English applicants - could it be?

[the international]

Hello

Nice forum you have here!

I'm new and I have a question.

Could it be (I hope it could be) that international (non-US) students get replies after the local applicants?

Any other non-US applicants out there that can approve or disprove this hypothesis?

Thanks!

Good luck to everyone, this waiting is horrible.

[bigjumps]

Hi there - I'm international as well. I don't have a definitive answer to your question, but I have done a fair amount of over-analyzing the results on the board from previous years, and I haven't noticed international students getting notified any later. I suspect we hear at the same time...except in the case of schools who send out acceptances by post (one of mine does this!) in which case it'll take longer to get to us.

[the international]

Grrr.. OK.. back to waiting like everyone else

Thanks for replying bigjumps - good luck to you!

[Anne Lutz Pinda]

In my state of general delusion I also indulged in the thought that maybe Internationals would be notified later.

That was until I got my rejection from Duke.

[the international]

hehe..

Oh god, well, that is a definite no then, we will be notified like everyone.

Good luck with the rest of them!

[yank in the M20]

Where are all of you guys from/living now, out of curiosity. I'm American, but did my MA in the UK and still living over here. Am I the only one that gets confused by all of these acronyms--POI, DSG, etc. etc. And then, though I've been to several conferences, they were all in England with very few Americans so I haven't met and talked with people going to or working at the institutions I applied to. Also, is it just me or do your profs here talk more about other English scholars than American, meaning that even the scholarship you read is in the majority on this side of the pond? Makes me feel really out of the loop--wondered if you guys are in the same boat. Not to mention the fact that those with MAs from over here aren't teaching so I'm missing that whole experience. I always thought scholarship was universal, but actually living abroad shows how much connections are still based to a large extent on locality--except the really big names in any given field, of course. Even what seems to be popular scholarship differs. And god knows what that means for Australia, New Zealand, or English-speaking programs in Asia or Europe...

[bigjumps]

Where are all of you guys from/living now, out of curiosity. I'm American, but did my MA in the UK and still living over here. Am I the only one that gets confused by all of these acronyms--POI, DSG, etc. etc. And then, though I've been to several conferences, they were all in England with very few Americans so I haven't met and talked with people going to or working at the institutions I applied to. Also, is it just me or do your profs here talk more about other English scholars than American, meaning that even the scholarship you read is in the majority on this side of the pond? Makes me feel really out of the loop--wondered if you guys are in the same boat. Not to mention the fact that those with MAs from over here aren't teaching so I'm missing that whole experience. I always thought scholarship was universal, but actually living abroad shows how much connections are still based to a large extent on locality--except the really big names in any given field, of course. Even what seems to be popular scholarship differs. And god knows what that means for Australia, New Zealand, or English-speaking programs in Asia or Europe...

Ha, yes, sometimes the acronyms have taken a while to figure out! Although the context helps a lot.

I'm from New Zealand - did my undergrad and MA here - and I'm quite fortunate in that I've been able to get advice and guidance from people familiar with the US system. My MA supervisor went to grad school in the States, as did the academic I'm currently a research assistant for, and I know they have a lot of friends/contacts at American (as well as British) universities. I personally haven't had contact with anyone currently studying or working at any of the places I'm applying to though, but I hope it will be useful having recommendations from people who know the system they're recommending me for.

Regarding scholarship: most of the academics at my university have PhDs from overseas - Britain, US, Canada - and I think the criticism I've been introduced to reflects that as well; it's pretty balanced. (This is just my personal experience though - I'm quite interested in what other people in other places have to say about this!) I guess it makes sense - NZ is so small, that if I only read criticism to come out of NZ, I wouldn't have a very good sense of the field at all. What I have noticed more about scholarship here and in Australia is that, at least in my field, there is a sense that we're often overlooked by the rest of the academic community, all the major conferences and journals coming out of North America and the UK etc. I think this is beginning to change, but it was a topic much discussed at a conference I went to in Australia last year.

[yank in the M20]

Ha, yes, sometimes the acronyms have taken a while to figure out! Although the context helps a lot.

I'm from New Zealand - did my undergrad and MA here - and I'm quite fortunate in that I've been able to get advice and guidance from people familiar with the US system. My MA supervisor went to grad school in the States, as did the academic I'm currently a research assistant for, and I know they have a lot of friends/contacts at American (as well as British) universities. I personally haven't had contact with anyone currently studying or working at any of the places I'm applying to though, but I hope it will be useful having recommendations from people who know the system they're recommending me for.

Regarding scholarship: most of the academics at my university have PhDs from overseas - Britain, US, Canada - and I think the criticism I've been introduced to reflects that as well; it's pretty balanced. (This is just my personal experience though - I'm quite interested in what other people in other places have to say about this!) I guess it makes sense - NZ is so small, that if I only read criticism to come out of NZ, I wouldn't have a very good sense of the field at all. What I have noticed more about scholarship here and in Australia is that, at least in my field, there is a sense that we're often overlooked by the rest of the academic community, all the major conferences and journals coming out of North America and the UK etc. I think this is beginning to change, but it was a topic much discussed at a conference I went to in Australia last year.

Interesting. I can imagine it feels a bit isolating, the distance and all. I think it also depends on what you're studying. I'm interested in British literature and living in England so I'm going to come across fewer academics from outside the UK writing on this whereas the Americanists I know here get more of their scholarship from the States and have stronger ties to conferences and the like there. Of course being from or living in the country whose literature you are studying doesn't matter much, especially if it's anything but contemporary, yet it still seems the norm. What's your focus, btw? And where have you applied?

That's great you have a lot of contacts that are aware of the strengths of the various universities you're applying to. My university has a lot of professors that have studied in the American system, but it was either years ago or they are not in my time period--the professor whose work most closely matches my own interests is definitely very much focused on the British academic scene, so my choices are 100% the result of checking out professors' interest areas and publication history and trying to imagine a possible match. Now I'm starting to worry that lack of match is what's going to leave me out in the cold with seven rejections but, I researched the schools extensively online and I don't know what more I could have done. Oh, well...

[wreckofthehope]

It's an interesting topic to consider...

I'm a British student already in a program in the States and I've been slightly surprised by how very insular American academia is. I found that in the UK, my professors and fellow students were, for the most part, very engaged with scholarship from outside the country, particularly from elsewhere in Europe and from the States - I did, however, do my MA in a very international and interdisciplinary department (and my MA was not in English but in a sort of comp-litty interdisciplinary area so I imagine that will have shaped the way I experienced things).

Here, I've been working in mostly American Lit, which again will be making a difference to how the lay of the land looks to me; the large size and vibrancy of the field in the States is probably part of the reason that it doesn't engage outside of itself that much... I find it odd and frustrating at times but I suppose it is not that surprising. Another thing that I think contributes is the inflexibility of the academic apparatus here - you can't work outside of the narrow field in which you do your dissertation without difficulty and then that narrowness is re-inscribed by a tenure process that doesn't reward risk - I think these things tend to close down the academic conversation a bit. But... I haven't been here long and these are only initial impressions, perhaps my perspective will change upon taking some more internationally oriented options (i.e. poco lit)?

[bigjumps]

Interesting. I can imagine it feels a bit isolating, the distance and all. I think it also depends on what you're studying. I'm interested in British literature and living in England so I'm going to come across fewer academics from outside the UK writing on this whereas the Americanists I know here get more of their scholarship from the States and have stronger ties to conferences and the like there. Of course being from or living in the country whose literature you are studying doesn't matter much, especially if it's anything but contemporary, yet it still seems the norm. What's your focus, btw? And where have you applied?

That's great you have a lot of contacts that are aware of the strengths of the various universities you're applying to. My university has a lot of professors that have studied in the American system, but it was either years ago or they are not in my time period--the professor whose work most closely matches my own interests is definitely very much focused on the British academic scene, so my choices are 100% the result of checking out professors' interest areas and publication history and trying to imagine a possible match. Now I'm starting to worry that lack of match is what's going to leave me out in the cold with seven rejections but, I researched the schools extensively online and I don't know what more I could have done. Oh, well...

My focus is on British Romanticism, which actually has heaps of scholarship coming out of the States as well as the UK. I only applied to three places: Toronto, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and CU Boulder (I see you've applied there too). I haven't heard from any of them yet though! Despite having some great suggestions about where to apply, a lot of my research was the same as yours (checking out faculty profiles online etc.) and I have similar worries about not matching up closely enough. But then, so much of this is beyond our control, and I think we've probably all done (as you say) as much as we can. Fingers crossed!

[Anne Lutz Pinda]

In my field (Medieval Lit), there seems to be as much American scholarship as there is British. Some of the basic analyses and theories are British while lots of critical/postmodern theory is American. My MA thesis supervisor in York was American and I met quite a number of American scholars at Conferences in England and on the continent.

I'm originally from Germany, currently living in London, and I have a German Magister Aritum from Cologne as well as a British MA from York. In 2010, I was accepted into the Queen's Belfast PhD programme but had to quit due to decreased funding and the decision by the School of English to turn their backs on Medieval Lit in favour of Renaissance and Contemporary Lit. Now I'm trying my luck with some US schools, my top choice being Notre Dame's Medieval programme.