prow_ess

Hi, I have no idea how the ad com itself works here (or anywhere else -__-), but from my experience doing an MA at Columbia, I would say that English and Comp. Lit is very much one department. I'm pretty sure that the extent of being a comp. lit student here is fulfilling ICLS requirements and getting a certificate, so I think what happens if you mark Comp. as one of your subfields is they make sure to send your application to a professor who is part of ICLS. But many professors and students who aren't part of ICLS still do comparative work, and I can't imagine that there would be a problem with naming a professor whose main interests lie in comp. lit as a POI even if you're not taking that approach. Please feel free to PM me for details if you'd like. Given what you said, I think I have an idea of which professor you may have named, and if it's who I'm thinking, you have nothing to worry about.

Longtime lurker coming out of the shadows just to say that you're not the only one--I did the same thing in my writing sample for Penn, that is I had "Stanford" in the heading! I blame it all on Pages, which I HATE HATE HATE (:P). But, really, when juggling 10+ documents, these things happen. I wouldn't get down on yourself so much. In case it makes you feel better, when I was considering applying to UCLA but knew that I would have trouble getting one of my letters in by the deadline, I called the department, and the person I spoke to made it seem like they are the most accommodating program ever. He said something along the lines that if an application is missing one or a few parts, they would get in touch with the candidate rather than just throw it out completely because it gives them a chance to view the strongest applications possible. It was surprising to me because I feel like most programs treat us like beggars at the door (not sure if this is necessarily true or a delusion borne out of despair and despondency ), but it sounded like UCLA is trying to approach it more like we are assets. I also did my undergrad there (ultimately why I decided not to apply) and know it's a great program. So best of luck to you and everyone waiting to hear back from them!