jhefflol

Nope, definitely comforting for me too. I was talking to a classmate who reassured me that low scores on the lit GRE are normal and gave me a few examples of scores she knows that made me feel a lot better, kind of. Its scary to think that students can get such a score (less than 10th percentile) but I guess it happens!

I just looked this over and it seems a lot more manageable than what I was expecting. I think I have a good 50% of these covered without studying, just from coursework. Thanks for the confidence boost! And the reading list!

I love CSULB. We have some real geniuses in our department and I feel very fortunate to be working under them. I moved here for my undergrad, actually. I transferred from a CC in Northern CA and came here without even touring the place. It was a big risk but I'm glad I'm here!

How's everyone doing? Did everyone start classes yet? I start tomorrow but I spent my last weekend writing abstracts for the papers I did last term and submitted them to multiple CFPS. Also, I'm asking my professors for LORs this week and just emailing them for office hour information gave me anxiety. Has anyone on here been turned down for a LOR? If so, how did you handle it?

Well good luck to you! I hope everything works out in your favor!

I personally do not like the sound of this. All the restrictions on usage/guests would make me feel trapped. I lived in a situation similar to this and it did not feel like home and it was difficult to study. Just my two cents.

I have a little pocket journal that I use to vent/write down ideas for papers/make to do lists with deadline dates. This has worked so far but I'm going to try the whole planner with space for notes deal yet again, as I try every semester.

I used to run half marathons at least once a month while an undergrad. I ambitiously signed up for my first full marathon in October amidst grad apps, GREs, and coursework. Definitely not happening!

I was going to suggest this as well. And wouldn't it make more sense to study at an English program in an English-speaking country? I don't know what kind of researching opportunities for English PhDs are in Europe, but I know the resources in the US are focused on cultivating new scholarship. Sometimes this means revisiting old texts or manuscripts and finding new information. As someone in the same direction as you, looking through old books that can only be found in libraries of the US and England is exciting! And most English PhD programs in the US are funded, granted you apply to the right schools.

Welcome to LA, neighbor! I hope you enjoy the area. There's so much to do around here!

Oh snap, I didn't even realize this was from 2008. I'm going to leave my reply in case it helps anyone and I'm going to sort through the comments after my nap.

I'm going to give my 2 cents before reading the rest of the replies, so I apologize if this has been repeated. When I was finishing up my undergrad, I was advised to go to a MA program versus a PhD because I had only a general idea of what kind of scholarship I wanted to produce. I wanted to research the Early Modern period in England, but beyond that I had no idea. I'm glad I got my MA because this gave me time to come up with an actual dissertation proposal and research the topic to see what kind of scholarship has been done on my topic. Beyond this, I have improved my academic writing skills and have learned how to participate in academia. If you feel ready to get your PhD straightaway, do so. If you know what you want to research intensely then go ahead. Otherwise, take the "buffer" MA option and explore some ideas a bit more until you know what you want to research. (Please excuse any typos and if this doesn't make sense, I apologize. I have been away and working outside since 6 am).

Another BSer here. Or at least I feel like it. I had a mini anxiety attack at work this morning as I was thinking about the very real possibility that my advisor/potential recommender might turn down my request for a LOR because I got a B in his class last semester. That escalated quickly into thoughts of self-doubt all around. I think the part that gets me feeling like an impostor is that in my program (like most grad programs, from what I understand), we only get As or Bs. I feel as though the professors are more likely to be more lenient with grading because of this. Often when I don't feel as though I produce A work, I get A grades anyway. Another thing to consider is that its possible that school just comes easy for some of us. I know that at least for myself I have always had a high GPA, from kindergarten through my undergrad, and I don't really need to study. I have noticed some of my peers putting in twice the work and getting the same results as me. I don't say that at all to brag, but more to point out that it just comes easier for some of us and because I feel like I'm doing less work, I feel like a fake. But all it takes is a professor to say, "I hadn't thought about that," or "That's a good point" to get my confidence back up. It comes and goes but you are not alone!

Yes, my sentiments exactly. I will teach so I can research, but I would not teach without being able to research. That's why my undergrad didn't work out.

My undergrad was English Education so I absolutely wince at the slightest utterance of "pedagogy." Ugh. I want to research my little butt off, but I understand that teaching is part of the job. I don't mind the actual teaching (I actually work as a writing tutor at the local community college), but I never ever want to discuss theory of pedagogy again!

1. A literary consultant for a major theater, like The Globe. 2. A resident expert/lecturer at a library with a collection on Early Modern or American colonial manuscripts. 3. Professor 4. An editor/compiler/annotator for anthologies and annotated works. Right now I'm not qualified for any of these, but this is why I'm still in school.

I would just like to add that the Princeton Review's GRE book suggests that we memorize the Greek and Roman gods, goddesses, and muses and gives a nice table to assist. Their reasoning is that if you have to identify an allusion to a Greek god, there basically "gimme" points. This goes along with their suggestion to memorize some vocab and critical theories.

I can't use backpacks with the giant anthologies I have been given as required reading. I normally carry a large purse anyway, so I shove whatever writing utensils, small books, notebooks, etc in that and then just carry my laptop/text books. Its much easier that way for me.

Every year I buy myself a nice planner. I use it for about a week, then just make lists with due dates in my journal. I bought myself a nice Moleskine this year since I'm going to have a bajillion more deadlines with grad apps so hopefully I'll start using it.

I personally have a terrible addiction to Starbucks. I can drink drip coffee all day and it does absolutely nothing for me so I need some serious espresso in my life. I'm thinking about investing in an espresso machine for my apartment. We have an illy espresso machine at work that I'm super quick with so a smaller version of one would be nice.

Things I have used during my first year as a grad student: Macbook Air Dropbox 2 flash drives: I save every document on both flash drives, Dropbox, and my computer's hard drive. I lost an edited version of a term paper during my last semester as an undergrad so since then I have been very careful. Keep the 2 flash drives in separate places in case you lose one. Pens A composition notebook (just for my Old English translations, otherwise I don't really take notes except in my books) Someone else said lots of alcohol, and I second that. A planner And that's really it. I think its easy to go crazy and over-prepare.

I'm going to do list form because I'm feeling lazy. DO THE DARN READING. This is seriously the most simple concept about getting a literature degree but darn if it's not the hardest part too. It piles up so sparknotes/audiobooks/movie versions get real tempting. Also, a good deal of the material, in my program at least, was only discussed for maybe one week and then was never tested or anything. It gets really tempting not to read stuff that isn't tested but you never know when a text is going to come up in another project/class. Find a niche. Everyone has one. The sooner you know it, the sooner you can start focusing as many of your papers around it as possible. I don't think I have written one paper in the last 2 years that wasn't gender theory. And once you've done that, Talk to your professors about your writing. They know what kind of writing is taken seriously in academia. This one is hard for me because I don't want to hear any criticism about my writing but honestly I need it. And that's why I'm getting my MA: to better my academic writing. Submit for publication/conferences. You never know who is going to find your research interesting. Try not to work as much. I'm paying for my schooling myself and last year I was working 2 jobs at 55+ hours a week. I was working 7 days a week and had shifts anywhere from 7 am to 3:30 am. I missed out on a lot of talks, readings, and mixers because of work. I also had hardly any time to do reading. Don't do that. ETA: About waiting until last minute to write: sometimes it's necessary. Last year there were 2 instances where I had to write two 18-page term papers from scratch and only had about 12 hours to do each one. I don't recommend it, but I pulled As out of both. Make sure you give yourself enough time to proofread and try to start researching for term papers at around midterms. Sometimes literature can take a while to get to you, especially if you have to use any kind of interlibrary lending programs. And if you do, download the literature on to a flash drive. The text expires after a certain date and you won't be able to access it unless you have it downloaded. Also, learning how to do an effective review of literature for your papers will save you a lot of time, especially if your thesis for the paper has little secondary sources to directly back up your claims. From what I know, that's how it should be anyway; the majority of your evidence should come from the primary text.

Ughhh so jealous. KC's working relationship with The Globe was about 90% of why I wanted to study there. I would have done the same thing, and then freaked out that actors were responding to my requests on freaking stage. Heck yeah! Right now, my program is super segregated: you're either clearly an Americanist or into British lit so I'm unable to get much help from actual classes. I'm just doing independent research and bugging bouncing my ideas off of professors. With my PhD, I want to look at how gender roles changed in the American colonies from the clearly defined roles women were given in EM England. I've read so much literature on how unmarried women, married women, and virgins were expected to behave in EM England based on religious texts and I want to explore whether or not these ideas were upheld in America once the British started to colonize. The nature of this project has obvious logistical challenges: publishing wasn't really a concern of women authors on either front so I will be examining what few works from women authors we have in addition to letters and diaries, which are a bit of a trouble to get ahold of. Also a lot of the early women writers from the colonies are accounts from former slaves and while I certainly do not intend to ignore race or women of color in my work, I'm focusing more on the study of women who came from an English background. Right now its looking like more of a transcontinental history of women rather than a thesis-driven dissertation. I'm sure that will change as I get deeper in to my research! ETA: I completely forgot that another "problem" with this project is that I will also be incorporating what male authors thought the roles of women should be in both geographic locations.

I feel like this is so important. Does anyone have any plans to keep busy while we wait for decisions? Vacations? Projects? I might be moving into a new apartment during the winter break, then I'll be too occupied with comps to be checking my inbox every hour....yeah right! Haha I'll probably be refreshing my email in between each page of research!