Indecisive Poet

Just out of curiosity, I Wikipedia-d these two and it always seems to be a similar discouraging (for me) story – sure, Lupita's only professional credit was the MTV short but she had an undergraduate degree in theater, had been acting unprofessionally all her life, and first broke into the industry by working as a PA for several years. Rickman's story is similar. Of course I recognize that these are just two random examples you've pulled up but in my time digging for someone who can inspire me, I have yet to find anyone successful who didn't see a stage until 23, has no education in theater and no credits outside of university. This makes perfect sense and is really my concern. That isn't to say I wouldn't enjoy the program – I would love to do nothing but work my ass off acting for a couple years. But I could also do that on my own if I wanted to, so for me the purpose of the MFA would be to try to propel a mid-20s person who has a very limited background in theater into the screen acting world. And I don't know enough about the MFA or the industry to know if that would be worth it or not – it's like you say, would I be glad I had switched from my current grad school track in life to acting if I end up crashing and burning? Re: "just acting on the weekends" and "having" to teach – my feelings aren't a knock against either. If I stick with English, I'll 100% be a teacher either at university level or high school. My other (read: main) interest in life is writing, so my plan has always been teach to make ends meet until I can write full time and don't need the day job. Luckily, it just so happens that I love literature and enjoy teaching so I will be perfectly happy even if I go my whole life without being able to survive solely on my writing. But teaching theater for whatever reason doesn't interest me. The other key thing for me is that screen acting is what really interests me. I enjoy acting in the theater but I wouldn't want to do it as a career, I don't think. I'd rather be writing. So if this is where the MFA lands me – smaller, professional theaters – it's not that there's anything inherently wrong with them; it's just that that isn't my interest. I'd written out some other things but the post was getting overly long and I'm realizing that more than anything this just seems like a me problem, haha. My biggest concern right now is that I don't have the experience level required to get into an MFA program and while I can build that up over the next few years, I plan to apply to English PhD programs and creative writing MFA programs next year. It isn't realistic for me to apply to acting MFAs at the same time because the CV for that part of my life just isn't there yet. And if I get into a PhD program, I'll attend that for 6 years and that's acting kind of down the drain, I think! So all in all it's just an existential conundrum to think about... ?

To be very honest, I'm less interested in the training that comes with a degree in acting and more interested in the exposure and connections. I missed the boat on doing any kind of youth acting at all and on building up an acting CV, and I've always felt that by missing that boat I also missed out on the possibility of being "discovered" and by extension of being successful. The only reason I would do an MFA is because I don't think there's any other way to break into screen acting at age 24 with nothing but university theater experience – it's always seemed to me like the people who are able to find success in acting do so because they began acting at a very young age and had agents who were getting them high-profile auditions by age 16 (of course there are exceptions to this but it seems most of the exceptions just got exceptionally lucky by knowing someone or being stumbled upon). Acting is loads of fun and I'd love to continue doing it just for the thrill of it whether or not I found ~success~ (by which I guess I mean not needing a day job), but I wouldn't switch gears from English to acting and go get the MFA if I knew it would just lead to acting in local theater on the weekends or teaching drama. So I'm not sure if there's a path that's right for me here. I say this to a forum full of people who know much more about this than I do so – any thoughts? : )

Hi all, Next year I will be applying to both English PhD programs and MFA programs in fiction-writing. I have a concern about my applications for the latter: I only took a few creative writing classes as an undergrad and they were all with part-time lecturers rather than tenured faculty members (and my undergrad university has some very well-known writers on the faculty – kicking myself now for not taking advantage...). Two of these lecturers I had good relationships with but I don't believe the others would even remember who I was if I reached out to them, and I definitely didn't submit great work in their classes (I thought I had an interest in screenwriting at the time but as it turns out I am a terrible screenwriter and have since focused entirely on fiction and poetry). I'm in an English MA program now and creative writing is not a component. It seems my only option is to ask the two part-time lecturers for letters and an English professor, of which I have several good options. None of them, of course, are familiar with my creative work. Does anyone know how heavily LoRs are weighted in the MFA admissions process? I understand that the writing sample and the statement of purpose are the most significant components, but I am concerned that my lacking LoRs will nonetheless hurt my applications.

See you here next year for the 2020 cycle! One great thing about the extra time will be the chance to retake those tests if you can afford to. Fluke tests, harder questions than normal, etc happen to everyone and hopefully only once. I took a gap year after undergrad and it was 100% the right decision. I'll be taking another after my MA program ends this summer and applying to PhD programs next fall... I'm still trying to prep mentally for applying to (and working) jobs and being out of university again (by far the worst parts of gap year) but I'm confident it's the right decision for submitting my strongest apps and that it will be as fruitful as the last.

This was so helpful – thanks so much for sharing the info. I think you're completely right about needing to know 100% that it's what I'm interested in pursuing before I apply. At the moment I'm weighing a few different options and I think this next year (while I finish my MA in English) and the gap year after that will be super helpful in mulling things over and getting some more acting experience. Best of luck with your applications! Let us know if the audition coaching is worth it. Sounds...expensive ?

This is great information (and reassuring) – and thanks for the info you shared on the other thread as well. As of now, all I'd have would be school credits, so I think I'd need another year at least to get involved with some regional stuff and festivals if I were to seriously consider applying. Do you know anything about what's expected in the way of acting classes? I've read that while it's fine to not have an undergraduate degree in theater, it is expected that you've taken acting classes somewhere, even extra-university.

Bumping this topic as I'm in a similar position. Anyone have thoughts on this? @directeur's post says experience isn't as important as "dedication, a strong theatre background, and a clear desire to pursue a professional acting career" – but what are those things if not experience? My assumption is that by "dedication to acting as a career," programs aren't asking for an essay that says "I know I want to act" but are rather looking for an extensive and impressive resume.

Hi all, I'm dropping in from the English forum hoping someone here can humor me. I'm wondering if anyone might be able to shed light on what kind of experience is expected of applicants to MFA programs in Acting (i.e. when program websites say things like "we expect to see a demonstrated commitment to being an actor" on your resume). Do applicants normally have BFA Acting degrees? How many years of acting experience is expected and in what settings? Should applicants have taken many acting classes before, and are some kinds better than others? Another question I have: acting (especially for film) can be unlike other fields in that your age and the way you look matter very much in the hiring process (even if at degree level they do not). Is there a "normal" age to apply to MFA programs in acting? Is there ever anyone in MFA Acting programs not in their early 20s? These are just curiosities from someone who has done minimal serious acting but has been too afraid for many years to pursue it seriously because I sort of missed the boat. Didn't realize it was something I was very interested in until the end of undergrad, whereas if I had gotten into it as a teenager I would have been equipped to pursue it whole-heartedly. Do feel free to rip me apart if it's insane for someone who hasn't worked extensively in the industry and doesn't have ~connections~ to even consider this – but right now, I'm just interested in hearing about how all of this works.

I've read very successful statements that have done this. I think the trick is to do this in a way that comes across as necessary rather than as name-dropping, i.e. explaining how your work fits within a conversation that XYZ scholars are a part of or explaining how your work complicates Scholar Z's argument -- if those conversations really are central to your work. Certainly I think it is important to address how your work fits into your field, but you may find you don't need to mention particular scholars to do that. One way to do this organically is by mentioning them in the same place where you're discussing papers you've written, i.e. "In Professor X's class, I wrote a paper that drew on Scholar Z's [argument/idea], complicating it by arguing Y." Personally, this is what I would choose to do since it shows how critics have influenced your thinking rather than merely saying that they have. I've also read a successful statement that simply wrote "My work has been most influenced by X, Y, and Z" at the end of a paragraph without explaining it further. So my impression is that, like most things in the statement, there isn't a right or wrong way to do it.

I'm looking at Rice for next application cycle -- this is interesting! Do you think this is reason to edit the Rice SoP to not include the same things about fit, interests, etc. that are in the other statements? I'm thinking about advice I've received to not discuss in the SoP what's already obvious elsewhere in your application (ie grades, stuff on CV). Or do you think the space in the application portal is an area to expand on research interests mentioned but not gone into depth on in the SoP? It seems there would inevitably be overlap even in this case, though.

Stacy Klein, Larry Scanlon, and Sarah Novacich all focus entirely on medieval literature -- albeit not Norse or Old Irish ?

You might look into Rutgers if you haven't already -- though I can't recall anyone there who works on your specific interests, there are a few really great medievalists there and the focus tends to be on the Anglo-Saxon period rather than the usual 14th century authors. There has also been an abundance of courses offered in the medieval period in previous years.

Speaking from my own experience, the multiple-pass strategy worked very well for me. It was a great way to ensure I answered all the questions on passages I recognized. I took the ST twice and both times I did not have enough time to read and answer all the questions -- answering all the questions in order would likely not have gone as well for me. I think I went through and looked for familiar names and passages and answered those questions, then went through a second pass to answer one-off questions, and then went through a final pass for whatever was left. That said, my better score (which I'm happy with) was in the 83rd percentile. Maybe some folks who did better than I did can weigh in.

Applying to more schools since you have the time (and if you have the money) -- sounds like something I would definitely do if I were you!

Thanks, @a_sort_of_fractious_angel. I am leaning toward not using it. I wonder if your approach would work for me, though -- two of my recommenders have only known me for a month and I'm hoping to give them up until December to write their letters as we get to know each other better. I'm also planning to send in all my materials pretty close to the deadlines because I was only convinced to apply this year instead of next year a couple weeks ago and will be scrambling to get things done. Maybe I can just be up front with them about the number of emails they'll get and how I want to make that easier on them, and I can ask if they'd prefer to get started on the letters now or to submit them all at once in December.

Hi all, I haven't found a post about this more recent than 2012 and am looking for updated experiences. Did anyone who applied to 10+ programs use Interfolio and have success with it? Did those of you who did not use it find that it wasn't a problem to forgo it? I dread the idea of paying for yet another part of this process and it seems much easier to follow the website's instructions and put in my letter-writers' email addresses rather than navigate a third-party service that sounds complicated and inconsistent, not to mention email each of the programs and ask if they accept it. But -- I equally dread the idea of my letter-writers receiving 13 different emails requesting uploads. One of my letter-writers is British and unfamiliar with the US application process and he has never had to support so many applications for one student before. Another one of my letter-writers suggested Interfolio to me last year when I was applying to MA programs and seemed disappointed that the programs I was applying to didn't accept it. Thoughts?

Thanks, @WildeThing and @dangermouse! I know definitively that I wouldn't feel confident about my applications this fall and that I'd be treating it as a practice run rather than expecting to get an offer. I am also unsure of how helpful a practice run would really be for me because I've been researching programs, writing up statements that describe and re-examine my interests every couple of months (just for my own benefit) and thinking heavily about how I'll work on my papers for writing sample purposes, etc anyway. Essentially, regardless of whether I apply this fall I will still be prepping my applications for next year this whole year -- just over a very long timeline that ensures I'm spending about an hour or two a week on this rather than half of my week each week. The real benefit to applying this year, I think, would be that from my understanding, programs are open to different applicants depending on what they need from a given cycle or who's on the adcom. So theoretically, I could submit applications this year and be accepted because they happened to be open to a British Romantic/philosophy person this year, whereas next year I might be competing with Romanticists that fit better than I do and be denied even though my application is objectively stronger than this year's. So I guess what I need to ask myself is if it's worth spending my time and a few hundred dollars on this on the chance that that happens.

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?

My strong guess is that they will look at your WS and SoP (and EFL scores?) and as long as those are at the English level they're looking for, they won't care if your institution isn't English-speaking. I've seen grad student profiles with backgrounds at universities in Asia, Turkey, Scandinavia, and other European countries. I think as long as the letter makes clear in what capacity you worked together this won't be a problem. Was this person teaching you or advising you in some way? I am studying my MA at Edinburgh! I absolutely love the city (and the country) and am thrilled to be spending a year here. My program isn't funded, which was the right decision for me based on where I was coming from with my undergrad and my interests (and I worked full time through undergrad so I'm privileged enough to be able to leave the program with savings rather than debt). The lack of funding and the structure/ethos of PhD programs here keeps me from continuing in the UK, though -- I will also definitely be applying to all US-based PhD programs next year. I'm hoping my un-funded MA isn't a mark against me to adcoms but I've seen plenty of current grad student profiles with UK MAs so I'm not too worried.

Hi @lit-TARDIS - I will let Grad Cafe-ers much more seasoned than I address the majority of your queries. But I'd just like to reassure you that no program will look at where you've done your undergrad or MA and throw your application out. I've been reassured by faculty everywhere I've talked to (Rutgers included if that helps) that no one on adcoms cares where someone did their BA or their MA -- in those exact words. They will care very much about your SoP and WS, and they will also hope you've gotten a decent GPA and GRE score. Similarly, I think your LoR situation is fine. They are all tenured or tenure-track, correct? As long as the letters are good, I don't think they will care very much if they're from associate, emeritus, or full professors. FWIW, I have been looking through tons of program pages and browsing through current grad student portfolios, and many have done their undergrads at schools in the US I have never heard of and I've lived here my whole life. Your interests sound like they will be well placed in almost any department as those are all very popular areas to be studying right now. Again, I'll let others comment on this, but I would suggest drawing up books, articles, journals you enjoy or have used in your research and seeing where those scholars work, or reading through faculty pages generally to see whose specific work within cultural studies and your historical fields you think is exciting.

@SocialPsych18 -- thanks for elucidating that! I'm learning that something similar is the case for many of the programs I'm looking at and that I originally mentioned in this thread: the terminology used to describe funding isn't a sneaky way of making a program sound funded when it isn't; it's just safe language for the website to use about a program that is, in practice, funded.

Thanks, @renea! That's helpful to know and will be noted on my spreadsheet... Edit: I just took a look at my spreadsheet and I have $22k/year for 5 years written for FSU (based on the thread on here with funding packages). Does that sound incorrect to you? I know everyone's needs are very different, but I wouldn't have labeled $22k as a lower-end stipend so I wanted to double-check.

This. Is what comes to mind right now when I imagine myself reaching out to someone at a program. Thanks for the examples, and thank you for yours as well, @victoriansimpkins. I'm working on getting over the pressure I feel to do ALL the possible things because they've worked for some other people and to instead do what feels authentic for me. I imagine in a year's time when I've done more thorough research on the programs that really interest me, I'll either have unanswered (procedural) questions I know I need to reach out to a DGS about or I'll know I have no business contacting the department -- I've, at this point, been swayed against contacting professors to let them know I'm interested in working with them. I suppose an exception might be if a program's main appeal is one "dream" professor and I want to find out if they're even planning to take on new advisees. Unlikely since I know this is not a good reason to apply to a program anyway and I feel more comfortable applying to programs with wide-ranging but thorough support.

Great advice. A follow-up question: what kinds of things did you find it was helpful to reach out to DGSs about? I think I'm too early in the research process to know.

Thanks, @Warelin. And thanks to everyone for being so patient with all my questions lately! I've felt guilty for asking them all but I really don't have another community anything like this one where I can voice these questions and insecurities, so I was (and still am) incredibly excited when I discovered TGC. In this case, I wouldn't have known that attempting to learn a significant amount from and build a relationship with a faculty member only through office hours is really not an option. At any rate, I'm finding that I have fewer questions as I become more confident. I ended up decided to take one of the "less interesting" seminars with the professor with whom I'd really like to study. I will ask my GC if I can take his spring undergraduate seminar instead -- the more I look at the syllabus, the more I realize I will probably never see a seminar so in line with my interests again -- but I'm not hopeful about that working out, and I've now thought things through enough to be happy with taking his course in the fall and something else in the spring, and adding basic literary theory texts to my ever-growing independent reading list.