Grad School Inquiry

[hallowsky1061]

To any that can help:

 

I currently find myself in a conundrum of sorts regarding the pursuit of graduate study. I will attempt to adquately outline my situation below in the hopes that someone with much more experience than I may be able to provide advice or assistance.

 

- I graduated with my B.A. in 2009. Mediocre GPA: 3.7ish. It was in Spanish Language and Literature. I studied abroad at La Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona for a summer (12 hours).

- I graduated with a B.S. in 2011 (as a post-bacc student). Same cumulative GPA; however, in the course of study I received a 3.92.

- I decided to take three years and serve. I joined the Army. I'm currently serving my tour of duty and when I am finished, I plan on picking up my studies again.

- I do not have extensive undergraduate study in English. I've only taken about 12 hours in the field. I would be a financial inconvenience to pad this number.

- I understand the admission process for graduate schools and their required materials.

- My goal is to teach at university.

 

In the opinion of those more experienced, what are possible courses of action for me to accompish this? If any more information or clarification is needed, please bring that to my attention. Thanks for any help!

 

Respectfully,

 

Autodidact

[Kwest]

I was just curious what your bs is in and what field you're looking at for grad school? Did I miss this info?

[hallowsky1061]

Indeed. Thank you for pointing out my oversight.

 

- B.S. Criminal Justice (pre-law)

- I will be applying to English Lit. programs (research interests: hermeneutics, semiotics, and 19th-20th century British literature)

 

Respectfully,

 

A

[Kwest]

Thanks for the clarification! So unfortunately this is outside my field of knowledge/experience, and so don't have many tips, but I have some questions that might help.

When are you applying? (sorry if this is in your signature info, Im on my phone and can't see it lol) Also, are you applying for an ma or phd? Do you have a strong writing sample? If not, do you have time to edit/write one? And if course, have you taken the gre? As you've probably read, high scores won't necessarily get you in, but low ones might garner an early cut. That's all I got...hope its a little helpful...and Im sure more will comment. It might help to look through the English threads too :-D

[hallowsky1061]

I am applying in 2015 for the 2016-17 year. It would be preferable to receive offers to Ph.D. programs; however, I am also a realist and I realize that I may have to "pay the piper", so to say, and complete an M.A. to prove my competence.

 

I am not worried in the slightest about GREs and the critical writing piece. I am worried about the statement of purpose (as I believe all are) and about how my lack of experience in English Lit. (both research and formal study) will be perceived and judged by an Adcom.

 

I am shooting high and I believe there is a place for me in the marketplace of ideas, but that doesn't nullify my worry that my research interests will be perceived "conservative" and "out-of-fashion".

[somethinbruin]

I think you may be best served going an MA in Brit Lit first. Your degrees and GPA won't be a barrier for MA programs in lit. Doing an MA will allow you to take more brit lit classes, since you admit you only took about 4 in undergrad. Also, going into an MA program may help you get back into the swing of being a student again. I was away from the classroom for a few years before returning, and I'm glad I did an MA. A PhD program would have been overwhelming. Spending two years "brushing up" and fine tuning my research focuses was a really, really good move for me. I now feel prepared for the PhD program that I'm headed to in the fall. (Also, the MA will expose you to new ways of seeing your research interests, so you might find new avenues that are less conservative or "out-of-fashion" if that's a concern for you.)

 

So the MA might be the way to go. Funding can be harder to come by, but there are funded MA programs out there. Of course, there's always a chance that a PhD program will admit you with a Spanish Lit degree. This happens from time to time, although I've generally seen it with people who studied spanish lit and wanted to work in comparative literature. Your question doesn't indicate that you're still interested in Spanish lit, so taking into account that you haven't studied much Brit Lit, you might have a harder time getting admitted. Still, if you find a PhD program that you fall in love with and you have the money for the app, I don't see much harm in taking your chances and applying with what you have.

 

With regard to your SOP, use that as an opportunity to (briefly) address your lack of English Lit experience. Don't dwell on it. Simply acknowledge then point out areas of strength that you feel you have in literature. Perhaps you can draw some parallels here to your work in Spanish lit, showing that you can broadly apply criticism across a range of texts. These are things that are universal to the study of literature, regardless of the language. But I cannot stress enough that you shouldn't spend too much time on this in your SOP. Admissions committees are looking for statements of purpose that articulate what type of scholar/researcher the candidate wants to be. Spend most of your time articulating that.

 

Lastly (but certainly not least), thank you for your service. I hope that when you are done, your service provides you with some financial support to pursue your graduate work.

[hallowsky1061]

I really appreciate your feedback, experience, and kind words. I will start looking into M.A. programs more thoroughly. Are there any in particular that I should keep an eye out on that may give me a leg up on getting into a top Ph.D. program?

 

A

[somethinbruin]

I really appreciate your feedback, experience, and kind words. I will start looking into M.A. programs more thoroughly. Are there any in particular that I should keep an eye out on that may give me a leg up on getting into a top Ph.D. program?

 

A

 

Some things you should consider and answers you might need to determine what works for you:

 

1. What is the size of admitted classes? How many of these students are funded? GA positions are competitive, but it really is the way to go because it sets you up the best for getting funded PhD offers. Best advice I ever got from my undergrad adviser was to go where the funding was (subtext: if the school isn't willing to pay, they don't really want you--but they'll take your checks if you're willing to pay)

 

2. What are the funding packages like? Is healthcare provided in the package (if not, does the university have student insurance packages? this might not be an issue for you because of your service or if your wife has family coverage, but it's worth knowing.) Does funding cover all tuition and fees (some packages leave fees to the students and those can be $1,000/year or more)?

 

3. Does the department/program have a track record of putting students into PhD programs? (directors of grad admissions should be able to respond to this question if you can't find it on the department website. Don't be afraid to ask politely).

 

4. Will you have an opportunity to teach? How much will you teach? How does the school prepare you to teach? (this class will generally be freshman comp--very few MA students teach literature classes). I found that having a lot of teaching experience was something that PhD admissions committees really looked for. I have been told that if you were not a graduate assistant in your MA program, it can be very difficult to get a funded GA position for a PhD program. That held true at my program, where all GAs who applied got into PhD programs, but every non-GA who applied got rejected. I'm not saying this is universally true, but my anecdotal experience says that candidates were much more likely to be accepted to PhD programs if they had experience as a graduate assistant.

 

On top of these general questions, there are the items that will be specific to you and your family's needs: location, length of program (most are two academic years), schedule of classes (mostly daytime? mostly evening?), etc. These general questions will set your basic parameters and narrow your pool of potential schools.

 

For my MA, I went to a university that has strong academics but not "name" recognition. When I committed there, my adviser told me that if I was willing to do the work, I would get a shot at PhD programs. I think that definitely holds true for a lot of programs. You don't have to get an MA from big name school to get into a PhD program. You just have to go through an MA program that pushes you to be a good candidate and PhD student. My program did that, because it helped me build a CV with presentations, publications, research positions and teaching experience. My program provided the framework, but I did the work. I think a lot of programs function this way. If the student is willing to do the work, the MA program will help them get there.

 

So what do I think you should look for in a program? 

1. funding

2. teaching opportunities

3. academics (obviously, but no reason to fixate on "big name." You can get great academics at smaller programs, which sometimes afford more opportunities to interact closely with faculty.)

4. Support for student publication/research (is there funding to travel to conferences? Are there paid summer research opportunities?)

5. Track record/framework in place to help students apply for PhD programs. (My program had sample statements of purpose--both successful and unsuccessful--as well as application checklists/timelines, GRE study aids, and faculty who helped walk you through it/talk you off the ledge when you were in despair.)

 

I hope this is helpful. Shoot me any other questions you might have!

[hallowsky1061]

This is great. I'm compiling this advice into a notebook that will travel with me. You can never predict downtime while deployed!