Where to Apply? (English PhD)

[Brokenmoped]

I know most of you are unbelievably anxious to hear your decisions, but I figured you might want to kill some time by answering my dumb questions. Also, most of you have finished the application process awhile ago and I could use some advice!

I'm a junior at a UC school, and I'm pretty certain that I want to pursue a PhD in English--the thing is, I don't know where I should apply. My interests include 20th Century American Lit, Satire, Encyclopedic Novels, Marxism, Romanticism, Environmental Lit, and to a lesser extent Science Fiction. My GPA is not bad at 3.6 (this is only my 2nd quarter at this school since transferring in the fall, so there is still room for improvement) and I think I have a few profs lined up for letters already, I just don't know what schools I should be looking at.

I know it's probably hard to gauge what schools would make a good fit for me based on this alone, but any help would be greatly appreciated! Oh, and good luck in your decisions!

[a cup of coffee]

Is "pretty certain" certain? The first few professors I talked to about PhD programs told me not to apply. There are a lot of extremely unappealing, difficult, annoying aspects of the job -- definitely talk to more than one TA at your school about what their experiences have been. My husband in currently in a PhD program and I had no idea what graduate students do all year until I watched him. The workload is unbelievably intense, you need to be your own boss, there are tons of annoying bureaucratic tasks to stay on top of, you have to network constantly, the pay is terrible, and the job market is brutal. Being a professor is not the only career that allows you to work with literature and writing, and it is probably the most grueling.

If you decide to go, seriously consider taking time off between undergraduate and graduate school. Supposedly it makes you a more appealing candidate and helps convince faculty that you are certain you want to be a graduate student. I would then try narrowing down your interests (which will probably evolve a lot in the next year, anyway) to ones that fit within a typical subfield. Do you want to study 20th century American literature, or do you want to study Romanticism? Once you have a better idea of what you want to do in graduate school, you can look for programs that have strong faculty in your interests. You'll only be accepted to schools that think you will fit their department's research interests and philosophy. This means you probably won't have a definitive list of schools until the fall you apply.

Make sure your major GPA is as good as possible (take more English classes your senior year, anyway, for their own sake). And get excellent GRE scores!

[Brokenmoped]

First off, congrats on your acceptance to UW!

To answer your question, "pretty certain" is 99.9% certain (I guess I should've left out "pretty"). Everything you've mentioned above I've heard from grad student friends (including a few who went straight from undergrad into PhD programs) and professors, but this is something I've thought about for a long while now, and I'm definitely going to apply. Also, my rooomate is a PhD student in Cultural Studies, and I've seen just how difficult grad life can be.

I've heard the same thing about taking some time off between undergrad and grad school, and I've put some thought into that as well. I'd rather just get on with it as soon as possible, though an MA isn't out of the question either.

Yeah, I realize my interests aren't very focused right now (although I'm leaning towards 20th century Am. lit.). But I was under the impression that applicants were supposed to start contacting students and professors at prospective schools a year in advance before applying, at least that's what the DGS at my school told me. The problem is, I have no idea what schools I should be looking at or contacting...

Another question, what constitutes "strong faculty"? Awards? Books? Fame?

[traveler]

a cup of coffee, if you don't mind me asking, how did you find out about your rejection from Chicago? Did you receive a letter already? (I ask because I'm waiting on a response from there as well.)

[Boz]

Ja, I haven't gotten an answer from Chicago either way.

[lyonessrampant]

Ditto! I've basically reconciled myself to not getting into UC. . .sigh, but I haven't heard anything from them yet either. Anyone else hear anything at all?

[a cup of coffee]

First of all, I haven't heard anything from Chicago officially, I'm just assuming they've admitted everyone based on what they did last year (emails sent out on one day). It's also rumored that they severely cut their cohort size this year, but that's only what I've heard secondhand. It's really true that you never know, so I will be responsible and take it out of my signature -- I didn't mean to freak us all out more. :>

Researching universities that early might be a good strategy. I was rushed for time during my application process and there are definitely things I would do differently. But personally, I only developed my main interest in my summer before my senior year, when I started to do research for my thesis. So it's possible that your interests will evolve a lot, even in the next semester. However, most schools are strong across multiple subfields. I think it just seems good to have a sense of some direction.

What I mainly considered when choosing programs were:

- where their graduates get tenure track jobs

- what the funding situation is like

- how many faculty members work in the time period I want to study

I know what you mean about wanting to go straight out of undergraduate school -- I also am applying as a senior, although I had a gap of time in undergraduate school. If you apply now and don't get in, you don't have to feel that bad about it and can apply again. For fun you might want to read some recent journals in American lit and see what debates are interesting to you!

[greekdaph]

As far as finding strong faculty, brokenmoped, a few tips:

-I, and I think pretty much anyone else on this board, think that fit--a match in research interests--is the best indicator of "strong" faculty, as anyone employed by a graduate program is more than likely to be a great scholar. Here are a few tips for finding faculty who are a good match:

-Which scholars' work have you come across and enjoyed/been influenced by?

-Look through scholarly journals for 20th century American or whatever your eventual field will be. Who wrote the articles you like best? You can also think not just in terms of subject area but in terms of methodology--even someone who studies a different area may have a theoretical approach that interests you.

-Where did the professors who work in your area of interest go to school? Are they faculty they worked with still there?

-Look through websites of programs you're interested in attending. Often, faculty interests will be listed there--and sometimes, faculty will even be broken down into fields.

-Work your way through US News or other rankings, and see if there are faculty who match your interests at the schools they list.

As you do all of this, think of sentences like, "So-and-so's interest in X is directly related to my interest in Y"; "So-and-so's work on X will help me expand my knowledge of Y"; "So-and-so's work on X will give me a new lens through which to consider Y." Statements like this will eventually become the fit paragraph of your SOP.

-In addition to fit, the other question you'll have to ask yourself once you've found scholars who match your interests is whether you would actually enjoy working with them. Are they warm and friendly or cold and arrogant? But that's a harder question to answer until you've been admitted to a program and have a chance to meet/converse with them.

-Superstar faculty--the big names with all the accolades--aren't always the best bet, as they may have too much else going on to be good advisors and advocates for you. (This isn't always the case, of course, but in order to woo superstar faculty, schools sometimes have to make concessions like not requiring them to teach as much, and those concessions don't always serve you well as a student. This doesn't mean that you should avoid reaching for the (super)stars, but make sure there are other people in the department you could work with in addition to them.

Hope this helps! And best of luck to you!

PS: Just saw a cup of coffee's reply above. Good advice there! Looking at funding and placement rates is a really good way to evaluate a program overall and is also an essential part of the process--I just focused here on how I found faculty to target.

[lyonessrampant]

I think the assumption about UC is probably right. I emailed a prof I know there and he told me that they are significantly cutting the size of this year's admissions, in part because of the economy and also because they increased Ph.D. funding last year after essentially a graduate student protest. In order to fund at that level, they had to dramatically cut spots. Sigh. I do know that if you don't have an MA already and the department considers your application pretty good, they'll refer you to the MAPH program. You should hear from them in the first week of March or so.

[a cup of coffee]

Wow! At least now I feel like Chicago admissions this year has a happy ending (or beginning, I guess). It's better for all of us if they take better care of their students. This is a good example of what you can't predict in the application season, though!