fellowship. The other day I planned out my schedule for Fall 2015, and essentially...there's nothing. Mondays/Fridays off, classes from 3-7 TWR, and that's it. What am I supposed to do? Plus, I have a wonderful part-time job in the area. The pay is nice, the perks are beyond amazing, and I like my coworkers. 

 

But it's a fellowship. The tiny violin plays on.

 

And lyonessrampant, I think every time you post that wonderful list, an angel gets his/her wings (or appropriate academic equivalent). Thank you so much!

[lyonessrampant]

^Or a deserving person gets a TT offer; I wish that were true!

 

Edited to add that once you're in a program, you'll find that your time fills SO much more quickly than you think it will.  There are events to go to, speakers to go listen to, graduate student organizations/groups to be involved in, grants and things to apply for, conferences to apply for and attend, papers to revise to send out for publication, etc.  Basically, your fall may look open, but I would wager that once you start, you'll find your time filling up surprisingly fast.  It is unfortunate that you like your part-time job; I suppose you could always keep working there and not tell the department or see if the job would let you work there over breaks and summers and then more again if you want later once you're off that specific fellowship.

Edited February 22, 2015 by lyonessrampant

[LCB]

I am so grateful for a thread of people who understand the feeling of doing nothing but fretting over the decisions they're making.

I did land a cushy fellowship and it doesn't feel decisive. What if it doesn't allow for enough teaching?? What if that prevents me from getting a job?? Yes, I am playing the world's tiniest violin as I type this.

Loving everyone's perspective. Keep it coming. It's soothing and helpful. Can't wait to see where everyone ends up.

 

This is definitely a concern of mine! I have fellowships at two of the places I've been accepted to, and I'm interviewing for one at the third. So... I worry about getting experience.

 

However, every school's fellowship package is different. I have talked to the DGS at each school about these concerns, and they've helped me think about ways I'd still be able to get experience while also having the fellowship. Some schools have summer jobs, some have RAships or small positions that are outside of the normal teaching/research duties, so you can take those on, etc. Also, many fellowships don't last the full time that you are there, so you still get teaching experience the years you aren't on fellowship; it just makes it easier for when you are. My advice would be to directly ask the DGS how flexible they can be, and you might end up finding out that a lot of places have some pretty good ways of getting around the "no work while on fellowship" rule if it's a great opportunity for you.

[empress-marmot]

^Or a deserving person gets a TT offer; I wish that were true!

 

Edited to add that once you're in a program, you'll find that your time fills SO much more quickly than you think it will.  There are events to go to, speakers to go listen to, graduate student organizations/groups to be involved in, grants and things to apply for, conferences to apply for and attend, papers to revise to send out for publication, etc.  Basically, your fall may look open, but I would wager that once you start, you'll find your time filling up surprisingly fast.  It is unfortunate that you like your part-time job; I suppose you could always keep working there and not tell the department or see if the job would let you work there over breaks and summers and then more again if you want later once you're off that specific fellowship.

 

Thank you for the advice! I have a couple ideas for ways to earn money without having an official job--editing, petsitting, tax sales, stuff like that. Plus, the terms of my fellowship were that I have to do 10 hours of research a week. If I'm allowed to set my own schedule, that means ten hours straight on Friday.

 

I think I won this fellowship because I wrote about all the stuff I want to do on campus, like intern at the press, work on the literary magazine, work in the writing center, play in the ensembles. Add in volunteer work, and I'll be an overstressed mess by semester's end. I wouldn't have it any other way.  

 

This is definitely a concern of mine! I have fellowships at two of the places I've been accepted to, and I'm interviewing for one at the third. So... I worry about getting experience.

 

However, every school's fellowship package is different. I have talked to the DGS at each school about these concerns, and they've helped me think about ways I'd still be able to get experience while also having the fellowship. Some schools have summer jobs, some have RAships or small positions that are outside of the normal teaching/research duties, so you can take those on, etc. Also, many fellowships don't last the full time that you are there, so you still get teaching experience the years you aren't on fellowship; it just makes it easier for when you are. My advice would be to directly ask the DGS how flexible they can be, and you might end up finding out that a lot of places have some pretty good ways of getting around the "no work while on fellowship" rule if it's a great opportunity for you.

 

LCB, thank you for your input as well. I reached my quota of upvotes for the day--sorry! I mentally upvoted a thousand times, I promise. My fellowship lasts 11 months, so it covers the fall, spring, and summer of my first year. For the remaining two semesters, I get a 2-2 teaching load. I'm trying to plan my degree so I take the harder classes my first year, and take the absolute minimum number of hours/easier classes while I teach. 

 

Has anyone ever asked the DGS about an internship with the university grant writer? I don't want to sound completely weird for suggesting it, but my fellowship did say that my 10 hours of research had to contribute to my "professional development" while "benefiting the university." Learning how to write grants seems like a really valuable use for my time, but I don't want the department to think I'm research-averse or that I don't want to work with their professors. 

[obrial42]

Which schools will you be visiting, Obrial?

I'm visiting UTK and Clemson.

[MonicaBang]

This is all such helpful information. Does anyone have advice on how to approach funding negotiation? I'd love to find out if UConn can match another school's offer (there's a $4K difference), but I feel like it's a delicate dance and I definitely don't know the steps.

 

P.S. Thank you, lyonessrampant, for that fantastic list of questions! 

[allplaideverything]

MonicaBang is the best username.

[MonicaBang]

MonicaBang is the best username.

 

Why, thank you. 

[__________________________]

There's a lot of talk of comparing stipends... maybe you all know about this already, but I've found this "Cost of Living Calculator" to be pretty useful...

 

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

 

Just throwing it out there.  My partner and I have been consulting it when thinking about different offers I've had.  So far, I haven't been too conflicted about that though.  A useful tool in general though.

[Dr. Old Bill]

There's also this handy living wage calculator you can use for communities throughout the country.

 

It's similar to what MM posted, but also different enough to make it worth posting on its own -- both are definitely great resources.

[unræd]

Has anyone else turned down any programs yet?

 

I'm very conscious of the fact that other people are still waiting on good news, and so I know that in the grand scheme of things, it's a good problem to have, it'll open up a spot/money for others, they don't take it personally, etc etc etc, but that doesn't change the fact that it feels like it sucks, and that you're tuning someone down. Especially when it's a program you really like, and that has been so incredibly warm and welcoming. Ugh. Unpleasant.

Edited February 23, 2015 by unræd

[kurayamino]

Has anyone else turned down any programs yet?

 

I'm very conscious of the fact that other people are still waiting on good news, and so I know that in the grand scheme of things, it's a good problem to have, it'll open up a spot/money for others, they don't take it personally, etc etc etc, but that doesn't change the fact that it feels like it sucks, and that you're tuning someone down. Especially when it's a program you really like, and that has been so incredibly warm and welcoming. Ugh. Unpleasant.

I know. I've been drafting my "turn down" email to Bloomington for the past two days, and it's just so hard. They're so nice and welcoming and bah. It's super difficult, but I know it will open up a spot for someone else so I'm powering through it. Very unpleasant though.

[CarolineNC]

Has anyone else turned down any programs yet?

 

I'm very conscious of the fact that other people are still waiting on good news, and so I know that in the grand scheme of things, it's a good problem to have, it'll open up a spot/money for others, they don't take it personally, etc etc etc, but that doesn't change the fact that it feels like it sucks, and that you're tuning someone down. Especially when it's a program you really like, and that has been so incredibly warm and welcoming. Ugh. Unpleasant.

I've turned down KU, UMass and Pitt (library). My letters were short, pleasant, appreciative, and to the point. However, now they want to know why I've turned them down, which is kinda awktown. 

[Idiot]

I'm there too, even though I don't know what offer to turn down yet. 

 

One school I'm admitted to has none of that warm and welcoming approach. At first I thought I would eventually accept this offer, but this absence of any personalized contact from anyone is worrying me a little, like it could be symptomatic of the culture of the department. I guess I wouldn't have cared about it if the other departments didn't send me so many friendly emails. Anyone else experienced a difference in attitude at different schools?

[kurayamino]

I'm there too, even though I don't know what offer to turn down yet. 

 

One school I'm admitted to has none of that warm and welcoming approach. At first I thought I would eventually accept this offer, but this absence of any personalized contact from anyone is worrying me a little, like it could be symptomatic of the culture of the department. I guess I wouldn't have cared about it if the other departments didn't send me so many friendly emails. Anyone else experienced a difference in attitude at different schools?

 

Oh yes definitely. I would say that Bloomington has been the most welcoming and generous with their time. The larger state schools have been cordial, but definitely less personal.It felt like a difference between courting someone and being courted.

[unræd]

I'm there too, even though I don't know what offer to turn down yet. 

 

One school I'm admitted to has none of that warm and welcoming approach. At first I thought I would eventually accept this offer, but this absence of any personalized contact from anyone is worrying me a little, like it could be symptomatic of the culture of the department. I guess I wouldn't have cared about it if the other departments didn't send me so many friendly emails. Anyone else experienced a difference in attitude at different schools?

 

Yes, very much so! I have one school that's one of my top choices that is incredibly hardcore about their welcome--I got four different emails from four different people in the course of one day, and they're rolling out their faculty emails in what must be (I've compared notes with another applicant, and they're getting emails from the same profs on the same days) military precision. A couple of my other programs have been positively tight-lipped in comparison!

[empress-marmot]

I'm there too, even though I don't know what offer to turn down yet. 

 

One school I'm admitted to has none of that warm and welcoming approach. At first I thought I would eventually accept this offer, but this absence of any personalized contact from anyone is worrying me a little, like it could be symptomatic of the culture of the department. I guess I wouldn't have cared about it if the other departments didn't send me so many friendly emails. Anyone else experienced a difference in attitude at different schools?

 

I think I saw the issue about recruitment come up a couple days ago. Sometimes departments really focus on recruiting their accepted students--a professor called me on a Saturday once. When I mentioned visiting, she put together a campus visit day just for me. 

 

One school accepted me in late January. I wasn't contacted by anyone till last week. 

 

I wouldn't hold it against your "unwelcoming" school till you contact professors/graduate students in your field. Maybe they want you to make the first move? 

[LCB]

I'm there too, even though I don't know what offer to turn down yet. 

 

One school I'm admitted to has none of that warm and welcoming approach. At first I thought I would eventually accept this offer, but this absence of any personalized contact from anyone is worrying me a little, like it could be symptomatic of the culture of the department. I guess I wouldn't have cared about it if the other departments didn't send me so many friendly emails. Anyone else experienced a difference in attitude at different schools?

Some schools also do a lot more post-acceptances than pre-acceptances (one of my schools was definitely this way; I got some basic contact/info going in, but then a lot of stuff once I actually got there). You might also be wary of the reverse happening - where schools are so focused on getting people to come that they know how to "sell" their program, but don't always end up being as beautiful as they sound once you get there. This has happened to multiple people that I know, who were basically recruited really hardcore by specific POI at their schools and arrived their only to find that their POIs weren't nearly as interested in taking them on as it had seemed, the POIs were super busy and didn't really have the time to devote to them at all, there were major personality conflicts with them, etc.

 

In general, I'd say that I'm definitely leaning more towards programs that are being more friendly to me. I feel like that indicates the university is organized, wants me there, and has an environment I would enjoy. But I wouldn't necessarily bank on it, I guess? Or count the programs out who are less interactive.

 

A side note: I can't remember if this is on the list of questions to ask programs, but one question I've found extremely helpful has been to ask how many students have dropped out of the program in recent years. While placement rates for some programs might be extremely high, placement rates are also only determined by the number of people who are applying for jobs; they don't tell you the number of people who didn't make it that far. If a university has a really high dropout rate, you might (politely) ask why. Obviously, there are individual reasons why people might leave the program, so don't worry too much if one or two people has left, but there are some places where entire classes of students have dropped out - and that's indicative of a deeper problem within the program. If they aren't taking steps to solve it, be suspicious.

[SilasWegg]

I too am getting ready to turn down some offers but I think I might wait until I accept an offer formally. I know this keeps the funding situation in limbo for others but I can't help but feel cautious moving forward. In past application cycles I've been accepted to programs and then gotten a last minute mess-around on funding. Not that I think this will happen this time around, the offer is completely firm. I'm just a little gun-shy about the whole thing and sort of over-protective. Am I being overly-anxious? Is it really time to formally decline offers?

[unræd]

I too am getting ready to turn down some offers but I think I might wait until I accept an offer formally. I know this keeps the funding situation in limbo for others but I can't help but feel cautious moving forward. In past application cycles I've been accepted to programs and then gotten a last minute mess-around on funding. Not that I think this will happen this time around, the offer is completely firm. I'm just a little gun-shy about the whole thing and sort of over-protective. Am I being overly-anxious? Is it really time to formally decline offers?

 

I started formally declining because the deadline for the RSVP for visit weekend was coming up, and I wouldn't have felt right not being upfront about why I wasn't now going, given how obviously excited I'd been for it previously. I also knew that, as much as I really, really loved the program and the people (and it's one of my absolute top choices in terms of pure research fit), given some of my other acceptances and the job market, there was no realistic way I would have chosen them over a couple of other equally-fitting choices I have. I've heard from all of my schools at this point, and I've been lucky enough to have seven acceptances; while I would have been absolutely thrilled to attend any one of those schools, there are naturally some I'm more excited about than others. I won't formally accept an offer until the latter half of March, though (when my visits are complete), and I think that's far too long for me to be tying up the resources of a couple of other places I'm pretty sure I won't attend, so, for me at least, yes: it's time.

 

Here's hoping somebody got a call off the wait list!

[lyonessrampant]

Don't decline an offer you think you'd seriously consider taking, but don't waste resources for a visit (if you don't use them they can go to someone let in off the waitlist) and sit on an offer when you can't imagine taking it over another offer you already have.  

[NowMoreSerious]

I'm not saying this will be anybody else's experience:

 

I won't mention which school, but one school really showed me a lot of love.  Great acceptance phone call, and constant friendly emails from everyone, including graduate students and professors.  

 

Then when it came down to finalizing my financial offer, I felt a lot less 'loved.'  Obviously, it's not all about money (I did not choose the school that gave me the best financial offer), but I have to take into account that some schools financial/fellowship offers allowed me to focus completely on my work while others stipulated that I have to constantly teach several courses, take jobs on the side, etc. 

[BLeonard]

I wanted to ask a quick question of the group. It looks like I'll be rejected from the PhD programs I applied to, and, as a backup, my undergraduate institution is sort of courting me, suggesting I take on a full-time job at the university and feed right into their M.A. program. This would allow me to keep studying without a real break in my education, continue to work with the faculty I admire, and further prepare me as a PhD candidate. Additionally, the professors who are encouraging me to pursue this suggest that it would be fairly easy to get full-time employment at the college, allowing me to pay for the degree much more cheaply than an M.A. from another institution.

 

My question is -- does this sound like a good back up plan? I have a couple of concerns, chiefly that if I do this, I wouldn't start a PhD program until Fall 2017 at the earliest, and I'll be 33 when I do. (The comments/discussion about age in another thread really got into my head, haha.) The other concern I have is I know schools look down on people that get their MA and BA from the same place -- is this really true? How much would that hurt my chances?