What to expect?

[Silent_G]

Although I'm still waiting to hear back from one more program, I'm in the fortunate position of knowing that I will in fact be going to grad school this Fall. It's looking more like I'll be in an MA program, but at least it's a start. The thing is, I finished my undergrad education in 2005, and while I've been taking classes and working full time for the past couple of years, I haven't been a full-time student in a while and I've never been a grad student.

Everyone says it's a lot of work, and I understand that, but I'm looking for some more tangible information. So for those of you who have MA's or who have already started your PhD programs, what can I expect? What is the typical workload for a grad student? I understand this will vary between programs, but I just want a general idea so I don't feel completely unprepared. I expect English programs to have an especially hefty amount of reading and writing, of course, but what exactly constitutes "hefty"? How many pages do you typically read in a week? How many papers do you write in a semester?

Also, given the competitive nature of grad school in general and the Humanities in particular, what has been your experience as far as interacting with other students? Have you encountered many backstabbers or have you had a more collaborative experience? I'm just curious to hear about different experiences. Any advice on what I should look forward to/be wary of will be much appreciated.

[Timshel]

Well, I know, for me, during my first year of getting my MA we took 3 classes a semester and you had to read at LEAST one book a week for each class, so that means we were reading 3 full-length novels a week. That might give you a more tangible idea of the reading load.

[Silent_G]

That's kind of what I expected, so I'm glad to know I was on the right track. I took a course in pre-Stonewall queer literature and culture last year--granted, it was a community college course, so not all the students actually kept up with the workload--and we read at least one full novel a week, plus 2-3 articles. I figured a graduate level course might up the ante a bit, but I think I can handle it. Especially when I'm no longer working full-time on top of being a student.

[TripWillis]

Also, expect to:

-Find internships/positions to help you gain professional experiences

-Get on the English Committee, or whatever equivalent your program has; get involved in service opportunities

-Get acquainted with CfP sites and attend a conference

-Meet regularly with professors and advisors; find reasons... seriously... you want to ingrain your face in their minds.

-Prepare drafts early to get extra academic style help and feedback (this is their job and you have a right to use them!!)

-Join professional organizations; smaller ones tend to be better. MLA is not particularly impressive.

-Become immersed in your focus; think about it day and night and as you're falling asleep; be tortured by Deleuze & Guattari.

-Make the library your home

-Annotate all things ever

-Become aware of the most recent developments and conversations; hone your focus down to the most specific thing possible

-Take said specific interest and make it understandable to as many people as humanly possible across disciplines. Make it so a 4 year old can understand it, even if it's "Rhizomatic ecclesiastical offerings in the postmodern world as explored through H. Rap Brown's Die Nigger Die!"

Edited March 22, 2012 by TripWillis

[Silent_G]

Trip, your advice has always been invaluable! Thank you! And I hope The Boss comes through for you!

[JeremiahParadise]

Somehow, if it's possible, try to prepare yourself for hours-long, very complex conversations with other smart people about complicated subjects. I used to get headaches every night after seminar. It's so good, seriously -- but all the learning I was doing was literally hurting my brain.

[crystalleem]

Everyone says it's a lot of work, and I understand that, but I'm looking for some more tangible information. So for those of you who have MA's or who have already started your PhD programs, what can I expect? What is the typical workload for a grad student? I understand this will vary between programs, but I just want a general idea so I don't feel completely unprepared. I expect English programs to have an especially hefty amount of reading and writing, of course, but what exactly constitutes "hefty"? How many pages do you typically read in a week? How many papers do you write in a semester?

Also, given the competitive nature of grad school in general and the Humanities in particular, what has been your experience as far as interacting with other students? Have you encountered many backstabbers or have you had a more collaborative experience?

My MA program is, like said above, about a book per week. So, if you go full time that is 3 novels a week. In my experience in almost every class so far, I've also had to make a presentation (usually about 20 minutes in length). Several of my professors have a short critical analysis due every week (ranging from 500-1000 words). Some have 2-3 short papers during the semester (ranging around 1500 words each). The average length of the "big" papers is 15 pages.

I've had no problems with other grad students being backstabbers or overly competitive. Most of them have been somewhat friendly, although there are a lot of cliques. Many of them got their BA from the school I'm at, so they have known each other for years and all know the professors. They tend to stick together, but they haven't been mean or anything.

I would echo the previous sentiments. I've met with some professors up to 8 times a semester. All of my professors have been fantastic with being willing to meet and offer help with papers or advice on PhD programs. It is really important to establish relationships with your professors.

[intextrovert]

I'm in my second year of a PhD program, and I calculated that in January of this year, I read 3,600 pages total. It was sort of an unusual month in that I had two presentations that required reading an extra book apiece, but otherwise pretty typical.

A standard literature-based grad seminar will have maybe a novel a week plus an article or two. A theory-based class, a monograph and/or several articles adding up to the equivalent of a book per week. Typically, it involves doing a presentation once during the semester, sometimes weekly 1-2 page responses, and a final project that is either a conference-length (12-15 page) or article-length (20-25 page) paper. Seminars almost always meet once a week for 3 hours, though some courses are twice a week for 1.5 hours. In my program, you generally take 3 classes per semester until you're preparing for prelims in your 3rd year, when it drops down to one (you also have the option of taking one class pass-fail starting 2nd semester 2nd year). Starting in our second year, we are also teaching a course each semester, so prep and especially grading adds to the workload.

So yeah, it's a lot of work, but is generally manageable until the end of the semester when you're researching and writing papers, at which point it doesn't always feel like it! (I'm reaching that point now!)

As for the tone, my experience here has been that everyone is extremely collaborative and collegial, my cohort is lovely and hangs out all the time, and I don't feel in competition with anyone but rather like we're all rooting for each other. (Part of that is that we're literally not in competition - everyone is funded the same. And our interests are diverse enough that I feel like we all have our own niche, so it's easy to just relax and admire what other people are doing instead of angling.) People lend articles and books to each other if it reminds them of someone else's interests, and we do things like workshop each others' third-term review statements and attend each others' talks. Couldn't be happier about that.

Hope that helps!

[Silent_G]

Thank you! This is all very helpful. I feel better knowing that I won't be going in completely blind

[CarolineSC]

intextrovert: your comments make me feel so much better (the all working together part)

[Chanel L]

What about meeting foreign language requirements? I think to meet mine I would have to find some time to study French again while in grad school.