Narrowing down the list.

[ja.col]

Hey all, I'm new here. I'm a recent MA graduate from the U.K. planning on applying to U.S. English PhD programmes this Fall for 2020 admission. I currently have a long list of possibles including some ivies, top ten schools, and some less "prestigious" options. Mostly, the insane amount of schools in the U.S. is really daunting and I could use some great advice from anybody thinking about grad school or currently there. I'm also really open to any unexpected suggestions, as I'm mostly doing my research in a vacuum, with advice only from Professors who are helping me out with thinking about schools and application materials. It's pretty hard to get a feel for things from this side of the Atlantic.

 

I come from a dept. that is pretty well known for its research in 20thC and Contemporary Poetics, and have been advised that I could be looking at 'top' programmes as a realistic prospect (as realistic as 3% admissions rates ever really can be) along with other options. Ideally I'm looking for departments with an interest in anglophone twentieth century and contemporary poetics, critical theory, but am not wedded to these things in particular - partly why I want to travel for the PhD is to participate in longer programmes with more room for changing ideas! I do mostly write about poetics, affect, political economy, all the good things - if that helps. A good city, solid placement and robust funding packages (preferably mostly guaranteed) are all really important to me. Obviously I'd love to go to (and will be applying to) schools like Chicago and UPenn, Berkeley etc, but I'm really looking for schools that don't have the name recognition those do, but still offer really compelling packages and programmes. Any and all advice is really welcome, as I'll be making all of my decisions from across an ocean. Now that I've found these forums, I'll be scrolling continuously to get advice about Statements etc, the structure of the applications are so alien to me from the U.K. system, just want to maximise my chances.

 

For colour, I'm also looking at places like Northwestern, JHU, NYU, USC, a load of the UCs, Michigan, etc. Even sage advice about places I've already mentioned would be beyond useful.

 

Thanks so much!

[jusrain]

Some of the folks at CUNY are doing what you’re interested in. Do you have your methods/project for your SoP planned out yet? 

[ja.col]

2 minutes ago, swarthmawr said:

Some of the folks at CUNY are doing what you’re interested in. Do you have your methods/project for your SoP planned out yet? 

Thanks for the tip! I'll check them out. About the SoP: I know the kinds of things I want to propose and focus in on, but the structure of the statements required is still something I'm trying to work out. At the moment I'm trying to find any morsels I can online, and contacting various faculty that I think would be a good fit for me. One step at a time, I guess. I had a proposal for U.K schools drafted, but that's a dissertation proposal, which obviously isn't what I'm doing with the SoP - I'm just adjusting to that right now I think.

[jusrain]

30 minutes ago, ja.col said:

Thanks for the tip! I'll check them out. About the SoP: I know the kinds of things I want to propose and focus in on, but the structure of the statements required is still something I'm trying to work out. At the moment I'm trying to find any morsels I can online, and contacting various faculty that I think would be a good fit for me. One step at a time, I guess. I had a proposal for U.K schools drafted, but that's a dissertation proposal, which obviously isn't what I'm doing with the SoP - I'm just adjusting to that right now I think.

Feel free to PM me if you wanna talk through the SoP structure (from my understanding, but it seemed to work alright for me, so happy to help)