What to do: applied to Engl, accepted to Medieval Stud PhD?

[lotf629]

Hi all,

So this was unexpected. I only recently realized that other people had had emails from programs sent to their spam folder, so I opened mine and promptly discovered an email from Cornell. I applied to Cornell for English; they apparently rejected me for English but accepted me for the Medieval Studies Ph.D. I didn't even know that my app had been forwarded. It does make sense, as my background is fairly interdisciplinary (I have an MA in a field other than English), and as my knowledge of certain non-lit medieval topics is stronger than my knowledge of certain non-medieval lit topics. (Or at least, that's how it looks when you glance over my transcript.)

So here's the question: what should I even think about a Medieval Studies program, especially with respect to job placement? I'm still feeling startled and kind of ambivalent (obviously excited to be accepted anywhere, and really excited about Cornell, but kind of unclear on the whole prospect of switching fields). I really think I'd prefer the English PhD to the Medieval Studies PhD, but thus far, Cornell is the strongest school to have accepted me.

I feel like a lot of these questions are ill-considered, but I'm a little in the dark here. More research to do!

[adverbially]

I guess any advice would have to hinge on exactly what it is you'd like to do. I, too, considered medieval studies programs, but wound up applying only to English programs because much of my interest in medievalism has to do with how it's represented in different time periods or genres- in other words, I'm not interested in"pure" medieval studies. Would your research benefit from the ability to draw on resources across a number of medieval disciplines (i.e. history, music, in addition to literature)? If so, think about it. I'm sure, also, that Cornell would encourage you to take a bunch of English classes, and, though I don't know much about the school, I'm willing to bet there's some substantial crossover between the Medieval Studies and English faculty; you'd still have access to English department resources.

One of the reasons I applied as a medievalist is because I was told I would be much more marketable both as a PhD applicant and as a job applicant a few years down the road. Apparently, every department feels obligated to staff at least one medievalist. A Medieval Studies PhD (as opposed to one in English) would probably qualify you to teach in a number of different departments and in the end might make you even more marketable than someone with a straight English PhD. Then again, the teaching/hiring landscape is obviously undergoing some economically-influenced changes, so who's to say what will be marketable six or seven years from now?

Regardless: Cornell! That's awesome. Give them a visit.

[guenevere01]

One of the reasons I applied as a medievalist is because I was told I would be much more marketable both as a PhD applicant and as a job applicant a few years down the road. Apparently, every department feels obligated to staff at least one medievalist. A Medieval Studies PhD (as opposed to one in English) would probably qualify you to teach in a number of different departments and in the end might make you even more marketable than someone with a straight English PhD.

Hmmm, adverbially, I've heard the exact opposite - namely, that departments want to hire people who can do general survey courses in their disciplines, and they assume that a PhD in English, for example, will be more able to do a survey course in English lit. than a medieval studies PhD would be. Not that they are correct, that's just what I've heard they assume. Plus, there are relatively few Medieval Studies "departments" as such, compared to English or History departments. On the other hand, there are Medieval Studies PhDs out there with great jobs in academia. I think it's probably more dependent on where your passion is and which program would be more likely to foster your innate genius and potential for writing amazing conference papers and a stellar dissertation.

Likewise, though, lotf629, Cornell! Way to go!

[Sibilance7]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but one of you is claiming an acceptance from Indiana and the other one from NYU - are these for English PhD? There's nothing on the results search for NYU English for 2009 and only one Indiana acceptance from 2/6 that I thought someone else I was talking to here has claimed. So I'm confused.

[guenevere01]

Ummm, I've not been accepted to NYU, just applied there. Still waiting.

[adverbially]

Ummm, I've not been accepted to NYU, just applied there. Still waiting.

Ditto here and Indiana.

[adverbially]

Hmmm, adverbially, I've heard the exact opposite - namely, that departments want to hire people who can do general survey courses in their disciplines, and they assume that a PhD in English, for example, will be more able to do a survey course in English lit. than a medieval studies PhD would be. Not that they are correct, that's just what I've heard they assume.

Yeah, actually, now that I think about it, that's what I've heard, too. Since none of us can predict what the market's going to be like, you're right: Gotta just follow the passion.

[Sibilance7]

Ah, it seems in my panic induced state from seeing the Indiana acceptance in lotf629's post, I misread your signature line - I see now that you are still waiting to hear back from NYU. That's a relief that they haven't made decisions yet!

I'm still curious about Indiana, though, lotf629 - was that acceptance for English, and if so, when/how did you hear?

[lotf629]

@Sibilance7, I was accepted at Indiana for the English PhD, '09, at some point in early Feb, but I didn't post about it on the forum; I hadn't mentioned any of my results until this thread. You must have been talking to somebody else. Is there a board where we are all aggregating admit/reject data? If it is useful to other people to share this data, I would be happy to post; I just didn't think anybody would care. (In total, I applied to 10 schools, am waiting on 5, have been accepted to 5: Fordham, Indiana, Wisco, and UVA for Eng PhD 09; Cornell for Med Stud PhD 09.)

[lotf629]

Oh, looks like we cross-posted. Professor Ingham called me, looks like on Feb. 6 as well, and also immediately sent a follow-up email. I haven't gotten anything official in the mail, nor have I heard back about funding (they nominated me for an interdepartmental thingy and said I would likely hear about it, or about dept funding, later this month).

[Sibilance7]

I was just talking about the result page for this site that you find from the results search link at the top of this page. There's one from 2/6 from someone else, so it seems they called a few people then. Thanks for all that info, though, because from what you said it sounds like maybe they just called people who were nominated for some type of fellowship and regular admits will get called later since Indiana usually doesn't call that early in Feb. We shall see! Thanks for the reply, and good luck with the rest of your applications and decisions! I wish I had advice for you on the *actual* topic of this thread, but the Medieval period is probably the one I know the least about.

[lotf629]

Best of luck to you too, Sibilance7!