Indecisive Poet

Good luck, everyone!!!! It's been a tough year and I hope that there is good news waiting for you all on the other side of it. I hope everyone has a restful holiday period in the meantime ❤️ ☃️

They will require both.

I could see it being helpful if you are planning to go into the digital humanities, but even then it is very far from necessary. I would not spend your time doing that. If you feel you have major gaps in your coursework record somewhere in the major fields of English literature (medieval, early modern, C18, C19, C20/contemporary, a general literary theory course) then you might audit a graduate course in that field to boost your CV/educational background. But as long as you have taken a range of classes in English already, I don't think that even that's necessary.

Ah, I see what you mean. My recommenders only wrote one generic letter anyway – I don't think writing a customised letter for each program was ever in the cards, and my understanding is that that is not something recommenders generally do, Interfolio or no Interfolio (though I could be wrong about that!). In any case, it didn't seem to hurt me.

I think most people choose not to use it but I don't see why it would be a 'red flag'. I used it last year because one of my recommenders hinted very strongly that it would be easier on her if I did. I applied to 14 total programs last year – looking back at my notes now, I can see that 8 of those programs accepted letters via Interfolio and 6 did not. This meant 7 total uploads for my recommenders instead of 14. I was admitted to 4 of the 8 Interfolio-compatible programs and 4 of the 6 programs that did not allow uploads via Interfolio. It costs about $40, I think, to subscribe to Interfolio for a year, and you get something like 50 letter uploads included in that subscription. I'm not sure it's something I would have done if my recommender hadn't pushed me to do it, but it can help your recommenders cut down on uploading time if you plan to apply to more than the usual 10 or so programs. Just double-check which programs do and don't take it first and make sure your letter-writers know they will have to do some uploads separately. Can I ask (out of curiosity) why you think interfolio is a red flag in academia?

Just want to say that this spreadsheet is a very big help – to many people, I think! It's a great comfort to know that many programs are planning to neither cut nor curtail admissions this year. Thanks for your hard work, @jadeisokay ?

Hey all, A friend of mine is applying to programs this year with interests in British modernism, the 20th-century novel, ecocriticism/ecofeminism, and new materialisms. I think he intends to apply primarily for the C20 novel + ecocriticism. Can anyone recommend programs strong in these areas? I know ... nothing about them ? I believe he is targeting primarily top-20 programs (US News rankings) but is open to programs in the top 30–50 if they have a placement record in his field. Your knowledge much appreciated!

I can't speak to your first question as it's not my field. But "GRE not required" means "GRE scores not accepted or taken into consideration" unless the website says "GRE optional but not required" or "GRE recommended/strongly recommended but not required." If it's optional or recommended, I would go ahead and submit your scores if you have a strong score. If it just says "not required," that means they won't look at any scores you send in, so don't waste your money.

Northwestern has updated their web page to say they are admitting as usual this year ?

Oof. I'm still kicking myself every other day for turning them down...

Several students defended their dissertations this summer (I'm not sure if that equates to graduating/leaving...?)

Can confirm. Exact number they are admitting is 5 (for comparison, last year they admitted 19) and they are not accepting anyone applying for a subfield other than Black studies. (There really should be an announcement on the admissions page saying that they are only accepting applications for Black studies this year but I suppose they have made this information so suggestive and difficult to find because people's wasted application fees will earn them tens of thousands of $$. Oh, the irony!).

Lol, note the "We continue to accept fall 2021 applications for the MA program in English" in bolded letters below the announcement. I think all the "insight" there is to be had here is that the MA program earns them money while the PhD program costs them money. I imagine that at NYU as elsewhere, the graduate student union is asking that the department use the money they would normally offer to new students to fund them for extra years instead.

I've also just seen this – I would really give it much more time before you determine these people to be unresponsive!

I'd be really, really wary of turning down a program with a higher stipend and a better teaching load for one that seems friendlier at the outset – especially because we're in the middle of a pandemic that has meant that academics have very little time to devote to anything but 6,000 Zoom meetings a day and all of the troubleshooting that comes with doing online what really shouldn't be done online. I know that your experience with this friendlier program has probably made them feel like more of a known entity, but so much of this is marketing/recruiting and the fact that the other program has been less responsive really doesn't say anything substantial about that program (if you think it does, fair enough, but what does it say that this program asks its students to do more work for less money? Surely that reflects on its supportiveness and whether or not the program is welcoming, too?). Once you're at a program, living there, what will matter is what your daily life is like and how that impacts the work you will do. 6 months in or 3 years in, you probably won't remember how nice the faculty was over email when you were accepted. Is there a significant difference in ranking between the two programs? How strong are the departments in rhet/comp? Are the faculty members you'd be working with well known in your field? Which location do you prefer? Maybe you haven't mentioned these things because they're about equal at both programs, but all of those factors, + stipend and teaching load, would weigh much more heavily on my decision than initial emails would. That said, it sounds like you want the friendlier program to be the right choice, and there's absolutely something to be said for going with your instincts/feelings. You'll choose the program that's right for you! ?