Boston/Mid Atlantic Area Schools

[teaganc]

Now that most everyone has settled into a decision or is preparing to reapply/apply, I would like to hear your thoughts, via this forum or PM, on the following programs (PhD all):

Penn State Harrisburg- American Studies (do they, like their English counterparts, hate people with outside MAs?)

Brandeis - English

Northeastern - English

Boston University - New England and American Studies

Tufts - English

 

Boston College- English ( edit: does anyone have anything nice to say about this program, or should I just forget it?)

 

Any and all thoughts welcome, but obviously I'd particularly like to hear from current students, admitted students, and people who applied but were rejected; what did you like, what did you dislike, what have you heard, etc. etc.

[kfed2020]

What's your field?

[teaganc]

What's your field?

Late American. I'd be happy to PM you specifics, if you have something to say about one of the programs, but in the past, the most useful information I've recieved has been unbiased by discussions about what I might want from a program.

[Yellow#5]

I think that BC has a fairly small PhD program and usually admits 4 students total to the English PhD program. I'm not sure if they have a separate "American Studies" program, though.

I've heard from a grad student specializing in Medieval Studies, that he was surprised to find out (after enrolling) that Tufts' English department is almost exclusively interested in feminist and gender theory, so you should be interested in that approach for Tufts to be a good "fit." You can try e-mailing professors of American Lit to inquire as to whether this is the case in your area of interest as well. My impression was that it was a department wide interest.

I'm going to BC in the fall for the MA and I've poked around the internet for some professor's writings. James Wallace teaches early American Lit and he takes a primarily "New Historical" approach to reading lit. Chris Wilson teaches late American and he seems to mix it up a bit. He teaches classes like "Narrative and Media" and goes outside the cannon to genre, even self-help manuals. I've heard he's quite interesting. I've also met Professor Shrayer, who teaches Nabokov (technically Am. Lit?) in conjunction with the Slavics department. He is very personable and his essays on Nabokov are great.

[teaganc]

Yellow#5 said:

I think that BC has a fairly small PhD program and usually admits 4 students total to the English PhD program. I'm not sure if they have a separate "American Studies" program, though.

I've heard from a grad student specializing in Medieval Studies, that he was surprised to find out (after enrolling) that Tufts' English department is almost exclusively interested in feminist and gender theory, so you should be interested in that approach for Tufts to be a good "fit." You can try e-mailing professors of American Lit to inquire as to whether this is the case in your area of interest as well. My impression was that it was a department wide interest.

I'm going to BC in the fall for the MA and I've poked around the internet for some professor's writings. James Wallace teaches early American Lit and he takes a primarily "New Historical" approach to reading lit. Chris Wilson teaches late American and he seems to mix it up a bit. He teaches classes like "Narrative and Media" and goes outside the cannon to genre, even self-help manuals. I've heard he's quite interesting. I've also met Professor Shrayer, who teaches Nabokov (technically Am. Lit?) in conjunction with the Slavics department. He is very personable and his essays on Nabokov are great.

I'm pretty sure BC does not have a graduate AmSt program, though they do have an undergraduate minor, but I believe it's a concentration/interest within the English department. I also have heard some very negative things about two professors at BC, and I would PM that to you if you were interested.

Thanks for the info on Tufts; I haven't found a lot of people who have any insider information, and what you added is definitely helpful.

[BrandNewName]

Hi, I studied at BC undergraduate and was an English major. The PhD program is quite small - BC is focused on being an undergraduate institution. They have the graduate programs, but all of the professors teach undergrad courses and spend a lot of their time with the undergraduates. It was great for that, but I would have reservations about choosing it as my grad school. I have a great deal of respect for most of the professors, but with the exception of a few, I would wonder how they would tailor their methods and teaching to higher-level students.

If you would like any insight on some of the professors, I took classes with many. Shrayer is great from what I've heard, though I never took a course. You can forget Wallace in my opinion, he's a splendidly nice man, but utterly boring in his lectures and in his approaches to the literature.

As for American Studies, you are right, it is just an undergraduate concentration headed by Carlo Rotella. He's a brilliant guy, challenging and engaging.

[scarlett]

To add my two cents on Tufts:

I was accepted to and visited Tufts in March, and had a great visit. The campus is great, the teaching load is reasonable (one class a semester starting your second year, caps out at 10 students), and the grad students and professors there were really friendly (i.e., they called/emailed after my visit and were very open to all of my questions). Anyway, despite all the gradcafe talk about how gender-centric the professors are, the current students were surprised/laughed at that claim. They said that there are so many professors there approaching literature from so many different approaches that to label Tufts as a gender or feminist based program is a false and limiting claim.

Anyway, I decided not to go to Tufts (mostly because of fit), but I had a nice visit there and would recommend that you not rule the program out. It seems that the students there are very happy.

Hope that helps!

[teaganc]

To add my two cents on Tufts:

I was accepted to and visited Tufts in March, and had a great visit. The campus is great, the teaching load is reasonable (one class a semester starting your second year, caps out at 10 students), and the grad students and professors there were really friendly (i.e., they called/emailed after my visit and were very open to all of my questions). Anyway, despite all the gradcafe talk about how gender-centric the professors are, the current students were surprised/laughed at that claim. They said that there are so many professors there approaching literature from so many different approaches that to label Tufts as a gender or feminist based program is a false and limiting claim.

Anyway, I decided not to go to Tufts (mostly because of fit), but I had a nice visit there and would recommend that you not rule the program out. It seems that the students there are very happy.

Hope that helps!

Awesome, thanks for the info scarlett!