Warelin

In terms of potentially "burning bridges": You mentioned that you only know of one person within the last 10 years who stopped after the MA? Do you know how many people have an external MA and have been accepted into Illinois? "Most of our Ph.D. students have received their M.A.s at Illinois," it sounds like 1)The MA degree is required 2)External M.A.s are only accepted depending on how many with Master degrees from Illinois goes elsewhere. It be interesting to see if people with external Master degrees could bring you to a number that might be closer to the real number of people leaving after obtaining a Master's. " We offer admission to approximately 40 students per year applying to the M.A. in Literature program and to approximately 5-10 students in three other programs: the Ph.D. in Literature, and the M.A. and Ph.D. in Writing Studies." This wording makes it seem confusing. If half of the 40 accept, does that mean that only those admitted get accepted into the PHD? Illinois and Georgetown are both well-respected institutions. At the MA level, ranking doesn't matter. On the PHD level, ranking might matter a little bit more. However, if you'd be miserable spending an extended amount of time somewhere, I think that's also something to be considered. What specifically about the midwest turns you off? Why is the minor important to you? Do you know what the stipend would be at Georgetown? I think DC usually ranks in the top 5 most expensive cities in the US. What specifically about DC can it offer you? Can you afford the lifestyle you'd like based on their offer? Do you think you can do everything you'd like to do in DC in 2 years while still being able to keep on top of your coursework? Are you comfortable with the fact that you'd most likely be living with 1-2 roommates? I agree with @fmd on this one.

I'm not sure where you're pulling your information from but: Princeton and Duke are both well-regarded schools. Both schools are "regarded" as top 20 programs in multiple fields. Princeton is in the Ivy League but one has to remember that the Ivy League is a sports conference. It doesn't mean that schools that aren't in it don't offer "better" academics. There are a lot of great schools comparable to Princeton and Duke.

Relationships can work out depending on the individuals involved. MA rankings (which don't exist) don't matter. Placement numbers into PHDs don't tell much. We know where they may have gotten their MA from but we don't know where they got their BA from, GRE scores, SOP, Writing Sample, Letters of Recommendations, their publication history, their conference history, their teaching experience, or their research experiences. Nor do we know what their research interests are. We also don't know whether or not they accepted an offer to be closer to family or if there was a family emergency that influenced their choice. We don't know whether or not they would have been accepted into a Ph.D. program the following year because that particular spot was already filled by someone else that the university accepted.

Usually, the sublets tell you when things are available. Right now, I'm seeing sublets that are available on 05/2017, 06/2017, 06/2017, 07/2017. If the sublet or apartment isn't available right now, it tells you when it will become available under the "share" button right after you click on the property.

After searching the city, click "more" which is to the right of "Pets". "Sublets" should be under "Listing Types".

The only con you've listed for Alabama is "Academic: Lower Rank". As @Old Bill has stated, there are no rankings for MA programs so those rankings are irrelevant. As a major con you list for Purdue, you list "Potentially only 19th century" and "Happiness: No summer, Low Pay". Does that mean that you'll have no free time during the summer due to teaching or taking classes? If summers are important for you to recharge, then it is something to consider heavily. Another thing to bear in mind is the cost of living. Are the stipends at either location enough to cover rent, food, utilities? If not, are you comfortable sharing an apartment with a roommate? Having a significant other helps to lower the cost of these expenses. It also helps you have a support system when things get rough. It also seems that you seem very excited about Alabama's present but not as excited by Purdue's offerings. How do you feel about TAing your first year vs being a part of a large lecture or being a writing center tutor?

I think it's important to note that no MA programs are ranked. As a result, you'll find that Villanova, University of Massachusetts - Boston, Wake Forest, Georgetown, Oregon State University and others aren't ranked. Likewise, a program's "prestige" extends only to its PHD program. Some people might have trouble transferring from one institution that grants PHDs to another that grants PHD. This might be because some programs might think that the person wasn't good enough to be accepted into their own PHD program. I think it might also be important to consider the overall climate of a city (temperature, rural vs city, political spectrum, transportation options, costs) and other things of that nature. From my own experience, there are some cities I've lived in for extended periods that I would be unhappy living in and others that I would gladly love to live in again. It might also be worth noting how much time would be granted to you as an MA student. Are there upper-level undergrads taking classes with you? Are you competing with PHD students for funding? How many students does each faculty have under them? No university could guarantee an outcome. I've had friends from the Ivy League get shut out when applying to some schools for an English PHD program. There are schools that prefer straight-from-undergraduate (and I believe Illinois, Indiana and Penn State are the most well known), there are some schools which require an MA, and there are schools that prefer a mixture of students. Some schools separate the applicants into 2 different piles depending on whether they possess an MA or not. As a result, you may find that some schools will be harder to gain an acceptance into while you'll find others will be more "open" to the idea of accepting you. On a different sidenote: The institution that you went to for your Master's is significantly less important than where you get your PHD from. From different conversations I've had with directors, they care more about the classes you've had and why you've decided on the classes you take and why you're interested in them.

I think you bring up several good points here including that it is human tendacy to have some bias. However, according to US News: "The questionnaires asked respondents to rate the academic quality of the programs at other institutions on a five-point scale: outstanding (5), strong (4), good (3), adequate (2) or marginal (1). Individuals who were unfamiliar with a particular school's programs were asked to select "don't know." To me, this sounds like they weren't able to rank their own program. "Scores for each school were determined by computing a trimmed mean – eliminating the two highest and two lowest responses – of the ratings of all respondents who rated that school for the last two surveys; average scores were then sorted in descending order. " In theory, this sounds good. However, only 14 percent of people polled responded. There were 155 programs surveyed and 2 people were asked from each university. That would put the number of people asked at 310. 14 percent of 310 =43.4 people. Once you consider that most programs had 0 people responding to the survey and others had 2, it's likely that the list is comprised of the opinions of 22-35 universities. On a side note: You bring up a very good point. I think the ivies do pay attention to each other's programs and their placement rates. If I were a director, I'd want to know what my competitor was doing, who/why I was losing candidates to them and how I could improve my own program to have less people choose to go somewhere else. I'm not sure if any of those universities could tell you much about the programs elsewhere. I'd imagine it's also true of colleges close to each other (BU,BC, NU, Tufts, Brandeis). However, I don't think that the latter group is necessarily paying attention to the first group. I think this survey has a way of meaning something if the participation was higher and some sort of concrete numbers were thrown into the mix. Do you think that the major jumps in some programs were due to its competitors perceiving it to improving its graduate program or from a better perceived placement record or a higher visibility rate? On a side-side note: When people refer to the ivies in this context, is Brown and Cornell included in that mix? Or are they excluded in favor of Stanford/Berkeley/Chicago to refer to a "top 5" school? It's always confused me because I know a few people use it to exclusively refer to HYP.

From my understanding of friends who did an MFA followed by a PHD in CW: The two are extremely different. I think in terms of rigour, the University of Southern California does a good job of combining Creative Writing & Literature together. In most PHD programs, you'd be doing everything the lit majors would do + a creative dissertation. USC's dissertation project requires both a creative and critical manuscript.

Not all waitlisters get admitted or accept an unfunded offer. It's generally common for schools to either accept their target number, waitlist twice as many and reject everyone else. Other schools accept twice their target, waitlist a smaller amount and go from there.

Just a quick note here: USNews doesn't rank MA programs. You'll also find Georgetown, Wake Forest and University of Massachusetts Boston are unranked. USNews rankings don't extend to a ranked program's MA program.

Whenever you post here, I think you've been accepted to the strode program and want to offer you congratulations =P

Illinois was ranked #22 with CUNY under the old rankings. However, a drop from 22 to 26 isn't that different. It seems like there were also a lot less "ties" than there were.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. But what would you propose doing with students that don't go on to the national job market due to family location or those who choose an alternative career?

OSU has accepted students with MAs from Utah State University, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, College of Charleston, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University & others. As far as I'm aware, none of these institutions have an English PHD program. They may or may grant PHDs in other areas. As a sidenote: Transferring credit is limited at most colleges. Most of them will not offer you a full year release even with an MA. Most colleges will only offer you 2-4 classes worth of credits; others may elect to count it towards certain requirements but still require the same amount of classes to be taken. Others prefer to start you fresh regardless of whether you possess an MA or a BA.

I do believe CUNY is under ranked. However, Harvard has placed grads in TT positions over the past 2 years: http://english.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Placement-Results.pdf

To their credit, at least they took down Bryn Mawr's nonexistent English PHD =P

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/medieval-renaissance-literature-rankings I'm also confused here. Wasn't Notre Dame previously ranked in this section?

"Rankings of doctoral programs in the social sciences and humanities are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to academics in each discipline. Ipsos Public Affairs conducted the surveys in fall 2016. Each school offering a doctoral program was sent two surveys per discipline. Questionnaires were sent to department heads and directors of graduate studies – or, alternatively, a senior faculty member who teaches graduate students – at schools that had granted a total of five or more doctorates in each discipline during the five-year period from 2011 through 2015, as indicated by the National Center for Education Statistics' Completions survey. The questionnaires asked respondents to rate the academic quality of the programs at other institutions on a five-point scale: outstanding (5), strong (4), good (3), adequate (2) or marginal (1). Individuals who were unfamiliar with a particular school's programs were asked to select "don't know." Scores for each school were determined by computing a trimmed mean – eliminating the two highest and two lowest responses – of the ratings of all respondents who rated that school for the last two surveys; average scores were then sorted in descending order." These surveys are still too opinionated until they consider placements, resources offered, publication rates and other things.

Irvine was previously ranked 22.

https://web.archive.org/web/20121224043305/http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/academics/profiles/englishlanguagelit.pdf This data is a bit dated, but probably more realistic in terms of numbers.

This topic has more insight.

Congrats. Strode and UNC do make for an interesting cycle.

And most people will get jobs that aren't at an R1 institution. Some of the small liberal arts colleges might even have biases against hiring an Ivy grad because they fear that they'll leave them as soon as a position at an R1 school opens up. There are indeed tons of great programs.

I think that is quite possibly the worst advice I've ever seen a professor give. There are many schools with better placement rates than the Ivy league colleges.