money

[latenight]

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this...

I'm applying mostly to Comp Lit programs, with my first language being French, followed by Spanish and Hebrew. One of my top schools is NYU, and I just got an email response from a professor there who recommended that I apply to French instead of Comp Lit - there are more fellowships, more travel grants, and less competition (in Comp Lit I'd be competing for 1-2 slots for applicants with French as the first language).

I am pretty heavily invested in French, but I feel like NYU's French program doesn't emphasize theory enough, and for various other reasons I'm more interested in the Comp Lit program. But I'm wondering if it's better to think practically and go for French because I have more of a change of getting in, and getting money.

Is it enough to try to "prove" in my SOP that I'm really a Comp Lit gal at heart?

Is anyone else in a similar situation?

[coho]

just remember, even if your SOP does prove to the adcom. that you're a comp. lit. girl at heart, that doesn't change the funding and grant prospects.

. . . but I wonder if you can do a lot of cross-departmental-pollinating even if you apply to the French dept.?

as for me, I ended up deciding that, given my profile, to send in only 2 comp. lit apps; the rest are for the French department. But my dilemma was different than yours . . .

Good luck picking a department--I know the deadlines are fast approaching!! (I haven't sent in mine yet either . . . )

[Minnesotan]

I doubt a professor would give you such advice if he/she did not think it was significant to your future. Also, most lit programs allow a lot of interdisciplinarity. I doubt French lit would be different.

[lotf629]

I would say that in this case a lot would come down to the person or people who'd be advising you. I totally understand what you mean about Comp Lit and theory. Still, in my experience, it can matter more whether a particular professor is sympathetic to a theoretical approach than it does whether a particular department is. So the first question might be "Can I work with the same people as a French Ph.D. that I was going to work with as a Comp Lit Ph.D.?" Lots of Comp Lit faculty are also foreign language faculty and vice versa. If the answer is yes, and if the people on your dissertation committee could be mostly the same, then I'd consider making the switch for the sake of the funding. You can always take classes in Comp Lit, after all. But if you'd have to find new advisers, and if the people who'd be advising your dissertation would be much less sympathetic to theory, then you might want to stick to your guns. That's my two cents, anyway, not that I'm an expert.

[planofstudy]

I'd be willing to bet that the professor who emailed you is on the selection committee and probably would object to your admission come decision time. Take this person's advice or move on to a program at another school. This professors obviously thinks that you have a better chance of getting into one program over the other. It just so happens that the program that you want to enter is the other.

[rinneron]

From someone at NYU --

In general, their grad programs are VERY interdisciplinary. Not that I've taken advantage thus far, but you can pretty much take what you want in what program you want, and as long as you give sufficient reason, you can transfer it to your program. In other words, if you go to them for a French PhD, and take courses in the Comp Lit department, you're going to be alright.

And having a PhD in French isn't going to stop you from teaching French lit. And I suppose you have to weigh the other question of what's more important: getting into a PhD program at all and getting to study, or going to this one specific program and studying within it?

[latenight]

Thanks for the advice! Very helpful. I've decided to take the professor's advice and switch, and even to do the same for another program (Cornell). It's true that ideally I'd love to stuff my brain with theory all the live-long day, instead of reading medieval French poetry, but at some point the practical part of my brain kicked into gear.

Thanks again to all who have replied to my post!