callmelilyb

For those of you who are applying straight out of undergrad (or did at some point and remember), what sorts of things are you including on your CV? I feel like most of the sample copies I've seen are by people who have already had a professional career or have gone through a masters program...so they list things like teaching and publications that I don't think MOST undergrad students have. I've worked some really great jobs with non-profits and as an interpreter, but what about the other run of the mill student jobs I've had (waitressing?) are those worth putting down too? If I've worked 25-40 hours per week while in college should I include that somewhere on there too? What heading are you guys putting things like conferences and scholarships? What about getting artwork published? Are you including GRE score on there? Where? Thanks everyone!

Mine had zeugma on it too. And my test version DID seem really heavy in grammar which is not what I was expecting. Also few appearance from "A List" authors...like I mentioned on another post I had no Paradise Lost, no Homer, hardly any Shakespeare. I'm not sure about the percentile rankings...I do know that, like JennyFieldsOriginal said, scores are adjusted based on test version difficulty so I am just PRAYING that I happened to get the mmost difficult test version. I did a lot of intelligent guessing and POE. Left about 30 questions blank....I took it in October so I can call tomorrow and get my scores if I really want to waste $13 to get bad news. I know I will, too.

My didn't have any "Paradise Lost" either. Nor do I recall Donne. Nor do I recall in Ulysses questions. And hardly any Shakespeare. Basically all of the things I thought for sure would be on there, weren't. I took mine in October so I get my scores tomorrow morning by phone. I am pretty sure I tanked the damn thing. Felt completely demoralized after. I too, left about 30 blank (I think), but am not so sure that I got the ones I answered right. There was lots of intelligent guessing and POE. But it's kind of nice to hear that other people feel dejected after the test, because we can't all have done poorly, right?

While going through program websites again today, I noticed that Davis claims they are strong in "Environmental Literature" -- not sure if this is exactly the same thing but you might want to check them out.

Actually, I just realized that Michigan's is actually due January 1. Since nobody is going to look over the applications before the Christmas Holidays are over I don't see why they don't all just make them due then. What's the point of turing my application in so that it can sit around in a locked office for a few weeks?

Like another poster mentioned, some of the places I am applying want a hard copy of my writing sample, and I am sending in hard copies of my transcripts to each school as well. Jackie: It looks the only place that we are both applying to is Rutgers (December 15th, right?)...dunno why but the rest of my programs are all due around the first two weeks of December (UT Austin, UMichigan-Ann Arbor, four UC campuses, and CUNY). I can't wait to get everything submitted either, just want it all sent away into the black hole and out of my control! Though, I'm not especially looking forward to the $2000 worth of rejection letters I am expecting in Feb/March!

Oh my, you guys have no idea how much you have brought my stress level down! Thank god for this forum! I wasn't really worried that it would affect my admissions prospects but rather worried that waiting until the last minute would give me no time to remedy any hitch-ups (like items not arriving or scores getting sent to the wrong place). Anastasya: I am in the same boat! I was originally planning to apply for MA programs which are not due until January/February but my professors encouraged me to send PhD applications out so I started to scramble to get my materials together about a month ago! The writing sample is my biggest concern at this point too...I'm also applying to Berkeley, and it is one of the programs that has an earlier date (along with UT-Austin that is due December 1st). All of the others are due December 15th. Glad to hear that submitting materials a few days before they're due isn't uncommon or wildly reckless!

Hey everyone! As far as I can tell nearly all of the PhD programs have application deadlines in the first week or two of December...actually 7 of the 8 places I am applying to are due December 15th. I'm just curious when those of you who are applying to PhD programs are planning on having all of your application materials submitted? Do a lot of you already have them all sent in? My goal is to get all of my materials submitted the Monday before I leave for Thanksgiving break, November 23rd. I plan on just forking over the cash to overnight hard copy materials through USPS...one of my applications is due December 8th, do you guys think I am cutting it too close or taking a risk by turning the applications in only 2-3 weeks before the deadline? Thanks guys!

Oh, and as someone else already mentioned, the last two paragraphs of what you've submitted here are by far the best part of the essay!

I have to agree with the advice that's been given here and on the other posting and urge you to seriously consider internalizing the suggestions that others have offered you. That first paragraph has got to be axed, especially the part about "lengthy preparation" taking the enjoyment out of something -- that made me wonder "does this person have any idea what they are getting themselves into??" -- NOT the reaction you want. The screensaver bit is kind of off-putting as well. I think that a lot of people that are drawn to and active on this forum are intelligent and highly motivated applicants, they are also (generously) willing to take the time to give useful feedback, that I strongly encourage you to take!

University of Nevada Reno is supposed to be THE PLACE for ecocriticism as far as I know. Cheryll Glotfelty who edited "The Ecocriticism Reader" -- one of the publications that gave momentum to the field teaches -- there. Her co-editor Harold Fromm is at U of Arizona. Go look at the Wikipedia article on Ecocriticism, and put those people's names into google and see where they are teaching (especially the people listed on sources). That should help you track down where this sort of work is being done.

Major Theory movements (it's worth it because most of these questions are give-aways if you are just superficially familiar with the big names and terminology). Mine test also had lots of grammar questions for some reason (or at least much more than what was reflected on practice materials)which surprised me. Lots of poetry by white men. One Langston Hughes question and one Emily Dickinson identify question, lol. This person's website is pretty comprehensive and helpful: http://lasr.cs.ucla.edu/alison/hapaxlegomena/index.html

Yes, it seems like the UC campuses are all pretty strong in this area...unfortunately they are all also highly competitive. Dual program in English and Women's Studies??? I'm checking out Ann Arbor right this moment! A professor mentioned CUNY Graduate Campus (Institute?) the other day....anyone know about their program or if they're strong in women/gender studies?

I should have clarified that my ranking was based on general (and probably, undergraduate reputation)...Irvine is definitely well-ranked in English, certainly better than Davis (which I've also heard is working hard to pull up their reputation right now). I agree: "My best advice: approach the different UCs as you would the different schools of New Jersey: you wouldn't lump Princeton and Rutgers in a bundle - they're both good schools for different reasons. Indeed, ask your advisors to point you in the right direction, then look at faculty bios."

Pamphilia: Well, I'm interested in women writers in general, but more interested in time periods and/or regions where they tend to still be somewhat marginalized (so not 20th century British but yes, American Frontier Literature or early British Literature, for example). I guess I'm inspired by the work Anne Mellor did for women writers and romanticism....if that helps at all. I didn't major in English, so actually one of my applicant weaknesses is my somewhat hazy lack of focus, of which I am acutely aware. rainy_day: Thanks! I'll go check them out!

Hello All, The one thing that's been an absolute enigma to me is figuring out program "fit" -- I've done the whole faculty bio, thesis topic, course offerings search, but frankly I feel like strong programs are well rounded in just about every area...am I wildly mistaken? That being said, I am really interested in programs that are strong in women's studies and women writers. Can y'all throw some programs out here that you know excel in this area? I'm looking at WUSTL, Rutgers, Emory, and UCLA for starters... Thanks!

While I'm not attending one of the UCs, I'm from California, have cousins and friends that attend them, my parents are alumni, etc. so I am fairly knoweldgeable about the system. There is DEFINITELY a ranking order within the UC system, off the top of my head (and this is in no way scientific) I would place UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD and UC Davis as the highest ranked (probably in that order actually), Irvine and Santa Barbara in the middle, and Riverside, Merced and Santa Cruz at the bottom. Now, before I piss anyone off I have to state that ALL UC campuses have strong reputations and are good quality institutions. There is also going to be some shuffling around of rankings based on the specific program you are applying to (though Berkeley and UCLA are tops in just about everything). I would say that Berkeley and UCLA are probably as competitive as the Ivies back east these days... One thing to consider with the UC campuses is location, because frankly some of them are in very nice areas and some of them aren't....Berkeley and Davis are cool funky university towns, Santa Barbara is amazing for coastal heaven, UCLA you get LA, etc. I think in general the UC English PhD programs are strong in gender/womens studies/queer theory, UCLA and Berkeley definitely have some top theorists as faculty (Judith Butler at Berkeley and Anne Mellor at UCLA come to mind).... I don't know if any of this is helpful but if you have any specific questions you want answered I'll see what I can do!

Thanks for the suggestions, especially regarding the use of theory in my writing sample....something I'll definitely keep in mind once I figure out which of my seminar papers I want to work on for the next few months. Would you say that close-reading of the text is something I would want to balance with my use of theory? Or something else? It's my understanding that the most important thing about the writing sample is to show that you can construct, defend, and sustain a cogent argument, and preferably one which embodies some essence of originality or new insight. As far as Berkeley goes, I did mean that rhetorically but the reason I used it is because the MA program here actually did send a young woman to the PhD program there in the past few years...it's one of the "selling points" that keeps getting brought up to me by the professors who want me to stay. Now that I thinnk about it, maybe I should ask for her name and try to get in contact with her to see what she has to say about our program, hmmmm..... Your point about getting Letters of Recommendation from tenured professor's is well-taken and one that I hadn't thought about until just recently. Do you think it's a bad idea if only one of my three letters comes from an untenured professor? Or in other words, if I can get three good letters from tenured professors is that the way to go even if the young untenured prof thinks I'm a genius and will write me a slightly more enthusiastic letter?

Okay, I like your strategy and I'm going to try my own version of it and see what I come up with. I think taking a theory class would help to apply some vocabulary to my interests. LOVE Coleridge too....are you into his poetry or criticism? Or both?

Taking a lit theory class is beginning to sound like a great idea.... Yes, I am 99% sure I could get a great funding package for the MA program at my undergrad university (well, my advisor has all but said that I won't have to pay a dime if I stay here), I just have a hard time choosing my graduate institution based solely on funding...is this really how people make their decision? I seriously think I'd rather be $50k in debt if it means I can go somewhere that's worth a damn. I have taken some of the senior sem. courses that a handful of the grad students take each semester so I have seen a few of them at work and I'm not impressed. Frankly, I feel like my professor's want me to stay here so that when they send me off to Berkeley they can take credit for it....they've all but stated that I would "open doors" for other promising MA students that would come after me. That's not really my concern though, honestly. I do really like working with one of my profs and will be sad to leave him....but he's young/untenured and I'm convinced that if I commit to the MA he'll get a job offer somewhere else and abandon me. Plus, the public university sytem in California right now is in serious crisis mode. Our graduate program offered two (that's right TWO) grad seminars this semester. And they say it's only going to get worse. There are also rumors of "death of graduate programs at all CSU's in the state" floating around. Lovely. No thanks. Circumfession: I agree with your comments on "self-study" -- maybe I need to get over my "little man university" complex already. It's just that all the freakin' grad pamphlets feature students who "graduated summa cum laude from Yale wth a triple major in comp lit, japanese and arabic and have won every award on the planet and have published more articles than I've ever even read in my whole life...." Exaggerating, but you get my drift. And I'm not THAT GREAT, I'm just smart and good with words....sort of.

I've heard that about BC, too. Also, one of the current students I contacted at Brandeis had a half-tuition scholarship. I do know that "fit" is important....problem is part of my motivation in doing an MA first is to figure out what that means for me. So for right now "fit" has a lot more to do with academic environment, location, funding, etc. than scholarly interests. Although I am specifically interested in Brandeis for their joint program in Women and Gender Studies because that is one of the directions I am leaning and the Irish Lit. concentration at BC sounds interesting too....completely unrelated I know. At this point all I can say is that I like realism, gender, Virginia Woolf and poetry......sigh. How do you guys narrow your interests down???

Wow. Thank you both so much for the thoughtful responses. I appreciate it. To address some of the issues you both brought up: I do feel that my primary weakness as a PhD applicant is that I have yet to engage in what I consider "rigorous academic scholarship" in my field. Frankly, the student body quality at my university is bad, and when I sad bad, I mean...bad and classes are appallingly easy with wildly low standards. I tend to blow my professors away with my work, and frankly I don't think it's THAT good. I've made the best of available resources, have connected with a handful of the very best literature professors here (who are all trying to recruit me to stay here for the MA, seriously a couple of them are like military recruiters), pushed myself academically in my courses, etc. etc. But. I've never written a paper over 10-12 pages, or studied literary theory, or anything of that sort. So, as circumfession so aptly put it I'd be attending an MA program in the hopes to: "gain the background that my lackluster undergrad program did not provide." It seems to me that the major concern for most people is cost. And frankly, I can't really "afford" an unfunded MA...I'll certainly be working 30+ hours and taking out large loans. Circumfession, now that it's all said and done, does your partner feel that the MA was worth it? That being said, if being deeply in debt means that I get into one of my choice programs down the line and get to study/teach/think about/write about literature for the rest of my life I suppose I think it's worth it. (Perhaps I'm being corny and wildly naive?) Plus, my husband started medical school this fall so I'm kind of banking on him being able to pull us out of debt when he opens his radiology practice some day....joking...sort of. I think I may take your advice and send off a few PhD applications along with my MA apps and see what happens. The worse they can do is say no, right? I'm also thinking over the suggestion that rainy_day made about taking some grad-level courses on my own rather than going into an actual program, may be a good option if nothing comes through as far as funding is concerned. Lots to chew over now......

Hello Everyone, I would like to hear anything good or bad that people have heard about the terminal MA programs in English at any of the following universities: Saint Louis University Northeastern Brandeis (joint program with WGS) Purdue Boston University Boston College (focus on Irish Lit/Culture) Any comments are appreciated. Any of these known for being cash-grabs? As an aside, any programs I haven't listed that you know have a particularly good reputation? Thanks!

Hello Everyone, I've been combing over this forum for the past several weeks and think it's great! I do know that the question of pursuing an MA before PhD is a contentious issue on here (especially regarding unfunded MA programs it seems) but I'd like to get some additional thoughts on this. If people don't want to re-hash things out on here maybe some of you would be interested in answering some questions via PM? I'd be especially interested in those who did or are in the process of taking the MA-first route. At any rate, here are some basic details that may help shed some light on my current quandary: I'm a non-English major hoping to ultimately pursue a PhD in English Literature. I got my BA in Political Science at a bottom-tier public university in California (one of those CSU _____). I have average to good grades (3.7 cumulative and 4.0 in English courses of which I have completed about 30 upper division units). I recently took the GRE -- scored 740 verbal and 5.5 AW (One of my essay topics was ACTUALLY about recalling cans of tuna for crying out loud!). I have very strong letters of rec and am confident I can knock out a good statement of purpose, writing sample, etc. I speak Spanish fluently (lived in Southern Spain for a year during undergrad) so I've got one of the language requirements down. My issues are that: I'm not an English major, my undergrad institution is of laughable quality, and my grades while strong, aren't exceptional. I also don't know that I've focused my areas of interest of research enough to assemble a strong enough "package" for PhD programs (this especially concerns me since program "fit" seems to be of the utmost importance for PhD admissions)....I know I like realism/naturalism, poetry/poetics, lyric prose, the novel, um you get my drift. I guess my questions are two-fold: 1. How does one decide that one is "ready" or "competitive" for a PhD program? How do I separate my own insecurities from being realistic about my chances? 2. Do you think that for someone in my situation, who hopes to eventually get into a well-ranked (not top 10, but certainly top 20-30) program would be well-served by going the MA first route? I know to steer clear of those "cash-grab" programs like NYU, but what about somewhere that I may not get funding but would probably benefit by strengthening myself as an applicant? Thanks in advance to all of you for any comments, tips, advice, or suggestions you have to offer!

Lenient isn'ty necesssarily the word I would use. It is my understanding (and correct me anybody if I'm wrong), but generally when one applies to a PhD program you would have a more specified/solidifed area of focus that you would want to address in your statement. While your MA SOP may deal with why you want to earn an MA and what your eventual career goals are, this isn's so much the concern with PhD programs because it's assumed you'll teach or do research (depending on the field). At any rate, I don't think SOP's for MA vs. PhD are really too fundamentally different. You'll want to use them to convince an AdCom that you can be successful in their program...