WildeThing

If it's not academic in scope, I would generally say that it shouldn't be in the academic CV. However, creative writing for an English student is relevant, I think. so I would include at the end under 'miscellaneous' or something. I have seen several PhD students display their creative writing publications on their pages. I think working on organizing committees is important and I've seen it on plenty of CVs. Definitely in, I would say.

Could you elaborate on the issues with cultural studies? I am a Lit major who received an offer to study an MA in intercultural communication and I am not particularly familiar with the field as a whole.

I'm wondering the same thing so I'd love to hear from someone more advanced i the process about how they select conferences the possible consequences of these choices.

It did cross my mind that perhaps programs see someone who was published as being more advanced in their academic career and thus would prefer a candidate who required more guidance. I don't know if this is the case but generally I would have assume that getting published would reflect positively rather than negatively.

Thanks poliscar! Would I be right to assume that you have applied to MTL? Would you be so kind as to share your experience and thoughts about the process?

Thanks for the responses. I think 'obscuring' was probably the better term. From your responses I see that I should definitely re-take the GRE then. Two more questions, ExponentialDecay. You mentioned that you don't publications would be helpful but conferences would be? I would have thought that the opposite would be true. Could you elaborate on that? Also, you say that contacting professors helps get your CV in front of decision-makers. Could you elaborate on that, too? I mean, won't they see my application either way? I guess I understand that if they're familiar with me it could help but I'm not sure what you could tell them other than asking them if your topic is one they would be interested in directing. Is that what you meant? Ultimately what I can glean from your comments is that the writing sample and SOP are the key things to focus on. I guess making the most out of them will vary school by school. I suppose what I was also getting at is trying to see whether those of you who have been accepted have found that having x or y helped get some attention or tip the scales in your favor.

Thanks guys. When I looked at the site their handbooks mentioned fellowships that didn't cover the whole program but maybe I read it wrong.

Hey all, Sorry for flooding the forum with new topics but I have one more unrelated question. I have been looking at PhD programs in Literature and trying to figure out which guarantee funding. I see that some of you have mentioned that UCLA and Berkley (and Maryland and Princeton for that matter) offer full packages but when looking at their websites I have seen that they don't offer or don't guarantee full funding. Am I reading it wrong? Could someone help clarify this?

Hey all, I'm a graduate student from Spain (English philology). Next year I will be studying an MA in Intercultural Communication in the U.S. on a Fulbright Grant. When I finish I am hoping to get into a top PhD program for Literature. That said, as I come from a different academic background, I am worried that my profile might not fit what some of these programs are looking for. For example, my GRE results are pretty bad (161 Verbal, 155 Quant, 4.0 Writing - no excuses but I didn't have much chance to study and thought the Quantitative was more important than it is so I dedicated too much time for it). I was hoping that maybe someone could give me some insight on whether I have any chance of getting into the top programs (Stanford, Princeton, etc.) with my profile and what sort of things I should be looking at rounding out and improving to have a better chance? For a fuller picture of what my profile actually is: I have a BA in English Studies (not sure what my GPA would be, but it's 8.65/10 in our system) and by the time I apply I would have an MA in English Studies (probably a higher GPA, more like 9+/10) and would be completing an MA in the U.S (do programs even take in candidates with multiple MAs?) The U.S MA will have me as an assistant for year before teaching in the second. I do not have any publications but I am sending abstracts in the hope of getting something published by the time I apply (although a lot of PhD programs take in people with BAs, so I assume publications aren't computed much). I have given some talks in conferences here and have chaired a session and will chair a session at a convention in the U.S next year - also helped with the organizing of some local conferences but I don't know if that is considered an achievement in the U.S. Beyond that I interned as a TA in a local high school for a year and co-founded a student organization at the Uni. That's basically it. Any help on figuring out what aspects of my CV I should be highlighting, obfuscating or improving in the time I have until I start applying would be great as I am very unfamiliar with how American Unis evaluate prospects. Right now I'm focusing on hitting the CFP trail and hoping to get conference talks and (better yet) articles published but perhaps I should be focusing on something else? Thank you very much in advance, I hope to be able to help some of you out if you ever consider applying to Spain. P.S I've read that a lot of you are e-mailing professors before applying. May I ask what sort of things you're asking them? Are you asking them to supervise your thesis? It seems very awkward to me to contact professors as a prospective student and though it would be awesome to get feedback from them, I don't know what I would even ask. Incidentally, do you think that the question I've asked above about what aspects to focus on improving is one that programs would answer? My guess is no but I'm perceiving that some programs are more open to helping out than others.

Hey everyone, I'm new to this site. I have been looking for information on Stanford's Modern Thought and Literature PhD program but have not found anything recent. Has anyone here applied in the past few cycles? If so, could you tell us about your experience, how did it go, and what your profile was like? They seem to look for a very specific type of candidate but I don't know what that is exactly other than it seems that they want candidates whose approaches are extremely interdisciplinary.