ecritdansleau

I actually think candid phrases like that actually increase the authenticity of the entire letter, especially since, as was pointed out above, she didn't say you go to keg parties; she suggests how you stand apart from everyone else in your enthusiasm for research. The blunt, or even "unprofessional" aspect, is also softened by the fact that she is your employer, not necessarily an academic, and adcoms don't expect them to be the same.

If a department explicitly states "No more than three" or something, you might follow it for them, but if you have different skills that can only be shown through recommendations from wider variety of recommenders, then go for it. (Say, for instance, you're very interdisciplinary and would like an fourth recommendation from a professor in your second major). If all the letter writers will be saying the same thing in four letters, then it might not be so worthwhile.

oops it double posted

If you're interested in events and culture in CU, you might like to check these out: http://www.smilepolitely.com/ http://the217.com/ Also, despite the lack of a trader joes, Strawberry Fields is pretty awesome: http://www.strawberry-fields.com/ And if you're into good bread, go to Mirabelle. I'm an undergrad and I work at the university library; I highly recommend looking into the graduate assistantships there: the GAs seem to really enjoy it. And don't forget to check out the Champaign and Urbana public libraries, too.

If you're interested in questions about the critic as artist, I think you'd would love reading this article: Slate.com | New Literary Art Form Discovered: In Praise of the Praise of Poetry It discusses some of the rhetorical aspects of criticism/reviewing of contemporary poetry, and how critical writing ends up being its own art.

UIUC comes to my mind also for Modernism and gender studies, especially if you happen to be into Joyce. WUSTL is also great for Modernists and gender studies (Rafia Zafar, Guinn Batten, Julia Walker, Anca Parvulescu) University of Pennsylvania is particular good for British Modernism and Modernist poetics, I believe. And Yale has Paige McGinley. One recommendation: If you have library access to the journal Modernism/Modernity, look through for articles done on gender and Modernism, and check out the faculty members and departments to which that directs you.

Elizabeth Wurtzel made it into Yale Law a few years back. Funny, considering she's published books which detail her personal experiences stealing, doing cocaine, and hiding drugs inside her body during international plane flights! Just because you want to practice law doesn't mean that you must have followed it (at Yale anyway...which is notoriously hardcore selective for JD admission) http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=2972554&page=1

As above, I don't know much about USC, but UIUC seems to have a number of resources for gender/women/queer studies. As I'm sure you're aware, the department has Siobhan Somerville. Another English professor who is also part of the gender and women's studies faculty is V Mahaffey, who just came to UIUC about a year ago, and she's pretty amazing also. Another advantage at UIUC is the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, which hosts a number of events that foster theoretical discussion across disciplines, but it's especially affiliated with the English department. http://criticism.english.illinois.edu/ Although they are from a wide range of periods in English literature, a number of more recent English PHDs at Illinois with dissertations drawing on gender studies have obtained decent faculty placements: Macharia, Keguro "Queer Natives" University of Maryland http://www.english.umd.edu/kmacharia/ Hudson, John "Silent Readers, Silenced Readers: Lgbt Student Perceptions of Lgbt Representation in Composition Readers" University of Houston Downtown http://www.uhd.edu/academic/colleges/humanities/english/bios/hudson_bio.html Misri, Deepti "Reading Violence: Gender, Violence and Representation in India and Pakistan (1947-Present)" University of Colorado Boulder (Women's Studies) http://www.colorado.edu/womensstudies/Deepti.html Solberg, Janine Dissertation: "Pretty Typewriters: Gender, Technology, and Literacy in Career Advice Literature for Women" University of Massachusetts - Amherst Gillette, Meg "Modernism's Scarlet Letter: Plotting Abortion in American Fiction, 1900-1945" Augustana College Lamanna, Carrie DISCIPLINING IDENTITIES: FEMINISM, NEW MEDIA, AND 21ST CENTURY RESEARCH PRACTICES Colorado State University Johnson, Sherita Lavon "Truth is Stranger than Fiction: Black Women in American Literature of the South" University of Southern Mississippi Hultquist, Aleksondra "Equal Ardour: Female Desire, Amatory Fiction, and the Recasting of the Novel, 1680-1760" University of West Georgia Eckhardt, Joshua Dissertation: "The Politics of Anti-Courtly Love Poetry: Gender, Sexuality, and Religion in Early Seventeenth-Century Manuscript Verse Miscellanies" Now at Virginia Commonwealth University

Is it a mistake to ask a professor for a recommendation if you've only had a single upper-level course with them? Or if you are currently taking a course with them? As an undergraduate student at a public university with a fairly large English department, I'm now finding it difficult to figure out who, if any, professors of mine will feel comfortable writing me letters of recommendation when I apply this fall. Because the majority of instructors I had my freshman and sophomore years were grad student instructors/TAs, I've ended up having less than three faculty member professors for more than a single course. So, naturally, I'm worried about who my third recommendation will come from. Would it be out of the question to take a course with a professor this fall and ask them for a recommendation while I am in the course? I am considering taking one course fall semester with a professor that I had my sophomore year in a large lecture course (once the prof singled out my writing, but I doubt she otherwise remembers me). This would give me the opportunity to work with her more closely before asking if she could write an LOR, but, alas, I've heard that it's not advisable to ask a prof for a rec until after you've taken an entire course with them (post-grade, etcetera). Would it be out of the question if I asked for an LOR from a professor in this situation? Would it be better for me to ask for LORs from other professors with which I've completed a single upper-level courses, even though it was only one class? Or, more generally, for those have applied in the past, what professors did you ask for LORs (how many classes, if they share your proposed field, their faculty status, etc), and how did things turn out? Is there anything you would avoid or recommend in regard to LOR choices?

Unfortunately I don't know any of the 2010 data for the schools above. If anyone is interested in the stipends of other schools, here are some of the yearly amounts according to application results: - Johns Hokpins 18,500 year w/ 3,000 summer funding per year - University of Pennsylvania ~22,000 - Columbia 23,000 - Cornell ~26,400 - University of Rochester ~17,000 - University Of Connecticut- Storrs ~19,000 University of California - Riverside 16,000 If anyone could provide other funding amounts, I think it would this thread might be a good way to compile data for reference. Sometimes individuals are hesitant to discuss funding, however, which is understandable.

The Chronicle of Higher Education | Confessions of an Accidental Literary Scholar The vague animosity of Salinger towards the realm of academic prestige reminded me of the article I linked above, in which a literature graduate student discusses the strange resentment that creative writing people exhibited towards scholarly pursuits, as if there is an ultimatum that one must write creatively or academically and not both. And I'm not sure whether it matters or not, but for every literary success who eschews academia is another who was very much influenced by their studies. To each one's own!

Going to the same school is not completely unheard of nor utterly disreputable, but I'm fairly certain that the individuals who choose this path have very strong reasons for choosing such a path (highly specialized research interests/unmatchable fit with the department/faculty). I get the feeling, however, from your situation, that your early doubts/hesitations about the program would increase if you chose to go there, because it would always leave you wondering "what if..." and with an MA already in hand, transfering becomes even more of a challening maneuver. It seems to me like you might unnecessarily be backing yourself into a corner by going to the same school, because you don't seem to excited about going there. Sometimes those positive/negative vibes one has about a place/space really affect their energy and productive output, so you'll want to consider carefully if you could realistically do your best work at this school. Although I cannot speak from my own experience, I know people who have taken a year off and been very successful. For instance, one person applied as an undergrad as a senior and was rejected across the board. He got a local job and worked closely with his advisors throughout the application to polish his writing sample and SOP. He ended up at Harvard. I believe that the benefits of taking a year off ultimately reflect how ultimately dedicated one is as a scholar. The individuals who really improve their apps in a year off are often those who find it natural to use the extra space of time to escape that perpetual crunch of time/rushing/hurrying/prioritizing while in school that, while productive, can sometimes hold one back from being more open to themselves about where their own interests lie. (Like the feeling in summer when, after all classes are over, you are finally able to carry out different tangential interests such as following up on reading books of a certain author you found really intriguing in a course but simply didn't have time to give to) It really sounds to me as if you were simply not able to dedicate yourself to the all-consuming application process in this cycle because you had too much on your plate at the moment to give applications the time that they demand. The fact that you only managed to get in a few applications clearly bespeaks the fact that you probably have not given yourself a fair shake. Applications can be a full-time job in themselves, and you seem like someone who could really benefit from giving it the amount of time and energy it deserves. Remember, you are the only one who can know for yourself the difference between making a reasoned decision versus settling. Try imagining (A) the best possible situation, and (B ) the worst possible situation you could be in a year from now * if you continue at your current program *. Then, imagine (A) the best possible situation and (B the worst possible situation you might find yourself in * if you take a year off and focus on applications *. It can really help to think about the different possibilities, and face your worries up front.

Similar to the Norton editions, but perhaps a bit more friendly to amateurs in criticism, The Bedford St Martin's "Case Studies for Criticism" editions are fantastic for getting a sense both of particular theoretical trends as well as criticism done on the primary text. For various novels, they include essays in the appendix about literary theory for articles that have been written about the text, and they include the article. (For instance, in Tess of the D'urbervilles, they have five different critical essays in the appendix, prefaced with explanations along the lines of "What is the New Historicism?", "New Historicism and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, followed by an article about Tess by scholar Catherine Gallagher which employs the New Historicist methodology.) It also helps you to become more aware of what kinds of theoretical approaches make themselves compatible to different kinds of texts; whereas Tess works with certain approaches (New Historicism, Feminist and Gender Criticism, Deconstruction, etc), other Bedford St Martins editions include Psychoanalytic or Marxist approaches. And speaking of it, The Norton Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism has a new edition that just appeared this month. I'm interested to see what alterations have been made....

Also true of Columbia. I love the statement on their website, which warrants its own paragraph: "Our department does not require the GRE Subject Test in English literature, which we regard as unsubstantive and not predictive of the quality of graduate work." (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/english/grad_applications.htm)

Perhaps you could slip it in by mentioning how the presence of such an influential scholar as Spivak being at Columbia demonstrates how well the department supports postcolonial research, which relates to your intention to explore [topic A in poco studies] etcetera

The GPA is not an isolated measurement. From my understanding, adcoms will put consideration into your transcript as a whole (amount of and performance in higher level courses taken). Another thing I didn't notice mentioned was the type of undergraduate university to which you went, which adcoms will notice. I presume that adcoms are well aware that some undergraduate institutions are well known for rough grading (UChicago), while they might be less willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you have a lower GPA from a larger public university (I find this ironic because at the larger public universities, professors can be just as tough, and at larger schools, no one holds your hand along the way). So, fair or unfair as that may be, if you come from a lesser known school, the GREs are a good way to bump up your competency in the adcoms perspective. The DGS at my undergrad specifically said that, although a deficiency in GPA might not throw you out completely, an unimpressive GPA combined with mediocre GREs very well could. Thus, depending on how competitive the schools to which you apply are, a lower gpa and a so-so GRE could knock you out in the first cut. It's true that the writing sample will ultimately be the dealbreaker, but they'll be more likely to overlook this if you don't make the first round.

Thanks for the advice! The Oscar Wilde and style guides sounds interesting; I never would have thought of that! Wilde is one of favorite writers; he's so unbelievably clever. I do think the methodology aspect is one that many applicants might forget but makes the entire application more coherent. The problem, I think, for applicants such as myself, is that I tend to focus more on structural interpretations and theory, and this is very passe (or so I've heard) in regard to current critical trends.

Both satisfied and disappointed applicants alike have surely considered what aspects of your application sent it to the pile of the finalists or the rejected (Or why the Admit at one department and not at another). And yet, I think consideration of this is beneficial for everyone as future scholars in the consideration of how the intellectual cream rises to the top (the very injustice or chaos of this process makes it all the more critical to investigate). If anyone is familiar with Semenza's book (On building an academic career in the humanities), you know that prospective graduate students have only scratched the surface of the challenges that they face in the continuous production of original, insightful knowledge. (Of course, we like such challenges.) As a prospective applicant myself, I'm somewhat fascinated by questions of what makes something intellectually viable (And thus what kind of thought process the adcoms have when they read applications in judgment of one's academic potential.) So, what do you think made your application rise to the top or plummet to the abyss of denial? Either based on your own assessment, or actual corroborations from the schools to which you were admitted or not admitted? (Or even what your own advisors have said about what strengthens an application) I find it peculiar that so many people seem to blame the quantitative things (grades, GREs), when time and time again, the writing sample seems to be the weightiest consideration of the application as a whole. Is this always true? And so then I wonder, more specifically, what makes a scholarly literary essay/article get noticed? What features of successful writing samples (and SOPS?) make them so intellectually stimulating and innovative? In regard to literary studies, what makes great writing great ? Was your writing sample specific to the period you proposed to study? Was it an in-depth iteration of your SOP? What are your intellectual interests and how did you bring this forth in your writing? Conversely, what are the potential pitfalls of the writing sample?

If I were you, I would try to find other people who could give you an objective opinion on it; that way, you wouldn't be changing it based on just one perhaps skewed opinion. I know that at the school I'm currently attending for undergrad, writing samples and SOPs are read first by the DGS and then she gives them to professors that specialize in the subject area they focus upon. If the professor that discouraged this particular topic/interest were an expert in subjective narratives, for instance, then I would try to to rethink my approach. But if an advisor is telling you that it comes across as weak to them, I wouldn't take it lightly. They are trying to help you strengthen your application before its too late. In the scope of this forum, perhaps you could give a more in-depth gloss of your particular interest area so we know what your writing sample/sop delves into?