rising_star

You've already gone further than I and most others would. I can't remember ever sending those kinds of emails out when I was a TA. Honestly, nothing. It's not your job to try to make them care about your subject if they don't already. I mean, it's great if you can but there's no needs to stress yourself out over it. If you haven't already, I highly recommend consulting with your university's teaching center and getting their advice. It may help you put things in context and gain more perspective on what you're doing.

No, it won't unless they specifically said you had to attend in order for your application to remain under consideration.

NOOOOO!!! Don't do it!!

More money does not equal better when it comes to health insurance for a variety of reasons. It's more that your undergrad health insurance is being subsidized by the institution and by the abundance of young (presumably healthy) people.

Is the summer start research only or would you be taking classes too? Are you feeling burnt out with whatever you're doing right now? FWIW, I did a summer start for my MA and it worked out ok, mostly because the prof didn't have crazy high expectations for research and even told me to make sure to take a vacation before fall classes started. I didn't feel that different from others in my incoming cohort, in part because some had already gone to that university for undergrad.

If you know there's no way you'll accept the offer, you might as well decline it now. Whether or not you get into your top choice isn't actually going to change the fact that the location of this program isn't one that works for you.

Mod note: split these posts into a new thread to prevent distraction from the 2018 applications thread.

Agreed with this. That said, if you have specific notes you want to make about the professor's research or questions you want to make sure you don't forget, write them down and bring them with you. I use that same sheet to take notes on what they say. If someone looks at you askance, just say that you wanted to make sure you didn't forget their response given how hectic interview day is so that you can look back on it later as you're making your decision. At that point if anyone thinks you're weird, then it's probably a sign of bad fit.

This, of course, depends on one's post-graduation goals. If one aims to work at a SLAC or teaching-focused institution, additional papers aren't nearly as helpful as being able to speak and write convincingly about yourself as a teacher.

@csantamir, that's a question that you could ask on the phone or via email.

Honestly, from what you've written, it sounds like you'll survive at JHU and thrive at UCD. So, I guess it's a question of what you want. Personally, I like to put myself in situations where I'm pretty sure I'll thrive.

So this thread prompted me to look up my own PhD department website. They only list placements of those who graduated 2004-2014 and only those in academic positions. Because I know some of the people, I know that some of the information is out of date (that is, people who have moved institutions or who have been promoted at the same institution). Also, I now know that I'm not on it... That said, no one from the department has ever asked me where I work and my PhD advisor moved to another institution before I graduated. I wouldn't be surprised if there are students at other places who fall through the cracks in the same way that I have. Also, I'll note that such a page didn't even exist back when I was applying to grad schools.

It doesn't mean anything at all. Try to relax.

Don't show up if you weren't invited.

Your overall GPA or your GPA for the quarter? In all likelihood, no, they won't. Mostly because they won't have your final transcript until you're already on campus and because their main concern will be that you completed your degree.

As someone who writes rec letters for students all the time, I never expect to receive a gift. All I really want are updates on the applications and a nice thank you note. Seriously, send a heartfelt card/letter, something I can refer to on a rough day. I don't want a digital gift card or anything else that costs money because I know finances are limited for applicants.

Ummm... I teach at a SLAC and my last job was at one as well. At least in my fields, your portfolio would still be considered way too long/in depth for anyone to even try to get through.

Your university probably has resources for this so I'd start there. They may even have someone in the graduate school whose job is to assist with grant apps. That said, if you don't need external funding to do your research, then don't worry about it. For the record, research funding should be thought of as separate from a fellowship or stipend for your coursework.

I would double-check on this. Talk to current students. Talk to faculty. Look at the department's average time to degree. Just because it is theoretically possible doesn't mean it's realistic. And just because it's realistic doesn't mean you should do it. (Of course, your answer to Q7 raises the question of why you're doing the PhD at all if you're willing to get a job as a cashier to support your partner in their postdoc...) If it's possible to rent a room at a reasonable rate, why would you commit to commuting for six hours a day? That just seems like unnecessary stress. Also, you'll want to make sure that your class/TA/RA schedule is compatible with whatever buses you would need to take. (For reference, in my PhD program, the courses grad students taught or were the TA for happened during the daytime hours [9am-3pm generally] and graduate seminars started at 4 or 5pm, lasting 2.5 hours.) Have you tried reading or sleeping on the bus before? Is it something that you know you can do? Figure this out before committing to doing it for a few years. Leaving everything I've said above aside, your professionalization as a graduate student will suffer if you're rushing to and from campus and spending most of your time on a bus. There's a lot to be gained from conversing with your colleagues informally in the halls, being able to bounce ideas off of them, and being able to attend talks on campus. For example, if your department had a symposium or colloquium on a Friday and you didn't have class that day, would you be willing to make the commute for the symposium? Because the expectation is that you'll be there and if you aren't, you're the one whose career will suffer. Your answer to Q7 suggests you aren't that concerned with the long-term aspects of your career so maybe that doesn't matter to you. So I guess a real question for you to think about is whether you need to do a PhD now or if it would make more sense to wait until you move for your partner's postdoc. And, you didn't address this here (and don't need to!), but if you aren't planning to pursue a career where you need your PhD, then it may not make sense to get a PhD right now...

It matters. Check into the placement record of the departments and check on the resources available to you at each place.

I guess the question you should be asking yourself is whether someone like you (applying to English PhD programs) is the intended audience. My guess is that the intended audience of one's interests on a departmental website are those currently pursuing or holding a PhD in English or a closely related field. @Jožin z bažin, the question of audience is key here. If you're commuting with experts in your field, then they won't necessarily think of these things as jargon. Rather, they become a sort of lingua franca such that one term can be used to avoid a lengthy explanation. FWIW, this example actually says a lot to me now due to my graduate training (not in English/literature, btw) than it would've when I started my master's or even my PhD. The idea that someone will look at issues/questions around race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. and early Victorian poetry tells me that this person is bringing concepts from geography and cultural studies to bear on Victorian literature. But again, that's come from years of study. Don't let it intimidate you at this stage because, as I said above, you aren't really the target audience for these websites anyway.

There's way too many questions in your post for anyone to really help you with here. You really need to be identifying and talking to mentors in your field. In terms of coursework, be strategic. If you think you want a teaching-focused position, get additional training in pedagogy. If you want to be more research focused, think about beefing up your methodological training (e.g., learn programming if you want to do corpus analysis, take courses in anthropology/sociology if you want to incorporate a cultural studies angle, take historiography to better place the lit you study in its context, etc.). Publications never hurt anyone. You don't and shouldn't need to approach institutions or professors. If you're going to be lit faculty, most of your career is going to be solo authored publications. Can you turn conference papers into publications? Final course papers? If your institution offers courses or workshops on how to publish, then you should take them. For teaching: Think about teaching both literature in English and courses in a different language (either intro or upper level). That can enhance your value on the market. Don't overdo it though because teaching can be a time suck. Finally, one thing you don't mention is grants. Have you ever applied for any? Perhaps you should... Last but not least, start looking at the market NOW to get a sense of what ads are looking for in terms of experience (teaching, publications, grants, etc.). Same for postdocs. If you can get a sense of what people are looking for, that can help you plan strategically when it comes to your career. But really, you definitely need to find a few quality mentors who can help guide you in your career.

This shouldn't surprise you or anyone else. No one is going to be talking about their research in anything other than vague terms on their departmental website. The specifics come in conference papers and publications. If you just post them anywhere on the web, you're at risk of being scooped and/or seeing your ideas in print with someone else's name as the author(s). This is even more of an issue for grad students because they often have little recourse if this happens other than restarting their dissertation. You don't have to like it but it's the way things work.

That will very much depend on the program. It's something that's impossible for us to generalize about. In general, there isn't even a way for you to say that your company will pay for your degree when you're at the application stage.

Your syllabi are only two pages, @maxhgns? WOW! Again, huge differences between fields. I think the shortest syllabus and schedule of readings I've ever put together was about 8 pages total. That may be a reason why no one ever expects you to send all of them. I also imagine that the ability to be choosier about what one includes comes as one advances in one's career. Early on, I could've easily sent all my syllabi. Now that I teach multiple courses per semester, that would be overload if I were to send that to anyone.