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Calling all French PHD 2020 Applicants ...


MonsieurHonoré

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On 1/29/2020 at 11:29 AM, MonsieurHonoré said:

Has anyone heard anythinggg from Yale? Waiting is killing me on that one! 

@MonsieurHonoré I received an email today from the graduate coordinator at Yale French about interviews occurring next week. They didn't use any language like "short-listed" or anything, so I don't have a great idea of how many folks they might be interviewing. I'm super nervous though!  

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On 1/31/2020 at 11:43 AM, MonsieurHonoré said:

@Robert_Kerans ... yes we will! Thank you! 

I am a little bit late to the party but I applied to NYU, BU, wisconsin madison, Emory and WashU in Saint Louis.

So far i had an interview with washington and one with Emory. The first one was only two people buy Emory had 4 and they said it's only a first interview and there will be another one with other faculty members.

Also I got an acceptance from Wisconsin but it's weird. No interview, no concrete offer so i don't know what to think about it.

@MonsieurHonoré i saw you wrote you are finishing MA right now. This question would be for you and others who do have MA already... Honestly I am a bit hesitant doing phd with repeating MA material all again aren't you?  

 

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On 1/31/2020 at 1:09 PM, Marcin said:

I am a little bit late to the party but I applied to NYU, BU, wisconsin madison, Emory and WashU in Saint Louis.

So far i had an interview with washington and one with Emory. The first one was only two people buy Emory had 4 and they said it's only a first interview and there will be another one with other faculty members.

Also I got an acceptance from Wisconsin but it's weird. No interview, no concrete offer so i don't know what to think about it.

@MonsieurHonoré i saw you wrote you are finishing MA right now. This question would be for you and others who do have MA already... Honestly I am a bit hesitant doing phd with repeating MA material all again aren't you?  

 

congrats on the acceptance and interviews! I too applied to NYU, albeit the IFS program not the French department. I am not that worried about repeating MA courses, especially as in my case my MA is in English and I took quite a few courses in other departments, such as American studies and art history. 

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Hello :)I'm a little late to this forum as well. I'm wondering if anybody has news from Columbia. There are only two posts to the results page. Could they still be sending out invitations?

Edited by Dila
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The thing is that I did both my BA and MA in French and would prefer to focus on my interest and research and not redoing all the periods and genres again especially that i am interested in Quebec and not France... Also my other concern is that even some phd programs are taught in English not French...

 

I have to ask having skimmed through the forum nobody really applied in the past to Emory or what? Does it have a bad reputation? It's not good enough? Any opinions there?

 

What about the stipends? Do you think you will be able to cover your expenses with it? I am an international applicant and it is a decisive factor and even though i have travelled to the USA before i do not know the reality when it comes to daily life

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@Coleslaw Thanks so much for letting me know! I’m honestly so grateful in terms of planning to at least hear something! I didn’t get an email or anything, but it’s not over until it’s over ?? Congrats on the interview though!!!

@Marcin I think it definitely depends on the individual, but I honestly don’t mind. Other periods of literature have taught me to think in different and creative ways about my own area of specialisation, and if it’s free education that I’m getting paid for, bring it on! Haha - But it honestly depends on the person involved. If you’re not willing to or hesitant, then that’s okay too! 

 

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5 hours ago, Marcin said:

What about the stipends? Do you think you will be able to cover your expenses with it? I am an international applicant and it is a decisive factor and even though i have travelled to the USA before i do not know the reality when it comes to daily life

@Marcin To answer this last part, I think that the stipends offered by most schools reflect the cost of living in the area. You’ll know when the amount is too low. When I sent out applications two years ago, one school offered me somewhere around 10K per year, no guarantee of summer funding, and the cost of rent was too high to live on that alone in that area. A good way to gauge cost of living in different areas is to check apartment websites such as apartments.com and zillow.com to see what types of places you’d be willing to live in and how much it would cost there, and if utilities are included or not. The biggest chunk of your paycheck is going to go to rent, so that’s where I’d look first. As for food, find a local Aldi’s and you really won’t have to worry about that. I honestly feel comfortable living on my current stipend, and there are usually extra opportunities at universities for you to get more funding. 

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2 hours ago, Volodine1 said:

heard that NYU institute of french studies will be deciding in two weeks. Anyone know about penn? 

Penn State? I got an interview offer(?) on Wednesday.

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@sgb they sent me the acceptance without the funding and other details included and they want me to mail original documents now. And I can't do it because I do not have unlimited copies of those documents and I am not even sure if the offer they should make is acceptable... Especially that for this one I didn't even have the interview...

@MonsieurHonoré I am hesitant in a sense that I have already finished my MA, I did one year of phd in my country but I did not like it in the very least and then I worked for 3 years in a corporation. I hated the job so now I am only teaching at school but as you see 4 years have passed since my uni and I would like to do something more demanding than teaching children but with all the moving to a different continent and not really earning money I would need to redo some material that I do not care about. I realize phd is to broaden the horizons etc but I believe I have a fair knowledge of each period already and instead of investing my time into research I would need to repeat everything that would not be necessarily needed later. I am having mixed feelings that's all...

 

So i got the acceptance from Washington University in St. Louis (WashU/WUSTL) that interviewed me earlier this week. That was fast! After the interview I thought they would reject me as their francophone interests lay in the Caribbean and Africa only...

 

I would also like to ask you about sth. Since all programs basically accept 1-3 applicants does it mean that only those 2 or 3 graduates attend each course designed for them? Seems weird

 

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A quick follow up on my interview with Columbia: I am not really satisfied with my "performance" although I tried to be as honest as possible. I think it was mostly the stress of having four brilliant people judging the quality of my research potential. Fingers crossed though, one never knows :)

Has Yale sent out decisions yet?

 

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@Robert_Kerans Lol I felt the exact same way about my Brown interview because I was nervous, except the professors that I spoke with were WONDERFUL ... such kind and upbeat people! I ended up “having a good time” haha, but not sure how I did compared to other candidates - I guess we’ll see. 

 

As for Yale, two people posted in the results box about interview notifications yesterday, and @Coleslaw gave us some insight on the interview process from their end (thanks again!). A few days ago, I found out that the professor I potentially wanted to work with is retiring or plans to soon, so that’s a bummer, but oh well. 

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@Marcin, grad seminars are tricky business. For example, part of the reason NYU French admits so many students is to fill their seminars. Students there have to take most of their classes within the department. On the other hand, at Cornell, students have a lot more freedom, precisely because it's a PhD in Romance Studies, interdisciplinary by its structure itself. And then there are Harvard and Yale, which allow you to take four seminars outside the department. If it's a small cohort, the faculty will offer fewer graduate courses, and mostly required ones/based on interests.

Congratulations on all the offers! Feel free to DM me if you have any questions about getting a PhD in French, where to go, etc.

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