MA Advice?

[TheWB]

Muses of the forum, lend me some advice.

I'm pretty sure I'd like to pursue a PhD in English, but I want to make sure, so I'm looking at (funded) MA programs for 2013. I've taken the GRE general and done well (99th percentile verbal); I'm studying for the subject test, slogging through apps during my free time at work, and trying to get it together for my SoP and writing sample.

Here are my issues:

1) I went to an Ivy undergrad and majored in political science. I took one English course, a couple comp lit courses, some literature courses in other languages and some lit-based "studies" classes. I'm worried this isn't a very strong base to be applying to English programs with, perhaps not even English MAs.

2) When I was in undergrad, I felt a certain way about the academy (let's call it a deep working class suspicion of it all) and didn't really engage with professors the way I need to until well into my education. So I have one professor who I know very well who will write me an excellent LoR, one who I know less well who will write me a solid LoR, and then...I don't know, really, a few other professors who I could perhaps beg for an LoR.

So my questions:

1) Do you think I stand any chance at a funded MA program (Georgetown, BC, Clark and UConn are tops on my list)?

2) Would I be better off trying for something different, such as a professional program in ESL or Applied Linguistics, and sort of gradually creep my way towards an academic PhD?

Thanks in advance, I've been lurking for a year now and you all are great.

[Stately Plump]

I think you have a fine chance. You actually have a unique (and consequently somewhat advantageous) opportunity to write an interesting statement of purpose.

My advisor was a poli sci undergrad. She graduated and worked some sort of government job for a few years before returning for her PhD. In her SoP, she talked about the transition from poli sci to literature, and especially how her interest in political science had come to shape her potential interests in literary studies. Programs will want to know why you have chosen literature after majoring in poli sci, so if you can come up with an interesting reason, your application might actually stand out. If you are very concerned, you could try taking some not-for-credit courses, though I don't know how much time you have for that. Perhaps you could enroll for some in the fall and mention in your SoP that you are currently taking courses to make up for your lack of lit courses during your undergrad (though I don't think that is a necessary step; you would probably be fine without it).

Incidentally, I believe Villanova has a funded MA program as well; it might be worth taking a look.

I've been saying this a lot lately, but it never hurts to apply! Put together your best application and send it out; you never know what might happen

[TheWB]

Thanks for the quick response. That you think the poli sci angle could be interesting reassures me a bit, because to me it mainly seemed worrisome.

It will be tough for me to take any courses this fall, except perhaps through a community college, as I'm working abroad in a non-English-speaking country, but I'm going to try to enroll in some courses this coming spring, when I'm back home (even if it contributes little to the app, it will make me feel more comfortable going in).

Thanks again.

[Strong Flat White]

Myself and a bit of my cohort came into my program with a polisci background, and it's generally seen as a kind of value-added/supplemental advantage. The card up our collective sleeve being that of course all lit can be analyzed/theorized politically. But, then, I'm not in a funded program, either, and as for lit MA's, funding is pretty much a flip of the coin, at least insofar as it corresponds to prestige/placement/general-goodness-of-program kind of stuff. Personally, the switch from poli sci to English lit was a methodological switch from social sciences to humanities, a switch that I take to heart. Kindly discard those data sets, behavioralism, and empiricism, and come on over to where the water's fine.

[wreckofthehope]

My sense is that MA programs, especially, are welcoming of students that didn't major in English and want to get a better grounding in the subject. I know someone that did Wake Forest's MA (funded) without much of a background in English, so that's also probably a good program to look into, We have a number of people in my program who did not major in English but did an MA elsewhere before coming here. We also have a bunch of MA students (I'm a PhD student at one of the programs you mentioned) that did not major in English as undergrads, and a lot of them have some funding.

I think you should be fine - as long as you can craft a convincing SOP that explains how and why you have got to this point. Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much.

Edited August 7, 2012 by wreckofthehope

[TheWB]

Myself and a bit of my cohort came into my program with a polisci background, and it's generally seen as a kind of value-added/supplemental advantage. The card up our collective sleeve being that of course all lit can be analyzed/theorized politically. But, then, I'm not in a funded program, either, and as for lit MA's, funding is pretty much a flip of the coin, at least insofar as it corresponds to prestige/placement/general-goodness-of-program kind of stuff. Personally, the switch from poli sci to English lit was a methodological switch from social sciences to humanities, a switch that I take to heart. Kindly discard those data sets, behavioralism, and empiricism, and come on over to where the water's fine.

So there aren't any differential equations in Chaucer. Maaaaan.

Thanks all for the advice, working on polishing my SOP now with a nod to the polisci background.