siarabird

Thanks so much for this! Haha, I don't actually believe I am ready by any means. My focus right now is more of writing excellent papers for the classes I am currently taking (gotta get that GPA, as well as writing experience), and reading into the publications of leading theorists in my field as well as the publications of the POIs I hope to work with in the future. It's actually quite a load off my back hearing that it isn't normal. Thanks!

Hey guys. I was just wondering, is it normal/expected for undergraduate English students to publish papers or present at conferences? Have any of you guys done these things in your undergraduate years? I feel like I saw somewhere on these forums someone mentioning publishing as an undergrad or presenting their first paper at a conference...I've never done any of these things before (I'm currently a junior) nor have any of my English professors ever even mentioned such things. I actually just had to do a bit of research to find out what conferences are and what it even means to present a paper. If it is something that I should be doing (considering that I'm going to start applying to PhD programs next fall and I can't imagine that this kind of experience would exactly hurt my chances) does anyone have any tips on getting started? Thanks in advance for your advice guys, I'm addicted to you awesome people here on GradCafe.

Thank you so much for posting that! I've seen the video that prompted the above video, with the girl who "wanted to study death in literature"

I don't have the time to write a full reply right now but, just...thank you. Thank all of you. You're making me tear up a little bit. Thank you for understanding and giving me a bit of hope again. I don't have anyone to talk to in real life about this kind of stuff because I'm the first person in my whole extended family to ever even go to college, and none of my friends are in college either. I love you guys.

http://chronicle.com...l-in-the/44846/ Basically outlined in that article are a whole host of reasons to never ever ever get a PhD in the Humanities. I see this kind of information everywhere on the internet, and hear it from a lot of people in person. None of this ever came as a surprise to me, I've been aware of the terrible job market for as long as I can remember. I just feel so frustrated reading these things because, well, maybe I'm trying to get into a PhD program for other reasons than just getting a job after I graduate. I'm trying to get into a PhD program because I'm going to be a senior next year, and I actually literally cannot imagine leaving my education behind at this point. I feel like I'm barely beginning to learn. It makes me incredibly sad to think that by the end of next school year I could be done with formal study of literature....I just can't imagine it. I don't know if I'm trying to get into a PhD program for the right reasons - I mean, believe me, I do want to get a job after I graduate, obviously, it's just that that's not the only reason. I'm going because I have a legitimate, overwhelming passion for what I'm studying. As I'm sure do all of you. My question is I guess, how do you guys deal with such discouragement? I'm currently getting it from all sides. The only person actually encouraging me to pursue a PhD is, well...me. It gets really, really hard sometimes. EDIT: Also, as far as finances go...I'm definitely not going to go unless I'm fully funded. In this case, I don't see how anyone could discourage a person from being paid to study. Sure, a stipend isn't exactly a ton of money, but it's a living. I'd probably be making something similar at any entry-level position I get straight out of undergrad. Or is this the wrong way to think about it?

I guess you're right. It's hard to think so logically when faced with such a bold and absolute denouncement of grad school from someone I respect very highly. I think it would be best for me to just try to forget about what she said and act like I would approaching any other professor, until/unless she says something similar again. I do admire and respect her, to the point where I'm almost too intimidated to even speak with her! (Just something about myself that I have to come to terms with and get over, haha.) I think what made me most uncomfortable about it was that she didn't really give any solid reasons to not go to grad school, just a general statement about how grueling the interview process is. She also didn't really seem to regret her decision to go to grad school! But you're right, I definitely want to talk to her more and see what else she has to say on the subject. Yeah, I tend to forget that these professors that I look up to so much are people too. She just seems so perfect/like she has it all together in class...but of course, she has as crazy and unpredictable a life as the rest of us. Thanks for the advice everyone! I really appreciate it, it definitely helped to calm my fears a little bit. You guys rock.

So, next Fall is my app season, and I'm starting to stake out who exactly I want to ask for a LOR. I'm an English student, if this matters. I have one professor that I really like, I've done very well in her class, I think I stand out from the rest of her students for various reasons, yada yada yada...I'd really like to ask her for a LOR when the time comes. HOWEVER... On the first day of class she came in and started complaining about how our university was hiring four new English professors and she had to sit in on a bunch of meetings. She then asked (very obviously rhetorically) if anyone in the class was looking to go to grad school. I remained silent as did the rest of my peers, because she went on to very abrasively say "Good, don't ever do it", and then went on to say something about how "terrifying" job interviews are for English professors... So this left me feeling very downtrodden for a couple of weeks, although the rest of the semester has been going swimmingly and she hasn't mentioned anything about grad school yet except for her background - which, by the way, is my ideal situation, she's a postcolonialist who went to Duke and I just...I want to be her. :[ Anyway, is it at all smart to ask this woman for a LOR next semester, after basically being specifically told by her not to go to grad school? That little spiel at the beginning of the semester just made her seem so jaded, I'm almost afraid to approach her about it. But like I said, I feel like if she were to write me a LOR, it would be a good one...Gah. Anyone else have any experience with "jaded" professors such as this? I have no idea what to do.

If there are any English Lit students here, be careful in r/literature. I asked a somewhat general question about grad school and they f***ing destroyed me. Nobody there thinks grad school is worth a pile of crap...kind of ruined my day, actually. :/ But yes, other than that, reddit is my home. r/f7u12, r/shittyaskscience, r/frugal, r/funny, r/culturalstudies, r/atheism, r/languagelearning, r/depthhub...the list goes on.

Thanks for the advice everyone! :] I've already bought a couple of Princeton Review books for other sections of the GRE, so I might as well pick one up for math as well. :]

Hey all! So I'm going to be applying to grad schools for Fall 2013, and I have to take the GRE. I'm concerned however about the math section. I'm applying to English programs so I've heard from several people (including the websites of some of the grad schools themselves) that the math section won't be taken into account. But I can't help continuing to worry because if anybody here thinks that they are bad at math, I promise you, I'm 100% worse. If I take the math section of the GRE without studying for it, I don't think I would get a single question right. This worries me because even though the math scores aren't a part of the decision process, what if the school thinks I'm a complete imbecile because my scores could be emulated by a dog with a pencil taped to its paw? But then again, I don't want to waste precious time studying for the math section of the GRE when I could be studying for the other sections which will be taken into account. So my question is, am I dumb for worrying about the math section when clearly an English program will have nothing to do with math so it doesn't matter, or am I right in thinking that I shouldn't go into the math section of the GRE completely unprepared? Another concern of mine is if I take the math portion, become completely bummed out because I'm dumber than a rock, and tank on the important sections due to anxiety from the math section. :/ Ah hell, I'm a ball of anxiety anyway so that's not gonna change. But I would still love to hear everybody's input anyway! :]