TheWB

^The one thing to keep in mind with the commute vs. price advice, beyond what gubida said, is that as grad students rather than undergrads, being on campus every day is likely not necessary. In fact, you might only need to commute 2 or 3 days a week. So you'll want to consider that as well when looking at calculations. I'm going with a cheaper apartment with a longer commute and planning to be on campus 3 days a week (and make those 3 days count).

^The one thing to keep in mind with the commute vs. price advice, beyond what gubida said, is that as grad students rather than undergrads, being on campus every day is likely not necessary. In fact, you might only need to commute 2 or 3 days a week. So you'll want to consider that as well when looking at calculations. I'm going with a cheaper apartment with a longer commute and planning to be on campus 3 days a week (and make those 3 days count).

Let me jump in even though I'm not (yet) pursuing a PhD. Here's why I'm pursuing an MA:
 
When I was a kid literature kept me off the streets; it gave me enough perspective not to do the stupid crap everyone else did in high school, stay out of jail, and get a free ride at an Ivy. I truly believe literature has a specific ability to help the mind transcend its immediate environment, and that only by helping young people and young adults transcend their environment and see what's on the far side of the struggle can I ever change my community and communities like it for the better. So I want an MA to fight for a community college job or, more likely, something on the non-profit edges of education, but also to develop a more forceful version of this underlying theory, specifically in relation to protest literature.
 
PhD though...hopefully I'll know in two years.

I imagine this might be mainly a humanities thing, but anyone else a bit....unusual about books/notebooks/pens/pencils, etc.? 
 
I'm taking an online course and the reader has wafer-thin pages and weighs five pounds, and I find I'm treating it like it's a Bible just because it looks like one (okay, I'm writing in it, but only with a dull-point pencil, so it's still pretty reverential). 
 
Also, I've always written notes in those tape-bound composition pads (the marble or the solid black, you know the ones), but my tiny town doesn't have them, so I've got a perfect-bound ledger instead, and because it's such a formal-looking notebook, I feel the need to use a nice fine-point pen, which in turn means I write my notes carefully. 
 
Mental disorder? Or English student thing?

Good for you, bfat. It's too easy to lose track of the rest of life, perhaps, when pursuing the tenure track (says someone who hasn't started pursuing it yet). From where I'm standing, a tenure-track position paying $48,000 a year at 45 sounds pretty amazing. Search committees aren't generally made up of 30-somethings, so I don't imagine getting a position would be significantly harder than at a younger age. The additional experience and the polish and confidence it generates - especially if that experience comes from outside the world of academe - might even make one a more attractive candidate, depending on the position.

If they think you're weird for reading books by choice...why exactly do you care what they think? As soon as anyone tells me something like "I never read a book, I can just look it up online" I mark them off as an idiot and disregard what they say unless it pertains to their specialty. I've been dealing with this in my community since undergrad, so I don't mess around now.

If they think you're weird for reading books by choice...why exactly do you care what they think? As soon as anyone tells me something like "I never read a book, I can just look it up online" I mark them off as an idiot and disregard what they say unless it pertains to their specialty. I've been dealing with this in my community since undergrad, so I don't mess around now.

If they think you're weird for reading books by choice...why exactly do you care what they think? As soon as anyone tells me something like "I never read a book, I can just look it up online" I mark them off as an idiot and disregard what they say unless it pertains to their specialty. I've been dealing with this in my community since undergrad, so I don't mess around now.

On my SOP I offered a very specific topic that interests me (the American protest novel), but nothing specific as to what I wanted to do with it. I believe I suggested that I wanted to explore the ways protest novels could be used to open dialogic space for protest in communities, as well as exploring the specific rhetoric of the protest novel. I believe. What I wrote seemed to be quite sufficient, as I got in with funding where I wanted to, so I don't imagine you need to stress being overly specific in your project; after all, most people pursuing MAs in English are doing them either to broaden their reading and general preparation for a PhD program, or are looking for extra reading/work before going into teaching, editing, administration or something else. Or looking for a pay bump. In none of these cases would it be reasonable to expect an especially specific SOP.

I'm not sure why, but this post kind of rubs me the wrong way. Maybe because I'm already feeling anxiety about being "too old" (I just turned 30), and I feel like this attitude is what I'm most anxious about encountering--a kind of patronizing "good for you!" masking potential underlying criticism. Well shucks, gee, it sure would be an advantage if I was younger, but there's this thing where time only moves in one direction...
 
The truth is that it just took me longer to get here. It took me 6 years to finish undergrad because of financial difficulties, I lived and worked abroad for a while after that, then got a regular job, then realized I wanted to go back into academia, so spent the last 3 years working full time, starting a family, and earning my MA. Voila, I'm 30. It's not as though you can't live your life before you get tenure, so if that doesn't happen until I'm 45 (or, let's be honest, ever), so what? I just don't understand the "racing toward tenure so I can start my real life" idea, which views it as a beginning, rather than a milestone or an eventual goal. Obviously it's an important goal/step in an academic career, but I'm not sure that being a few years older affects the granting of tenure, and something like 50% won't end up getting it anyway, so I think it's important to be open to other possibilities.
 
I'm sorry, I really don't mean to be snippy--I think I'm just grumpy about turning 30. But I don't exactly wear dentures and hobble around on a walker in my slippers. 30 is young. 40 is young. People change careers all the time, and from the people I've spoken to in grad programs, a 10 or 15 year age difference means nothing at all. It's not like I've decided to become a gymnast at 30--I think I've got a few good years before senility will rob me of my literature-teaching abilities.

On my SOP I offered a very specific topic that interests me (the American protest novel), but nothing specific as to what I wanted to do with it. I believe I suggested that I wanted to explore the ways protest novels could be used to open dialogic space for protest in communities, as well as exploring the specific rhetoric of the protest novel. I believe. What I wrote seemed to be quite sufficient, as I got in with funding where I wanted to, so I don't imagine you need to stress being overly specific in your project; after all, most people pursuing MAs in English are doing them either to broaden their reading and general preparation for a PhD program, or are looking for extra reading/work before going into teaching, editing, administration or something else. Or looking for a pay bump. In none of these cases would it be reasonable to expect an especially specific SOP.

Woo! After endless worry about admissions, and then endless worry about funding, I'm going to Georgetown's MA program with funding! Now comes endless worry about my girlfriend finding a job and an apartment and getting my a$s back to the U.S.A. in time.

Woo! After endless worry about admissions, and then endless worry about funding, I'm going to Georgetown's MA program with funding! Now comes endless worry about my girlfriend finding a job and an apartment and getting my a$s back to the U.S.A. in time.

Woo! After endless worry about admissions, and then endless worry about funding, I'm going to Georgetown's MA program with funding! Now comes endless worry about my girlfriend finding a job and an apartment and getting my a$s back to the U.S.A. in time.

Woo! After endless worry about admissions, and then endless worry about funding, I'm going to Georgetown's MA program with funding! Now comes endless worry about my girlfriend finding a job and an apartment and getting my a$s back to the U.S.A. in time.

Woo! After endless worry about admissions, and then endless worry about funding, I'm going to Georgetown's MA program with funding! Now comes endless worry about my girlfriend finding a job and an apartment and getting my a$s back to the U.S.A. in time.

A friend who completed his MA a couple years ago suggested Beginning Theory by Peter Barry as a good broad review which also lists suggested further explorations. I've just started it, and it's perfect. My friend's Irish, though, and it does seem Barry's work may be a tad bit more useful in the context of Anglo/Irish English programs than North American programs.