Spanish Literature Phd - 2016

[Dulcinea11]

Hello everybody! Has anyone started to hear back from their applications yet? I applied to 17 programs and have only heard back from five thus far. 

[lauracol]

Hey there--I've been hearing back. Applied to six (UNC Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, University of Chicago, Duke, Cornell, and UTexas Austin) and have heard back from the first three (acceptances, luckily!). No word from the last three yet, but I'm expecting based on the Results Page here and the university websites that I should be hearing by the end of this week or the next. How are things going for you? 

[Dulcinea11]

Hey! I've heard back from University of Chicago, Nortwestern and Indiana (accepted to all!).I've been interviewed by Tulane, Michigan Ann Arbor, and the CUNY Graduate Center, should be hearing back from those soon. And just had a phone conversation with someone at Yale so still waiting on that as well

[bugambilia]

Hello – I've been accepted to Harvard's Romance Languages & Literatures program (the Spanish section). Very excited as it's one of my top choices. All of the other programs I applied to were Comparative Literature. Best of luck to everyone! 

[Dulcinea11]

On 2/14/2016 at 2:13 PM, bugambilia said:

Hello – I've been accepted to Harvard's Romance Languages & Literatures program (the Spanish section). Very excited as it's one of my top choices. All of the other programs I applied to were Comparative Literature. Best of luck to everyone! 

Congratulations! That is wonderful news!!

 

[mundodevidrio]

Hi there,

I have applied to the MA at UGA, and the PhD programs at UNC Chapel Hill, Buffalo and University of South Carolina. I have been accepted to UGA with funding and to South Carolina with funding decision to come soon. Still waiting on results from Buffalo and UNC Chapel Hill.

[Dulcinea11]

1 hour ago, mundodevidrio said:

Hi there,

I have applied to the MA at UGA, and the PhD programs at UNC Chapel Hill, Buffalo and University of South Carolina. I have been accepted to UGA with funding and to South Carolina with funding decision to come soon. Still waiting on results from Buffalo and UNC Chapel Hill.

It seems like a few of us are still waiting on UNC Chapell Hill, although some people have already gotten acceptances!!! Good luck everyone!!!

[lauracol]

Congratulations to all on your acceptances! 

 

I really like the program at UNC Chapel Hill, but unfortunately the funding package they offered me was not as good as UVa or UChicago. I am waiting to hear back to see if I'll receive additional funding--if I receive that then their package will be the same as UVa (and similar to UChicago after accounting for cost of living differences). Although I really like all the programs that I applied to, a major part of the decision will come down to funding. 

 

Dulcinea, you applied to SEVENTEEN programs??? I can't even imagine going through that process for each application, it was hard enough completing six. 

[Dulcinea11]

4 hours ago, lauracol said:

Congratulations to all on your acceptances! 

 

I really like the program at UNC Chapel Hill, but unfortunately the funding package they offered me was not as good as UVa or UChicago. I am waiting to hear back to see if I'll receive additional funding--if I receive that then their package will be the same as UVa (and similar to UChicago after accounting for cost of living differences). Although I really like all the programs that I applied to, a major part of the decision will come down to funding. 

 

Dulcinea, you applied to SEVENTEEN programs??? I can't even imagine going through that process for each application, it was hard enough completing six. 

Yes it was pretty intense, just glad to be on the other side now!! 

And i agree, the funding is an important part of our decision making process. Theres a good tool for assessing the living cost of different cities: https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/?trk=nw_gn_2.0 hope it can be of some help!

[Jhlasa]

Hi to everyone

My name is Jorge and i'm from Spain. I have applied to several universities (Pennsylvania, Santa Barbara, Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan, Georgetown and Berkeley). For the moment, i was selected to Santa Barbara and Wisconsin. The question is that i'm getting on my nerves trying to select between the two of them. My specialization is Golden Literature. What do you think? Any clue? which of them are "better"?

Thank you for your time.

[lauracol]

Well, on a superficial level, Santa Barbara is going to be a lot warmer! It's a beautiful town in a great location with nice weather. 

I don't know anything more about either of those programs and my specialty's not Golden Age, but I think if you check out the Spanish thread from last year, I remember reading that a few people had looked into Wisconsin and it seemed to be highly regarded. 

Have you heard from any professors that you could be working with? 

[Jhlasa]

Hi, Lauracol.

I know few professors in US. There are a couple in Santa Barbara, one in Michigan and a couple in Penn who sounds me familiar. The problem in US universities is that I had to pick departments which have Spanish literature and in US there aren't so many of them. In any case, It's really hard to select one. For instance, Santa Barbara is a four-years phd programe but i seems to be longer in Wisconsin (and they have a bigger founding). I will wait for the rest of the missing universities, but I should recheck the current working of the staff of each universities. Puff, i'm exhausted. This is a never-ending process... xD

[Dulcinea11]

53 minutes ago, Jhlasa said:

Hi, Lauracol.

I know few professors in US. There are a couple in Santa Barbara, one in Michigan and a couple in Penn who sounds me familiar. The problem in US universities is that I had to pick departments which have Spanish literature and in US there aren't so many of them. In any case, It's really hard to select one. For instance, Santa Barbara is a four-years phd programe but i seems to be longer in Wisconsin (and they have a bigger founding). I will wait for the rest of the missing universities, but I should recheck the current working of the staff of each universities. Puff, i'm exhausted. This is a never-ending process... xD

Hi Jhlasa, 

I think at the end of the day it comes down to fit, and by fit I mean not only the fit within the department but also within the outer space. Have you had the opportunity to visit both institutions? If not, I would inquire to see if this is an option, It could really help you in making a decision.  I believe the program at Wisconsin is longer, (are you going in with a BA or an MA?) but on average PhDs take 5-6 years, so I am surprised to hear that Santa Barbara has a 4 year program. I hear you, it really does feel like a never-ending process!

[lari87]

Hi everybody.

I wanted to get folks opinion on this, is anyone familiar with the spanish dpt at yale and the current controversies surrounding it?

I found this online and was quite disheartened: http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/02/05/spanish-dept-grad-apps-plummet/

Seems like the program has been undergoing serious challenges lately. Apparently, none of the five people accepted last year chose to go. Also, only 19 people applied this year which is significantly low according to their standards. I recently received an acceptance but coming across this brought up mixed feelings:

“Unfortunately the pool of graduate program applicants is very, very small, and the candidates are not very promising,” Spanish professor Anibal González-Pérez GRD ’82 said. “The recruitment of new professors at assistant and senior level will be important to give our department a new perspective. It is true that the department can become very isolated and backwards-looking if it does not refresh its faculty.”

How do they expect people to want to attend the school when they are expressing doubts about the candidates?

Thoughts?

 

[P.Y C]

Well...seems like I'm one of the "not very promising" candidates...
Ay Dios...
 

12 hours ago, lari87 said:

Hi everybody.

I wanted to get folks opinion on this, is anyone familiar with the spanish dpt at yale and the current controversies surrounding it?

I found this online and was quite disheartened: http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/02/05/spanish-dept-grad-apps-plummet/

Seems like the program has been undergoing serious challenges lately. Apparently, none of the five people accepted last year chose to go. Also, only 19 people applied this year which is significantly low according to their standards. I recently received an acceptance but coming across this brought up mixed feelings:

“Unfortunately the pool of graduate program applicants is very, very small, and the candidates are not very promising,” Spanish professor Anibal González-Pérez GRD ’82 said. “The recruitment of new professors at assistant and senior level will be important to give our department a new perspective. It is true that the department can become very isolated and backwards-looking if it does not refresh its faculty.”

How do they expect people to want to attend the school when they are expressing doubts about the candidates?

Thoughts?

 

 

[lari87]

2 hours ago, P.Y C said:

Well...seems like I'm one of the "not very promising" candidates...
Ay Dios...
 

 

So am I.... 

[mundodevidrio]

I received my assistantship offer from South Carolina on Friday. It is the MA/PhD program so it is five years of funding!  

Still waiting on Chapel Hill. Yet another week has gone by.

[Dulcinea11]

3 hours ago, mundodevidrio said:

I received my assistantship offer from South Carolina on Friday. It is the MA/PhD program so it is five years of funding!  

Still waiting on Chapel Hill. Yet another week has gone by.

Congratulations, that is wonderful news!!!!! And same here, still waiting on UNC and many others school! 

[Jhlasa]

Hi, guys!

If there aren't any change (Pennsylvania) I think I will choose Wisconsin. A couple of days ago, the person in charge of the grad department phoned me and he was really kind. He didn't mind to explain to me the phD programe, what kind paperwork I must fill, what they are studying , etc ... Two hours on the phone xD. It seems very interesting in me, so I am very glad.

[Dulcinea11]

1 hour ago, Jhlasa said:

Hi, guys!

If there aren't any change (Pennsylvania) I think I will choose Wisconsin. A couple of days ago, the person in charge of the grad department phoned me and he was really kind. He didn't mind to explain to me the phD programe, what kind paperwork I must fill, what they are studying , etc ... Two hours on the phone xD. It seems very interesting in me, so I am very glad.

Would you be going there for an MA or PhD? 

[cactilio]

Hi everyone!

it seems most of the schools (not all, thankfully) have decided about their candidates. Since I have not applied to many I am very interested in knowing (if you don't mind sharing the information with me/us) if you got accepted in Tulane and if you are going to attend. Apparently, I was a top candidate that was just placed in the waiting list.  That hurts! And congratulations to everyone who was accepted!

[Dulcinea11]

16 hours ago, cactilio said:

Hi everyone!

it seems most of the schools (not all, thankfully) have decided about their candidates. Since I have not applied to many I am very interested in knowing (if you don't mind sharing the information with me/us) if you got accepted in Tulane and if you are going to attend. Apparently, I was a top candidate that was just placed in the waiting list.  That hurts! And congratulations to everyone who was accepted!

Hope you hear back soon!!!

[lauracol]

Cactilio--best of luck! If you're at the top of the waiting list I'm sure someone won't accept their offer and hopefully you'll be moved up to acceptance! 

[lauracol]

PS I wrote a really long, thoughtful reply to the Yale thing and then when I went to submit it my internet was cut out and I lost it. But the long and short of it is I didn't apply to Yale because I had read that information and they need to seriously revamp the department if they want to fix this situation at all. To me it's a bit of a dealbreaker--I don't want to be in a department where that kind of thing is happening. Plus I fear that the nature of the ivies themselves sort of can stagnate programs--I want to be looking at new things or looking at old things in new ways and be as cutting edge as possible in my research, and if you have a stagnated department you're not going to get that. 

[cactilio]

3 hours ago, lauracol said:

Cactilio--best of luck! If you're at the top of the waiting list I'm sure someone won't accept their offer and hopefully you'll be moved up to acceptance! 

Thank you lauracol! Hope this works out that way...I remain positive!