hreaðemus

My signature probably gave me away, but I officially belong to Berkeley for the next 5+ years!! It's gonna be grand, you guys. <3

Aw, thank you! I'm afraid it was a spot in the English department that I declined, though - sorry! I hope you get good news soon!

I just turned down offers from Harvard and Yale this afternoon - I was the only medievalist in Harvard's admitted cohort of 12, so I hope that means they'll be drawing someone off the waitlist!!

Try Merrell! They've got some great waterproof all-leather options; you'll need thick socks, but I traipsed through the snow in New Haven for three days and stayed 100% warm and dry (and didn't fall on black ice, so the treads are good!). I think they're a nice blend of functionality and design.

I second this! I think it's easy to say obnoxious things when we're disappointed, and it's easy to get annoyed with obnoxious things when tensions are running high towards the end of application season. But ultimately what has made GradCafe so valuable this season is that we support each other in what is, at times, a brutal profession - and I hope that continues to be true.

I would guess that the whole "bunk with a grad student" thing is often not about money - both Yale and Berkeley do the same thing, and (in spite of UC budget stuff) I'm pretty sure neither program is so low on funds that they couldn't afford 12 hotel rooms if they wanted! I think it's kind of nice, personally - as others have said, it gives a sense of how current grad students live (and how strapped for cash they are/are not!). That said, I bet most schools would pay for alternate arrangements for people with allergies or other special needs - a decent hotel room is usually $75-150, which is a lot for some of us, but not for most of them.

Thanks for explaining your perspective a bit more. I think that's a really good point about the ceiling of entire careers being limited by something as arbitrary as the initial grad school application process; I hadn't considered the disconnect between the rhetoric of applications and the job market in that way.

I guess I wonder why you'd say top-10 acceptees believe there's no valuable scholarship being done at, or scholars coming out of, lower-ranked universities? That's certainly never been my assumption. I'm not attempting to devalue lower-tier schools. But I felt I couldn't afford to ignore the current job market, and its inherent biases. It was too big a risk for me as an individual. (And of course I agree that this kind of inequity is really sad - but I just don't think my [or anyone's] awareness of that inequity is reflective of a belief that non-top-10 scholarship is "worthless.") And I know not every state has a Berkeley. Frankly, NO other state has a Berkeley. But I can make an impact here, however localized. That's meaningful to me.

Yay!!! Congratulations!

I have been thinking a lot about this thread. Y'all have engaged in what is, by all accounts, a complicated conversation... and ultimately I feel like I'm not qualified to comment on the purpose of higher education, the weight of crippling debt, or the problem of elitism in the Academy. These are Big Things, thing in which we all, to greater or lesser extents, participate - and frankly I don't know how to solve systems of class privilege, here or anywhere else. What I do want to share, perhaps foolishly, are my choices as a participant in this system, and my thoughts on those choices. I have been involved in academia for about a year and a half. I transferred from a community college, one of five institutions I had attended over the past ten years; during those ten years I worked mainly minimum-wage jobs, some very physically demanding. My family is working class, so this was not unusual. I was not expecting to apply to grad school when I transferred to Berkeley; in fact, I was really bored and disillusioned with my experiences at CC. I just wanted to get a degree and get out. I hoped that having a B.A. would allow me to apply to less physically exhausting jobs, where I might make a bit more money, and have some leisure time. Instead, I fell in love with the experience of a rigorous academic community. I found good mentors; those mentors made me aware of scholastic opportunities, which I applied for and (usually) won. I was good at being a scholar, better than I had ever expected myself to be - and about six months in, I started thinking about grad school. I decided I would only apply to fully funded, top-10 programs. I had no idea if I would be accepted, but if I wasn't, I felt I couldn't justify a Ph.D. (I say this not to disparage state schools, but to point out that there is a self-preservational aspect to working within an elitist system. I knew there would be no security either way, but if I couldn't get into an elite program, I felt the risks were too great for ME. I needed to go big or go home.) I see the opportunity to be in academia as a huge privilege, not least because we serve very little functional purpose in society. We are not emptying garbage bins or mopping floors or frying fish; the world could get by just fine without scholars, on a day-to-day basis, but WE could not get by without the world. I am deeply aware of this. I am both grateful that I am not frying fish, and concerned about living in a system where, if it were possible, most people would choose to be professors before they would choose to be fish-fryers. I often doubt the validity of my participation in white-collar work, while simultaneously enjoying and being grateful for it. I have been accepted to three of the four schools I applied to: Harvard, Berkeley, and Yale. I will most likely choose Berkeley. Part of the reason for this is because I feel like Berkeley occupies a unique space in the hierarchies of elitism and class privilege. It's easy to get in as a transfer student, but once you're in, Berkeley's reputation has the power to catapult students much further than they would get on their own. This is true not just in terms of academic careers, though I am a prime example of that; it's also true for B.A. graduates, who are often hired outright by Google and other large companies simply because they attended Berkeley. I don't think this is unfair; in fact, I see it as nothing short of miraculous. Berkeley creates class mobility in a world where, most of the time, that simply isn't possible. Now, I am well-aware that the English program at Berkeley is also ranked #1 in the nation - in choosing it, I am not making a sacrifice for others. But I think that I am doing my best to work within an innately rigged system in a way which allows for both self-preservation AND real change. The truth is that I love many things about academia, including things that make the system unfair - I love how small and familial it is, I love the deep personal connections we make with our peers. I love that mentors never really abandon their mentees - they are always behind the scenes, looking out for you. I just got here - I am not sure I want to dismantle it, to be frank. But I do want to make it sustainable, so that others can enjoy what I have enjoyed - and I do want to make it accessible, so that new perspectives continue to enrich the academic world. (I understand that many of you will disagree with me here - will say sustainability and access can't exist unless the system is dismantled. That might be true. But I remain torn between love and scruples.) I do NOT think we should all be professors. In fact, I think most of us shouldn't be, for purely practical reasons, and if I don't get a job at the end of this, I will count myself lucky to have had the six years of the Ph.D. But I think we should all have the opportunity to TRY. Not by buying into illusions of a meritocracy, but by investing in the genuine boost that schools like Berkeley can offer - a wardrobe into Narnia, a portal to another world. Here, if you can defeat the White Witch, you really CAN be a princess. It's not the rule - I understand that. The USA is not the "land of opportunity" it claims to be. But it happened to me. And I, in all of my hesitant and conflicted glory, believe it can happen to others. I love academia. I want to survive in academia. But in surviving, I am also doing my best to make choices that will ensure that I am not the ONLY person who benefits from my good fortune. I don't know if that's good enough - but at the moment, it's all I've got.

I upvoted the post, so now it's neutral again!

Eek, how exciting!!! Cornell's Medieval Studies program looks amazing!!! (And I don't know much about Fordham, but I'm sure it's great too!

*waves timidly* I'd just like to second WT's comment on the complexity of all this. I feel a bit self-conscious posting on the rejections thread when I've been so fortunate with acceptances this season, but I did want to say: I'll be 30 on Sunday, and I come from a working class background, and I transferred to my undergrad institution with literally ZERO academic ambition. No awards, no plans, no connections, very little money. Lots of things can work for or against us in this process - but most can be overcome, I think, if you work hard in the right place with the right idea at the right time. Luck comes in many forms!

All the drinks!!! I promise!!

Eeek, how exciting! Congrats!