Gl0rfindel

Hi! I'd be really curious to hear people's reflections on their undergrad training in literature and how it prepared them for graduate study. I graduated with a BA a few weeks ago and am just starting to dive into the grad school application process. However, in reading about people's research interests and theoretical lenses, I'm worried that my undergrad department wasn't particularly... rigorous. We had one required theory course, but in class rarely went much deeper than close readings. My school has a very strong social justice culture, so most people professed to use gender or postcolonial theory, but at least in class discussions, this usually just meant complaining how a certain depiction of race or gender was "problematic." Often, professors were mainly discussion facilitators, instead of lecturers. In practice this meant most class time was spent listening to other students discussing the text to get the required participation points, instead of listening to someone deeply learned in the field. Professors have encouraged me to apply to top 20 graduate schools, but I'm not sure I have a very broad knowledge of literature. I received an A+ on my thesis, but I don't think I raised any particularly interesting questions about the texts. I honestly don't want to complain: I had a great four years, and I made close personal relationships with some fantastic scholars who have volunteered to write LoRs for me. Maybe this is just par for the course for undergrad, with true rigor and theoretical breadth coming later. But I'd be very interested to hear other people's reflections on their undergrad experience: how it went, how it prepared them, where they think their education might have been lacking.

Hi, when I click on your essays I get an error message, which may be why no one has given you feedback yet.

Hey Old Bill, I'm very new both to this forum and to the application process in general, so I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed response. I'll also add that I'm aware my post is taking a questionable approach to the grad school process. If I was going for a safe job, guaranteed employment I wouldn't be pursuing a PhD in the Humanities! We do this for reasons other than the strictly financial, so trying to plan for employment in the field before even applying for grad school... isn't really a viable approach. But you've given me a lot to think about here! I was mainly debating between Shakespeare (my thesis) and Joyce (grant-funded research I did elsewhere in my college career), but you named Shakespeare and 20th Century British/American Lit as two fields that "aren't going to go away anytime soon," so I imagine I'll face similar issues with either route. Thank you again for taking the time to write this answer.

Hi all! The graduate schooIs I'm considering require you to apply to a specific program/century within the larger English Department. Since I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Shakespeare and was intending to use this for my writing sample, this would set me on a trajectory toward being a Shakespearian. However, I suspect this field is very, very crowded. Although I know there is a supply and demand problem with Humanities PhDs just in general, I was curious if there were any particular centuries that were less crowded/competitive. At the moment, I'm not aligned with one specific century, and would consider going into a less competitive field of study, if it meant better odds of admission and employment further down the road. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I just (as in less than a week ago) graduated with my BA. I'm taking a gap year off to work and save money, and I'm hoping to begin graduate school in literature in Fall 2018. I'm just starting the graduate school application process, and I've seen mixed information on whether it's better to apply directly from undergrad to a PhD program, or whether one should do a master's first. I'd always intended to do a master's in order to develop as a scholar and better learn my field before starting on a PhD program. However, an MA is going to mean taking on significant debt, and elsewhere on these forums, I've seen people say that only a small portion of their PhD cohort did an MA first, and that those who did do a master's feel like they wasted their time. Thoughts on this? Sorry if this is a duplicate. I'm sure this topic has been covered in depth elsewhere on the forum, but I hadn't found anything.