Question about English PhD application process

[Dreydenn]

So, while I'm applying to something completely different, my sister and her husband are both applying for English lit PhD programs right now. They mentioned that they expect to hear in March, which makes sense to me, but on this board I keep on seeing people applying for PhDs (mostly in other programs, admittedly) talking about acceptances and interviews already. When should these things start happening? This is just me being a worried brother/brother-in-law, but I don't feel like I understand the process as well for her field as well as I do for my own.

Anyone?

[jacib]

So, while I'm applying to something completely different, my sister and her husband are both applying for English lit PhD programs right now. They mentioned that they expect to hear in March, which makes sense to me, but on this board I keep on seeing people applying for PhDs (mostly in other programs, admittedly) talking about acceptances and interviews already. When should these things start happening? This is just me being a worried brother/brother-in-law, but I don't feel like I understand the process as well for her field as well as I do for my own.

Anyone?

Check the results search and simply type in "English", or better yet "English X Univeristy". That will tell you exactly when people heard last year. Some schools, particularly those with larger departments, may have acceptances in waves (but that should show up in the search results). Some schools are a little earlier this year, some schools a little later.

[Branwen daughter of Llyr]

I've applied to 4 English PhD programs and have yet to hear a word (aside from "we've received your application and it is under review".

All of them stated in advance that there is no interview process. I wasn't really expecting to hear anything until late March - but with all the acceptances / rejections ppl have been getting... I've been checking the results search daily *blush* (despite being positive I haven't gotten in anywhere).

[piccgeek]

I applied to seven programs in English last year, some PhDs and some MAs, and heard back from pretty much all of them, both acceptances and rejections, in the second and third weeks of March.

[intextrovert]

It totally depends on the program, but going through the results page will tell you that notifications reach a peak towards the end of February, though there's about a month of variation on either end. There's also a very general trend of more rejections going out later and more acceptances going out earlier, though that is a VERY general trend (and is school-specific, depending on their pattern of notification) and you can easily get rejected in early February and accepted in mid-March.

My theory is that a lot of programs say they'll notify by March because that's the latest they'll do it, and don't want to deal with calls from impatient applicants before that if they're running behind.

I applied to English Ph.D. programs two years ago and heard from almost all of my seven schools by the end of February. The one I heard about in March was a waitlist, so I think they were just wavering on me for a while. This year, I got an acceptance and a waitlist in the first week of February and haven't heard from the other 10 schools yet.

Basically, they could start hearing soon, but shouldn't freak out if it's March and they haven't heard back yet. It's just so unpredictable, but as jacib says, looking at the results page from past years is the best way to predict.

[strokeofmidnight]

I applied to ten English programs this year. 3 have already notified. In past years, all of my acceptances were extended in February. Rejections sent by mail tend to arrive in March. The same pattern was true for most of my friends who applied to English PhD programs.

You're probably best off following Jacib's advice: different schools will follow different schedules, and not every school will notify all accepted students at the same time. The results are not infallible (and programs sometimes do change their practice), but it should give you a sense of the spread.

Good luck to you and your family.