Dr. Old Bill

Sage advice! And Bowties are cool. But not as cool as fezzes!

I will cherish them greatly.

I don't disagree with this. In fact, it makes a lot of sense. However, there's a slight paradox at work here: any LOR writer worth his/her salt would write you a good LOR, and this is true for all applicants (which is why it is always more prudent to choose a letter writer who is familiar with your work, rather than trying to seek out a more notable professor who doesn't remember you or your work very well). As a result, it can be safely assumed that most LORs will say good things about their applicants, meaning that their overall value can't be too high unless they highlight things that resonate with certain adcomm members...and it's almost impossible to know what those things actually are. What I'm getting at is that like I said above, a good LOR is a matter of course and is to be expected (i.e., is a null factor). A mediocre LOR has a good chance of sinking your application entirely. But an exemplary LOR, that manages to tickle the fancy of an adcomm will probably help your application...but only if your SOP and WS are strong as well. It's always worth remembering that by virtually all accounts, an application is seen as a total package. Little deficiencies in one area can be buoyed by strengths in others. GRE and GPA, as well as good LORs are closer to the realm of "checklist" items for the most part, unless they are truly exceptional. The bottom line is, however, like many others have said over years of threads in GC, you can only worry about making the things that are in your control (namely the SOP and WS) the best they can be. In most cases, your LORs will be in your control as well, so long as you choose professors who know you and your work. A professor who knows you and thinks highly of your work simply will not write you a mediocre LOR. Hopefully he/she will write you an exemplary one, but if not, that's still not going to sink an otherwise solid application.

Hi there! Well, I'm sort of an "in-betweener" in terms of specialization. Technically I'm applying to Poetics programs, but my proposed research focus is primarily grounded in early modern, tracing the evolution of the sonnet from Petrarch through to Shakespeare (and beyond). Overall, my interests are transhistorical, but I have a particular affinity for the early modern period, having studied Shakespeare and Milton extensively. From what I can tell, there are a lot more professors with research interests in the early modern period than there are graduate students, which is actually quite a good thing when it comes to the application process. Good luck to you...and welcome to Grad Cafe!

I just have to say... I'm in the middle of filling out the first of my applications, and it feels so damn great. I'm glad that WUSTL opens their application process so early! It has a great program. I'm still waiting on my WS readers to get back to me, but it's so exciting to finally be starting this for real! Minor question for all of you: some institutions (like WUSTL) say that you can send them your GRE lit scores, but that they probably won't factor into the decision. Do you think it's generally worthwhile to do so, or is it truly a waste?

Yes, this most accurately reflects my line of thinking about it. There's a lot one can do to prepare for the test, but...there's also a lot that's just out of your hands. The range is so incredibly broad that most tenured Enlish professors would probably be lucky to get in the 90+ percentile. That's not to say that studying is futile -- it's certainly not! -- but it's best to get out of the mindset that it's a test that you can get 100% on. I mean, technically it is, but when you have a maximum of 40 seconds to answer each question (however you manage to distribute that time...), and you literally cannot know in advance a single one of the questions that will be on the test, it's far more prudent to get the gist of the major works...which is why the hapax legomena and vade mecum sites are so helpful. Ack! Sorry to hear this! Enjoy your vacation, and good luck with the surgery (and the equally horrid surgery prep)!

One of my LOR writers said the same thing. He's old, sarcastic, and cynical (but brilliant, and a very kind man underneath), but he told me that LORs mean very little...and that makes sense, really. The main thing to consider is that they all have to be good. As with the other aspects like GRE and GPA etc., they don't receive a lot of weight individually, because there's an expectation that they'll be good. So too with LORs: a good one may not help you, but a mediocre one will likely hurt you.

Yeah, that sounds pretty valid to me! There are always courses that would be fun to take, but the application process will probably require the same amount of time that you would otherwise dedicate to that course. Probably most prudent to give it a miss.

Really? My experience was different, to be honest. With the first of the professors I asked, it just came up rather organically. I was in his office chatting about other stuff, and it led to my interest in graduate school, and I basically just said (totally off-the-cuff), "So when the time comes, would you be willing to write me a letter of recommendation?" and he quickly answered "Oh, of course!" The second professor I asked was my advisor, and he's a somewhat crusty old man who is a tough grader (the only non-A English papers I've ever written were in one of his courses). I had a couple of things to talk to him about, but when I broached the topic of him writing a LOR for me, I said "Professor, I have a two-part question for you. One, would you be willing to write me a letter of recommendation, and two, if you are willing, would you say good things about me?" He chuckled and replied something to the effect of "Well I would never do the former if I wasn't willing to do the latter, and I would certainly be more than happy to write you a glowing letter..." And with my third professor, who I truly adore, it was another "matter of course" request. There was a fourth professor too, who I asked when I was considering the comp/rhet path, and it came up during a conversation about his graduate school path (he was quite young). What I get from this is that so long as they know who you are and know your work, and you've distinguished yourself at least a little bit, then there's really no need for any awkwardness when you ask. Then again, I'm a pretty outgoing person and perhaps don't treat the professorial divide quite as strictly as I should. There's nothing I like more than to just chat with professors, and my slightly higher age probably takes away a bit of any potential shyness. (There is a kind of confidence that comes from simply being a bit older and more experienced, I must admit). But the big takeaway is that you should be noticeable. Try to talk as much as you can in class without being "the talker," and as long as you don't come across as obsequious, your professors will likely appreciate your contributions. In a few private discussions I've had with professors, more than one has admitted that he/she hates being the only one who speaks in class and can never know which students are truly engaged when they don't make a peep. So...peep!

Nope -- I'm not (I'm Canadian, though from Vancouver), but Queennight is! Maybe she'll chime in on that front. I might be interested in that conference too.

Personally, I'm planning on circling "C" for everything and will keep my fingers crossed that I don't manage to fall into a negative percentile. Seriously though, my preparation to this point has been reading as many works on that "recommended" list I toyed with, and starting to read (finally!) Cracking the GRE. I hope to do a practice test before my next semester starts in a couple of weeks, and will be checking out hapax and vade mecum regularly up until September 27th, but a lot of me is just hoping that my preexisting knowledge will go a long way on the test. As LyonessRampant has mentioned across many helpful GC threads, memorization of general details about a wide range of works is the best way to prepare. Personally, I've supplemented reading works of literature with watching high-quality / unabridged miniseries versions of certain works as well (i.e., BBC editions). So far I've knocked out Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Eyre and Great Expectations in that way, and I've got Wuthering Heights, Tom Jones, and David Copperfield lined up for viewing soon as well. Many of these are available on Netflix or Amazon Prime, by the way (though my wife is a big Austen and Bronte fan, so I've admittedly bought a few as well). Beyond that, I'm not the praying sort, but I certainly don't lack in the "aggressively hoping" department, so will be doing a lot of that over the next 6.5 weeks.

Ooh. Nice risposte!

Excellent...excellent...my plan to set these Medievalists at each other's throats is working!

JUST out of pure, unadulterated curiosity, does your institution allow you to take a course pass/fail? If so, that might be an option for your "funsies" course. I haven't taken a course pass/fail yet personally, but I'm planning on doing so in my spring semester, since I'll need to take one non-major course anyhow. Well, I'm not really freaking out, but I'm going to have a heavy autumn. As mentioned in another thread, I'm taking five courses (sixteen credit hours), all packed on to Tuesdays and Thursdays because I live 100 miles from campus and have to commute. This means that I get up between 4:30 and 5:00 AM, leave the house by 6:00, get to campus around 7:30 (I build in some buffer time in case of accidents on the road etc.), and then have four straight classes from 8:00 AM until 1:50 PM (ten minutes in between each class) before I've built in a lunch break...then I end the day with a course on Literary Theory. All of my courses this semester are English courses, at least...though it means a hell of a lot of reading and writing, of course. They're all in the same building this semester too, which saves me from the walk-jog I had to do a few times to avoid being late for cross-campus classes last year. On top of that, there's all the grad school application stuff, plus my job as a moderator for a major poetry workshop (which doesn't take up a lot of time, but is still something that needs to be checked on frequently each day). On top of that I'll still have my usual three or four fantasy hockey leagues (I'm Canadian. I love hockey. So sue me. ) and obviously time to hang out with my wife in the evenings and on weekends. So it's a little hectic, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. My only concern is that I've got a very high GPA, and don't want to see it take a hit for dumb reasons...though I can't possibly imagine it taking enough of a hit to seriously impact my application, so there's that. Besides all of the above, I'm certain of one thing: I'll be on Grad Cafe a hell of a lot.

Ah yes. I remember stumbling across that on Iowa's page in my first swath of research. It is odd, particularly given that some applicants will be writing a work from scratch, while others will be assembling it from more than one paper. It's a very exclusionary practice on Iowa's part, and probably turns off a lot of potential applicants. They also stipulate that the paper should have been "originally written for a class," which probably cuts 1/3 or more of potential applicants. Quite silly, in my view. In this instance, I would touch base with the Director of Graduate Studies directly and explain that your work will be an excerpted part of your thesis, and you'd be happy to solicit your professor's comments if need be. I'm guessing the DGS will get back to you and say "don't worry about it," but if you are anything like me, the prohibitive nature of their admission stipulations would prevent me from applying (and I happen to know one of the English professors there to boot!). Well, even within this thread you can see that there are some slightly different schools of thought on this matter. Most of what I have read and heard (lots of it has been on GC, mind you) is that your SOP and WS should closely match. But as Unraed intimates, if your work on the subject mentioned in the SOP is far inferior to your work in another genre, it's probably best to defer to your best work. You may want to contextualize it in your SOP though. Perhaps a line like this would suffice: "Since this research focus is a recent development for me, I have yet to scratch the surface on an academic level. As a result, I believe this writing sample on [xxxx] is representative of the quality of my work, if not the precise nature of my graduate interests." Or something like that. You know, just something that tells them why your writing sample is about an 18th century British poet (avoid using the outmoded term "poetess," by the way), instead of a 19th century American figure. Another case where you should probably contact the DGS to be sure. Are all of the pages pure content, or do they include works cited pages, appendices etc.? If the former, I think 18-19 would probably be too long. If the latter...well, referential matter is usually not considered in the overall page count, but the DGS (or even an assistant in the graduate office) would be able to tell you definitively. I've had to contact a few program offices about this kind of information, and they're usually quick to respond. Ha! I completely understand that sentiment. I have to admit though, that as crazy as it sounds, I kind of enjoy the process! I mean, it's a major pain in a lot of respects, but I get the "little kid excitement" that Felibus mentioned in another thread (and the "Christmas with the possibility of chainsaws" feeling espoused by Unraed) when I think about how in seven months, barring a complete shutout, I'll be mapping out the next five or six years of my life, preparing to finally get paid to learn what I love, and ultimately teach what I love, and be surrounded by people who are mature and focused etc. So the nitty gritty details are annoying, and the process is long, expensive, and definitely laborious...but the end is SO much bigger than the means to the end that I don't really mind.

Oh yeah. I've spent about a month and a half there in total, though it has been nearly 20 years since my last visit. I got citizenship about ten years ago, as New Zealand allows the offspring of citizens to obtain citizenship before they turn 25, and I was 24 at the time, so it made a lot of sense. I had actually planned on moving to Australia back then, as I was fully immersed in music production at the time, and had a few close connections in Melbourne. One of the great things about New Zealand and Australia is that they have what's called a "Trans-Tasman" agreement, wherein a citizen of one country is free to live and work in the other without a visa etc. I kind of wish that the same was true of Canada and the U.S. It certainly would have avoided the seven month immigration process I had to go through to move here... But I digress. New Zealand is indeed as beautiful as people say, and while I probably won't move there during my working life (though you never know...), I can imagine retiring there. It's also probably the most consistently friendly Western country as well. Kiwis are resilient, resourceful, and have a hobbit-like desire to go out of their way to help strangers and friends alike.

Ah, you're right of course, Unraed. I'm almost certainly overreacting. I've heard (completely apocryphal, of course) talk of graduate programs wanting to diversify, and having race become a factor, and I guess the bottom line is that I just don't want that to be the case. But I guess it's a non-issue, for the most part, so I'll just check the all-encompassing "white" box and leave it at that. Incidentally, I am technically part Pacific Islander, as I happen to be a second generation New Zealand citizen, and last I checked New Zealand is comprised of two islands in the Pacific...but I'll force myself to take my tongue out of my cheek and not check that box when prompted.

So I've started the preliminary portion of a couple of grad school applications, and I'm noticing that they ask for race / ethnicity, though it seems to be optional. I've never liked having to identify this. I just think it's irrelevant, personally, and I find it mildly annoying (regardless of any legitimate data collection reasons for them asking) to have to click a box that says I'm white, or Asian, or Pacific Islander, or Middle Eastern, or Native American...or all of the above! However, part of me worries that if I don't click on a box, it will look strange or incomplete. It's not about hiding my ethnicity -- I truly couldn't care less -- but rather about it being even the most minute factor on an application. Any thoughts or suggestions on this? Am I just being silly about a relatively innocuous issue?

Yes, I agree with Unraed -- I should have mentioned that it's certainly doable. Indeed, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people tell me I'm crazy for commuting such a long distance, taking all my courses on two days, or various other observations on my "unusual" circumstances. Before my first semester at my undergraduate school, the associate dean literally begged me to consider taking only four courses, and he was worried that I'd just burn out and drop out right away. It may have been well-intentioned, but it was annoying, because it undermined my ability to determine what I can handle. And given my academic success since then, it was entirely unfounded. So yes, the bottom line is that YOU are the ultimate arbiter of how much you can handle. Hopefully my comments didn't come across to the contrary! (P.S.: How do you say "foot in mouth" in Old English? )

Oh! Just "holy crap" to the workload of 20 credits in a semester, combined with all of the grad application stuff. I take 16 per semester, packed on to two days per week (i.e., five courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays), and have a 100 mile commute...so I'm no stranger to "crazy" levels of work. But there's no way around the fact that 20 credits is a heck of a lot, so yes...I feel your pain!

Some excellent advice here. We may be a smaller Grad Cafe contingent than in years past, but gosh darn it we're smart.

I'm totally crashing the Medievalist thread just to say HOLY CRAP to the above. Carry on.

One thing to keep in mind is that the paper should generally be in sync with your SOP. So if you're looking at, like your signature says, programs in transatlantic and gender studies of the 17th - 18th centuries, a paper on patriarchal society in The Tempest sounds like it could work well, but might need a bit of tweaking to make it even more suited to your potential line of study. I haven't read your paper, but I know The Tempest quite well, and I can already imagine that approach, as you mentioned. Indeed, you might want to find an even more specific angle to address in it, if you haven't already (a novel theory about why Ariel is androgynous could be interesting). Good luck with it!

Absolutely! "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" is quoted so often that it's almost become cliche at this point, yet probably 90% of the people who utter it have no idea that it was Shakespeare's first declaration of love / adoration to a young man. Up until only fifty years or so ago, critics refused to acknowledge the now-obvious homosexuality of the first 126 sonnets, referring to Shakespeare's love interest as "the friend" and going to great lengths to explain away the overt sexuality of the desired (though possibly not consummated) relationship. Joseph Pequigney has a fantastic book entitled Such Is My Love that deals primarily with the homoerotic nature of Shakespeare's sonnets, and is well worth reading for anyone with an interest in queer studies in the early modern era. Even though most of my research has been on the form / structure / prosody of the Sonnets, I still found a way to cite it in papers for that sonnet course as well as in my WS. It's just that good.

Hi Mel! As with most of my posts, take this with a grain of salt (given that I'm still in the same application boat rather than the already-accepted yacht), but it seems that queer studies are gaining popularity at graduate level. In researching programs for my own proposed specialization, I've noticed a lot of professors who have queer studies / queer theory / gender studies etc. as either part of (or all of) their research focuses. If your Master's work was in that field, what you may want to do is think hard about some of the best individual courses you've taken, and consider whether you want to cover the same information in greater depth. Or, for that matter, if there was just part of a course that intrigued you more than the rest, try to imagine what it would be like to spend a few years on that same topic. That's one way you can go about determining a good specialization. It's basically what I did when I honed in on transhistorical prosody / history of the lyric as it pertains to the evolution of the sonnet. I had taken a great undergraduate seminar on Shakespeare's sonnets, and have long been a sonneteer myself, and so when my wife casually mentioned to me "Hey, why don't you think about a sonnet approach?" I realized that that would make the most sense for me, since I have practical experience as well as an interest in the topic. I haven't gotten in to any programs yet, so perhaps it will wind up being a bad proposed specialization...but I don't think that will be the case (i.e., if I don't get in, my specialization probably won't be the reason for most programs). Another, somewhat simpler way about it, is to go through the process of researching various professors at assorted programs (which you'll have to do anyhow), and find out what they're working on, and tailor your proposed specialization to their own. For instance, if you notice that a particular professor is keenly interested in the master-mistress relationship between Shakespeare and the "Young Man" in sonnets 18-126 (it's still amazing to me how few people realize that his most famous sonnets were written to a man...), then you could discuss an interest subliterary Renaissance romances and "open closet" literature (I'm not sure if I just coined that, but it sounds cool). This might sound slightly political, and I suppose it is, but it's very important to remember that the proposed specialization in your SOP is primarily a tool for getting in to a grad school. Once admitted, you can work on whatever, within reason. In most cases, you'll probably wind up working on something fairly close to what you've proposed, since that's usually the guiding focus of your program / institution research in the first place, but grad school is far less structured than undergrad. I'm far more of a generalist than a specialist, having interest in at least three distinct kinds of literature, not to mention literary periods, but specialization is a means to an end at the application point, even though it might ultimately become an end unto itself once you get in.