WildeThing

Most of my research intends to focus on a specific literature, however, for some schools I want to apply to the comp lit program because I believe it makes more sense for me. In some of the programs, there are some POI I want to work with, or hope to work with, but they do not appear on the comp lit faculty page, but rather on their specific language department. In general, do you find that that these professors are agreeable to working with comp lit students (and are the departments agreeable to this, as well)? Also, is this something that can be discussed in the personal statement or does it reflect poor fit (e.g. will the admission committee think I don't fit in if I reference wanting to work with someone in the French department and someone in the English department, who do not appear on the Comp Lit faculty page?)?

https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/category/all As for picking the best conference, it's very subjective. Big conferences have a lot of people so you might get more exposure but might also get lost in the shuffle. In my experience smaller conferences usually allow for more personal interaction which might be more useful in the long-run. Ultimately, try finding a conference that fits your interests (just googling your interests + conference can yield some results). That said, I am completely against creating something new for a conference. You're generally better off using something you already have, unless you don't have anything in the field you're interested in. I personally like NeMLA but Melus and ALA might be slightly more focused for you.

A question that's coming up on my applications that I did not expect is that the portal asks me to name faculty members I am interested in working with. Does anyone know how they use this in our field? Obviously interests change and I worry about naming faculty on their way out or who have no interest in taking on new students.

That makes sense. I was leaning towards honesty. I guess my concern was that they might be looking at two candidates for the final spot and pick the one who has only applied there to be certain that they take the spot.

I'm going through Columbia's application portal and this question popped up. How do people feel about this? Should I be honest? Should I leave it blank? Should I just mention some of the schools? Should I only mention the very top schools? Wondering what the point of this question is since I can interpret this both as a "oh, he's applying there? he'll get in there, let's not bother" or "he's applying there? let's make sure he comes here" even though it's probably something they don't even look at.

Hey all, My background is in literature but I'm currently doing a cultural studies degree. Initially I thought about getting recommenders who are familiar with my work in literature but one of them is overseas and I wonder whether it might be better to have more recommenders from US institutions. I'd have 2 options: my linguistics professor and my boss, who has not taught me but could discuss my teaching. Has anyone asked for recommenders from different fields, do you think it is better to stick to literature?

A lot of psychoanalysts have gone into trauma studies, so perhaps have a look through that (Cornell has Caruth, GW has several people too, Emory has Felman I think).

I've asked for recs and will spend the summer preparing for the GREs and polishing the sample.

I know people doing Sci-Fi in California-Riverside and Missouri-Lawrence and they're pretty happy.

When you say teach your own class do you mean one where you select the subject or just one where you are the lecturer? I believe that most programs have you do the latter in your 2/3 or 3/4 year, with the possibility of the former or latter in the 5/6 year. I'm in an MA and will be tesching a class next year, but the syllabus is preselected.

Thanks, I'll make sure to ask.

I'm on a Fulbright in the US. I personally prefer the financial benefits and prestige because I don't mind restricting my options for just two years. TakeruK, since you seem to know a lot about this, do you know what the process is like for applying for a J1 for PhD after you were on J1 for MA? Someone at IIE told ke that there is a short waiting period unless the new program agrees to take over as sponsors from the old J1, meaning that so long as you stay in the country you're fine. But I'm not sure where to look to verify this.

Idea: Ask applicants who are on the verge of receiving responses or who have just finished their applications (so they're at their most informed but not yet tainted by the responses) to write up a list of their top XX schools they'd like to go to, and rank it in order as if they had free rein to go wherever they wanted. It's not scientific and parameters will vary wildly, but applicants spend a lot of time researching places and fit and writing specific samples so they know departments well and will consider all sorts of things for their choices (fit, prestige, placement, city, funding). With enough responses you should get a fairly good idea of which programs are (perceived by the people trying to get in as) the best, and if respondents state their field you can distinguish between subfields. Sure, they generally won't really know about what it's like to be a graduate at those departments, but that problems exists in the current methodology too. At least you avoid personal bias and can expect the respondents to know what they're talking about. If everyone's in agreement, go on and do this.

I'm in my 2nd semester in America and got emails about being on the Dean's List and being able to become a Golden Key member. I know these sre supposed to be reflections of good academic work but no one I know seems to know or care what they really mean. Are these things that one should put in the CV? I didn't even know that grads can make a Dean's list. A friend told me that these things are meant on getting money off you.

Good luck to you all and thanks to the veterans offering support. I'll do me now: Step 1: Apply for a scholarship from my home country that might help with applying in this cycle. For this I need to prepare a personal statement, get recommenders, and choose 3 destinations, so I'll have to prep for all of that. Step 2: Finish 2nd semester at 2nd MA, hopefully maintaining a high GPA. Step 3: Start polishing written samples (oh yay, top 3 schools on my list don't overlap in sample lengths, that should be fun), research and focus final destination list, contact any new recommenders. Step 4: Prepare for and retake GRE and take Subject test. Step 5: Hopefully submit articles for publication. Step 6: Finish samples and statements and begin final MA year. Step 7: Submit applications super early. Step 8: Acceptances everywhere?! Oh wow, such happy, very graduate. Step 9: Bidding war for my services leading to lots of funding. Step 10: Be a PhD candidate, regret nothing. For future reference I'm a 20th century americanist.

So I realize this is super early as people are still getting responses for 2017 and the focus of of the forum has gradually shifted from focusing on the process to dealing with the fallout. However, I am sure that there are many here who are gearing up to applying in the next cycle and figured we could start discussing and preparing for the process together. So, who is on this boat and what are your plans?

Not familiar with this thread so I don't know whether to laugh at a brilliant parody of Trump or worry at an all-too-lifelike embodiment.

Definitely A. More money, there's obviously some fit and reputation matters. Only Ivy Leaguers and one or two others lead to tenure track offers with frequency and consistency. The better the placement the likelier you are to get a job later.

Midwest PCA was my first American conference too! But it was this year. It's fun and different from other Lit conferences, although it can be harder nto find people to talk to who share your interests because there's a very wide net.

What do you mean by unusual setup? Is that a separate issue?

When I applied I got a "We're pleased to inform you've been selected... for the waitlist." It worked out in the end but don't get your hopes up until you read the response in full.

Thanks for all the responses!

For a long time now I've been wanting to get a pretty noticeable tattoo on my forearm, basically like a sleeve. I have been putting it off because I am kind of worried about it being a detriment when applying for jobs in academia. In my country of origin it wouldn't matter because hirings are done via a point system and so are promotions. However, it is my understanding that in the US everything is handled by committees so prejudices can have an impact. In your experience, are noticeable tattoos common or accepted in the academic world? Does it vary by institution? I'm particularly asking about departments in the humanities.

That makes sense, but you will probably always feel like others are more advanced. Next year you will definitely have a much better idea of what you want to do.

I dunno if this is appropriate but it seems like most of what is discussed here is about applications and there isn't really any other place for grad students to talk about their fields in general, so maybe a thread for general discussions of the literary humanities would be nice. I really just want to vent about 3 things right now: a. Upenn's CFP page is awesome but over the last few months it has gradually been overtaken by a company that keeps refreshing its long, long selection of journals. If the journals were reputable I wouldn't mind but no one in their right mind should consider sending the articles they've toiled away on to a journal of this standing, much less seeing how it basically spams for submissions, making it only slightly better than the predatory editorials that hunt you down from conference listings. It makes finding proper CFPs such a pain and I wish there was some mechanism to just get rid of them. b. Would be nice if when a conference tells you that they'll have an answer by a certain date, they actually respect that. It's annoying enough having to just wait and see if you get accepted in general, but when you expect a reply bt a certain date, it makes it that much worse when they don't respond. c. Always nice to send an article for review only to see the journal push their deadline a few days later. Guess I know response I'm gonna get there... Feel free to use this for non-complaining, as well.