greenmt

I'm waitlisted at Tufts. Does anyone here have personal experience with the school / English department that they'd be willing to share? I like the size of the program, and my interactions with the Director of Graduate Studies have been informative. Seems small / handmade, which is generally a good thing in my experience (though small can create its own set of problems, of course). I'm from the Boston area originally, and there's a part of me that would love to do this work at home (so to speak).

Polite letter of declination from U. of Pittsburgh. I recommend Stevie Wonder, who is helping right now.

This is what I did last year, and the feedback, while hard to hear at the time, resulted in better applications this time around.

I did this last spring. Some responded, some didn't. Overall, I found the feedback helpful this time around.

I'm in a similar boat. I'd love to hear from other middle-aged / second-career folks who are interested in the PhD as a way to build on / refocus their existing careers. I have a MA in English, and am applying to PhD programs (my second year through the process, after getting waitlisted but not admitted last fall). I was in New York City at the time I got my MA at Hunter College, part of the City University system, and had a great experience doing the MA. I was able to connect with several faculty members in pretty meaningful ways, and my grades were far better than during my undergraduate years. I wanted to but wasn't able to continue with the PhD then, but several of my peers did, and got into good programs. Even ten years later, Hunter faculty members gladly wrote enthusiastic letters of support. It's impossible to predict whether I'll get in this fall, but last year I connected with a faculty member at one school who's a leading scholar in my prospective field, who's encouraged me to apply again. During the year since my last round of applications, my prospective project (and my ability to describe it) have improved, so that the schools I'm looking at this fall are likely better homes for what I'd want to do. I can't speak about the online version, but my experience doing a MA at a local / geographically convenient school was generally positive and basically set the stage for further study. My sense is that admissions committees are looking for genuine interest, some clear picture of the proposed study, evidence of research and writing ability, and enthusiastic letters of recommendation.

I would look at UC Riverside.

Last fall, I applied to English Lit. PhD programs. I have an established career in nonprofit management / development and, in my personal statement, I spoke about how a PhD would help me to focus and build upon what I already do. I also had a very well-defined subject area, that grows out of work I did in a MA program about a decade ago, and a clear idea of my prospective thesis topic. In other words, I wanted to do the scholarly work, participate in conferences, publish: the only difference is that I did not intend to seek a tenure track gig at the end. I applied only to programs that I thought would support the scholarly work, and to which I thought I could contribute something of substance in my field of inquiry. All of the programs to which I applied take care to warn applicants that the job market for tenured teaching / research positions is very tight. Some programs talk about alternative career pathways for their graduates. I got in the habit of looking at lists of graduates, for: a) names affiliated with software companies and other for-profits, nonprofit organizations, cultural institutions, and foundations / the NEH; and how the program talked about these graduates, and about non-academic jobs. Being by nature a close-reader, I was trying to glean whether they considered these graduates somehow less than those who went on to tenure track positions. Some programs / Graduate Admissions sites offer specific advice about seeking work with a PhD outside academia. To an extent, this informed my choices about where to apply. In the end, I didn't get in, probably for reasons other than my goals, though it's hard to know.... Having gone through the process, and discussed this topic with several folks in tenured positions, including people who sit on admissions committees, it occurs to me that the pathway toward alternative careers for those with PhDs might still be more aspirational than real; or said another way, commonly seen, in English Departments, at least, as a next-best choice. The programs might talk about alternatives, but all of their systems are geared toward preparing researcher/teachers. For example, grad school financial aid is typically tied to a teaching schedule or a research project. This seems strange to me, given that many Humanities departments are home to nonprofit cultural centers, museums, musical and theatrical presenters, archives, digital humanities centers, and publishing companies: non-tenure/teaching institutions that are as often as not staffed and managed by PhDs. There are many ways a PhD provides useful preparation for nonprofit work, and I for one would like to see more PhDs doing the kind of work I've been doing for the last 15 years. Has anyone else applied to Humanities PhD programs with the intention of seeking work other than tenured research / teaching gigs? Did you talk about it in your application / personal statement? Did you have to take special pains to explain your pathway? Did you feel "heard" by Admissions committees? Were you supported by your program, in terms of professional development toward your path, to a degree similar to peers who sought teaching gigs? The shrinking number of tenured gigs, and the tendency to admit and prepare shrinking cohorts of scholars for those gigs, does not bode well for the future of Humanities scholarships, in my opinion. Math and science PhDs have established networks for applying their scholarly work out in the world. Do those networks exist (outside of a few opt-in networking sites such as Versatile PhD), and I'm missing them? Seems to me that until Humanities departments - i.e. the scholars themselves - actively support alternative pathways, such as providing professional development, they'll always be second-best. Is this happening especially well anywhere? Thanks.

I have no connection to UVM or their English Department, but I've lived in Montpelier, Vermont the last five years, and spent a lot of time around this neck of the woods throughout my adult life. I could probably provide useful info about life in Central Vermont. You might also contact the department and ask them for contacts among their current students. It's a beautiful and lively little city but if you're coming from SoCal you'll need to get used to the cold. (My wife's from San Diego.) There's a wicked wind off the lake.

Thanks again for this info. I don't think I understood quite how close College Park is to DC. My wife & I both work in higher ed. administration, so if I'm admitted, my hope is that she'll be able to find something at the U. or in DC. I spoke with Ralph Bauer earlier today and am even more impressed than before. I got the sense that they're quite intentional about developing support systems. It will be painful if I don't get in, but I'll have given it a real shot. There's a conference at UMD that directly relates to my subject interest, at the end of this month, so I may be passing through, admitted student or not. http://www.english.umd.edu/SoundPlus

Thanks for the glimpse behind the curtain, proflorax. You sound happy with your experience as a student in the program. Generally speaking, if you don't mind sharing, have you found it a supportive environment for your work?

I can't say what the process has been to date. I've been trying to keep my head down and focus on other things. When I received definitive answers - rejections - from the other four schools to which I'd applied, I wanted to see whether I'd somehow been missed or skipped over. I found their online application more wonky than the others. It was the note about campus visits, earlier on in this thread, that prompted me to email the English Dept.'s Director of Graduate Studies yesterday. I'd really just like to move on if I'm not going back to graduate school this fall. He said that they met last week to order applicants by subject interest. Mine is 19th C. American poetry, with a bit of an interdisciplinary slant... touching on the music of the day. He was up-front about telling me where I am in the order, I suppose to give me a sense of my chances. Maybe they asked their top choices to come for a visit. Your guess is as good as mine. I'm going to talk with him today. They have great faculty in 19th C. American, so I'm both excited and a bit agonized to be back in the soup after nearly climbing out. I had the feeling they're working methodically, to get a balance of specialties. Depending on how many people they had apply to study Medieval English, maybe you're in the same boat. At least, I don't have the impression they've rejected people but not told them. Maybe others know better. This DGS seems very straight-up. I got the cold shoulder from a few programs, when I spoke up during the application process. He always responded promptly, and with useful information. It's one of the reasons I applied there in the first place.

FYI, rachelann1991 (and others who might be in the same boat), I sent an email to the director of graduate studies, with whom I'd corresponded while applying, and he responded right away to say that my application is still alive. They've gone through the apps and ordered them by field, which I suppose means subject area. Sounds like they're working their way through the top 30. He did not seem at all irked by my inquiry.

Hi, I've been checking in from time to time, to look but not talk. I wonder whether I'm missing something. I applied to UMD's PhD in English Lit, and have not heard a peep. My application form still says that no decision has been made. I've heard back from all of my other prospective programs. From what I see on this thread, it looks like all notifications have gone out. Hmmm? Time to contact the department, mebbe? Any insights would be welcome, and much appreciated.