mariaem

I do have the writing sample and am working on my SOPs—I was basically just stumped by how much work experience matters on the CV, since I’ve only made resumes before. (I promise I’m not spending all my time worrying about this LOL.) Thank you for the advice!

Hi! I posted a few weeks back asking for program recommendations (English Lit MA/some English PhD), and now that I'm in the process of working on applications, I was hoping for a few tips on crafting a good CV. A lot of advice I'm finding online for creating grad school CVs is either a little too generic or a little too specific (i.e., for MBAs), so I was hoping for some tips from people who actually have experience making English-specific ones. I particularly have questions about including employment history. I basically have held three different jobs since 2013 (admin assistant, office assistant, then most recently writing tutor), and am at the moment doing contract work. I have volunteering and nonprofit fundraising experience mixed in with that as well, and my admin and office assistant jobs overlapped a bit towards the end of the former as they were both part time. Again, I'm applying to English Literature Masters programs. Should I focus primarily on my academic achievements--honors societies, papers presented, honors seminars--and just list the tutoring and one of my assistant jobs, since this is a CV and not a resume? Should I even bother including a section for contract work (which has basically been proofreading, my job search has been...stressful), since it's not like it's full-time or anything like that? Does contract work look bad even if it's alongside volunteering? Would a weird gap between when I graduated/my campus tutoring job ended and when I submit my application look worse? And one last very specific question: shortly after I graduated I signed up to audit a few free online English classes through Harvard, because it seemed fun and I missed school. I didn't pay the fee for an official certificate (too expensive!), so it basically was just reading along with the course syllabus and looking at discussion questions. Is this worth including? I can't tell whether it looks more like dedication or plain and simple padding, haha. Thanks in advance!

yeah, makes sense! (I didn’t really bother with the distinction in the OG post because I was hoping for a wide range of suggested programs)

Hi! Very recent college graduate here currently applying to English Masters and/or PhD programs for Fall 2020 (originally planned on applying last fall, but my courseload and general lack of money made it a little difficult, so I waited a year). I have my B.A. in English, minor in Writing, overall GPA of 3.588 (GPA in major is about the same, I'll have to check, but it's at least 3.5), was in top % of seniors of my major, graduated Cum Laude, plenty of extracurriculars/honor societies/etc. My (December 2018) GRE score for verbal was 159, which isn't too hot, but I was in the higher end of the 80th percentile. I also have two rec letters basically ready to go and the third in the works. All of which I'm very sure will be positive/enthusiastic, haha. I'm also currently working on spiffing up my writing sample and drafting my personal statement(s). My general preferred area of study is 18th/19th century British Literature; particularly, I'm interested in Romantic and Victorian literature; even more particularly, a lot of my undergraduate work focused on queerness and womanhood within those eras of literature, especially in the Gothic, but that's not necessarily a big "must" for me for grad programs to offer resources in. I would really, really appreciate any suggestions for English MA or PhD programs that both a) are a good fit for my interests and b) I could reasonably be seriously considered for! I have a few programs in mind already and have been working on my applications, but I'm basically just worried about selling myself too short or severely overestimating my chances of getting in somewhere and wasting my time. Thanks in advance!!!