lyonessrampant

UW has an MA/Ph.D. program, so if you were accepted and don't have an MA, you do that first and then can continue on for the Ph.D. As for funding, especially at the MA level, no, funding isn't great. Many offers will be no funding year 1 and then funding starting year 2. . .at least that's how it was last year. Good luck to everyone!

There were over 100 people (close to 140 I think) in my MAPH cohort since it draws from a number of disciplines. The funding offers are quite competitive, but in spite of what they told us, I don't think admission to the MA is supercompetitive. I could be wrong, but while you have access to same amazing opportunities through MAPH, it does provide a significant source of the funding for their Ph.D. programs in the humanities. @lilysoul: Do you teach in the Tufts MA? Are there TA-ships/additional assistantships you can apply for in the 2nd year? If either of those are true, Tufts is probably a better choice. No teaching experience in the MA is a disadvantage when you're applying to Ph.D. programs. Again, strict philosophy Ph.D. programs are quite a bit more strict than English programs, so take than into consideration if you're planning on going the philosophy Ph.D. track after the MA.

Given that you're philosophy, I wouldn't recommend MAPH since philosophy programs tend to be more strict about their disciplinarity than, say, English, which is quite interdisciplinary. I did MAPH, and while I found the English faculty quite receptive and supportive, I heard that the philosophy faculty were resistant. If you won't take on more debt to do Fordham than Chicago and that is a traditional philosophy MA, that would be a better choice. However, if I were you, I wouldn't do either and apply again in the fall more widely.

I did a one-year MA and found that I was a much stronger writer and scholar at the end of the process, which is why I would echo the advice to wait until you've finished the MA to apply. As far as your job and all that goes, I can't speak to that, but if you have some funding (and won't need to take much in loans) for the MA and are fairly certain you want to go on to the Ph.D., I would probably do one of two things: a) do the MA and then return to your job the year after during which you apply to Ph.D. programs or decline the MA this year and apply again this fall. When you re-apply, apply more broadly to both a range of Ph.D. programs and several funded MA programs. Take your best offer at that point. Can you take a graduate seminar in the fall at a university near where you live to develop a new writing sample? Do you need to boost your GRE and/or subject scores a bit? Can you get some new perspectives on a rewritten SOP? If you can do those things, it may be in your best interest to reapply in the fall rather than doing the MA now. You've got a Ph.D. waitlist and the MA admit, which indicates that you're a strong applicant. Do you think you can make yourself stronger and more competitive? If so, then the reapplication route may be your best option. Good luck!

For the MA, ALWAYS follow the funding. Fit matters most in your Ph.D. where you will be for 6 or more years. Your MA, if you're going on for the Ph.D., is to make you more competitive for Ph.D. programs. Adding debt for the MA when you have the option of funding at another MA is not a good idea. Follow the funding!

Based on my experiences last year (4 admits and one waitlist), I worked through the admits I had and narrowed my choices to two programs. I was waitlisted at UT-Austin and really didn't like how Lesser pretty much never responded to emails, and I had a friend in the department to give me info about funding, department composition, and things like that, so I felt like I had a pretty good idea about how things would go. After visiting both of the admits I had kept in play, I declined one program and then negotiated a bit with the program I liked a lot. After they sweetened the offer, I accepted that admit and declined the waitlist position. I knew at that point I would pick the school I did even if the waitlist had turned into an admit (and even if it had been a direct admit), so I made my decision late March. However, a lot of people will not make decisions until right at the end. I think if you have both admits and waitlists, you should try to narrow your choices down to be fair to the other programs and waitlisters. It's a complicated situation! Good luck to you all!

Summer or while doing coursework is the best time to learn new languages, and it is totally possible to do it while you're in school. Especially if you already have one language and you learn the second in the same language family, you'll find the process pretty smooth. Good luck!

I haven't been a server since 2006, and I STILL get nightmares sometimes. Just awful. Shudder. . .

I think that your instincts as far as location are dead on. If you've got an offer in/near an area where you want to settle down and teach, you should stay there. Part of the advantage to this is that you may be able to adjunct in summers or the regular school year and help secure yourself a position before you even finish your MA. Community colleges can be super competitive, especially if you don't have the Ph.D. Therefore, the more local connections you can demonstrate, the more competitive you will be in landing a TT job at a CC. Congrats and good luck!

Don't do it. I know you want a Ph.D. right now, but do not pay for your Ph.D. Absolutely not. I paid partially for my MA and regret it, even though that is much more common. Reapply until you get a funded position. Worst-case scenario: you get admitted to a Ph.D. program who wants you to pay the first year and then you get funded (Indiana and UWashington, as far as I'm aware, do this). Even that is questionable, but do not pay for a Ph.D.

Congrats! Glad some good news came your way!

While I can certainly sympathize with how little time everyone has as a student, applicant, grad student, etc., I personally found it very useful to read work (articles or book reviews even) of people whose interests seemed to match my own when I was deciding where to apply. I picked a lot of places because I was already familiar with someone's work, but for those I didn't know, I tried to read at least something. I don't think this is academically dishonest at all. In fact, I would argue the opposite--saying in your SOP you want to work with X when you really don't know anything about X's work--is academically dishonest. A profs writing is one of the best ways of determining how they think, what their methodology is, etc. I would also recommend seeing if you can look at course syllabi for classes profs have taught. That's another way of determining a constellation of interests and approaches that can be very helpful when determining whether you think you might fit.

Super, super congrats!!! That makes your experience so much more fun to cheer for from home!

Congratulations!

I'm also early modern poetry, though generally not much past Spenser. Anyway, yeah, I echo hawkeye's observations, though with the caveat that I like a lot of Teskey's work. Also check out Barbara Lewalski. She has excellent work on Herbert and has also written about Milton. Jeff Dolven is really the only prof at Princeton I'm familiar with, but he is interested more in pedagogy (at least his last book was). Congrats on an awesome decision!

I applied there a few years ago, and I believe that most of their incoming Ph.D. cohort of 5-10 is actually composed of their own MA students. It is pretty rare they accept someone with an external MA. This may have changed in the last couple years, though.

Seriously, check out the columbia link I posted earlier. There are other sites as well, but you can TOTALLY remarket yourself for a nonacademic career with an English Ph.D, especially if you add a more "practical" (their words not mine) graduate minor and/or internships, you have tons of marketable skills if you don't want to stay in academia.

Star Trek on the whole is ALWAYS better than Star Wars, even though I still quite like Star Wars (at least episodes 4-6). I'm a huge trekker, though, so my perspective may be biased. I will second (third?) the Sherlock suggestion. DO IT!

This website focuses on marketing oneself for nonacademic jobs after the Ph.D., but a lot of the same skills and advice still apply. http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/tipsheets/non-academic-career-options-phds-and-mas Here are the career fields it focuses on in case you're interested in checking it out. Career Fields Discussed Below Secondary School Teaching Cultural and Historical Organizations Academic Publishing U.S. Federal Government Non-Academic Publishing Professional Research Consulting Higher Education Administration Nonprofit Organizations International Development Financial Services Independent Wo

If getting a new laptop for school, be sure to buy it after August 31 (I think?) because you can have your school count it (one time over your education) as an added expense and you can write it off on your taxes or take a federal loan to get it.

Again, I'll have to get my bio to source links, but if you're not motivated to get a Ph.D. for externally economic reasons, well, I don't think you belong in the field. There are other places. . .like business or something. . .where you can go and get immediate payoffs. A school based on an acceptance determines a Ph.D's worth in the neighborhood of $50000+. For some fields, that's not a lot, but my partner is in law. . .and don't even get me started on how fucked up that field is right now. I think the fact we've got some kind of income for 6 years is worth the gamble. It's not like you can't leave to go do something else. HOWEVER, if that's not what you think, thestage, what the fuck are you doing applying to grad school, let along considerin any offers you might have? If you are sure you'll decline, why not decline now and give those offers to someone who is more certain that this might be their chosen profession? I edit to add that that 50K number is per year. . again, that isn't a huge number.. but given current job stats, it isn't insubstantial either.

And factor in health insurance and tuition. Schools invest over 100K on each student they admit. They love us

Right. . .except that it is 40 mins in ideal traffic and closer to an hour or so to commute from Denver. Additionally, have you looked at real estate prices in Boulder proper? Awful, especially considering their stipend. There are lots of advantages to the school, but it isn't ill sighted to say that a potential grad student should look at more distant housing (though I'd avoid Denver for the distance and cost) for maximizing stipend AND avoiding close (and expensive) housing options that are fucking full of undergrads who party. . cuz Boulder is fun and awesome. . .but a big party school for the undergrads.

I would echo that clarification. . .cuz I have a whole file full of articles about the employability of post-BA-holding degrees in the humanities. . .if you just want those instead, that would relieve me from unloading my bibliography if you don't want it. . .

PM away! If you're an early modernist/medievalist. . I'll probably be emailing you from our recruitment list anyway, but if you're not, you'll hear from someone else AND me We're very excited about all of the prospects on our admitted and waitlist . . list. The funding and maximization of SUPER qualified applicants has really led to a situation where there are just too many awesome people to pick from so it really does end up being pretty arbitrary because all of you are awesome!