MonsieurHonoré

Hi!
So, this is a little random, but just in case anyone who has experience with Oxford's MML DPhil sees this...
I completed the MPhil in ELAC at Cambridge and weirdly enough it was taught in English with only the relevant quotations in French. Even my thesis supervisor meetings were like this.
I was wondering if anyone could speak to their experience at Oxford, their interactions with their thesis supervisor, and if they had a similar experience as I did at Cambridge?  
Kind of curious about the differences in the approach to teaching, as coming from an undergraduate institution where everything in the French department was taught in French, it kind of threw me through a loop. (Though, if the point is research and not to teach you the language, I guess it kind of makes sense?)

@MonsieurHonoréThank you so much! This is definitely demystifies some aspects of the process that were less clear before. I appreciate that it seems to be a somewhat engaging, sensible opportunity to talk about why you want to do the PhD at that particular institution, which is a question that I don't think some folks (myself included) spend enough time considering in detail. Also lol at the idea of checking where your program "stacks up" - bold move on their part to ask someone that in an interview (what are you going to say, "this is my back-up program?").
I'll definitely keep some of these questions in mind as I continue to submit applications. 
 

@MonsieurHonoréthanks so much for this information! I will definitely take your advice about the unfunded masters programs, as I'm now looking only at PhD and one or two funded MA programs. I've spent more-or-less every day doing some kind of work to prepare and refine my application materials, so I'm hopeful that this will be a successful year (and if not, no big deal). 
One question I do have regards the interview process. I know that many programs will invite potential candidates for an interview if they feel that they might be viable. I'm curious, since you've gone through this process twice, what those interviews might be like and to what extent that gave you a clearer sense of if the program may be a good fit. I'm sure that this varies greatly, but any insight would be helpful.
Thanks again! 

Hi there! 
I’m not in French but a similar subject (linguistics) and one thing in this really stood out to me; making your decision based on which college’s funding package has the least teaching. You will, without a doubt, be more competitive for search committees in 5 years’ time with more teaching experience not less. I would strongly encourage you not to base any decisions on this. Research is naturally important in academia but building up a teaching portfolio and philosophy is also important and trying to avoid teaching isn’t going to help. Also, you likely will have to apply for non-tenure track positions as well as tenure-track (due to the state of the job market) at the end of the PhD which will have a stronger teaching focus than research focus. 
Ive known colleagues on my course who pursued fellowships religiously (4 out of 5 years of their PhD was on fellowships). They couldn’t get jobs because of lack of teaching experience. They’re now building up that experience in high schools (shudder) before they reapply in a couple of years. 
I hope this hasn’t come off as preachy but I just wanted to give you my $0.02 and hopefully it will make you decision-making easier. I have a friend at Brown and they love it!

Yes I was accepted to Brown!! But I will not attend the visit days because of visa and other issues ( haven't finished my job yet so not easy to take a few days off ... I'm sure though that we'll meet each other during the next few years (if in the end we are not both in Brown) if we both stick to early modern period! The POI at Penn told me that we are quite a minority and practically everyone knows everyone in the US ?
I love your research topics and I can see that Prof. Krause must be a perfect fit for you! I have a college friend majoring in English lit and she's also interested in the scientific representation in like Milton and other early modern English lit poets, but her focus is more on how scientific representation reflects and helps to construct the political ideology...
Enjoy your visit!
 

Hi everyone, thanks for starting this thread! I am an early modernist and interested in history of ideas. I was rejected by Yale with an interview which I did not do very well (but Yale is not really my target school so not very sad about that), by Chicago and UC Berkeley both with no interview... Was accepted by Wisconsin-Madison, the professors there are perfect fit for my interest, but one POI is retiring, and the funding is terrible, so declined their offer. For now I'm hesitating between U Penn, Brown and NYU while still waiting to hear back from Princeton (was notified for an onsite visit but wasn't able to come and talked to DGS and POI via skype), not sure if I will have a chance as my POI there seems to be more interested in history of books and technology  ...
Cannot agree more with @mllesaid so difficult to decide what to prioritize ... for me a friendly community and accessible supervision are quite crucial, so a little in doubt whether in NYC I can still get enough attention and build up strong connection with other students. U Penn has an exchange program with Geneva, so feel like have a chance to do my pilgrimage to the home of Starobinski and so on... but their department is quite small and seems that research options are limited. Brown has more research options and provides the best funding package, but one need to teach for four years and I'm told by my friends that teaching will take up too much time and becomes a big trouble during the ABD years. So quite torn as many of you!
 
 
 

Hey hey! @Coleslaw Thanks for posting this to our previous forum! Im not making any decisions until after my visits either, although I’m pretty certain as to where I want to go 

Hi Everyone! This was actually @xinyu_uynix's idea, but I agreed and wanted to hear folks' plans or opinions during the decision making process. I'm probably not the best one to start the conversation because I applied to a mixture of French, Comparative Literature, and Romance (French/Spanish) PhD programs. But I think this is true for a couple of others as well. So far I've been accepted and offered funding at Penn State Comparative Literature and U of Michigan French. I've been accepted with funding but no official funding package yet at Comp. Lit. UC Berkeley. I'm interviewing / doing a visit weekend for USC 's PhD in French and Francophone studies track of the Comparative Studies in Lit. and Culture. I was rejected after an interview with Yale French. I was rejected at Emory Comp Lit, and I still haven't heard responses from NYU Comp Lit, or Romance Languages and Literature at Harvard or Duke (though I suspect those are rejections). How is everyone feeling about the decision making? I'm not making any final choices until after my visits. 

Just got an e-mail from DGS, I’m in!

Anyone hear anything from NYU yet?? Counting down the seconds when I should be studying lol 

Yeah, they told me quite specifically at the end that they'd send out letters on Friday. I am curious to hear which aspects of NYU and which POIs appealed to you all, just in case our interests overlap?

Confirming that we would hear back from NYU on Friday...Bonne chance à tous ? 

Hi! I've been told the admissions committee at NYU would meet tomorrow, so we will probably hear back from them tomorrow afternoon or at the beginning of next week.

@Marcin 
Congrats on the acceptance to Boston!! 
Cornell has had an excellent placement record in the last several years, encourages its students to approach literary questions in novel ways (particularly through combining scientific subjects with the humanities), has an outstanding faculty with an exceptional school of criticism, offers the opportunity to serve on the editorial board of a journal that very famous theorists, including Judith Butler, have published in, and is very generous financially to its students. 
If you have a problem with it, or don’t like their program, then just don’t apply or go there, but the rest of us are all very honored and grateful to have been accepted for our own reasons. 
 

@Marcin 
Congrats on the acceptance to Boston!! 
Cornell has had an excellent placement record in the last several years, encourages its students to approach literary questions in novel ways (particularly through combining scientific subjects with the humanities), has an outstanding faculty with an exceptional school of criticism, offers the opportunity to serve on the editorial board of a journal that very famous theorists, including Judith Butler, have published in, and is very generous financially to its students. 
If you have a problem with it, or don’t like their program, then just don’t apply or go there, but the rest of us are all very honored and grateful to have been accepted for our own reasons. 
 

@MonsieurHonoré
Sounds like a tough decision indeed !
The good thing is you still have about 2 months to make a decision. Are you planning on visiting both universities ? I'm sure that'll help you decide where you see yourself spending the next 5 years  !
I know that where I live has a huge impact on how well I feel, so that's why I think I'll go to Cornell. If there are conferences I really want to go to I'll just make the trip, and since some are recorded I might not even have to ! I'd rather have the opportunity to be in nature really easily than have to drive 2 hours to do so.

@MonsieurHonoré I am right there with on coming from a rural background / having very conservative family. Perhaps we three will end up at Cornell? Il faut reprendre contact avec la nature ! 

@Robert_Kerans I just got my interview email from NYU now, so it looks like they aren’t finished sending notifications today 

Hi ! ?
I'm the one who posted about getting accepted at Brown. I got into Cornell as well. I think I'll choose Cornell - although I'm still waiting to see how the interviews and visit at Princeton go. Cornell and Brown's programs are both very appealing, and of course they're both great schools !
Regarding their programs, I think Cornell's has a more interdisciplinary approach and allows more exchanges with other departments (English, Comparative Studies). And since I have studied both anglophone lit and comp lit, it fits my interests better.
On a more personal note, I like Cornell's environment better than Brown's (I enjoy being in nature a lot). I also felt a better connection when talking to one of the professor at Cornell on Skype. I felt like my interview with Brown did not go well, I genuinely thought I would get rejected. It might just be because the skype meeting with Cornell was not an interview but a more informal discussion.
Why are you hesitating ?

I got one too!! Such a relief...! Congrats!

NYU has sent out a first round of interviews for Ph.D. in French Lit -- why do I get the impression that they are moving so much more slowly than the others...

@MonsieurHonoré That's very helpful -- thank you!! I'd also refer people to this comp lit thread. Page 26 has some particularly helpful tips:
 

@xinyu_uynix 
First and foremost, be able to talk about your research.
Second, I think that anyone with an interview should be prepared to talk about some sort of teaching experience ... mention anything if asked (tutoring, classroom, etc.). 
Also, make sure that you're able to reconcile any type of choices you have made ( especially if they involve diverging interests) ; for example, I intended on double majoring in a science and French in undergrad, and ended up dropping the second major to focus on my writing/French. I have been asked why I chose to do that several times, in many interviews. Be able to justify those choices and explain why you made them. This applies to your interests within literature as well - if you're interested in two literary traditions for example or two different movements, be able to form a link between the two and talk about it. 

French Lit is a different department, but we work closely with IFS and the visiting day should be the same for PhDs in either, so I would imagine French will be sending out interview requests in the next couple weeks.

congrats on all the good news!!
Yale is interviewing this week on Tuesday and Thursday. Not sure if there will be multiple rounds...
Now that we're in the final stretch, it would be really helpful if people could share interview questions that they found particularly challenging or unexpected, and how much of the interview was in French ??!!