UW Madison

[shoestofollow]

Anyone on here going to the Welcome Days?

I booked my flight last week and will be bringing my partner.

[RydraWong]

I am! At this point, Madison's one of my top two choices so I'm really excited to get a feel for the campus and department. I've also heard nothing but good things about the city of Madison so looking forward to the trip. Have you heard back from any other places?

[shoestofollow]

I've been accepted to Indiana-Bloomington and rejected from UCLA. Waiting on everyone else!

What is your area of interest? I'm interested in African and African Diaspora Lit.

[RydraWong]

I'm interested in studying feminist science fiction and hopefully incorporating a disability studies approach to science fiction studies as well. 

And oh cool, I'm in at Indiana too - are you planning on going to their recruitment day as well? Indiana and Madison are my top two choices right now because they're both great places to study science fiction but I think I'm leaning more toward Madison. 

[shoestofollow]

I haven't decided about the recruitment day for Indiana. I haven't received any details about it yet other than the date, so hopefully I'll be able to decide once they send out more info.

I am also leaning more towards Madison at this point. Although be honest I'm a bit scared of the weather

[RydraWong]

Yeah I've lived in California my entire life so I'm terrified at the prospect of a Wisconsin winter. But I feel like I should get used to the idea of moving somewhere cold because I'im probably going to be Midwest-boudn. And definitely send me a PM if you do end up going to the Indiana recruitment day, it would be cool to discuss the pros and cons of each program with someone haha.

[Silabus]

Awww, no! You guys have heard from IU already? I haven't...this isn't good. I really liked them too for their Victorian studies department.

Well, I'm happy people here got in! Even if I am put out about not getting in myself. Well, or maybe my acceptance is just delayed. A guy has to hope!

[positivitize]

25 minutes ago, Silabus said:

Awww, no! You guys have heard from IU already? I haven't...this isn't good. I really liked them too for their Victorian studies department.

Well, I'm happy people here got in! Even if I am put out about not getting in myself. Well, or maybe my acceptance is just delayed. A guy has to hope!

 

I'm in the same boat as you. I haven't heard anything at all yet from IU, but my application status still says "Submitted"--not even "Under review." I'm hoping that they're just sending acceptances to the PhD students and then they'll send out the MA>PhD's after. I've probably been rejected though. Oh well. IU was a longshot.

[Silabus]

@positivitize I'm glad I'm not alone! Maybe things are just happening in waves for everybody.

[shoestofollow]

I think it's likely things are going out in waves! I was notified via phone call on a Saturday and had the impression that not everyone was being told at the same time. Best of luck to you both!!

[kirbs005]

@shoestofollow and @RydraWong I don't want to crash the party...but I'm a Badger alum from the English department and have been in Madison for almost 7 years so feel free to PM me if you've got questions about the town or department!

[shoestofollow]

@kirbs005 Thank you!!! I will definitely PM you with some questions

[imogenshakes]

I wish I could go to the Welcome Days! I'll actually be in California with my partner (so trading places with @RydraWong I guess!) that week for Spring Break. It was planned before I was accepted. You guys will have to scope it out and let me know how things look! 

[RydraWong]

@kirbs005 thanks for the offer! I do actually have lots of questions so expect a PM from me soon. Also @imogenshakes - have the best time in California on vacation! I'll definitely take lots of pictures and notes about Madison and the program.  

[soydominique]

@shoestofollow and @RydraWong Hey! I'm going to the UW March visit as well! I'm also in at Indiana Bloomington's rhetoric PhD and just heard from Illinois's English Studies. Can't wait to talk to everyone!

Edited February 13, 2017 by soydominique

[imogenshakes]

5 hours ago, RydraWong said:

Also @imogenshakes - have the best time in California on vacation! I'll definitely take lots of pictures and notes about Madison and the program.  

Oh, I will, believe me. I've never been out west, and my partner is eager to show me around his old haunts (LA, Anaheim, San Diego etc.). I'll be hitting you up for info after you've scoped things out, if you don't mind! I'm still hoping to get out there, but my POI isn't going to be there the weekend I was originally going to go, so I"m going to email the DGS and see if we can work out another time. 

[RydraWong]

Bumping this as I'm currently chilling at Chicago O'Hare, waiting for a connecting flight to Madison  if any of you all happen to be getting a day early, definitely send me a PM! Otherwise, I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow and learning more about the program!! I wonder how we'll be able to distinguish who's from gradcafe and all but if you hear someone talking about feminist science fiction, there's a good chance it's me  

safe travels!

[shoestofollow]

@RydraWong See you tomorrow! I won't be flying out til morning

Also we should have a secret handshake or signal

[orangishoranges]

Hey! I'm also going to be at the Madison visit days! Have either of you received more information about the logistics and schedule? One of the emails said that there would be a welcome reception tomorrow at 4PM but it didn't indicate a location, and I can't find any other emails with more details. But also my brain has been so scattered the last few weeks that I could have just missed an email entirely or something....help! Looking forward to meeting you both!

[RydraWong]

@orangishoranges I received a pretty detailed schedule for welcome days about a week ago, with locations and times and other details. If you want to PM me your email address, I'd be happy to forward it along to you. I totally get that stuff gets overlooked in email all the time! 

I also received information about staying with a graduate student a couple weeks ago and have set up through her transportation to and from the airport, when to come over, etc. If you haven't received any info about that, I'd say try emailing the grad student who's the coordinator of the event? If you don't have her email handy, I can also send that to you as well. Looking forward to meeting you as well! 

[orangishoranges]

@RydraWong Ah you're a godsend! PMing you my email right now

[metaleptic]

Hi all! I have an offer from UW-Madison but couldn't make it to their open days because I'm an international student and I couldn't squeeze out time (and money) for the visit, unfortunately. As their open days have concluded, I would be very grateful to hear the thoughts of those who visited: on Madison, the grad community, the place, etc.  Thanks!

[hmss9245]

Same with @metaleptic here! I might be accepting UW-Madison's offer, and couldn't go there right now for more info...

Would appreciate it if some of you post about your visits there, like what attracts you the most, how available the resources are for studying and for living, and so on... (actually, just seeing your post-visit-discussions would be helpful enough!) 

 

 

[RydraWong]

Speaking for myself, I really enjoyed the welcome days! I was a bit apprehensive coming to the Midwest as a Californian but the weather wasn't too bad when I visited (the lake was frozen but thawing on the first day I arrived and it was completely thawed out and blue and beautiful on the day I left). Madison itself seemed like a nice city, large enough that there seems like there's plenty going on and a decent place to for someone in their twenties to live. I'm coming from Davis so Madison reminded me a lot of Sacramento, CA - a mid-sized capitol city with some cool bars/restaurants but definitely not anything urban. 

As for the program itself, it was clearly an academically rigorous place but not cutthroat - all the grad students I met did say your first year is really tough because you're taking 4 classes a term but they all seemed happy to be there, genuinely friendly/friends with each other, and laidback/not pretentious at all. I met with the POIs I named in my SOP and they were all kind and brilliant and seemed to take mentoring students + teaching seriously. I was equally fascinated by the work being done by people outside of my particular field (20th c. American lit); Monique Allewaert talked about her research during a panel and later at the potluck dinner at the DGS' house, I got the chance to speak to her more and she just seemed both incredibly smart and warm. The fact that Madison is such a big public university with so many resources was also a draw for me; for example, Madison has a stellar history of science program and as someone interested in science and literature/interdisciplinary work in general, it was good to hear that a lot of people do interdisciplinary work, take classes outside of the department, etc. It also seemed like they have a pretty vibrant public humanities scene, which made sense after someone explained to me the Wisconsin Idea and what that all entails. 

There were a lot of different panels on student life, teaching, etc, which got a bit tiring but was really helpful in giving me a sense of the department atmosphere. I liked that there seems to be a lot of emphasis placed on training the doctoral students to be good teachers and the fact that there's a well-established writing center also seems like a good resource. There also seems to be a lot of flexibility with designing the English 101 comp course to fit your own research interests, which was a plus, and the 1/1 teaching load seems quite doable and reasonable. I was again a bit apprehensive about teaching in Wisconsin and how the student body might react to certain topics (this is just coming from my impression of the state/Scott Walker/the fact that it went red this election/the undergraduate demographics), but a lot of people reiterated that the students at Madison are really earnest and eager to do well and learn so that was helpful. 

These are my thoughts off the bat, I've probably missed something because I feel like so much happened over the span of a few days but definitely feel free to PM me with any more specific questions you have! 

[metaleptic]

Thanks @RydraWong for sharing your thoughts on UW-Madison! It's really helpful in allowing me to have a better understanding of graduate life there. I was also concerned about the political climate there, so hearing your thoughts on that aspect is a huge relief. This is a slightly touchy subject, but did anyone bring up the budget cuts/Scott Walker, and how the university/faculty is responding to it?