onerepublic96

It seems I always work straight to the deadline, so I’ll probably be one of the people still freaking out on Dec 15 because I’ll be only just submitting my apps. ?

100% convinced I'm not getting in anywhere. ?

Isn’t US News kind of the default?

That's how I interpreted it. Otherwise, to say that it's top 10 or bust seems just a tad too extreme.

I'm also torn about what to write in the language section. Do you (and/or does anyone else) have any idea about how programmes review this section of the application? I studied Latin for 4 years in high school and part of the way through college I picked it up again and studied on my own, so I feel like I could qualify myself as 'intermediate' at least in reading proficiency, but I worry that someone reading my application might discount my experience because I never took any Latin classes in college. In my position, would you just specify your proficiency and call it a day or add a note explaining the nature of your study?

Would it be possible to send her some current coursework from your masters (or perhaps a portion of your dissertation, if applicable)? That could potentially help her to track some of your progress and tailor the letter she previously wrote to take into account how you've grown since then.

I may be assuming wildly here, since I don't know the actual content and tone of your conversations with the people you say discouraged you, but I wonder if discouragement is really what they were attempting to get across. You'll be hard-pressed to find any English (or even humanities more broadly) professor at any institution right now who would say 'go right ahead, of course, do the PhD, you won't regret it' and anyone who would say so would be acting irresponsibly. The truth is that the job market is that bad. Your professors and/or advisors have a duty to make sure you're aware of that. Whether or not that amounts to discouragement will depend on your own feelings. Would you regret spending 6 years in school if you come out the other side with no job prospects in academia? Will you feel you wasted your time? The reality is harsh, and you have to make sure you go into your decision with appropriate expectations. Ultimately, whether it's worth it—regardless of the outcome—is a decision only you can make.

would love to know the answer to this as well... a lot of my POI are assistant profs & associate profs

Most of my applications explicitly state that they want my educational history 'after high school'. But it might be worth it to check with your particular programmes.

Thank you! I'll go down the hunting for publications route first, as you've suggested. Sidenote, @indoorfireworks, on first reading your post I misread 'if he was still active' as 'if he was still alive' and that's just... something... ?

Some of the profiles at the programmes I'm interested in just list a few selected publications (in some cases, the most recent of which are from 2008-2010), and nothing else. I can get the gist of what this or that professor is interested in, but... it's hard to determine methodology and specific concerns or approaches from just a few publications, not to mention that I find it hard to believe that these professors haven't done anything else in 9-11 years or are still working on the same things. I personally am also leaning against contacting them, because I don't think it makes any significant difference in chances of acceptance, but I'm also worried that without up-to-date information, I'll inadvertently tailor some of my SOPs to research that is no longer happening there.

I'm still agonising over that one myself... If you don't mind my asking, how did you reach out? One concern of mine is that the faculty profiles on a few of my programme websites may be somewhat out of date, and I thought of contacting them to make sure I had the right idea of what they're working on, but I'm stuck as to how to do this without sounding ignorant or making them feel like I'm trying to waste their time. ?‍♀️

Does anyone have any experience with or tips for contacting professors of interest when applying to English PhD programmes? I know there is no expectation to do so, but many of my universities have not (or at least it seems so) updated their department or faculty pages in a while (years, for some), which makes discussing the department's work and potentially specific faculty difficult when writing about fit in the SOP. I had the idea of contacting a few of my POIs at some of these schools just to make sure they're still doing what I think they're doing, and if there's anything new I should be aware of prior to applying, but I'm not sure how to best do that?

I've nothing to offer, but just sneaking in here bc I'm finalising my list of schools too and finding that they're nearly all top-20s. So thankful for this thread and all the insight. OP, I guess we just have to keep our fingers crossed ??

I'm just about to complete my UK MA and am beginning to work on (US) PhD applications. I wouldn't say it's not doable, but most of the people I know are applying for PhDs after completing their MA, meaning we will all have a gap year of sorts. I don't know how long the Oxford or Cambridge programmes are, but mine is set to conclude (diss hand-in) on Sept 6, so you can imagine how starting a PhD the same fall may be overwhelming (and depending on when certain programmes start, perhaps even impossible). In addition, if you were going to begin your PhD in this way, right after your MA concludes, that means you'd have to work on PhD applications in the fall of when your MA begins, which in some UK schools is quite late (mine began in October). So your timeline might look like: May - graduate from undergrad --> October - begin MA --> December - PhD applications due --> September - finish MA & begin PhD. As you've mentioned, this leaves almost no time to get to know your postgraduate professors and even though UK reference letters tend to be a bit more standard and less individual/enthusiastic than US ones, this still gives you virtually no time to showcase your abilities to the professors that would write for you (especially since summative assignments, the ones you will be graded on, tend to only be due in winter and/or spring; meaning that in December, when your reference letters are due, your professors will know little about you as a writer or scholar). Of course, in regard to these timelines I'm referencing my own programme, and things may be somewhat different at Oxbridge, but I imagine it cannot be too dissimilar. Ultimately, it comes down to your own decisions and how comfortable you feel in applying to PhD programmes so early on. If you did very well in undergrad and have good relationships with professors that can construct great reference letters, then perhaps you don't have to worry about these timing constraints. However, might alternately like to get through your MA, write a dissertation and work closely with your dissertation supervisor, then have them produce a postgraduate contribution to the 3-4 reference letters you'll need for your PhD apps.

whoops! seems you've posted on the wrong forum. we're humanities folks here

that definitely makes me feel better about my MA... thanks for the info!

I wouldn't worry about this... when students apply to PhD programmes straight out of undergrad, they're not yet finished with their BA degrees at the moment of application, either. It's implied that you will finish your present course of study before moving on to whatever programme you're applying to.

Hi OP, I'm currently finishing up a 1-year MA in the UK, and prepping for PhD apps. Like the poster above me, I can't really comment on differences in application since I did not apply to any PhD programmes in parallel with the MA ones, but if you have any questions about the experience of doing an MA here I'd be happy to help out! As has already been mentioned, funding is going to be an issue when applying. There are some scholarships available from what I've seen and heard, but in my experience they have been quite scarce and very competitive, so relying on that will definitely not help. If money is not an issue, however, and you're able to self-fund, that's a different story. I decided to do an MA because I had switched majors quite late in my undergrad degree and wasn't quite ready to jump into PhD study, so the year I've had here has really helped me. It may not seem like much, but the programme I'm in has been very rewarding and I feel much, much more prepared to embark on PhD study. It is a good point that if you're going to want to start a PhD right after finishing your MA, you won't really have much time to get to know your postgraduate faculty or form the kinds of relationships that will give you a better chance at a better reference letter, but if you're fine with a gap year, applying after you finish your MA will help with that problem, since you will have had a year to form those strong connections. On the other hand, however, I've found the environment quite different here in terms of submitting assignments, receiving marks, etc., and - at least for me - it has been rather more difficult to form relationships as strong as the ones I had with my professors at my undergraduate institutions. This may be more of a personality issue on my end, however, so take that with a grain of salt. As for the quality of reference letters in the UK (less enthusiastic, more generic, etc.), from what I've gathered, many US institutions will be aware of the stylistic differences and may be likely to factor that into their review of your application. Universities are all different, as are students, as are admission committees, however, so this too is not necessarily always true. In my opinion, it ultimately comes down to a cost/benefit review... for me, the rank of the institution, the opportunity to specialise, and the brevity of the programme (I did not want to spend 2 years in an MA) were the main factors, in which case a UK MA programme made the most sense.

Hello! I took the subject test in April and it seemed fine but I didn't budget my time well at all and ended up not getting to the last 30 questions ?. Hoping for a better experience in September!

Hi all, I'm beginning to prep for the upcoming PhD application cycle this fall/winter and have run into a question that's frankly starting to give me a lot of anxiety: that is, what's the relative value of Masters-level LORs vs undergrad ones? I went into my MA straight after undergrad, and it's a 1-year programme in the UK. I found the teaching & marking style quite different here, and perhaps this contributed to me not really making any strong connections with my few professors. I've done very well in all of my modules and my professors will know me/my abilities from my work, but beyond that, none really have a relationship with me (aside from my dissertation supervisor, of course, who I know will be able to write me a strong letter). Meanwhile, in undergrad, I had taken several courses each with 2 professors who know me very well, had a good relationship with me, and will be able to write strong letters (in fact, have already written strong letters for me when I applied for MA programmes). Since most of the PhD programmes I'm interested in require 3 letters of recommendation, I was hoping to have my MA dissertation supervisor write one, and ask my undergrad professors to supply the other two. In terms of the quality of letters, I think this would be the best scenario. There is another professor, however, in my MA, in whose module I did very well and who would be able to write a decent letter based on my work but I don't think it would be very strong, as we don't really have any relationship outside the two papers I've submitted to him. Am I in the wrong for thinking like this? Would having 2 undergrad letters and only 1 postgrad one reflect poorly on my application, overall? Part of me feels like because it's only been 1 year since I left undergrad, there wouldn't have been any drastic changes in my work, and if I provide my undergrad professors with a sample of my recent (MA) work, their letters should still be quite accurate reflections of me as a student. On the other hand, I can't really shake the feeling that somehow, I'm losing out by not having more graduate-level feedback... Have any of you dealt with this whilst applying? Or has anyone had any advice on similar situations? Would love to hear from you! -A very stressed applicant

Sounds great! I'm midway through my MA, trying to finish up term papers so I can focus on dissertation ... whilst also trying to wrap my head around what's going to happen in the fall. I took the GRE subject test to be done with it but had a terrible experience and didn't finish the exam so will probably have to brush up a bit for that in Sept. Basically a total mess right now! I bought Simon Sebag Montefiore's The Romanovs to read over Easter break but... ???

A bit of context here: I'm currently completing a 1-year MA programme in English literature, and will be applying to a number of PhD programmes, one of which is at the university I attended as an undergrad. I have a pretty good relationship with one of the professors there from my undergrad days, and in fact he would be my POI there for the PhD. Any ideas on whether it would it be awkward or frowned-upon to ask for a LOR from him, given the situation?

Hi all, I'm currently working on a 1-year English Literature MA programme in the UK. I'm due to complete it in the fall of 2019, and hopefully will then apply to PhD programmes in the US, to begin in the fall of 2020. I just had a question about LORs, and how much weight they have in relation to all other application components (GRE scores, transcripts, writing sample, programme fit, etc.). The thing is, as this is a one-year MA programme, and I'm already basically halfway through, I'm realising that I haven't really formed any strong or close professional relationships with my module convenors. I've always had issues with participating much in seminar discussions (not a shyness issue; I've just learned to take a lot of notes and then think about the material/research on my own outside of class, then write papers) and this year has not been much different. At this point, I'm starting to get very anxious about whether I'll have anyone to write any solid LORs for me. There is one professor with whom I'm planning to meet regularly in the next month or so to discuss a paper I'm working on, so I expect that afterward, he would be in a position to provide a solid LOR. I'm also hoping that my dissertation supervisor (who hasn't been assigned yet) would be able to do so, as well. The problem is - for most of the PhD programmes I'm planning to apply to, the requirement is for 3 LORs, and here we come to my question: I don't think there's anyone else here who will know me well enough to write a good LOR, but there is a professor at my undergraduate institution with whom I developed a very good relationship, and who I know will be able to write a great LOR (and actually already did so whilst I was applying for MA programmes). Would it be acceptable to use him as my 3rd reference? Or is there any way in which having an undergraduate reference would reflect poorly on my application? Also, how relatively important are LORs in the grand scheme of all other application elements?

Hi there! Would you mind elaborating on why you're looking at American schools for your PhD? I'm in the opposite position - an American student about to begin my MA in the UK and hoping to do my PhD in the UK as well. Just curious as to your preferences/motivations... ?