I want to study comparative literature and I need some advice

[Stingermania]

Hello everyone.

 

I am an Iranian student of English literature. I want to apply to a PhD comparative literature program and I wanted to ask all of you what you think of my chances. I want to ask you some specific questions as well. But before that let me get to the main point: full funding is mandatory for me. I don't know if you have followed the Iranian news or not but let me tell you that in the previous two years the sanctions and incompetent trynaical regimes have worked together and now our currency is less valuable than toilet paper. I was always in a lower middle class category but now I'm deep under the poverty line. So, I will never afford paying tuitions ANYWHERE. Not only that, it will mean paying application fees and travel costs and things like that will also be a massive pain in the neck. Apart from that we need to pay a lot of money to the government to have access to our BA and MA certificates. GRE and TOEFL are going to be really expensive too. I will need to work for a year or two just to earn the money needed for application costs.

 

So let me give you a little information about myself.

 

Good things about me:

- My graduate school is one of the top 2 in Iran and it's internationally famous (and sanctioned, hehe).

- My graduate professors love me and I'm sure they will write me shining letters of recommendation. They are internationally respected too, I guess.

- I have only As and my GPA is 4.0 in graduate school.

- I don't have any publications yet, but I am sure I will have one or two papers published before my application time comes. (They're under review now).

- I have worked as an English teacher for 5 years now. But even better, I'm in negotiations with some schools and I'm positive I will have some academic teaching experience too before applying. I might also become a faculty member somewhere but that's a 50/50 chance.

 

Bad things about me:

- I have some Cs, Ds, and Fs in BA. All of them except one are the grades of stupid lessons unrelated to the English literature forced on us by the government - Islamic thought, family values, things like that - or teaching or translation lessons. My only F in literature is a lesson I didn't take the exam out of protest to the teacher. At that time I was reckless and stupid and didn't think ahead.

- I'm only fluent in two languages, English and Persian. I can also read Arabic but I can't write or speak or listen to it. I can take classes but I don't think I would be able to study so extensively to be able to be fluent in a third language before the time comes.

- I'm a bit controversial. I'm a radical atheist and I am against social institutions like family and marriage, I politically support WikiLeaks and things like that. I have extreme liberal views. So if someone searches my name they might some angry comments on the internet from me they might deem too radical and crazy. I can stand by the content of those comments and defend them but the tone was angry. Again, I was reckless and stupid.

- Grammar errors- ugh. No matter how many times I proofread and revise my writings I will still find errors in them the next time.

 

Now, my main interest is the comparative study between video games and literature. My MA thesis the comparison between Alice in Wonderland books and their video game adaptations. I am knoweldagble in both fields and I have been a freelance video game blogger for years. I think I can prove my competence in both areas.

 

I am also very competent in Persian and Islamic literature so I can go down that road too.

 

So this is my situation. Now I want to confess something: the main thing that I want is to get out of Iran. If I could use any other way I would, but I can't because literature and politics are the only things I know how to do. So getting accepted is the main thing I want. So these are my questions:

 

1) How do you assess my chances overall?

2) No matter how hard I google comparative literature, I find only the best universities. Can you suggest some universities which are lower in rankings? I will have more chances of acceptance and the application fee is lower and funding is guaranteed.

3) The country I want to go to is the USA. Are the universities in that country too good for me? I also love to go to Canada and any other English speaking country except Australia, or European countries (that I unfortunately don't speak the language of).

 

I know this was a very long post and thanks a lot for reading it.

[DontHate]

http://www.gradschools.com/search-programs/comparative-literature

[DontHate]

also: http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/comparative-literature/rank/basic

[Porridge]

Hello everyone.

 

I am an Iranian student of English literature. I want to apply to a PhD comparative literature program and I wanted to ask all of you what you think of my chances. I want to ask you some specific questions as well. But before that let me get to the main point: full funding is mandatory for me. I don't know if you have followed the Iranian news or not but let me tell you that in the previous two years the sanctions and incompetent trynaical regimes have worked together and now our currency is less valuable than toilet paper. I was always in a lower middle class category but now I'm deep under the poverty line. So, I will never afford paying tuitions ANYWHERE. Not only that, it will mean paying application fees and travel costs and things like that will also be a massive pain in the neck. Apart from that we need to pay a lot of money to the government to have access to our BA and MA certificates. GRE and TOEFL are going to be really expensive too. I will need to work for a year or two just to earn the money needed for application costs.

 

So let me give you a little information about myself.

 

Good things about me:

- My graduate school is one of the top 2 in Iran and it's internationally famous (and sanctioned, hehe).

- My graduate professors love me and I'm sure they will write me shining letters of recommendation. They are internationally respected too, I guess.

- I have only As and my GPA is 4.0 in graduate school.

- I don't have any publications yet, but I am sure I will have one or two papers published before my application time comes. (They're under review now).

- I have worked as an English teacher for 5 years now. But even better, I'm in negotiations with some schools and I'm positive I will have some academic teaching experience too before applying. I might also become a faculty member somewhere but that's a 50/50 chance.

 

Bad things about me:

- I have some Cs, Ds, and Fs in BA. All of them except one are the grades of stupid lessons unrelated to the English literature forced on us by the government - Islamic thought, family values, things like that - or teaching or translation lessons. My only F in literature is a lesson I didn't take the exam out of protest to the teacher. At that time I was reckless and stupid and didn't think ahead.

- I'm only fluent in two languages, English and Persian. I can also read Arabic but I can't write or speak or listen to it. I can take classes but I don't think I would be able to study so extensively to be able to be fluent in a third language before the time comes.

- I'm a bit controversial. I'm a radical atheist and I am against social institutions like family and marriage, I politically support WikiLeaks and things like that. I have extreme liberal views. So if someone searches my name they might some angry comments on the internet from me they might deem too radical and crazy. I can stand by the content of those comments and defend them but the tone was angry. Again, I was reckless and stupid.

- Grammar errors- ugh. No matter how many times I proofread and revise my writings I will still find errors in them the next time.

 

Now, my main interest is the comparative study between video games and literature. My MA thesis the comparison between Alice in Wonderland books and their video game adaptations. I am knoweldagble in both fields and I have been a freelance video game blogger for years. I think I can prove my competence in both areas.

 

I am also very competent in Persian and Islamic literature so I can go down that road too.

 

So this is my situation. Now I want to confess something: the main thing that I want is to get out of Iran. If I could use any other way I would, but I can't because literature and politics are the only things I know how to do. So getting accepted is the main thing I want. So these are my questions:

 

1) How do you assess my chances overall?

2) No matter how hard I google comparative literature, I find only the best universities. Can you suggest some universities which are lower in rankings? I will have more chances of acceptance and the application fee is lower and funding is guaranteed.

3) The country I want to go to is the USA. Are the universities in that country too good for me? I also love to go to Canada and any other English speaking country except Australia, or European countries (that I unfortunately don't speak the language of).

 

I know this was a very long post and thanks a lot for reading it.

I don't know why you were downvoted but I've upvoted and love you already.

 

My thoughts: your chances are as good as anyone. You'll want to deflect attention from your bad grades in the Statement of Purpose. 

[Fayre]

You might want to check out the University of Toronto's complit program: http://complit.utoronto.ca/

 

It's well-regarded, guarantees funding, and both the university and Toronto more generally are very receptive to international students. It also doesn't require the GRE, so that's one less school you would have to get that report sent to. The program does require you to have two languages other than English, but for research purposes, so I don't think it'd be a problem that your Arabic is limited to reading ability.  

[thestage]

You can have application fees waived at most Universities if you provide some reasonable evidence of financial hardship.  I would find it hard to believe that you would be denied a waiver at any school.

[DontHate]

I know that, at Stanford at least, Middle Eastern language and literature study is very "in" right now. So if you emphasized that in a statement of purpose for a Comp Lit PhD you should be good. Not enough native-speakers apply to those programs.

[wreckofthehope]

You can have application fees waived at most Universities if you provide some reasonable evidence of financial hardship.  I would find it hard to believe that you would be denied a waiver at any school.

Usually waivers don't apply for international students; but I suppose you could always ask... It would seem a bit uncharitable for them to outright refuse.

[sebastiansteddy]

Also, check out U. Southern California's comp lit. The school in general is big in media and video games (a professor there now is "translating" Walden into a videogame). They offer a track in comparative media and culture. 

Edited February 17, 2013 by sebastiansteddy

[Phil Sparrow]

You may want to look into Northwestern. I happen to know a few people, grad students and faculty, doing Arabic and Persian lit there (mostly in comp lit, I think? You may want to poke around the various lit and lit-related department websites, though, to see who's where). Otherwise I've heard Stanford is good for those languages, as DontHate mentioned. Though I don't know the dynamics of the comp lit field as well as I know English, yours are relatively hot languages to be working in right now, so that could be a plus for you. There have been a number of US job postings (in English departments) in recent years for scholars working on Arab and Persian as well as Arab-American and Persian-American literature. 

[Stingermania]

Thanks everyone for the replies I'm looking into them right now.

[Stingermania]

Also, check out U. Southern California's comp lit. The school in general is big in media and video games (a professor there now is "translating" Walden into a videogame). They offer a track in comparative media and culture. 

 

Do you know the name of this professor by any chance?

[Soleil ت]

You sound well educated and driven, as well as self-aware. I am willing to bet you will absolutely be accepted. Best of luck!

[Stingermania]

You sound well educated and driven, as well as self-aware. I am willing to bet you will absolutely be accepted. Best of luck!

 

Thanks a lot for the kind words

[sebastiansteddy]

http://cinema.usc.edu/interactive/research/walden.cfm

 

Tracy Fullerton.

[sebastiansteddy]

Even if you want to study video games, make sure when you apply that you seriously emphasize your language knowledge (Persian and Arabic - it doesn't matter if you can only read the latter). They are hot languages right now and will only help you quite a bit. 

[Stingermania]

Thanks a lot sebastiansteddy and thanks a lot for the advice