melusine

sorry for the late reply (i haven't logged in here for a while..) but yeah: the UBC Comp Lit program (never was a dep't) was pretty much terminated about three or four years ago. I did my undergrad at UBC and believe me, a lot of students/profs are still quite bitter about it. The main cause is lack of funding/qualified applicants/strange faculty decisions regarding their priorities (our dean last year was an economics' prof who setiously asked why people didn't just go to a language institute to study languages..). Outside of English, I must say UBC humanities are a bit of a mess: French is pretty terrible (very few professors/courses at the graduate level), Slavic languages are a joke (they've actually also closed down Russian and merged it with the German/"Scandinavian" department). Anyways, the only reason (from what I can tell) the webpage is still up is that there are still a couple of poor folks finishing their PhDs in Comp Lit (they couldn't very well kick the suckers out, after making them pay four years' tuition).. Sorry for the excess phlegm. As I said we're all very bitter.

tu pololo tanbien es chileno???!!! CC fans are pretty rare to come by where we are (Canada)! And yes, world cup season is going to be.... interesting.

at the risk of sounding like i'm trying to beat people in a pissing contest ( )... I transferred undergrad from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada)! By -35C (about -31 F), the first thing you do is forget about being fashionable or even remotely human-looking! Although people usually try to drive everywhere, if you do have to wander outside in that kind of weather: thermal underwear or some thick woolen tights under your pants are a must. Never go out without a hat. Trust me: your hair will freeze, and then slowly melt down the back of your shirt, while you sit in class. In case of snowstorms, I remember the radios and various authority-sources recommending balaclavas. Which is funny because you occasionally get a university campus full of students looking like bank-robbers! Then again, other than the state of Alaska, I don't think there are any places in the states where it gets quite as cold, so you guys should be fine.

Actually, you can work your way around that too! My bf and I have been living for two years without a TV, just internet. Sports-wise, he's pretty much as bad as it gets (I get everything from the NBA playoffs, to the NHL, to the champions league, to the Copa Sudamericana playoffs, to every single game Colo Colo ever plays.. ). He has a bunch of websites bookmarked that are usually pretty good at streaming the games you want to watch, in decent quality. If not, we also have a list of all the sports bars in our area with satellite programming: once you're on adequate terms with the bartenders, it's relatively easy to call or just walk in and request one of the TVs to be changed to the channel you want to watch. You just need to check which channel televises the game in advance. So yeah, as long as you have the internet, there's a solution to everything!

I was on two waitlists, got off one. First thing I did when the rejections started coming in is email the professors I had previously been in touch with, to see if they knew what had worked against me. Some didn't answer, some (hello Yale!) were very helpful and encouraging. Later, when the school I get in accepted me, I also made a point to ask what had put me on the waitlist (rather than direct accepts.) In my case, the responses were pretty unanimous: unlike English or French who often admit ppl straight out of BA, Comp Lit admits tend to have MAs or some type of professional experience. There's of course the exceptional exception, but at least that's the reason they gave me. That and that my SOP lacked focus ("which is fine for a BA", or the school I'm going to tells me!) In any case, my advice to you is: email the schools.

Not sure about the states, but lots of Canadian MAs offer funding in terms of both scholarships and TAships. UBC and McGill's funding packages are especially nice, imo. Of course, those are limited and merit based..

*sorry: double-post

I just got into Rutgers' Comp Lit PhD (yay! it's such a great program!!) off the waitlist. They did say that my not having an MA, if not a problem in itself, was one of the reasons I hadn't been offered admission off the bat. Apparently, my obvious lack of focus and experience were pretty evident from my sop and writing sample. Then again, I don't think anyone expects a 22 year old who's finishing their BA to have the same amount of skill and expertise as someone who's done graduate work and taught for a while..

.... or Brown Comp Lit??? I know, this is like the millionth time I ask..

MA doesn't necessarily mean money.. Although I've only been waitlisted for PHD programs this year (my first time applying) I was just offered a fully funded English MA with paid TAship and entrance scholarship. All in all, in the short term, it amounts to the same thing as entering PhD. Plus it gives me something fun to do while I wait reapply.

lol! sorry!! i'm not sure why but i always do.. something about your picture somehow strikes me as Pamphiliaesque!

Thanks for the heads up, Pamphilia! they did accept someone (international, like me...) on the 23rd so I think that someone might have taken your spot.. I would definitely like to go to either program, but if I don't it's not a big deal either since I just got a great back-up plan: fully-funded English MA+TAship at my alma mater!

Is anyone declining Brown's or Rutgers' Comp Lit PhD?

I know you didn't. I did. That was my way of illustrating the point that France and the UK, being geographically smaller, are also more densely populated and, therefore, in a sense more diverse. Hence, my defensive attitude at having my particular area/social strata of origin being bunched together with a mass of dubiously relatable ones, under the monster-umbrella of "Europe" or "European". Which is, by the way, a fairly recent construct (at least in the way it is being presented today). And in my opinion, a largely American one at that. Talk to any "European" and you'll see most of us have a pretty clear-cut sense of national/ethnic/cultural belonging, with our one little issues, values and cultural manias.. Which also vary from group to group and area to area within our respective countries. All this to say that saying there is such a thing as a "european" or even "french" or "british" mentality as opposed to an "american" one is, in my opinion, so blindly encompassing of many contradicting variables as to be largely inaccurate and sometimes harmful. Sorry, very off topic now.

I know it was not the intent of anyone on this thread to be offensive in any way, but I really hate generalizations. "places like" the UK or France might look small enough to you, when you compare their geographic surface to that of the US or Canada, but in reality, they are much more densely populated. Hence, the "mentality" as you call it, of people living in those "places" can vary radically from city to city, city to suburb, even neighborhood to neighborhood. Although I grew up in Paris where it is, indeed, true that many people have a heightened level of respect for academia, I am also well aware that not all of France is Paris. There are many, many people who are perfectly happy going into the trades and view any kind of post-secondary degree as absolutely useless or highbrow/commie/too lazy to get a real job. Same goes for, from my experience, Israel or Jewish culture in general. While its true that a lot of Jewish families tend to push their kids towards "the professions", I've had several brilliant Jewish or Israeli literature profs who actively encouraged their students to continue studying literature, and even going so far as recommending some Israeli universities to the students that were interested. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has a pretty decent reputation worldwide, and boasts Claude Vigee as a faculty member for French lit.