What do you think of these schools for a PhD in English?

[The Maritime Scholar]

I'm applying to about 15 schools for a PhD in English (19th-century American). In particular, I'm researching maritime literature in the 19th century. 

What do y'all think of my list of schools below (in no particular order)? Remove? Add? Any comments are appreciated.

• Penn State
• Marquette
• UCLA
• UC San Diego
• University of Connecticut 
• University of Virginia
• Louisiana State University
• University of Miami
• Auburn University
• University of Illinois 
• University of Chicago
• Brown
• Ohio State
• University of Pennsylvania 

Thank you!

--The Maritime Scholar

[cruel optimism]

I don't know if you've heard but UChicago's English department "will only be admitting a handful of students, all of whom will be in Black studies" this cycle, so unless that's the central focus of your research, I'm not sure if it'll be wise to apply there. 

Edited August 18, 2020 by cruel optimism

[Anonymous Snow]

I'm sorry to say the University of Connecticut English PhD program is a dumpster fire these days and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone serious about an academic career. It's a very bad model for how a graduate program should run. Faculty openly mock graduate students and treat them as second class citizens, however graduate students' 2-2 comp loads are literally the only reason they have the light workloads they do. It's so bad that a faculty member on our graduate executive committee felt comfortable disparaging students who complain about our inequitable and antiquated program structure as "weak," though the word he actually used was a quasi homophobic slur. I have been in this program a few years now and lately find myself asking why it should even exist. I tend to think that sooner rather than later it won't.

Edited February 1, 2021 by Anonymous Snow
grammar