somethinbruin

When I did my PhD applications, things like teaching, conferences, and publications all took a back seat to my research experience and scholarly goals. I spent the bulk of my two-page statement talking about my scholarly interests and mentioned the other things toward the end. When applications called for shorter statements, the secondary things got trimmed significantly (still mentioned, but in a brief sentence rather than a paragraph). To address Aspire's initial question: "If a person has a work or works that have influenced all of their studies and will continue to do so in the future, is it considered effective to introduce the statement of purpose by discussing said works and then relating them to past studies and other interests?" I think that definitely is a way you could go, although I would focus totally on what you've done with those works and how you see yourself going forward. You generally won't need to include any sort of in-depth discussion of the works. Just explain what you do with them. Sticking to this will keep your SOP from becoming an "I Love Books" statement--and statements with a strong sentiment of "I love books so I want to study them all" tend to not fare all that well with admissions committees. They see more of these statements than you would believe. That is one of the "cute" things that some committees see as immaturity. I would also stay away from personal anecdotes because most of the time they're not germane to graduate study. My SOP kicked off in a fairly standard way: "I will graduate from XXX in May with YYY degree. During my time at XXX I focused my studies on critical theory and contemporary poetry. My research examined..." (Then I went from there to discuss my major research interests in depth, followed by my teaching and professionalism experiences.) There wasn't really anything catchy about it. It was straight scholarship. I think one of the best things you can do for the readability of your SOP is focus on making it as "active" as possible--pepper it with active verbs, ferret out passive voice. This may seem obvious, but SOPs often slip into "I do this, I am that" rhetoric. You can break up the monotony of "I" sentences through phrasing like "my scholarship explores" and by judiciously using gerunds like "Teaching allows me to..." (don't go crazy with the gerunds, they're best in small doses). Best of luck, 2014ers!

I got very similar advice from my adviser in my MA program who said that page numbers mattered very little. He basically said to make sure that your first ten pages are compelling, lively, and representative of your best work. He swore that Adcomms rarely read past page ten of a writing sample because they should know within a few pages if your writing chops are up to the task. I am inclined to believe him. For what it's worth, when I applied to MA programs I used a chapter of my undergraduate honors thesis. I did not revise it to make it a stand-alone document (probably a rookie mistake) but I did contextualize it with a short "abstract" paragraph at the beginning of the text. My MA apps were pretty successful, so I suppose it didn't hold me back. When I look at that sample now, I do think that the first 8 pages or so are really strong for undergraduate writing. For PhD applications last year, I was lucky enough to have several essays to choose from (MA program was writing intensive). I used a 25 page seminar paper for longer writing samples (20+ pages), and I edited that paper down to 18 pages to submit for applications that required 15 pages (that was challenging). I had several applications that called for 10 page papers, and for those I chose a different essay that I did for a midterm that was 10 pages. The end result of my efforts highlights what an utter crapshoot the PhD application process is: I got four funded PhD offers (and ten rejections or admits with no funding). So the majority of the time I was unsuccessful, but of those four funded offers, two of those applications used the longer essay and two used the shorter. The short writing sample was slightly more successful, only getting rejected three times. Like I said, crapshoot. I guess my overall advice would be to get close to the page number, but don't stress about a few pages. I wouldn't recommend turning in a 30 page paper when they ask for 15 because that is substantively different than what the committee asked for, but I don't see a problem with turning in about 17-23 pages if they ask for 20.

I would say contractions should be avoided. Honestly, your statement of purpose is not the place to show "personality." Personality is not something that AdComs really want. Your statement of purpose is where you articulate your goals and aims as a researcher/scholar, so it should show that you understand the conventions of formal academic writing. It may sound boring, but your SOP should be a professional document that does its best to sell you on a scholarly level more so than a personal level. On that basis, I would say that contractions are out.

It's probably a good thing if you don't work directly with Zizek (who I quite like, for what it's worth). He's on record about his distaste for working with students (American students particularly draw his ire, but as an Argentinian you may escape this). Still, he's not big on student-prof interaction.

Sent you a PM. Check your inbox.

Well, I arrived in my new home earlier this week, and started workshops to prep for teaching on Wednesday. So far it's a mostly review because I did a lot of comp pedagogy in my master's program, but the incoming master's students and some of the PhD students haven't taught before. That said, I can already see that I am going to be insanely busy once school starts. Should be fun (in the completely sadistic sense of the word).

It shouldn't be a problem at all, particularly since you say you transferred good grades from the CC. Admissions committees know that there are a lot of reasons why someone does two years at community college, and if your grades are good they'll assume it was to get pre-reqs done economically before transferring to a 4-year school. This will not be a barrier for your admission, I think. Anecdotally, someone in my current PhD program was admitted after having failed out of an undergrad institution, then largely washed out of a community college. She then worked for a few years, earned a BA from a different 4-year-school, got into a great MA program (despite having to send them her disastrous transcripts from all these schools) and got into another great PhD program (still sending those old transcripts). She just wasn't ready for college at 18, but she was at 24. Committees see these things more than you would think, and they put transcripts in perspective pretty well. In your case, good transcripts are good transcripts. They will not hurt your application. It's good to not have to worry about that, because lord knows the application process gives you enough other things to worry about! Good luck in your application process. One final note: scholarships and accolades generally take a back seat to some other things in PhD applications, primarily research, presentations and publications, all of which seem to be given more weight than awards/scholarships.

Some things you should consider and answers you might need to determine what works for you: 1. What is the size of admitted classes? How many of these students are funded? GA positions are competitive, but it really is the way to go because it sets you up the best for getting funded PhD offers. Best advice I ever got from my undergrad adviser was to go where the funding was (subtext: if the school isn't willing to pay, they don't really want you--but they'll take your checks if you're willing to pay) 2. What are the funding packages like? Is healthcare provided in the package (if not, does the university have student insurance packages? this might not be an issue for you because of your service or if your wife has family coverage, but it's worth knowing.) Does funding cover all tuition and fees (some packages leave fees to the students and those can be $1,000/year or more)? 3. Does the department/program have a track record of putting students into PhD programs? (directors of grad admissions should be able to respond to this question if you can't find it on the department website. Don't be afraid to ask politely). 4. Will you have an opportunity to teach? How much will you teach? How does the school prepare you to teach? (this class will generally be freshman comp--very few MA students teach literature classes). I found that having a lot of teaching experience was something that PhD admissions committees really looked for. I have been told that if you were not a graduate assistant in your MA program, it can be very difficult to get a funded GA position for a PhD program. That held true at my program, where all GAs who applied got into PhD programs, but every non-GA who applied got rejected. I'm not saying this is universally true, but my anecdotal experience says that candidates were much more likely to be accepted to PhD programs if they had experience as a graduate assistant. On top of these general questions, there are the items that will be specific to you and your family's needs: location, length of program (most are two academic years), schedule of classes (mostly daytime? mostly evening?), etc. These general questions will set your basic parameters and narrow your pool of potential schools. For my MA, I went to a university that has strong academics but not "name" recognition. When I committed there, my adviser told me that if I was willing to do the work, I would get a shot at PhD programs. I think that definitely holds true for a lot of programs. You don't have to get an MA from big name school to get into a PhD program. You just have to go through an MA program that pushes you to be a good candidate and PhD student. My program did that, because it helped me build a CV with presentations, publications, research positions and teaching experience. My program provided the framework, but I did the work. I think a lot of programs function this way. If the student is willing to do the work, the MA program will help them get there. So what do I think you should look for in a program? 1. funding 2. teaching opportunities 3. academics (obviously, but no reason to fixate on "big name." You can get great academics at smaller programs, which sometimes afford more opportunities to interact closely with faculty.) 4. Support for student publication/research (is there funding to travel to conferences? Are there paid summer research opportunities?) 5. Track record/framework in place to help students apply for PhD programs. (My program had sample statements of purpose--both successful and unsuccessful--as well as application checklists/timelines, GRE study aids, and faculty who helped walk you through it/talk you off the ledge when you were in despair.) I hope this is helpful. Shoot me any other questions you might have!

Being away from undergrads was my primary goal. I love my students, but I do not need them to see my taking my trash out in my pajamas, particularly when my recycling will be full of wine bottles. Also, I agree with everything you said regarding the quality of neighborhoods--undergrad neighborhoods have more crime and litter. The neighborhood I found is mostly owner occupied with a few rentals. There is pride of ownership/upkeep. I just think it will be a better environment in which to study.

I think you may be best served going an MA in Brit Lit first. Your degrees and GPA won't be a barrier for MA programs in lit. Doing an MA will allow you to take more brit lit classes, since you admit you only took about 4 in undergrad. Also, going into an MA program may help you get back into the swing of being a student again. I was away from the classroom for a few years before returning, and I'm glad I did an MA. A PhD program would have been overwhelming. Spending two years "brushing up" and fine tuning my research focuses was a really, really good move for me. I now feel prepared for the PhD program that I'm headed to in the fall. (Also, the MA will expose you to new ways of seeing your research interests, so you might find new avenues that are less conservative or "out-of-fashion" if that's a concern for you.) So the MA might be the way to go. Funding can be harder to come by, but there are funded MA programs out there. Of course, there's always a chance that a PhD program will admit you with a Spanish Lit degree. This happens from time to time, although I've generally seen it with people who studied spanish lit and wanted to work in comparative literature. Your question doesn't indicate that you're still interested in Spanish lit, so taking into account that you haven't studied much Brit Lit, you might have a harder time getting admitted. Still, if you find a PhD program that you fall in love with and you have the money for the app, I don't see much harm in taking your chances and applying with what you have. With regard to your SOP, use that as an opportunity to (briefly) address your lack of English Lit experience. Don't dwell on it. Simply acknowledge then point out areas of strength that you feel you have in literature. Perhaps you can draw some parallels here to your work in Spanish lit, showing that you can broadly apply criticism across a range of texts. These are things that are universal to the study of literature, regardless of the language. But I cannot stress enough that you shouldn't spend too much time on this in your SOP. Admissions committees are looking for statements of purpose that articulate what type of scholar/researcher the candidate wants to be. Spend most of your time articulating that. Lastly (but certainly not least), thank you for your service. I hope that when you are done, your service provides you with some financial support to pursue your graduate work.

The place I found is about 2.5 miles from campus. My housing search was tricky. I wanted to be outside of undergraduate areas immediately surrounding campus, but I also need to be somewhat close because my university does not offer parking, so grad students have to walk, bike, or take public transportation. The bus lines are really good in some areas and really bad in others (mostly because buses stop running to those areas around 5 p.m. and we all know graduate schedules do not work like that) so that factored into my search. Anything easily walkable (1.5 miles or less) was in undergrad central, and since I'm a few years out of undergrad that didn't appeal to me. Many of the outer apartments were out of my price range because they cater to medical residents (3 hospitals nearby) and professors. In the end, I went with a one bedroom that was farther away than I wanted to be (but nicely finished and well within my price range). It is near several bus lines and on a dedicated bike path that gets me to my office in about 3 miles/15 minutes. I plan on biking to work most days, and using the bus when the weather is bad. If I had to, I think I could do the walk in about 45 minutes. If my school had parking for graduate students, I would probably live about 12 miles out from campus, where a lot of really nice apartments and townhomes are being built. But alas...maybe in years 4-5 when I have to be on campus less frequently. Until then, I'm thrilled to be on the bike path so that I can cyclo-commute without battling traffic.

Oh I'm sure it was some combination of both. If I had to guess (in a completely unscientific way) I would say that my more immediate side effects (headaches, grumpiness, lethargy) were more from the caffeine withdrawal. The longer term cravings were probably the crappy pseudo-sugars. Either way, I'm glad I stopped. Nothing in soft drinks is good for you. It's all crap.

Thank you for your comparison of the two books. I have been going back and forth between these two texts, and you've given me the courage to go with the Wilson (who doesn't love saving some money).

My advice is to just do it. Carry a bottle of water around with you everywhere when you first quit, so that you can trick your brain by drinking more water. After about four days, a fog will lift and you will feel a wonderful clarity. The cravings I managed with mindfulness (I live with a health psychologist), which basically means acknowledging the craving/feeling, controlling it through breathing/relaxation exercises and understanding what it is, and then moving on. Being mindful of the cravings was very, very helpful. When I first stopped using caffeine, I would have several cravings a day. After about two weeks, cravings were down to about one a day (usually in the afternoon), then every few days, then maybe one a week, until a few months later when I realized I no longer had them. PS: I am so full of jealousy that you're studying in London. It's my favorite city in the whole world. Have fun!

You and me both. Coffee was never my thing, although I cut myself off from a serious Diet Coke dependency after my first year of grad school. I was drinking maybe 4 20 oz. Diet Cokes a day, and I just didn't like the way I felt and that I needed them throughout the day for a pick me up. So I quit cold turkey a week after the semester ended. I was a raving bitch for about a week, and I got headaches, but those went away in a few days as well. What really surprised me were the cravings--they lasted for months. I would see or smell (yes smell) a soft drink and a switch would flip in my brain. It was weird. Now that I'm caffeine free, I only drink water (with the occasional decaf tea), and I can see the benefits. My skin is better. I have more energy. Without real changes to my workout routine I've lost ten pounds. I've had people tell me you can't do a PhD without caffeine/coffee, but I'm making it work just fine.

I feel your pain. I remember I had four versions of my SOP: 300 words, 500 words, 1 page, and 2 page. I always felt the 1 and 2 page versions were the strongest. They were focused but still allowed me enough latitude to articulate my research focus and qualifications. The 300 word statement was brutal to do. Not surprisingly, I didn't get admitted to either of the schools that asked for a 300-500 word SOP. Several schools liked my longer statements, though, and made offers. Just keep working on it to get it where it needs to be. That's about all you can do. 300 words is very limiting.

This was the main reason I took UW-Madison off of my list of places to apply last year. I really loved the school, but they have had this policy in place for a few years now (it's not new even if their website seems to indicate that) and they really do not deviate from it. You're certainly allowed to call the department, but I really don't think it will do you any good. When I was applying, their website was different and you could see more stats/bio info from their admitted students. UW-Madison had not admitted a student with an MA for several years if I remember correctly. Your time and money might be better spent applying to a school where you have a better chance of being admitted. You might be a great and brilliant candidate, but Madison doesn't seem to depart from this policy very often. They basically only want students with BAs only. It strikes me as weird, too, but it's what they want.

Kayrabbit-- I don't know what conference you've been accepted to, so I can't speak about specifics/value/legitimacy there, but that's OK. You mention that this is your first acceptance and that it's to an emerging scholars seminar. Those seem a like a good fit--you being a rookie and the seminar set up for relative newbies. For that reason alone, I think it's a good idea to go. If you want to be a professor, presenting at conferences is a necessary part of the profession, so you may as well get started. What better place than at a session designed to be gentler on presenters? Your statement "conferences have little to lose by accepting proposals as it gains them both attendance and membership dues" is a little perplexing. Yes, most conferences require you to join their organization, but depending on the conference getting a proposal accepted can be quite difficult, so it's not like a proposal equals an automatic acceptance. It varies. I know the PCA/ACA admits a lot of papers, while other conferences like the national MLA are more selective. It's hard to say, not knowing which conference you've gotten into, how preeminent/selective the organization. Conferences accept papers they think will be interesting, through provoking, etc, and they will accept the proposals that fit their sessions and time slots. There are a lot of variables, but I don't think very many just admit and admit and admit until their time slots are full. They take care to group topics together to develop sessions and themes. Conferences are important for your CV, and as a way for you to test new ideas that you may consider developing into journal articles, dissertations, books, etc. I've gotten some great advice and direction from the conference I've presented at. That said, they are an investment in your professional development, so they will cost some money. See if your university offers any funding for membership fees or travel (many do--my school, for instance, will pay for your entire conference registration and membership fees, but no travel expenses). Also, check with the conference organizers and see what sort of grants/awards they may have for graduate students. You may get some travel money from them, and their conference hotel may offer a rate that lets you share a room with another grad student to help defray your costs. So I wouldn't relate this to paying to have your poem published. As long as the conference is a national or regional branch of an established literary organization, I think that should be enough to assuage your legitimacy fears. I would look at it like you will have the chance to run your ideas through a proving ground of your peers, who will then have the chance to challenge you and ask questions. It's good for you as a scholar. Plus, when you go to the conference, you will have the opportunity to see other sessions and learn from others in the field. As far as conferences go, my one word of caution is about conferences that are specifically graduate conferences. I have found them to be insufferable, mostly because the audience members are usually other graduate students who haven't figured out how to behave at conferences. Their questions are sometimes "look at how smart I am" statements masquerading as questions to make themselves look good as they play stump the presenter. I haven't found this to be the case at professional conferences, where my Q&A sessions have always been productive. Only graduate conferences. Maybe it's academic insecurity or whatever. I don't know. But I'm not proposing to graduate conferences anymore. So congratulations on your conference acceptance! Let us know what you choose to do...

You might want to take a browse through the program for the American Culture Association/Pop Culture Association's website, conference program, etc. A lot of English faculty who fold things like Tolkien into their work present at the national and regional ACA/PCA conferences. They have sessions there on everything from cosplay to gravestones to Shakespeare. You might be able to dig up some faculty working in areas that interest you.

You might look at USC. I know some past English PhD students there have focused on law and literature. Also, they have a Center for Law, History and Culture, so you may have some interdisciplinary options there as well.

Bunny gave some great advice, so I'll just tack on a few things. I agree that you sound somewhat uncertain as to your focus. This will be a problem with applications to PhD departments, but it's not so much of an impediment to MA applications, I don't think. I applied to my MA program without a specific focus (I think in general I said early modern/Shakespeare) and left with a specific focus (narrative theory and contemporary anglophone literatures....pretty much a complete change from my original intent) that played well with my PhD applications. The two years in my master's program gave me the time and the breadth of classes to find where I fit as a scholar. PhD programs expect you to come in with a pretty clear definition of what you think you want to do, even if you change your mind while you are there. Modernism as an area of focus tends to be really competitive at US schools. A lot of students want to study that time period, so you'll have to narrow your focus to distinguish yourself. As for theorists, I quite liked Cixous ("Sorties" specifically) and Kristeva from my lit theory work. Consider giving them a read if you haven't already. So I think the answer to some of your questions lies in the level you're applying to. Should you consider writing a new sample? For PhD programs, this sounds like something you might want to do, since it will better articulate your new focus. For MA programs, the Hedwig essay you described seems more than adequate--those programs will be looking for a sample that shows your ability to write, research and make an argument. Lastly, the MA program I attended funds students well, and has selected international students in recent classes. I don't disclose personally identifying information on the boards, but I'll PM you my program info. I felt that, in two years, it prepared me very well for PhD applications and coursework. Also, there was a thread on here entitled "Funding" (I think) that contained a google doc with financial aid/funding info for dozens of MA and PhD programs across the country. That might be a place to look for funded MA programs, although it has far fewer MA programs listed than PhD programs. There are many, many more MA programs out there that are smaller and didn't make the list, but still fund MA students. Best of luck to you!

I applied and was accepted to PhD programs this spring, but I wouldn't presume to be enough of an expert to evaluate someone else's SOP (particularly when I don't know that person). However, you might check with your program's director of grad studies (or someone similar). Sometimes they have examples of successful and unsuccessful statements of purpose/personal statements, or handouts with tips for formatting statements, etc. My grad director did and the examples were massively helpful. My graduate director was very helpful in the admissions process. She read and gave feedback on draft statements for me and my classmates. Do you have a faculty member who might be similarly helpful? Having a grad cafe commenter read your stuff would be OK, but probably not as helpful as feedback from a faculty member who knows your work. Best of luck to you!

I'm not a science person, so my answer is a little different than monochrome's, as Literature students don't do lab work, and more like zapster's. I think the answer lies in how well the professor knows your abilities. When I have advised undergrads, I generally find they've taken at least two classes with the professors they ask for LOR's and in addition they've developed a significant rapport with them. However, one of my classmates asked a prof that he'd only known for a semester for a recommendation, and got a very strong one, so there is some variability here. The short answer is: your professor should know you well enough to be able to speak for your ability to complete whatever graduate degree you're applying for. Since this is the case, you should be certain this professor has seen your absolute best work and work ethic. Lastly, it is OK to ask, "Dr. So-and-so, would you feel comfortable writing me a letter of recommendation for grad programs?" That gives the professor a chance to bow out if they feel they don't know you well enough, and you'll get the added bonus of being sure of their support.

I will admit that I applied to 15 schools. Got admitted to 6 (3 funded offers). To be honest my early preliminary list was around 48 schools, so I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that 15 schools could be a reasonably good fit. I approached my list as a process of dividing it into thirds. I picked about 5 "dream" schools (aka: "Sure, I'll get into Princeton ha ha ha"), 6 upper level schools that I thought were attainable, and then about 4 "safety" schools. You never really know where your application is going to catch someone's attention, but I felt all of these schools offered a place I could fit in. They had several faculty members working in my time period/area of theoretical interest. I also looked for teaching loads, the semester when I could move from teaching comp to teaching literature, and the amount of professionalization built into the program. I was not nearly as concerned with POIs and matching my research up with a specific professors as some people on this board are. I felt like that was a variable that I had comparatively little control over--we don't know if a professor is thinking of moving to admin, or taking a sabbatical year, or in the process of interviewing for a job at another university. I guess I probably could have whittled my list down to about 12 or so, but I wouldn't have been comfortable doing fewer. The process is so competitive, and I wanted to give myself the best chance of getting admitted because I didn't have the time or the resources to wait for another application cycle. So I threw in the extra money to apply to a few more.

This is just my anecdotal experience, but at the interviews I had, the graduate directors were completely able to answer most of Sparrow's questions easily. We addressed them in the context of professionalization, and how the school prepares candidates for the job market. This was all in the context of our general discussion, so it didn't feel like I was grilling them (at least not to me). At the school I ultimately chose, the graduate director pulled up a massive spreadsheet on his computer that tracked graduates' applications, interviews, offers, and acceptances, along with the details of those acceptances (adjunct, full or part time, TT, postdoc, etc.) It really helped me to know that they weren't inflating their numbers and was a big part of my decision. I could see that they regularly placed graduates in the types of positions I wanted, and that they were invested in helping graduates get TT jobs within the first two employment cycles after they matriculated. At the other two schools, they were both very realistic about their placement rates. One point-blank said their two most recent years had been very, very disappointing with regard to placement, but that the graduating class already had some TT offers in hand so things were looking up. All three schools were able to clearly articulate the jobs graduates got and how they navigated the academic job market. Lord knows the process is more than enough to make someone cynical, but I hope it doesn't stop you from asking questions. I genuinely think that graduate directors want to help applications and admitted students make the decision that is right for them, this includes addressing concerns about the job market after graduation. It doesn't hurt to ask a few of these questions, as long as you do it in a cordial way.