champagne

I was under that impression too, squire_western. Luckily, my S/O is super laid back about location, so I don't imagine having that much of an issue with what could be a pretty contentious issue for some couples in academia. This is a conversation that has to be had at the beginning of the process with complete communication and understanding about misgivings that might come from the non-academic half of the couple. I think any couple going through the daunting task of finding a job in the academic marketplace would be absolutely obtuse to disregard a TT job just because of geographic reasons. I think finding a fit for a city/school is an entirely different process, but being completely closed to a certain area simply because of the reported makeup should not be happening. Counselor Voice: It all starts with open communication.

And the Banana Slug makes an appearance in one of the greatest films of all time.

Speaking of, does anybody know the skinny on Hogwarts' English LIt. department?

Of course this is all with the caveat that rankings are in reality useless except for the (unfair) leg-up "prestige" gives you in the job search process. With that said, I think most people on this forum would agree that the NRC rankings actually have much more agency in academia, and this assumption is largely based on the shortcomings of the methodologies of the U.S. News and World Report rankings. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I'm fairly certain that a large portion of the U.S. News and World Report Rankings is based on... previous U.S. News and World Report Rankings.

I was about to post the same thing. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, that really was a fantastic philosophical conceit.

But how can we (allegedly) define and execute those boundaries if we've never palpably been outside of them? Sorry if I sound misinformed on post-humanism. It's because I am.

Before I read the content of the thread and just the title: "Yes". After I read about your situation upon peering within the thread: "Hell, yes".

I don't say it to be self-serving nor to state fact. I just say it because the funnies.

It's funny you should mention this. When explaining to people how ridiculous it is to say I want to be a tenure track college professor, my go-to analogy is either wanting to be a professional baseball player or an astronaut.

Ha! As if I've gotten that far in the process. I've seriously got a list of about 30 programs and have only delved far enough as to ask my S/O where they wouldn't want to live. So, yeah... about that...

Yikes! Blueberryscone's story really frightens me (as if I wasn't already frightened enough). I don't have nearly as impressive of a resume. Then again, I only have a BA. I'm wondering about how that will affect any success I have in this process. As far as advice I can give, there isn't much. I definitely think it was a numbers game with you. Those programs you applied to are top-notch. So much so that the second coming of T.S. Eliot probably couldn't get into them. I would spread out my applications to "less prestigious" programs next time, but, then again, all I've heard since I've started this process is that it's not worth it unless you can get into a top twenty Ph.D. program. Le sigh...

Obviously, people with more experience and success should weigh in and, in all honesty, probably be considered with more seriousness; however, I think a huge part of the SOP is having an opportunity to distinguish yourself from the crowd. You want to be able to do this with your research interest, but I see nothing wrong with an especially relevant personal experience helping with the whole "I'm a real person" thing.

This. Exactly. Most of the disagreement on this thread has come from confusion over who we expect to be reviewing our files. While I certainly don't expect English/Lit. adcomms to give two shits about how well I do on essentially advanced high school math, I do know that Graduate Programs in general are ham-strung by maintaining a certain level of respect in their numerical listings. A first year fellowship can be crucial to you being able to attend a program (especially with the current tenor of the academic economy, Thanks, RIck Scott!), and while you may be the best English applicant they've had in ages, it will be much easier to justify and matriculate a school-wide fellowship if you have at least respectable numbers on the quantitative section of the GRE. All of this to say, I doubt having crappy math scores on the GRE will have any effect on your acceptance. It can have a BIG impact on your ability to secure fellowship type funding.

Definitely. If anybody has the acumen and the motivation for telling you if applying is a bad idea, it will be your professors. I do agree with the assertion that there needs to be a measure of reality taken with every potential English/Lit PH.D. student. I also think that everyone has had the crush of reality laid upon them by their nascent academic influences. If not, it's high time to have that conversation. Obviously, every situation is completely different, but I just feel like my timeline and current situation only allows for one season of applications. If I wash out, then I wash out. There are other ways I can help the human race. There just aren't ones with which I feel so inherently connected.

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BOOKZ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Understandable but altogether miserable, thestage. I wish there were a way to remain relevant within the discipline while still accomplishing something worthwhile. Obviously, in increments, literary study is worthwhile because it makes us better individually in the least, and I love that; however, there has to be a philosophical reason for it all. This is a can of worms that has gotten entirely too wide for a simple internet discussion, but what are we doing if not trying to propel the human race? What good does it do us if we know Heloise and Abelard and we can't dignify it within our modern sense? How can we measurably know that Polonius is a shit-eating politician if we don't compare him to current government bureaucrats? How do we discuss the psychological make-up of Oscar Schell without fully examining our own relationships with terrorist attacks in the 21st century? WHY ARE WE ALL STILL KILLING EACH OTHER?

Ha! I would love to have this conversation, and the fact that the OP would bring it up in the world of the interwebs is enlightening. This begs the next question: Is a discipline being all-encompassing a bad thing? Is that not kind of, I don't know, the point? EDIT: I'm not a dick. I'm just genuinely curious.

I had this exact same thought when I posted that. To clarify, I was speaking more towards the traditional Yeoman-farmer stereotype people seem to have about the South.

I took it my senior year of undergrad, and I studied for about a week before. Like others have said, I wrote out my own flash cards and used a study book. I ended up scoring 91st percentile which was not as high as I would have liked, but what are you going to do? As far as the previous questions about living in "conservative" pockets of the country and coming from non-"traditional" backgrounds, I really would not worry about it. I've grown up and lived in the South my entire life, and it's just like anywhere else except more... interesting. Sometimes there are people that suck, but there are going to be people like that everywhere. I would also like to reiterate that college campuses are going to be the most left-leaning pockets of those conservative sections of the country. It's just the nature of the academic pursuit. Don't let anxieties stop you from finding what could be your best-fit program. Given a chance, the South (though endlessly frustrating) can be a beautiful and accepting place. We even wear shoes!

http://people.duke.edu/~tmw15/ http://lasr.cs.ucla.edu/alison/hapaxlegomena/index.html I will leave these links here for those of you planning to take the GRE subject test in April. The test can be pretty daunting but also enjoyable in that it lets you explore "new" literature. Both of these sites are great just for the organization they give to the studying process, but they can also offer pithy synopses for a lot of the works that are too long to be tackled before next month. Best of luck to everybody taking it! It's a beast of a test, but it is NOT the end of the world if you do poorly. The majority of people taking this test do miserably on it, and many of them still get accepted into programs and great funding. You might as well do the best you can so you have as many options open to you once you get to honing your writing sample and SOP (i.e. the most important parts of your application). These study guides are a great place to start!

Oh, one of said professors is probably the most cynical person I know (this may be why I love him so much). When he gave me the go-ahead, I had to restrain myself from doing a one person Harlem Shake in the library. Also, they are probably all members of the Illuminati.

I've got a huge list of schools that were put together by ranking/placement almost exclusively. I will start narrowing down when I get to writing my SOP later this year and I can really look at POI's. Mostly, I've been prepping for the April GRE (I know most people say don't waste time you could be spending on your writing sample, but first things first, right?) and bouncing ideas and fears off of my professors in undergrad. I'm lucky in that I went to a small school and have great relationships with several professors, but I'm also unlucky in that I went to a small school of which no one has ever heard. I too have had the crushing blow of reality laid on me by just about all of my professors. Then, I threw it back and told them I didn't care. They gave me their blessing after that.

This has never stopped me from wearing mine.