Dr. Old Bill

I'm NOT shooing you away from this forum, but just so you know, there is a forum for creative writing here at GradCafe as well. It doesn't seem to get much traffic, but you may find some nuggets of wisdom in older threads at least.

Yep -- UMD = University of Maryland. It does offer a strong writing program, with some fairly successful creative writers like Stanley Plumly and Elizabeth Arnold on faculty. Again, one of the strong suits is that you can teach while pursuing your MFA, and there are many funding options through GAships / TAships etc.

Yes, it's a bit of a controversial topic. I largely agree with @Romanista, but I'm also quite biased, having written and published a great deal of poetry long before I entered academia. At the time, I sneered a bit at the concept of the MFA. I still don't think it's necessary, by any means, but I will say this: some of my favorite people in my cohort are MFA students, and all of them take literature courses as well and get a well-rounded education as a part of their degree. In my conversations with a few of them, I think the prime reason for why they are going the MFA route is to have a structured development. One is writing a novel, and she finds that being in an academic environment with other creative individuals is helpful. Also, at UMD at least, MFA students are allowed to teach 101, which provides them with the ability to work on campus or at other local community colleges etc. So I guess what I'm getting at is that there are some valid reasons for getting an MFA, so long as you don't have the expectation that an MFA is required to be a great writer or even a professor.

I completely agree with Poliscar. One other sub-point to his is to check out what kind of degrees your favorite / ideal Cultural Studies professors / POIs have received. Dollars to donuts most of their Ph.D.'s were not in Cultural Studies, but in a broader field like English etc.

Well, if it's any consolation whatsoever, during the last application cycle I had everything done very early. I submitted most of my applications on the day each prospective program's application period opened. And in retrospect, I would NOT recommend doing that. It's one thing to be ultra prepared, and another to be ready, if that distinction makes any sense... I haven't even had time to think about my applications so far this cycle, since I've been so busy with work and schoolwork (an intensive graduate summer course while working a full GAship and moving to a new home is almost kicking my ass). I'm planning on doing as much of the Ph.D. application legwork as possible between mid-July and mid-August, since I'll have two assistantships, a lectureship, and two courses to deal with in the fall. :-O As for emailing POIs and programs, I always found it helpful...but don't put much stock in it. Remember that selection is done by a committee, and while it's nice to have an advocate in your corner, there seem to be so many facets to the selection process that it doesn't count for all that much. Still, on a more macro level, it can't hurt to establish connections with professors whose interests are in the same ballpark as yours, whether or not that can be leveraged into acceptances into their programs.

Bumping this thread just to remind folks that the first registration day for the GRE subject test is July 1st. I know those spots can fill up quickly so...heads up!

This question comes up surprisingly often here. There's no ranked list (not by USNews, at least) of M.A. programs, but despite that lack of ranking, certain programs are still notable for various reasons. Think of it this way: even if there was no USNews ranking for Ph.D. programs, you would know that Berkeley, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford etc. are all "prestigious"; the same goes for the M.A. programs you mention, among others -- they're known to be prestigious, even if no one has done a reputable systematic ranking.

I mildly agree with @blc073* and more firmly agree with @echo449, but my additional two cents is this: when it comes time to write your SOP for grad school applications, include a sentence or two about your reasons. Honestly, I can't imagine an adcom seeing something like "I was fortunate to be granted an extra year to broaden my knowledge base through coursework" as a negative. I recognize that space is at a premium in an SOP, but if you word it just right (better than how I have worded it here), the decision to take an extra year of coursework to get minors etc. can look like a major positive. *Only mildly, because bibliographic studies in Shakespeare could be greatly enhanced by a minor in history. As someone who partially specializes in the historiography of early modern drama, I wish I'd had the opportunity to get a minor in Renaissance studies or European history etc.

Yeah, I've flip-flopped on this question a bit (one of many application-related questions I've dithered about). I don't think it's a waste of time, per se, but one thing it can do is give you a false sense of optimism. Sure, optimism is great in general, but if a POI responds positively, saying that he/she finds your work/approach/methodology/thoughts etc. interesting, you're naturally going to assume that you've got someone in your corner...and that's usually not the case. I had a professor love my proposed course of study, and express a great deal of interest in working with me, but at the end of the day, I simply didn't make the cut at the program in question, even though this professor is quite well-regarded and would probably have some clout. He wasn't on the adcom, so it didn't really matter what he thought, frankly. Having said all of this, my gut tells me that establishing some kind of rapport with professors whose interests closely match your own isn't a bad thing. As one of the professors at my current institution suggested, "focus on the people more so than the program." While there's a bit of a balance that needs to be struck, she's not wrong.

If only I had taken it that year! 700+ for sure!

Hello Rydra...and welcome! I suspect the answer will vary by program (which is something you'll hear an awful lot here, unfortunately) in terms of what constitutes "knowing" a foreign language. Some programs will require transcript-based proof, while many (most) will want a translation test if there is no compelling evidence of your background in a language. For my own part, I took a four-course sequence of Spanish in my first two years, and got A's...but I have very little grounding in Spanish. I will still claim reading knowledge (which is mostly true), and will simply hope that the coursework will be enough to satisfy one language, because proving it might be a bit problematic. As for whether it's a "weak point," it's hard to say, and is probably dependent on your field to some extent. Since you are firmly in the 20th century, it's probably not too big of a deal. For an early modernist like myself, not having Italian and/or Latin and/or French might raise an eyebrow, but I'm still confident that it's not a toss-out-the-application concern.

It's a question of terminology. In some programs, the whole package is considered a "fellowship"; in others you can have two "fellowship" years interspersed with other years...even though funding remains intact for all of them; in still other programs, fellowships are extra monies above and beyond the standard package. Ultimately, however, all of these programs have full funding...it's just that individual packages can differ.

Half the time I log in here, I do so in anticipation of the ever-amazing nuggets of wisdom imparted by our dear friend unraed. Always such great insight.

I hate quibbling -- I really, really do -- but I agree with @ExponentialDecay that "obfuscating" is incorrectly used in that context. "Obscuring" may fly, but the connotations of "obfuscating" are negative, which really doesn't apply when discussing one's c.v.

I was -- no joke -- totally planning on starting this exact same thread, so I'm thrilled that you've done so. I'm going to get out my notepad in the hopes that there will be some more nuggets of wisdom dropping soon. Thanks for starting this!

I agree with @echo449, and would go so far as to say that even taking some graduate level courses without necessarily going for a degree might be worthwhile if you can afford the cost of a course or two per semester while you keep working. Fortunately D.C. has enough fantastic schools to make that a viable option for you -- GWU, Georgetown, American, UMD (I'm biased), Catholic U.... Basically, demonstrating that you can do graduate-level work in the field of English will help your cause immeasurably when applying for a Ph.D. It will also give you the opportunity to develop a writing sample, and ideally make some positive connections with professors. I suspect that it would be a longshot getting into a Ph.D. program without having anything recent in the field of English on your transcript. Your reasons can be extremely valid, but chances are that you'll have to demonstrate your ability a bit before you can be brought into the relatively elusive fold of doctoral study. P.S.: Do you have a general idea of the field / period you are interested in? That will help whittle down suggestions for journals to look at etc.

I don't see why not. One of the eight Ph.D. candidates in my cohort has his degree(s) (not sure if it's just B.A. or if it's B.A. and M.A.) from Greece, and he is very theory-oriented. Another has her M.A. from Japan, and she is immersed in digital humanities. Both have fairly strong accents...and both are very much loved by faculty and fellow students alike! In other words, while I can't speak for other programs, I can definitely assure you that at least some institutions have no issue whatsoever with accepting applicants with foreign degrees. Not trying to sell you on UMD, but computational narratology sounds like a focus that would fit right in here, given the strength of our digital humanities department and the presence of MITH... Either way, I would say sending out applications IS worth the shot.

Ooh, that would be great! Thanks in advance!

Yeah, I'm on the fence about retaking the regular GRE, but probably WILL give it another shot. My verbal was 162 / 89th percentile. Not great for an English major, but not bad either. Passable, but also probably improvable? As for the GRE Lit test, however, my performance was the very definition of mediocre: 50th percentile. Oof. I really wished (and still wish) I could have seen the graded version, because I felt quite strongly that I did "well." Nonetheless, I'm debating whether to retake it or cross all subject-test-requiring schools off my list. I honestly don't know what I'll decide yet. I suspect that once my current semester is over, I'll get into some deeper research about programs and see how many of them need the lit test. If it's just two or three out of, say, fifteen, then I'll just nix those programs. If it's more than that, I'll probably have to bite the bullet and retake it. I still feel, however (and many disagree), that it's a test that you can't really study for. You can cram for it a bit, but you either have a general knowledge of a wide range of the literature and theory that will be on any given test, or you don't. There are certainly tips and tricks, but the field of literature and criticism is so broad that even whittling it down to "likely" and "unlikely" testable material is haphazard at best...

I'm toying with the idea of NOT retaking the GRE Subject Test and NOT applying to any schools that require it this cycle. This would be a major decision for me, as I've traditionally held Yale and Princeton as my top choices, but I'm starting to wonder if it's worthwhile, given the sizeable number of programs that also look good to me. I didn't have a competitive score the first time around, which surprised me at the time, as I felt good coming out of the test (though my decision to make educated guesses on every question I didn't know probably backfired)...but do I want to put myself through that again? I suppose I've got a couple of months to decide. Anyone else making a conscious decision to skip the lit test this time around?

It's a tough one. Rice is a great school, as you say, but if you're not "feeling it," so to speak, then it's probably best to turn down the offer. Still, it's hard to imagine turning down a fully funded Ph.D. offer from a great program unless it was really repellent to you, and as peevish as the "why did you apply there in the first place" question might be, it's also rather valid... Last year I applied to WashU, even though there was only one person in my chosen field (although he is quite a fantastic person in that field). I would have taken a Ph.D. offer in a heartbeat and figured it out from there, personally, but we're all different people with different takes and experiences. Your gut instinct is usually the best one to follow!

Is this a Master's or Ph.D. program? If the former, and if it is funded, then it might be worthwhile to get the grad school experience at a "great school" as a lever into a more suitable Ph.D. program, if that is your ultimate focus. Like Echo says, though, more information would be helpful!

This is good to know, since I'll probably be applying to Chapel Hill in the next cycle...

Highfive, @EmmaJava, you fellow oldster you. Honestly, I hear the "age is a benefit" argument as much as I hear the "age is a detriment" one. The numbers surely skew toward younger applicants, but there are more younger applicants period. Maybe it's just because I'm in my mid-thirties and people are just giving me fabulous lip service, but I've been assured repeatedly by a sizeable number of professors and other graduate students that age isn't really a big factor when it comes to getting into programs or hitting the job market.

To the first question, I'm inclined to say "not much," but as with all programs, they likely view the application as a total package. I know one Ph.D. candidate in her third or fourth year who insists that her constant conferencing is what swayed the decision to retain her as a Ph.D. student after getting her M.A. at UMD. By and large, though, publications and conferences seem to be the proverbial "cherry on top" in applications -- nice to have and can't hurt, but they're a bonus, not a requirement (perhaps unless it comes down to choosing between a few excellent candidates). As for GRE, do you mean subject or general? I'm assuming the latter, since UMD doesn't require the former. It's impossible to say the weight they put on it, but my GRE score was "alright" (90th percentile in verbal, 33rd percentile in quantitative) and I got in.