littlepigeon
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Posts posted by littlepigeon
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On 1/16/2023 at 1:13 PM, PinkTeacher901 said:
Hello!
I’m interested in a library science degree, but I’m not sure where to start or if it’s the right thing to do. ? I really like Rutgers’ program, but I’m scared of leaving behind my teaching career.
if you want to dm me, i'd be happy to answer any questions etc. you still have. the /r/LibraryScience subreddit is also a super helpful resource.
in addition, the related subreddits /r/Librarians, /r/Libraries, and /r/Archivists are very informative and definitely at least worth perusing (although the last one will probably only seem useful if you're interested in specializing in archives/records etc.). while not as specifically geared toward being a student/prospective student of library science, they do offer great snapshots of many other aspects of having/pursuing a career in the field (state of the job market, etc.) that would for sure be helpful for you to browse around if you're still uncertain about whether or not LS might be a good fit for you.
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welp, you and i managed not to apply to any of the same programs, so i'm not sure how helpful my reply will be.... but for the sake of not letting this thread die before it had the chance to live...
here's where i applied and the responses i've received so far (FWIW, i only applied to on-campus master's level programs)
- Simmons --- accepted w/ guaranteed tuition scholarship
- Syracuse --- accepted w/ guaranteed tuition scholarship + paid RA appointment
- Indiana --- accepted w/no guaranteed funding
- Pitt --- accepted w/ (relatively very small) guaranteed tuition scholarship
- Tennessee --- accepted; notifications of funding are supposedly going out "in April" (presumably before the 15th? but who knows tbh)
- Wisconsin-Madison --- no word yet (but their website says that notifications of funding will be sent out 3 weeks after admissions decisions)
good luck to everyone who applied this year!!
(NB: i'll admit that i probs jumped the gun in deciding to apply to Indiana--at more or less the last minute--without having reviewed carefully enough the program's info re: funding opportunities for master's students... as it turns out they apparently don't award any funding to "most" of their incoming MS students (but i'd be super curious to hear from anyone who's able to provide a more concrete picture of what that funding landscape actually looks like)
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well, given that there's nothing in the Library Sciences Forum yet pertaining to Fall 2023 applications/admissions, i'm pretty skeptical of this thread becoming very active at this point. i suppose there's no harm in creating the topic anyway, though...
sidebar: it has just occurred to me that people might not even use GC as a main platform for this kind of forum anymore.... in which case, salutations to the void? idk. just please oh please don't tell me that everyone's migrated over to using Facebook and/or Twitter for MLIS-related chatter. i'm not on either of those platforms, and just the thought of potentially "having" to join either one in order to participate in an MLIS forum is like probably the biggest bummer I can imagine honestly.....
BUT i digress so will now likely proceed by just following the apparent template used in the previous years' iterations of this topic thread. (topic thread? is that a thing? i haven't been active in a forum since like 2015 and that one was in fact just another GradCafe one.... sooo feeling a bit like i don't know how to talk to people on the internet anymore? i'm sure that anyone who reads this definitely came for exactly this kind of ~relatable content~ though.)
i think i'll do that in a new post, however, as i'd really rather avoid being the weird rando posting like fully the equivalent of a novella in a forum where no one asked for it and where it's also highly unlikely that more than like 7-9 people will ever read it....
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Accepted to University of Oregon's MA/PhD program!
Got the phone call today. Unexpected. Anyone else thinking about Oregon?!Same here! Not sure if I'm going to accept the offer, but I was super excited to get that voicemail. I admit I'm curious about why the status of my application is still "pending" online, but I'm not going to worry about that too much.
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I took two years off after getting my BA before starting my MA program, and have been taking the current year off (well, since August) to apply to Ph.D. programs. My MA program was only three quarters long, so it would have been impossible for me to apply to Ph.D. programs simultaneously. Regardless, though, I'll agree with everyone else's posts here; I don't think a break from your studies could at all hinder your chances of being accepted at most programs (and if they did reject you on that basis, you probably wouldn't want to enroll there anyway, right?).
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On a totally different note:
I'm sheepishly going to post this question/observation about a current source of anxiety for me, despite the inevitability of me revealing myself as a medievalist n00b/the asthmatic kid trying to climb the fence and get to the baseball game but her shoelaces keep getting stuck in the fence wires...
I'm curious to hear what all of you think about lit theory in relation to medieval lit/medieval studies. It has seemed to me that a few of the more popular/accepted schools of theory don't always apply as well to medieval lit as they do to some of the later periods, and while reading over the papers I submitted during my MA program last year, I've noticed that I tend to shy away from making theory-heavy arguments most of the time (that is, I might take a cultural or even new historicist stance, or sometimes even just produce a classic close reading that is focused more on the substance and context of the text itself than in trying to read it through any particular theoretical lens). Clearly, however, most of these adcomms appear to want to see that we know what scholars in our field are doing in terms of their theoretical work and how they're developing innovative approaches to studying medieval lit, and I'm beginning to feel like I have a lot of reading to do before I can confidently say I'm "up to date" with how current medievalists are incorporating theory into their methodologies in productive and interesting ways. My other problem is that I quite simply don't *love* a lot of the theoretical routes available at the moment; I've sustained a marginal interest in gender/sexuality studies, but even that can become a more frustrating than enjoyable approach, in my experience.
Sigh. This isn't really a question yet. I guess I'm wondering how you all go about doing this type of broad research? I know I can just start reading recent essays and articles to see who's saying what about which thing, but any other advice you guys have about brushing up on my theory knowledge (specifically, what medievalists are doing in terms of their theoretical work) would be really, really appreciated.
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Also, felibus: got it! Charts it is. Do you think flash cards would help at all?
Most people would say yes (if not definitely/absolutely/"I would've died without them," etc.). A few classmates of mine this summer who ended up doing pretty well in our courses relied on them. However, I personally have just never been able to make flashcards work for me in any class on any subject. But if they've worked for you in the past, by all means try them out. The best study method for me was just writing and rewriting (and rewriting and rewriting...) verb conjugations and noun/adjective declinations every day until my hand ached too much to keep going. With verbs, it becomes a more tedious task as you get further along in your course and know more and more forms (simply because each verb takes longer to conjugate fully), but getting into the habit of writing them all out really helped me retain the crazy amount of information I had to know in the short period of time I had (not my forte whatsoever--my short-term memory is embarrassing, honestly).
Unfortunately, I have zero advice regarding learning/studying OE. I've encountered it in several courses over the years, and really love the language, but have never studied it formally or learned much about the grammar/morphology. I definitely want to take a few semesters of it once I'm (hopefully) in a program next year, and a few that I've looked at actually require 1-2 semesters in OE of all their Ph.D. students, regardless of specialization, which I think is pretty cool.
Also, my face is red over having written "it's" instead of "its" in a previous post in this thread...I obviously need to start proofreading my TGC posts more carefully. *hides in corner for a week*
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I just cracked open my books for this semester, and it looks like I've got my work cut out for me! It's so cooool though. <3 I'm such a dweeb, I get excited about verb conjugation - that was my favorite part of Spanish. Ahora no recuerdo mucho de que yo aprendi, but hopefully that won't be true with Latin because I'm going to read until my eyeballs fall out or the language is firmly ensconced in my long term memory, whichever comes first!
Any study tips or suggestions?
Charts. Make so. Many. Charts. I've got two 1-subject notebooks from this summer that are just filled front to back with my study/practice charts and the notes I took in class, as well as pages where I just wrote out specific rules, etc. that I'd had trouble memorizing the first time around. Also, if you get stuck on any particular word, Wiktionary is surprisingly helpful (particularly for verbs). You can enter any conjugation of pretty much any verb (at least from the introductory vocab lists, which were all I was dealing with), and it will tell you what tense and person it's in, as well as link you to the main Wiktionary entry for that verb that has it's full meaning, etc. Same deal for nouns, adjectives, and the rest. I'm not sure how reliable it would be for more advanced Latin, but for an Intro course it was a quick and easy way to help my studying move a little faster.
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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.
I've evidently reached my quota for up-voting posts, so I'm giving this ten of my personal (super valuable) gold stars!
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ETS itself says that it's essentially impossible to make a perfect score on the Lit Subject test (unlike some of its other Subject tests). I've taken a few practice exams, which are extremely helpful, and my one piece of advice would be to make sure you're familiar (in THE most general sense) with lit crit. As in, there is ALWAYS (ok, maybe not always, but on every test I've taken there has been) a question that has blurb definitions of about five schools of lit theory, and you have to match the school to the definition. So basically, go on Wikipedia and memorize the first paragraph or two of the pages for Structuralism, Deconstruction, Post-Structuralism, New Criticism, New Historicism, etc.
Other than that, the best advice I can think of is to focus on what you already know. I (shamefully) never took a single class in either Romanticism or Victorian lit while in undergrad or grad school, so I'm not going to waste a hundred thousand hours trying to figure out how to differentiate the poetry of Shelley, Wordsworth, and Byron (although unfortunately, in my experience, ETS loves their Romantics...). Instead, make sure you're as confident as possible about the periods you already know something substantial about.
Finally, even if you aren't going to take a practice test, just read through as many of them as possible. Learning how ETS phrases its questions (and knowing what types of questions they usually ask) will give you a HUGE advantage come test day.
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Honestly, I probably won't send my subject score to the programs that don't require it unless it's absolutely incredible (like 85-90th percentile or, very hypothetically speaking, higher than that), since it's so freakin' expensive to send the damn things.
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I'd like to echo what everyone else has said and say that I've been told by people at Berkeley that the LoRs are not so important. Everyone gets a good letter of recommendation because if the tutor didn't have nice things to say they wouldn't bother writing one in the first place. And because everyone gets good letters they don't really matter and aren't very helpful.
This is only what I've been told, and it could be different for other schools, so take it with a pinch of salt!
I'm compelled to add that I've heard the exact opposite from a number of already-Ph.D.-student friends, as well as professors at both institutions I've attended. I think that this sort of claim can't really be a generalization about schools/programs across the board, but rather each individual department probably cares significantly more or less about the LoRs than others do.
That being said, I think that if you have strong LoRs from respected scholars in the field you're trying to enter, they are especially helpful (this is why some programs specifically state that applicants ought to avoid having only non-tenured/adjunct/etc. professors write all their LoRs).
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And Lord, there's no reason for you to be familiar with OE morphology before you've taken a class in it! You will be, soon enough, from your intro class. Not to mention 8 credits of Latin--that'll beat case distinctions into your head darned fast. And in re your fear: pshaw. You'll do just beautifully, I'm sure!
This is absolutely true. Even if I wanted to forget everything about Latin cases and morphology, it would be impossible. I literally declined nouns and conjugated verbs in my SLEEP (dreams? nightmares?) all summer.
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Wyatt's Torch's advice is good as always, but I thought I'd share my (again, not admitted, only applicant) experience of how I narrowed things down. It was a hard process for me--I'm the sort of person who likes everything! I knew the time period whose lit I wanted to work with, but beyond that, I (as I told my advisors) would be perfectly happy studying anything within it. What helped me was, as Wyatt's Torch recommends, looking at my past work--I quite literally put all my medieval papers on the desk in front of me and looked for commonalities, for the threads that tied them all together, and used that as the basis for my SOP.
I'd also second Wyatt's comments about work oriented toward queer/gender theory, and not just because it's what I'm applying to programs to do! I was a bit worried the field might of played itself out, but all my profs have said that no, it's very much a growth area. Whether you need a narrower focus within that (mine's tied to a very specific historical period) is a different question, though.
This is precisely what I did when I was trying to narrow down my specialization in medieval literature to a specific theme or style of lit. As it turns out, almost all of my MA term papers (as well as my MA thesis, and undergrad thesis) have something to do with death, and many with grief/sorrow/consolation/etc., so I'm going to include those rather abstract concepts in my SOP to give the adcomms an idea of the sort of lit in which I'm most interested. Beyond that, I certainly haven't read everything there is to read from 1000-1500, so I'm going to mention a few broader categories I'm interested in studying further (hagiography, religious lit, and animal studies, to name a few), and probably some authors I've already read whose texts particularly appealed to me. Like Wyatt's Torch said, grad school is way less rigid, structurally speaking, than undergrad studies tend to be; that being said, if I were you, Poiple, I'd try to pick maybe a period or two on which you might like to focus your critical/theoretical work. That would at least give adcomms a glimpse of where you would best fit in in their departments. And you'd likely do well to pick a POI or two from each program to which you're applying, as well, since if your personal specialization is a bit on the vague side, naming specific people whose research you find especially intriguing will give a good idea of what you yourself are interested in studying.
I'll add the usual disclaimer here about my advice being that of a yet-unadmitted applicant. I did apply to thirteen MA programs pretty successfully two seasons ago, though, so I do have some idea as to what approaches seem to work well...
- unræd and Dr. Old Bill
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Welcome, Jessica! I'm Amy, a (hopeful) medievalist, so I similarly considered applying to schools abroad. Ultimately, the lack of further coursework at the schools I looked at in England deterred me from adding them to my list. I have to say, your SO sounds pretty dedicated!
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I really love literature and ultimately want to pursue a PhD program, but decided to complete an MA program first to strengthen my research experience and to develop stronger relationships with faculty (I have strong ties with 2 of my undergrad professors, but I'm really struggling to come up with a 3rd for recommendations). The problem with this is that I haven't found the right program. UCLA, UC Irvine, and USC are all PhD track only, UC Riverside is too far away, and the offerings of other small, private schools don't really fit my interests. I also considered applying to Cal State Los Angeles or Long Beach, but it'd be a fairly big step back for me in terms of rank.
Still, my employer pays 100% tuition/fees/books for employees to go to any grad school and desired program. I'd have to be crazy to not take advantage of this benefit, right? So I applied to USC's Master of Communication Management program because it's relevant to my work experience and I do have some interest in the field, and I was accepted into the program a few days ago. If I go forward with this, then I intend to apply directly to an English PhD program upon completion.
Part of me thinks that it's better to earn a graduate degree from a highly ranked, research-driven program outside of English than it is to go backwards in rank and settle for a mediocre English MA program. But the other part recognizes that rank isn't everything and a big chunk of succeeding in grad school depends on the student. I also can't help but wonder if venturing outside of my intended field will hurt me when it comes time to apply to English PhD programs. Then again, if I don't attend USC then I will lose at least a semester in time since all the fall application deadlines have passed. Completing the program would certainly be a wise step for me at work.
Am I overthinking this? Is it really that bad to step outside the box for a little bit? Can pursuing a degree outside of your intended field be considered a good thing? So torn!
I might be totally wrong about this, but from what I've gathered from friends, etc., it seems like English Ph.D. adcomms tend to want to see prior degrees/majors specifically in the field of English/literature/etc. (depending on what Ph.D. track you're pursuing, like a rhetoric program vs. a literature one, for example). This is especially true, I'd surmise, in regard to the top-tier programs. They at least want to see on your transcripts that you've taken a solid number (and optimally, I think, a wide range) of English courses.
I don't think you mentioned if you did your BA in English...this would affect my comments somewhat. If you took a good deal of relevant courses during undergrad that you think will prove your sufficient preparation for a Ph.D. program in English, then I don't think your choice to do your MA in a different field would be very detrimental.
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This summer I have been just worrying about applications. This includes researching hundreds of programs, trying to read anthologies to study for the subject test, crying tears of frustration from feeling inadequate, throwing my dissertation proposal at some of my current professors to get (surprisingly positive) feedback and suggestions, sleeping a lot as a procrastination technique, and making an obscene amount of flash cards. Also, I think I am the reason why the Starbucks down the street from my apartment is still open for business.
I somehow managed to make it to Hawaii for a week, move in to a new apartment, attempted to run a half marathon, and worked. This summer has been a whirlwind and as a result, I have no idea when the first day of school is. I should probably figure that out.
Ok but hold the phone--you have a dissertation proposal already?! At best, I've got some abstract/generalized topics I'd ideally want to focus on; at worst, I have no idea what my dissertation is going to cover.
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No, I'll be taking the subject test on the 27th September, and the general ones the weekend after. Several of us are going to have a little online drinking/commiseration party afterwards, I've decided! Who's in?
(And no, I think "sitting" is only really more correct if you're a bit of a pompous blowhard. Which I can be, so it's all good.
)Um YES let's do this! I'm taking the Subject test on the 27th as well, and will seriously be more than ready for a GC commiseration party afterwards.
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Another odd duck here! Hello!
I'm also applying to Ph.D. programs to study Anglo-Saxon and Old English lit in the fall... I just sort of fell into all of this after transferring from a community college to my current school last fall, but I'm currently involved in a summer undergraduate fellowship/senior thesis project on color resonances in Old English (I'm using a corpus-based analytical approach, since we actually HAVE a comprehensive corpus of OE texts - U of Toronto has my undying gratitude for that), and I'm hoping I'll be able to continue that research in grad school. I'm a bit nervous about how my "new kid" status will look to admissions committees; I have a 4.0, a 170 verbal on the GRE, research experience, etc., but there's no getting around the fact that I had no idea I wanted to study what I want to study until 12 months ago.
I've managed to teach myself a significant chunk of OE this summer, but I'm excited to take actual, real classes in the fall - I'm signed up for OE and an intensive 8-unit introductory Latin class, which I need in order to take the medieval Latin class being offered in the spring. I won't have years and years of languages when I apply, but I'm a quick study and I'll have had two semesters of OE and essentially three of Latin by the time I graduate, so hopefully I won't seem to far behind. I'm crossing my fingers.
Currently I'm getting ready to present at the undergraduate conference that concludes my summer fellowship, so I'm supersuper nervous... I'm on the plenary too, which means I have to stand up in front of EVERYBODY and pretend I know what I'm doing. Eep. But I really do care about/am proud of my research, so hopefully it won't be too bad.
Nice to meet you all!
Hi there! Glad we've got another person in our pre-1500 forum. : ) I did an intensive Latin course this summer at UChicago, and it wasn't bad at all, especially if you like languages. That being said, I had 5 hours of class each day, and would typically study between 8 and 10 hours after that, so it wasn't exactly easy rolling. It sounds like you pick up new languages easily, so I'm sure you'll do fine. I'd love to hear more about this color research, though! Also, any ideas yet about where you want to apply?
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I've got an array of triggers, as well as an assortment of remedies. I have two prescriptions (rizatriptan and sumatriptan), one of which I take as soon as I feel a headache coming on, if possible (I usually take the former for the "worse" migraines, while the sumatriptan I take if I've got to go to class, or work, or something, and can't just fall asleep for the rest of the day). I also have anti-nausea meds. Other than that, if you can keep water down, sucking on ice cubes help to kind of cool down the nerve endings in the roof of your mouth, and cold packs kept on whatever part of your head hurts the worst usually feel nice for a while.
Sigh. I wish I had some "magic" treatment, but unfortunately I don't think anyone does yet...
As far as de-stressing goes, PLEASE share your tips, everyone! I tend to be in a constant state of stress, regardless of what is actually going on in my life at any given time, so the genuinely stressful periods are even worse...
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My summer has been absolutely jam packed so far! I smashed through graduating by June and then jumped right into studying for the General GRE, which really knocked the wind out of me in terms of motivation. Although I wrote it in early June (and studied for all of May), I've been feeling exceptionally burned out ever since. I also was diagnosed with migraines in December, and I've been trying to work through how to deal with them (I seem to get auras especially when I'm stressed) with all my upcoming responsibilities!
I've been dealing with migraines for about six years now, and they are no picnic, that's for sure. I've never had auras with mine, though the worst ones I get are accompanied with terrible nausea, etc. They can be so frustrating during stressful times--it's like, how is it fair that my body feels like I need yet ANOTHER thing stressing me out that simultaneously makes it near-impossible to deal with the things that were stressing me out in the first place?!
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By the way folks, the equivalent Grad Cafe thread for last year was already up to 32 pages by this date! Does this mean that there are fewer applicants this year, or is everyone just really really quiet?
...we can hope!!! I've been amazed at how slowly things here are (or aren't, rather) picking up, too. Perhaps there will be a sudden influx of a hundred new members in a few weeks...but until then, I'm going to pretend that I'm going to be amongst an applicant pool of eight other medievalists.
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My WS will be part of the MA thesis I wrote this spring, which covered the problem of consolation in Pearl and Chaucer's Book of the Duchess. The thesis itself is upwards of 30 pages, so I'm just going to use the section on Pearl, as it's far more coherent and well-written than the Chaucer portion. Here's where I could use some advice...
Some programs state that if you're submitting an excerpt from a longer work, you should just provide a brief paragraph explaining the context for the excerpt. Others don't provide any such instructions, though will often note that excerpts are fine to submit for the WS. In your opinion(s), should I *just* submit the body of the Pearl section itself--that is, without either an introduction or conclusion--and just provide the context for those missing parts alongside the WS? My original plan was to amend both the intro and conclusion to reflect the move from talking about two poems to just the one....but I obviously don't want to have to put more editing time towards the WS than is truly necessary. (I'm already going to have to do a bit of editing on the body of the paper, just to revise a few things I didn't have a chance to fix before I submitted the thesis a few months ago.)
Sorry if this post/question is a bit scrambled...and I realize I'm not providing you all with any concrete writing to work with. Nevertheless, your thoughts on this matter would be appreciated!
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Wow. This sentence so accurately reflects my current state of mind right now, it's not even funny...especially the mix of "nervous anticpation and little-kid excitement" part. It's so weird, isn't it? Applications are a huge slog, but knowing that in seven months there's a good chance that you'll be preparing to move to a new city to spend five or more years getting paid to work on the material dearest to your heart... It's hard not to get kinda giddy, isn't it?
Precisely! The giddiness almost even overwhelms that whole nauseating expectation of chainsaws! (Love that, Unræd. Too perfect.)
And yes, the K&R textbook set was a great beginner's guide to Latin, for sure. I recommend it to anyone thinking about "teaching themselves" or looking for a way to review that isn't via the same textbook(s) with which they originally worked...
MLIS Fall 2023 Application Cycle
in Library Sciences Forum
Posted
I actually just accepted the offer from Syracuse last week! What about you? UIUC and UNC would both be great choices, and while I don't know anything about UCLA's program, I'm sure it would also be great. That's a tough call about the UIUC assistantship vs. UNC funding; everything I read online while working on my applications said just to go with the program that would ultimately cost you the least, but I feel like there are a few other factors I personally wanted to take into account when making the decision (which I realize I perhaps say from a place of privilege, in some ways).