jasper.milvain

I can only compare undergrad to my MA, since I haven't started my PhD yet. That being said, graduate school is WAY MORE FUN than undergrad. Having seminars that run long enough to get into substantial, detailed discussions? Fun. Increased access to university and department resources? Fun. Running a classroom? Extremely fun. Feeling like you're actually producing real research instead of running another set of novels through the essay machine? More fun than pretty much anything.

Well, there certainly aren't any red flags in your post. You sound like you're in fine shape to apply, although you can never really know. I wouldn't worry about using an 'A' paper on a writing sample. That's worrying too much. I know that in my MA the threshold for A+ was so high that only the PhD students in our class had a shot at getting one, and then only a very long shot. Instead of the grade for the sample, I'd worry more about the content. Does it show theoretical/methdological sophistication? Does it link to the project that you're pitching for your PhD? If you can show some consistency or a clear progression, it might help. Good luck with the GREs and this whole crazy process!

Hi Jackie, This list only looks organized because I'm writing it after the fact. Most of it is made up of one big Amazon wish list that I made ages ago. So I did the 'pick and choose what I feel like reading' method and came up with something that looks pretty decent. Let me know when you get through Vanity Fair. I haven't read S&S yet, and if you're reading a Dickens or James that I haven't gotten to, I'd be happy to chat.

I think that your lack of a formal background in the arts will hurt your chances much more than the time you've spent out of school. Has your solitary reading included criticism/works on methodology/theory? I know many people who are very widely read and well informed, but they would struggle mightily to earn an excellent grade in a senior undergraduate class in a specific discipline because they have not had the training in disciplinary standards and practices, methodology, etc. that you learn through a formal arts education. Without a deep understanding of the state of the discipline you intend to pursue, its current trends in terms of both content and methodology, and what constitutes publishable work, you are unlikely to be able to propose a research project that will get you accepted.

Hi Jackie, I'm also reading Victorian lit this summer, as well as some Edwardian stuff. Here's my list: Arnold Bennett - The Old Wives' Tale - Over There: War Scenes from the Western Front Charles Dickens - Bleak House - David Copperfield - The Mystery of Edwin Drood George Eliot - Danel Deronda - Felix Holt, Radical Elizabeth Gaskell - Ruth H. Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines - She Henry James - Roderick Hudson - The Bostonians - The Golden Bowl - The Wings of the Dove - The Princess Cassimassima G. B. Shaw - Major Barbara - Pygmalion - Man and Superman Robert Louis Stevenson - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Treasure Island H. G. Wells - Love and Mr. Lewisham - The Shape of Things to Come - The History of Mr. Polly Edith Wharton - The House of Mirth - Ethan Frome Jules Verne - Around the World in 80 Days - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea There must be some I'm forgetting... Obviously it's a bit of a quirky list. I'm filling in big canonic holes in my reading (Dickens, Eliot, etc), reading the late Victorian cranks that I'm really interested in (Wells, Shaw, James) and fleshing out the popular culture that they were writing in (Haggard, Stevenson, Verne). What are your plans? Any particular angle you're taking?

Goodboy, have you tried posting in the Gainsville thread in the City Guides forum, or starting one if it's needed?

I can't answer a few of your questions, but I'll tackle the ones I can. I'm counting on us being in my PhD town for at least five years, if not ten (delays and leaves could stretch the degree, plus guaranteed sessional work after graduation if I can't find a job). That length of time should be enough for us to build up a respectable amount of principal. When we move, we'll sell. I don't expect house prices to stay this low forever, so if we're lucky we'll have some profit to add to the principal we've accrued. If you rent a place out, there are companies that you can hire to manage the rental for you so that you're not trying to be a long distance landlord while (hopefully!) on the tenure track. They take a percentage of the rent. We put a 36% down payment on our condo, made up of some money I inherited and some we took from my husband's RRSPs. At least in Canada, the rule is that if you don't have a 20% down payment, you have to get extra insurance on your mortgage, which is costly. Obviously, the more you are able to put down, the less interest you'll have to pay and the more of your money you can keep. I strongly suggest playing around with an amorization calculator like this one: http://www.bretwhissel.net/amortization/amortize.html It shows you how many dollars from each payment go to interest, and how many to principal. At first, the majority of your montly payment goes into the bank's pocket. Try playing around with different lengths of time and different mortgage amounts and seeing how the ratio of interest to principal changes. You can also look at the 5 year mark and see how much you will have accrued over the course of your PhD. I love toys like this.

Congratulations, Synthla! Larbre, the tax on our condo will only be ~$1500/year. Very manageable. I've been playing with mortgage calculators and amortization schedules, and it looks like we bought so cheaply that our monthly payments will be around $750 with the current low interest rate on a 20 year mortgage. Isn't that crazy? Of course, we have condo fees and tax on top of that, and we'll be slowly re-paying the money we borrowed from my husband's RRSPs to top up our down payment. You can remove up to $25 000 from RRSPs without penalty to buy a first home in Canada, as long as you pay it back within 10 years. It will all add up to a very manageable amount, though.

I just put an offer in on a condo in my PhD city! Eep! Wish me luck. ETA: My husband and I had our offer accepted. We put in a deposit, and the deal is set pending financing.

It's probably because they're pitching the business SSHRCs politically as a 'stimulus measure' (don't get me started), so they only want them to go to students working directly within the economy they're supposedly stimulating.

If the programs are run out of different departments, I don't see why the admissions committees would even know that you had applied to the other program. Presumably, academics understand that intellectual interests don't always fit neat little boxes, and will not see your breadth of interests as a negative as long as you can make a compelling case for why you belong in each program. At some schools you have to pay the app fee for each one, though, so spend your money wisely.

I answered the footstool, but it didn't respond. What do you want to do with the MA in English? There are specific circumstances in which it could make a lot of sense, like if you were a high school teacher improving your credentials, or were looking at government jobs where grad degrees up your pay. It'll make you stand out from the crowd somewhat. But I know a lot of people with humanities and social science MAs who are working the same desk jobs as the people with BAs. Maybe the experience was worth it, maybe not. But an English MA is certainly NOT a degree that will boost your job prospects in general, and it is absolutely not a degree to go into debt for. Have you figured out ways of funding it?

I was thinking about this topic and remembered a recent job search for an American Lit prof held at my former school. All three of the candidates who made it to the campus interviews had a traditional PhD and wider ranging research interests. We hired someone with a traditional degree who is now cheerfully publishing on music, TV, politics, pop culture, etc. I know that the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data', but it does confirm my view.

Looking at a mortgage schedule to figure out how much principle you'll build up can be very encouraging as well. We currently pay $1100/month rent for a small two bedroom with a washing machine in the back yard. We're looking at places literally twice the size of our current apartment, some with insuite laundry, storage, covered parking and *gasp* DISHWASHERS (the ultimate luxury) at prices that would result in a $900 mortgage, and get bumped up to $1200-$1500/month with utilities and condo fees. Even if we don't do much more than break even financially, the difference in our quality of housing will be more than worth it.

MsMPP- I'm definitely missing the company of my old cohort during this break. Just the casual hallway chit chat and sense of camaraderie. And your discipline has cute boys? I clearly picked the wrong field. Although if you meet your cute boys through grad socials or committee work, you can date outside of your department to minimize awkwardness. Dherres- I'm in moving-date limbo as well. My husband is planning to work for the same company in our new city as he does here, but they've been dragging their heels like crazy over getting him formally set up with a new position. Until all our ducks are in a row, we can't get a mortgage for the condo we're hoping to buy. At this point, I'm coming up with various contingency plans about how late we can leave condos vs. rentals, how long we can camp out at my folks' while waiting for a place to come through, when to book a house hunting trip, etc etc. And I'm unemployed, so I have lots of free time to think myself into knots! It's getting close, though. Everything in my current city is getting this kind of nostalgic tinge to it. I can't wait to have everything sorted, and be able to just throw myself into work.

I used the same research proposal for my SOP that I used for my external grant app, and was very successful with admissions and funding, although not successful at this round of external grants. It lays out the cultural/literary context that I want to work on, explains my proposed methodology and why it's relevant, narrows the scope down to specific authors and texts, then lays out a rough structure for my proposed dissertation. I only mention my personal experience in the final paragraph, and only to lay out my background on the topic, the topic of my MA paper, my service activities, and which professors at the target school would be a good fit for me. I think SOPs should be about research, research, research. They're not looking for a gang of nice people to hang around with. They're looking for future members of the academy to staff their classrooms, assist their research, finish in a timely manner, and be productive enough to enhance the reputation of the department.

*The usual caveat that this is all based on my own limited sense of what's going on, and I'm just a junior as everyone else here applies as usual. I think that interdisciplinary projects are still largely based out of traditional departments. While there is a lot of support for interdisciplinarity, it gets played out in grad programs and in colloborations between established professors, not in institutional structures or undergraduate classes. So while having an interdisciplinary background may make your research record look more appealing to a search committee, and qualify you to teach some interesting grad seminars or supervise interD PhD students, it may cause people to question your 'fit', and make you appear unprepared to run discipline-specific undergraduate classes. Given that it is possible (more difficult, but possible) to do interdisciplinary research with a traditional PhD, the only real benefit seems to be on the graduate instruction side. And if you end up at a research school, you'll teach a grad seminar once every what, two or three years or so, and 4-6 undergrad classes each year? I'm willing to bet that most universities have more trouble covering their discipline-specific 200, 300, and 400 level courses than they do getting willing instructors for grad seminars. That's all to say that I think a Lit PhD with an interdisciplinary research track record would be much more marketable than an Interdisciplinary or 'Studies' PhD with a lit background.

This sounds absolutely brilliant. I think your decision to focus on the research is dead on.

Welcome to the board! There are lots of grad students in their 30s, 40s, 50s. In my experience, the majority are in their mid-twenties, but you certainly won't stand out at 32. Some programs run part time to allow their students to work, but these are few and far between. Part time students also have miserably low completion rates compared to their full time colleagues. And once you're on the job market, you'll be competing with people who had the luxury of devoting all their time not just to studying, but to all of the extra work that comes along with grad school: going to conferences, polishing papers for publication, networking, and serving on committees. If you want to give yourself the best chance possible of finishing, and finishing in competitive shape, go full time. Funding will vary from school to school. It is more likely that you will get full funding for a PhD than for an MA. You can find information on school and department websites, or politely contact the director of grad studies to ask about funding. You can look through the results pages here for some info on funding packages, or poke around the 'history' sub-forum. I don't know about schools in China. One more thing you should definitely do before applying is make sure you know what the current research in your field looks like. This is key. Get access to JSTOR or Project Muse or the MLA bibliography through a library and read up on recent articles both in the broader discipline, and in your sub-field. This will help you write a statement of purpose that sounds feasible, and help your admissions. It will also let you know if you're suited for producing research in the current climate (ie-that the methodology hasn't changed so much since you were an undergrad that you can't stand it anymore). Enjoying learning is great, but it's not enough for grad school. You also need to enjoy producing research, and producing it in a publishable form. Best of luck, and enjoy your summer.

I'm...shall we say...SEVERELY under-employed. I've been enjoying myself spending time with friends and reading, reading, reading, but I'm dying to be busy and productive again. I'm also relying on my husband for living expenses, which drives me nuts. I'm normally very stubborn about pulling my weight. Plus my classes look amazing, I can't wait to live in the prairies again, I want to meet my cohort, I want my shiny new stack of books.... there's nothing like September. And yes, I am one of those crazy dorks who gets kind of depressed every time summer starts.

I'm sure you're right about Brown, but just want to say that this: is the case for 99% of Canadian students. That's what we get for having cheap tuition (~$5000/year). So if any applicants to Canada are reading this in the future, don't freak out!

I want to second rising_star. I got in to four schools, and each had a different requirement for writing samples (one paper, two papers, nothing...). I ended up going to the school that didn't require an additional sample. But they had my SOP, a 400 word summary of it, grades for my writing intensive programs, and letters attesting to my writing/research abilities. There's tons of proof in an application packet that attests to an applicant's writing skills besides the sample.

Traffic around here is pretty slow now that everyone has made their decisions for 2009, Sylvia. I wouldn't stress out about a lack of responses. Maybe you'll get more if you come back in the fall?

Another vote for the technology degree. If you do go for the humanities degree (assuming that both choices are funded--if not, there's your decision made for you) an English degree likely be more marketable within the academy, simply because there are many more English classes and English departments than there are American studies classes and departments. Interdisciplinary degrees and degrees that end in 'studies' may have great teaching and research models, but that doesn't necessarily translate into good fits with traditional programs, or the appearance of that fit to search committees. But seriously, get the technology degree.

I certainly wouldn't lead with stats. Picture yourself as a professor. What would you care about? Probably someone's interest, their research plans, why they're interested in the program.