WildeThing

I think someone here who was on a committee said once that they really don't appreciate it when you go over the limit.

I guess this is mostly for US Fulbrighters but foreign ones get a stipend depending on the metropolitan area and it gets adjusted every year. It was 2400 for NY, 2100 MD/DC, 1600 for TX (might change depending on where in TX) this year.

Whichever is true. If you can attend without funding, then sure, tell them. It might mean that if you're on the fringe they might include you because it's low-cost, or they might use the opportunity to give another student funding.

I guess I just always saw PhD as the opposite of studying for a job but studying for studying's sake. If I wanted to make sure I had a job English would not be my choice.

It's the Fulbright scholarship,

I'm not familiar with Rhet/Comp but I suggest you don't choose a path based on employment potential. It will more than likely be tough either way and there's no way to predict where the money is going to be by the time you finish. Pick what excites you the most.

I am studying an MA on a J1 visa so it is definitely possible.

Pretty sure it's always 'in'.

Thanks for your comments. I agree that with what you said, although I thought you were talking about explicit declarations of fit, whereas I would characterize most of what you described as markers of potential. I.E. demonstrating your ability to do the work will show your fit in that specific program more indirectly, and showing what areas you can work with will show the committee whether you fit or not, even if you have no real idea if they will and can't tailor to that. I don't know about others but for me the issue of establishing fit became a major concern because the first program I looked at in depth was Stanford MTL, which explicitly tells you to state why your program would only work within that department. Also, international scholarships like Fulbright and others require a statement on why you choose a specific program to work in and they give a lot of weight to this matter, which conditions you to make this issue of demonstrable fit (worse yet, in many cases a matter of why ONLY these 1-3 departments will work) a key focus. Note that I do not disagree with any of your points, although you are making me worry about my prospects as a 20th centuryist!

Aren't courses listed on your transcripts? I wouldn't waste CV space on them (unless your CV is sparse and you want to make up for that somehow, although I would still think that there must be something better you can include). Two questions on CV: - Do you all send in your academic CV? Does anyone find that there is value in including non-academic experience, like office experience? - In my last MA I was asked to give a speech (so did another student) for our graduation ceremony. Is this considered an achievement in the US? Should I include it? It wasn't because of any official honor, more an implicit recognition of good work.

Thanks for your comments. Unraed, what are some of the other ways you would argue for fit? POIs have dominated the conversation, and then there are library resources. Beyond that I am struggling to think of ways considering that most teaching opportunities are generic.

Thanks for the response. Is it common to offer your conversion? My gut reaction is that department would find it presumptuous or worse, an attempt to beautify one's scores.

1. Let's say you know what you want to focus on for your project and have identified some POIs that would be great to work with or learn from. But, you're also drawn to this university or department because there are scholars that are working on areas that also interest you greatly, but not ones that you want to work on for your project. We all have other areas we're drawn to after all, that are not relevant to our projects. Do you mention these people? My first thought was that you should because you are going to have to take courses on a variety of topics anyway, so identifying scholars that might be teaching courses on areas of interest is relevant. However, since they are not relevant to the topic, perhaps departments don't see the point (i.e. you will be expected to open yourself to a variety of fields, not just the ones you are previously interested in) or worse yet, find this to demonstrate a lack of focus or that your project still isn't narrowed down. Thoughts? 2. Let's say you know what you want to focus on for your project and have identified some POIs that would be great to work with or learn from. However, rather than finding 1-2 that align greatly with your interests, there are a handful of scholars who are interested in authors or areas that are more tangentially connected to your project and learning from each could help shape in which your direction the project winds up going (e.g. you are interested in 19th century British, and though no one is working on the approach or perhaps even the key authors you planned on dealing with, separate scholars have worked on Dickens, Austen, Shelley, respectively). Again, we face the issue of accepting the fact that your project will change after you take your courses, and you want to explore different approaches/authors within your field to guide you. Again, the question is whether this might be interpreted as lack of focus. The question is, where is the sweet spot in terms of the number of POIs you mention, and how much should they align with your project? After all, if you focus on very few scholars, you run the risk of seeming inflexible or that these scholars might leave or not be interested. Yet the more scholars you try to fit, the harder it becomes to place them within the context of a single project, as very few scholars actually work on the same approaches/authors within one department, so you will need SOME openness. More thoughts?

From the English graduate admissions page: Consider that Yale asks for 10-15 pages and Berkeley asks for no more than 20. Most of the programs I have seen follow that trend of asking for 10-20 pages of a single piece. This means that not only is Harvard asking for a total output that is anywhere from 50% to 200% larger than other similarly-ranked programs, but that this output must be split between two separate topics. Personally, I prefer this because I think my writing sample should (not that it will, but if I have don't have faith in my writing what is the point of applying?) do for my application than my grades and GRE scores which will probably compare as average to low with the rest of the candidate pool. I interpret this (i.e. this absolutely baseless) as suggesting that Harvard weighs the sample more heavily than other components that people generally worry about (e.g. scores), which is why they ask for two, making it harder for people to perfect one piece that might not demonstrate their usual level. Two pieces over one very long one suggests that they're also not particularly concerned with accepting candidates who are already able to construct argument that are very extensive (which is what we'll have to do for the thesis) but that they might prefer an ability to tackle different works and ideas with consistent levels of insight and originality. I would assume that they prefer some variety in the samples rather than two papers based on the same approach or authors (even if that is what you're going to be working on), but I don't know. Yanaka, which are the universities you saw that specified that they wanted explicit reference to POIs? And also, are the UC schools' personal statements separate from the statement of purpose, or do you mean that, contrary to some programs that say that they DON'T want a personal history, that these schools do want to some idea of where you're coming from?

The Stanford MTL site says 11.59 PST. I would assume the other programs are the same.

I have no idea if programs will be accomodating, but seeing as this is totally out of your control and can be verified by the recommender (and a doctor's note), perhaps they might give you some leeway. Make sure everything else is done and maybe you can send them an e-mail letting them know that this happened and that you expect your recommender to still send in their submission on time but because X happened, he might be a bit late and ask whether there that would be an issue. That's what I'd do anyway but my impression is that the deadline's flexibility for special circumstances varied program to program.

So, seeing as people are finishing their applications, this seems like the perfect time to start something like this. Basically, every program in every department is slightly different and this can be a pain for us trying to present ourselves in the best possible light for each of those different places. I thought that perhaps we could collate some of the information we gather throughout the process by posting here whenever we discover something about a program that makes it different from most others, and that could help future candidates. These can be anything, can be factual or general impressions and might even just apply to a particular cycle. For example, I've read that some programs insist on interviewing all of their shortlist, that certain programs have especially helpful and unhelpful admissions liaisons, that Harvard asks for two different writing samples, that some want to see you link your project to particular scholars whereas others are the opposite, that some are leaning towards getting particular areas addressed with their incoming cohort, etc. Whatever you think is relevant, really. I guess it should be obvious, but unless otherwise stated or supported by proof, don't take anything read here as dogma. Things change.

So, my university ranks GPAs over 10. All classes are graded over 10 and then they average the grades. A 9/10 makes you eligible for a distinction/honor mention. My GPA for my BA and MA are 8.65 and 9.54 respectively. I checked some online GPA equivalency program (not the most reliable, granted), and it stated that my American GPA would be a high 3.X (can't remember what it was now) and a 4.0. My issue is that on my transcripts, my university offers their own rating of the GPA over 4, and I dunno how they weigh them exactly but by their calculations my GPA over 4 would be 2.93 and 3.35. This seems ridiculously low to me, and even if my GPA wouldn't be as high as the online program stated, I am certain that they are not as low as they seem through the university calculations. Has anyone faced an issue like this? How would you deal with it? I can't omit the university's calculations from my documents and I don't know how appropriate it would be to say anything when I apply. I worry that if I say anything I come off as petty but that if I don't they'll take my converted GPA at face value. Any advice?

In the past I have given some professors a gift under similar circumstances and I wound up going for a book each time. One was a medievalist and mentioned she was excited to teach Dr. Faust "with all its demonic entities", so I got her Damned by Palahniuk because he is one of my favorite authors and it takes place in hell. For another I got her a copy in Hebrew of the novel we worked on for my MA thesis. Thanks for the response. I wonder though, what if you're stressing different things for different departments? Do you discuss this with them? Do you give them all your statements for guidance?

Am I to understand that you ask professors to tailor their recommendations for each university? Because I was planning on applying to as many schools as money will allow and that seems excessive.

Well, since in academia you need a PhD for most of the positions out there (and all of the top end ones), there are no job placement records for MA holders. No one has ever compiled a PhD placement record for different BAs and MAs either, as far as I know, nor a 'reverse placement' record where you check where people came from to certain programs. You could certainly compile one and you might find some trends (like Ivycentrism) but it will only serve to psych you out, as MA prestige is probably on the lower end of factors. It might help to compensate for bad GRE scores if you have a good GPA from a respected school, but it might not.

This is the most active I've seen this place. Good luck to everyone applying this cycle.

Thanks guys. I speak several languages but am not interested in studying their literature. If I spoke French fluently I might consider it but as my interest is in English language texts I wouldn't see much point in it.

I have studied English lit nearly exclusively (just one course on French in BA) so far. That is my field and it is what I want to work in. I have had an idea for my PhD for a while now, and it involves reading American texts through the lens of the work of a French philosopher. Now I am also starting to combine this with some concepts from a French critic. One of my professors has suggested that perhaps the reading could be applied to texts that are not necessarily American by comtrasting it with the work of a 3rd French critic. With this in mind, I wonder whether selection committees will think I should be in comp lit, since so much of the theory I want to work with is in French. I wonder myself if maybe I should apply to Comp Lit directly. Though I have knowledge of French, I have very little foundation in the Literature and my language is very, very rusty. I don't think I would be successful if I had to take grad courses in French, and though I speak another 2 languages, I have no interest in working on their literatures for my thesis. So I a, basically worried about whether unis will see the emphasis on French criticism and think it will not suit a strictly English thesis. Has anyone experienced anythng like this? So much of theory is international that of course you can focus on one Lit and refer to international criticism, but does that change when so much of that criticism is in the same language? Like, if you wanted to work with Hegel, Heidegger, Schopenhauer but focus on texts from another tradition.

If you're translating and there are words for those meanings in that language, can't you search for the direct translation?