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Any other 2024 English lit. applicants out there? I was waiting for someone else to start a thread but I guess I'll do the honors. I've applied to 11/12 of my programs at this point, going to finish the last app. in the next couple of days.
 
I've been lurking this forum off and on for about 5 years and this is the most dead I think it's ever been. 

Hello, all! I wanted to start a thread for those of us applying in this application season. We're in the midst of app deadlines now! How is everyone feeling?

Hello all,
I am applying to PhD programs this winter and I could really use some more example statements of purpose to guide my revision. Can anyone who has been through this process recently share their successful (i.e. got into a program) SoP via DM? Specifically interested in people who entered their PhD program with an MA, which is the situation I'm in.

I would ask your professors about which schools they recommend, especially professors in your desired research field. They'll know best. 
I didn't know that in undergrad, so what I actually did was look through the top 100 English graduate programs in the U.S. from usnews.com. Then I looked through every single one of the programs' faculty to see which ones had faculty in my field. I then tried to see how many instructors were in my field at that university. You'll want at least two to three in your field at the university, and be careful because sometimes they could be retiring soon. Once I had the programs on my list, I extensively researched the professors I was interested in working with by looking at their scholarship. From there, I was able to narrow down my list even further. 

Thanks a lot to you both for the wisdom and perspective. Definitely have some things to keep in mind going forward.
 
On the note about sub-discipline reputation @jrockford27, that is definitely something I struggle to put into perspective when looking at grad programs. There aren't a whole lot of names I recognize, so there are only a couple of schools that I can easily identify as being of good repute in a given sub-discipline. Besides searching this forum, (which has been helpful so far) and flipping through a lot of journals, do you have any favorite methods for estimating this from the outside?

So the entire process is overwhelming and it will continue to feel that way until you're accepted into a program. This is especially difficult when you're still getting your B.A. If your grades don't reflect your abilities, mention that in your statement of purpose and have stellar recommendations to support that. Most programs aren't going to cut you for mediocre GPAs; they typically look at applicants holistically. I don't think any of us can tell you what programs to consider because it all depends on your research interests, your geographical preferences, and your finances. I'm, of course, not asking you to share any of this--especially finances--because it takes a while to figure out. I would look through the other forums in Literature, Rhetoric, and Composition to see what others are saying, too. 
I'm not an expert in the least, but if you have any questions, I could try to help if you dm me. 

A few things.
1.  Your in major GPA isn't bad.  People have gotten accepted to good programs with worse, I'm sure.  In any case, GPA doesn't even really rate in the top three most important aspects of an application. While you correctly cite that this board is filled with people who have 3.9 or even 4.0 GPAs, some of those folks get shut out (for example, I had a 4.0 and I was totally shut out my first time around).
2. You should consider all schools that genuinely interest you after thoroughly researching the subject (this number should be between 8 and 13).  There are people doing absolutely fascinating work at schools who aren't household names.  Off the top of my head, none of the major citations in my dissertation work at "Ivy/Ivy Equivalent" schools.  If you are casting a truly wide net, and really being diligent about picking schools that are a good fit, your list will likely contain a healthy mix of schools whose names will impress your aunts and uncles, and schools whose names contain "State" or at least are named after states. As you are likely to learn, the academic job market is largely a crap shoot, and a scholar's level of brilliance does not necessarily correlate with the prestige of their workplace.
3. Relatedly to #2, If your goal is to be a university literature professor, that should be the uncertainty that really terrifies you! However, specific prestige of school - I think - matters less in getting a job, than who your advisor is and whether you can make the case that your dissertation is compelling through your cover letter and a strong publication. People in the field are aware for example, that some schools lack a general prestige but have excellent reputations in sub-disciplines. This is not always apparent to outsiders or undergrads, but is (naturally) common knowledge within sub-disciplines. I attend an English program that is top 40 on USNews but well regarded in a pair of subdisciplines that don't get ranked, we've recently placed people at Stanford, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Cornell, among others.
4. Nothing is likely to cut down on uncertainty. I can honestly say that applying to graduate school was one of the top three most anxiety inducing and miserable experiences of my life. I spent most of that time attempting to struggle against uncertainty, the best thing is to find some way to embrace it.
5. One way to embrace the uncertainty is to realize that you have almost no control over the most important aspects of the application process (the makeup of the committee, their current needs/desires, the composition of graduate students already attending, and the pool of other applicants) and that your admissions results have nothing to do with your level of brilliance or worth as a human being (I say this because I wish somebody had been there to tell me this when my shiny 4.0 failed to secure me any admissions my first time around).
6.  Contained in all of this, is that the most important thing is to think really hard about the schools you apply to, cast aside all biases and preconceptions about the names of schools and the rankings of their department. If your list only contains "Ivy or Ivy equivalent," go back to the drawing board and look harder.