Glasperlenspieler
-
Posts
411 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
11
Posts posted by Glasperlenspieler
-
-
My first thought was that it sounded like a Mountains Goat lyric, but not quite sure which song fits. Maybe this?
-
12 minutes ago, Starbuck420 said:
a poem?
???:
-
I can't speak for Texas specifically, but most universities require you to register for a "dissertation reading and research" section for every semester you are enrolled after completing coursework. This is usually equivalent to one course in terms of credit. So, you will still be on the hook for tuition if it is not covered through a fellowship or TAship, but depending on the tuition pay structure of the university, it may be significantly reduced in comparison to a semester of full coursework.
-
Will you have the opportunity to pursue your interests in an academically stimulating environemnt? Yes
Will you benefit from high quality advising? Depends on who you work with
Is it worth spending 60k plus cost of living so that you can do those things and maybe (but maybe not) have a more successful PhD application next time around? No way in hell
-
1 hour ago, cheesy_cheese said:
I have a stellar/very original/extremely polished writing sample
I wish I could speak this confidently about articles I've published in high quality journals.
-
I'd echo @snorkles but also add that you should remember that at this stage of the game, you are evaluating them. They've already accepted you and decided they want you to come (barring some unlikely horror story). So you're job now is to figure out if you like them. So, be yourself, ask questions, and keep your eyes open for signs (good and bad).
-
1. Save up money. Moving to a new city and starting grad school can have lots of unexpected financial costs and you might not get your first paycheck until a month or two into the program. It's also good to figure out housing, home essentials you will need to buy, etc. as early as possible. There will be a lot hitting you once you move, so the better prepared you are, the less stressful it will be.
2. Read something that has nothing to do with your research, hang out with friends, binge watch a series, get some R&R. You will want to be fully energized at the start of grad school. You're bound to feel burnt out at some point, but preventing that from happening too early will make your first year much more pleasant.
3. If you must do something academically related, then try to read a few things for your classes in the first semester. Ideally, try to read things that will be assigned for the middle or the end of the semester. You'll probably keep up fine for the first few weeks, but you're bound to get bogged down at some point, so having that big book that you know you will have to read out of the way will give you a little breathing room down the line. If you do this, take good notes though, so that you don't forget everything you have to say about it by the time you need to talk about it in seminar.
-
19 hours ago, BwO said:
Besides, most of my POIs in these programs are at a stage of their career where they can put out more interdisciplinary work — precisely what interests me — and no one will bat an eyelid. But this sort of research tends not to be what’s expected of English PhD dissertations and early-career job applications, which still remain grounded in traditional periodizations/demarcations of approaches.
This is a really important observation.
I'll just add to the sage advice offered by @BwO, @EM51413, and @WildeThing and say that before attending an interdisciplinary or comp lit program, it's certainly a good idea to look very closely at their placement record and I would also advise taking some time to look through what sort of jobs get posted here: https://academicjobs.wikia.org/wiki/Academic_Jobs_Wiki
It's true that one can't predict the market 5-10 years out, but I also think the volatility in desired specialties is just as likely to mean that the market for a given specialty will get worse as it is to indicate that there may be an increased demand for a particular specialty.
-
8 hours ago, sisyphushappy said:
I’m in this position at the moment with my top choice. I reached out about two weeks after hearing about being waitlisted with updates on what I’m doing this semester academically to make myself a stronger candidate.
But what am I supposed to say throughout the next few months to stay in touch? Just “I’m still interested,” or should I have something more substantive each time? (I know I should send ~250 words at most.) How often should I be in touch?
I have an enormous fear of being an email pest.
At the point, the best thing for you to do is gather as much information about the program as possible so that if you are eventually offered a spot (which may happen at the last moment), you will be prepared to give an informed answer.
Asking questions about the program will also demonstrate your interest, which could help you, though I think at this point there's not much you can do to improve your chances of admission. They obviously like you, otherwise they wouldn't have put you on the waitlist. What you need to happen now is for enough people to reject their offer (and depending on how they manage waitlists, people in your field). But you demonstrating your further accomplishments won't help that happen.
-
3 hours ago, caffeinated applicant said:
GC is mainly the blind leading the blind--the vast majority of users have too little information to see the whole picture.
While there's a lot of truth in this, it's also worth noting that there are some veterans on this forum who are well into their PhDs or finished with them and can certainly provide some valuable insight into academic life. Among them are @Ramus, @Warelin, and @Bumblebea. (I don't want to so presumptuous as to place myself in this esteemed crowd, but I've also been around for bit, having just passed my qualifying exams). You should certainly take all advice with a grain of salt. This is especially true of anonymous advice, though as @Ramus rightly points out, even your professors aren't immune to giving bad advice. However, it's also important not to merely accept or reject advice on the basis of whether or not it's what you want to hear.
NB: none of this is to deny that it's a very good idea to reach out to people who may have more direct insight on your particular situation and see what they have to say.
-
I couldn't agree with @NowMoreSerious more. I would also add, that while I very much appreciate the impetus behind this thread, the sort of answers you want to these questions are not always the sorts of answers people will be willing to post on a public message board (especially at the level of detail needed to be truly informative).
-
Given your answers to these questions, I suspect you might be better served by a linguistics MA than an MA in French Literature. While this is perhaps less true at the beginning, graduate training and professionalization tends to prioritize specialization, rather than generalist knowledge. And for the job market, you're likely to be looking at 2 sorts of jobs. There are those jobs in which you would teach primarily elementary/intermediate/advanced French (but likely more elementary and intermediate) and then there are those jobs in which you will perhaps be teaching some language courses but also upper division topics seminars and maybe even graduate courses. For the former, a specialization in applied linguistics would make you competitive, and as long as you having a general familiarity with French literature (which you would get through a PhD program in a French department), it won't matter if you're weaker on the literature/culture side of things. For the latter sorts of jobs, the topics you would be teaching would primarily be linguistics oriented, and thus your lack of literature/culture background also wouldn't be a huge issue.
In terms of admissions to PhD programs, however, what will really matter (in addition to your French competency) is that you show the potential for producing original research. Even though PhDs generally earn a living through teaching, graduate school tends to be very research oriented, and that will be the focal point of graduate admissions. So in order to be competitive, you will need to demonstrate that you are asking research questions that are worth pursuing and that you have the skill set to pursue them.
5 hours ago, Amber//46 said:I do have a strong desire to learn more, which I was hoping to accomplish and pursue in the beginning stages of a PhD program. I know I want to learn and study more in it.
One good thing to recognize that in comparison to undergrad, grad school is much less about learning and much more about producing knowledge. Whether or not this is always a good thing is a different question, but that tends to be the orientation. I've met many graduate students that were frustrated to discover this. (Obviously this is not entirely either/or though and producing research means learning a lot and you will learn a lot in grad school)
NB: I'm not in a French department but I am in a different European language/literature department and I'm relatively confident this all holds true for French as well, but there may be some differences.
-
A few thoughts:
1) Most PhD programs do not require an MA for admission. In some cases it can increase your admissions odd, but there's no guarantee of that.
2) I don't think most PhD programs are going to put much stock in an online MA. (It won't necessarily count against you, but I don't see it really helping).
3) I certainly wouldn't pay out of pocket for an online MA. (It rarely makes sense to pay for a graduate degree in the humanities unless you're independently wealthy)
4) Whether or not having an MA will decrease coursework for your PhD will vary widely from program to program. Many private schools won't offer any transfer credit. State schools can sometime be more generous.
5) Is your ultimate goal to teach at the university level?
6) Do you have a genuine interest in French literature/culture? Or are you just pursuing this option because you think it will improve your odds?
7) Do you have the linguistics background necessary to pursue research in French linguistics?
-
On 1/29/2020 at 10:09 AM, Djinns&Dragons said:
I've had interviewers flat out tell me that the most important thing is your research topic and ability so also spend this time submitting to undergrad conferences and journals for that CV line. Also pick a good research topic that hasn't been touched, but gets you passionate.
Forgive me, but I don't quite follow this line of thought. I certainly agree that research topic and ability are the most important part of admissions. However, it's not at all clear to me what undergrad conference and journals have to do with that.
-
12 minutes ago, blancacastillo said:
Of course, this was all very helpful. I’m really trying to figure out how to make that all happen next year, whether by doing a masters of research or working as a teacher in Austria/Germany or something ?
While I don't know your situation, I can certainly recommend the latter as a great option.
-
12 hours ago, KantianSister said:
I suppose it makes sense given the nature of this forum, but much of the discourse I see here suggests to me that philosophy has died in academia. Phrases like “continental philosophy”, “analytic philosophy”, “GPA”, “GRE”, “admissions committee”, and “writing sample” are employed in an almost mechanistic fashion, without their employers devoting even a modicum of thought to the life they are fashioning for themselves by so using them. Such a life is not a philosophical one, but rather a dogmatic and sophistic one.
Worse, their employment undermines any insights to be gleaned in philosophy by placing them within the margins of the incontestable dogmatisms of “continental philosophy” and “analytic philosophy”. I can only hope that the philosophers working in academia today are not quietly framing their inquiries in such terms.
For better or worse, the opportunity to do philosophy full-time takes place within certain economic, cultural, and institutional structures. If one wants to have that opportunity and one wants that opportunity to last, it's important to understand those structures and what you have to do exist within them. The willful dismissal of these structures is naive.
I happen to think the continental/analytic distinction is pretty philosophically useless. However, that is not to say that the distinction doesn't play and institutional and cultural role in academia.
-
43 minutes ago, UndergradDad said:
SO more general question: in what order do most schools do this: Send out acceptances first followed by waitlist and then rejections or is it all over the board on how they do it? Is it done in a trickle or all rejections for instance at once?
That's pretty much right. Waitlists are often (but not always) shortly after acceptances. Rejections can be a fairly significant wait depending on the programs. Since acceptance and waitlist emails are sometimes personalized, there can be a bit of a trickle, but usually it's all on one day. Occasionally it extends for a couple days. Rejections normally come all at once, since it's usually a form letter (some of which are better than others).
-
37 minutes ago, caffeinated applicant said:
I feel like on the letter of recommendation front, your best bet is going to be looking for contact with professors outside of classes--which would already be the case if you were in an American MA. So, office hours, chats over coffee, that kind of thing, whatever is within the norms of your academic setting. I think it's perfectly alright to be direct in these conversations about the fact that you see this MA as a stepping stone to the PhD, and it's possible that your professors might take additional note of you just because they know that you're looking to go into academia.
NB: This tends to be much more difficult in the German academic system, in which students have less contact with professors (particularly those who occupy a Lehrstuhl) and professors and students are much more institutionally removed from one another than in the American system.
-
14 minutes ago, karamazov said:
I appreciate the reassurance that I do not, in fact, need to dress like Hillary Clinton.
Given your profile picture, the image of Dostoevsky in a pant suit just jumped into my head and it made me very happy somehow.
- vondafkossum and karamazov
-
2
-
A few quick thoughts:
9 minutes ago, NewyorkToast said:I’m interested in CS, and want to major in CS.
Then you should.
9 minutes ago, NewyorkToast said:I doubt that I will be able to have at least one decent publication in about 2 years left
Nobody expects an undergrad to have published.
13 minutes ago, NewyorkToast said:As above shows, maybe I should choose to minor in CS? Or give up major in CS?
Here you've lost me. You're interested in CS and want to major in CS, but you're thinking of dropping it so you can pursue a career in philosophy? CS is the safer career bet and since the odds of success finding employment in philosophy are very low, it seems strange to prioritize it, especially since everything you write here makes me think you're more interested in CS than you are in philosophy. Am I missing something? At the end of the day, you should study what you're interested in. It's good to have an eye towards what you will do afterwards, but that would seem to point even more strongly toward CS.
Two other thoughts:
I'm not really sure what you have against an MA.
You're main justification for pursuing philosophy seems to be that you enjoy teaching. Why not teach CS?
-
37 minutes ago, olivetree said:
I'm interested in the intersection between Ancient Greek tragedy (especially female tragic figures) and postcolonial literature of the African diaspora (in English, French, and Italian).
That sounds really freaking cool. Good luck!
-
I second everything @philosopuppy says about MA programs.
On 1/3/2020 at 5:49 PM, JesusFdz said:Again, thank you so much for the advice. The reason why I have included several lower-tier programs is because I really REALLY want to pursue graduate education in this field. Like UndergradDad mentioned, I love philosophy and of course, my dream is to become a professor in a highly challenging academic setting where I could do some hardcore research, etc. But the fact is I love philosophy, period. My number one goal is not academia, but philosophy. I enjoy reading it, studying it, writing it, teaching it, researching it, everything. So my biggest fear is to get denied the opportunity to further my studies, rather than not making it to the top. I actually think there is something wrong with the current model in academia, where students feel the need to be the best and climb to the top of a mountain in order to really enjoy philosophy. But I digress..
Of course, I would love to attend a better program just to have access to better education, but again, I'm in it for good and even the "lowest-tier" would leave me tremendously satisfied. Thank you for your advice and please comment on my opinions.
Don't underestimate how attached you will become to the idea of an academic career over the course of a PhD program. The ecosystem of PhD programs acculturates you into thinking that a tenure track position is the only valid metric of success. This is bullshit but it's very hard to escape this way of thinking at a certain point in your graduate career. And once you become attached to an academic career, if you're in a program that doesn't actually set you up with high odds to attain one, it's a recipe for misery. So, even if you're convinced that it's the opportunity to study that you want and not merely a certain professional trajectory, it behooves you to attend the best PhD program you can. An MA is great way to enable you to do that. It also allows for an easy exit, if you decide academic philosophy isn't for you.
In general, I think it's wise to think about PhD programs in the humanities as a peculiar sort of vocational school, because that really is how they function and operate. I don't necessarily mean to endorse this model, but I think it's important to recognize that that's the way things are. I'm as attracted to the idea of the life of the mind as much as the next person. But the idea of it can be very different from the realities of university life.
On 1/3/2020 at 5:59 PM, JesusFdz said:It's hard to see when the Top 20-25 or so programs all claim to be extremely competitive (and apparently are!)
This doesn't begin to capture the way things are. When I applied to PhD programs the first time (the fall 2014 season), I got waitlisted at a school then ranked in the 40s. They received well over 200 applications and were looking to have a matriculating class of 6-8.
- hector549 and philosopuppy
-
1
-
1
-
This is mostly seconding what other people have said, but I wouldn't worry too much about being a "non-traditional" students. While there are certainly students who go straight from their BA to a PhD program, I know plenty of people who had more circuitous journeys to grad school. I don't think this should make too much of a difference regarding admissions and I often find that people who had a few years (or more) off before grad school are better off in terms of maturity, motivation, etc.
I do think the low-tier undergrad degree will make it hard to get into top PhD programs. The best route for you is almost certainly to pursue a funded terminal MA, after which you can reasonably apply to even top-tier programs (NYU and Rutgers will still be very tough to get into, but there's no reason, in principle, why a Tufts/NIU/Brandeis/UWM/etc MA can't compete for those spots).
-
I'm a little confused by what you're going for since your questions seem much more directed towards the role of publishing in the academic job market for literary studies than they do with actually publishing in literary studies. If you're thinking of trying to get a job in an English/literature department with a social psychology PhD, that's extremely unlikely. With that caveat aside, here's some answers to your questions.
1 hour ago, CozyD said:It seems like a lot of literature people aren't really publishing much at all during their Ph.D. programs?
This depends. Going on the market without any publications isn't great (but is done). More than, say, three articles would probably be pretty unusual for someone coming out of a PhD program (though again, it happens).
1 hour ago, CozyD said:It seems like almost everything is sole authored?
Single authorship is the norm. This may be slowly changing and there are increasinly initiatives encouraging various forms of research collaboration. The vast majotiry of articles published in literary studies are single-authored.
1 hour ago, CozyD said:- It seems conferences are a bigger thing? And maybe the culture is more that you read a finished piece of writing rather than talk from slides?
I have no idea on the comparative. Conferences matter but more for networking than your CV (though the lack of any conferences probably isn't good). Generally people read a paper at a conference. Sometimes slides with relevant quotes are provided. It's pretty rare for someone to speak extemporaneously for a conference presentations (though it happens).
1 hour ago, CozyD said:- Maybe books are a bigger deal?
Again, can't help you with the comparative. PhD students don't normally publish books. To get tenure, many departments require that your first book be (at minimum) accepted for publication.
1 hour ago, CozyD said:- What's the whole deal with academic Book Reviews? Are these considered a worthwhile thing to spend time on? Are these supposed to function like short critical pieces?
They don't count for nothing but they're not as important as articles. They can be a relatively easy way to get a publications since they're usually pretty short. Most reviews consist of a summary with a handful of critical/laudatory comments. They allow scholars to determine if a book's worth reading and sometimes function as a sort of accreditation. More extensive "response papers" are sometimes published by journals, but those are usually by more senior scholars.
1 hour ago, CozyD said:- What's even the basic expectations for the kind of contributions a paper is supposed to make to the field to be worth being published?
What counts as a contribution to the field is sort of like asking what the field does. You'll get lots of different answers to that. The only way to really get a sense of it though it to become acculturated in the discipline. A starting point for this is reading lots of academic articles in the field and trying to figure out what they do.
1 hour ago, CozyD said:- What are new grad students in Literature departments told about how to think of and approach publishing?
Depends on the department/professor/student. General rules. Publishing is good/necessary for professional success. Don't publish sub-par work. Don't focus on publishing to the detriment of your dissertation. Don't publish in sub-par journals. As a grad student, you probably shouldn't submit something to a journal without consulting an advsor.
1 hour ago, CozyD said:- What kind of publications does one want to have in Literature before going on the job market?
At least one article is probably good. If not an article, then definitely try for a book review. More is better as long as it doesn't extend time-to-degree, or take time away from your dissertation. You also don't want to publish too much though, since things published before getting hired generally won't count towards your tenure review. Book chapters count less than articles but more than book reviews. But that also depends on the book.
2020 Applicants
in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
Posted
I wouldn't put too much stock in that. Being a potential student is sort of awkward as it is and especially in this scenario, so you probably didn't really have a chance to see their personalities. Plus, you don't even know which of them will end up matriculating. I would try to talk with current grad students (preferably out of earshot of faculty). Their personality/behavior/attitude will be much more telling.