Comp. Lit at South Carolina

[Smokydog]

Hey! Does anyone know anything about the Comp. Lit program at South Carolina. It is supposed to be in the top tenth in the producitvity index (http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?bycat=true&primary=10&secondary=81&year=2007) but who knows...

[123student]

I'm closely considering South Carolina's Comp. Lit., partly because they accepted me to their PhD program, and partly because their faculty fit my interests quite well. I know that South Carolina doesn't boast a high general ranking with ARWU & Times Higher Ed. (200 and lower in both), but the NRC rankings for faculty productivity (which you posted) score them in the top 10 or so. The NRC Comp. Lit. rankings on PhDs.org place South Carolina among some pretty good schools despite their lackluster ARWU & THE ranking; they are particularly high in student outcomes. Granted, the NRC numbers are already 5 years old, and in any event can account for only a fraction of the whole graduate experience. The main attraction factor for me is faculty fit (classics, religion, and literature), though I expect good networking and professionalization opportunities because the ACLA will be at SC through June 2016. I plan to visit SC's annual Comp. Lit. conference this March 22-24 to get a feel for them.

[Pickson]

I've been accepted to SC's English PhD program and am excited to learn more about it. My interests overlap a bit with Comp. Lit., so I'm hoping that the departments interact a bit. Will find out more during the recruitment weekend in March, but anxious to hear more from anyone around here who has insight. I honestly don't put much stock into the ratings--I applied because of faculty fit.

[Rupert Pupkin]

I did my undergrad at South Carolina. I was more than satisfied with the education I received from the English department. In fact, I feel that it is an underrated program. I found some of the more recent hires, in particular, to be outstanding. I am not in comp lit, but let me know if you have any questions about the department in general.

[Smokydog]

Well, I would like to know more about South Carolina. I am from El Salvador and I am currently in Spain. As it seems, South Carolina will be my next stop and would like some advice.

[123student]

eoyarbidem, What specific advice would you like? If you ask detailed questions, I'm sure people will be happy to reply to them.

Rupert, I know English and Comp. Lit. are different departments, but what was your general impression of the grad students at SC? I recently read this and its related article from 2008 in the Chronicle of Higher Ed., and I seriously hope that things have improved for the grad assistants there (especially because I could be one of them!). Also, I'm hoping to work with others who are serious about what they do, proactive in conferencing, and seeking fresh ideas--did you get these impressions when you were there, both from grads and undergrads? From exploring the school's website, it looks like they offer a good bit, but I hope my student community--grad and the undergrads I'd be teaching as an assistant--utilizes the resources to the extent I aim to. Thanks.

Edited February 24, 2012 by ECGscholar

[Smokydog]

Well, for starters I would like to know more how a Humanities Faculty works in the US. In this Forum everyone seems to perfectly know the profiles for each Comparative Literature department, something which has been very hard for me to discover in some cases (when the Faculty profile in the website is not that thorough explaining the professors's interests). I would like to know more about what to expect when I reach South Carolina and what would they expect of me when I have to give classes (as it seems I will have to). Also, I would appreciate if you could tell me what will mean to have the ACLA there. Thanks!

[123student]

How Humanities faculties work in the US is fairly unclear to me, but people tend to find out about prospective faculty in a number of ways, among them: 1) by having worked with a professor who knows a good deal about research in his/her area; 2) by having grown intrigued with a researcher's work through researching for papers; 3) by exploring faculty webpages and looking into the faculty's work; 4) by scanning a faculty member's list of publications on his/her CV, and then reading the articles which interest you; 5) by scanning a faculty's profile and getting an idea of his/her interests, then emailing him/her asking about more details; 6) by combining any of the above steps where possible. Some people do know a lot about their prospective faculty, but others don't. Those who don't may be still in the process of fine-tuning their interests, which is fine and allows for growth and new directions during grad school. But in assessing the decision to attend graduate school, it might be wise to also assess the strength of one's own research interests. If these interests are strong, they'll carry the student through 2-7 years, and also help to map out prospective directions and faculty.

I've never set foot in South Carolina, so I can't reply to your curiosity there. On this forum there's a thread about the city Columbia, SC, which you might read to get an idea about the city where U. of SC is located. To find out how their student teaching works, you could email the grad program Director with any questions not answered in the grad student handbook.

ACLA is the American Comparative Literature Association. If you google it, it will take you to their hompage. Good luck.

[Smokydog]

I see. Thank you very much for all the information, ECG Scholar!

[CarolineSC]

Another SC graduate here to boast about the English department. Definitely underrated. Definitely great.

[123student]

Caroline, Are you in the program right now, or have you finished? How do you find GA life, and Columbia? BTW, There's a thread specifically on SC's English at:

[CarolineSC]

I am about to finish (so I guess I should've said almost grad), but only undergrad. There are lots of cool people and lots of great (GREAT) professors at USC. I know that undergrad is definitely different from grad, BUT this is backed up by various grad students there, too. However, I'm afraid Columbia kind of sucks. It's really, really hot during the summer and it isn't exactly scenic. But it's two hours from Charleston (gorgeous - my hometown & the beach!) and about two hours away from Asheville (really cool hippie town in the mountains). There are some good things about Columbia, though: it's cheap; its winters are mild; during spring there are lots of pretty flowers; good music scene; lots of bars if you're into that; really cool independent movie theater; some parts of campus are very pretty; tons of cool coffee shops for studying.

[123student]

I can handle some of the qualities you listed: central Texas (where I'm from) is hot, good music & coffeeshops; I'm not the bar afficionado here or anywhere. It sounds like I'll have to seek out a little scenery for biking. Maybe the surrounding countryside is nice? I did the Appalachian Trail in 2004, and went near Asheville, NC, so I have an idea of how the countryside might look. I plan to take a look when I visit SC in late March for the Comp. Lit. conference; maybe I'll see you around on campus.

Edited to add: What's your intended focus in English lit? I plan to work with Milton & Dante, classical and religious literature in Comp. Lit.

Edited March 1, 2012 by ECGscholar

[CarolineSC]

19th Century American (Women's lit and African-American lit in particular) & gender theory.

Unfortunately, the countryside around Columbia isn't gorgeous, but we do have some good parks for bike riding: http://scgreatoutdoors.com/park-harbisonforest.html

and http://www.scgreatoutdoors.com/park-congaree.html (bikes are permitted in places).

Lots of people ride their bikes around the city though.