Litapp

"Mel Gibson spanking" makes me laugh. Don't know why. Maybe "facestanding" is a canadian thing...

Grilledcheese — yeah, those employment statistics are frightening. Of course, many brilliant professors have gone to lower-ranked schools and many mediocre professors higher-ranked school, but I still think one needs to be a bit pragmatic. From what I know, normally stipends go from $9,000 to $20,000+ a year, with occasional multiple fellowship years and almost always some teaching. I think a reasonable goal is $12,000+ , at least one year fellowship, no more than one course teaching per semester. Some good schools give less (Florida seems to require lots of teaching for little money) and others more (Penn seems to be handing out $18,500 for five years with only two years teaching). Really varies by school. Support after the fifth year is more rare, but I think Urbana gives it. Average national time to degree: 8.5 years, although this too varies greatly by program. People seem to finish quickly at Michigan and spend lifetimes at Berkeley. I think getting in touch with a professor is good — as long as your motive isn’t obvious. I personally haven’t done it, but many do. Although I don’t want to sway you, here are some things to think about: if you try and transfer from a MA to a high-ranked PhD, multiple publications/conference papers will be important. They are much less important when applying straight out of a BA. Also, almost all schools will tell you the competition is more “keen

My advice is probably not worth much, but here goes. First, I would take a look at your goals. If you would like to teach at a research university, be aware that a recent study showed that 57% percent of English professors who teach in these programs got their PhDs from a top-ten program — 75% from a top twenty. If you decide to take a year off and mount another attack at some top 20s, here are a couple concrete things you can do. First, I would try to get your Verbal score into the 700s (using the various study guides is essential) and if you have the time, improve the subject test score (there is a guide for this as well, but the subject test is less important). Beware that the GRE is about to change the structure of their general test. I don’t think you mentioned AW, but 5.5-6 is what they usually look for. Second, having a strong background in one foreign language is key, some progress in a second is desirable. Finally, presenting papers at conferences is fairly easy, much less difficult than publishing, so you could give it a shot. If you decide to not accept the MA (and I don’t know what the right answer would be), you might one to take a close look at one aspect of your application that makes you stick out, and try to underline it even more. Also, the second time around I spent about two months on my personal statement — the first time I wrote it in a week.

There is a very good guide to grad apps that can be found on the English website at the University of Pittsburgh (put together by Prof. Michael West). He gives case studies of former students who have taken many different paths to grad acceptance — very helpful. If you choose not to attend the MA, you should know that one can make significant progress in a year. I was rejected everywhere I applied last year and this year I was accepted with funding by seven of the fourteen programs I applied to — most top 20. To do this, one needs to do everything humanly possible to improve one's application in such a short span... and then more. Every case is different, and I can't really give any advice. Maybe you should talk with some professors.