CulturalCriminal

you're entering a field where you will essentially commit to a lifetime of learning, or perish in irrelevancy. Though I have certainly been in graduate courses that were not as great as I could have hoped, I have benefited from every graduate course I've taken. This can be in the general, "I know am better qualified to teach X" statement for courses not tied to my research OR have been able to apply aspects and writing from a course to my own research. The more graduate courses you can take, the more chances you have to vet your research and make connections with professors.
Yes, all the credits you earn during your MA won't significantly reduce your time to degree with a PhD. It depends on the specific PhD program, though; some will take 2 classes top, others count 3-4 semesters worth. This actually makes a great deal of sense, given no university teaches the same exact graduate class. In English/lit, there seems to in fact only be a consistent one or two courses that most universities touch on. The rest varies greatly.
If you're looking for a career that has a clear, quick path that can be easily managed and predicted, academia isn't it. Yes, people experience fatigue and drop-out. This is the nature of the career path though; even those who finish their doctorates in under 5 years can still experience burn-out with academia after completing their degrees. Coming off of UG, it might be tempting to see the whole MA/PhD question in the same vein that most UG folks see their lives -- "the faster I finish my B.A., the faster I can start my actual career." In other words, it seems like the mindset of runners with distance events (i.e. sprint, 10K). The reality is academia is a life-long distance event that, though there are desired goals (finish PhD, get on the TT, get tenure, etc), doesn't really stop until you die or retire. Further, you have already started your career. This is it. Though you are incredibly limited in what you can do, research and teaching-wise, you are know basically considered a member of the academic profession.
Returning to my distance event analogy, with your BA you've essentially completed a 5K. Though you may be able to, why jump straight to one 10K (MA en-route to PhD) while training for a Marathon? Knock out a 10K before you start training for that Marathon. Yeah, you'll need to do more running, but you'll be better prepared for the marathon. Plus, you aren't doing just one marathon in this analogy; you're entire life will be marathon after marathon (publishing, getting tenure, publishing more, etc) until you're physically or mentally unable to run anymore marathons.
All of this is to say that another year or two between now and getting your PhD is not as big a deal as I think you think it is.
 
Instead of most well-known, you might instead consider if the professors are a good fit for your specific interests. Just because a program is X rank on USNWR, doesn't mean that the faculty will be able to help you develop as a researcher. Then consider funding. Some may disagree, but I think a well-fit program with full-funding and profs who don't have PhD students to wrangle is a far better option than  having partial- to no-funding in a big program where you'll be competing with PhD candidates for attention.
 

I haven't heard anything, the the coordinator said most of the movement happens in March. That said, I got a really good offer from UMass English so I think i am going to go with that.t

I think this helps to prove that fit is ultimately, a very weird thing and is not only determined by how well faculty matches, but where the department is hoping to be (which is really an impossible thing to determine in any given year. Applying broadly to schools that have a major interest to you is a very important thing to do as you'll never know where you might fit into a school's puzzle. The ivies have often been said to recruit from the same pool but @punctilious' husband earned 1 acceptance, 1 waitlist, and 1 rejection from the Ivy League and had mixed results elsewhere. It's important to not apply only to top 10 schools, but also to not discount schools just because they are ranked highly. Faculty fit + Institutional goals + class profile all play a much larger role which may be invisible during the whole process to us as applicants.

Reviving if anyone wants info on San Marcos

you're entering a field where you will essentially commit to a lifetime of learning, or perish in irrelevancy. Though I have certainly been in graduate courses that were not as great as I could have hoped, I have benefited from every graduate course I've taken. This can be in the general, "I know am better qualified to teach X" statement for courses not tied to my research OR have been able to apply aspects and writing from a course to my own research. The more graduate courses you can take, the more chances you have to vet your research and make connections with professors.
Yes, all the credits you earn during your MA won't significantly reduce your time to degree with a PhD. It depends on the specific PhD program, though; some will take 2 classes top, others count 3-4 semesters worth. This actually makes a great deal of sense, given no university teaches the same exact graduate class. In English/lit, there seems to in fact only be a consistent one or two courses that most universities touch on. The rest varies greatly.
If you're looking for a career that has a clear, quick path that can be easily managed and predicted, academia isn't it. Yes, people experience fatigue and drop-out. This is the nature of the career path though; even those who finish their doctorates in under 5 years can still experience burn-out with academia after completing their degrees. Coming off of UG, it might be tempting to see the whole MA/PhD question in the same vein that most UG folks see their lives -- "the faster I finish my B.A., the faster I can start my actual career." In other words, it seems like the mindset of runners with distance events (i.e. sprint, 10K). The reality is academia is a life-long distance event that, though there are desired goals (finish PhD, get on the TT, get tenure, etc), doesn't really stop until you die or retire. Further, you have already started your career. This is it. Though you are incredibly limited in what you can do, research and teaching-wise, you are know basically considered a member of the academic profession.
Returning to my distance event analogy, with your BA you've essentially completed a 5K. Though you may be able to, why jump straight to one 10K (MA en-route to PhD) while training for a Marathon? Knock out a 10K before you start training for that Marathon. Yeah, you'll need to do more running, but you'll be better prepared for the marathon. Plus, you aren't doing just one marathon in this analogy; you're entire life will be marathon after marathon (publishing, getting tenure, publishing more, etc) until you're physically or mentally unable to run anymore marathons.
All of this is to say that another year or two between now and getting your PhD is not as big a deal as I think you think it is.
 
Instead of most well-known, you might instead consider if the professors are a good fit for your specific interests. Just because a program is X rank on USNWR, doesn't mean that the faculty will be able to help you develop as a researcher. Then consider funding. Some may disagree, but I think a well-fit program with full-funding and profs who don't have PhD students to wrangle is a far better option than  having partial- to no-funding in a big program where you'll be competing with PhD candidates for attention.
 

So I am in your field. You have some interrelated interests, but are still quite broad. You might look at the lit threads for more on this, but right now it seems you’re quite broadly interested in American Studies (not a negative), but haven’t quite landed on a unifying methodology and/or specific period. That said, you just started your MA, so no worries on not having these spelled out. I’d suggest reading up on the various major Americanist lit, Film/TV, Culture Studies, and American Studies journals to see what folks are doing currently (American Quarterly, American Literature, Film Quarterly, Film Criticism, The Velvet Light Trap, Camera Obscura, and Journal of Popular Culture are what I can think of off the top of my head).

you're entering a field where you will essentially commit to a lifetime of learning, or perish in irrelevancy. Though I have certainly been in graduate courses that were not as great as I could have hoped, I have benefited from every graduate course I've taken. This can be in the general, "I know am better qualified to teach X" statement for courses not tied to my research OR have been able to apply aspects and writing from a course to my own research. The more graduate courses you can take, the more chances you have to vet your research and make connections with professors.
Yes, all the credits you earn during your MA won't significantly reduce your time to degree with a PhD. It depends on the specific PhD program, though; some will take 2 classes top, others count 3-4 semesters worth. This actually makes a great deal of sense, given no university teaches the same exact graduate class. In English/lit, there seems to in fact only be a consistent one or two courses that most universities touch on. The rest varies greatly.
If you're looking for a career that has a clear, quick path that can be easily managed and predicted, academia isn't it. Yes, people experience fatigue and drop-out. This is the nature of the career path though; even those who finish their doctorates in under 5 years can still experience burn-out with academia after completing their degrees. Coming off of UG, it might be tempting to see the whole MA/PhD question in the same vein that most UG folks see their lives -- "the faster I finish my B.A., the faster I can start my actual career." In other words, it seems like the mindset of runners with distance events (i.e. sprint, 10K). The reality is academia is a life-long distance event that, though there are desired goals (finish PhD, get on the TT, get tenure, etc), doesn't really stop until you die or retire. Further, you have already started your career. This is it. Though you are incredibly limited in what you can do, research and teaching-wise, you are know basically considered a member of the academic profession.
Returning to my distance event analogy, with your BA you've essentially completed a 5K. Though you may be able to, why jump straight to one 10K (MA en-route to PhD) while training for a Marathon? Knock out a 10K before you start training for that Marathon. Yeah, you'll need to do more running, but you'll be better prepared for the marathon. Plus, you aren't doing just one marathon in this analogy; you're entire life will be marathon after marathon (publishing, getting tenure, publishing more, etc) until you're physically or mentally unable to run anymore marathons.
All of this is to say that another year or two between now and getting your PhD is not as big a deal as I think you think it is.
 
Instead of most well-known, you might instead consider if the professors are a good fit for your specific interests. Just because a program is X rank on USNWR, doesn't mean that the faculty will be able to help you develop as a researcher. Then consider funding. Some may disagree, but I think a well-fit program with full-funding and profs who don't have PhD students to wrangle is a far better option than  having partial- to no-funding in a big program where you'll be competing with PhD candidates for attention.
 

you're entering a field where you will essentially commit to a lifetime of learning, or perish in irrelevancy. Though I have certainly been in graduate courses that were not as great as I could have hoped, I have benefited from every graduate course I've taken. This can be in the general, "I know am better qualified to teach X" statement for courses not tied to my research OR have been able to apply aspects and writing from a course to my own research. The more graduate courses you can take, the more chances you have to vet your research and make connections with professors.
Yes, all the credits you earn during your MA won't significantly reduce your time to degree with a PhD. It depends on the specific PhD program, though; some will take 2 classes top, others count 3-4 semesters worth. This actually makes a great deal of sense, given no university teaches the same exact graduate class. In English/lit, there seems to in fact only be a consistent one or two courses that most universities touch on. The rest varies greatly.
If you're looking for a career that has a clear, quick path that can be easily managed and predicted, academia isn't it. Yes, people experience fatigue and drop-out. This is the nature of the career path though; even those who finish their doctorates in under 5 years can still experience burn-out with academia after completing their degrees. Coming off of UG, it might be tempting to see the whole MA/PhD question in the same vein that most UG folks see their lives -- "the faster I finish my B.A., the faster I can start my actual career." In other words, it seems like the mindset of runners with distance events (i.e. sprint, 10K). The reality is academia is a life-long distance event that, though there are desired goals (finish PhD, get on the TT, get tenure, etc), doesn't really stop until you die or retire. Further, you have already started your career. This is it. Though you are incredibly limited in what you can do, research and teaching-wise, you are know basically considered a member of the academic profession.
Returning to my distance event analogy, with your BA you've essentially completed a 5K. Though you may be able to, why jump straight to one 10K (MA en-route to PhD) while training for a Marathon? Knock out a 10K before you start training for that Marathon. Yeah, you'll need to do more running, but you'll be better prepared for the marathon. Plus, you aren't doing just one marathon in this analogy; you're entire life will be marathon after marathon (publishing, getting tenure, publishing more, etc) until you're physically or mentally unable to run anymore marathons.
All of this is to say that another year or two between now and getting your PhD is not as big a deal as I think you think it is.
 
Instead of most well-known, you might instead consider if the professors are a good fit for your specific interests. Just because a program is X rank on USNWR, doesn't mean that the faculty will be able to help you develop as a researcher. Then consider funding. Some may disagree, but I think a well-fit program with full-funding and profs who don't have PhD students to wrangle is a far better option than  having partial- to no-funding in a big program where you'll be competing with PhD candidates for attention.
 

you're entering a field where you will essentially commit to a lifetime of learning, or perish in irrelevancy. Though I have certainly been in graduate courses that were not as great as I could have hoped, I have benefited from every graduate course I've taken. This can be in the general, "I know am better qualified to teach X" statement for courses not tied to my research OR have been able to apply aspects and writing from a course to my own research. The more graduate courses you can take, the more chances you have to vet your research and make connections with professors.
Yes, all the credits you earn during your MA won't significantly reduce your time to degree with a PhD. It depends on the specific PhD program, though; some will take 2 classes top, others count 3-4 semesters worth. This actually makes a great deal of sense, given no university teaches the same exact graduate class. In English/lit, there seems to in fact only be a consistent one or two courses that most universities touch on. The rest varies greatly.
If you're looking for a career that has a clear, quick path that can be easily managed and predicted, academia isn't it. Yes, people experience fatigue and drop-out. This is the nature of the career path though; even those who finish their doctorates in under 5 years can still experience burn-out with academia after completing their degrees. Coming off of UG, it might be tempting to see the whole MA/PhD question in the same vein that most UG folks see their lives -- "the faster I finish my B.A., the faster I can start my actual career." In other words, it seems like the mindset of runners with distance events (i.e. sprint, 10K). The reality is academia is a life-long distance event that, though there are desired goals (finish PhD, get on the TT, get tenure, etc), doesn't really stop until you die or retire. Further, you have already started your career. This is it. Though you are incredibly limited in what you can do, research and teaching-wise, you are know basically considered a member of the academic profession.
Returning to my distance event analogy, with your BA you've essentially completed a 5K. Though you may be able to, why jump straight to one 10K (MA en-route to PhD) while training for a Marathon? Knock out a 10K before you start training for that Marathon. Yeah, you'll need to do more running, but you'll be better prepared for the marathon. Plus, you aren't doing just one marathon in this analogy; you're entire life will be marathon after marathon (publishing, getting tenure, publishing more, etc) until you're physically or mentally unable to run anymore marathons.
All of this is to say that another year or two between now and getting your PhD is not as big a deal as I think you think it is.
 
Instead of most well-known, you might instead consider if the professors are a good fit for your specific interests. Just because a program is X rank on USNWR, doesn't mean that the faculty will be able to help you develop as a researcher. Then consider funding. Some may disagree, but I think a well-fit program with full-funding and profs who don't have PhD students to wrangle is a far better option than  having partial- to no-funding in a big program where you'll be competing with PhD candidates for attention.
 

K, but you don’t need a PhD, much less an MA to work in marketing, professional writing, content writing, or editing. Even just getting the MA R/C is meant to direct you towards teaching; it’s not a professional degree. This is not to say that you shouldn’t get either, just be aware that (except for tech comm) a graduate English degree isn’t going to do much for you in professional writing save being able to say you have a Masters. This is information you should consider in determining if this is really something you want to do.
 
Despite all this, if you think the PhD is at a better program with cooler faculty, nothing’s stopping you from going there and leaving once you’ve gotten to the point where you can walk away with a MA.

K, but you don’t need a PhD, much less an MA to work in marketing, professional writing, content writing, or editing. Even just getting the MA R/C is meant to direct you towards teaching; it’s not a professional degree. This is not to say that you shouldn’t get either, just be aware that (except for tech comm) a graduate English degree isn’t going to do much for you in professional writing save being able to say you have a Masters. This is information you should consider in determining if this is really something you want to do.
 
Despite all this, if you think the PhD is at a better program with cooler faculty, nothing’s stopping you from going there and leaving once you’ve gotten to the point where you can walk away with a MA.

Are you trying to which stipends are livable wages for their respective cities? I used a few different calculators when I was doing that:
Living Wage Calculator - tells you the hourly wage needed to support various household sizes in different cities
Cost of Living Comparison - let’s you compare two cities. I used this to compare new city and current city, and also potential school cities to each other. 
Sorry if that’s not what you were looking for, though.

The nice thing about MAs that don't have a PhD in their department is that, even if you are assigned some gen.eric advisor who you don't gel with, quite a few of the professors you might gel with are open to you essentially making them an unofficial/designated mentor.  This is not always the case; I've given up on getting the prof most aligned with my interests to take an interest in guiding me. Despite this, there are two specific profs at my MA that aren't my designated advisor nor the head of my committee, yet it is pretty common that I get the sit-down chat with them once a week. Though both of these profs work in the same general area I'm interested (20th C. Americanist OR Film & TV studies), we depart pretty significantly once you zero in. Yet, these profs are super supportive of my work, are the first to agree to write a letter, and always are willing to offer advise with my teaching. While I am itching to jump into a PhD next year, I'm sad that this is the last semester I'll have access to these folks.
 

Accepted into Duquesne and Maryland's MA programs. I would have to apply to funding externally for Maryland's MA, though, and for Duquesne I am on the wait list for a teaching fellowship. Both pieces of good news, but ultimately UVM and WVU's offers are a bit more appealing because both are offering me GTAs and tuition remissions. Still happy with the news, though!   

Sounds like it’s time for some of you to call up some departments and make some decisions. Good luck to those that are waiting on news! 
Please let UT know if you’re not interested?. I think @evanmarie and I would both really appreciate the bump...

After a long talk with my Spouse, another talk with the program director, and more stress than necessary, I have officially accepted an offer.  SO MUCH RELIEF.
I decided that I'm going to do a University Reveal Party. I’ll gather all my friends together, perhaps ask for gifts, and have us cut into a cake. The inside will either be green and white (MSU) or yellow and black (Purdue). It’ll be my way of creating artificial suspense for something that matters to nobody except me and my family.
 
Time to go get some cake dye!
 

pSA: there’s a page called “results” on here that you can search with specific terms (I.e. American Studies, Harvard) to see if folks have posted their results. Obviously, not everyone knows about it. It seems though that at least one person posts their results for each of the AmStudies programs, so it’s a decent way to see if your program has started sending notifications out. 
Hope that helps folks trying to figure out what’s going on. It helps with if you haven’t heard anything because the program has not decided or because the program is holding off sending rejections to folks they might need to bump to waitlist status. That info might be enough to let you know you need to start making serious decisions about where you’ll be in the fall. It also helps you get through a pint of Hagen-Dazs while watching Dirty Dancing.

So in the humanities, this is typical different. A visiting professor in humanities and the adjacent interdisciplinary fields tend to not be affiliated with another institution, instead being hired by the institution they are "visiting" to teach for 1-3 years. This is basically the closest to ideal position for folks who don't land a tenure-track professor position. If you look at the CVs of some mostly recent faculty at X university, you'll often see that their first and/or second position were as Visiting Professors (if they didn't do some sort of PostDoc). I've heard it is advisable to apply for both tenure-track and visiting professor positions during the first few years after you are ABD or have the PhD. If it seems things aren't moving around January, start applying to PostDoc positions, followed by full-time lecturer positions a little later. Adjunct positions are often filled at the very last minute (I know people that landed an adjunct position the day before the class started). 
I've never encounter research or adjunct professors in the Humanities, but YMMV.

You might take a look in the city section; there’s one for Lawrence, KS. 

Big, public shout-outs to @CulturalCriminal, @a_sort_of_fractious_angel, and @Jožin z bažin for giving me several reading lists/theory ideas back when I accidentally hijacked the "What makes research compelling?" thread with my theory fears =P I'll likely try to start hitting theory on spring break (or at least tracking the books down). (Also, sorry to you guys for ghosting those PM threads; things got hectic IRL).
I've also got a huge stack of histories of Appalachia to work through right now, in preparation for early discussion of possible dissertation projects. I have my first school visit next week, and I'm ready to chat semi-intelligently with people who know way more than me.

You might take a look in the city section; there’s one for Lawrence, KS. 

I'm one of the waitlists. I got an email this morning. 
Hopefully no news today = an acceptance later this week? Best wishes!

Hi all, I somehow just discovered this forum today. I saw a number of people have been accepted into NYU's MA program-- have others gotten into their PhD program? After looking at these posts, I am assuming I'm not in, but figured I would ask anyway.
So far I have been admitted to UC Irvine, waitlisted at UT Austin, and waitlisted at Minnesota. Has anyone else been accepted to Irvine? I'm going for the admitted student weekend next week!!

@ everybody in this thread, imposter syndrome is normal. They've accepted you, they spent a great deal of time figuring out if you are ready. You're ready. Your cohorts might seem more impressive, but I guarantee that they're going through same thing (if they aren't, there's a good chance that they're in for a rude awakening).
 

I'm primarily interested in the 20th century--suburbia and sprawl, Asian-Americans, and confessional poetry. I'm starting out, but I am interested in performativity, disability studies with a focus on mental illness, religion, gender, and fandom. When it comes to the 21st century, I do have a focus on comics and graphic novels, as well as fandom. I do love Modern British Literature and Romantic poetry. Some of my favorites come from Japanese literature.
Yes, literary theory is also a weakness, so I'd like to take the Literary Theory and Aesthetics course. I wasn't an English major as an undergrad; I only took lots of English electives and two Comparative Literature electives. And since I'm from the Philippines, I'd love to immerse myself in postcolonial theory.