Medievalmaniac

Now that the 2009-2010 application season is safely over, and we've all had a chance to collect ourselves, what advice would you give to people just beginning the process? What would you do the same, what would you never do again, what would you do differently? What areas of your application are you proudest of, and why? How would you improve your application based on what you now know? What are the "hidden pitfalls" in the application process, in your experience? What was particularly easy, difficult, or rewarding? What should people watch out for or pay special attention to? Let's debrief here, and maybe we can help others who come after us (or those of us who are reapplying next year).

I'm teaching at a private school.

Ideally, you will then enroll in a summer intensive language program either prior to entering the program or during the first summer session after that. There are a number of language institutes held throughout the States and I believe even abroad for the purposes of accelerated language acquisition. In fact, if you are in medieval studies, the Medieval Academy of America actually offers tuition waivers for the summer Latin programs in several locations. Less ideally, you will either take for credit or audit the foreign language classes necessary to accomplish proficiency during the school year while you are working on your doctoral courses.

This is an important issue for women in academia - especially if you're married to an academic. In many instances, especially those in which the husband is older or better-known in the field, having his last name can potentially hurt you (I think of Roger Sherman Loomis, the great Arthurian scholar, and his wife Laura Loomis, who was extremely competent, but who ultimately only published a handful of articles because she was eclipsed by her husband's star). However, there are also cases in which a married academic couple are well known as such (I think of the Potkays at William and Mary, for example, who co-authored a very popular Bible as Literature study). There's also the ever-looming concern over what happens if you get divorced and take on a different name, but have published under your first married name? Name changes can get dicey for women. Ultimately, I think a lot of academic women choose to keep their maiden name for professional purposes and use their married name for their personal life. For me, that would be so confusing! I would never be able to keep up with it all - paychecks to my maiden name, bank account in my maiden and married name, bills to married name except for professional association dues, to maiden name - ack! WAY too much for me to keep track of...plus, what about my kids? Maiden or married name for them? What happens when my colleagues become my friends - by which name do they call me then? I know a lot of women do it, but it's definitely not for me. A lot of women will hyphenate to avoid that sort of scenario - but I personally don't like that one, either - maybe it's the lit critic/feminist scholar in me, but I see the hyphen as too-obvious a compromise, and a physical dividing within my very name of my Self. Also, our kids are our kids, they're not hyphenates. I want the same last name as my kids! lol Finally, the hyphenate is also a clue to adcomms and to search committees as to your marital status- they're not supposed to ask, but they can assume, and it can be detrimental to getting the job in some cases. I want to be judged on the merits of my scholarship, not on my marital status...so I wanted an identity that spoke to my place as a wife and mother but also established me firmly as an individual to be judged as such. So, I didn't hyphenate. I kept my maiden name as a second middle name, as it were, and added my married name to the end, in (on paper) a seamlessly interwoven construction of my whole Self (think along the lines of Jada Pinkett Smith, for example). I think many women are doing this now as an alternative to the hyphenate, because it acknowledges the married relationship but also maintains the individual identity without subjugating it to the married one. Ultimately, of course, this is an intensely personal decision and one you have to make for yourself... Good luck!!

There ARE masters programs that will accept lower than a 2.5, but they are rare, and you would have to fund the degree entirely on your own. Alternately, you can take some graduate level courses as a non-degree seeking student at the university you are interested in attending. If you do extremely well in these courses, and then apply, sometimes the professors you worked with will put in a good word for you and you can be admitted. either way, you need to make sure you explain the circumstances of the undergraduate GPA and what has occurred since then to make you believe you are prepared to succeed at graduate-level work. And then, back up what you have said with strong GRE scores. Hope that helps - good luck!!!

1. I would never expect anyone to badmouth a program or a professor (although you'd be surprised at how much candor some people will respond with if asked point-blank). I sent an email of questions. I didn't expect answers, I asked for them, and if someone chose not to respond, that would have been totally fine with me (in fact, many people didn't). I know how busy people are. I'm an academic myself, after all. I teach six classes a term, five terms a year. I've done a thesis. I've worked on articles and conference papers - I'm working on one right now. I do understand that my email was a long one, and in no way did I expect anyone to answer all of the questions - notice that I asked specifically for any information each person could or would share with me, I did not "demand" answers. These are the same questions we are counseled to ask in interviews, during open house weekends and campus visits, and over the phone when looking into programs, so I fail to see why sending them via email is so much worse or so much more a time-waster. Luckily, I received some very kind responses, had my questions forwarded to other people whose names/emails I didn't originally have, and the department in question appears to be as open and supportive an one as it initially seemed to be, as evidenced by their willingness to take the time to respond to me. 2. I sent a detailed email to the professors because I want them to see specifically what I am looking for. As I said, I know exactly what I need and want from a program, and I am looking for a professor to tell me, point-blank: "Yes, your work would fit here" or "no, based on what you have said you wouldn't do". Sending a general, vague email that says "I'm interested in medieval studies" is going to result in "oh, OK, you should apply". I sent this one to the professors of interest at one program and was inundated with responses that "no, we definitely do not do that here, try x,y,z uni instead", despite the fact that the faculty interests as listed on the website were very much aligned with my interests - the faculty had recently shifted, and they weren't working in these materials as much. I'm glad I did not waste their time or my money applying to a program that through initial research had seemed so perfect for me. I didn't send this email to every professor at a program, I sent it to the professors I would specifically be interested in working with. I was told this is a good way to go about doing this by my own professor, and in fact, the results were positive. So while you disagree with me, I respectfully continue to disagree with you. My email was in no way an SoP, which would be far more polished. It was a request for the professors' view as to whether or not, if I am a good candidate, my work would fit in with what they are doing. I see no problem with being specific and to the point on that. I know as a teacher myself I would rather someone take the time to tell me exactly what s/he needs and wants to know than that s/he expect me to read his or her mind. Many of the professors I sent that message to agreed with me. 3. My email was asking whether or not they felt I "could be" a good fit into the "family". I'm not a peer yet. I may never be a peer. But if my work would not be a good fit, I should know that before I apply and waste their time. I'm not asking them to tell me how to write an SoP or to tell me how to make decisions. I know how to write and how to make up my own mind about things. I'm asking them if they feel as though the department could support my work or not. That's a perfectly acceptable and important question to ask prior to embarking on a doctoral degree, which would be a major investment of time and money both for me and for them. 4. I have read the professors' work, looked over their CVs, and researched the department as a whole as much as possible through the usual venues available via internet websites - recent graduates' work, dissertation topics, department expectations, placement rates, and so forth. This was the time to get in touch with real folks in real time and see what I could hear "from the horse's mouth" as it were. I don't send these emails to every program, only to the one(s) I am seriously considering. I will also be visiting the campus at the beginning of next academic term, and will be following up on these emails at that point with a face-to-face conversation wherever possible, because as has already been stated in this thread, the in-person conversations are really important as well. I understand your points, and I see where you are coming from. I can also see why your points might be valid ones, and that many people might agree with you on them. I just don't agree with you on them, myself. That is my prerogative. It seems to me that, having apparently exhausted our helpfulness to the original poster, any further discussion concerning my particular situation would best be broached via personal messages, rather than in the open forum...at this point, your responses to me are appearing to be much more personal than collective, as it were, and I honestly don't have anything further to contribute - I stated my personal view of the matter, having been asked for my personal view on the matter. You disagree, apparently vehemently, with my view. That's totally fine - but it's not going to be of any help to the person who originated this asking for our viewpoints for you to continue to tell me what you think (or, don't think) of me, and it might end up making either you, me, or both of us look bitchy, foolish, or both. At any rate, strokeofmidnight, however strongly we disagree, at the end of the day, I would still buy you a beer and listen to your newest research project.

I guess everyone is just different. If someone sent me an email asking me specific things about my department, I'd be glad to answer as honestly as I could because a.) I'd want the same courtesy extended to me and b.) I'd want that person to have as accurate a picture as possible of whatever s/he wanted to know about, because I take academia and university seriously, and I work hard to check things out at any given program prior to applying, including asking as many people as I can about it, and such an email from someone else would indicate to me that s/he was doing his or her homework and taking it seriously, too. For me, it's important to get as much information as I can, from as many sources as I can obtain it from. I'm an older candidate, and I already have an MA. I need to feel very certain that a PhD program is going to work for me, especially after last year's disastrous results, and I'm really serious about my work and going somewhere where I can get it done. I'm sure there are people in any given department who are going to see it as brown-nosing, or as being an imposition, or as a waste of time, or whatever -but I can't help that. I have to do what I can do to research programs and try to find the right fit, and I feel like the best source of information is going to be the current students and the professors. As I said, if I got an email like that, I would be delighted to respond as best I could, and I would think that candidate was really focused and really motivated to research programs thoroughly. But I think that way. I'm not prone to thinking the worst of people. I'm sure there are folks who will probably think "Oh, she's just trying to get in good with us" - but in my opinion, that's an unfair, snap judgment, and a personal response that indicates a lot of cynicism and shortsightedness - and frankly, if that were the response from the majority of people in a department, then why would I want to go to that school and study with them? I'm looking for a place where people can agree, disagree, shout, throw things, maybe even burn a few things in effigy - but at the end of the day, go out and have a beer together and be supportive. As others have noted, not every department is like that. If people were negative and snarky about a query email sent to the department, or felt it was too much of an imposition, then that would be a red flag for me in terms of how the department and the individuals within it function as a group. Anyhow, I'm just rambling now. The original point of my first post was to give the other peson an idea of what I had done because s/he asked for opinions on the matter. I gave mine. It doesn't sit well with some other folks here, and that's OK - we don't all have to agree (wouldn't it be so boring if we all did agree on everything? No point to grad school, then!)

This was an awful experience for me, but it did underscore how much I want to do this- because I've already rolled up my sleeves and gotten to work on the next application season, and if I didn't really want this, no way would I put myself through what I am going to have to go through to achieve this goal (another GRE, subject test GRE, ouuuuuuuuuch...). I applied this past season to five schools, was rejected at four, and given a spot with no funding at the fifth. No way could I swing that - and I'm not going to, either. I have a decade of teaching experience, publications, and conferences, and I paid for my MA out of pocket. I fully expect to be funded as a doctoral candidate. Furthermore, as a mother and wife, no way can I possibly bankrupt my family going after my dream (we're close enough already without that). What have I learned? Welllll....... I learned that there are programs out there that will look at your undergraduate GPA from fifteen years ago as the deciding factor, even if you have a 4.0 from an MA program last year. I learned that there are programs that claim they don't look at the quantitative score on your GRE if you're applying for English, but that they ultimately do. I learned that programs that outwardly claim not to require the subject GRE "secretly" expect you to have taken it anyhow. I learned that your LORs had better all come from professors - no colleague/peer-reviews of your teaching! In short - I learned that just being a deserving candidate and a passionate one doesn't cut it - they claim to be looking for the best candidates, but they are actually really looking at the best application packets - and these can be two different things, especially if you don't really know how to assemble a "perfect packet", as it were. So - I learned that what you really have to do is to be smart about the process. This forum has been an invaluable tool in figuring out what I did wrong...hopefully, all that I have learned from this go-round will help me get in with funding next season!

I think this is basically what it means, although I was told that because they are changing to a direct-admit program and severely limiting the number of MA-in-hand accepts beginning this year. I do know that as of next year most (all?)credits are not expected to transfer from a different MA program, but it appears to be more to do with their want to train their own PhDs their way from the beginning - too much discrepancy in incoming cohorts in terms of how they do things from various programs. It does not apply to those holding the MFA degree, because MFAs going into an English PhD that's not a creative writing PhD have to do the English masters' work first, or most of it. And, of course, I could be wrong - this is just what I was told by the Department Head and the DirEGS.

Sorry, I just had to weigh in on this comment. UNC-CH is moving to a nearly exclusively direct-admit program in the English department beginning next year - meaning that they will be accepting almost no one who already holds an MA. I was told this by the department chair and also by the Director of Graduate English Studies. Because of this, they already began this year to severely limit the number of students they admitted to the program who already hold the MA. I don't know if this is also going to be the case with Comp Lit, since it falls under the aegis of the English department but is a separate PhD program. But it's something you should definitely check into before you make a decision.

Well, as I said, the emails worked for me. I was specific in my questions to grad students and in my inquiry to professors because I wanted to make sure that the programs to which I apply are a good fit, especially after last season. By current grad students, I was complimented on being thorough in terms of my questions, and told that it was a great idea to ask them. By current professors, I was complimented on being so detailed and specific and told it was a good idea because it made it easier for them to see what I was looking for. At one program, the DEGS wrote back asking me to come visit at my earliest discretion, and other professors suggested I come visit other departments as well - so I guess the length of my email did not put off those folks - and frankly, if it did, then I would probably not be happy at that department. I want them to be enthused at my enthusiasm, if that makes sense to you. So far, I've gotten back an effort in responses that corresponds to the effort I put into my emails, and I see that as a very positive sign - it hasn't been a generic "I like Arthurian studies" "OK, go ahead and apply" kind of interface, but much more thoughtful and interactive, and I think that's because of the detail and time that went into my queries. So - I'm happy with them. Ultimately, obviously, it's an individual thing and I just posted these as an example of emails you "could" send to a potential department, for people who hadn't thought of it or didn't know what sorts of things to ask/put in such an email. I certainly think there are multiple ways to go about it or not to go about it - in my case, I was thorough and detailed, and it worked for me; in your case maybe you don't want to go into such detail or you feel they're too long- and that's totally fine, everyone has different ideas about all aspects of this process. and no, that's not a bitchy thing to say;). I just didn't want that line to sound as pompous or dismissive as it might, which is why I inserted it. So far, hasn't seemed to bother anyone...nobody emailed back and said, "I liked your query, except the "lol" bit." From my experience at conferences and in two graduate programs, I think grad school students or applicants occasionally forget that the professors are people, too and that often, they have a sense of humor equal to or stronger than our own. The occasional lighter moment is not going to mean immediate rejection or antipathy; certainly not in an initial query email. I certainly wouldn't write it on my SOP when it comes to application season, though!! In the end, I think this is just a personal choice to make. My posting of the emails I sent was meant solely as one possible approach - maybe not the best, maybe even not great. I just put it there as an example of what worked for me.

I don't think it hurts to contact people in the prospective departments...I know that it saved me a few hundred dollars in application fees last go-round, because although the webpages of certain departments listed my interests as things being worked on, it turned out that they were no longer up to date and in some cases the professors were working on things utterly unrelated to what I wanted to focus on, despite what the website said...things change. In the interest of being helpful, here are (edited) versions of the two emails I send out - one is to current graduate students in the department, and one is to professors whose work aligns with my interests. I will say that overall, I get an amazing response to these, especially from the current graduate students (I change or alter them slightly for each department, but mainly they stay pretty close to what is here). A few people have written me several pages in response outlining everything they can think of to help me make my decision. A few even forwarded the email to other graduate students I did not know about who could help me further. Professors at some departments have also forwarded my email to other professors they thought I would like to hear from. There are a few short, curt responses ("only you can determine whether or not you think you would be a good fit here" etc. etc.) - but overwhelmingly, the answers have been helpful and detailed, refreshingly open and honest in terms of both praise and criticism of departments, and I have received answers from everybody I emailed at every department. So, this was a very rewarding approach for me. If you want to cut and paste from these letters or to use part or whole for your own purposes, please feel free to do so. As I said, I'm posting them in an effort to help others out who might be considering this route. Graduate Student email: Dear [current graduate student's name], I hope you won't mind the imposition, but I am considering [x,y,z university] as a possible location at which to complete my PhD(applying for Fall 2011), and I was hoping that I could get a first-hand perspective from some of the students in the program. For the purposes of clarification as to what I am looking for, I am a literature person; my primary subject area is Medieval, and my sub-areas of interest are Renaissance/Early Modern and Nineteenth century. I have researched the professors in the department insofar as these areas are concerned, and am quite heartened to find figures such as [professor brand name] there. But, of course, "who" I study with is only part of the equation, so I'm reaching out to current graduate students to attempt to ascertain whether the "what" matches with the "who" prior to applying. I am applying MA in hand, and am aware that many (most) of those credits will not confer to the degree at [university] - but I have discovered that this is the case pretty much anywhere, so as far as that goes, I'm prepared to do more coursework - besides, how can it be a bad thing to do more work on the subjects I love best with others who also love them? However, I want to make sure that this coursework is going to challenge me above and beyond what I have already done - so, my first question is, in your experience how strong is the teaching component of the program at [university]? How willing are the professors to work with individual students to develop their strengths and address their weaknesses in terms of subject matter? How open are the professors to helping you construct an independent line of research in conjunction with the coursework you are doing? How are the classes structured, and how much preparation have you found it to be necessary in order to succeed? Are there any classes and/or professors you would particularly recommend, or that stand out to you as being particularly excellent? Continuing with questions about the department itself - how would you classify the department overall? Do people seem to be collaborative, interested in working together, or is it primarily an individualistic program in which professors work within their own disciplines and rarely cross-research? Is there a particular pet methodology or critical school employed in the department? (For example, I know that at [close university in area], it's very centrally focused on [specific theoretical approach], which is not really my thing). What critical methods are employed most often in literature courses? How often are graduate students asked to work with professors on research projects? Are professors willing to read over and critique independent work completed by graduate students with an eye to publication and/or conferencing? Are graduate students encouraged to publish and conference? Are there ample options for teaching/lecturing available to students? How supported do you feel as a graduate student overall by the department? How supportive of one another do the graduate students tend to be? I am also applying with family in tow; do you know how the department views graduate students with children? Do they seem to be at a disadvantage in terms of resources or attention? Are there many graduate students in the department with children? Do graduate students with children successfully complete the program on a regular basis? Do you know what the attrition rate and the rate of successful placement is overall from [university]? I would be grateful for any information you could provide me with concerning any or all of the questions posed, and I assure you that anything you disclose to me will be confidential and not repeated; as I said, I'm just seeking to get a feel for what it would be like to work at [university], and the more honest the responses are, the better chance I have of getting a real idea of things. Thank you, Professor of Interest email: Dear [Dr.____________] I am researching options as concerns doctoral programs in English, with the intention to make application this coming fall, and find that [x,y,z university] seems potentially to be a good fit for my particular set of interests. I wonder if you could offer me some thoughts in terms of this? My primary area of interest is Medieval Literature, and my secondary areas are Renaissance (Early Modern) and the 19th Century. Specifically, within the medieval tradition I focus on Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman (French of England) and Middle English literature. My overarching subject areas of interest are Arthuriana, outlaw literature, and Celtic/ Old Norse folkloric materials; my central thematic interests lie in concepts of identity (both individual and national), the supernatural/monsters/magic, violence, hagiography, particularly as regards women mystics, gender issues, and (predictably) chivalry and courtliness (especially the function of feasts in courtly narrative). I am deeply and profoundly obsessed with textual transmission and questions of textual and subject matter provenance. In the Early Modern period, I focus predominantly on Spenser and Sidney, and also work extensively with Shakespeare (who doesn't...? lol). In the 19th century, my interests lie specifically within the Gothic and Romantic traditions, and more specifically in terms of their appropriation of the medieval/ medievalism. I tend to take a predominantly New Historical approach to the texts, although I also work with feminist, linguistic/structuralist, myth and postcolonial theory. You could certainly classify me as obsessed with all things medieval. It would, however, be very difficult for me to list an area of literary studies in which I am not interested (I just picked up the zombie version of Pride and Prejudice, I teach Virginia Woolf and Rebecca Wells, I have taught Dave Eggers and Dom DeLillo, for example…!) So, I am a really flexible student in that regard; I know what I want to focus in, but I'm also open to other areas of study as well. As for my background: I earned a BA from [university] in [year] in French; I then taught for two years in public schools, and returned to complete graduate work in medieval and Renaissance studies at [university] in [year]. After a year at [university], I taught for several more years, and then completed my Master's degree at [university] last spring with a 4.0. My thesis was entitled: "King of the Who? The Collective Unconscious and the Crafting of National Identity in Medieval Arthurian Texts", and I took an experimental psychological approach to the material, focusing on Jungian theories of the collective unconscious and also working with Jung's ideas concerning alchemical transformations. This project is now being developed into a monograph in conjunction with [publishing house]. I currently teach literature and Art History at [private boarding school] where I write and develop my own courses - six courses a term, five terms a year (among my most recent courses are “Bad Boys in British Lit”, which focuses on the Robin Hood/outlaw tradition, “The Bible and Literature”, in which we focus on biblical passages and correlative literary allusions, and “Monsters and Violence in British Lit” in which I introduce my students to literary theory by using Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “Monster Culture: Seven Theses” as the cornerstone text and showing them how to apply it to the various works we read throughout the term). I have a number of publications in all three of my eras(mainly encyclopedic in nature), and have presented at several conferences, including [names of conferences]. I must admit that location is a major factor in my decision, for family reasons - however, barring that, the [university] English department website list of publications and research interests seems to indicate that there are a lot of interesting and compelling overlaps between my interests and the work several faculty members (yourself included) are doing. Does this seem to be the case, in your opinion? I look forward to any insight you might be able to provide in this matter. Best, (I will add that the above email to professors garnered a lot of interest from 3 persons of interest, one of whom wants to meet me in person at my convenience - so including your specific areas of interest in detailed fashion does lengthen the email, but ultimately can be very helpful, in my experience.) hope this is helpful. I have in no cases found anyone to be annoyed or irritated at my contacting them - I think they'd rather you check and then apply knowing for certain it's what you want, especially at smaller departments. That's the impression I have been given, at any rate. also - in terms of finding graduate students to write to - many departments list their graduate students on the website, but you can also find some names by reading department newsletters, looking at the page for the graduate student association, and checking out the adjunct/lecturer faculty listings as well. Honestly, the grad students were incredibly great about giving me really detailed and honest feedback about the departments.

This is very true and very well said. One of my favorite papers as a grad student was one in which I argue that instead of the either/or binary of Eve/Mary that is most often associated with medieval writings, the female figures are often more of an if/then scenario, which renders them much less gender-bound than most scholars tend to give them credit for - which has led to some great thinking about victims and victimization, and a possible book chapter, Yay.

It's incredibly expensive for someone who doesn't use postmodern theory often; while the articles are interesting, this journal has been somewhat divisive in the medieval studies field - theorists love it, and purists hate it. The problem, of course, is that Joy and Cohen are involved, and since there are few (no?) scholars who don't personally like them both, it becomes dicey; no one wants to criticize the journal because they would like to see it succeed for the sake of the people involved in it. For my part, the articles are interesting, and I'm glad to read them; but overall, this is not an area of study that either interests me or influences my thinking in a positive or productive fashion. I don't think it's a bad idea to check it out, especially if you aren't familiar with current modes of thought being employed in medieval studies, because it can certainly help to frame the new theoretical paradigms for people who haven't worked with them. In my case, I prefer the more established theoretical models, if I have to use theory at all (which I avoid as much as possible, because I prefer to focus on the text, itself!!)

In terms of who can be on your dissertation committee - it's standard to have 4/5, I think, and one of them HAS to be an outside, PhD-holding scholar (which is why conferencing is so useful - meeting professors from all over who might be willing to sit on your dissertation committee). Every university has what is called "tenure track" faculty and then adjuncts, lecturers, and the like. Most of the time, tenure track faculty are also on the graduate faculty, and are therefore eligible to serve as dissertation committee members. Ideally, obviously, at least one professor on your committee should be a full prof, but you can certainly have an associate professor as the dissertation advisor. As an MA student, I had only assistant professors sit my thesis committee, because they were the only professors available to me (the department was in the process of changing over and it happened that none of the older scholars worked in anything like my field). Since they were tenure track, and none were up for review when I was completing my thesis, this was acceptable. It certainly depends on how long the professor has before review, though - you would NOT want to have an assistant professor on your diss. comm. who is up for tenure before you defend, if you can humanly help it, unless it is absolutely certain that person is getting tenure. I do not know what the rule is for having an assistant professor as your dissertation advisor, although now I think I'll have to look that up because it's an interesting question.

Toronto is an outstanding medieval studies program as well, as has been mentioned; you should really look into Fordham, I think you'd be surprised (pleasantly so). Duke is NOT a strong program for what you are interested in. I know this because I looked into it for the same things and was flat-out told in no uncertain terms by several professors that "We don't do that (Celtic/Arthur/Romance) stuff here." (Nicely, of course! lol) But it was very clear that they don't have any research focus in these particular areas.

You've left off UC-Berkeley (Thomas Brady, Kathryn Klar, Daniel Melia, Annalee Rejhon, Jennifer Miller, Carol Clover) - Celtic, Welsh, Romances. ALSO, WashU (David Lawton, Joe Loewenstein) Fordham, especially for the Anglo-Norman aspect. Check out their website. Seriously great work going on there. Mainly, though, I think you've got the "big" programs covered for what you want to do.