PhD in English Literature following an unrelated undergrad degree...?

[onerepublic96]

Hello there! I'm currently a second-semester junior majoring in neuroscience, minoring in English. It's a tale as old as time: a student pushed toward one field by her family, realizing all-too-late that she has more interest in another. Long story short, I'm beginning to consider pursuing a graduate degree in English lit, but am growing more and more worried about whether it would really be possible to accomplish that, given that my undergraduate degree will be in an unrelated subject. I'm not sure how much the minor in English will really matter, but I suspect it won't be significant. I'm considering pursuing an MA in English before even attempting to apply for PhD, as that will give me much more experience and allow me to more fully expand the skills I already have, improving my chances for the PhD. 

My question is, though, most (if not all) PhD application deadlines here in the US close in the winter, and I will have only begun my MA by then. If I apply at that point, how will my undergrad transcript be weighed against the fact that I'm in the middle of my MA? Will I have any grades ready by then to show for my grad work? Would it be best to wait, finish the MA, and apply then? 

Additionally, my undergrad GPA suffered significantly during my sophomore year (particularly the fall semester), largely due to a heavy load of difficult science classes & my time management failures (it was quite bad; there was an F, a D, and a C). I really can't say I have any decent excuse; I was very young and very foolish, and it was entirely my fault. I've improved drastically since then, but I can't help but kick myself over those mistakes and how they will probably come back to bite me in my grad apps.  How much do you think these one-time poor science grades affect my prospects? My English/lit grades have always been quite high...

I apologize for the length of this post! Hopefully someone can answer some of these questions... 

Any additional advice is very much welcome

 

[angesradieux]

Did you have a good relationship with any professors you took English/lit classes with? If there's a professor you particularly liked or whose class you found especially interesting, it may be worthwhile to see if they'd be willing to oversee an independent study research project. That way you'll have at least one professor you've worked very closely with who can write a detailed letter of recommendation for you and it might help you to start focusing on specific research interests and thinking about what you might say in a statement of purpose. It will probably boost your chances for an MA program and give you a starting point for thinking about PhD applications.

As far as grades, how much they matter likely varies from one school to the next, but I don't think it will totally make or break you. I was in a similar situation. I really struggled my sophomore year. I didn't fail anything, but my GPA wasn't great, either. When all was said and done, it was just a little over a 3.0. My situation was a bit more convoluted, because I ended up transferring and switching majors, but I had similar fears. I was concerned that even though I did really well after transferring, my GPA from the first school I attended would land my application in the trash. I ended up being fine. One thing the professors I spoke to about this concern did advise me to do was to address the situation in my statement of purpose. They said not to necessarily make a big deal about it, but to just include a couple lines about how I struggled a bit and then changed gears.

If there are any professors in the literature department you can talk to, you may want to ask them how best to handle it and whether they think it's worthwhile to bring it up in a personal statement.

For what it's worth, my situation was pretty complicated I transferred from a 4 year school to a community college, earned an associates in music, and then transferred to a different 4 year school, where I did my bachelor's in history. Between transferring twice, losing credits, changing majors, etc. my transcripts were kind of a mess. I was also only about three and a half semesters away from graduation when I finally decided I wanted to go to grad school for history, so I didn't have that much more time than you to scramble to figure out what to do. What I did that I found very helpful was write a senior thesis so I would have a solid writing sample that professors in my field had seen multiple drafts of and given me feedback on. You may be able to accomplish something similar with an independent study. Then I took a gap year to give myself some extra time to refine my writing sample and statement of purpose, and also to read more in the field, get a sense of which schools had professors I'd be interested in working with, and do an internship to build up my resume. Having that year was really helpful, and it also gave me some time to just take a break from classes and decompress, so I'll be a little bit fresher and not so burned out when I do start grad school.

Anyway, after all of that, I've been accepted to a PhD program after my first round of applications. If I managed to pull it off after what some might label as a train wreck of an undergrad career, I think you definitely have a shot. I'd imagine one rough year is easier to explain than a rough year plus bouncing around like a pinball. But from experience, I'd advise working closely with literature professors as much as your schedule will allow so you can refine your research interests and build relationships with people who can write you letters of recommendation, and I'd also possibly think about a gap year to give yourself time to breathe and ultimately put together a stronger application. How many classes have you already taken for your minor? If you're planning on taking extra classes to better familiarize yourself with the field, it might be worthwhile to consider how many more credits you'd need to make the minor a double major. It may not be doable depending on what your coarse load for the remainder of your neuroscience degree looks like, but it may be worth looking into.

Sorry for the novel. Hopefully you'll find some of my rambling helpful. I think changing gears isn't necessarily the easiest thing, but it is doable, and a rough sophomore year probably isn't the end of the world. Good luck!

[DBear]

I've worked and studied in a couple of different fields and found that some disciplines are more welcoming of people from varied academic backgrounds than others.

English literature was not one of these fields. Obviously, different programs in different schools may be more open to diverse academic backgrounds, but for the most part, literature is a pretty particular field. A lot of lit people will say it's open and diverse, but coming from a different field (social science in my case), I realized that the (invisible) barrier to entry is much higher than I had expected. I double majored in English Lit and really liked it so I thought I'd do well in my MA in English Lit. I completed the degree without too much difficulty, but just realized that the kind of approach and the kind of writing the literature professors are accustomed to is different from what I was used to and in some cases, the professors weren't really thrilled by my "innovative" approach. 

If you really are passionate about pursuing a graduate degree in English Literature, I would strongly suggest applying to a MA program first. Honestly, it may be a difficult task to convince admissions committees that though your primary field of study wasn't in English Lit during your undergrad you are now serious about pursuing a PhD in English. If you do the MA, then you'll have a writing sample that is the style that English programs look for and you'll learn more about what kinds of applicants schools are looking for and that you are competing against. BA to PhD in English Lit isn't impossible, but it isn't easy in general even without the different background to consider. When I decided I wanted to do a PhD in English Lit, I had a long talk with an English professor from my undergrad days and he suggested I do the MA before applying for a PhD. I'm glad I did because I found out what I really wanted to do wasn't English. 

A lot of applicants will be applying in the middle of their MA - some schools will ask for your current GPA even if you're not finished with the MA, some schools will ask to have your final MA GPA updated before you can be enrolled in their program. Some schools will focus on your English Lit class grades. If you are enrolled in a MA program and doing well, you can choose to emphasize this in your SOP. Also, you may be able to offset some of the GPA issues with a great GRE verbal score. I would spend my time during the MA to really explore what you want to do within Literature and write a great SOP and writing sample as these will say much more about you and your potential in the field than your undergrad GPA in an unrelated field. 

Good luck!

[victoriaaa]

I can't speak for PhD studies, but I've been accepted by two MA programs in fields (Education) unrelated to my undergraduate studies (Asian Area Studies). After finishing my undergrad, I moved abroad to Asia to teach for 5 years and wound up developing an interest in education while here. When I asked the schools I was applying to what my odds were as someone applying to an education program with precisely zero undergraduate academic experience, I was told that a strong SOI and glowing LORs would certainly help, so maybe focus on those? Make friends with profs who can write you excellent LORs, try to pad your resume with work experience or extra curricular activity related to English lit. Also, some schools have a Master's you can do in three years instead of two where the first year is made up completely of prerequisites to get you up to speed for Master's studies, so perhaps look into those?

I have faith in you! I didn't think I'd get accepted to my first choice of school because of the shift in study, but here I am. Also, don't worry too much about your sophmore grades. I did pretty awful in my first two years, but, while I can't speak for American schools, most Canadian ones at least only look at your GPA from your last two years of study. Good luck!

[onerepublic96]

Thank you all so much for your responses! I did give it some more thought and have come to the conclusion that an MA is the way to go, as I really don't feel I have the necessary experience to attempt a PhD right away. 

As a follow up: if I apply after completing my MA, how will my undergraduate history be weighed against the work I pursue during my MA? To what degree will great performance in MA help me soften some of the damage of my sophomore year of undergrad? 

Edited February 6, 2017 by onerepublic96

[DBear]

@onerepublic96 This depends on the school, I think. Some schools will focus on your most recent grades and even with your undergrad, may only look at grades from related classes. But I can say that it would definitely help that you are in the midst of an English MA. More likely than not, the English MA performance will matter more. I know it's really easy to fixate on GRE and GPA prior to applying, but SOPs and writing samples are important, too, and these can communicate much more clearly and persuasively to admissions committees if you can think and write like a Literature person.