88literatureguy88

I was hoping some people attending/thinking about attending/generally in the know about Minnesota would have some information to share about the program. What do you like/dislike about it? What are your general feelings about the department? What areas of study do you feel are the strongest at Minnesota? How well respected do you think the program is? Thanks for the help.

That's much closer to my thinking than the NRC. Penn State and Minnesota should clearly be on the top. FSU should be close to the bottom. I think your Missouri and Kentucky might be a bit off, but I don't know a huge amount about either program.

This sounds right to me. I just can't see English faculty seriously considering the NRC rankings. Anybody else want to rank the schools I listed in the first post? I'm still curious.

Good points. And yes, I suppose you are right. I am assuming that the Ivy League would be better than Uconn because, well, it's the ivy league. I'm a lowly state school guy myself, so I'm not trying to denigrate programs here. Still, it's quite a shock to see the NRC rankings. Think on this I will.

Of course. And I do understand that. I guess I'm just flabbergasted by the NRC rankings.

I'll just say it: the NRC rankings seem to be totally off the wall to me. FSU is above UT Austin? UConn above Brown? Arizona State above the University of Chicago? This just seems completely nuts to me. Maybe I'm reading this report wrong -- I just stumbled on it and I have noticed that is different than the US news layout.

Hmmm, I feel like my impressions must be totally off the wall. The US News rankings generally confirmed what I vaguely felt about departments, but your response and the NRC rankings completely undercut my (again) vague impressions. I chose this list of schools because I though each was ranked wildly differently than I thought it should be. My Impressions: Penn State/Minnesota (tie for the top) Florida Syracuse Missouri/Kentucky/FSU (tie for the bottom) I almost wish I never saw the NRC rankings! Now I feel confused...and I was so sure about which departments had the most prestige before I saw them. Guess it shows what I know

I was interested in the perceived strength of the literature department as a whole. Of course, every program has specific strengths and weaknesses, but I still think departments can be perceived as a whole -- ex. "Harvard has a great English program" vs "Backwoods U has a trashy English program"

I have recently discovered that PhD rankings in English are...surprising. Especially when you compare US news rankings with NRC rankings. Schools like Kentucky and UConn do well in NRC but are very low in US News. Schools like Minnesota do very poorly in NRC, but do quite well in US News. Of course this comes down to the methodology behind each of the ranking publications. If you have the time, I'd appreciate it if you give me your thoughts on the programs listed below. I know it can be tough to rank schools because each department has different strengths, but please still try. What's your general "impression" of the following schools? How would you rank them? FSU University of Florida Minnesota Kentucky Syracuse Missouri Penn State

I'm English. How hard is it to live on 17,000 in Minneapolis?

I guess I just assumed that there were many on the waitlist. Maybe not...but I think it's likely due to the size of the department. And 17,000 for the first year? I saw someone say they got that in the results search. Seems a bit odd since I think the TA is around 14,000. So, if this is true, a grad student would get reduced funding after the first year...unless the fellowship of 17,000 is continued for 5 years or whatever. I doubt it, though.

Hi, I am one of many on the waitlist at Minnesota. I was hoping someone would have some information about Minnesota's typical funding package. The website is fairly vague -- grad students get a combination of fellowships and ta's. Do all grad students get both? Do some get nothing? How much is average? Any info on this would be appreciated.

Anybody heard anything from Duke? Don't know why, but I am still allowing myself to hope! 1% confidence right now...

Yes, I'm sure we're going to hear tomorrow. Still is a painful wait. BTW, did you see that someone got rejected from OSU through the postal service? Very odd. I'm not sure if that posting was legit. Anywho, fingers crossed etc etc..

Ah, I didn't see you were already accepted. Congrats! It's a great program.