EAL2010

When I applied, I used a full (18 page) seminar paper. I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with using a thesis, but my adviser (who was previously on an adcom) told me that they basically read the first few pages of your sample to see how things are set up, and then flip to the end to see if you cited the "right" people. While that was somewhat disheartening to hear, it did help me to focus my efforts.

Um...I do that. And trust me, spots are still pretty hard to come by.

Three people from my MA program applied there and we're all still waiting...so unfortunately, the wait-list seems unlikely.

As far as I've heard, they're not done with the PhDs either...

If I were you, I would go for the perfect program that's further away. For my MA, I moved from Chicago to a small town in Alabama-- I had no family/friends for 800+ miles. I will say that the first month really sucked because I felt lonely. But after I started talking to my fellow 1st year MAs, things got SO MUCH BETTER. Grad school is a lot different from undergrad in that you're admitted with a very small group of people (I was 1 of 12), so you get to know the people in your cohort really well. And since you're all going through the same scary experience, you bond together quickly. That's not to say that I love everyone here, but I definitely think that the friends I made in grad school understand things about me that other people don't. Now that I'm thinking about where to go for my PhD, part of me wants to stay in AL to be near these people I've come to love so much. Of course, I'm sure there are awful MA experiences too, but from my perspective, it was worth it to go far away for the program I thought would fit me best.

Well said!

It's true that early American lit. isn't particularly popular-- that's because a whole different breed than most lit. fields. You're dealing with a lot of non-traditional texts, and working close with history people. It's definitely not for everyone. That being said, WUSTL has a really nice program as does Duke. And if you're aiming really high-- U Penn. I've heard good things about U of Florida's program as well, but I know they're having a lot of financial problems so the people that are there now might not be in the future.

I had a professor tell me that generally you can expect to teach at a school that is about the same, or a little less competitive than the one you got your PhD from. I'm certainly not an expert on college rankings or anything (esp. not in comp. lit.), but if you want to teach at Yale, I suppose that is something to think about. Conversely, I can tell you from personal experience that applying for an MA and then a PhD SUCKS. Just when you finally get settled into your grad. program, you have to turn around and start the frantic application process again. And then you're faced with the horrifying prospect that you might not get in anywhere at all-- and you're that much more invested already. As far as your MA program goes, do they have a special internal applicant process for PhD? Because with a lot of programs, as long as you're making satisfactory progress towards the MA, you're pretty much guaranteed a slot in their PhD program. If that was the case, I'd probably go Dartmouth. Otherwise, I would probably choose the security of the PhD program.

Well, at the school I'm at right now, they made offers to MAs before they even looked at the PhD applications. And the two other schools I applied to seem to have made offers to MAs but not PhDs. So it sounds like it could go either way...which isn't much of an answer for you.

Anyone heard anything from U Del? It seems like some masters have been admitted, but I haven't heard anything about the PhD.