brigadierpudding

Nokingofengland, given your interest in teaching, interdisciplinary studies, and early modern literature, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a lot to recommend it. When I visited a month ago, I was impressed by their emphasis on pedagogy: not only do they have the customary seminar on teaching first year-composition, but they also offer one on teaching literature and another one on teaching film. After the first year, you usually teach 2 classes a semester, and there are a lot of options for teaching a variety of lit classes. For an early modernist like yourself, the ones you'd probably want to teach include Intro to Shakespeare, English Lit before 1800, and Renaissance Lit & Culture, but you can also pick up classes like Intro to Drama, Intro to Poetry, and Intro to Fiction, any of which could demonstrate your credentials as a generalist. Suffice to say, at UIUC you'd get a lot of training and experience as a teacher. UIUC also tried to emphasize the interdisciplinary opportunities available to its students. You can take graduate seminars in other departments, and they're home to the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. Finally, they have a very solid faculty for early modern studies, all of whom (the ones I met, anyway) seemed very friendly and accessible, so you'd be able to get plenty of individual attention, no doubt.

In addition to the ones Phil Sparrow mentioned, I'd suggest you look into Ohio State and UT Austin, both of which have a number of great scholars working on early modern drama. Selecting the best and most appropriate programs to apply to also depends on what your particular research interests are. Do you know what you want to focus on?

I have a feeling we're going to have a great cohort

OMG Yes! You'll have to tell me all about it this Fall!

I'm glad someone gets the reference! I love Pynchon and other postmodernists. They're not all that different from early modern writers, many of whom can't resist stuff like metatheatricality. There's definitely a reason Pynchon lampoons Jacobean revenge tragedy in The Crying of Lot 49!

'Sup, fellow OSU early modernist.

You really couldn't make a bad decision. See you at OSU in the Fall!

Fit is fate, my friends. Dazedandbemused, it was nice meeting you, too, and I'm really glad that UT Austin has lived up to your dreams! Best wishes for your future scholarly endeavors.

Count me in for Ohio State!

Ohio State! Yeah. It came down to faculty fit, really. I had such a positive experience meeting the profs at OSU, and their research interests work really well with mine. Still, it was tough turning UT down. I've had to spend the past few days telling myself that it's OK. I'll take that as a promise.

As much as I loved UT Austin, I had to decline their offer. My research interest fit well there, but they fit really well at OSU. It was really great meeting everyone in Austin! And good luck to the new recruits, you lucky soon-to-be Austinites!

I've declined UIUC and UT Austin, so I hope someone's going to receive a nice e-mail soon.

Congratulations! Dreams do come true!

I was at visiting day, and I will PM you immediately.

Haha, yeah, that was me! I was out of it half the time because of exhaustion, but I had a blast. It was helpful talking to the early modernist students, and I've set up times to talk to a couple of the Shakespeareans. The next couple weeks of deciding are going to be rough, but it's a good problem to have.

That sounds really great. Congrats on finding some places! After talking to the grad students, and now hearing your success story with finding an apartment, I'm not as worried about the money/living situation. That said, I can't possibly make a decision until I get a chance to talk to the Shakespeareans, who were out of town for a major conference. Even then, I'll need some time to weigh my options, consult my advisers, rend my garments, etc. I'm almost 100% certain we met. It was nice to chat with you and all the other UT students. You seems like a cool bunch! Glad to see everyone's happy at UT. And of course, great to meet all the other recruits, too.

Yes, I was sitting next to you at lunch! So your apartment search was successful? Details! I would like to add: well done, UT Austin. Well done.

If they are equal in prestige and especially in faculty/program fit, then I would go with the school that has a better placement record. But if you really can't make ends meet on the stipend, then the choice is obvious, isn't it? Have you considered negotiating for more money? The generous funding at one school can give you leverage at another.

Gosh, if I were still doing coursework, I wouldn't be able to get anything done. Thinking about graduate programs and researching locations has consumed me for the past couple months. My visits have been nothing short of amazing. I've found out a lot more about each program, and everyone's so friendly, supportive, and helpful. They really do pull out all the stops to woo you. I want to attend them all, but unfortunately, there can be only one...

I'm pumped to be visiting Austin on Thursday.

Take it and run.

I'm visiting OSU this weekend! Just got into Columbus a few hours ago, and I drove around the High Street, OSU campus, the Short North, Downtown, and Victorian Village. It seems like a cool town.

Speaking of telling us more, do you think that will include showing us a list of courses offered in the Fall? I'm dying of curiosity.

I will have to randomly google, then.

I've been browsing apartments on Craigslist around the Hyde Park and South Congress areas, and most of the places that look decent are relatively small studio and 1-bedrooms that cost at least $800 -- given the stipend, that's kind of high. But I might be inclined to go to UT Austin if I knew that Grumpy Cat would be appearing at SXSW next year too.