hiphopanonymous

Interesting. I'm doing it for the POWER.

I imagine most of y'all saw this classic:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense

Interesting. I'm doing it for the POWER.

This is purely anecdotal, but my sense is that admissions committees don't notice those things at all. People who had read my writing sample closely enough to quote from it weren't sure when I'd graduated from college. I'd been away for four years (granted, this is between BA and a PhD program, not between an MA and a PhD) and I really don't think anyone cared what I'd done with that time (which was nothing academic at all). I think if you stay current on the scholarship (and really, what's going to change a whole lot in a year?) you'll be fine. Or anyway there are probably bigger things to worry about, if you're looking for something to worry about.

This is purely anecdotal, but my sense is that admissions committees don't notice those things at all. People who had read my writing sample closely enough to quote from it weren't sure when I'd graduated from college. I'd been away for four years (granted, this is between BA and a PhD program, not between an MA and a PhD) and I really don't think anyone cared what I'd done with that time (which was nothing academic at all). I think if you stay current on the scholarship (and really, what's going to change a whole lot in a year?) you'll be fine. Or anyway there are probably bigger things to worry about, if you're looking for something to worry about.

I imagine most of y'all saw this classic:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense

I imagine most of y'all saw this classic:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense

Sounds like you have two good options. Personally, I would not make my decision based on recruitment policies. It's nice that UNC is sending regular emails. I like it when schools do that, too. But when they do, it's because there's a department-wide policy about it. And ultimately whether it's an official policy to do that sort of recruitment likely won't affect your experience once you're in a given program.

Nor would I base my decision on how I felt about a school's campus. It's important to feel like you're in a place where you can get work done, and where your personal life will be minimally disrupted, but I think the kinds of questions many of us asked about residential experience when considering undergraduate schools are not relevant to graduate study. Faculty resources, library resources, and financial resources are all going to be much more important than "campus feel" when it comes to producing a good dissertation, which is what will get you a job (or not). Being near other universities may turn out to be important too: I didn't apply to Duke or UNC, but I imagine being at the center of a major research corridor could give you a lot of opportunities. (NB: lyonessrampant posted about this above while I was in the process of typing--so you now have two anonymous strangers recommending you consider this).

If both schools are equally strong in your field, as you say, then I think the next step would be to look carefully at the rate at which they've been able to place PhDs in tenure track jobs over the last few years. I would also look at where they were able to place people--whether at regional teaching colleges or RI universities, etc. My guess is UNC is going to come out on top in that analysis, but I'm prepared to be surprised.

Good luck with your decision.

Cornell was lovely. It's like intellectual summer camp--for six years. The department loves its graduate students, and in turn the graduate students seemed super happy. I'm not at all decided and will try to hold out and see whether the waiting list comes through.

Pretty much this is where I ended up. I've been in media (with good people, at a good job that values reading and writing and is not especially soul-killing at all) for a couple years since graduating. So pace Benton the lure of the English department for me is not that it delays making a career choice. It just leads to a more attractive career if I can, against the odds, make it work. And I believe, especially now that I have a couple decent offers for next year, that I have a nonzero chance of doing that.

To answer your question, siarabird, I dealt with articles like this (and with the one or two professors I had who took it as axiomatic that no one should ever go to grad school in the humanities--ever) for 7+ years (including undergrad) by wringing my hands and worrying about how hard it is and doing other things. But ultimately you only get to do all this once. If going to grad school for English turns out to be the worst, most self-destructive thing I've done, I'll have led a pretty tame life, and I will still have had family to love and dogs to pet.

Pretty much this is where I ended up. I've been in media (with good people, at a good job that values reading and writing and is not especially soul-killing at all) for a couple years since graduating. So pace Benton the lure of the English department for me is not that it delays making a career choice. It just leads to a more attractive career if I can, against the odds, make it work. And I believe, especially now that I have a couple decent offers for next year, that I have a nonzero chance of doing that.

To answer your question, siarabird, I dealt with articles like this (and with the one or two professors I had who took it as axiomatic that no one should ever go to grad school in the humanities--ever) for 7+ years (including undergrad) by wringing my hands and worrying about how hard it is and doing other things. But ultimately you only get to do all this once. If going to grad school for English turns out to be the worst, most self-destructive thing I've done, I'll have led a pretty tame life, and I will still have had family to love and dogs to pet.

I have a buddy who did MAPH at Chicago. He has a job teaching at a community college, by which he funds a writing career. So his degree has been useful, and I don't think he regrets it. But he's still fairly bitter about the attention paying MA students got from professors. As in, he felt they got none. I would try to find out directly whether people in the program still feel that way. Could be corrosive.

I didn't apply to Chicago's program and haven't been to the school at all since I was seventeen, so this is very much a second-hand report.

I don't disagree with the sentiment. But maybe this is how I know I don't belong to that class, however little money I'm making: marriage among the people I know (which necessarily includes the people I might marry) doesn't seem to work that way. I guess it's a question of culture and geography as much as money. (Not that those categories are separate.)

I was mostly kidding -- especially about wanting "at least one" marriage. And you're right: my anxiety is wildly heteronormative and gender-specific. I want to be introduced to my partner's family as someone who can support her (even though she's incredibly smart and independent and capable of supporting herself far better than I could), and I feel like if my occupation is "student" for most of my twenties and early thirties I'll have a hard time making the case that I'm the kind of dude who can do that.

Whoa this got personal! Sorry, all. Overshare, I'm sure.

Long-time listener, first-time caller.

Personally, I'm batting 1/11 at the moment. But my brother's applying in a different area of the humanities and hasn't heard from anyone yet. I'm dying for him right now, and for all those in the forum who've gone 0-fer thus far.

I've been out of school for a couple years, always carrying around the threat of applying to PhD programs more or less as a way to persuade myself that I don't have to keep doing this job. My brother's finishing an MA right now, and I've been so impressed by his enthusiasm and his fantastic research project and his energy for travel and investigation that I actually got more excited about English grad school than I have been since my second year of undergrad. The mere thought that I might be going to school and he might be sitting out for a year (I will make him apply again--he's too good) is painful. As in so painful I sometimes don't want to go.

Anyway, all just to say, for those of you who are anxious about what family members are thinking, what friends are thinking: the ones who love you are pulling for you more than you know. Even the ones who say things like, "Of course you'll get in. You love reading!" They may not understand how hard it is, but they'll see how hard you're taking it.

[End sweeping, string-heavy Lifetime score.]

Best of luck, all.