Yanaka

Hey guys, So I have a question and I don't know where else to ask it. Rutgers answered telling me my WS should be top-notch (obviously). Now, I know some of you ask professors to read your material, but in my case I was wondering if that would be "cheating". Lemme explain: I am not the best dissertation-writer just yet (especially not the French one), and my English language has a few flaws since I'm not 100% bilingual like never mind, I speak and write like any other American who's always stayed in contact with the language outside of books and the solo experience they come with. So of course my WS would benefit from someone looking it over and making comments on the structure and the language, especially considering that I translated this essay from French to English. Someone proof-read it and helped me out, but she wasn't from academia (she's an American who graduated with an English major BA). But I do not want it to be perfect because I don't want to be overrated and misplaced in the anglophone academic world. Does that make sense? How did you feel about having top-notch professors correcting your writing sample?

Obviously meant inferior to 3.00. Math.

@Wyatt's Terps, would you mind writing books on graduate life please? You never have anything uninteresting and not uplifting to say. Thanks.

You'll find a topic somewhere else on the forum dedicated specifically to students who got in with a > 3.00 GPA! I'm on my phone right now so not very convenient to search for the topic but it's there!

Hahaha no, I have no friends in Boston but I am looking for cool MA's with late deadlines and good funding! After posting my comment I thought: "Darn it, he might think I'm going to be his competition!" But fortunately it's not the case

"Heyaaaaaaaall you forgot to send us the invites, yoooooo"

Erhm--thanks for that precious info!

If you're okay with the gap year, maybe

What if we snuck in and joined the "prospective applicants brunch"?

@Empyreal and @and,vaster immense congratulations! Can't express how lucky I think you are, but fyi my eyes are wide open and translate shock and envy!

@ThePomoHipster I am happy you agree with the previous poster's opinion of U of T. Will definitely add them on my list for next year if I have to

Thank you for your contribution, @corinnek! However, as I said, I find location very important and I am confident Kansas does not make the cut... I am open to know more about your life there, though!

What would be other options for me as a future Comp Lit applicant if I wish to enter an MA first? I have seen liberal/interdisciplinary degrees on different websites, but I'm not sure of how they are considered by adcoms.

@Straparlare Errrrrrhm well, I don't know. Coming from a top French school, it felt only natural to aim at other top schools. I was probably mistaken in proceeding this way, but it was bound to happen given that this was my first season and that literally nobody around me even has a remote idea about this process. However, I must say that I am afraid of a lot of states in the US, and geography was another decisive criterion in my choice. I don't think I'm throwing myself into the MA option, since I very sincerely wish to consolidate my knowledge of English literature and culture, and become more competitive and more comfortable academically!

woops, *household @tvethiopia I have to confess, it really is. Until I have too many horses and need to chose which one(s) will be sold (understand: lost forever) so I can continue the breeding. ...I really miss horseback riding. hahahaha

YES. Sort of! Could be better, but I'm waiting for the Sims 4 to have their own pets version! I keep adding wild horses to my house hold and trying to have the most colorful baby ponies possible.

Thank you @DBear, you alone are always such an awesome support system!!

Ugh, completely forgot the Comp Lit detail! Yes, two minutes after reading your message. Yes I will definitely keep the program in mind, thank you for your precious help

I am super grateful for your tremendously helpful answers. Plus, going to Canada is a true alternative to Trump's America. However, I seem to understand that I am not very competitive at U of T: "You also need a minimum of 7 full (1 year) courses or the equivalent of full year and half year courses in English" Their deadline is Jan 20 anyway

Thanks @claritus for the pep talk and the input! I am still hoping that one of my applications will be a success, but I'd rather work on plans B and C... Very interesting information about U of Toronto as well. I need to look into it. Is funding an issue in Canada, too?

Awesome, thank you @orphic_mel528. Yes a few of those Norton editions, and try to purchase similar critical editions in order to reinforce my culture. Right now I'm looking at MA's that have solid funding opportunities and have late deadlines so I can try and squeeze into one of those for Fall 17. So the choice is succinct anyway! And don't really want to go into Yale or Harvard b/c I don't feel comfortable with mean, smart people I see you've enjoyed the discipline enough to apply to PhD programs, good luck!

Thanks @orphic_mel528! Did you have a hard time doing some literary catch-up during the degree? Was your MA dissertation (is that what it's called?) related to psychology?

Dear Gradcafé-ers, You have all probably noticed that results are coming in and that some of us are freaking out and starting to think about MA's that have not yet met their deadlines. I am one of them. I am pretty confident my not getting into any PhD program is largely due to my state of novice researcher which is, in turn, emphasized by my lack of experience in the field of research and dissertation-writing. An MA of English is the degree I am aiming at now, in order to get a feeling of what graduate studies really are and in order to have a more solid profile. However, I am worried that my BA focusing on French (comparative) literature (& humanities) will not allow me to get into any program. The fact is: I was born in the US and initially grew up there (or "here", for most of you reading from the North American soil), but my French mother fled the country of freedom (yikes) due to divorcing my father. Consequently I have been brought up mostly surrounded by French literature and culture since the age of six despite more or less maintaining my fluency in my native language. My only undergrad-level knowledge of anglophone literature comes from personal readings, a few critiques on the web and a few semesters of actual American/English literature classes at my school. By the way, I hope having studied these few classes at the Sorbonne will help me a little in this process. In other words: I fear I am a weak candidate even for an MA, and I really don't want to enter any other program like American studies or another interdisciplinary degree (which might also be a problem anyway since I haven't bathed in the US's culture since almost forever apart from my short visitings throughout the years, and since I don't think a PhD adcom will really value those degrees). I do aim at a rather flexible PhD in the end though, and want to use all of my interests for politics, sociology on top of UK, US and FR literature in my research. However, as I said, I think doing an MA of English is the smartest choice. Feel free to disagree on this! So the questions are: will schools sniff and despise my all-French education? Do you know of other MA graduates who came from another country and did not have any particularly strong studies in Anglophone literature prior to being admitted? Do you think I would be lost and miserable if I were accepted somewhere while not having read The Scarlet Letter yet and having only devoured To Kill a Mockingjay(bird--jk) last summer? Also, if we consider having read the books is not the only parameter, I think of how, since I was a teen, I was told about the Lumières and all the historical contexts that surrounded the literature I've been studying over here. So my issue is not only that I haven't read all the stuff, but rather that I don't have a solid intuition about all the stuff. Am I screwed........... down to the French grounds and doomed to never being able to fulfill my dream of studying English in the United States of America that saw me be born? (See how I avoided being offensive?) Thanks!

I was in a linguistics class, with an extremely weird huge smile: was still nurturing the hope I'd gotten in, but laughing internally at the failure this first app season is being. Fortunately, I was more amused by the second option and was in concert with Duke's adcom.

Yup.