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i have studied and now work in a german university so i can offer some educated guesses as to what is expected of the application. first, i would make sure that they don't require additional training beyond a BA. in germany and some other places in europe (the netherlands being one, i believe) there are a variety of degrees that are now being phased out in favor of the standardized BA-MA-PHD structure. so when they say there is no master's requirement, if that message is geared toward mainly dutch students, they may be assuming that those students are coming into the program with something along the lines of the german Magister degree (normally 5 years). basically, that's just my convoluted way to say, send them an email and check up on the requirements if coming from the american system. as for phd programs in europe, they are quite different than the states. very independent and often without a taught component of any sort. in germany (and again, i am about 80% certain that this applies to the netherlands as well), when you apply to a phd the research proposal is anywhere from 10-15 pages in length; it is not an SoP with anecdotal or biographical information normally. if they want a letter of intent or a CV (which sometimes serves this sort of biographical purpose in addition to acting as a listing of your awards, education, etc.) they will ask for that. your fit with a given professor's specific field of interest is not nearly as important. most departments have a few professors (for about 500 undergraduates in my department we have two full-time professors and a plethora of academic staff) and when doing a phd you don't find a professor who matches you exact interest, but rather someone in your field who is willing to check in on your progress every once in a while. on the whole because there are far fewer professors in departments here, there is a great emphasis on having a broad knowledge, thus the common focus on fit and aligning yourself with faculty in the department that you come across in the states doesn't really apply in europe. to be a successful applicant your phd project should be laid out in full within these 10-15 pages -- main ideas, methodology, time frame, literature, where it fits in the field, what it brings to it, etc. there is always room to wiggle around a bit, but without the taught period to serve as a buffer you are expected to come in, know what you want to do, have the motivation to do it and meet with a professor once or twice a semester, and be done in three years. you should definitely get in touch with them and get more solid details. as i said, this is based on my experience in germany and my limited knowledge of how things work in the netherlands.

Hm. I only use Western Digital externals and I think they are absolutely the best (I just bought myself a new one for Christmas, but my last one suffered a great deal of abuse--including a dismantlement at one point in time--for over four years and never gave me a problem). They have dropped drastically in price over the past few years as well. Here's a 1 TB WD HD for $150 Amazon - Western Digital 1 TB External Hard Drive. I personally wouldn't get the Time Capsule, I don't think it's as affordable or easily transportable (though I'm honestly not familiar with the exact size). Plus, from what I've heard, a lot of them die within two years. You can set up any external HD with Time Machine (I use about 300 GB of 500 GB WD External for my Time Machine and I've partitioned off the rest storing films and other files I don't access that often). That being said, my hard drive is now configured for use with a Mac and if I plug it in to my PC at work it doesn't show up...maybe it's a problem with my own settings, but my partner had the same issue. The reverse order seems to work though, externals used with PCs are able to be recognized on Macs. So, IMO, get a large capacity WD external hard drive to use with your Time Machine for backups and extra storage space. And, since I'm assuming your prime computer is a Mac, just have a 2GB Thumb Drive that you use on your PC and synch up with your Mac once your home. Another option would be Dropbox to synch up your files on both computers and offer the extra security of having them backed up on a server somewhere.

yes! my partner and i spent two days studying and learning all of these words before the exam. during practice exams i was scoring in the high 500s/low 600s -- after learning these cards there were one, maybe two words on the whole exam that i didn't know: got a 710.

I can totally relate to the stress that this situation creates. I am an American with an undergraduate degree from the States, but just finished my MA in Europe. The biggest fear I have, which was mentioned above, is that getting a 1,0 (the highest grade in the German system) is huge. I had one professor tell me (after she gave me a 1,0...if I can brag) that she only gives a grade like that to students she believes are on the same playing field as her and are working on a professorial level. There's definitely something lost in the translation of that grade to an A, a grade that wasn't hard to come by when I was an undergrad in the States. What is more, the next highest grade (1,3) is equally difficult to come by at my university, so the habit of translating one-to-one (meaning 1,3 = A-) is a big problem. Even at my undergraduate institute upon returning from my time abroad, I was forced to get outside opinions and letters from German professors challenging the accuracy of the grade conversions carried out by my college's international office. That being said, I have yet to encounter a program that explicitly states that they want grades converted by WES. Most of the programs seem to do everything in-house and, really, WES seems like a bit of a scam to me as the universities in Europe I have attended have programs and policies in place to convert grades on their end. My plan is to send my original transcript as is and, because I know the head of my department, to translate the transcript myself (I am a certified translator). After I have done that, at my university at least, there is the option of having the international office review and approve that translation and the conversions, which is then signed off on by the head of my department. Maybe most schools will just look at the original in German, convert everything themselves, and throw out my university's translation, but check and see if the option of translating in-house on your side through the international office or department is available; it can't hurt. As to scyrus' comment, I don't think that's fair to characterize the poster's statements so broadly. On the whole, I hold the people/programs I am interested in in very high regard, but I still maintain a low -- or, perhaps better put, skeptical -- opinion of their knowledge of foreign systems (and, yes, let's be honest, sometimes geography). I'm sure most have a great deal of experience in the matter, but in a complex process such a graduate school admissions, feeling as if strong grades at a foreign university may be undervalued because of someone else's lack of knowledge is a worrisome situation on top of the stress that every other applicant feels. Frankly, I would rather approach the people evaluating my foreign grades with hesitation and be on the safe side in the actions I take to ensure fair conversion, rather than giving them the benefit of the doubt, regardless of how much I respect them as academics or administrators.

Dropbox is a lifesaver, I really love it -- I don't keep everything on there, but I back up my important documents and those that I like to reference spontaneously. It's also a great way to facilitate printing -- I don't have a printer at home and things that I come across that I would like to have a hard-copy of are saved in my Dropbox printing folder until I can print them out at work. I don't know if these really count as cloud computing, but Zotero and XMarks are indispensable. While I don't really use Zotero (a Firefox plugin that serves a bibliographic function) to produce Works Cited pages (I do that myself in Word Mac), I find the ability to save webpages for offline access and to highlight/take notes on those pages wonderful. And I can access them anywhere I log in to my Zotero. And, after much contemplation and a time-intensive reorganization/culling of my bookmarks, I just added XMarks to Firefox on my laptop and at work so that everything is synchronized.

That's great - thank you! I too am geographically restricting my applications, mainly to the East Coast, though I may throw a few Midwest and West Coast schools into the mix if there is something I absolutely love. I live in Germany now and my family is in PA/MD/NJ...I can't imagine moving back to America only to end up 3000 miles away again, plus my partner might be staying behind in Germany meaning that I need to be in or near a city with an international airport servicing Berlin or Frankfurt (at a reasonable price). Back to the point, these are great suggestions. I am familiar with Duke's program, primarily because of Hayles and her work. Truth be told though, I feel myself starting to shift away from a desire to work with posthuman theory...maybe it's just because my current adviser/boss thinks it's crap. Hence why I am trying to get out of here. Penn State was also on my radar though admittedly I have a long-standing bias against believing that PSU is a good school. I know it is, their English program is great, but having grown up in the state where 1 in 6 (I believe) graduate from PSU, I have always had this violent reaction to the thought of being a student there. Carnegie Mellon and UPitt are schools I haven't explored yet, though I would love studying in Pittsburgh if one of the programs was a good fit. So the suggestions are really, really appreciated. Thanks!

hi guys, sorry to throw myself into this conversation, but i too am interested in digital studies/technology and literature, etc. enough so that i am considering making it the main focus of my proposals/applications. i've done a bit of digging, unfortunately most of the time it seems like programs in media and culture might be a better fit for me, but i think i'm a stronger applicant to english/american studies programs. can either of you suggest some other english or american studies programs that you've come across with a strong emphasis in digital studies or at least one or two quality professors working in the area?

yeah, the only catch is that the total purchase has to be over $900. i don't know what kind of student discounts are offered through the specific universities in question, but all in all it seems highly unlikely that your total for a new macbook would fall under that price. anyway, yes, no problem using the discount with the barclaycard offer. i also have problems getting approved for credit because of student loans from my undergraduate years, and they approved me: i was honestly a bit shocked. all in all, IMO, a worthwhile offer.

just thought i might throw something in here, not really pertaining to discounts that are school specific. i just bought a new macbook in the states using my brother's name (he is enrolled at a college in the states...i could only get the student discount on the german apple site and it was much cheaper to buy in dollars so i did just that while home over christmas). anyway, when i bought it i came across the barclaycard offer on the apple website Apple Store Barclaycard. even though i was getting it at a discount price and though i'm not a big fan of having credit cards, this deal is actually pretty sweet if you don't have the resources to dish out 1300 bucks or whatever your total might be right off the bat. it's actually not a scam, you just have to pay it off within a year and make at least a $15/month payment. a bit tangential, but just in case anyone else is considering buying and doesn't have a lump sum of money at their disposal.

Coincidentally, the cover story of the main student newspaper at Boston College this week is about the housing situation in the area and the "No More Than Four" zoning regulation that has recently come into effect. The Heights: Ross: "We Disagree on This Issue"

Just as a general note with regard to the Study Scholarship: if your intention is to extend the DAAD award for an additional year after the first year, check with them immediately and confirm that you have that option even if, as much of their literature says, it's a difficult process. I had a DAAD Study Scholarship that I was using to fund an independent research project combined with a Master's Degree following my graduation from my undergraduate institution. The Master's program I hoped to attend was not officially beginning until a year after my arrival, but I had worked out an arrangement with the unviersity that I could begin taking courses immediately upon arrival that would then count towards the degree once it was instituted. So, the Study Scholarship Award was going to cover two years of coursework and the completion of my project...at least that's what I planned and had hoped for. Although this was explained in my DAAD application and discussed in person with their representatives at the meeting in Bonn when the scholarship period began, come the halfway point of my award, I was informed that I had in fact not been given the Study Scholarship I applied for, but rather a "Deutschlands Jahr" Award. After scouring the website (this mysterious award was not mentioned once on any of the DAAD websites at the time), triple-checking my application forms, and engaging in a rather heated discussion with the heads of the DAAD in both New York and Germany, it was official: I was not even allowed to apply for an extension of the scholarship. Their reason was that my proposal had focused too heavily on the independent research project side of things and not on the Master's program that I intended to complete. As such, even though I applied for a "Study Scholarship" (the only award available to someone in my position), I had actually been granted some other terminal award that receives no mention in any of their publications. I made out fine without it, but it really left a bad taste in my mouth and I have other friends who have run into difficulties with the DAAD as well. So, there is no parade-raining going on, at least that's not what I intend - congratulations, you should be proud and excited! I know you will love Germany, I have been here for going on four years in total now and I do. Just check up and make sure everything you want and expect from the DAAD is spelled out somewhere.

i'm glad that that's your opinion, but as someone who lived there and paid that amount, regardless of what it should be, it can be that high. was it on the higher end? possibly. but even looking at craigslist now, you're paying upwards of 500 bucks for a bedroom in a shared apartment in the brighton area (and most look to be closer to 700). tack on utilities and that goes up. want a parking space - pay up! true, it was a large house very close to campus and that surely had something to do with the higher price, but as you mention, there are mostly undergraduates living in those houses. what that translates to is a lot of corrupt landlords jacking up the prices for run-down apartments/houses because the undergraduates either don't know what they are signing, are blinded by the dream of living off-campus with their friends, or are utterly desperate to find anything near campus once their petitioning for junior year on-campus housing falls through. it's a bit frustrating for someone with (from as much as i can glean from your message) no experience of living in that area or of having worked with these off-campus housing issues for the student government of BC to act as if i'm trying to fool someone. i'm not. can you find a reasonably priced place near BC? sure. it can be difficult. but, the bigger question for me is whether that same reasonable price couldn't get you a much nicer flat elsewhere. either way, IMO, the housing situation in the direct vicinity of BC cannot be compared to the rest of boston living: there are a limited number of high-quality apartments, the landlords seem to be able to do/charge whatever they want, and you are surrounded by loud/drunk undergraduates and the neighbors who hate them at all times. also -- although i am not completely familiar with this law because it went into effect after my time there -- the neighbors around BC have been successful in convincing the town council to pass a law limiting the number of people who can live in houses and apartments (i think no more than 4 non-family members may live together now). with fewer people to foot the total bill, i think it's just another sign that living right near BC is going to become an even more expensive endeavor. all of that aside, bluedevil, i still think you would find grad living much better down the C line, if for no other reason than because you'll actually be able to buy groceries somewhere.

hi bluedevil, i went to BC as an undergrad and i might be able to offer some insight into the housing situation in the area. basically, i would check in with the office of residential life and graduate housing -- they can supply you with a list of apartments in the area that are regularly rented or are currently available. that being said, since most of bc undergraduates live off-campus during their junior year, a lot of them look for places for the upcoming semester in the spring. and there is always a lot to be found, so even though april might be a little later than most, i don't think you'll have any trouble finding something. and, because boston is a college town, i don't think it's too far in advance to sign a lease. if i can offer my own two cents about where to live, here it is: -don't go with the newton/newton center area -- it's just far too disconnected from everything and you'll be riding the bus with a million and one college freshmen to get up to campus or walking heartbreak hill (don't plan on having a car on campus either, parking is a nightmare). -housing in brighton near BC (comm. ave./sutherland/foster st. etc.) can be really pricey (well, all of boston is pricey), but i shared a house with a dozen other students and paid 900 bucks a month for a bedroom...crazy. plus, you're still a solid half hour T ride from the heart of boston on the B line. and no matter where you live on the streets surrounding BC, the evening hours give way to legions of obnoxious undergraduates just looking for any sign of beer and an off-campus party. speaking as both a formerly obnoxious undergraduate and someone who lived on foster st. in the heart of it all, it's small wonder that the neighbors want the students out of those areas. i enjoyed it then, but as a graduate student now, i would hate living in that area. -personally, i would head down the C line somewhere a few stops from cleveland circle near washington square or coolidge corner. my ex did his undergrad and grad work at BC and that's what he did, and he loved it. sure, you have a bit of a commute to school (bike, walking, or T to the BC bus at cleveland circle), but you will really feel more connected to the city of boston without being forever and a day away from campus. plus, you will have access to some nice restaurants (zaftig's!), bars (the publick house!) and grocery stores (there are NONE near BC, truly NONE!). hope that helps! enjoy BC!

I grew up outside of the city, but have spent a lot of time there and have friends who live there now. In fact one of my closest friends just went through the apartment hunting process not that long ago. Honestly, I think on 22K a year, your best bet is going to be a room in a shared apartment if you can find one, especially around the UPenn campus. It's pricey around there. My friend, however, found a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom (w/ a little backyard) place near the Art Museum (N. 29th Street) for, I believe, around 1100 a month (she splits it with another friend). It takes some doing to get over to UPenn, but the costs in that area seem to be lower on the whole. It's not the area she wanted to end up in or, I think, ever really saw herself living, but she loves it! And I, on first visiting her was hesitant about the area, but every time I'm back in the States I end up loving it more and more as well. So, maybe take a look for places near the Art Museum/Fairmount area if you want a place to yourself. Admittedly, the reason that the rents are cheap between the Art Museum and Girard is because you don't really want to cross over Girard, or if you do, you don't want to walk too far. It sounds bad, but it's kind of the reality of life in certain parts of Philly -- the limits of the neighborhoods are known and they remain, regrettably, quite segregated racially and economically speaking. But, with a bike (riding bikes in American cities scares me though!) or a car it's totally doable and I think you'd save a lot of money. On the whole though, while you need to be aware of your surroundings in some parts of Philly, I think the people and the atmosphere are just amazing and make living there well worth it. You already know of my bias for UPenn and for Philly, but let me just reiterate: do it! You'll find something at the right price or figure out a way to pick up some extra cash once you're there.

doh. in my defense, i must have been translating when i was posting on the boards...i do german to english translations in the field of construction and general engineering. embarrassing. though, i guess, in some way i do use jackhammers and air compressors to learn new words...they just happen to be german and totally useless for my everyday life.

i like using freerice, both my partner and i did it together, most often at the upper levels while attempting to recognize roots that could help us decipher something unknown should we encounter it on the gre. that being said, we also purchased kaplan's gre flashcards and learned all 500 - it took about two days and a boatload of pneumatic devices, but there were at least 20 words that i wouldn't have known had i not used the cards. kaplan knows the majority of the words that will be on there and the contexts in which they are most often used - i highly recommend the flashcards, i got a 710V and wouldn't have without them.

At Swim, Two Boys is one of the best books I've ever read. Well worth the effort it takes.

i'm an american, graduated from BC in 2007, and have been living and studying in germany since then. i feel the pain of applying from abroad - an additional problem being the different semesters here. applications are due about 6 weeks into my third semester (semesters here begin in october and april)...it's not a huge deal, but on top of completing my applications, it means that i have to bump up writing my thesis if i want to use a chapter from it as my writing sample and if want to be able to accurately describe it in my applications. it's a worry because i know how things transform as you work on them and it'd be terrible to present my MA thesis as one thing in all of my applications and in the end have it turn out as something completely different also, grade translation issues...don't even get me started. so many universities do a one-to-one conversion (1,0 = A, 2,0 = . but, quite frankly, it's much easier to get an A in the states than it is to get a 1,0/1,3/1,7 in germany. i had a professor tell me this past semester that if she gives a 1,0 or 1,3 it means that you are on the same level as her (this coming from a world famous narratologist). you have to be really careful and make sure that the conversions being used reflect the actual nature of the grade...having looked into it, i think opting for the more expensive international transcript evaluation services is sometimes better than trusting your university's foreign office to do it for you.

I wonder if that's true though, I mean, if there is a push within the humanities for greater interdisciplinarity (which I think there is, at least to some degree), then doesn't choosing a focus within a program that allows you to cross boundaries (literary and cultural, visual culture and literature, etc.) a positive aspect. Naturally, I think it comes back to how well you guide your coursework and research - you need to carve out your own niche, but I think the days of it being limited to a race or gender studies if you do an American Studies PhD are over. In fact, it seems to me that many programs are moving away from such distinctions in favor of a transnational approach that greatly expands and blurs the lines between these demarcations. Maybe I'm totally off base, but I don't believe someone with an English PhD focused on say Modernist literature is in any more marketable than someone with an American Studies PhD who displays a record of working within a specific frame (as above, that could be the intersection of literature and film, but perhaps with a focus on Modernist texts and their presentation in visual culture). I think it counterintuitive that if you have a focus, but choose an American Studies program over an English program to ensure greater freedom in what you can explore that you'll in some way be punished for that. I guess I should explain how I have tried to ensure that I am marketable. My BA is in English and German Studies with a history minor. Did a fellowship year in a center for Gender Studies. Then I moved back to English, working on a MA in English literatures and literary theory with the intention of entering an AS program in 2010. My thought process is that I have a strong enough background in English and will continue working largely with literature (as it is connected to other media or disciplines), but that work is best suited to be done within an AS program. So basically, I'm either bias, hopeful, or spot on. I guess I won't be able to confirm that last possibility for another decade or so, but what do you think?

hi everyone, hope it's ok that i post this here. i am helping to organize this summer program in conjunction with the department of north american studies here at the university of freiburg. check out the link if you are interested, the costs are reasonable and it's a great opportunity to spend part of the summer in one of the most beautiful parts of germany. feel free to send me a message if you have any questions. The Englisches Seminar at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universit

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wondering what people's thoughts on being published prior to applying for PhD programs are? i am doing my MA at the moment and have published two articles. one with blackwell, but in a field that i really have very little to do with anymore (it was my BA thesis focus). another with a postgraduate journal from an reputable british american studies association. i am just wondering if i should push to get somethin else published before applications are submitted? what was your experience in applying - had you already published? how much? in what sort of journals/anthologies/etc?

It's so expensive to take the GRE in Europe - 180 bucks!! Insane. Not only that, but I have to travel to Frankfurt to do it - tag on another 60 Euros for round-trip train fare.

Hi, I studied at BC undergraduate and was an English major. The PhD program is quite small - BC is focused on being an undergraduate institution. They have the graduate programs, but all of the professors teach undergrad courses and spend a lot of their time with the undergraduates. It was great for that, but I would have reservations about choosing it as my grad school. I have a great deal of respect for most of the professors, but with the exception of a few, I would wonder how they would tailor their methods and teaching to higher-level students. If you would like any insight on some of the professors, I took classes with many. Shrayer is great from what I've heard, though I never took a course. You can forget Wallace in my opinion, he's a splendidly nice man, but utterly boring in his lectures and in his approaches to the literature. As for American Studies, you are right, it is just an undergraduate concentration headed by Carlo Rotella. He's a brilliant guy, challenging and engaging.

GoodGuy, great response, I'm glad to get your insight on this issue because I read your posts about applying to Harvard's History of American Civ Program. That being said, Harvard is one of my top choices as I have decided that American Studies is the right path for me - I want the interdisciplinarity that AS programs allow, but know that my focus is most definitely on American literature and culture. Stateside I'm looking at the following programs: Harvard - History of American Civilization Yale - American Studies Brown - American Civilization NYU - American Studies (a bit iffy on this one) BU - American and New England Studies Columbia - English (iffy on this one too) UPenn - English (we'll refer to this application as "That 90 bucks I wasted back in '09.") Since you've already applied and been accepted, do you have any thoughts about any of these programs, I saw your comment on NYU...what about Yale, Brown, or BU - academically, financially, etc.? Don't really know what my chances are with any of the programs, especially as an American who will have received an English MA in Germany (I'm going to work the international perspective angle). I have a strong list of awards/prizes (DAAD, two international summer scholarships, thesis of the year at Boston College), international experience (3 years total, all in various parts of Germany), and a couple of conferences/publications under my belt. I do have a few concerns; they are things that are entirely subjective in the application review process, I know, but I was wondering if you might be able to judge my strength as a candidate (don't you hate that question...sorry) and maybe share some of your experiences in applying. Specifically I am worried about: 1) knowing how/to what level I should go into my research in my SOP. I am thinking about talking about my general areas of interest and frameworks/theories that structure my research, and then positing central questions that I think will most likely propel me forward in my dissertation. How did you approach the topic of research and your SOP? Was there a great deal of connection between your BA or MA thesis and your PhD proposal? And, since I think your point about finding a professor who fits well is vital, what kind of contact did you make - just general back and forth introductions via email, critical questions regarding an article, or straight-up, "I am applying and think we would be a good match, do you like me?" messages? 2) my GPA (BA - overall: 3.76, English major GPA: 3.834) (MA - on the German scale - 1.15 where 1.0 is the highest). How does that compare from what you might have heard about the applicant pool in programs where you were accepted? I'm picturing a long line of 4.0ers just kicking my butt right out of consideration... 3) LOR - I will have a great one from my BA thesis adviser; I am working (tutor/research assistant) for a professor here who has a solid name and spent some time teaching at Harvard with HLG - I am going to ask her for a letter as well. My third letter is a mystery to me though...do I ask a BC professor who I took one (quite challenging) class with, who liked my writing, who I still keep in touch with, and who has a solid name in American academia? Or do I go with the international name from my current university who I haven't really connected with on a personal level, but who thinks my writing is "brilliant"? She is one of if not the leading name in her field of research, but it is not a field that I am particularly interested in. Feel free to answer any, all, or none of these questions...I just thought I would put them out there and hopefully gain something from your experience.