pistolwink

Humanities!

I'm looking at eight years of making a pot of bean soup every Sunday and reheating the leftovers each evening of the rest of the week. Yay.

According to an advisor, speaking very generally, about half of the people who enter PhD programs don't finish the Masters. Of those who continue, half either bail out immediately or don't get to the dissertator phase for whatever reason. And of those left, half never finish their dissertations. Heh. However, I don't think this is a result of qualifying exams being so hard that people can't pass them - I think it's more a matter of people deciding grad school, academia, etc. is not for them (and then there's always the possibility of family commitments, personal issues, or what have you. Apparently life happens.). Some MA qualifying exams are nothing more than checks on a form on the way to the PhD (not in my program, unfortunately!), and others are basically conversations with a roomful of advisors (I've been told they often devolve into debates among faculty with the examinee watching, bemused). And even if one doesn't pass the first time around, he or she is often just told some areas where he or she needs further reading - I'm sure, though, that what happens next in such a scenario varies greatly from field to field and program to program.

Communication Arts - Film PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison

I'm going to England for a couple of weeks (I lived there for five months last year), then spending time with my family since I'll be moving away for at least 7 years and most likely many more. I might try to get some reading lists from my department since I'm coming from an undergraduate major different from the field I'm entering, but I doubt I'll actually do much work. I need a break between the mad work of this year and what's to come starting in the fall.

Thanks! Oh, I wasn't meaning to suggest that I'd heard it was only cold for a couple months; what I'd heard was that it's only for a couple months that it's so brutally cold one can't really ride a bicycle. And Dayton Street is really long, no? Where I stayed was about 1.5 miles from Vilas Hall and well, it was pretty quiet the weekend I was there.

Yeah, that doesn't faze me.

jesus, that sucks.

I'm about 95% sure I'm going to Madison (for Comm Arts - Film). The student I stayed with on my prospective weekend visit lived on Dayton Street a little over a mile from campus. It seemed pretty removed from the undergrad scene - it was an area full of older houses and apartments (most converted, I think) and a popular area for grad students (several others from the program lived there or on surrouding blocks). I was thinking I'd want to live a little further out, but seeing the kind of community they've developed makes me want to live closer. As for weather - my understanding is that it gets Pretty Bad only for a couple of months (an advisor who went there said that he rode his bicycle most of the year but that there were weeks in the winter when it just. wasn't. possible.). One of my parents lived there for awhile (albeit eons ago) and confirms that it gets "really, really cold." Comparable to Chicago, but maybe not quite so windy? I'd invest in some hats/gloves/scarves and a sturdy coat.

Well, I visited last week and it was amazing. For the most part, the students in the program I'm considering seemed to really get along (and I don't think they were just putting on a show), and the faculty were incredible. The campus/downtown area is neither too gritty nor too glossy...the visit has just about convinced me to go there.

"On the other hand, if you mention more than one prof, the admissions committee will see straight through you and decide you do not have strong interests in any of them altogether, but instead are trying to list as many as you can in the chance that one of them might take you." Whoa, there. Generalization; clearly not true. I know I am not the only one that's been admitted to good programs by mentioning specific names in a personal statement; it's clear that both methods have the potential of being successful and have mutually exclusive merits. It's obtuse and negatively limiting to suggest that someone should categorically rule it out when it can enhance his/her statement - if done effectively.

I think you're right that mentioning only one name might screw you over if that person is going on leave/retiring/out of favor in the department...that's why I always listed at least two or three, and why I didn't apply to any departments that didn't have at least two or three people with whom I could viably work. I mean, one probably shouldn't be applying to the program in the first place if it's on the merits of ONE person - and of the contingency of that person being available. I guess what I'm getting at is that you shouldn't be like "I want to pursue X program because X person is here," but rather, "I want to pursue X program because its scholarly orientation is broadly compatible with my own; I'm particularly interested in the possiblity of working with any of x, y, or z, who study these things that are similar/related to/the same as what I want to study." But that should really be an organic process if you're picking the programs that are best-suited to your interests in the first place. But I think mentioning specific people was a boon to my statements overall - at each place I've been accepted, I've been contacted personally by one of the people I mentioned, and there's already the context of common interests established.

I definitely did this as well, but it was really only a matter of plugging two or three "customized" sentences into one main personal statement. I don't think it's necessary to say that a professor influenced you (although if it's truly the case, it might help, I suppose...), just that you feel your general interests are thematic with his/her general interests, even if you've never heard of him/her before looking into the program. For the vast majority of the professors, I just went by the interests listed on their faculty websites and the topics of their listed publications. I mean, one's ability to do this would vary greatly depending on program and interests...I want to study film in the context of American history, so when I'm looking at history faculty members it's immediately obvious whether there are logical ones I'd be compatible with (let's just ignore the awkward construction of that sentence) - there are usually only a couple (if any) per department. And as for mentioning it in the statement....because it only requires a sentence or two, going into that much background research/detail just wasn't necessary. Now, if I were called up for interview, or if I found out who my advisor was after accepting an offer...THEN I'd be frantically reading his/her publications and figuring out how I fit in. Now, this worked for me, but I can certainly imagine how it might not be the case for every discipline or set of interests.

See also the "gap year" thread in this same forum, as it covers a similar question pretty thoroughly =)

I've always heard that programs tend to see reapplying (with demonstrable progress, justification, etc.) as demonstrating thoughtfulness, dedication, commitment, maturity, and the like....