Toronto Direct Entry Ph.d

[theunnamable]

Does anyone have juicy information/ insights about direct entry, that is, no m.a., ph.d admissions at Toronto? As a backwards American, specifying 'direct entry' seems foreign to me. Specifically, how do lowely b.a.'ed americans fare?

[peppermint.beatnik]

Does anyone have juicy information/ insights about direct entry, that is, no m.a., ph.d admissions at Toronto? As a backwards American, specifying 'direct entry' seems foreign to me. Specifically, how do lowely b.a.'ed americans fare?

I don't know about the specific program to which you are referring, but it is quite uncommon in Canada to enter without an MA. Not impossible, but unlikely.

We don't really have post-bac PhDs.

[Kursty]

I did my English undergrad in University of Toronto and I would never go there for my Ph.D. Generally, it seems a good place to work after you've got your degree from an Ivy in the States, but not study. It's huge, it's underfunded, poorly managed, and stale in its scholarship. Granted, much of this is based on my subjective experience as an undergrad and a Research Assistant for a Stanford-graduate tenure track prof, but just take a peek at their website as a sign of the state it's in: their ridiculously antiquated, budget website was supposed to be redesigned by end of last summer...then end of September....now it just says 'coming soon.' What does it tell you, if they can't even spend a few hundred dollars on updating their website? Maybe I am just being a bit bitter and harsh, but considering they are supposed to be the preeminent English Dept. in Canada in the preeminent University of Canada we should expect a little bit of professionalism on their part! That said, there are some really great encouraging profs, and they are particularly strong in 18th C.

Now to actually answer your questions.

The MA program is a cash-cow. There is absolutely no funding (which is not common in Canada; many other MA programs in UofT get funding, including the Centre for Comp.Lit.), they accept a large pool, and you don't even need to submit a writing sample. Most Canadians usually do the MA-only program first because it easier to get in , and there is enough gov. assistance to compensate for UofT's cheapness. Plus, most English MAers in UofT come from shitty Canadian universities and have no option but to 'prove their worth' (i.e. PAY) if they have any professional aspirations what's so ever.

The Direct-Entry Ph.D. is basically copying the standard American practice, where you are accepted in the Ph.D. stream and complete your MA in the first two years. And of course there's funding. The only difference in the application is that you have to submit a writing sample (which for you, being an American, is to be expected anyway). Also, I believe you can explicitly state that you want to be considered for the MA program, if you did not qualify for direct-entry Ph.D. Or maybe it's the other way around: official application to the MA program, with a request for Ph.D. consideration. Either way, I pretty sure there is a way to apply to one but be considered for both.

If after all this, you still want to go: GOOD LUCK!