Former EGSer

I graduated from EGS with a PhD a while ago. I'm curious what people are saying about it now and found your question, so maybe I can share with you some of my views of and experiences with the program. It's more 'European' than 'American.' What I mean is you go there mainly to study under the masters and make contacts. Since getting a job in the US nowadays primarily means publishing, this part you'd have to be *ferociously* independent and motivated on your own about - much more so than at a US institution where there are a plethora of reviews, checkpoints and other bureaucratic procedures along the way to produce academics hirable at similar institutions. At EGS you're (for the most part) your own reviewer. That's not to say the faculty don't advise - most do (I point out here that a lot of the 'superstars' on the EGS roster actually are also academics at US institutions, so they're intimately familiar with that system), but, obviously, the chances of your being noticed by someone like, say, Agamben are much less than if you were to study with - let me be frank - a nobody (ie some middling academic known pretty much only by their 2 or 3 peers at conferences), at a middling school. But that's the case regardless of whether you're studying at EGS or the Sorbonne. At EGS, I have to say, it's more sink or swim - IF you're good enough, and IF you're liked enough, faculty (esp Wolfgang Schirmacher) will go out of their way to help you (feedback your work, help you make contacts with other, maybe less 'available' faculty). Some people may find this way of doing things opaque, but (ironically) this is what happens when you try to dispense with 'bureaucracy,' in favor of a more 'personal,' preferential way of running things. Like I said, more old-school 'European' (though Continental Europe's fast changing now itself, thanks to globalization). If you like 'process,' more 'democracy,' and security in being babied through the standard hoops, then EGS is not for you. If your goal is to land somewhere in the middle, and that's good enough for you, then EGS is not for you. If you're lazy, EGS is not for you. In the end, your publication record plus recommendation letters are the most important part of your job application. Some US institutions may balk, but that's something you have to evaluate and decide whether you want to take a chance on. I can tell you, though, if you publish well and publish enough, and manage to get good letters from 1 or 2 of the 'superstars,' the 'unconventionality' of EGS becomes much less of an issue when you're applying for jobs and going on job talks. When I graduated, (after preparing my materials thoroughly and well in advance, and guidance from Dr Schirmacher through some delicate interpersonal waters) I got 2 'superstar' letters, and (after working my a$ off) published in 2 tier-1 Continental philosophy journals. When I was ABD, I got 1 phone interview from a prestious US liberal arts college, 6 campus interviews, including 1 foreign university and 1 R1/VH flagship US university, all for tenure-track Asst Prof positions. I got 1 offer (alas not the one I was praying for), but turned it down mainly because I think I can do a lot better. And this was when the economy was in its deepest. So don't let the un-USness of EGS scare you off of job prospects. The fears are untrue. (The untraditionality issue did come up during the interviews, but it was only briefly discussed.) As a sidenote, I can also tell you, as I have a close friend there, the politics at Columbia (given your interest in EGS I surmise you're applying to their Comp Lit or some adjacent program) in the Comp Lit Dpt is absolutely TOXIC. (I'm talking about students sabotaging each other's work, back-stabbing, faculty tantrums, excommunications and other insanities.) So don't think just because a program is in the US that it's more normal or 'safe.' Also, I just want to comment on how weird it is, no matter what kind or amount of evidence and facts you put up, if people simply refuse to believe something, there's just no convincing them otherwise. People like Zizek, Badiou, and even Agamben and Baudrillard (read his Cool Memories V, where he talks about Saas-Fee, where the EGS campus is, as he came to our school in 2004) have all already spoken publicly at EGS and about EGS, and yet some people are still convinced it's a 'scam' (usually changing their criteria of what 'scam' means to them as they go along, and as more evidence is shown to them). It's incredible. I guess Freud truly still lives.