CanadianEnglish

Hello fellow Canadian!

This might be a naive question but does anyone know if graduate TA/RA stipends differ significantly among departments? On the Google Excel Sheet provided (thank you so much @Warelin it has been a lifesaver), it states that the stipend for PhD English at UNC Chapel Hill is $16,000 but I was speaking to my friend at UNC who is a doctoral student in Chemistry and they said their stipend was much higher than that. If all graduate students are part of the graduate college, shouldn't our stipends be the same? I know the humanities have a much lower budget than STEM fields, but damn. I understand that there might be differences in stipends between being a Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Teacher of Record etc. so that might play a role. I don't mean to undermine any department, academic field, or teaching responsibility - I am mainly curious in how the logistics work.

Officially submitted all of my applications with all letters of rec being submitted as well! WOO! But real talk, what am I supposed to do now? Refresh my email every 15 seconds until mid-March? Work on my thesis? Be a productive citizen? It all sounds terrible. Hope everyone's applications and final weeks of school are going well!

To answer your question @karamazov about gift ideas, I gave my letters of rec writers something from my hometown. I'm a Canadian going to school in the States, so just getting a small jar of maple syrup was a safe bet (who doesn't love syrup?!). I was also thinking of getting them something that involved my literature interests, but sadly I am in Iowa and do not have the means to go get presents in the Caribbean... maybe later in life I'll get to it. Just submitted my first application of the season! WOO! (I am hyperventilating as I write this) 1 down, 6 more to go. ? Hope everyone is having a great application season so far!

Nice to meet you too! I am so happy to hear that multiple people have similar interest! Thank you for your kind words! I'm excited to see where we'll all end up. I'm so nervous about hearing back - and I haven't even applied to the programs yet. The steady incline to insanity during application season is starting already. I wrote the first draft of the first chapter last fall and it's finally ready to be in writing sample shape. Yeah I'm a little worried about my WS since it doesn't have that much poco theory and criticism to it since it's mostly gender and sexuality based. But we'll see how it goes! Good luck on getting the 'fit' right! I'm sure it'll be fabulous

Hello! Excited to meet people with the same interest! I'm still working on it since it doesn’t have to be finished until May when I graduate, but I’m using my first chapter for my writing sample.

Hello, Just wanted to tag in here and say that I am also an international applicant with an interest in Caribbean, transnational, and postcolonial lit!

I'm using Kaplan GRE prep books and they seem to be doing the trick. I took the GRE before without really studying for it and my scores were HORRENDOUS. I've taken 2 practice tests so far and my scores are already higher than my previous test. I also like notecards for the vocab, and testing myself when I'm just riding the bus or watching TV. I know that people say you shouldn't take it again and it's not a major factor in our application etc. etc. etc., but my scores are much too low for the schools that I'm applying for. Just want to be as confident as can be when submitting all my materials.

Hello! I'm so excited to start applying for PhD programs this fall! I am currently working on my WS which is a chapter for my MA thesis. Taking the GRE (again) at the end of August, and working on my SOP towards the end of summer. My plan is to have all my application materials ready to go by September. I did everything last minute for my MA applications and it was horrendous. Never doing that again. Applying to about 8-10 schools. 5 of those schools are set, but I go back and forth between 10 other ones, so we will see what the final line-up is. Little about me: I'm a postcolonialist, specifically Caribbean and Latin American. Currently writing my thesis on female narratives under Latin American dictatorships in the late 20th century. Also love Canadian and American settlement literature, 20th century American, and YA (when I'm not reading for school). To answer the question about speaking to professors: I've emailed 2 of my POI, but to ask questions about their work that I'm using for my thesis. I do not have anyone in my program that could answer some specific questions for me, so I found it useful to reach out to the authors I'm reading. I didn't mention anything about applying to their schools (unless prompted), but they might remember me when my application comes rolling in. Excited for the process to start!

Hello everyone, I am applying for PhD programs in English Literature for Fall 2020 and I'm getting stuck on where to apply. I have a multitude of scholars that I absolutely love and have followed for some time, but there's a problem - they're all retired. Is there a way to find other scholars who have worked under other scholars? Trying to find people who worked under Jean Franco, Sandra Pouchet Paquet, and Homi Bhabha to name a few. Has anyone else had this problem in the past? I focus mostly on Latin American and Caribbean lit, with a special focus in postcolonial and transnational if that helps at all. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! Thanks!

Accepted to University of British Columbia! I’m so excited I have offers to choose from but they all have their plus and minuses and I am so gosh darn stressed out about choosing which one!

In at UBC for MA!

So glad this thread exists! Has helped a lot! I’m currently only applying to MA programs, as I didn’t think I was quite ready to jump into a straight PhD program (or good enough for that matter). I have 2 really great offers so far, Iowa State and N.C. State, and I’m having a tough time deciding (also pretty sure i will get rejected from the other schools I haven’t heard from yet). All the signs point to Iowa State in terms of location, funding, department support, overall good vibes etc. BUT there’s no one in the faculty that specializes in what I’m interested in. I’m postocolonial, and although there’s profs who dabble in power literature, environmental literature, racial theory etc, there’s no poco prof like there was at my BA. So for MA programs, is it completely necessary to have a professor who has the same, or very similar interest to yours? That’s mostly the reason that’s holding me back to commit to anything right now

I emailed the DGS to know the status of my application. She sent me an email saying that I was accepted with funding, but no "formal" offer yet. But I do have a phone call with her tonight! From the sounds of her email, it seemed as though they were sending out other acceptances (MA particularly) this week.

Got into Iowa State!!!

I contacted the DGS for UBC and they replied: "I'm in the midst of contacting applicants now: you should hear from me next week". So I don't know if that means that they updated all their accepted applicants now and I'm being rejected next week or what... But at least I'll hear either way by next week! Good luck everyone!

Congrats! If you don't mind me asking, did you apply for the PhD or MA program? Kentucky is my top choice so I'm going to be a nervous wreck for the next couple days!

Thanks! I submitted mine a week before the application was due. But I'm also an international student, so my acceptance also came with a "Hey congrats, but also fill out this finance sheet and international visa application so we know you can actually come here and be able to afford it" type of thing. So they might have sent out the international students admissions first, and then they move on to domestic? Good luck and I hope you hear from them soon!

Got into North Carolina State!!!! WOOOOOO

I am starting to get really worried. I've only received one acceptance so far, and that's the only communication I've heard from any school. Four of my schools have contacted others of their acceptance so far (Penn state, Iowa state, Oregon state, NC State) and I haven't received any info. Do schools send their rejections so much later than the acceptances?

My UBC portal says "Submitted" at first, and then when I click "Manage" it shows that my status is "In Progress". Sometimes you kind of have to dig around the application portal to find another status other than submitted!

Ugh right?! Very cruel indeed. I'm starting to get angry at myself for not applying to schools who notify earlier, that's how crazy I'm getting. Two of my schools' applications aren't even due until tomorrow! ahhh

I don't know if this has been discussed or not, but do you guys know if schools send out the waitlist at the same-ish time as the acceptances? I know rejections can some sooner, or much later and it's usually all over the map for school, but what about waitlists? Also, congrats on all the acceptances today! Hopefully, the rest of the week goes well for everyone!

I honestly don't know... I didn't look too much into UofM funding because I get tuition reimbursement for any program in Manitoba since I'm an indigenous person of Canada and my tribe is located in MB. But I do know that they offer scholarships and fellowships to students. TAships mostly go to PhD students

Just heard from U of Manitoba! Accepted!