UNLV English PhD Program and/or other programs to consider

[theburiedlife]

Hello!

I'm new here and I'm applying for PhD programs for fall 2014 in English literature (19th century and/or Victorian Lit-- possibly looking at gender issues, issues of identity/nationalism, material and print culture).

 

I'm looking to apply to UNLV, but I wanted to get some feedback from students who are attending or considering attending the program. 

 

I'm also looking at other programs, but I'm still quite confused about which programs are good/decent/bad/soul-crushing, etc. As of the moment, I feel marooned in the sea of research--looking at programs, faculty, faculty publications, etc. And I was hoping that someone here can give me some suggestions about how to best search for programs and/or how to keep my sanity during this process.

Some schools I'm considering:
UCLA, USC, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, CUNY, Rice University, WashU, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, LSU

 

Any other programs I should consider? 

Thank you! I appreciate all your comments/feedback!

 

[rhetoricus aesalon]

I took some courses at UNLV a few years ago before I was fully admitted into my current program and they were pretty nice--though I am more interested in rhet/comp than lit.

 

Something that you may want to consider, too, is that like most schools UNLV is struggling for funding, and the English department has been hit hard in the past few years. Administrators attempted to fire the entire tenured line of composition faculty in 2011, for example, though luckily they were not successful. Needless to say, I know of some faculty members who are actively trying to find other appointments.