echo449

I'll PM you details, Stephanoumenos.

Turned down an offer at Penn State today--I hope this helps someone!

I think IQ's point was just that mentioning so many different media and confessing to a boundless curiosity might come off as a red-flag to a committee. Essentially, an SoP will be a very well done two-dimensional image of your actual interests--it's a fiction that everyone engages in so that the prospective program can see if you understand what would be a reasonable set of concerns to tackle while you are in the program so that you can get out in (ideally) 5 to 6 years.

If BLeonard has a good relationship with their current advisor, perhaps even lets them know that they could serve as the outside reader because of how much he values their guidance, and has a good reason (not, "well, I realized I was much more Columbia material"), which he has, then I wouldn't think the advisor would be too upset. But there's always the risk that you don't get into schools you want to be at if you transfer, so that's something to consider.

To the OP, you might find this helpful: http://arcade.stanford.edu/content/post-critical-reading-and-new-hegelianism It's okay if you don't understand much of what the writer is referencing, but, if you can, poking through this bibliography at the bottom might be helpful to you. Even if you decide that the trend described in the above is BS, being able to position yourself against things like surface reading (knowingly) will be a great thing to have in your wheelhouse. Also, read a lot, generally. It's early enough in your college career that that is still the best advice.

Turned down an offer at UIUC today.

It matters less than you'd think to contact professors ahead of time. Of the programs that I applied to, I was rejected from the one where I had the best interaction, and accepted at two where the professors had either ignored my emails or forgotten me by the time I got in. By all means, contact people if you have legitimate questions and concerns about the program, but contacting people so that they remember your name when it comes up in the pile in January doesn't guarantee anything. It is almost impossible to gauge whether or not a program will actually be accepting people in your area or genre in a given year. You can be God's Gift to Hermeneutics and still be waitlisted because it was someone else's turn to get a student this year. Be honest with yourself, and apply where you feel comfortable. Don't go to a program just because they let you in--the market is too bad for that. On a pragmatic note, apply to fewer Stanfords and Columbias and more Rutgers--125$ (plus gre) is basically two applications at other good schools. If you are going to throw money at a reach, consider choosing a cheaper reach.

I certainly don't go to a Berkeley right now, but I've had syllabi that look like that. The assigned reading will be from maybe a 3rd of each of those books, perhaps more of the easier ones like Notes on Literature. It's nice because those courses give you an excuse to buy so many great texts, but it's a pain because you'll often read like 100 pages of a 300 page book you bought used for $20.

No doubt! I do think it comes more down to the faculty that you choose to work with rather than the program as a whole, for most people. And current grad students, if you ask them in person at least, will tell you who you should not have on your committee.

I've heard of this. Major school X has a rep for being like this, though across all graduate departments not just English. I've heard horror stories about Small Elite Program Y in the 90s, though by all accounts most of that has cleared up since. Large State School has a rep of being a sort of nasty place, but I think this is just due to the way that funding is something a lot of students compete for. But! I don't think most programs are like this, and the ones that are change over time. Never mind that people can probably go through a program the size of X's and never have a bad experience, and, conversely, someone could choose precisely the worst person at a department known for its warmth. It's a hard thing to judge ahead of time. Edit: eh, I'm just going to remove names because it's a small world.

mollifiedmolloy, this might be an example of what yr looking for in terms of alternative work: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/08/09/shadow_resume_career_advice_for_graduate_students.html

I'm with allplaid on this one. The problem is a market that, for every profession, has engendered precarity and risk. Even electrical engineers are beginning to be outsourced. If academia is a worse market than, say, advertising, it is still MILES better than professional creative writing (which became institutionalized in the 20th century for market reasons) or architecture. Yes, the market is bad and potentially soul-crushing, but is there a market out there that involves creative or intellectual work that isn't? I'm not trying to sound naive, but, for many of us, the choice between a financially remunerative profession and our current path has already occurred long ago. If our collective time in grad school is a slow-tragedy, it is no different from any of the other slow, disillusioning tragedies that so many people go through in the course of living their lives.

Maybe this is just my bad googling, but the MAT is a degree unique to the US, right? yc's home country is the UK, from what I can gather, so I think there's also extra things with respect to visas and employment that they have to consider if they are considering becoming certified to teach in the US. But, also, YC, I don't know what you put in your statement of purpose, and I don't mean to be overly critical when I say this, but the things you said about the novel in that earlier number post would probably not endear you to an admissions committee. Wanting the novel to be important is laudatory, but such a commitment (or at least such a belief in its usefulness to a good life) is presumed if you are applying to a PhD in literature in the first place.

I think there's a kind of common idea (though I've never seen any data to back it up), that certain places do well regionally, and other places send graduates all over the country. For instance, when I looked at Austin, it did strike me as significant that, compared to other top schools, many of their students remained in the south after finding positions.

It is a thing, but, as far as I can tell, it's not a thing you are particularly encouraged to make your profile. The market, after all, is still divided by geography and time period, and if you are unable to fit easy into a single category, then you've made your job search a lot harder. In places where creatively interdisciplinary/cross-temporal work is encouraged, as at one of the schools that accepted me, you are encouraged to still have a "main" area as it is typically defined so you are not floating, lost, once you get on the market.

It can't hurt if you do it politely! But their hands are tied until someone actually declines a spot, so they probably can't give you any info about movement until it actually happens.

I hope to decline soon, but applying with a partner has unfortunately slowed down my decision process. I'm sorry to anyone kept waiting because of my situation (even if/ especially if they aren't on this website)!

For what it's worth, your post was very helpful to me as someone waitlisted who would be commuting from NYC where my partner is located, so thank you!

I um don't have any experience with it, but I would bring this up to your MA professors. Let me put it this way, would you want to be in a field where people looked down on you for choosing financial stability and love over precariousness?

It's worth keeping in mind that UCSC his con is an unfunded program, with limited TAships available. It's amazing, for sure, but I get the feeling that many people (like myself) apply to UCSC for, say, Lit in order to do work in his con as a concentration.

Fair enough!

I appreciate that you've taken the time to break this down, but I think the problem with your graphs (as they stand), is that (1) they are based off of sort of old rankings (how long has it been since Buffalo was in the top 30?), (2) the lack of anything beyond the top 30 gives a SUPER misleading portrait of the market, never mind that you don't include liberal arts colleges, (3) it depends upon an analysis of the market which gives heavy weight to the market as it used to be. Yale produced so many top scholars in large part because (a) Yale, and ( Yale set the terms of what was cutting-edge in literary studies at about the time that many people who are now full professors would have earned their degrees. This information is interesting, but I don't think this was the right place to post it. I don't think this tells us much about the market today (where no one from Berkeley or Duke expects a top 30 placement anymore), and does cause undue stress around a forum dedicated to people trying to get into a program in the first place. I applaud yr efforts, but it's worth pointing out that this doesn't help anyone who might find it here.

You have done well. Austin has good placement; as does UNC. Yes, the ivies and a few other schools are clearly better, but you arn't doomed by any measure with your options.

y'all seem super friendly and I would definitely view that as a plus when this rutgers waitlist converts.

Even if you want to go to Rutgers and are 100% sure about it, visiting will still help you meet your cohort and develop relationships ahead of time. After all, if you want to live with a roommate, you'd probably want to have met them first!