[2019 Applicants]

On 9/27/2018 at 11:20 AM, indecisivepoet said:

Hi everyone! Perhaps not the place to post this, but: I am just starting a 1-year MA program and my plan was to finish the program and apply next fall for the 2020 cycle. However, a faculty member at my program is encouraging me to apply to 3-4 programs this fall and re-apply to 10-13 next fall if I don't get in. He thinks it would be a valuable exercise to practice applying and that there's a possibility I could get in.

My problem is that while I've been compiling lots of research on programs and I know exactly what applications entail, I had planned to do everything over a 1-year timeline. So I don't have a firm list of programs, I haven't started on SoPs at all, and I don't have a WS to use (I would be rushing to finish a seminar paper I'm just starting now a month early and using this). I would have one strong LoR from an undergrad professor not in my field, one enthusiastic letter from this faculty member who is very supportive here but who I have only known for 2 weeks, and 1 letter from another faculty member here who will only have known me for a short time and whose class I hope to do well in and whom I hope to get to know but is less enthusiastic by nature (read: British).

My professor is pushing hard for me to do this this fall and thinks it would be good for me but I'm worried it would be a waste because I don't know my field or interests nearly well enough to write a strong SoP (I was planning to start SoPs 11 months from now after having written a dissertation) and I don't think my WS would be strong since I'll be writing it over about a month and a half and won't have much time to research or revise. I also won't have time to read the work of faculty members at programs I'm interested in; if anything, I'll have time for a quick skim of some articles or book chapters. I very much want to listen to his advice but I don't feel it's the right choice for me and I'm worried cramming PhD application work into the next 2 months will take away from time I could be spending getting to know my field and writing strong papers for my classes. He says it wouldn't be very much work to put together applications for 3 programs. I have been given advice from professors in the past that I have ignored because I thought I knew better and I have always regretted ignoring it.

Any thoughts?

this is basically what i did last year, and i don't necessarily regret it (i got a couple of offers and was shortlisted for funding at two UK universities, although didn't get it in the end) - but i do think it distracted me from the first term of my MA and made it a lot more stressful than it already was. if it were me, i think i'd devote myself fully to the MA and apply when you intended to - my research interests have changed so much throughout the MA and although i do think i would really enjoy carrying out the research project i wrote my personal statement around, i have SO many more interests and ideas and approaches coming out the other side of the MA. 

it sounds like it would stress you out more to work towards an application that will always feel 'incomplete', and not one you could throw your full confidence behind. that's just my perspective though and i think there is a good argument for giving it a go, so good luck for whatever you decide!

[2019 Applicants]

On 8/4/2018 at 9:52 PM, onerepublic96 said:

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... ?

absolutely! for me, it came down to wanting the extra teaching experience as the main driving factor - in a lot of UK universities, the availability for teaching is a lot less secure and very minimal. the funding is also another factor - so i applied this year and got accepted and shortlisted for funding at a few places, but fell at the very last hurdle, and i much prefer the transparency behind the american system. i'm still applying for a few places in the UK but i really like the US set-up and i think the additional years of the program is much more a pro than a con  

[2019 Applicants]

i'm finally taking the plunge and publicly announcing my phd application ambitions for this year!

i've just graduated with a distinction from oxford in an eighteenth century/romanticism masters; my interests broadly revolve around the interaction between the french revolution and the rise in expatriate writing, and the concept of girlhood and adolescence in  life-writing of the era, and i'm spending the summer doing a lot of reading in these areas to flesh out and refine my current research ideas. i'm also just about to move and start a new job so everything is very calm at the moment, as you can imagine!!

i'm an international applicant (from england) so am quite daunted by the sheer number and diversity of american schools, but i have a massive spreadsheet and am slowly but surely whittling down my choices - i'm aiming to apply to 5/6 schools in america, and then a couple in the uk as well.

GOOD LUCK to everyone on the thread, and if anyone ever wants to chat/scream/question mark about the application process, i am here for it.