ARTH

IF you decide to switch supervisors (I'm not suggesting that you should necessarily) I would suggest blaming it on academics rather than personality. Something about how as your research develops, you find your interests more in tune with this other professor.

If you are focusing on literature written in another language in a Comparative Literature Department there is no way that your level of English has to be as strong as a student of English Literature. My guess is that the people suggesting otherwise are not actually comparative literature students, but English Literature students. It seems this may come as a newsflash to some people, but not all courses offered at American universities are offered in English. French departments offer courses ON French literature IN French. (or German, Italian, Turkish, Japanese). Students read French literature, discuss the literature in French and then they write essays about the literature...IN FRENCH! (or German, Italian, Turkish or Japanese) Here is a quote from the Harvard University Comparative Literature Department webpage. I chose this department at random and I assume that it's, like, a decent department: We do not have a single foreign language requirement but we do pay careful attention in evaluating prospective applicants to make sure that they would be able to satisfy our program requirements in a reasonable span of time. Our program requires declaring four languages, with coursework in three of them (one of which may be English). Most students we admit have a solid grounding in one literature and language and have had exposure to another (or more). http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~complit/admis_qna.htm Please note the bracketed phrase "ONE OF WHICH MAY BE ENGLISH." It is not even a requirement, and certainly not at the time that a student enters the department. If Student A is a native speaker of English, Reads well in Spanish, and studies Korean from scratch, Student B could come in with Fluent Spanish and Italian and study to improve English. In regards to the following statement: Consider this from the Comparative Literature at Binghampton Univeristy (they have a specialist in Turkish Literature as google informed me): International students whose native language is not English, and have not received a degree in the United States, are required to submit Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores. The minimum TOEFL score for admission to the Department of Comparative Literature is 30. http://www2.binghamton.edu/comparative- ... index.html I don't know here, but it kind of looks like they take the TOEFL test a bit seriously. Some of this stuff probably depends on the individual school and department, but the categorical statement that comparative literature departments require English language abilities equal to English literature departments is absolutely not true. It has already been pointed out on this thread that nimhicaz's level of WRITTEN ENGLISH is probably higher than the linguistic ability of most comparative literature students in the literature that they study.

Hi Nimhicaz, I disagree with sonofcioran. First of all, I find your written English to be excellent considering that English is your second language. It seems to me that the American professor whose response you posted was warning you of the competitive application process for the school with which she was affiliated; however, one might be able to see a Master's degree in literature (or Cultural Studies) as equivalent to "training in literature and literary criticism/theory that would convince the committee members of your ability to keep up with the requirements here." As I understand it, the school at which you would hope to pursue a Master's degree in Literature has three faculty members who have American PhDs. If you truly feel inspired to pursue a path of literary study at an American school, I would recommend speaking to one (are all) of these professors who are graduates of American programs (if you have not done so already -- perhaps you have!). Since they would be familiar with both the American University system and the system at the university in which they teach, they are probably well positioned to evaluate the appropriateness of a Master's degree at their institution as preparation for an American PhD. Perhaps they have had other students who have pursued degrees at American schools after Master's degrees from their university. It is probably true that American schools put a lot of emphasis on GPA, but it is also true that comparative literature programs must receive applications from many international students, and therefore one would HOPE that they would be sensitive to discrepancies in standards of evaluation -- your recommenders could even address this issue in their letters of recommendation if they felt that were necessary. I have heard that international grades tend to be lower than grades at North American schools due to "grade inflation" at North American schools, though I am in no position to say whether or not this is the case. I should qualify my rambling advice by saying that I am not an expert on admission standards in US comparative Literature programs! It seems to me though that these Turkish professors with degrees from American schools would be in the best position to advise you on the necessary course of action. Wishing you the best of luck!