URGENT: Interview @ CUNY-COMP LIt. Questions/Problems!!
Hi.
Longtime reader first time poster with a somewhat urgnetish/nervous questions.
I just got an email from the CUNY Comp Lit Dept that its director, André Aciman, wants to have an interview with me next week in NYC. I live in Toronto and told them that I probably wouldn't be able to make it in person and wanted to know if a phone interview is possible. Just now I got a response asking me to call the director directly NOW (2pm, Thur.). I didn't reply because I dont want to call cold/unprepared. But maybe I should just call and get it over with? This is why I want your advice. I mean if they want me to call him with out prescheduling does it not mean that its a mere casual interview?
Here are more of the details, and possible complications:
1. I applied past the Fellowship deadline, so its not like a lot of $$$ is at stake (plus, I'm not an American citizen) --at least in the first year.
2. I mentioned the director as possible influnce on my own research (but not my would-be 'supervisor'), though I have never read any of his work and was going only by his CUNY profile's cited interests. I probably should familiarize myself with the works of profs I name-checked, right?
3. I fear I might have slightly over-exaggerated my knowledge of French and German. Are these interviews like job interviews? Will he start talking to me in French? Or do these issues come in later, if and after I got accepted?
MORE IMPORTANT ISSUES:
4. I've graduated this past September with a pretty strong GPA in my last two years (around 3.65-3.8), but my GPA overall was still quite low (3.17) so I came back for a 6th year for a few extra courses. EXCEPT I BOMBED! TOTALLY. I managed to get 90 in one grad-level course (though it registers as 4th year undergrad on the transcript), but got a 60 and a 45 in my other two course (also cross-listed grad/undergrad courses). Basically, I choked and could not for the life of me complete the essays. Right now, I am in the process of flunking a 100 Russian for Heritage Speakers because I was obsessing over completing the essays and which are still in limbo (no need to get into the details now). Anyway, THE TRANSCRIPTS I SENT TO CUNY from mid December before the end of the fall semester and thus before the calculation of marks, only lists that I am enrolled in those 3 courses plus a few 2nd semester courses which I dropped even before the term started in January (I was not yet enrolled in the Russian Heritage Speakers course so its not on the transcript). Like I said, all these course are NONE-DEGREE, though they obviously affect my GPA. Will they ask me for transcripts of those courses? Should I just say I was taking those courses for fun? Should I be honest and say that I basically choked, that I was experiencing a post-undergrad existential crisis and thought what I needed is more undergrad, but that this horrific experience has taught me that advanced-degrees are not just more schools but are professional endeavors and need to be approached professionally, and also having worked as RA this year for a young Prof I know the kind of commitment academic work requires, and that despite this year's misstep i am dedicated to making the necessary commitments and at CUNY will rise to the challenge....Can I 'barter' with them? Like, since I am not going to get funding the 1st year, just give me a chance for 1 year and if i meet the demands, all the better for everyone.What would people do in my situation. I kind of feel that if those extra courses were a concern someone would have emailed me asking me to send over updated transcripts before going through the trouble of setting up an interview.
Would going to New York to meet them in person increase my chances, or are these things pretty buerocratic?
Sorry for the rambling, but if anyone can offer advice, especially on handling #4, it would be much appreciated.
Longtime reader first time poster with a somewhat urgnetish/nervous questions.
I just got an email from the CUNY Comp Lit Dept that its director, André Aciman, wants to have an interview with me next week in NYC. I live in Toronto and told them that I probably wouldn't be able to make it in person and wanted to know if a phone interview is possible. Just now I got a response asking me to call the director directly NOW (2pm, Thur.). I didn't reply because I dont want to call cold/unprepared. But maybe I should just call and get it over with? This is why I want your advice. I mean if they want me to call him with out prescheduling does it not mean that its a mere casual interview?
Here are more of the details, and possible complications:
1. I applied past the Fellowship deadline, so its not like a lot of $$$ is at stake (plus, I'm not an American citizen) --at least in the first year.
2. I mentioned the director as possible influnce on my own research (but not my would-be 'supervisor'), though I have never read any of his work and was going only by his CUNY profile's cited interests. I probably should familiarize myself with the works of profs I name-checked, right?
3. I fear I might have slightly over-exaggerated my knowledge of French and German. Are these interviews like job interviews? Will he start talking to me in French? Or do these issues come in later, if and after I got accepted?
MORE IMPORTANT ISSUES:
4. I've graduated this past September with a pretty strong GPA in my last two years (around 3.65-3.8), but my GPA overall was still quite low (3.17) so I came back for a 6th year for a few extra courses. EXCEPT I BOMBED! TOTALLY. I managed to get 90 in one grad-level course (though it registers as 4th year undergrad on the transcript), but got a 60 and a 45 in my other two course (also cross-listed grad/undergrad courses). Basically, I choked and could not for the life of me complete the essays. Right now, I am in the process of flunking a 100 Russian for Heritage Speakers because I was obsessing over completing the essays and which are still in limbo (no need to get into the details now). Anyway, THE TRANSCRIPTS I SENT TO CUNY from mid December before the end of the fall semester and thus before the calculation of marks, only lists that I am enrolled in those 3 courses plus a few 2nd semester courses which I dropped even before the term started in January (I was not yet enrolled in the Russian Heritage Speakers course so its not on the transcript). Like I said, all these course are NONE-DEGREE, though they obviously affect my GPA. Will they ask me for transcripts of those courses? Should I just say I was taking those courses for fun? Should I be honest and say that I basically choked, that I was experiencing a post-undergrad existential crisis and thought what I needed is more undergrad, but that this horrific experience has taught me that advanced-degrees are not just more schools but are professional endeavors and need to be approached professionally, and also having worked as RA this year for a young Prof I know the kind of commitment academic work requires, and that despite this year's misstep i am dedicated to making the necessary commitments and at CUNY will rise to the challenge....Can I 'barter' with them? Like, since I am not going to get funding the 1st year, just give me a chance for 1 year and if i meet the demands, all the better for everyone.What would people do in my situation. I kind of feel that if those extra courses were a concern someone would have emailed me asking me to send over updated transcripts before going through the trouble of setting up an interview.
Would going to New York to meet them in person increase my chances, or are these things pretty buerocratic?
Sorry for the rambling, but if anyone can offer advice, especially on handling #4, it would be much appreciated.