Juno

hey! I'm sort of a would-be Anglo-Saxonist ... I've just finished my undergrad and I'm taking a year or two out as an organist/choir director(!) while figuring out where to specialise. It'll be medieval or Renaissance but I can't decide which there are so many things to love about Old English poetry, and I have a hard time expressing exactly what that quality is that I love the most. I have some tough decisions ahead ...

Thank you so much, everyone, for your thoughtful responses. Phedre, thanks for the book recommendations, I'll try to have a look at them. The writing sample/statement of purpose are aspects of the application that I feel pretty confident about - though I expect anyone contemplating a lit PhD will feel this way so I'll work extra hard to make them really, really, obscenely good ... Minnesotan, yes, I thought the waitlist was something like that ... admissions must be a nightmare for the people on the other end, as well ... so complicated!! indigo_black - wow, so nice to hear from someone who was in my position and took the path I am considering (BA/MA in the UK, PhD in the US ...) I will almost certainly have more questions for you in due course!! So does extra-curricular make an impact on graduate applications, then? I'm doing several things - lots of music stuff, I have scholarships and direct things ... I also write for and edit a student-run academic journal ... and a few other things. I'm applying for a research internship right now and obviously will write a dissertation as part of my degree, so by the end of the summer, all going well, I'll hopefully have some good research experience. So you'd recommend a research MA, then? I need to think more about MAs now, and AHRC funding (which seems like an utter minefield!) How about funding in the US? Are there any problems I should be aware of? Did you apply for a lot of scholarships? I'm fairly confident of getting a high first ... I was top in my year last year and on track to do similarly well now. I'm worried about recommendations because I don't feel like my professors know me very well, so I should definitely try to engage with them a little more. I've read a bit about the GRE, it's a little scary - how far in advance would you recommend beginning studying? thanks again for the responses, everyone

So I'm in my penultimate year of an English degree at a UK university, and I'm confused, confused, confused. I think I want to do my PhD in the USA. I am almost certain it will be in Mediaeval/Renaissance literature. I'm doing well here and I think I can apply to good places ... however the admissions stats I've seen so far have been horrible - 2-3% success rates for some places - aargh. How good do you have to be?!! I've been looking at Chicago, Duke, Penn, UCLA etc ... insanely good programs which are monstrously competitive ... What are US graduate programs looking for? What makes a really outstanding applicant? The academic culture seems rather different over there from what I can gather ... do they expect, on the whole, more well-rounded people? Or is it really all about academic achievement/fit once you get to graduate school? I know the MA is incorporated into the PhD program in the US but do many people start a PhD with an MA already? In the UK, of course, you do an MA before enrolling on a PhD program ... is it advantageous to have an MA already when applying, even though it's incorporated into the US program? People talk about getting 'waitlisted' a lot. I'm not sure what this means. Is it like pooling at Cambridge? Is it harder to get in if you're an international student? I've heard that this is the case with eg. Berkeley because it's a public university and obviously I wouldn't be able to get state residency. What about private universities? Funding confuses me a little ... I'm going to draw this to a close now as it is long and incoherent - sorry - I have so many questions about this as it's a big decision and I'm confused ..!! Thanks Jx