Origin=Goal

Two Espressos: Dokkey's post is correct for two reasons. The first being that one should certainly not make decisions solely off factors such as how "elite" the institution appears or via relatively uninformed a prioris based on either a welcome reception or projections concerning a school based on its location (although location should certainly be a factor).

The second point he makes (although without at all being aware of it) is that every discipline is filled with pretentious jerks, in fact some of the most egregiously unselfconscious cretins you'll likely encounter. This is important. It should go to show that the academy (like the individual institution) should not be romanticized, as it is not abstracted from many of the petty, undesirable features of normal jobs (quite the contrary) and is becoming increasingly less secure and more competitive. In applying, you'll be fighting tooth and nail for a slightly-better-than-subsistence financial allowance, in order to be more overwork than you've ever been and write scholarship that only a handful of people will read or care about-- still all the while have to deal with bloated egos such as our model one (qua departmental politics, rivalries, administrators who will do everything in their powers to incinerate your budget/funding, etc).

You have been warned, good luck next year.

Two Espressos: Dokkey's post is correct for two reasons. The first being that one should certainly not make decisions solely off factors such as how "elite" the institution appears or via relatively uninformed a prioris based on either a welcome reception or projections concerning a school based on its location (although location should certainly be a factor).

The second point he makes (although without at all being aware of it) is that every discipline is filled with pretentious jerks, in fact some of the most egregiously unselfconscious cretins you'll likely encounter. This is important. It should go to show that the academy (like the individual institution) should not be romanticized, as it is not abstracted from many of the petty, undesirable features of normal jobs (quite the contrary) and is becoming increasingly less secure and more competitive. In applying, you'll be fighting tooth and nail for a slightly-better-than-subsistence financial allowance, in order to be more overwork than you've ever been and write scholarship that only a handful of people will read or care about-- still all the while have to deal with bloated egos such as our model one (qua departmental politics, rivalries, administrators who will do everything in their powers to incinerate your budget/funding, etc).

You have been warned, good luck next year.

Two Espressos: Dokkey's post is correct for two reasons. The first being that one should certainly not make decisions solely off factors such as how "elite" the institution appears or via relatively uninformed a prioris based on either a welcome reception or projections concerning a school based on its location (although location should certainly be a factor).

The second point he makes (although without at all being aware of it) is that every discipline is filled with pretentious jerks, in fact some of the most egregiously unselfconscious cretins you'll likely encounter. This is important. It should go to show that the academy (like the individual institution) should not be romanticized, as it is not abstracted from many of the petty, undesirable features of normal jobs (quite the contrary) and is becoming increasingly less secure and more competitive. In applying, you'll be fighting tooth and nail for a slightly-better-than-subsistence financial allowance, in order to be more overwork than you've ever been and write scholarship that only a handful of people will read or care about-- still all the while have to deal with bloated egos such as our model one (qua departmental politics, rivalries, administrators who will do everything in their powers to incinerate your budget/funding, etc).

You have been warned, good luck next year.

Two Espressos: Dokkey's post is correct for two reasons. The first being that one should certainly not make decisions solely off factors such as how "elite" the institution appears or via relatively uninformed a prioris based on either a welcome reception or projections concerning a school based on its location (although location should certainly be a factor).

The second point he makes (although without at all being aware of it) is that every discipline is filled with pretentious jerks, in fact some of the most egregiously unselfconscious cretins you'll likely encounter. This is important. It should go to show that the academy (like the individual institution) should not be romanticized, as it is not abstracted from many of the petty, undesirable features of normal jobs (quite the contrary) and is becoming increasingly less secure and more competitive. In applying, you'll be fighting tooth and nail for a slightly-better-than-subsistence financial allowance, in order to be more overwork than you've ever been and write scholarship that only a handful of people will read or care about-- still all the while have to deal with bloated egos such as our model one (qua departmental politics, rivalries, administrators who will do everything in their powers to incinerate your budget/funding, etc).

You have been warned, good luck next year.

Two Espressos: Dokkey's post is correct for two reasons. The first being that one should certainly not make decisions solely off factors such as how "elite" the institution appears or via relatively uninformed a prioris based on either a welcome reception or projections concerning a school based on its location (although location should certainly be a factor).

The second point he makes (although without at all being aware of it) is that every discipline is filled with pretentious jerks, in fact some of the most egregiously unselfconscious cretins you'll likely encounter. This is important. It should go to show that the academy (like the individual institution) should not be romanticized, as it is not abstracted from many of the petty, undesirable features of normal jobs (quite the contrary) and is becoming increasingly less secure and more competitive. In applying, you'll be fighting tooth and nail for a slightly-better-than-subsistence financial allowance, in order to be more overwork than you've ever been and write scholarship that only a handful of people will read or care about-- still all the while have to deal with bloated egos such as our model one (qua departmental politics, rivalries, administrators who will do everything in their powers to incinerate your budget/funding, etc).

You have been warned, good luck next year.

This is honestly the stupidest reason to think about schools. Go for good programs with good funding that fit you--the idiotic stereotypes you have about a state just make you seem like a jackass when you put it like that.

This is a magic art form, requiring foresight, cunning, and leverage; I have no idea how to tactfully do this (I didn't get in contact any POIs, since most of the high profile faculty I wanted to work with were too busy), and am curious what has worked for others.

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.

Off the heels of your post, I remembered to go ahead and decline Buffalo. Hope that helps some lucky Am Studies scholar!

It's best not to jerk a program around and jump through all the hoops-- as well as spend their diminishing recruitment, tie up the admission spot for someone else, etc--if you're SURE you aren't going there...it was strange, but I declined two offers already. One of which was from a faculty member I was close with, hinting that, since I had gotten a much better offer elsewhere, I should consider declining early; his ability to recommend someone else was tied up by my admission, and I had no intentions of going there.

So it might not be easy (its actually quite difficult), but you really are doing more harm than necessary by waiting til the 15th of April on a decision that is for you already made. The department and the DGS at the rejected school will live, don't worry; in fact you'll be helping them more by giving them some time to find the best replacement possible. Of course, don't prematurely decline if the choice is not so easy, but we all really should be more inclined to do so. The second school's recruitment weekend I couldn't make (due to work), and simply told them I declined when I declined the visit (I imagine they kind of got the point anyway).

I wrote up an exhaustive--and exhausting--list of questions before my visit last year and am pasting it below. Keep in mind that encoded within these questions are assumptions and preferences that are likely specific to me and what I was looking for. Also, though I asked many of these questions during my visits, I also found that, in the scheme of things, most of these questions--or, I should say, most of the answers--didn't really matter in my decision-making process. In much the same way that stats tell you something, but not necessarily something useful, about what programs are looking for and what your fellow applicants are like, these questions often tell you structural things about a department but not what it actually feels like to be there. Everyone's mileage will vary, of course, but I found myself not caring if, say, prelims were written or oral (though I had a preference) if everything else about the program was appealing. In the end, if it's a program you love, you'll jump through whatever hoops it presents. I highly recommend visiting schools, as there were programs at which my instinctive reaction told me everything I needed to know after about 5 minutes of being there. Additionally, visiting schools lets you make contact with people who will be important to your work regardless if you end up working with them directly. Good luck! It's an exciting, if unnerving time, and as difficult as it was last year to weigh the options, I found myself missing the sense of possibility after I had made a decision that I was (and am) very happy with.


-PLACES TO STUDY AND WORK
-Where do most people do their writing and reading?
-What study spaces are available? Do students get a carrel? Do those who teach get or share an office?

-LIBRARY
-What is the library system like? Are the stacks open or closed?
-What are the library hours?
-Are there specialized archives/primary sources that would be useful to my research?
-Are there specialist librarians who can help me with my research?

-FACULTY
-Are the faculty members I want to work with accepting new students? Are any of those faculty members due for a sabbatical any time soon?
-Are professors willing to engage you on a personal level rather than just talking about your work?
-Are there any new professors the department is hiring in areas that align with my interests?
-Students’ relationships with their professors – are they primarily professional, or are they social as well?

-FUNDING
-Is funding competitive? If so, do students feel a distinction between those who have received more generous funding and those who haven’t?
-How does funding break down among the cohort? i.e., how many people receive fellowships?
-How, if you don’t have much savings, do you make enough money to live comfortably?
-Are there external fellowships one can apply to? If so, what is available? Does the program help you apply for these fellowships? How does receiving an external fellowship affect internal funding?
-If people need more than five/six years to finish, what funding resources are available? (For instance, Columbia can give you an additional 2-year teaching appointment.)
-Do you provide funding for conferences or research trips?
-How often is funding disbursed? (i.e., do you get paid monthly or do you have to stretch a sum over a longer period of time?)

-COHORT
-Do students get along with each other? Is the feeling of the program more collaborative than competitive?
-Do students in different years of the program collaborate with each other, or are individual cohorts cliquey?
-How many offers are given out, and what is the target number of members for an entering class?
-Ages/marital status of people in the cohort – do most people tend to be married with families? Are there younger people? Single people? What sense do you have of how the graduate students interact with each other socially?
-Do people seem happy? If they’re stressed, is it because they’re busy or is it because they’re anxious/depressed/cynical/disillusioned?
-Is the grad secretary/program administrator nice?
-What is the typical time to completion? What are the factors that slow down or speed up that time?
-I’ve read that there are two kinds of attrition: “good” attrition, in which people realize that the program, or graduate study, isn’t right for them and leave early on, and “bad” attrition, in which people don’t finish the dissertation. What can you tell me about the rates of each, and of the reasons why people have chosen to leave the program?

-JOB MARKET/PROFESSIONALIZATION
-What is the placement rate? How many of those jobs are tenure-track?
-What are examples of institutions in which people in my field have been placed?
-How does the department prepare you for the job search? Are there mock interviews and mock job talks?
-Are the people helping you navigate the job search people who have recently gone through the process themselves?
-If you don’t get placed, is there anything the department can do for you? (e.g., can you stay an extra year?)
-How does the department prepare you for and help you attain conference presentations and publications?

-SUMMER WORK
-What is encouraged/required?
-If there separate funding/is the year-round funding enough to live on during the summer?
-Do people find themselves needing to get outside work during the summer in order to have enough money?
-Am I expected to stay in town in the summer, and what happens if I don’t?

-LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT
-What is done to help people who don’t have language proficiency attain it? Does the university provide funding?
-What is the requirement, and by when do you have to meet it?
-Given my research interests, what languages should I study?
-When do you recommend doing the work necessary to fulfill the language requirement? (i.e., summer before first year, summer after first year, while taking classes, etc.)

-LOCATION REQUIREMENTS
-How long are students required to be in residence?
-How many students stay in the location for the duration of the program? (i.e., how many dissertate in residence?)
-How is funding affected if you don’t stay?

-Incompletes on papers at the end of the term: What is the policy, how many students take them, and how does this affect progress through the program?

-TEACHING
-What sort of training is provided?
-What types of courses do people teach?
-Does teaching entail serving as a grader? Serving as a TA? Developing and teaching a section of comp?
-How are students placed as TAs? Is there choice about what classes you teach and which professors you work with? Do classes correspond to your field?
-How many courses do you teach per semester/year?
-How many students are in your classes?
-How does the school see teaching as fitting in with the other responsibilities/requirements of graduate study?
-How do students balance teaching with their own work?
-Is the department more concerned with training you as a teacher/professor or with having cheap labor to teach their classes?
-How, if at all, does the economic downturn affect teaching load/class sizes?
-What are the students like? Can I sit in on a course a TA teaches to get a sense of them?

-METHODOLOGY
-Is a theory course required?
-What methodology do most people use?
-Where, methodologically, do you see the department – and the discipline – heading?
-Is interdisciplinarity encouraged, and what sorts of collaboration have students undertaken?

-Typical graduate class and seminar sizes

-What should I do to prepare over the summer?

-Ask people I know: What are the questions – both about the program itself and about the location – I should ask that will most help me get a feel for whether this is the right program for me?

-Ask people I know: What do you wish you knew or wish you had asked before choosing a program?

-Is the school on the semester or the quarter system, and how does that affect classes/teaching/requirements?

-What is the course load for each semester, and how many courses are required?

-What kind of support is provided while writing the dissertation? I worry about the isolation and anxiety of writing such a big project. What does the program do to help you break the dissertation down into manageable pieces, and to make the experience less isolating?

-What do writing assignments look like in classes? Do they differ based on the type/level of class and/or based on whether you intend to specialize in the field?

-Ask professors: what have you been working on lately?

-Ask professors: What is your approach to mentoring and advising graduate students?

-How long are class meetings?

-How often do professors teach graduate courses?

-Are course schedules available for future semesters (10-11, etc.)?

-Can I see the grad student handbook? Are there any other departmental documents – such as reports on the program prepared for accreditation – that I can see?


-QUALITY OF LIFE
-Prices – how does the cost of gas, milk, cereal, etc. compare to other places I've lived in?
-Cost and quality of typical one-bedroom apartment.
-What does the university do to provide you with or help you find housing?
-When (i.e., what month) do people start looking for an apartment for the fall, and where do they look?
-Is it easy to find a summer subletter?
-How close to campus can—and should—one live?
-What grocery stores are there in town?
-How late are cafes, bookstores, malls, restaurants typically open?
-What do people do to make extra money?
-Does the town have more of a driving or a walking culture? What is parking like near campus (availability, ease, cost)?
-Where do most English grad students live? Most other grad students? Most professors? Where is the student ghetto? Do most students live near each other, or are they spread out far and wide?
-How far does the stipend go in this location?

My pick is Dickens' Oliver Twist. reading it was like swimming in a tar pit ............ while on fire.




I could only make it 5 pages through White Teeth. Barf. Diaz's Drown is better than Brief/Wonderous; the former is a more traditional novel feel while the latter is more entertaining.



lolwut



what is this I don't even

Another thing that just came to mind: if you are waitlisted for your top choice, and it doesn't look like you'll necessarily get in, it's worthwhile to ask any POI what they think your chances are for getting in during the next admissions cycle. I'm incredibly thankful I didn't have to go through with that, but when I first met with the professor who's now my advisor, she encouraged me to reapply to this program if I didn't get in off the waitlist, and pretty much guaranteed that I would not be rejected a second time around.

And wikichic, I actually did not find out until the week leading up to April 15. I was contacted via email on the 10th by the DGS at the university I presently attend; she told me that it looked very likely that they would have a spot for me if I still wanted it but asked me to confirm that I was still interested, since if I wasn't they would want to notify the people lower down on the list as quickly as possible. I wrote back and told her honestly that this school was absolutely my first choice and I was willing to wait. The afternoon of the 14th, I received my offer email, and I wrote back immediately accepting their offer. Later that night I actually got an email from my #2 school asking if I was still interested in remaining on their waitlist; this email suggested there might have been a spot for me if I wanted it. I responded immediately saying that I'd already accepted another offer. And then one school had the audacity to email me on the 19th saying that they were sorry if I had made up my mind already but they were obviously the best school ever and there were ways to get out of commitments I had previously made elsewhere, since a spot had miraculously opened up! (They were at the bottom of my list, and I never felt quite so good as when I got to email them back saying "as if!" I mean, not in so many words...but still.)

I have a lot of empathy, michigan girl. Reading through the "suggestions" offered up here are making a little outraged on your behalf--I guess some people have never been in a situation where the rent, bills, etc are piling up and legitimate work cannot be found. It's confounding to see how bad the economic situation is even outside of higher ed (to say nothing of matters such as personal dignity or self-esteem).

I haven't even been able to get entry level service jobs over here, and I have experience in every line of work I've tried. Shit is as bad as its been since the the 1930's; a better time than ever to take up an intense study of Marx...

Frankly, I'd prefer immediate rejects to endless waiting with false hope:-(

I guess it just seems to me that a question of equal relevance is "do any of your recommenders have personal or professional relationships with faculty at schools that accepted you?" But perhaps that's a separate issue.

your poll has problems, buddy. i emailed profs at some places and not others, and got into some places and not others.

I've got to be honest - I don't really agree with some of these comments. You need to look out for yourself in this process and if you don't tell the school you'd accept their place, they're less likely to accept you and is that something you want to risk? I know that this may be somewhat dishonest but it's not like you don't want to go there, you do, there just happens to be another place you want to go to more - that doesn't preclude you wanting to accept their offer. I don't think it's that fair to be asked the question but I was asked this for an MBA place I got last year and said yes - I didn't go - and the school has since sent me a personal email and asked me to reapply this year, so clearly I didn't mortally offend them. As it turns out, I won't reapply as I want to do an MPA instead but still, the point remains - unless you actively wouldn't go there if accepted (and I doubt you would've gone to the effort of applying if that was the case) then I think you should say yes if asked.

Eagleton's "Literary Theory" isn't a bad place to start, but if you're interested in critical theory as such you can really do no better to start with Marx (quickly followed by Freud), as his critique of political economy really forms the bedrock for social theory sui generis. Buffet-style anthologies are good (especially as primers with an expressly historical overview), but an interest "in it all" requires, in my view, digging into the thing itself.

One could do much worse than Capital Vol 1, but I think Lukacs's History and Class Consciousness is probably an easier start, especially for those of us with an interest in the development of Frankfurt School aesthetic and social theory. Wherever one starts, I feel he or she will inevitably need to learn this material; I made my way there from Foucault and have been much happier, personally! Gail Ruben might also be a good point of departure, given your specific interests.

* remove that stray "I" . . . that's what typing while consuming Bulliet does to you

Anyone who thinks that the vanishing job market, disappearance of funding, shrinking graduate cohort, and so forth are in any way exclusive to literature is terribly mistaken; the crisis of the humanities is exsanguinating the languages (ever ask anyone how the job market is in French these days?), ethnic studies, cultural studies, film, theater, busking--hell, its even begun to affect the social sciences considerably (especially its critical wing: history, anthropology, etc).

Don't be so assured that the enfeebled, shrinking field of literary studies does not reflect your own situation. Despite the moderate growth we've heard so much in Composition (a discipline I by no means am degrading here), we're all fighting to board and effectively sinking ship here. But we do so to avoid what is many ways an even worse economic situation, to say nothing of the social/cultural one outside of the academy.

...unless they're a bunch of misogynistic capitalists.

English (Lit)= English Lit, Comparative Literature=Multiple Language/National Literatures (to be frank, the field is basically arbitrary), Rhetoric/Composition= Language composition, acquisition, etc; "Rhetoric" (e.g. Berkeley's Rhetoric Dept.) sometimes houses whatever academic trends and experiments (usually theoretical ones) that can't fit in other places.

English (Lit)= English Lit, Comparative Literature=Multiple Language/National Literatures (to be frank, the field is basically arbitrary), Rhetoric/Composition= Language composition, acquisition, etc; "Rhetoric" (e.g. Berkeley's Rhetoric Dept.) sometimes houses whatever academic trends and experiments (usually theoretical ones) that can't fit in other places.

Although I'm stoked about the possibility that the email I got about this fellowship application *might* indicate admissions possibility, asking applicants to write up response essays over one weekend is cruel!