Let'sGetMetaPhysical

in my sig, minus three TBD....

Thanks, I'm trying to develop my early modern work by revising my sources to where they're more recent, i.e., within the last 10-30 years instead to 20-50...or 60...or 75. Wish I would have paid more attention to research when I was actually writing those in the first place. I noticed that the papers I used more recent sources on were the American Lit papers so I'm developing those as well in case my interests change.

UVa I would loooove but I can't afford to pay for an MA there. Doesn't mean I can't study up on what they've been doing up there though, thanks. UNC is another dream school for me (my advisor's school) but I don't believe I have the credentials or a narrow enough focus to get into a PhD program right now Ole Miss will most likely get an application with my name on it, but my interests would be split in three at that school. -3.4 cumulative GPA, ~3.8 English classes, taking the GRE this fall, and I have a portfolio of papers that I've been revising/researching with: one Shax, one Orlando Furioso reading, an essay sketching the influence of John Donne on Tom Carew, a Keats work on repeated themes in some of his shorter works, a Warren-Faulkner gloss, and an O'Connor essay on "A Good Man is Hard to Find." These are all ~10-12 pages, so I'm trying to make them really tight but also trying to hit that magic 15 page mark. What's the deal with that **** number anyway? Sorry, long night. Wow WUSTL seems like a great school! I liked it at a glance, I'll check it out after this weekend's recovery. It sucks they don't have an MA-only program but I guess that's becoming more and more common these days...

Any enthusiasts out there? I'm just finishing up a three-week course on the short story, following a semester of Southern Lit and am slowly being pulled into the works of Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, and Flannery O'Connor, among many others. I could definitely see it as a potential field of interest in the not so distant future (it's getting closer every time I turn around!), so I was wandering if there are any schools outside of the South that have a reputable Southern Lit program in addition to a strong American faculty. Schools in the South are welcome to the conversation as well.

Glad that things worked out well! What's your field of interest?

I'm not sure if the schools listed by MA in my sig are "top 50," but I believe they offer funding for their MA students. Funding is a key issue for me as well, though my chances of getting into a top 50 school are slim.

So did you end up accepting or finding out more about funding from Auburn? Sorry to come from nowhere, but I have a vested interest in the outcome.

Update: My overall GPA is a 3.2989 (*sigh* chemistry and math) and 3.84 for all English classes. I was minoring in History before I thought about picking up that Spanish major, but I could just get a Proficiency Certificate and allow myself some room for Philosophy, French, and more English! I could also take some courses in Latin next summer if I didn't have to complete a languange immersion (travel-study), which is required of most foreign language majors at my school. Is it better to diversify in this case?

That's great! My advisor is from Chapel Hill and we haven't talked about CH specifically just schools in general. He's the prof that taught 16th and 17th Century Lit and got me interested in the literature from these times. He really emphasized that the job market sucks and nothing is gauranteed.

I was going to look at some different works by profs to get an idea of what their research looks like. I'll be taking classes this summer and not doing much of anything else so this could be a good opportunity to catch up on reading articles. I also have a good chance at completing a Spanish major as long as class scheduling allows it, but I'm not sure how beneficial that would be for Renaissance. My school doesn't offer Latin or Italian though.

I'm just starting to prepare for the process and I'm sure that it will be a long and bumpy road these next few years. I have a few "fallbacks" that I'm not terribly excited about (Memphis, Murray State, University of Central Arkansas to name a few) but these are the ones that I have looked at in the region. I plan on expanding outwards and looking at universities that I may not have thought about yet. I'm trying to take that big dream and beat it down to something more comprehensible, so I can know the options and what's best for me.

I've written a few papers that have potential to be developed as my writing samples and I haven't taken capstone yet, so developing my best works and refining my statement of purpose is something that I will definitely be doing my last 1 1/2 - 2 years as an undergrad. I feel like it's far better to start as early as I can on this. I don't want to tailor myself too much (Renaissance self-fashioning anybody? lol) but at the same time what it feels like is that getting into grad school is more about how well you develop as an English major and how focused you are concering future fields of study at any of the institutions that you could be attending-trying to paraphrase your comment midnight. I'm trying to gain some understanding of the best way to go about the application process and I really appreciate the advice! I've slimmed that original list down to 8 schools. Not all of them offer aid for the first year,(Georgia St, Chapel Hill, Greensboro) A few you go straight into the PhD and earn the MA on the way (Vanderbilt and Chapel Hill) UT-Knox Alabama Arkansas MTSU Georgia St Greensboro Vanderbilt Chapel Hill I'm going to look at smaller schools as well as other schools and maybe get in touch with someone on campus to answer any questions about admissions or the program. The best I can do is to present myself well enough to those 10-12 schools I feel the best about, though the decision whether or not I'm a good fit is up to them ?

The only way I will able to affort to pursue graduate study is with assistance from the university, so I'm looking for the best Renaissance programs that I stand even a tiny chance at getting into, and then narrowing that list down in terms of financial aid offered, more specific fields of research, professors, and everything else in the world. Ultimately, region is not the deciding factor. I just feel that being somewhat close to home would help me stay motivated and focused, so I would consider attending somewhere in my region if that turns out to be an option.

Any school is a dream school for me at the moment. I began my undergraduate career as Pre-Med, and after 2 years of destroying my GPA I changed my major to English. The good thing is I was already minoring in it! I was thinking about narrowing down the school list to 12 or less. Should I lower that number?

Rhetoric is an option I used to be really interested in, though I'm not particularly interested in Rhetoric now. My advisor told me that it's possible to get an MA in Lit from one school and get into the PhD program somewhere else but not all schools will accept those MA credits towards the PhD. :/

I am interested in Renaissance Lit and I've been primarily considering these schools because of how close they are to me and financial aid offered: UT-Knoxville Vanderbilt MTSU UNC-Chapel Hill Duke UNC-Greensboro Mississippi WUSTL Georgia Georgia State Alabama Auburn Kentucky Louisville I'm unsure if I could get into any of these. The University of Memphis is my backup plan, but I'm not sure that their program can help me in the field I want to study. I was thinking about maybe narrowing this list down and then adding a few dream schools like Berkeley, Notre Dame, the Ivies and Psuedo-Ivies. Any input would be appreciated.

I've been lurking on this board for some time now and I have to say that this is very depressing, but also inspiring. I only hope that I will have the resilience shown here whenever I am going through the application process! I had a conversation with my advisor the other day and maniac's post (#66) on this thread made me think about it as well. I won't say that there is no hope for me getting into one of the top 20 schools, but I will admit that the chances aren't looking good. I just hope that I can get into a program somewhere that will allow me to teach something that I feel passionate about. I hope that year two or three allows you all to do the same.