French PHD applicant 2020 - any info ?

[Teddy Kellogg]

My girlfriend and I will be applying to French PHD programs in the NY area (Rutgers, Colombia, Princeton, NYU, UPenn) as well as in the southeast (University of Virginia, Duke) and several universities in Canada (Université de Montréal and McGill). I’m also interested, but have not yet check out, universities in California such as UCLA, Stanford, or Yale. (For the latter, I read that PHD applicants must have a year of teaching experience and this is not my case.)
 
We are both currently in masters of comparative at Paris 3 (Sorbonne Nouvelle). For my part, l have been a resident in France for 4 yrs, having passed the “concours d’enseignement” or the CAPES and taught as a full time English language teacher for 2 years. My companion also had a stint as a highschool teacher here, but she is a native French speaker. 
 

My research interests are mainly in francophone literature and literature and economy. Hers are primarily in trauma studies. Would anybody have any information about the universities I mentioned, any helpful advice on the application process or other universities ? 
 

Thank you all advance - I signed up b/c I found a similar thread for the 2019 session and everybody seemed supportive and knowledgeable! 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Teddy Kellogg

[Milyd]

Oh wow looks like we have some programs in common. I’m trying to finalize my list.

I’m also interested in francophone literature and in women writers from Sub-saharan Africa. 

I don’t know much about those programs though, besides the information they have on their website

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

I am surprised this year the forum is so dead with French applicants  When I was applying we had quite a few posters.

I've heard UPenn is very eclectic, NYU and Columbia are great for Francophone subjects too. Rutgers apparently has done well with placement.

As for application tips...review your applications well, reach out to faculty, include who you would work with in your statements, reach out to current students and emphasize your academic background in France, it will probably be very much appreciated. If you have experience tutoring or anything like that you could mention it as well.

[chateaulafitte]

On 11/5/2019 at 10:50 PM, Carly Rae Jepsen said:

Rutgers apparently has done well with placement.

Who have they placed recently? I know of one person in a lecturer position in the past four years, and that's it (I'm genuinely curious; their placement page is pretty vague, giving names and institutions with no graduation dates, meaning some people who graduated twenty years ago are listed).

For francophone, UCLA is a good choice; Princeton and Yale are not. For trauma studies, Cornell is a good place.

[frenchphd]

I believe Rutgers placed two students at Princeton (asst. prof and lecturer) in the last two years. UCLA is a great school for francophone studies, but they don't have money. It doesn't matter if the faculty is good if students cannot afford to attend. I'd actually recommend Emory for francophone studies (and for French generally), which has had the best academia placements in the last two years, across all PhD programs in French. Emory has superb funding, a nice urban location, and very exciting faculty research. Yale is great for the study of North Africa. I believe that Yale wants to keep their Francophone studies cluster strong, so they will probably hire a top scholar in the (Caribbean/subsaharan African) field this year, replacing the extraordinary Chris Miller. I'd apply; Yale has been and remains the best PhD program in French in the world, in terms of the quality of the faculty, the students and their placements. Princeton is excellent for people interested in the intersection of literature and philosophy, but not so much for Francophone studies. 

[Teddy Kellogg]

Hey, thank you all for the posts ! As you can imagine, we are full steam ahead with the graduate application process and are preparing to submit our portfolios. 

[LOiseauRouge]

Hey! I applied last year and I'm at NYU now! From what I know, we don't have a lot of francophone specialists in the literature department, but the Institute for French Studies (at NYU) does. Our Francophone specialist in Lit sadly passed away unexpectedly this past year. 

I'm looking forward to hearing how the applications go for everyone this year! If anyone has questions about NYU or French in NYC feel free to hit me up! I think I started hearing back in early February. 

[Marcin]

Hi there. Is this topic stil alive? I have applied this year to NYU, Boston, Emory, Northwestern and Wisconsin as well as Quebec University and Toronto.

 

I have heard from Emory sp far and I scored an interview. Anyone has had experience there? 

 

Honestly I am a bit hesitant about doing phd at all cause it seems that you have to redo MA and I don't know if I want to redo it... Also, do you the stipends universities offer are enough to suervive or do you need to have some personal funds?

[Jarir]

Marcin,

It seems like you're hesitant because you have some other options in life. If you do have other good projects in life besides pursuing Graduate school in French literature, sure go for them. Otherwise, doing an MA/PhD is quite a good experience as it connects you with great people you might not get the chance to meet elsewhere. And the status you gain with a PhD is worth the endeavor I think. Do not worry too much about the MA issue, you'll just be a part of the graduate team where you're treated as a colleague by the professors. The stipends are not bad usually, depending on how spendy you are, you should be able to survive on them(we're not talking about the high life), but still. besides, it's not hard to find things left and right to help the finances: tutor, adjunct or translate. Financially speaking being in the south is best, so Emory, Duke or UNC are good options since the cost of living is generally better than up north (NYU, Boston).

Hope this helps a little. Good luck on your search!

 

[MonsieurHonoré]

@Marcin There is another thread that I started for French PhD applicants under "Waiting it out" in case you haven't seen it already