Making the Jump? (from Philosophy to Comp Lit)

[Billy Goehring]

(Continental) Philosophy student, currently getting my M.A. at Duquesne University. I'm on four waitlists--maybe nothing will come of it, but I'm asking myself the tough questions now so that I won't get overwhelmed if I get more than one offer. Three of my waitlists are in philosophy programs; the fourth is for UT Austin's comparative literature PhD.

 

I won't bore you with my life story. Short version: I did my B.A. in French and English at a middle of the road state university; during my stint there I started reading philosophy to impress a boy; now I'm studying early modern and 20th century French philosophy (philosophies of nature, post- and anti-humanism, social and political philosophy, contemporary metaphysics, blah blah blah). 

So here's the problem. I'm familiar with the goings on of graduate lit courses. I have a pretty good idea of the sort of periods/languages/literatures I would study if admitted. It's not so much that I'm worried about comparative literature itself; what's missing is that I don't know how to assess graduate departments (something I should have learned to do before applying, I KNOW).

For example--with philosophy, I know the names. I know which schools will someday land me a job and which schools have killer faculty and which schools have snotty, competitive grad students. UT Austin Comp Lit looks good, but I'm worried I'll find out (much too late) that I won't have the sort of freedom I thought I would, or that job placement is really non-competitive. 

 

Can anyone give me the low-down on UT Austin? I'd like to have a better idea of how high or low to prioritize it on my list of (virtual, but not actual) offers.

 

Thanks!