JoeySsance

Bonjour tout le monde !

Are you applying to French MA or Ph.D programs (for the Fall 2011 term)? Then this is the place for you! Feel free to share as much as you like about yourself with your potential future peers.

I'll start: I'm a recent college grad. I went to an Ivy (HYP) for undergrad and majored in French. I'm not sure how specific to get since I'm certain I'm the only student in my department applying for a Ph.D in the same field. I'm sure the awesome professors at the schools I'm considering have better things to do than troll around on this site, but just in case, on here I'm just JoeySsance.

I've been taking a gap year between the end of undergrad and the start of grad school. It's been productive, wonderful and stress-free so far... but now the GRE and grad school applications are lurking into the picture. (...ugh)

I'm applying to: Columbia (French & Comp Lit), Cornell (French), Harvard (French), Princeton (French) and Yale (French). I'm not sure whether to apply to Berkeley (French), NYU (French) or neither. I've decided I'm not applying to the French departments at neither U Penn nor Stanford. I'd really like to be in touch with anyone applying to any (or even most or all) of the schools on my list. And yes, one of the programs on my list is at the same school I attended for undergrad (in the same department - this is probably uncommon but if anyone is in the same boat, I'd be happy to know!)...

This thread is open to *absolutely all* potential French Ph.D students as well as MA students, applying to all schools, in the U.S. and abroad. Let's share in our excitement, help each other out with application-related questions and await decisions together.

I'm hoping to be in touch with some of you soon. Best of luck to all!!

À plus,

JoeySsance

P.S. If you haven't already - indeed it seems to be the first thing that shows up on this thread - do check out the poll questions I posted. This might be a neat (albeit limited) way to gauge everyone's general interests. We can, of course, elaborate on said interests in this thread ou bien, ailleurs!

Your interests are really cool, Display Name ! It seems like with regard to your interest in l'OuLiPo, you and Overboard89 would have quite a bit to talk about.

So I think there's a sixth prospective applicant in our midst; a 19th century lit student. Whoever you are, welcome; come say hi!

Bonjour à tous.

It could very well be that this thread will be even more inactive than the Fall 2011 French applicants thread I created... but on the off-chance that there are current French MA/Ph.D students still checking out the grad café, I think it might be nice to be in touch!

I don't really have any specific questions at the moment. I'm just hoping someone will drop by and say hi, tell us which program they're in, psyche us up for grad school and maybe offer a little advice. Absolutely all currently attending French MA/Ph.D students, current applicants and people in related fields (e.g. comp lit), attending or hoping to attend any program are welcome!!

À bientôt (...j'espère)

joeySsance

Mouais je suis à Yale si vous avez des questions...

My advice would be to look at the job list right now, because these are dark times... French departments are contracting (SUNY Albany just closed its language departments altogether) so my advice is get a French PhD if you absolutely must and can't imagine your life otherwise. I love my program, but I'm really uncertain about my future. I'm not sure I would have done a PhD at all if I had known how dire the job market is. That's not very uplifting, but I wish I had looked at the job postings when I was applying so that I knew exactly what I was up against. I thought if I went to Yale/Columbia/Princeton, I would be guaranteed a job. And, well, things are worse than I thought.

You should definitely ask the DGS and Chair of departments you're researching about their placement and what they project the market will do. I also recommend talking to junior faculty about this because they were on the market more recently, and older grad students in the program who are currently on the market.

Thanks for your candid remarks, Ondine !

Would you mind sharing your impression of Yale's program so far ? Are you happy there ? Is it true that Yale's French students are more on the competitive side ? What were the departmental visits like there and at other places to which you were admitted ? And to end this barrage of questions (...for now): what are some of the reasons you chose Yale over the other programs you were considering ?

It'd be cool to hear from other current students and applicants.

Hey! Our interests are pretty similar. I'm applying to French Ph.D programs which are very theoretical. If you'd prefer to study Critical Theory in English, I would recommend Rhetoric at Berkeley and Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford. I know that at Berkeley there are minor fields (called "designated emphases") one of which is in Critical Theory. Judith Butler teaches both Rhetoric and Critical Theory! I'm not applying to either of those programs, but I am applying to Berkeley's French department, with the Critical Theory minor in mind. I can't guarantee that my suggestions emphasize social theory more than literary criticism, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. English and Comp Lit departments tend to have some theory-minded faculty, as do French and German departments. Sometimes sociology, anthropology and other social science departments have critical theorists. You posted in Philosophy, huh... Where I went to undergrad, the philosophy department (while one of the top 5) was woefully analytic... At other philosophy departments, sometimes there are professors who focus on contemporary philosophy, continental philosophy, the Frankfurt school, etc. I'd say you have a handful of options. I would check out departments in the fields I've listed looking closely at the professors' interests and the courses offered. Also look at minor fields. I hope my suggestions are helpful. Good luck!

Wow, that's kind of a bitchy reply. But get this:

It's so nice and fun to disparage the ranking system, but the simple truth is that, if a school does not have guaranteed funding for its students, strong library facilities, good professorial resources, and an effective history of graduate placement, then that school will not rank well. In this sense, the rankings systems are indeed meaningless on a micro level (that is, saying that #13 School A is qualitatively better than #15 School B as an exclusive result of their ranking differences), but it is by all means relevant on a macro level. Number-13 School A will almost always serve its graduates' careers more effectively than #57 School C. It's silly of you to suggest that a typical graduate of, say, Brown will not have comparably higher buying power on the job market than a typical graduate of, say, Arizona State. Let's be real.

Given that information, it is indeed bizarre that a student who is admitted to virtually all of the top-20 schools s/he applied to is rejected from every single school in the 50s and 60s s/he applied to. I started this thread as a means of helping applicants feel out how to compose their applicant-school lists. If this trend is indeed real, then that information would be crucial.

It is also not the case that every applicant applies to every school sincerely, that every applicant mentions 3 or 4 professors, etc. I certainly did not quote professors from every school I applied to in my writing sample, as I did with many of these schools in the 50s and 60s. And I did not apply to every school with equal sincerity, as a number of my applications were made strictly because of the advice from my undergraduate mentors, for geographical reasons, etc., rather than a personal passion for those programs. I'm certain this is true of many people on this forum, particularly given that many of us are applying to 15 or more schools and therefore cannot devote ourselves equally to each individual application.

Meanwhile, I appreciate how you've listed out all the potential ways by which I may have been rejected. But I was indeed aware of those matters, as any moderately thoughtful person would be. I was curious if anyone had any useful information about the trend of this, as that would be valuable information for future applicants.

To correct the record, I was referring to having cited certain of these schools' professors in my actual writing sample, not my SoP. That is, I read their articles, built an essay around them, and cited that work as a means of demonstrating my commitment to the school. True, anyone can name-drop a couple of professors in their SoP, but this was a significantly greater and more deliberate effort. Your snide dismissal of this work was based on your own erroneous reading of my post.

That's always been my suspicion, as well. Besides, think of how detrimental it would be to the morale of a cohort if and when they found out that they'd all been accepted off the wait list? It would suggest not only that the entire cohort had gotten second-place consideration from the adcom, but indeed that not one originally accepted applicant had decided that the program was good enough.

See, this was the point of my question. I also think that there's a huge amount of luck to this process, but I find it curious that my acceptances came bunched into one spot on the rankings ladder, and that I tend to see very similar results all across this forum. It's quite rare to see a person accepted to both Brown and Arizona State (for example). So while luck may be a massive factor, there does seem to be an identifiable pattern. I'm sorry that my remarks have motivated so many people to press the little red "ME NO LIKE" button under my comments, but please recognize that this is a legitimate issue for current and future applicants.

The rankings don't strike me as "meaningless." They do have meaning. The question at hand is the degree to which they have meaning.

And I do not require validation. I have a fellowship to a fantastic program in a beautiful part of the world. This was never about my personal circumstances. I'm simply trying to unravel the application process, just as the rest of us are doing. I can't say I appreciate your personal attacks nor your presumptions about my character.

But maybe people behave differently in your discipline?

Hey Elucidarius, welcome! I wouldn't worry so much about your cumulative GPA. As long as you've had a consistently strong performance in your French major, I'm sure that will hold more weight in grad school admissions. Don't be discouraged!

I'm also a big cultural studies person, and I like studying sexuality, too. I bet we would have a lot to talk about if we ended up in the same program.

So you like the Middle Ages? Are you considering Princeton's French dept.? Sarah Kay, a medievalist there, is one of the brightest in the field.

There are a few non-French programs you might like to consider, given your interests: Rhetoric at Berkeley and Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford. I might apply to both of these in addition to my handful of French programs. Check those out and let me know what you think.

Which departments and programs are you considering exactly? How's everyone else doing? I'm hoping this month and next will be a little more fruitful - or, more active, rather - in terms of discussions on this thread. Indeed our little bit of discussion so far has been fruitful insofar as some of us don't feel like we're in this process all alone...

Hey zerocover. This is an interesting question. I never thought that schools had lists of topics like the ones you're suggesting. However it's perfectly plausible that schools are looking for people with talent or interest in particular areas. I see that you're looking at engineering programs. Perhaps there is a bit more leeway for applicants in engineering who are eager to research but haven't figured out their specific interests. I'm applying to Ph.D programs in the humanities and I'm almost 100% positive that no admissions officer would read past "I can't think of anything I am super passionate about, but I know I want a Ph.D" [obviously no one would write that explicitly (...I hope) but if that were the general tone in one's personal statement, I'm certain it'd be an instant rejection at most places]. I'm not sure how personal statements work in engineering. If you could somehow find these lists you've mentioned, definitely try to sound at least interested (and ideally: excited) about... something... anything! All that said, the most important thing is to be genuine! I have friends in the humanities who told me that they chose obscure subjects about which hardly anyone had written - and indeed, in which they had little or no interest at all - just so that their applications would stand out. Those that were actually accepted ended up not being so happy working on their chosen author/artist/time period/topic, etc. Remember that a Ph.D is quite the time commitment, so you might as well be doing something about which you are passionate.

These are just general remarks from a more humanities/social sciences-oriented person (but I do hope they're somewhat helpful). For a more specific answer to your question, I defer to other engineers.

For real. While sociology might be a safe spot to come out, sometimes it doesn't seem like a safe spot to joke around sometimes. The extreme liberal ideology makes it hard to make joke (although at times they will be tasteless), because all of the ''bleeding hearts" take everything you say so seriously. I didn't view the original comment as overly offensive, in fact--i thought it was a joke. Judging by the last reply, I guess it wasn't. However, I really feel like in sociology you're allowed to speak your mind, so long as your mind aligns with a liberal ideology. Makes it hard for people who like "shock value" comedy.

To the OP--i can almost promise you that it will not be a problem to come out to your new department, and good luck.

BJeeeeesus!!
OMG