Algernon

You might want to consider the University of Pittsburgh. Their English literature PhD program is literally entitled "PhD in Critical and Cultural Studies." Also, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory that is extremely active and rigorous and offers a graduate certificate. I was accepted to both programs this round (I chose Pitt), so while I can't answer questions from a current student's perspective, I do have some information to offer about them if you're curious. Incidentally, they're also both well-funded.

I turned down Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this week and took my name off of the waitlist at UW-Madison. I was offered a first year fellowship at UIUC, so congratulations to the person who will now receive it-- it was an incredibly hard offer to decline, for that reason and many others.

Great idea, Crysby-- thanks!

I thought of you when I took my name off of the waitlist at UMN, Bunny. They seemed really confident they would be able to accept me, so I'm hoping you just moved up to where I was. Being waitlisted at Minnesota certainly seems more promising than being waitlisted at some other schools, so don't give up hope!

A PhD in English takes, at bare minimum, 5 years after the BA, and often as many as 8, so the health care plan would affect me a bit longer than you suggest, but you do make a good point-- it's still just a short time compared to the length of a career. Given both schools have comparable placement rates at institutions I would be fine working for, I'm actually not convinced (yet) that the ~20 points ranking difference really is *that* significant in terms of job prospects. I need to ask around more about it. I'm not worried about prestige for the sake of prestige, so someone would have to prove WHY the higher ranked school ranks where it does (is it anything more tangible than reputation?) and how their program is a better bet for my future despite the shitty health care. Whenever I do decide, or am about to decide, I definitely will bring up the health care issue with the higher ranked school. I'm very skeptical that they will be able to offer anything more than what they already have considering their inability to even cover the costs of me flying out to visit, but you're right-- it doesn't hurt to ask. Thank you for your input!!

Thank you all for the feedback! Hearing other opinions is very helpful. I really need to sit down and do some math to see where I'm at financially (though I tend to think I won't have the money for extra medical bills-- humanities stipends, even the more generous ones, are not great). I'm visiting both campuses soon, so I'll be sure to talk to students about their ability to afford health care on the available stipend.

How much importance should one place on the quality of the health insurance programs offered when deciding between schools? Or perhaps a better question: how much importance are YOU placing on health insurance plans as you decide between funding offers? No matter your answer, do you consider yourself someone needing average health care services or above average? I ask because I have Lupus, which requires daily medication, regular visits to a specialist, and, at minimum, yearly blood work. I have fully-funded PhD offers from two schools, one more highly ranked than the other by about 20 spots, both in the top 40 in my field. I like both programs pretty equally. However, in addition to a slightly better funding package overall, the lower ranked school offers significantly better health insurance (no deductible, 100% coverage of almost all services, prescription coverage etc.). The higher ranked school's health insurance has a $150 deductible, no prescription coverage, only 80% of charges covered after deductible, etc. Given unique health needs, how would you weigh program prestige versus healthcare coverage, all else being equal? (I know the actual decision will have to consider many other factors, but set them aside briefly, if you will.)

Just an FYI: I have officially heard back from every school to which I applied, and I have taken my name off the waitlists at both University of Minnesota and Brandeis, so hopefully that helps someone else out a bit.

I'm not sure I have specific advice for you, but I do want to let you know that I contacted absolutely no one at any of the schools I applied to, and I still got a couple of acceptances and waitlists. I don't know if expectations are different in comp lit versus literary studies, but in literary studies, I experienced no significant setbacks by not contacting professors. I'd be tempted not to contact anyone now for fear of irritating them during a busy time of year, but that's just my personality. Perhaps others will have relevant experience to share about whether contacting professors at this point in the game is beneficial, detrimental, or insignificant.

I suppose I will contribute my experience to this thread, as I would have found it helpful when preparing my applications. I don't fall under the category of someone who got into a top tier school (as I realize OP requested), but I nevertheless think what I have to share might be valuable to someone who wants to contrast what got someone into the top tier versus what got them in the tier right below it (whatever that's called). I applied to eleven PhD programs in literature ranked from 10 - 44 by USN. One school has not responded, but I currently have: Two waitlists: one at a school ranked in the top 20, one ranked 36th One consolatory admission to the MA by a school in the top 10 Two PhD admits: one at a school ranked 22, one at a school ranked 39. Undergraduate Record: I attended a tiny midwestern undergraduate-only LAC that most people outside the midwest (and even many in the midwest) have never heard of. I graduated top of my class with a BA double major in English and a minor outside of the humanities. I won a few academic awards, both inside and outside of my department, and wrote a 50+ page honors thesis. I also won a semester-long honors fellowship for a post-grad research project unrelated to my interests in literature. GPA/GRE: GPA just shy of 4.0. My GRE verbal score was in the 97th percentile. Math around the 50th. Writing score was an embarrassing 4.0. Subject test around the 60th percentile. The MA admit and only one of the PhD admits required the subject test score. The waitlists did not. Letter Writers: As far as I know, my letter writers are not prominent scholars in their areas of study. My primary advisor is an ivy graduate (both BA and PhD) and rather well-connected. She knows people at all but one of the institutions that admitted/waitlisted me. Another letter writer got his PhD from one of the schools that waitlisted me. My advisor is the only one of my letter writers publishing specifically in my period of interest. All are tenured. I took multiples classes with all of them and all of them knew me very well as a student and academic. -- Side note: although I'm sure my professors would have been receptive, I rarely/never socialized with them off campus and we did not share information about our personal lives with each other unless it directly affected our work together-- I strongly prefer not to mix personal and academic relationships (Surprisingly, I seem to be in the minority in this respect). Research/Writing Sample: Very generally, I work in the 19th century with an emphasis on gender, cultural studies. I have a secondary interest in ESL and teaching writing, and have significant experience working in/researching that area. Both of the schools where I was admitted are very heavy into cultural studies. The school that offered an MA is very strong in 19th century studies. I would say that the schools with the best objective fit are indeed the ones that either accepted or waitlisted me. The school where I had the-- in my view-- *perfect* fit (very similar research to POI) rejected me. I did tailor my SOP to each school, emphasizing certain interests for certain schools and mentioning at least one or more POI. All schools received the exact same writing sample, which was a chapter from my thesis that I heavily revised/reconstructed. My advisor was the only person who edited/revised/offered feedback on my writing sample. I received significant feedback on my SOP from all three letter writers. My Approach to Applications: I knew going into college that I wanted to get my PhD in literature. I intentionally did not apply to graduate school or work on applications while still getting my BA. I took a year off after graduating dedicated exclusively to preparing my application, researching schools, and studying for the subject test. During that time, I worked a minimum wage job completely unrelated to academia and did absolutely nothing that I could put on my resume (not recommending that course of action for others, but it's the truth.) I contacted no POIs and, in fact, had no communication of any kind with any of the schools to which I applied. Miscellaneous: I have no publications and have presented at no conferences. I worked in the writing center, TAed several classes (none of which were English), tutored many students in many subjects (including writing/English), took classes in Spanish and Latin, and was inducted to Phi Beta Kappa (for what that's worth...). In my opinion, although my application had its strong points (I'm reasonably confident in my writing sample, SOP, letters of rec, transcript), it also had a lot highly visible weak spots (crummy test scores, no publications, no conferences, no school anyone outside the midwest has even heard of, no well-known LOR writers). Given those qualities, I'm surprised and very pleased to have gotten into two well-funded programs, one in the top 25. I am happy to even be waitlisted at a top 20, and I'm almost shocked to have been offered an MA at a top tier school, though I would never, under any circumstances, accept an unfunded offer such as theirs. My take away from this experience echoes what many others have said: it's the writing sample, SOP, and LORs that get you into programs. It's the "numbers" and quantifiable factors (test scores, degree prestige etc.) that determine if you get into the tippy-top programs. But, of course, you have to have luck, too, or the rest of it's a moo point (Friends, anyone?). I'm so incredibly thankful that luck was on my side. And all of that being said.... I'm still ambivalent on the importance of rankings. But I guess I would be negligent to disregard them. I will add that taking a year off to focus 100% on applying to grad school was the best decision I could have made. It was scary, but I'm confident that if I'd tried to apply while writing my honors thesis or during my post-grad honors term, my application wouldn't have been anywhere as good as it was, and I highly doubt I would have gotten in anywhere. Not to mention I'm almost certain I would have just keeled over and died from the stress of it all. I'm glad, too, that I worked a mindless, irrelevant part-time job. I intentionally took the job I did so that I could earn some money (I lived at home, so didn't need to work full time to afford rent, etc.) but not feel like my attention was being taken away from grad school applications by worrying about work. I know not everyone is in a position to approach the situation as I did, and I'm very grateful I could do so. I look back and know that I could have done a lot of things better-- read more, studied harder, retaken tests for better scores, (watched less Netflix...), but overall, I think things turned out okay regardless. I hope this post helps someone else gain insight to the application process! I tried to be as thorough, factual, and blunt/honest as I could.

Thanks for the info! Maybe I will ask them. Who exactly did you email?

Starting to wonder if Virginia lost my application. Are there others on here still waiting? I have no expectations, I'm just puzzled as to why I've been left hanging. I thought for sure I'd be included in yesterday's notifications/website updates. It certainly seems like they've made their decisions...

To really answer your question, though: Rutgers is one of the very top programs for Victorian and Gender Studies in English literature. That's why I like it (also, I want to grow up to be John Kucich one day). I'm not actually sure how strong it is in other time periods or genres, etc.

John Kucich. That is all.

Thank you! I will probably be taking you up on that offer. Keep an eye out for a PM. I like your blog! Your recent posts are very apropos-- and helpful as well. I'll take all the advice I can get at this point, haha.