Idea on schools?

[crazypoinsonous]

I'm applying straight out of college and w/o MA next year (freaking out slightly), and I'm only applying for PhD programs.

Can someone take a look at this list and let me know if anything looks out of place (i.e. program's focus) and/or this is wayyyyy tooooo out of reach?

-background: gpa 3.9 from an ivy, great recs, GRE v167, q168; 

interest: comparative diaspora studies, feminist and queer theory, trauma theory, video/new media/ contemporary art

||| edit: I do work  mainly with diasporic literature, and I want to do work in literature along with art.

language: English, Chinese, French, German, Arabic, some Armenian and Indonesian, full reading proficiency in Classical Chinese

brown (comp lit)

columbia (comp lit/ postcolonial studies)

duke (literature)

harvard (comp lit)

princeton (comp lit)

uc irvine (comp lit)

uc berkeley (comp lit)

upenn (comp lit)

nyu (comp lit)

penn state (comp lit)

emory (comp lit)

yale (comp lit)

 

Edited November 26, 2016 by crazypoinsonous

[Warelin]

I don't think any of your listed scores will filter you out during the first round.

However, this is more than about scores. This isn't like applying to undergrad schools. The only common thing that all these schools have is that they're all considered great schools.

The schools listed all make people think of a different thing. What in Comp. Lit interests you? Political Psychology? Oral traditions? Folklore? Religion and Literature? Popular Culture Studies? Critical Race Theory? Medieval Literature?  Museum Studies? Gender and Sexuality?

Excluding English, how many languages do you know? Some require 2 additional languages; others require 3. Some may require you know all 3 prior to entering; others have more leeway.
 

[poliscar]

There's not enough information here for anyone to say anything helpful. You've just listed your stats and a number of programs.

I guess to elaborate more, you need to be able to persuade a committee that their department/program is the right place for you. You can't just throw statistics at them and expect to be rewarded—that's not how the process works. The schools you've listed are all stellar, but a lot of them are also very, very different from one another, so it's difficult to know what you want. Do you have a rough field of interest, in terms of geography/language/chronology/methodology? Have you identified potential supervisors at each program? It all is very vague at the moment.

Edited November 26, 2016 by poliscar

[crazypoinsonous]

10 minutes ago, Warelin said:

The schools listed all make people think of a different thing. What in Comp. Lit interests you? Political Psychology? Oral traditions? Folklore? Religion and Literature? Popular Culture Studies? Critical Race Theory? Medieval Literature?  Museum Studies? Gender and Sexuality?

Excluding English, how many languages do you know? Some require 2 additional languages; others require 3. Some may require you know all 3 prior to entering; others have more leeway.
 

interest: comparative diaspora studies, feminist and queer theory, trauma theory, video/new media/ contemporary art

language: excluding english, I am native in 2 language, fluent in 3, plus one classical language

[crazypoinsonous]

22 minutes ago, poliscar said:

There's not enough information here for anyone to say anything helpful. You've just listed your stats and a number of programs.

yeah fair enough. 

I was hesitant to put too much personal info here.

[poliscar]

Based on your interests I have to say that I'm sort of confused. Some of the schools you mention could work well (Emory, Irvine, Duke, possibly Columbia and NYU), but others don't seem to be good places at all for you. Why are you looking at Harvard Comparative Lit instead of something like their program in Visual and Environmental studies? The same goes for Brown—you'd probably be better suited to Media and Modernity—or even Berkeley, where Rhetoric or Art History might be a closer fit. 

I would recommend going through lists of dissertations completed at the institutions in questions, because they will probably put a lot of this into perspective. Frankly, I don't think you'll find anything similar to the work you want to do at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or UPenn (in Comparative Literature, that is). Other programs, like those I've mentioned above but also including Performance Studies at NYU and Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford, are far more likely to be good fits for you. I'd also throw in UChicago and Northwestern Comp. Lit, which seem more amenable to your interests.

Frankly though, I think you should step back a little and seriously think about why you want to work in a Comparative Literature program. Obviously the field has a pretty capacious scope, but it still is grounded in Literature & the Literary. If you want to study New Media and Contemporary Art, alongside Feminist/Queer and Diaspora Studies, a lot of Comp. Lit programs will be too "traditional" for you. Alongside some of the programs you've listed, I'd take a look at Art History, Performance Studies, Media Studies, etc, because I'm not sure that your current list makes a lot of sense. 

Edited November 26, 2016 by poliscar

[WildeThing]

As I understand it your grades and scores are good enough to not rule you out (assuming scores CAN rule you out, which is inconclusive). Beyond that there is not much anyone can advise you on as you stated a variety of interests and a lot of schools. The point is you'll have to work on selling why you fit in esch program and that will vary program to program.

[crazypoinsonous]

22 minutes ago, poliscar said:

Why are you looking at Harvard Comparative Lit instead of something like their program in Visual and Environmental studies? The same goes for Brown—you'd probably be better suited to Media and Modernity—or even Berkeley, where Rhetoric or Art History might be a closer fit. 

 Frankly, I don't think you'll find anything similar to the work you want to do at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or UPenn (in Comparative Literature, that is). Other programs, like those I've mentioned above but also including Performance Studies at NYU and Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford, are far more likely to be good fits for you. I'd also throw in UChicago and Northwestern Comp. Lit, which seem more amenable to your interests.

If you want to study New Media and Contemporary Art, alongside Feminist/Queer and Diaspora Studies, a lot of Comp. Lit programs will be too "traditional" for you. Alongside some of the programs you've listed, I'd take a look at Art History, Performance Studies, Media Studies, etc, because I'm not sure that your current list makes a lot of sense. 

I am looking at Harvard b/c of the possibility of secondary field in critical media practice.

I think the way I put my interests together might be misleading. I work quite a bit with German 20th century literature and Francophone literature, and I have done work mainly in diasporic literature. I know that art history wouldn't be a good fit for me. Going forward from my current research, I am looking to integrate art into my research, and that's why I put new media and contemporary art there. 

Also, from what I have seen, U-chicago seems a little too focus on European literature (?) is that true? 

I will definitely look into northwestern + dissertation from every school.

Edited November 26, 2016 by crazypoinsonous

[poliscar]

I wouldn't say that UChicago is any more focused on European literature than some of the other programs on your list. As far as I know they have faculty working in Chinese, Tamil, Azerbaijani, Arabic, Japanese, etc. Mostly I mention the program because Chicago is pretty stellar for Queer & Feminist Theory (they have a Grad Certificate in Gender and Sexuality), and they also have really top-notch faculty in East Asian & Middle-Eastern Studies. 

On that note—it's hard to say! Things change considerably based on the diaspora(s)/diasporic communities in question. A school that is stellar in the area of African/Afro-Caribbean diasporas might not be great in the area of East Asian or Middle Eastern diasporas, and vis versa. It really depends on the work you see yourself doing, which will be considerably more specific than the fairly generic category "diasporic literature."

[Yanaka]

I'm also into Feminist and Queer Studies, and I have to say that i hadn't found any potential advisors at Yale, for instance... So yes I'd say your post is rather confusing!

[Warelin]

35 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

I'm also into Feminist and Queer Studies, and I have to say that i hadn't found any potential advisors at Yale, for instance... So yes I'd say your post is rather confusing!

Just because I'm curious: http://english.yale.edu/faculty-staff?field_people_type_value=All&field_fields_of_interest_value=Gender+%26+Sexuality
 

Nobody from that list grabbed any interest?  On a side note, I really wish some programs would stop lumping queer studies with gender. I like both fields but they are both distinct. I also wish that there would be more uniformity when comparing areas of strengths between schools.

[poliscar]

2 hours ago, Warelin said:

Just because I'm curious: http://english.yale.edu/faculty-staff?field_people_type_value=All&field_fields_of_interest_value=Gender+%26+Sexuality
 

Nobody from that list grabbed any interest?  On a side note, I really wish some programs would stop lumping queer studies with gender. I like both fields but they are both distinct. I also wish that there would be more uniformity when comparing areas of strengths between schools.

Well the field in question is Comparative Literature, rather than English, so that changes things a bit. Still, neither is a particularly stellar place for the interests in question, in my opinion. Michael Warner in English is great, and so are Tavi Nyong'o and Daphne Brooks in African American studies, but I'm not sure if they make sense in this situation. 
 

[Yanaka]

Yeah I was looking into Comp Lit.