RaspyRay

Count me in

Emory: Feb 6-9 Duke: Feb 21-23 University of Alabama: February 28-March 2 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL): February 28-March 2 U Wisconsin-Madison: March 3-5 UC Santa Cruz: March 14-17 Vanderbilt: March 21-22 Rice University: March 21-23 UT Austin: March 28-30

Hi everyone. I will definitely be attending the visit days in March as well. I'm SO excited. UT Austin is the only program I have heard from so far, but it was a top choice so I'm not super stressing about my others atm. I focus on 20th century and contemporary Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean Lit, U.S. South, energy studies, disaster narratives (hurricanes, droughts, oil spills, etc), postcolonial and ecocrit. You all have fascinating interests, and I look forward to meeting everyone.

Lol I'm in at UT Austin too! Congrats to everyone. Will you all be attending the visit weekend? Hook'em ?

Hi all! Depending on the program, I'm either in a "literature and the environment" or colonial/postcolonial literature subfield. I'm into poco/eco, particularly in relation to 20th century Anglo/francophone literatures of West Africa, the Caribbean, and the US South. I'm coming from a Comp Lit M.A., but decided to apply to mostly English PhD programs.

In my opinion, you're totally fine. The website makes it pretty clear that all materials will be due on Monday, bc of the deadline falling on a weekend. Not sure how lenient they are beyond that, so I'm hoping my letter writers will get their letters in on Monday... I'm still waiting on two!

I echo the above comments about your discussion of coursework/high marks not being quite as relevant. I would look for a better way to weave in your past experience with what you want to do in the future. Is there, for example, a paper you wrote in one of these classes that sparked your interest in the subject? Perhaps in a way you want to explore further in your graduate work? I would try to use some concrete examples of work you've done in the past as a way of explaining your interests (past, present and future). A think a higher level of specificity would benefit your SoP. Also, I personally would avoid the more "anecdotal" approach in your opening paragraph. You only have a small amount of space so I would jump into the proposed area of research very quickly and not use valuable space in anything that's not directly and concretely related to your work. This is easier said than done, of course, because the opening paragraph needs to grab your reader's attention... I'm struggling with this too And, by the way, I've heard professors complain about students who apply to Ph.D. Programs in NYC simply because they want to live in the city. So I would err on the side of caution and avoid mentioning your interest in living in a different part of the country, etc. Focus more on the program itself- what do they have to offer you? What can you bring to them? If New York City has something very specific to offer (a museum, library or collection in particular), then mention it. If not, I would avoid sounding like someone who might just want the NYC life (you say New York, so I'm assuming you are referring to the city, but maybe I'm wrong). This is coming from someone who lives in Manhattan haha Good luck! Also, take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm very much wandering around in the dark with my SoP too.

I’m married with 2 young children as well, and applying to English PhD programs this Fall. I went back to school part time to do my Master’s when my son was barely one year old and my daughter two and half. It was a hard but rewarding experience. Balancing young kids with grad school (or a job, for that matter), is no joke. Unlike most of my fellow Master’s students, I do not have « freedom of movement » in searching for Phd programs. My husband’s job is in NYC, so I’m limited to applying to programs in this area. It has been a blessing in that I don’t have to research 100+ programs scattered all over the country, but difficult in that it severely narrows my « fit » options. I’m pretty much applying to every program within a reasonable commute that has at least 2 faculty members working in my area of interest, then crossing my fingers and hoping for the best! I’m trying not to beat myself up too much over the fact that a few of the programs that are the *best* fit for me are elsewhere...