lotf629

My two cents: don't do anything that's openly deceptive, but whenever possible, leave the information off. More realistically, if you are asked to list four or five other schools and you are actually applying to nine or ten, make it a point to choose four or five peer institutions, rather than your four or five top choices. If Rutgers asks you, better to list UVA than Yale, even if Yale's your dream school. Etc.

Oh P.S. The previous poster is also right that you need to define your interests within medieval lit very carefully and match them very closely to faculty.

The previous poster is right about the language work. On the one hand, I think there are relatively fewer medievalists than, say, 20th century Americanists out there. On the other hand, the previous poster is right that you are going to be facing long odds no matter what your specialty, and one of the reasons that there are fewer medievalists is because medieval as a field requires more technical skills (languages and sometimes manuscript work). It's somewhat more common for medievalists to have MAs already in hand for that reason. This application season, on the meet-and-greet circuit, I encountered two kinds of medievalists. Some were straight-up medieval specialists; these people more or less invariably had good Latin and a strong command of at least one other language (some had three or four), and often had some background in manuscript work. Others did some kind of "medieval-plus," like medieval literature in Victorian England, or medieval literature and WWI poetry, or something. These people often lacked the purely technical background of the pure medievalists (i.e. languages and paleography) but had a much stronger background in a relevant later literature. If you feel your technical background is weakish, but you have a strong interest in a related later period, you might try the hybridizing approach. Lastly, as a safety net, you should probably look into some funded MAs if it's an option for you. Medieval is one area where an MA can really help your application because it allows you to acquire languages and manuscript work, and languages and manuscript work will almost always help you out.

I don't know what to tell you, OP. Today, there are a million people who can do extraordinarily good, traditional close readings and also hold their head above water in today's theoretical environment. You'll be competing with them directly for spots. All of you can do fantastic close readings, I assume, but your New Critical-type competitors are at least conversant with many of the major approaches popular today. Why on earth would you put yourself at this kind of disadvantage? It's as if you are daring the Establishment to reject you. The thing about that is, they will. If your personal statement projects any of the defensiveness and rigidity you are currently showing, even the New Critics on the committee will toss your app into the reject pile on the grounds that you lack the collegiality and flexibility necessary to handle a real-world scholarly environment. Sorry to be harsh: better you hear it from us, since our opinion means nothing, than that you scotch your chances.

Okay, OP, now I'm really confused. Did you read the thread from last year? Did it give you any ideas? If not, how is it different from what you are looking for? Maybe if you can clarify a little we can be more helpful.

Minnesotan, I love you, but I don't want to be you. I feel about rhetcomp like I feel about any other humanities field outside my own: fascinating, valuable, powerful, but ultimately not for me. Why on earth do you think that lit people envy rhetcomp people? All of us made a choice not to go into rhetcomp, after all...

More data to answer this question, through the grapevine. Last year Columbia apparently placed 14 of 14 people on the market, so I was misinformed: I spoke in Feb or Mar to someone who had been away from campus and I guess was speculating. Yale placed 6 of 8 (2 people went jobless). For the rest, I have no stats. Those stats come second-hand from last year's Columbia and Yale recruits: I have not confirmed them officially.

I see more and more impatience with these kinds of methodological dichotomies in our generation, and I find it encouraging. A good friend of mine has a theory that the big methodological contribution of our generation (i.e., those of us just now getting Ph.D.s, going on the job market, or entering Ph.D. programs) will be synthesizing available methodologies and breaking down the vertical silos currently compartmentalizing the field. Hope so.

Melusine I <3 your user name! Some programs will likely not even record your M score, but given how competitive programs are in general, it's worth trying to get it up into the 500s. Try this book: http://www.amazon.com/Math-Review-Stand ... 910&sr=8-1 It will start at the beginning. Do you have dyscalculia? If not, I expect that a big part of your difficulty is just a mental block. Take it slow, work through problems consistently and gradually, and you will make the progress you need to see.

I'm not sure "conservative" is the word you want here; you might also want to draw your distinction a little differently, as most theorists view their discipline as a study of literature (no less than a more old school and less contextualized close reading approach). That said, you might take a look at the following thread from last year: viewtopic.php?f=56&t=16074&p=75768&hilit=formalism#p75768

I really really don't think you should go back to school...really really really. You may have to declare bankruptcy, but you will have to be smart about it. Student loans aren't usually included in bankruptcy filings: you have to prove that a) your payments threaten your ability to make payments for basic cost-of-living type expenses and you have made a good faith effort to keep up with your payments. In your case, however, you might be able to meet both criteria. You will want a shrewd lawyer, however. See http://www.studentloanborrowerassistanc ... ankruptcy/ , or do some googling on your own. How much are your monthly payments now? How much will they increase after you go back to school? More debt is not your answer. Please, please think hard about this before you dive back in.

Most people at Columbia and NYU either live in subsidized housing or in Brooklyn, etc.

Nope. For instance, Columbia's placement this year was nothing like what it had been in past years: the economy hurt everybody. Also, even under more normal conditions, students usually expect to get some kind of placement, but it's far from unheard of at those places for students to get no offers at all. Over the last five years or so, I think you'd see an 80-90% job placement rate from those programs, but that's not 80-90% of people getting multiple offers from various schools in various regions: it's 80-90% of people gainfully employed on the other side of the Ph.D. The people picking and choosing are people who've done really well and also chose a dissertation topic that is all the rage at the time they hit the job market. But it's really hard to know what will be trendy in five or six years, and plus, choosing a topic because it seems trendy is a really dry way to do research. In general, no matter where you go to school, the old rule still applies: don't go into literature fields unless you're willing to live anywhere, at least at the beginning. Maybe it's easier for Rhet and Comp people.

You'll be just fine, especially with your grades and pub record. I applied last year. I got an 800 V, a 750 M, and a 770 Lit Subject. When my results came out, I discovered that those scores and $2 would get me a cup of coffee. Put in some time studying but don't worry, and whatever you do, don't emphasize the tests at the expense of the writing, the letters, etc.

Yeah, in my subfield as well, cog sci is hot. Unless you're absolutely sure you don't want to do anything science-related in your lit research, I'd consider wrapping up the double major.

The reality is that lots of people in Ivy league schools, at every level, are from poor families, and many of them are coping with significant financial stress and may even be in the position of giving partial support to family members, but most of them have learned not to talk about it, for better or worse. It's not very helpful to make blanket assumptions about others' financial situations, I find. I say this as someone who is working on a third Ivy degree and has been lending support to parents for the last ten years. I just make it work, as many of us do. Sometimes I took taxis to school because I was so overscheduled between my job and my classes that it was the only way to get there on time. Appearances can be deceiving.

Hi Albert, I'm a little confused. How and why are you still choosing in July? Most of us had to pick by April 15. Can you give us a little more info?

Hey! Good to hear some responses! I'm working on Old English lyric form, which is my favorite thing in the world at the moment. I love the mood of the poetry, too, especially the shorter poems.

I'm going to guess not. If you're out there, though, I'd love to hear from you...since there are like fifteen of us in the specialty.

Did you apply to Harvard? If your numbers are reasonably strong, you shouldn't count it out. I have a good friend whose approach is very like yours (old-school close reading all the way). Harvard was the only school he got into: he was rejected at Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Chicago, Cornell, and Stanford. It just goes to show that fit is everything. Also, it's the opposite of a theory-heavy school IMO .

Sounds like you handled it really well, wavebaby. Glad to hear your supervisor's coming around.

Minnesotan makes an excellent point. I find that such jobs can often end up making me more productive than I would be with no job because they help me structure my time and force me to sit still long enough to read and study.

I would try to do the following: 1) Explain the situation to my best friend and cut my involvement in her wedding to less than a full week. I have been maid of honor twice, and both times I managed to fulfill my obligations during the week of the actual event in two or three days, tops. Tell the person that you can make the rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, and the wedding (including all day-of events such as the reception, etc.) but that you'll have to miss the rest of the events. If you're throwing a bachelorette party, do it after work. You may not be able to get a 60 or 70 hour lab week in, but you ought to be able to get a 40 or 50 hour week in, and still be a participant in all the really crucial wedding events. I would try not to take more than a day off work for this event. 2) Fly out to see my grandmother for two to three days. Bag lunch or whatever to save money for the ticket. If your family can swing it, I would ask them to pitch in and share the cost of the plane ticket on the grounds that I can't take enough time off to make the drive. 3) Sit down with my supervisor and explain that I have to make at least an appearance at both events but that I will be working extra on dates x, y, and z in order to keep up my contribution. In short, I don't think either of these events are all-or-nothing. With some creativity and a willingness to work long weeks, you should be able to make at least a symbolic appearance at both important events and still keep up your productivity.

People at Harvard say the same thing, but I worked 15+ hours every week through my MA, full-time over vacations including Thanksgiving and Christmas, and did very well in coursework. It is possible, though kind of sucky. I'm going to Columbia too and I'll be working because of my family situation. For me, it's work and go to school, or work: school without work is simply not possible given my parents' situation. People would say it's impossible, but I've been doing it long enough to know that it is possible, and for me it's necessary. You make it work if you have to. If you have teaching ability, get a job in Manhattan tutoring: $35 an hour and up, way up. Columbia enrollment will help with that.

Don't do it, noreeldancer. People who work as consultants are usually really good at getting students in to law school, med school, etc., but won't know much about Ph.D. programs in the humanities and how they're different from preprofessional programs. Focus on getting advice here and from your faculty advisors: that's what I think, anyway.