EALC 2018

[Naito]

@AnUglyBoringNerd You will go very far in life (and certainly academia). Respect. *tips off my hat*

[archimon]

@AnUglyBoringNerd Do you have any idea whether Columbia interviews all of its finalists? I received an email from my POI in January stating that he would support my application, but I was not interviewed and haven't heard anything since. 

[AnUglyBoringNerd]

54 minutes ago, archimon said:

@AnUglyBoringNerd Do you have any idea whether Columbia interviews all of its finalists? I received an email from my POI in January stating that he would support my application, but I was not interviewed and haven't heard anything since. 

Sorry, but I don’t know whether all finalists are interviewed. But I got the official notification to check the website yesterday, so I assume official results are coming out (for EALAC applicants). Also, I applied to the History -East Asia program, applicants to this program can apply through both EALAC and the History Department and are (to my understanding) considered together, so if your focus is on literature, film, or religion etc. instead of on history, then there could be a different procedure/timeline. Hope this helps!

[tsuyuri]

20 hours ago, AnUglyBoringNerd said:

I only contacted my POI at Harvard so I cannot say that all of our POIs will definitely tell us the reason. Maybe this has something to do with the personality of POIs and/or our rapport with them and/or how busy they are. It's not their responsibility to tell us the reasons, so if they do,  I'd say they've done us a huge favor. Think about it, a renowned historian bothered to take time to comment on our writing even though we are not their students - to me that's a huge privilege.  By all means, I don't think asking them about our application is gonna hurt us, although how we word this inquiry is important, in my humble opinion. Mine was something like this:

[short introduction to remind POI who I am] 

[A]s I intend to learn from this history of failure and reapply in the fall of 2017, I was wondering if it may be proper for me to ask for your advice regarding my application so I could make more improvements this year?

I apologize if I have caused you any inconvenience. Also, please allow me to thank you again for your encouragement. 

You can see that I used "from this history of failure", indicating I was very emotional back then (I was, which means I was less professional, oops), which, in hindsight, was unnecessary and should have been avoided. My suggestion is to try to frame our email in a positive and professional way with as much elegance and grace as you can gather, don't focus on the rejection but see it as an opportunity to make improvements, and of course let's take this opportunity to thank our POIs for reviewing our application.  You may not even mention the word "rejection", I think I said something like "I have received the official notification about the result of my application to XX program, and would like to thank you for reviewing my application. Meanwhile...." 

Hope this helps!

 

See if you can make this into a professional networking opportunity.  

My appreciation is beyond words. You R So Kind!!!!!!

Thank you so much for your advice. This surely helps. 

[Naito]

Rejected from WUSTL and Berkeley here.  残念ながら不合格....

[Kaiwei]

Rejected from UWashington... Just glad to be moving this thing along! Four more to go 

[kotatsumuri]

I'm sorry to hear about the rejections

But costevens is right--at least things are moving along! Wish my apps would get moving along some more. Been quiet for a while now...hope it doesn't continue until mid-March...

[BC2018]

I've been following this thread for a while and wanted to ask a question...

What are everyones thoughts on getting accepted into a master's when you applied for the PhD?

A bit of background: I already have a master's in International Relations (focus on Asia) from a top Korean university (I'm a US citizen). I applied to 6 PhD programs in Asian Studies. I've had 3 rejections, 2 I haven't heard anything from yet, and the 1 acceptance into the MA instead (with no funding) :-\ My Korean language level is intermediate.

Thanks!

[BagelBabee]

6 hours ago, BC2018 said:

I've been following this thread for a while and wanted to ask a question...

What are everyones thoughts on getting accepted into a master's when you applied for the PhD?

A bit of background: I already have a master's in International Relations (focus on Asia) from a top Korean university (I'm a US citizen). I applied to 6 PhD programs in Asian Studies. I've had 3 rejections, 2 I haven't heard anything from yet, and the 1 acceptance into the MA instead (with no funding) :-\ My Korean language level is intermediate.

Thanks!

I have a similar background with you, only that my focus is Japan - I did my master’s in Japan and I’m not Japanese (US citizen with another nationality, but I hardly call myself American and English is not my native language either), I also got 2 rejections, 1 MA, and 1 Ph.D offer with funding (I guess I’m just lucky) 

I do feel like US grad schools prefer students with an MA from an English-speaking country, as the POI of the school that gave me the MA offer told me so. But at the same time, for some schools having international experiences is also a plus, so don’t give up!

[Kongyiji]

Hi all ! As the Spring Festival comes to a close, I find a chance to write here. Congratulations to all of those accepted this past week, and for those among us who have been rejected -- it's such a crap shoot!! I go so insane waiting for decisions, but the one thing that ironically makes me NOT think about checking my e-mail is trying to write old-style verse (key word: trying). Perhaps we could riff on a Spring theme here. I chose to use the "Initial falling tone/rhyming rising tone tonal pattern" (仄起格平聲韻定式), and the eleventh rhyme grouping, which rhymes with toe (十一尤). It was composed on the last night of the Spring Festival to celebrate the arrival of Spring. Can any one can spot the 李白 reference? 

傍水春垂欣絮柔         
雲霞作客下揚州
青蛙草滿何方是
鳴叫忘返入海流

For translation, I use 14 syllables per line (separating 8/6 with paragraph break), and matching rhymes for lines 1,2, and 4 ... for shits. 

O' lush the Spring that brook's boughs droop
    and willow's petal blows. 
To province south drift pilgrims, there-- 
    the clouds at dusk in rose. 
Frogs whose chins are hid in grasses,
    I cannot see but one. 
Returning not with tide, their song, 
    to ocean out it flows. 

Edited February 22, 2018 by Kongyiji

[lordtiandao]

@Kongyiji Not a poet by any means but it's a beautiful verse! Well done. Btw feel free to PM me if you have already questions about Berkeley or living in the Bay Area. Never went there myself but I live quite close to Berkeley. 

[AnUglyBoringNerd]

2 hours ago, Kongyiji said:

Can any one can spot the 李白 reference? 

煙花三月，故人西去

[kotatsumuri]

Finally heard from Princeton--no go, as expected, but a very kind email at least. Glad to check another off my list. Zero for three on the PhDs but have yet to hear from 3 more MAs!

Congrats to the Princeton admit from the last day or so! Anyone going to claim that...?!

[Naito]

@Kongyiji Wow!! Bravo!! 引詩仙導字之擧，善中之至善，風景生動若活畫，妙筆一揮手，呼春喚百花，君之詩無與倫比！！Thanks for re-igniting the poetic spirit in this thread! Please allow me the pleasure and honor to join the Party Poetica and offer three humble pieces:

(1) 《落志吟》

(2) 《贈無名女居士》

(3) 花見俳句

I imagine this is similar to the gatherings of the literati during the early Imperial era -- often the officials would exchange poems and drink wine while watching traditional or martial dances (飲酒唱歌觀劍舞）!! (I'm a hopeless romantic-idealist haha). Even during the early Imperial period, it should be noted that many famous people who eventually went on to do great things in the Tang, such as  空前絕後詩聖杜甫 the first-and-the-last Poet Sage Du Fu, failed the Imperial Examination 唐科舉制. Joining the group of literati who failed the Imperial Examination was the Taoist Sage 妙道真君呂洞賓　who ended up choosing to follow the Dao (出世) rather than trying to become a scholar-official (入世). If they had not failed the Imperial Examination, the world might not have seen these two magnificent Poet and Taoist Sages! In other words, this may have been a blessing in disguise 禍兮福所倚 福兮禍所伏。

And, in fiction written by Lu Xun 魯迅,, we all know that Kong Yiji 孔乙己 never passed the exam (or really? The author never really told us what his ultimate fate was -- he could have passed the exam and still ended up being miserable or dead; we were only told, through the narrator's perspective and conjecture, that Kongyiji hasn't been seen therefore Kongyiji probably died: "我到現在終於沒有見——大約孔乙己的確死了。But in all likelihood, he would probably still die even if he passed the Imperial Examination somewhere down the road during the turbulent late Qing era anyway 生於清末之亂世難以苟全性命也！）

1. @costevens《落志吟》

As mentioned earlier, since I got rejected, here's the sequel to my 《待校信》, which is 《落志吟》. Unlike the prequel, the sequel employs the 兮 form of classical poetry originated from the State of Chu 楚, which Qu Yuan 屈原 was most famous for during the Warring States.

《落志吟》

臘月風兮寒刺骨，雪景無垠兮白霜湖　
落榜信兮驟然臨，凄清音兮悲楚琴！
初高志兮今漸散，書生命兮空虛感！
他日多兮需自勵，餘六校兮仍要悉
拜佛^[1]祈福^[2]兮願得一！

Notes 注解: [1] 佛者，佛祖之外亦為哈佛門校之略。[2]福者，福壽之外亦為斯坦福門校之略。兩者皆為美東美西之稷下學宮。一方喻言訪寺信佛求成，一方期盼仍有高中之望。

-- 白駒子，2018年2月22日，美東

2.  @AnUglyBoringNerd《贈無名女居士》 Like many Tang literati, the act of exchanging poems to their best friends (e.g. 杜甫 to 李白) -- or even new acquaintances (e.g. 李白之《贈汪倫》), served not only a romantic-idealist function of satisfying the poetic momentum of the poet, but also a way to promote both their own career, personality, and works, as well as the recipients of the gift poems (See Anna Shields, 《知我者》) . IMHO, 知音者，知其音而交其心，如箏風合一，雙劍合璧也，相逢足矣！

《贈無名女居士》

因緣僥相識
幸君賞我詩
無需見尊顏
知音連心思

-- 白駒子，2018年2月22日，美東

3. @kotatsumuri And this is my haiku 俳句 inspired by my upcoming trip to Tokyo Japan in early April to see cherry blossoms haha. 

《花見俳句》　（はなみはいく）

天(あま）の花（はな）
空（そら）から落（お）ちる
桜（さくら）海（うみ）

-- 白駒子，2018年2月22日，美東

 

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Naito

[AnUglyBoringNerd]

@Naito This is so impressive! Count me in please, though I do need to take some time to shift to the right language mode before I can come up with any decent response. (at the moment I am all about "recalling..reiterating...reaffirming") lol

[Naito]

On ‎2‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 9:00 PM, BC2018 said:

I've been following this thread for a while and wanted to ask a question...

What are everyones thoughts on getting accepted into a master's when you applied for the PhD?

A bit of background: I already have a master's in International Relations (focus on Asia) from a top Korean university (I'm a US citizen). I applied to 6 PhD programs in Asian Studies. I've had 3 rejections, 2 I haven't heard anything from yet, and the 1 acceptance into the MA instead (with no funding) :-\ My Korean language level is intermediate.

Thanks!

@BC2018 Welcome to thread! Sorry I was drafting a response to your inquiry but was distracted by the poets' party lol. But in a nutshell, a few points:

1. Yes, like @BagelBabee said, having a US MA will really help you. The reasons are (a) your LORs from US MA program will come from professors that the PhD admission committee probably know well; (b) foreign professors may not really know how to write a LOR, as the genre really requires a different style (i.e. hyperbole) -- I was asked by a foreign friend to edit his foreign professor's LOR for him (as his prof let him see it) and it was full of grammar errors!; (c) they may not be familiar with how good of a preparation for doctoral programs your MA university is. Of course, there are people who have done MA abroad and gotten to top PhD programs. Robert Ashmore comes immediately to mind (MA Chinese, Beijing; PhD, Harvard), but getting a top MA program in the US helps getting into a top PhD in the US http://ealc.berkeley.edu/people/ashmore-robert

2. Have you taken TOPIK (한국어능력시험）? If you're still in Korea, give it a try, and push your linguistic competency in Korean to Level 5 or 6 (Advanced). Levels 5 and 6 are really just about learning more Hanja, idioms, and specialized vocab, so if you have a strong foundation in Korean grammar you'll not find Levels 5 and 6 difficult. If you are at Yonsei University, you can take courses at the KLI 연세대하교 한국어학당, and they will prepare you very well for taking the TOPIK. (If you want to improve on speaking, Sogang University's Korean program is probably better). Take the TOPIK, get the diploma, and strengthen your profile for re-application.

3. Since you seem to want to study international relations, why not apply to and get an MA from Johns Hopkins or Georgetown? Both have great MA programs and have limited funding available. If you get an MA from Johns Hopkins' Institute of Advanced International Studies, I imagine you would be a stronger candidate for your eventual re-application to PhD programs.

[Naito]

21 minutes ago, AnUglyBoringNerd said:

@Naito This is so impressive! Count me in please, though I do need to take some time to shift to the right language mode before I can come up with any decent response. (at the moment I am all about "recalling..reiterating...reaffirming") lol

Thank you!  Looking forward to your poems. 

[Naito]

Translations: 

1st poem:《落志吟》

臘月風兮寒刺骨，雪景無垠兮白霜湖　
落榜信兮驟然臨，凄清音兮悲楚琴！
初高志兮今漸散，書生命兮空虛感！
他日多兮需自勵，餘六校兮仍要悉
拜佛^[1]祈福^[2]兮願得一！

Notes 注解: [1] 佛者，佛祖之外亦為哈佛門校之略。[2]福者，福壽之外亦為斯坦福門校之略。兩者皆為美東美西之稷下學宮。一方喻言訪寺信佛求成，一方期盼仍有高中之望。

Translation:

 

"Loss of Zeal Poem"

 

In the 12th month of the lunar calendar,

The cold wind gusting, its chill piercing.

The landscape covered in boundless snow,

The lake has turned into white dust.

Suddenly news of rejection arrived,

The cold, plaintive sound

Of the guqin^[1]cries the sorrow of lost Chu^[2] 

My original high hope dispersed with the wind,

My fate as a shusheng^[3] has become an empty void,

But wait, the days are still long, so I must self-encourage,

Still six more schools that have yet to let me know of my fate

I shall pray to the Buddha for fortune, to get into just one of these!^[4]

 

1. Guqin: Classical Chinese string musical instrument

2. Chu: One of the 7 major states in the Warring States of China that was destroyed by the armies of the First Emperor

3. Shusheng: Often used to imply someone who JUST knows how to study and nothing else

4. There's a pun/word play here that is easily lost in translation. But basically the transliterated sound for Harvard into Chinese has the word Buddha in it, and the transliterated sound for Stanford into Chinese has the word "Fortune" in it, so in addition to the verse having its literal meaning, the pun/word play implies "Between 'worshiping' Harvard and  'requesting' Stanford, I wish for one of the two!"

 

2nd poem:《贈無名女居士》

因緣僥相識
幸君賞我詩
無需見尊顏
知音連心思

Translation: "Gift to the Nameless Scholar"

We met by a twist of Fate, a predestined relationship

I cannot be more glad that you found in my poem poetic joy

No need for me to see your venerable countenance

Twin souls our tunes met, the meeting of the minds

 

3rd poem:《花見俳句》　（はなみはいく）

天(あま）の花（はな）
空（そら）から落（お）ちる
桜（さくら）海（うみ）

Translation: 

Heavenly flowers
Are falling from the high sky
Cherry blossoms sea
 

-- 白駒子，2018年2月22日，美東

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Naito

[Naito]

For those who can't read Chinese, here's the rough translation for the other poem.

《待校信》

尚無回音，嗚呼痛哉

未知成否，長期久待

千慮萬愁，人豈不傷

何以忘憂，名揚金榜

時河悠悠，斷吾心腸！

 

"Waiting for Letter from the Schools"

 

There are not yet any reply coming back from any schools,

The lack of noise alone led to my tear-soaked sleeves.

Not knowing if it's an acceptance or a rejection,

I have to continue the long-winded path of anticipation.

As the thousand thoughts and million worries build up,

There won't be anyone who aren't affected by the wait.

So how do we make ourselves forget the state of disquiet?

Only when we are accepted, of course!

The slow flow of the river of time is so sluggish,

Yet its force is enough to place my heart in pain.

 

-- 白駒子，2018年2月23日，美東

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Naito

[Naito]

@AnUglyBoringNerd @Kongyiji @costevens @Ouyang @mxiongturquoiseI'd like to share this poem written by Luo Guanzhong 羅貫中 in  Romance of the Three Kingdoms《三國演義》which captures my sentiment in waiting for further results. Both the Imperial Examination 科舉 and Recommendation System 察舉制 are so like graduate school admissions...(Even though I am 復古運動學派 like 歐陽修  was, I hate this!) 

There's a song for it, too. The last line is so me! "聊寄傲於琴書兮，以待天時" 

"鳳翱翔於千仞兮，非梧不棲；

士伏處於一方兮，非主不依。

樂躬耕於隴畝兮，吾愛吾廬；

聊寄傲於琴書兮，以待天時。”

 

(Imperfect) translation by C. H. Brewitt-Taylor:

"The phoenix dies high, O!

And only will perch on a magnolia tree.
The scholar is hidden, O!
Till his lord appear he can patient be.
He tills his fields, O!
He is well-content and loves his home,
He awaits his day, O!
His books and his lute to leave and roam.

 

Edited February 25, 2018 by Naito

[AnUglyBoringNerd]

4 hours ago, Naito said:

聊寄傲於琴書兮，以待天時。

In theory, I should behave like this whenever I get rejected --> "未遂风云便，争不恣狂荡。何须论得丧。才子词人，自是白衣卿相"(柳永《鹤冲天·黄金榜上》）. In practice, when I was rejected by all the programs I applied to in 2017, I was like this:

Back then, the most eloquent verse for me was: "Meow? Meow! Meow?! Meow..." (repeat it in all four Mandarin tones) 

 

[Naito]

4 hours ago, AnUglyBoringNerd said:

In theory, I should behave like this whenever I get rejected --> "未遂风云便，争不恣狂荡。何须论得丧。才子词人，自是白衣卿相"(柳永《鹤冲天·黄金榜上》）. In practice, when I was rejected by all the programs I applied to in 2017, I was like this:

Back then, the most eloquent verse for me was: "Meow? Meow! Meow?! Meow..." (repeat it in all four Mandarin tones) 

 

@AnUglyBoringNerd Wahahaha the cat expression and grief utterances are classic!! Reminds me of a guqin piece that aptly describes your utterances in not only four tones, but in seven strings...   以音表心，甚妙！！問諸君，多愁之有？奉上一曲，以數君愁：

《幾多愁》

"春花秋月何时了  往事知多少
小楼昨夜又东风  故国不堪回首月明中
雕栏玉砌应犹在  只是朱颜改
问君能有几多愁  恰似一江春水向东流"

 

 

Edited February 25, 2018 by Naito

[BC2018]

On 2/22/2018 at 10:51 PM, Naito said:

@BC2018 Welcome to thread! Sorry I was drafting a response to your inquiry but was distracted by the poets' party lol. But in a nutshell, a few points:

1. Yes, like @BagelBabee said, having a US MA will really help you. The reasons are (a) your LORs from US MA program will come from professors that the PhD admission committee probably know well; (b) foreign professors may not really know how to write a LOR, as the genre really requires a different style (i.e. hyperbole) -- I was asked by a foreign friend to edit his foreign professor's LOR for him (as his prof let him see it) and it was full of grammar errors!; (c) they may not be familiar with how good of a preparation for doctoral programs your MA university is. Of course, there are people who have done MA abroad and gotten to top PhD programs. Robert Ashmore comes immediately to mind (MA Chinese, Beijing; PhD, Harvard), but getting a top MA program in the US helps getting into a top PhD in the US http://ealc.berkeley.edu/people/ashmore-robert

2. Have you taken TOPIK (한국어능력시험）? If you're still in Korea, give it a try, and push your linguistic competency in Korean to Level 5 or 6 (Advanced). Levels 5 and 6 are really just about learning more Hanja, idioms, and specialized vocab, so if you have a strong foundation in Korean grammar you'll not find Levels 5 and 6 difficult. If you are at Yonsei University, you can take courses at the KLI 연세대하교 한국어학당, and they will prepare you very well for taking the TOPIK. (If you want to improve on speaking, Sogang University's Korean program is probably better). Take the TOPIK, get the diploma, and strengthen your profile for re-application.

3. Since you seem to want to study international relations, why not apply to and get an MA from Johns Hopkins or Georgetown? Both have great MA programs and have limited funding available. If you get an MA from Johns Hopkins' Institute of Advanced International Studies, I imagine you would be a stronger candidate for your eventual re-application to PhD programs.

My LoR professors were American and British (Indiana, Princeton, Trinity College Dublin), so I don't necessarily think that was the issue.

I'm no longer in Korea and I'm working in administration at a small US university which has no foreign language support (so I can't improve my Korean). I've actually taken classes at Yonsei and Sogang previously, but I'm probably only TOPIK level 3/4 (haven't had the opportunity to take it).

Thanks for the information.

[Naito]

@BC2018 No problem. Did you end up getting into a PhD program this year? If not, try a mix of PhDs in political science and Asian Studies next year if you still want to study international relations. If not apply for an MA at Johns Hopkins, then retry for PhD. Good luck!

[mxiongturquoise]

16 hours ago, AnUglyBoringNerd said:

In theory, I should behave like this whenever I get rejected --> "未遂风云便，争不恣狂荡。何须论得丧。才子词人，自是白衣卿相"(柳永《鹤冲天·黄金榜上》）. In practice, when I was rejected by all the programs I applied to in 2017, I was like this:

Back then, the most eloquent verse for me was: "Meow? Meow! Meow?! Meow..." (repeat it in all four Mandarin tones) 

 

One of my favorite lyrics!  Perfect for my scenario as well.