id quid

Middle and Old English philology, magic, mysticism, intertextuality, historical milieu (1000-1400), manuscripts and paleography, Chaucer, Early Modern poetry -- but mainly philology and intertextuality. -- I didn't mean to start a "thing" over the payments! I know people can make it work, and it's not quite living in a cardboard box money. But I do currently make over 3x that amount; live in an area with high salaries and, consequently, a very high cost of living; and have friends who are in science and computer science, which means even the grad students pull more than the average humanities grad student. It's all about context!

I apologize if this has already been covered in the thread -- you guys have been busy -- but I was wondering if there are any other medievalists in the house? There always seem to be a few. I've been around for previous cycles, but due to some transcript issues I'm STILL trying to sort out I've been lax in completing any applications. I've already put the money down on the GRE and GRE for Literature, so this year is going to be the one where I finally get my applications out there. I admit to being a little afraid of giving up a life with a decent living (I work in Marketing in Silicon Valley!) for a pauper's life as a graduate student. But after four years of the strange inanity that pervades the working world, I'm more than ready to return to academia -- and stay there.

Feeling a little stalled and frustrated. Recommendation letters are the bane of my existence! My favorite professor is also one of my staunchest supporters. Unfortunately, I've been having a lot of trouble getting in contact with her to resolve an administrative issue -- an "I" lapsed to "F" because the papers to make it an "A" didn't get to the right people in time -- for the past three years. She's said she's happy to write a recommendation letter for me, but I'm nervous about relying on her for it! I am also having serious nerves about approaching a star in my field for a recommendation letter, though I know she thought very well of me after the last course I took with her, and I'm uncertain how to approach my #3. There's a reason I want to be a research academic, and it has a lot to do with my people skills. Or lack thereof. On the plus side, I'm quitting my 9-to-5. August 31 is my last day. That gives me the rest of the year to batten down on applications. I hope it helps.

I'm having one hell of a time with recommendation letters. I know one professor who would be very happy to write me a very strong letter. Another professor I know would write me a strong letter, if I meet her criteria for students she wishes to recommend. The third I am iffy on; I was a transfer, and I didn't have a chance to make a positive impression on very many professors in my field. It worries me a little, but I figure two strong letters -- one by a star in the field, another by a rising star in the field -- and one slightly impersonal one will be alright. Right? I seem to have a lot of things working against me here. I may pull my apps back to strictly Master's programs, and maybe even strictly Master's programs abroad. My confidence is definitely shot, and I haven't even put in an application yet!

I'll be pursuing a Master's degree if I do end up in the UK, but I take your point. This stage in my career, exploring a few more methodologies would be helpful (and I say this decidedly as a medievalist, not an English major). Paleography and more medieval languages are going to be important skills for my future in scholarship. I likely will end up at a US PhD-granting institution for my terminal degree. My ultimate goal is research and teaching, and the latter definitely finds its home more easily in the US. That said, I see value in expanding my experience to include faculty members that are just as prominent in the field as those here at home and, of course, the value in having direct access to the very things I'm studying.

Just back from my visit to the UK. Walking around Oxford has made me realize just how different it will be to study literature in the place it was written. The difference between the US and the UK, culturally and environmentally, is unfathomable until you get to experience both. There are certain things you can take for granted in England that would just never occur to an American, like the fact that the floors of your library are likely just as old as the Colonies themselves, and that's before you even think about the materials on the shelves. Guess that means I'm gearing up for a monster funding search so I can make studying in the UK a reality next fall!

Thinking about applying, because my next step is really heavily leaning toward a Master's in the UK. Hesitations: The UK is uber competitive, my record is not; I will be applying at-large (graduated 3 years ago). But what the heck, eh?

Been AWOL while dealing with time crunches in both my professional and personal lives. Good news is both projects went off wonderfully, so it was totally worth it! But now I'm back to being utterly distracted by grad school questions. Well, that and my trip to England in three weeks. I'm leaning toward culling my list based on the ability to pick up a Master's or specialization in medieval studies alongside my English degree. For the UK schools and Toronto, this is easy: they're all either Medieval Lit or flat out Medieval Studies degrees. The US schools are a little trickier. In some cases, there are two separate departments. Notre Dame, for example, has English AND Medieval Studies - and from what I can see, the two degree programs don't overlap in any way that would allow me to get the Master's in Medieval Studies and the PhD in English. Getting a PhD in Medieval Studies isn't really my goal, but I think I'd take it over an English degree in which I couldn't officially specialize/concentrate in medieval. The "official" part is important because my if-I-can't-be-a-professor Plan B for my PhD is to work with manuscripts directly, and the job postings specifically ask for these types of degrees. I could probably get away with explaining my coursework, showing the papers I've written/published, etc, but I don't want any artificial barriers in my job applications. Yale has my absolute dream program, but it's also a total shot in the dark given my undergrad record. I'm trying to keep my final list under 8 schools. I am quite likely to get completely shut out, but I also don't want to apply for the sake of applying. I have plenty of alternate plans for my life, so I don't feel the need to be "grad school or bust." Even so, it's nerve-wracking.

Yep: got a long-term relationship/live-in SO. It's been an interesting part of the process because he's very laid back. (By "interesting" you should read "maddening." I make lists of lists, y'all. He's messing with my mojo!) His preference is for us to stay right where we are, but he's willing to go wherever I go. I've been involving him in the process, giving him full veto power on the list, but he just shrugs. "They're all fine," he tells me, even though they're in wildly different places. We've also agreed that if I end up in a one-year program, he likely won't come with me. One year is not long enough in one place for him to uproot himself, go somewhere else, and then uproot himself again. He's quite the homebody, so I totally get that. I love that he's flexible, and that his intended career will let him go wherever in the world we want. We're both English majors, and both medievalists, so it's gratifying, too, that I can talk to him about all the things I'm doing, and have a sympathetic ear, and someone off whom I can bounce ideas.

These may be of interest to some of you! http://www.contrariwise.org/ http://literarytattoos.livejournal.com/ I'm planning on getting a tattoo soon. I've been wanting to get at least one done for AGES, but I am so indecisive on where I'd want to put it. The one I'm positive I'll be getting in the next 1-2 years is a simple one: an aesc in woad blue in a manuscript font on the back of my neck. My given name + my areas of interest + my lifelong fascination of all things medieval/Anglo Saxon + my love of letters + a story or three with my mom and books... well, yeah.

Just to clarify, in case it changes your answer, I'm asking about how you choose where to send your application in the first place. I'm sure there are a ton of fun analytics that go into making the decision of where to attend, but that happy problem is leagues away from my current position. My list of schools of interest is quite long, and was made up almost entirely of looking up faculty of interest and going from there. I was wondering what other people did so that I (and hopefully anyone else reading this!) might get a great idea on how to cull the list to only those schools that are going to make sense for me.

There are a ton of different ways to see schools. Prestige (department, specialty, school), presence of PoI, proximity to X, financial aid, TA-ships, sports titles, faculty recommendation, because they have cute squirrels on campus... How did you choose where to apply? Or, for those of us with an eye to this upcoming cycle, how will you choose?

Um. Wow, ecritdansleu. Now I've added Rutgers to my list for this fall.

I appreciate that the test score is probably not among the important things in my application, but it is still required for a number of the schools on my list. Honestly, the study is more important to me than the test itself. As I mentioned, my coursework is deficient in post-1600 literature and theory. I'm looking at the study period as a time to shore up on all that before I start writing my SoP and personal statement, and to help inform the edits I'll be making to my writing samples. I am glad to hear it doesn't stand in the way, though. That'll make it much easier to approach from the "study for study's sake" perspective. (That said, I also need good test scores to corroborate my story that my undergrad GPA is not reflective of my abilities due to extenuating circumstances!)

Go to the best school for your goals. If that means staying at the institution at which you earned your undergraduate degree, well, that's what it means! Consider your goals post-PhD, however, when making this decision. If you want to stay in academia, become a professor, then you might want to look at what other professors have done. Unfortunately, I think you'll largely find what others have said about academic inbreeding is true: not many professors will have done all their education at a single institution. Post-docs can make all the difference, and it does likely mean you'll need to work especially hard to distinguish yourself in the field.

hell hound

I picked up a copy of the PR guide to the Lit GRE. Figure I may as well start tackling that beast WELL in advance of the October test date to which I'm committing. My coursework was pretty deficient in theory and, er, modern literature (where modern = anything after 1600) so I've got quite a lot to do! I know of Vade Mecum and Hapax Legomena. Anyone have any advice for approaching this test?

I'm so glad I let go and posted about my concerns. Reading these replies has really made me feel so much better about what I'm setting myself up for this fall. Thanks, bfat!

That is a very good and extremely important point, ComeBackZinc. I think at this moment I am indeed considering the problem from a very specific, and very limited, frame of view. Specifically, I am thinking about the 6-8 years of school wherein that will necessarily be true, assuming I want to leave with a PhD and any academic job prospects at all, and projecting that experience into the post-grad job that is "supposed" to come with it. 6-8 years is a long time to do "one" thing, especially when the light at the end of the tunnel is more likely to have been the train of Real Life Job Statistics than the promised land of tenure-track professorship. Oddly, I find this comforting. 6-8 years is something, but 6-8 years getting paid to do something I love? Excellent. Even if it means I have to return to the working world at the end of it, I know I wouldn't trade the experience for anything, even if it did turn out to be the less-than-ideal version of grad school where I fail at some assignments, disappoint some professors, change my mind a thousand times about my dissertation, and barely scrape my way out with a PhD. -- antecedant, You and I ended up saying pretty much the same thing, which is pretty great since we were typing at the same time. I reiterate what I said before -- I actually find the idea that I'm not guaranteed a job in academia comforting! While I'd love it, and I do think I'm suited to it, I also know I have these millions of other things that I'd like to give a go, and a lifetime to explore them.

Not presumptuous at all -- thank you very much for your input! That is precisely my worry: that I will lose hold of everything else that makes me who I am in pursuit of this shiny, beautiful, perfect closed world that is The Academy/Ivory Tower. I hardly think I'm alone in finding that isolating and more than a little scary, but I admit to wondering if maybe I am just a little odd and if this is a hint I should keep away from graduate studies and everything that comes after it. The biggest challenge is something I've recently articulated in conversations with my SO. Basically, how do you tell the difference between persevering in the face of challenges à la mode de Job, and taking overwhelming force as a divine sign that You Should Look Elsewhere? I know there's no right answer, this is all individual, and that I'm going to be hearing a lot about Finding a Fit, whether that's in a school or decidedly outside academe. I accept this! But I won't deny the process is painful.

sun tea

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with options. (Warning: what follows is a very self-involved, #firstworldproblems whinge!) Part of the reason I decided to take a break from school was because it had been my whole life for, well, my whole life. I'm talking every summer, every winter break, from elementary school on. I did special trips, I took summer school, I took college classes. Part of this, I think, is because I'm first-generation, and my parents pinned their hopes on me going to college. There was no other option. I didn't mind, of course, and I excelled at school. It was a place where I "fit in." But oh god did I ever need a break when I finished college. My momentum had started faltering by the end of high school, and it sort of took a nosedive when I started college. Lots of personal stuff came up, too, which tore me between family and school, to the detriment of my grades. I thought I'd give the working world a chance. I've found it... less to my liking than I'd expected. I certainly enjoy the flexibility (work only 5 days a week? done at 5pm? while getting paid?!?!). I do have a knack for what I do here, too. I don't enjoy it, though, and if I have to look forward to doing what I'm doing now for the next 40 years, well, let's just say I won't actually be looking forward 40 years. So, school. I dearly miss it. It's not surprising, given I'd defined my first 21 years by it, but school is where I feel at home. I love libraries, I love books, I love discussions about people and things that have been gone for hundreds of years, I love pushing up against the boundaries of knowledge and challenging them, I love being in a place where this is all valued. And yet I'm still terrified of committing my life to nothing but. Part of why I decided to major in English, other than the obvious love of it, was because I thought science was too restricting. If I'd majored in neuroscience like I'd planned to, I never would have been able to take Old English or history of Christianity to 1400 or Italian or arctic folklore. So why do I think I can do 6-8 years of highly specialized training, and commit the rest of my life to further deepening this training and sharing it with others? Don't get me wrong. I love my field. I always have. My parents bought me a 15th century woodcut print for my 16th birthday, and my most treasured memory was handling a book of hours at Stanford's library. I've studied Old English, Latin, Italian (with an eye to reading Dante untranslated), French and German, all because I truly desire to expand my knowledge of the "early years of western civilization." But... is it all I want to ever do? That... that I have a hard time deciding.

The GRE will need to be taken for 90% of the schools where I'm planning to apply. It's the most direct path in the early stages of planning my application season: I know I need to take it, I know I need to do a lot of other work but I'm not sure what that is yet, so I may as well get it done early -- study for it now -- and get it out of the way. As inconsequential as it is compared to the SoP and writing sample, it IS still a part of a complete package for many programs. So, can't quite forget it! Or afford to be dismissive of it.