2018 Applicants

[unicornsarereal]

Interesting, why are you thinking of removing those ones? What's your field?

 

I'm feeling unsure of my school number but I'm very adamant about staying on the east coast and I have a very particular interest (early 18th century fiction). I'm doing NYU, Yale, Penn, Columbia, Princeton, Brown. 

What're your thoughts on Oxbridge for a DPhil? I've thought a lot about applying but have decided against it. 

[WildeThing]

Looks like we're applying to many of the same places!

I'm also heavily leaning towards east coast so all things equal I prefer to remove west coast programsUCL and Brown fit, as well, but I'm still looking through faculty lists to make final decision. Ultimately my SoP is about the same idea, just a matter of cutting the schools where it seems to have less resonance. I guess I'm 20th century Americanist with emphasis on psychoanalysis, trauma,  and identity (with an Af-Am lean). So for the comp lit programs I am emphasizing the latter part rather than the Americanist part. That said, there are usually several 20th century Americanists, as well as Af-Am and psychonanalytic-favoring faculty at every department so it is easier to establish fit.

Most people I've seen seem to oscillate between 6-12 programs. Personally I prefer applying to more programs if finances allow (which they do, but it's tight) because nearly all of these programs have low acceptance rates and you never know if your field is going to be favored on that given year. I'm also an older student so I prefer going to, say, my 10th choice, rather than strike out and re-apply.

The main negatives I find at Oxbridge are lack of guaranteed funding and less opportunities for teaching. Depending on where you are in your career, no courses might be a negative as well, as they can be a good way of developing interests. But the positive is that you can just focus on the dissertation and finish 1-3 years before your American counterparts, and thus enter the job market sooner. That said, I would only go if I were able to get an internal/external fellowship, and even then I would prefer to go somewhere in the States.

 

[Dogfish Head]

On 10/28/2017 at 11:17 PM, katie64 said:

Where is everyone applying, and to what types of programs?

 

I am applying to a solid mix of MA/PhD programs and MA programs for English/Literary and Cultural Studies. My list (as of now) for MA/PhD programs is Brown, CMU, U of Maryland, and Penn State, and for MA programs my list (as of now) is WVU, U of Vermont, Lehigh, Bucknell, and Duquesne.  

[ashley623]

I'm applying to Utah and Purdue for MA programs specifically in rhet/comp, and Kentucky, Tennessee, and Oklahoma for general English programs with the option to concentrate on rhet/comp. Purdue's program fits every single want and desire of mine, and I'm just badly hoping I'll get in despite how competitive it is. 

 

[TeaOverCoffee]

On 10/29/2017 at 3:30 PM, unicornsarereal said:

I'm feeling unsure of my school number but I'm very adamant about staying on the east coast and I have a very particular interest (early 18th century fiction). I'm doing NYU, Yale, Penn, Columbia, Princeton, Brown. 

What're your thoughts on Oxbridge for a DPhil? I've thought a lot about applying but have decided against it. 

If you’re doing c18, you might want to look into U of Maryland. That’s my field, and the resources I’m receiving in the program are incredible! The DMV area provides a plethora of rich archives. 

[punctilious]

Good luck to everyone this month—I know it is probably a super busy one! 

My husband has finalized his SOP and is just in the process of writing each individual school paragraph. We’ve sent out his GRE scores to all of his schools and sent out all of the LOR requests—one of his letter writers already submitted everything! All letters should be in before Thanksgiving. His WS is also nearing its final draft. 

My fingers are crossed for all of you!

[unicornsarereal]

12 hours ago, TeaOverCoffee said:

If you’re doing c18, you might want to look into U of Maryland. That’s my field, and the resources I’m receiving in the program are incredible! The DMV area provides a plethora of rich archives. 

Thanks I will!

I've been waiting to meet with a professor from my undergrad who recommended I apply to more schools, so now I'm looking at 12 (13 if I add Maryland). I'm also starting from scratch on my statement based on her suggestion, which is a little stressful! My MA program was outside the states, so the advice I was getting from there was not at all tailored to US schools. 

[WildeThing]

Does anyone know whether English departments put added weight into the Analytical Writing GRE score? I've never seen it referred to, whereas I've seen sites that state that Quant is not that important and Verbal is the most important out of the 3 (but not that important in the grand scheme of things).

[WildeThing]

In response to my own question, I just saw Virginia states that usually accepted applicants will have 90th percentile or above in at least two GRE categories. Only time I've seen such a reference.

[more.truly.more.strange]

First time writing, first time applying...

I just wanted to put myself out there to gauge whether there are other lurkers with similar research interests! I'm a Victorianist hoping to work on the influence of 19th c psychology and scientific discovery more broadly on George Eliot. I have an (anachronistic) interest in psychoanalysis but I'm also interested in how recent affect theory registers the kind of cultural and disciplinary debates that also shaped the Victorian era. 

My schools are, in no particular order: NYU, Cornell, Columbia, Rutgers, Harvard, Berkeley, U. Chicago, UT Austin, UVA, U. Michigan, USC? Duke? Princeton? Brown? Stanford? (I'm not thoroughly convinced of the fit at the last 5) 

I think I'm going to try to whittle it down a little. Although then again, maybe I should just go big as an earlier poster suggested.

I'm going to add a question in case anyone knows if a) Peter Brooks takes on (English) students at Princeton and b) what the deal is with Ian Duncan at Berkeley, who seems to be a "long-term" visiting prof at Princeton now??

Edited November 9, 2017 by more.truly.more.strange

[Dogfish Head]

What are all of your research interests? I am curious to see what people this cycle want to study while in graduate school.

[WildeThing]

Psychoanalysis, trauma studies, african american and postcolonial of the 20th century, to be very general.

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

3 hours ago, Dogfish Head said:

What are all of your research interests? I am curious to see what people this cycle want to study while in graduate school.

Contemporary transnational Caribbean-American literature, framed by 20th century American when it is relevant/interesting. 

[sarahchristine]

On 11/9/2017 at 2:04 PM, Dogfish Head said:

What are all of your research interests? I am curious to see what people this cycle want to study while in graduate school.

19th century British literature, particularly Romanticism & Gothicism. I'm also interested in an interdisciplinary study of religion and literature (specifically, how Christian theologies are represented in literary texts).

[bumbleblu]

On 11/9/2017 at 8:04 PM, Dogfish Head said:

What are all of your research interests? I am curious to see what people this cycle want to study while in graduate school.

The queer rhetorical/composition strategies in the auto-narratives of people with nonbinary gender identities, and how they navigate articulating their identities using binary language

[punctilious]

On 11/9/2017 at 2:04 PM, Dogfish Head said:

What are all of your research interests? I am curious to see what people this cycle want to study while in graduate school.

My husband's research interests:   
Postmodern/Contemporary U.S. Literature | Material Culture | Thing Theory | Pynchon, Wallace, Franzen, Barth, DeLillo, Nabokov, Egan

[TeaOverCoffee]

4 hours ago, punctilious said:

My husband's research interests:   
Postmodern/Contemporary U.S. Literature | Material Culture | Thing Theory | Pynchon, Wallace, Franzen, Barth, DeLillo, Nabokov, Egan

Has he looked into object-oriented ontology (OOO)? There are several scholars interested in that at UMD. 

[punctilious]

8 hours ago, TeaOverCoffee said:

Has he looked into object-oriented ontology (OOO)? There are several scholars interested in that at UMD. 

Ooh no he hasn’t, but actually UMD is his last SOP he needs to write so if you have particular scholars in mind in that field, it would be great to hear! I think right now he was planning to mention Lee Konstantinou and someone else I forget. 

[more.truly.more.strange]

On 11/11/2017 at 12:35 AM, sarahchristine said:

19th century British literature, particularly Romanticism & Gothicism. I'm also interested in an interdisciplinary study of religion and literature (specifically, how Christian theologies are represented in literary texts).

May I ask where you're applying? I'm working on realist novels (particularly George Eliot) and psychology, but I'm also really interested in religion (and the relationship between psychology and religious ideas. 

[sarahchristine]

1 hour ago, more.truly.more.strange said:

May I ask where you're applying? I'm working on realist novels (particularly George Eliot) and psychology, but I'm also really interested in religion (and the relationship between psychology and religious ideas. 

Sure thing! My current list is Purdue, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Lehigh, Wake Forest, and NCSU. 

[WildeThing]

This is as good a place as any to vent. One of my letter writers responded to my last email saying that she didn't agree with my proposed subject, she thought it was pointless and that my academic pursuits should be different. This is startling because she already wrote me a letter based on the same project last year and it is too late for me to change now. She has written me letters in the past but this is the first time that she has asked me to send her a letter that she will alter and add to. I dunno if I should take this as her way of saying that she can't write me a letter in support of the project, so she's just getting me to do it and she'll just sign it (which freaks me out because I don't like to praise myself and was having enough trouble doing it in the statement of purpose, and here I was just hoping to get it from her; I feel very self-conscious about writing this letter).

Also, another letter writer and another professor who was looking at my materials have both suggested I look at some other schools, basically indicating that I was shooting too high. At this point it is unfeasible for me to expand/change my list of schools and I am beginning to doubt the point of the whole process. I obviously knew that getting into some schools was tougher than others, but this makes me think that I greatly overestimated my own potential here.

Guess we'll see. No response needed, just wanted to vent.

[unicornsarereal]

10 minutes ago, WildeThing said:

This is as good a place as any to vent. One of my letter writers responded to my last email saying that she didn't agree with my proposed subject, she thought it was pointless and that my academic pursuits should be different. This is startling because she already wrote me a letter based on the same project last year and it is too late for me to change now. She has written me letters in the past but this is the first time that she has asked me to send her a letter that she will alter and add to. I dunno if I should take this as her way of saying that she can't write me a letter in support of the project, so she's just getting me to do it and she'll just sign it (which freaks me out because I don't like to praise myself and was having enough trouble doing it in the statement of purpose, and here I was just hoping to get it from her; I feel very self-conscious about writing this letter).

Also, another letter writer and another professor who was looking at my materials have both suggested I look at some other schools, basically indicating that I was shooting too high. At this point it is unfeasible for me to expand/change my list of schools and I am beginning to doubt the point of the whole process. I obviously knew that getting into some schools was tougher than others, but this makes me think that I greatly overestimated my own potential here.

Guess we'll see. No response needed, just wanted to vent.

Dude, vent and vent some more. This is stressful. For your letter writer, clarify with her asap what she's going to do, and perhaps ask for guidance about the subject. I've honestly had this before with my MA dissertation. My supervisor was like "no, that's been done before". But now I'm seeing that there are different angles that haven't been done, so maybe there's some miscommunication or you can push your idea in a slightly different direction? If it comes to you writing your own letter, have someone else look it over to make sure you're talking yourself up enough. 

 

For the other professor, don't be discouraged, just be realistic. This whole thing is an utter crapshoot. I'm doubting myself a ton too. I'm freaking out because I'm having a hard time finding work and Im second guessing my Masters program some. I think we all are freaking. We're this far in, and we don't know what's going to happen to let's just keep at it. 

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

Internet hugs, @WildeThing. I'm positive your project is not pointless, but instead thoughtful and interesting. I think @unicornsarereal's advice about trying to explain how/why your angle is spot-on.

Also, I think it's very normal to enter a PhD program and have your projects expand outward (and sometimes change outright) - so, could you, in your SOP, perhaps touch on how the programs you are considering will help you expand your work? Positioning yourself that way may help your LW better understand how your project "fits" within larger conversations being had at your prospective departments. 

Re: shooting too high - most programs are, I think, shooting to high, in the sense that there are no real safeties. So, if you are excited about the programs to which you're applying and excited about the opportunities to work with certain scholars and resources, you should apply. It's my two cents but "fit" really trumps, like, a lot of other stuff, so if you can explain why your work would be enhanced by / good for a department, that's always in your favor. 

Edited November 14, 2017 by a_sort_of_fractious_angel
missing word

[jrockford27]

@WildeThing, while I think it's totally bizarre for your letter writer to pull that on you, and your letter writers seem a bit tactless, I think there is something to be said for casting a wide net.  Every single grad school offers a very low chance of acceptance.  Even a so-called "safety" school is only likely to admit 5-15 students out of hundreds of applicants.  Within this group, your list is dominated by the most exclusive of the exclusive.   While you may well have a very good fit at those institutions, I would encourage anyone to consider that people are doing big work with brilliant scholars at any number of institutions who may not be household names, as most of the schools you list are, and people also get jobs out of those institutions. 

Casting a wide net is also very advantageous because your application could be positively brilliant, but if the two profs on the adcom who happen to get it don't feel like they need another grad student in your subfield, then you're not going anywhere.  The profs you think you have a great fit with might not be on the adcom, might be on sabbatical, etc., and so you're then depending on another member of the committee to think, "Oh, they'd be a good fit for [x]".  This is really, I think, the most important aspect of admissions, and it's one over which you have no control, and is incredibly capricious.  It underscores the importance of going far and wide.  I was once told that one particular professor in my department fought very hard for my application.  If that professor wasn't on the committee, I'd likely be somewhere else!

I say this as a person whose first list looked very very much like yours and was shut out, and the feeling was absolutely devastating.  In my second round of applications, I opened my mind to other possibilities, and I ended up at a school that isn't an ivy (or ivy equivalent), but is top notch in my subfield and has a good record of placement, even if its name doesn't impress my aunts and uncles when I'm home for Christmas.

Edited November 15, 2017 by jrockford27

[Assotto]

On 11/9/2017 at 4:54 PM, WildeThing said:

Psychoanalysis, trauma studies, african american and postcolonial of the 20th century, to be very general.

Gerard Aching at Cornell would be great considering your interests.