wreckofthehope

In my current program, I don't feel like I have particularly close relationships with faculty. The prevailing attitude in the department seems to be that relationships should be kept professional. I've eaten dinner at people's houses, gone out for meals with faculty etc but I'd say these all happen within what's understood as a faculty/student, mentor/mentee relationship rather than a personal relationship. I'm not sure if that will change the longer I am here, and the longer I spend working with particularly faculty (presumably it will change to some extent). At my MA institution, faculty and students had genuine friendships that were, and are, maintained outside of any academic reasons they may have had for getting to know each other in the first place. The school treated its graduate students very much like junior academics, though; and there were alcohol-laden talks and presentations weekly within the department that facilitated people getting to know each other better.Faculty and students socialized a lot outside of any formal academic set-up. I think this partly had to do with the location of the school which is in the countryside, near a small village with little going on socially. It seems fairly natural, in this situation, that, with a small and sleepy social scene on your doorstep, you're more likely to end up relying on the university for your social life, and these faculty/student relationships are the result of that. What do you mean by 'solicitous'? I've shared plenty of wine and meals with faculty in my old department, including with faculty of the opposite sex, and I've never felt that there was anything 'weird' or 'confusing' about the interaction...

I think that's how it worked when I applied - the app is fairly perfunctory; then, when you've submitted, you get your RU-ID and can upload everything else. At least that's how I remember it.... (this was from a few years ago, though)

I do this ALL the time, which is probably why I noticed it! I've seen profs do it, too, in American culture-based classes... it's some weird thing with film, it's filed as "American" in many people's brains it seems (especially action/SF film).

Yeah, Rabid would be great (but I know what you mean about the off-puttingness) - also, I guess it's Canadian, but (sorry Canadians) that doesn't seem as much of a stretch to me . The Andromeda Strain, or Outbreak maybe too?

Not always... Antecedent is mostly correct, but there are a couple of things that are different depending on which uni/where you are in the UK etc. So... an M.A. is what most UK universities offer as a Master's degree in an arts or humanities subject. In Scotland, there isn't really a B.A. degree: they do an M.A. as their first degree. So, in most Scottish universities, like antecedent said, they need o find other names for the degree that is equivalent to an M.A. degree in most of the rest of the U.K. - different uni's do different things but the majority usually go with MSt (Master of Studies), some social sciencey humanities courses will go with MSc (Master of Science). Likewise, at Oxford undergraduates can convert their B.A. into an M.A. without further study, so for their Master's degrees they mostly use MSt. At Cambridge they do the same thing, except they call theirs MPhils. The Cambridge MPhil is just a normal M.A., but an MPhil at pretty much every other university is, like antecedent said, a more research heavy degree and usually directly tied into a doctorate. Because at many places an MPhil would be the degree you got if you didn't manage to complete your doctorate, it is sometimes viewed in those terms...but a Cambridge MPhil probably wouldn't be (at least in UK academia, since people are more likely to know that it's just a normal M.A.). The MRes is a research Master's... I definitely wouldn't pay international fees to do one... you get almost no supervision or teaching and are left pretty much on your own.

possibly the first time someone's called me that. Just poking a little fun; nothing to get upset about.

I can't believe any of you are considering applying to Duke or Chicago; I mean they're not even in the top twenty on the student outcomes ranking. Are you just planning to do this Ph.D for the shits and giggles? I'm genuinely interested to know, I just can't grasp the mindset of someone who would do that.

Goddammit smilax, I've reached my quota of positive votes for the day. Have three smileys instead:

Oh the LOLZ.

Which I think just about sums up why we're talking at cross purposes. My dream is not to be an academic superstar. I think that would be a fairly hideous life. My dream is to land a stable TT job at a university that's in a place I'd be happy to live for a long time (if it's a completely unknown regional college, I don't mind), where I can teach undergrads and pursue my own research at a pace that doesn't preclude me from being happy in my home life. That dream is not a mediocre approximation of my *hidden* desire to be a superstar, that's my actual dream. It would be so great if I got it; I'll probably have to compromise on some part of it, but that's OK with me too.

Do you honestly think those of us on this board are not aware of that? You make some good points...yes, you probably don't know exactly what direction your work will go in once you're in a program etc etc. All things considered, yes, you're more likely to be better off going to the higher ranked of your offers. But you're bulldozing over the nuances of each person's situation. Would I really be better off going to a school whose department culture and prevailing critical attitude is completely at odds with the way I work, just because it's ranked number 8 on the US News list rather going to a school ranked 35, where my approach would be supported and I would be happy doing the work I want to do?? Never mind the fact that I'm less likely to be accepted by the first school any way. The attitude you have seems to be prevalent at the top schools; it feels a little bit like self justification and reassurance to me. There are lower ranked programs that place extremely well...if that threatens your sense of entitlement, there's not much we can do about that. Choosing where to apply is a personal decision predicated on a whole raft of things, aside from ranking, that you clearly don't understand. I'm not denying that ranking and the general perceived prestige of your department is important - of course it is - and, yes, it has a large impact on your likelihood of getting a job, but there are many other factors that contribute to the kind of scholar you're going to be (and therefore to the kind of jobs you'll be competitive for) and it is important to consider all of them when you're choosing where to apply. There are even those of us who, god forbid, are bound to certain locations or types of location, those of us with families or other commitments that might affect where we apply.

Yeah, but not TT staff.

Take a look at the MLA jobs report... Depending on your specialism, though, you may well be competitive for some English jobs too.

Mine rises between $500 and $1000 a year. Although I was assured of five years funding and was told it would rise each year (not in writing), the formal practice of the university is to award funding each year. So, each year I get a letter saying "for the year 201x to 201x you have been awarded X amount of funding." So, no, at my school they don't formally give you a letter saying this is your funding package and it will get this much bigger each year.

This is interesting: Poli Sci departments ranked by placement.

I attend a school outside of the top 30 (US News English rankings, that is, which I am assuming is the reference point here - although we do better on the NRC rankings). I am certain that, had I attended Harvard, I would be able to be much more optimistic about the likelihood of landing a coveted R1 TT job. As it stands, though, I didn't get in to Harvard but I'm hardly hanging my head in despair. My department has a good placement record: around 65% of grads in TT jobs three years after graduating. I crunched the numbers before I accepted my offer because I wanted to make sure that I was making an acceptably mad decision, rather than a completely insane one. The jobs people from my department get are usually at small liberal arts colleges, regional four year universities and the occasional R1. I am completely comfortable with ANY of those being the outcome; in fact, I would be completely comfortable teaching at a CC (though I would prefer to teach at a four year college). In that sense, choosing my school doesn't seem like a terrible gamble to me. In addition, my school is strong in my sub-discipline and I work closely with a number of faculty here that are famous in their field, the students that these faculty members have advised and mentored have generally done very well on the market, another reason why I, personally, feel pretty comfortable about my TT chances, slim as they are (slim as they are for most of us). Without a doubt, HYP (+ Berkeley, Stanford, and a few other schools) peeps have a great advantage on the market; that doesn't mean that the rest of us are completely without a chance. Take a glance at faculty lists from smaller colleges, regional universities etc - their rosters are certainly not filled with HYP grads (although there are always a few, at least). If you can't imagine working at one of these places, I'd say it is you who is disconnected from reality. This is where most people, even HYP grads, are going to end up. Now, caw_caw_caw: you're in Comp Lit, which is a lot less competitive numbers wise at the application stage, it also has many fewer schools to choose from. So, when you're comparing a 30th ranked Comp Lit school with a 30th ranked English school, the scale is not the same. 30th ranked for Comp Lit is in the last 25% of ranked programs; whereas 30th ranked for English is somewhere near the top 25% of ranked programs. You're much more likely to be able to get in to HYP, purely on a numbers basis, than we in English are. You're also facing an even tougher job market than we are. So, in your case, I can see both why HYP and the likes seem more within reach and more essential. Good luck, I hope your season goes well.

Both 28 Days Later and Children of Men are British films (the latter based on a British book)... would something like that recent movie Contagion be better? This sounds like such a cool class! Something that comes to mind is Charles Burn's Black Hole comics - they deal with a sexually transmitted disease that causes teenagers in a suburb/town to develop visible mutations.

I had hoped not to have to change the conventions I was already using when I arrived here, but I received comments on my papers repeatedly about using British quotation punctuation (when using a consistently 'British' style). So I've tried to switch; unfortunately, that has just meant that I've ended up a bit mixed up and my papers take extra editing (and yet I still miss some inconsistencies). I wonder if my using the majority ize endings made professors think I was using American spelling conventions when I wasn't - hence them possibly thinking that I was being inconsistent? hmmn, maybe I was wrong there.. maybe it's Greek? Anyway, I just know there are some words that should NEVER have a z - and it's hard for me to write them that way (analyse is my particular bugbear, since it comes up a lot in a grad school setting ). I am trying to switch to fully American conventions, though. I'll be teaching writing next year so I feel like a need to have a solid grasp of American style before then. I think it might be easier to stick to British conventions if you are in a science program(me ), but being expected to teach writing means that you probably need to make an effort to re-wire your brain a bit, which wasn't something I'd really considered before I got here.

My experience as a Brit at school in the States is: people REALLY hate it when you use British quotation punctuation...personally, I really dislike the punctuation within quotes rule as I think it can do violence to the text occasionally - but I'm learning to use it because I frequently get comments on my papers about my disregard for the rules (from people who obviously know that I am English). I often don't catch my British punctuation when editing, as it doesn't look wrong to me - which can lead to sloppy-looking work- so if you are going to change it you need to have someone else check it for you. The spelling differences don't seem to cause such a problem - and I have always preferred a majority of ize endings anyway, so that makes things easier - I use the slightly more traditional (older?) British spelling rules (ize for latin roots, ise/yse for French roots; colour/honour etc). Spelling almost never elicits a comment from my professors, whereas punctuation almost invariably does.

You'd be a great candidate for one of the more interdisciplinary literature programs out there: Duke Lit, UCSC Lit, Berkeley Rhetoric - so you might want to look into those. While they would probably be a nice fit for a philosophy and literature oriented person, they are by no means the only programs that would be happy to have someone working at the crossroads of disciplines and I wouldn't let your philosophy background stop you from applying to English programs at top tier schools. One thing to consider is how much English coursework you did as an undergrad, as that may factor in to whether or not schools consider you prepared enough. It would also help to do well on the English Literature GRE subject test as a good score might help convince an adcom that you have the basic knowledge required. Rankings don't tell you much about where you'll stand the best chance - you need to look for programs that best fit your interests. A couple that I can think of, off the top of my head, that might fit your interests are: WUSTL (Steven Meyer) and probably Duke Lit.

I'd also say that as a research university, and globally, Nottingham tends to be better known and more highly thought of than Glasgow. Nottingham has a big name in Asia which might be a boon when you graduate, even if it is less well known in the US. The other thing is this: while I think the name recognition thing can cause problems, I think the more important thing to consider is that if you are doing your PhD in the UK but want to work in the US, you are going to lack some of the essential training and skills that US jobs are looking for... I suspect that is the real reason that people from UK uni's aren't well represented in US academia (rather than people not knowing their universities). You finish in three years and do very little teaching, if any at all; you don't have time to publish well; you do no coursework and you don't build up a contact network in the US system. Since you are competing for jobs with US-trained PhD's who do have these things, you are at a disadvantage. If you went to Nottingham, say, but worked very hard to alleviate some of these issues then I think you would be at a bit less of a disadvantage coming back to the States.

The ACLA is having their conference in Toronto next year... which struck me as possibly a political move, intended to signify support for Comp Lit there from elsewhere. I got the sense that the big backlash against the decision to close Comp Lit made a fairly decisive impact... but who knows with budgets what they are.

Brighton is your best bet. The Cleveland Circle area particularly as it is right at the junction of three trolley lines...it's fairly reasonable rent-wise. Brighton Center is really nice, and more neighbourhoody, but over that side the only trolley line you're really close to is the B line, which is notoriously slow for getting into town on. There is an express bus, though, that goes from Brighton Center and Oak Sq so, if you were happy with that as a transit option, then I'd say definitely look into Brighton Center and the streets on the north side of Comm Ave around Chestnut Hill Ave. Brookline (around Washington Sq/ anywhere off Beacon St as well as Brookline Village) is also an option: it has great transport and is a really nice area but will be significantly more expensive.

Kansas has the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction.

Brandeis?