Kursty

Am I forgetting something, but weren't you also accepted into CUNY and were seriously considering going there? What happened?

A friend who goes to UChicago for a terminal masters (unfunded) in International Relations but does work in the History, PoliSci, and Sociology says that the no one--not the administration, not the profs, not the proper PhD students--take the MAPH kids seriously. They're basically considered cash cows helping pay the huge salaries. Not to say that you can't do good work there, or 'go places' with it, but for how much it costs, it's probably cheaper to just drop out work for a year, move to a foreign country, master the language, really work on your Writing Sample and SOP, and maybe take a few extra grad courses at a local university. Jus' sayin'.

Congrats on getting bumped. I think someone else also was a Masters applicant; so maybe they were interviewing Master applicants who they considered worthy of PhD status Anyway, an hour after posting the previous post, I got a very basic email from the Department letting me know I've been accepted with full scholarship. So the results should be tricking in now. Good luck everyone. They didn't mention any planned open house...though I hardly need an excuse to visit NYC.

Any one got any updates? How'd the interviews go? I emailed Prof. Lombardi, the deputy director, about my status and when they'll be notifying candidates, last Tuesday evening (after 5). He replied the same night with a quick "very soon!" It's been a week and I still haven't heard anything or seen any activity on the results board.....

I am a native Russki, but I emigrated when I was 6, so my Russian is not very good. For a long time, I actually tried to erase most of my Russianess; I was embarrassed to be a 'primative' Russki, an immigrant. So though I can speak Russian fluently, I can hardly read or write it. In fact, I have yet to read any of the 'classics' in the original. Pretty pathetic, considering I've been flaunting my Russian as my foreign language, and plan to work on Russian lit! I have finally started to really learn the language, and have been making great improvements over the past year.To improve my reading I've been trying to read one of those pulp, post-Soviet detective novels that is all the rage in Russia. It's something about a woman named "Lampa," a conservatory-trained musician that used to work in a detective agency and play the "YMAHA" (NOT to be confused with YAMAHA!) in a rock band, who is trying to solve murder of a prominent and very wealthy academic behest of the deceased's daughter for 10,000 USD, while also taking care of two of her friends' children and their pets in a elegant "datcha" just outside of Moscow, and being courted by various "bizznessmen." She also seems to be having a fledgling movie career! The dusk jacket calls it an "ironic detective novel" It's by a woman who in her author photo is holding three identical bulldogs in her arms (in her earlier books she only held 2 bulldogs). And they say Russia isn't postmodern! What in Russian lit are you planning to focus on? And did you read "White Nights"?

Hey i'm into Russian Lit too. "First Love" by Turg is amazing. You'll enjoy it, especially if you're a boy (Oedipus themes!). Re Dos: Have you read his short story "White Nights"? What a gorgeous, breathless work. Frankly, makes everything else he wrote seem like 'pulp.' You should also see Viscontti's cinematic adaptation of the story, by the same title, with Marcello Mastroianni as the hopeless romantic hero! Indescribable. Speaking of Dos and his legacy,have you read Summer in Baden-Baden by Tsypkin? A must. Do you read the Russians in the original or translations? I'm reading Sebald's Emigrants, Zizek's Looking Awry, The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross, and some russian detective that makes no sense(maybe my russian needs improving.)

Congrats Doll on the Interview. Maybe they're only interested in taking on a few students this year, and you and the other 4 students are the finalists! Don't be nervous; phone conversations are always a bit awkward and indirect. I'm sure you'll do fine. Who is your interviewer? And you said it's scheduled for first week of March? I am actually a hold-over from last year's cycle (long story) so I am very nervous that I haven't had heard anything back from them yet. Good luck on your interview, Doll, and keep us CUNY-wannabes posted about any insights. -V.

Saw that someone had an e-mail interview with the CompLit Dept. Good to see signs of life. Anyone who participated in the interview care to share their experiences? How "Generic emaily" was it, as the original submitter (on the Results page) described it. Did they give any indication of when they will be making their decision, or even the # of applicants? I feel like I'm in the dark here.

The April 15 is the no-funding deadline, yes, which means accepted students are completely self-funded. Feb1st is for everyone who wants to be considered for any scholarships,fellowships, etc-i.e. most applicants. I feel they should have notified the group by now regarding whether they were accepted and whether they will receive funding. It's very frustrating, especially since it seems not a lot of people have applied to it (i.e. it's notg getting a lot of talk on these boards.).

So no comp lits are interested in CUNY, "the Harvard of the proletariats"?

Has anyone heard back from CUNY's Comp.Lit Department? I saw that the English Department has started sending out results last week, so when's the CompLit decisions arriving? I know the official application deadline was Feb1 (English's was Jan1st), but I'm getting nervous... Anyone got any inside information?

Re CUNY: I believe they're strong in gender theories-Sedgwick was there until her unexpected death last year-and PoCo. Also after your 1st year you can take outside courses in places like NYU, Columbia, Princeton, Rutgers, and the New School via the New York University Consortium. Pretty much all New York area universities participate in this Consortium, but CUNY is significantly cheaper (don't know their funding situation at the english dept.).

I did my English undergrad in University of Toronto and I would never go there for my Ph.D. Generally, it seems a good place to work after you've got your degree from an Ivy in the States, but not study. It's huge, it's underfunded, poorly managed, and stale in its scholarship. Granted, much of this is based on my subjective experience as an undergrad and a Research Assistant for a Stanford-graduate tenure track prof, but just take a peek at their website as a sign of the state it's in: their ridiculously antiquated, budget website was supposed to be redesigned by end of last summer...then end of September....now it just says 'coming soon.' What does it tell you, if they can't even spend a few hundred dollars on updating their website? Maybe I am just being a bit bitter and harsh, but considering they are supposed to be the preeminent English Dept. in Canada in the preeminent University of Canada we should expect a little bit of professionalism on their part! That said, there are some really great encouraging profs, and they are particularly strong in 18th C. Now to actually answer your questions. The MA program is a cash-cow. There is absolutely no funding (which is not common in Canada; many other MA programs in UofT get funding, including the Centre for Comp.Lit.), they accept a large pool, and you don't even need to submit a writing sample. Most Canadians usually do the MA-only program first because it easier to get in , and there is enough gov. assistance to compensate for UofT's cheapness. Plus, most English MAers in UofT come from shitty Canadian universities and have no option but to 'prove their worth' (i.e. PAY) if they have any professional aspirations what's so ever. The Direct-Entry Ph.D. is basically copying the standard American practice, where you are accepted in the Ph.D. stream and complete your MA in the first two years. And of course there's funding. The only difference in the application is that you have to submit a writing sample (which for you, being an American, is to be expected anyway). Also, I believe you can explicitly state that you want to be considered for the MA program, if you did not qualify for direct-entry Ph.D. Or maybe it's the other way around: official application to the MA program, with a request for Ph.D. consideration. Either way, I pretty sure there is a way to apply to one but be considered for both. If after all this, you still want to go: GOOD LUCK!

Hey, any Canadians here ever received, or know someone who has, the Canadian Fulbright, the Fulbright that Canadian grad students are eligible for? I am scheduled to start a CompLit PhD at CUNY (NYC) in 2010 (I deferred for a year), and am planning to apply for the Canadian Fulbright. Does any one have any advice for how to make a successful application? Preliminarily, my suggested project is a comparative study of the Russian immigrant experience in America and Canada, which fits in with my larger PhD study of Russian postmodernism in relation to American postmodernism. I think this fits in well with the whole "American/Canadian relations" because often the differences between being a Russian immigrants in Canada and in America are ignored or normalized (i.e. "Canada's like America, anyway") I'm also a Russian immigrant myself who has been living in Toronto, Canada since 93 (like many fellow immigrants, I also lived in Israel for a few years), so there is an added personal dimension. What do you guys think are my chances? More specifically, I'd like to know if there is any advantage for applying as an "Independent Researcher" with connection with an American institution vs. a "Formally enrolled" grad student? Any insights people can offer about the Fulbright process would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

seriously, does no attend this program?