penn state acceptance

[hopefulJ2010]

anyone to claim this w/ stats if possible? anyone else heard back from them?

[thinkagain]

I applied to the MA. Absolutely no word. Getting anxious. I know, preaching to the choir.

[w2010]

anyone to claim this w/ stats if possible? anyone else heard back from them?

I was wondering the same thing. Congrats to whoever got the phone call!

[hopefulJ2010]

I applied to the MA. Absolutely no word. Getting anxious. I know, preaching to the choir.

le vecu, i don't have an MA yet... i applied to the direct admit phd. i'm becoming anxious-- i hope some programs will offer admission to the MA if not the phd.

[tortola23]

I also applied to the MA. I emailed about two weeks ago to check that all of my materials had arrived, and got this:

"At this time we are still working very hard to scan in materials to our system. Once all materials are scanned we will review all applications for completeness and contact individuals who might have items still missing. Please be patient and if we are in need of anything we will be in touch."

No other word from them; then again I have had no word from any of my eight schools besides the ubiquitous, "you're under review."

[Nightingalesing]

If it helps at all, I know Penn State is currently interviewing Comparative Literature finalists. (However the interview was mostly focused on figuring out language capabilities / availability to TA for language classes. I would imagine that English adcoms would not take similar steps). When I asked, my interview said that decisions would be mailed in March and an accepted students weekend for all graduate programs would be mid-month.

Different departments... but I know some people enjoy an excess of information because it makes guessing easier!

Best of luck!

Edited February 10, 2010 by Nightingalesing

[Aquinaplatostotlestine]

to add to what Nightingalesing was saying, my (comp lit) phone interview with Penn State was mostly about "fit," language abilities, the particular strengths of their program, funding, and the meet & greet weekend in March. That also told me that final decisions wouldn't come down until, at the earliest, a few weeks from now. It was, all in all, a very positive experience and one I was left feeling good about. Good luck to fellow interviewees and to everyone else too in this grueling application process!

Cheers.

Edited February 10, 2010 by Aquinaplatostotlestine

[Kam]

I was one of the acceptances. I put it down as MA in Results, but I think that they assume/like their MA students will stay with them for the PhD (hence the MA funding).

I don't like to get specific with my stats, but I have middle road GRE scores (it wasn't a very good experience and I had no time to retake, sadly), a pretty good GPA with a higher in major GPA. I think my writing sample and SOP were both good, and I'm guessing my LORs were also good (2 are from big names in my field, 1 from a postbacc I've had for 3 classes).

The grad chair called and he was very nice. There's a open house day/weekend in March, and he said that they're going to send out letters (by post) in a few days (though, with the snow it could take longer). He said he called to let me know sooner, but I don't know if that means all calls happened already, or will happen this week, or...anything, really. But I'd assume that final decisions are coming soon.

I don't know a ton at this point, but if people have other questions I'll try to answer!

[w2010]

I was one of the acceptances. I put it down as MA in Results, but I think that they assume/like their MA students will stay with them for the PhD (hence the MA funding).

I don't like to get specific with my stats, but I have middle road GRE scores (it wasn't a very good experience and I had no time to retake, sadly), a pretty good GPA with a higher in major GPA. I think my writing sample and SOP were both good, and I'm guessing my LORs were also good (2 are from big names in my field, 1 from a postbacc I've had for 3 classes).

The grad chair called and he was very nice. There's a open house day/weekend in March, and he said that they're going to send out letters (by post) in a few days (though, with the snow it could take longer). He said he called to let me know sooner, but I don't know if that means all calls happened already, or will happen this week, or...anything, really. But I'd assume that final decisions are coming soon.

I don't know a ton at this point, but if people have other questions I'll try to answer!

Kam--

Thanks for the heads up and CONGRATS!

[hopefulJ2010]

700 applications for penn state english this year? really?

[Pamphilia]

Hello!

I also received a call offering me admission to Penn State English (MA, with the intention to continue to the PhD) a few days ago and am one of the posters in the results search. I think they are notifying their fellowship nominees first, and I got the impression that they will be offering admits in rounds. Presumably everyone except waitlistees will be notified by the endish of March, when the recruitment weekend will take place.

I think--and please don't quote me on this because I was a little too giddy to process everything accurately--the DGS told me that they will be aiming for a cohort of around 16 (and obviously admitting more than that). If I remember correctly, he also told me that they will only be accepting a couple of applicants who already hold MAs. Penn State expect their MAs to go on to complete the PhD, so it's quite difficult, I think, to gain admission to the PhD program with an outside MA.

As for stats, I'm going to decline to post mine because I think they're pretty useless and don't really indicate much. I've posted them elsewhere on GradCafe and you can find them if you dig. What I will say is mine are very good. However, I think more than my stats, what clinched it for me was that in the fall I was in contact with one of Penn State's Big Cheese professors who really took a shining to me, and apparently put in a good word. I will refer to this person as Professor Superwonderful. S/he's extremely helpful and nice.

Don't worry if you haven't heard yet! They're definitely not finished notifying

Edited February 13, 2010 by Pamphilia

[Venetia]

700 applications for penn state english this year? really?

I know! What is with Pennsylvania this year? First UPenn, now Penn State...crazy.

[hopefulJ2010]

I know! What is with Pennsylvania this year? First UPenn, now Penn State...crazy.

it's really crazy! i'm from the nyc area so i applied to nyu (implied rej i think) and didn't bother with columbia. i understand ivies and city schools garnering a lot of apps but penn state, despite being a good program wouldn't really strike me as a high-target school. i have a few on my list i'm hoping didn't get NEAR 700 applicants.