Help On an "Applying to Grad School" Piece

[silenus_thescribe]

You all on Grad Cafe have been so helpful for me in this application season; I hope it's not too much to ask that you all provide some more insight into a project I'm working on.

 

I'm writing a "Tips for Applying to Grad School in English" document for my undergraduate department. While I was well served as a scholar in my small English department as an undergrad, nearly all of my professors had gone to grad school at minimum ten years prior, so they were unfamiliar with the specifics of applying in the present day. I wanted to write a document that breaks down the application process in broad terms for anyone at my undergrad school interested in graduate studies.

 

Naturally, this bonkers process being what it is, the document's already 20 pages. Blah.

 

Anyways, I'm wondering if I could solicit some wisdom from you all. What would you say are the few biggest things you wish you had known going into the application process? Any major tips you would give to any undergrads aspiring to an MA or a PhD? It can be about any part of the process at all.

Edited April 2, 2015 by silenus_thescribe

[1Q84]

My brain is a little too fried to think straight but this thread seems to be a wonderful and comprehensive compendium of advice on the app process. Hope it helps!

 

[silenus_thescribe]

My brain is a little too fried to think straight but this thread seems to be a wonderful and comprehensive compendium of advice on the app process. Hope it helps!

 

 

I've definitely been mining this one for assistance. The trick is narrowing it all down! I told my department that I wanted to keep it brief, but at the same time I don't want to short-serve future applicants... hence the 20 pages already. Blah. 

[empress-marmot]

I'm working on something similar, and I ended up with about twenty pages too. As much as I dislike the format of "10 Things You Didn't Know About [insert Anything Here]," I figured that limiting myself to ten guidelines was a good idea, and I explained my reasoning for each one.The result was about a page long. I summarized below, even though I'm sure a lot of this information has been listed before. Some of the advice seems so obvious, but a lot of students at my university end up doing those online, unfunded programs. I would like that to stop.

 

1. Read the Chronicle, InsideHigherEd,The Professor is In, and Schuman's Slate Articles. Know what you're doing.

2. Apply to mostly MA programs.

3. Don't take out loans.

4. Take a hard, harsh look at your application before applying to the best schools in the country.

5. Create a GradCafe account.

6. Start thinking about specializations. 

7. Ask for placement information at MA and PhD programs.

8. Gauge when you will get decisions back from your programs, and be ready to apply to programs with later deadlines if necessary.

9. You will have to deal with these programs again. It's a small field. Be nice.

10. Don't talk about graduate school to people who haven't been through grad school. They won't understand.

[echo449]

It matters less than you'd think to contact professors ahead of time. Of the programs that I applied to, I was rejected from the one where I had the best interaction, and accepted at two where the professors had either ignored my emails or forgotten me by the time I got in. By all means, contact people if you have legitimate questions and concerns about the program, but contacting people so that they remember your name when it comes up in the pile in January doesn't guarantee anything. 

It is almost impossible to gauge whether or not a program will actually be accepting people in your area or genre in a given year. You can be God's Gift to Hermeneutics and still be waitlisted because it was someone else's turn to get a student this year.  

Be honest with yourself, and apply where you feel comfortable. Don't go to a program just because they let you in--the market is too bad for that. 
 

On a pragmatic note, apply to fewer Stanfords and Columbias and more Rutgers--125$ (plus gre) is basically two applications at other good schools. If you are going to throw money at a reach, consider choosing a cheaper reach. 

[Appppplication]

It's all about fit, meaning at least 2 or more people working theoretically the way you want to work (sometimes I think theoretical fit is more important than literary area fit). In order to determine this you must be at least focused enough in your own work so that you know where you fit in. 

 

Fit can trump everything so long as you are ballpark competitive. 

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

Familiarity with the field. 

Browse the latest issues of the big periodicals. Get a lay of the land. What's the language?
(oh) i'm going somewhere here: some sorta ethnographic study of your discipline + sub/sub/sub. 

There is a place for being realistic about the job-market but the reality is despair and despair can be debilitative. So entertain a utopian view, at least for awhile. I'm not saying "be happily ignorant"; rather, have a happy-hopeful place to retreat.

[circlewave]

1. Don't go straight out of undergrad. Take a year to do anything in the world besides English. It's only in this period of time that you'll know whether grad school is right for you.

2. Don't take on debt.

3. Don't take on debt.

4. Really - don't take on debt for a humanities degree unless you're guaranteed a job at your Dad's literary theory factory. 

 

I'd also include these questions for every applicant to ask themselves:

1. What do I want out of this experience?

2. What specific questions do I want to study?

3. Are there other jobs I could feel fulfilled and happy in? If so, why am I choosing this over those jobs?

Edited April 2, 2015 by circlewave

[Dr. Old Bill]

I say the "debt" issue is more YMMV. Certainly paying for an M.A. (or heaven forfend, a Ph.D.) outright through loans is NOT particularly wise, there are circumstances in which taking out student loans to help pay for part of a program isn't inherently evil.

 

I also think the "don't go straight out of undergrad" advice is very subjective as well. If you're older, like me, then going straight out of undergrad makes perfect sense. If you're twenty-two, then it depends on your level of maturity and focus etc. A lot of people find going straight through from high school to B.A. to M.A. to Ph.D. works well. Had I had the encouragement and support when I was in my mid-teens, I strongly believe that I could have gone down that path.

[circlewave]

Perhaps my comments were too much of a generalization. I think that taking on debt for humanities degrees with a solid and reliable plan for how that money is going to get paid back isn't a problem. But the thought of borrowing substantial money in the hopes of paying it back as a professor makes my stomach turn.

 

As far as taking time off out of undergrad, that's intended just for the purposes of perspective and variety. Upon graduating college, I don't think it's a coincedence that a lot of people think more school is what they want to do, since it also happens to be what they're used to. It's not a requirement - if you grew up playing 'archival research' in the backyard and were born to deconstruct, then go for it - but I really think there's little harm in taking at least 1 year out of school simply to see what life is like outside of the academy...grad school is always still there if you come back.

Edited April 2, 2015 by circlewave

[1Q84]

I've definitely been mining this one for assistance. The trick is narrowing it all down! I told my department that I wanted to keep it brief, but at the same time I don't want to short-serve future applicants... hence the 20 pages already. Blah. 

 

Ah, I'm a dummy. Should've assumed you looked through there! My brain is now not-as-mushy so I'll add something below.

 

Familiarity with the field. 

Browse the latest issues of the big periodicals. Get a lay of the land. What's the language?

(oh) i'm going somewhere here: some sorta ethnographic study of your discipline + sub/sub/sub. 

 

Agreed! I didn't do this and I think it really hampered my success. I also wrote a paper and submitted it that was (apparently embarrassingly) out of touch with a lot of recent and foundational work on the topic. So, being super up to date in your WS will really impress the adcomm.

 

I know this can be a controversial piece of advice but I firmly believe that contacting POI is very, very important, if done well. That is, don't just shotgun, mass-email a bunch of POIs hoping for the best, but do research about their work, the program, and try to have a good phone conversation with several that allows you to demonstrate your readiness, inquisitiveness, personality, and that you know you'll be a good fit for their program. I mentioned elsewhere already, but I'm convinced that my doing this helped me get a wait list spot rather than an outright rejection at a school or two. 

[circlewave]

Ah, I'm a dummy. Should've assumed you looked through there! My brain is now not-as-mushy so I'll add something below.

 

 

Agreed! I didn't do this and I think it really hampered my success. I also wrote a paper and submitted it that was (apparently embarrassingly) out of touch with a lot of recent and foundational work on the topic. So, being super up to date in your WS will really impress the adcomm.

 

I know this can be a controversial piece of advice but I firmly believe that contacting POI is very, very important, if done well. That is, don't just shotgun, mass-email a bunch of POIs hoping for the best, but do research about their work, the program, and try to have a good phone conversation with several that allows you to demonstrate your readiness, inquisitiveness, personality, and that you know you'll be a good fit for their program. I mentioned elsewhere already, but I'm convinced that my doing this helped me get a wait list spot rather than an outright rejection at a school or two. 

 

The program I was accepted to first, and am now attending specifically told me they were impressed by my efforts to research faculty and that the emphasis I put on speaking to professors was a mark of the genuine interest that programs look for. All I did was look at faculty profiles and skim a few articles to get a sense of what they were about, and whether there was a fit; it probably took less than 8 hours, spread out over a few days. So, based on my personal experience, entirely on board with that last part.

[silenus_thescribe]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone in this thread for your advice! I finished the document and gave it to my undergrad department last night. If I knew all of this around last April, I can safely say the application season would have gone a hell of a lot better. Might have even changed a few schools I applied to.