viracity

Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Michael, Eds. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Wiley-Blackwell, 2004. Huge book, tons of information on the various literary theories in the form of essays by scholars in each field. My undergraduate program was self-designed, so I had to teach myself about lit theory and I found this book incredibly helpful.

I'd agree with Anti on this. I applied to PhD programs this past year, having earned a BFA in Creative Writing (granted, it's an undergrad degree, so this might be slightly different). When I visited Rice, where I'm attending this fall, the program director mentioned that they almost passed me over because my previous degree was in creative writing and they were concerned that I would want to lean that way more than the critical program (even though I made sure to express that I wanted to do a traditional English lit doctoral degree multiple times in my application and SoP). So, you may find that some schools assume a background in creative writing means you will want only to do creative work or you will be less likely to do well in a traditional program. Every PhD program I considered applying to required the GRE; I think you'd be hard-pressed to find one that does not. If your scores are more than five years old, they are no longer considered valid, so you would have to retake the test.

I'm starting Rice's English PhD program in August. I'm from New England, but have visited friends in Houston several times. It's a fun city. The Montrose area is great for coffee shops and bars; that area and the Museum District have some good housing options if you have transportation. The neighborhoods near Rice are pretty great, too. I found a garage apartment about a quarter mile from campus (I'm not bringing a car). Public transportation in the city is kind of terrible, but it is manageable..and a bicycle helps a lot. The campus is beautiful. If you're looking for a roommate, I'd try the housing board on Rice's website.

Yes. Fantastic word (and story). Basically, I am a tad jealous of Saunders' writing.

Oh, in the vein of loving George Saunders...his short story "Sea Oak" is stunning. Definitely my favorite from his work. I think it's from the same collection as the story perrykm2 quoted above.

Love Saunders! My favorite quote (so much so, it's tattooed on my right shoulder blade): "Yo no podre quejarme si no encontre lo que buscaba." Translated: "I won't be able to complain though I never found what I was looking for." -Federico Garcia Lorca

Mine hasn't changed, either. In a different thread about USC's Creative Writing/Lit PhD, someone said a contact at the school stated that decisions for that program would go out in the first week of March. So, hopefully, our letters are on the way. (The website says notification will come only by mail.)

thanks for the info, Insertbrackets! nice to know there's still a (slim-to-none) chance..

Congrats to you, too, Rubyrunner! And thanks to you both for the info re asking about place on the list!

Any of y'all who got accepted to Rice going to decline? I just received notification that I'm on a wait list. (My first response, aside from implicit rejections.) Also, is there a polite standard way to ask where on the list I stand? Or should I just bite the bullet and wait to hear?

Thanks! And, many congrats! Stylechallenge, I applied with a BFA (I just finished up this past semester). Hopefully we're not at a disadvantage going the direct to PhD route; the past accepted students listed on the USC webpage didn't all have MFAs when entering, though, so I have to imagine the writing samples are of much greater significance than which degree (BA or MA, or variant thereof) the applicant holds.

Thanks. Good luck to you as well! Those other schools actually don't allow creative dissertations; I applied to them for English lit with a focus in literary criticism/theory. And I think you're right, not too much interest on these boards for the creative PhDs. Oh well.

Jeepers, 4/200? That's so few students. Hopefully notification is before mid-March! I heard back last week from them, but just asking for a financial supplement form to be filled out. Got my hopes up for a second when I saw the email..and then I realized that it wasn't about a decision. Oh well. I also applied to Yale, Harvard, UPenn, UVa, Chicago, Rice, and WashU. I haven't heard back from anyone yet. Looking at some of the other posts, both in the results survey and in the forums, it seems like at this point I can count implied rejections at a few of those schools, but I'm hoping that's not necessarily true! We'll see, I guess. Where else did you apply? Did you apply to any other programs that allow creative dissertations?

Hi All, Just curious if anyone on this board applied to the University of Southern California Literature and Creative Writing PhD program. Or, if anyone knows when that school generally reports. (Side note: The recent acceptance posts for other schools on the results forum make me nervous! I'm half glad I stumbled upon this website and half wishing I hadn't so I wouldn't even know that the universities were already reporting. Do most schools reply all at once or stagger responses?)