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And this is why trying not to read into it is virtually impossible! I was even issued a student ID# and asked to log onto some site to check a box so that "my package could be forwarded to the Dean's office." I hope I never have to go through this process ever again.

Yeah, I just got something like that from a UC. Trying not to read anything into it!

I hate to turn this into a GRE thread, but I was an English major who won a ton of awards and scholarships in the field, had a very strong working knowledge of the canon, and an even better understanding of the history of criticism -- and I did absolutely lousy on the subject test (29th percentile). I studied all the ETS prep information, Norton anthologies, and took 9 practice tests. I made over 2000 flash cards (and had them all memorized within a period of about 6 months) and still did terrible. The test I took bore little resemblance to anything in test preps or even the practice tests on the ETS website. The good news is more and more institutions are not just making the test optional, they are flat out rejecting it. It seems that the way to do well on it is to develop the superhuman skill of speed reading long, complex passages in under 10 seconds -- and top programs are not really looking for people who can cut corners, but people who had read closely and carefully, engaging with the material. If I were you, I'd refresh on the canon, get very comfortable with the history of theory (not just 20th century), and get into the practice of serious serious speed reading -- but don't worry about it much more than that. Try and nail the verbal part of the GRE standard which does require similar speed-reading, but not as much. Plus, the vocab memorization necessary for that test is actually practical! As far as your initial topic goes, mixing media with literature is quite the desirable direction right now. The field is flooded with 19th and 20th straight lit. scholars, so finding a way to diversify by crossing disciplines will work in your favor. You would need to make a compelling argument as to why you would want to study lit. through a film lens, but it shouldn't be hard to do. I myself do Art History and Lit and blend them simply by looking at the similar artistic revolutions that were occurring surround the modernist era, and the cultural impulses that inform them. Look up some big-name scholars who work across such disciplines -- Leo Braudy at USC is a big one. Read a couple of his texts, send him an email -- see what you learn that way. Also, familiarize yourself with the direction the field is headed (digital humanities has been, and continues to be, big right now -- as does disability studies). The field is changing and becoming much more trans-disciplinary, so diversifying your research will ultimately be a good thing. Just finding the compelling way to frame it will be the key. Good luck!

There's actually been a fair amount of work done on Christian allegory in McCarthy -- you might want to check this out, if you haven't already: http://oyc.yale.edu/english/american-novel-since-1945/content/sessions/session-17-cormac-mccarthy-blood-meridian I actually wrote my honors thesis on a text that nobody in the department had read either (can't blame them -- it's a crap book, but it has an intriguing history and I was able to derive a unique idea from it). I just gave my readers plenty of overviews of the text, in addition to copying some important sections for them and they were fine with that. Surprised there's no resources available on somebody as widely studied as McCarthy. Good luck!

UCR does have good faculty for this. And as for not being taken seriously, it seems like departments are more interested in people branching into new fields these days anyway. You might want to look into UCI. I went to meet with faculty there recently, and while waiting for Jonathan Alexander to finish up with a student, I noticed a poster for "A Counter Darkly," -- some kind of Philip K. Dick-fest organized by Alexander himself. He seems like the sci-fi sort and is quite well-respected among cyber-literary-digi-weenies.

I also graduated a year early and my final semester consisted of 16 course units, an honors thesis, GRE, GRE Subject, 14 grad school apps (and all the tailoring / essays that were included) as well as working two jobs. It's possible, but very difficult. If I were in the business of giving out advice (which I'm not) I'd get a head start on studying for the GRE subject and compiling your database of grad programs that interest you, with emphasis placed on the who and the why for each one. Wouldn't hurt to start churning ideas for the SOP, Diversity Statements, and the writing samples. Try and think about how everything will come together as a whole ie. how your scholarly research is reflected in your creative writing, which, itself, is informed by your life experience. I'm not going to lie, it's a horrible, horrible process. So the earlier you can get started, the better. P.S. If you're at Fordham, perhaps go seek out Prof. Bugg. His wife was invaluable to my application process, and I hear that he's equally kind.

I listed them in mine -- but I tried to pair alike schools together so it wouldn't "say anything" other than that I have a solitary goal in mind. For example, if one program was well-known in for its work on flea circuses, I only listed other schools whose emphasis is on either circuses or fleas. This might be tricky if you only have a few applications, but I had 12 so I could do it fairly well. The one podunk school that I submitted to, that is leagues below everyone else (despite having an AWESOME program), I just used other local schools as the point of reference.

I loved those talks! -- Paul Fry is brilliant. Although his lectures are fantastic, he did a bit of patchy job covering the history of theory -- but I think he mentions that the course should be split between pre- and post-Eliot. I've taken courses on historic as well as contemporary theory, so I know there's a lot to cover. His sections on Deconstruction are gnarly! T. Basket

Hey, How much are people writing for this thing? I think I hit about 600 words for that Statement of Purpose thing they want and was thinking about doing the same for this. What I'm not too stoked on re: this prompt is that much of my "model" SOP that I'm using for other places has to get cut out just to talk about background etc. I have enough diversity stuff I can play up, but still... awkward essay. T. Basket

To be honest, it's just not worth worrying about. Many respected people in academia have told me that the test is looked at with disdain. The only real disappointment for me was that I studied everyday for six months -- and it was a total waste of my time.

I took it over the summer and got an identified section. It was the model they are introducing and it was VERY easy.

I got the scores online. I did awful.

I took the test in October and the "first sweep technique" actually threw me off. As many have mentioned, the test bore little resemblance to the practice tests or study material suggested by the GRE. Mine was more like 75 to 80% analysis from large blocks of text -- very little trivia-related stuff, and many of the passages I had never seen before. In my first sweep I think I knew maybe 30 questions; and that messed up my confidence. Despite studying for a solid six months, and taking 7 complete practice tests in the weeks leading up to it, I got nailed pretty hard. It was also the worst environment possible -- extremely noisy and overcrowded with very unprofessional proctoring also. My scores demonstrated this (29th percentile) but to be frank, I'm not that disappointed simply because the test is so ridiculous and thankfully, more and more graduate programs are ignoring it. Good luck everyone!