English Literature PhD 2008

[bluewhisky]

hello...anyone applying for a phd in english? do share the joy (and sorrow) of it all. I'm going completely nuts already!

[Minnesotan]

Me too (re: going nuts). It doesn't get any easier the second time around, and PhD apps mean so much more than MA apps.

Anyhoo, I'm applying to both English and History programs. Why confine the torture to just one discipline, when you can stress out over two?

[bluewhisky]

Very intrepid! What area (for English) are you looking to specialize in?

[Minnesotan]

Anyone who has a decent History of Rhetoric field/sub-field, or something even marginally related (rhet, comp, hist. of crit. theory, etc.), got an app from me. I'm working in ancient hist./hellenistic philosophy right now, but my undergrad majors were writing/history. I realize English might not have been the path of least resistance, but at least I don't have to learn six languages to study it (three of which are dead). And I really like the lack of political hoops when dealing with people who have been dead for 2000 years. =)

What about you? Dead white poets of yore, or living black handicapped feminist playwrights of the 21st C.?

[bluewhisky]

wow...something i admittedly know nothing about, but sounds extremely impressive! when you say "got an application" do you mean you've finished sending everything off? (jealous jealous). my interest area is fairly straightforward...20th cen brit lit...so yeah a whole lotta dead white people! namely philip larkin & george orwell

do you think i'd up my chances if i were applying for a degree in post-colonial/super-feminist/marginalized/medieval deconstructionist/i'm running out of jargon/yadayadayada literature?!

ps: i do agree about the binge drinking. although i also seem to now seek refuge in sugar crackers.

[Minnesotan]

Yeah. I sent my last suppmat packet last week (well, walked it over - it's the same uni as my MA work), and my last fellowship app on Wednesday. Huzzah!

Orwell was a genius. I often feel like Winston Smith, especially now that I'm in the Socialist Republic of Canuckistan, where big brother is always watching, to make sure your views conform to the Marxist norm. As for improving your chances by picking obscure, marginalized authors, who are only valuable because of their race or gender, not their writing ability, do you even have to ask?

[bluewhisky]

oh well done! my suppmat packets ought to go this week...that is IF my professor hands the recos over to me...he's known about this since jan and STILL hasn't finished. bit slow?! unless of course he has absolutely nothing to say!

whereabouts are you applying? i couldn't manage more than ten schools.

[Minnesotan]

Sadly, I could only manage six applications. I hope I didn't make a mistake, but it's all I could take.

I applied to a few harsh bringers of the application smackdown (UW-Madison and WashU for English, Indiana for History), a "Canadian Ivy," and two mediocre State Universities for safeties. What about you? Did you mix it up a little, or put all your eggs in the ivy/public ivy basket, like so many English peeps seem to do?

(I honestly don't understand why you would apply to Yale, Cornell, Penn, Washington, Madison, Iowa Writers Workshop, Stanford, and NYU, thinking that you're 'bound' to get in at one of them. I have perfect grades, and almost-perfect gre scores, but I left myself plenty of wiggle room, in case the top 20 programs reject me.)

I dunno. I took geography into account a lot more this time around. I know I would not be happy for very long on the East Coast, or in the Deep South, for standard of living and my inability to suffer heat over 70F, respectively. I would much prefer to live in a Midwestern college town, where I can rent a whole house for $500-1000/month. The Northwest has nice weather (I know - I'm weird), so two apps went that way, as well.

[bluewhisky]

oh i've been horribly promethean!little wiggle room yes..but i figure its one shot...so what the hell!

[Minnesotan]

Right. I made sure my two backups were in places I would really like to live. =)

Anyhoo, this is my second time around (MA almost complete, yay!), and I figure I would rather have a phd from anywhere than not have one at all. Huzzah for safety schools.

[pnagy01]

Hello, All.

I, too, am applying out of the English MA (Villanova). What are your priorities and backups?

[Minnesotan]

My MA was in Interdisciplinary Studies, not English, so who knows how that will go over. It could be an asset or a hindrance, depending on the program.

I listed my schools above, I believe (there are a couple of threads likes this, lol).

[bluewhisky]

wow..there's all of three people applying this year?! thought this thread would be a little more active! anyway...i've sent everything (apart from 5 paper recos which my prof still hasnt produced!)....but get a niggling feeling that the tough part has only just begun...three months of waiting!!!! y cant they just let me know Now? get it all over with. done. c'est fini. nada. sigh.

[grifter]

I'll throw my hat into this ring...I want to be around here next spring for the commiseration/celebration/?consummation? resulting from all the application slinging going on currently.

I am also knee-deep in the applications process, working on around a dozen apps, however only a few are for Lit PhD programs. Most are for Comp/Rhetoric MA's, most at schools of modest repute, with a dash of heavy hitters to satisfy my "what the hell" tendencies.

Minnesotan: did you say that you are applying to some Comp/Rhet programs in the Northwest? I am curious about which...

[Minnesotan]

I wouldn't worry, Blue. This is how it went last year. All of a sudden, when Jan or Feb comes along, this forum will be friggin nuts. And, yes, the waiting is among the worst parts. I would say *the* worst, but I just found out one of my schools lost my application and supporting materials, so they want me to overnight a replacement packet.

Do you know how much it costs to overnight something from Toronto to the W. Coast? sheesh!

Grifter: none of the programs to which you applied. Thus, you have, like three other (reputable) programs in the NW to choose from - I applied to two of them. heh

BTW, Minnesota is a fun school, if you can acclimatize. But don't be one of those pussies who comes to Minnesota, then complains all winter about the cold. We know it's cold - we were born here. We told you it was cold before you got here. Why then is it such a big surprise, come winter, that it's cold here? =)

[grifter]

Minn: no worries there...I grew up in Idaho at about 5500 ft. Winters were a frosty, sub-zero, proverbial teat of the witch. I have grown fond of harsh winters. This is also my second time applying-i turned down some offers last time. Like you, this time, geography played a more prominent role in my choices, and U Minn seems to have everything I'm looking for. Now the dice roll of acceptance.

[Minnesotan]

Yeah. I really liked the history programs at Virginia and Chapel Hill, but I didn't think I could physically handle the summers there. I've lived in cold climates all of my life. The best I could manage is cool and damp, like London or Seattle.

[bluewhisky]

welcome grifter! good luck with sending all your applications out i'm "almost" done...one more round of paper recos to send off..and those blasted GRE scores...anybody here knows whether i can request for score extra reports to be sent BEFORE i've gotten the official paper report from ETS?? i do know my scores (GRE General shows it immediately after the exam, and for GRE Lit i called to get my scores over the phone) but the letters are taking ages to get me to & im worried that the universities will have a problem with late scores. any ideas minnesotan?!

[Minnesotan]

Sure thing.

1) I would hope you listed the schools you want to receive free reports when you finished the exams - those are sent out at the same time as the one they send to you.

2) Most schools will allow you to self-report your scores, as long as they get the official scores eventually. If it's not listed in the app, maybe contact the admissions secretary.

3) You can always call to check your scores - if the AW portion is listed, then you're good to order your additional reports.

[bluewhisky]

thank u thank u! for some some strange reason i couldnt log in & post a reply over the last few days...anyway minnesotan..thanks again I've sent both the GRE scores to ALL the universities...and now (pinter pause) it is all out of my hands.

merry christmas to all...and to all a good night!

[Minnesotan]

No problemo, mate.

Make sure to check up on your applications, though. I found out that one university - we'll call it the University of Schmashington in Schmeattle, so as to not give away the true location - completely lost my application packet this year. I had to resubmit everything, and have it sent international express, since I'm currently living in Canada, and Canada Post seems to fumble the ball as often as not when making the handoff to the USPS. That was all very stressful, and just goes to show you that you have to stay on top of these things.

I've heard of a bunch of people now who have had ETS send wrong scores, or not send scores at all; transcript issues with undergrad institutions; false information on the grad application websites. It's kind of scary, all of the things that can go wrong and send your application to the slush pile - especially since most of these things are out of your hands. All one can do is keep checking until the application is complete, I guess.

[UndraftedFreeAgent]

I've heard of a bunch of people now who have had ETS send wrong scores, or not send scores at all;

When I was applying to econ programs a few years ago, ETS sent me someone else's scores. I called every school to which I applied, because the guy's scores I got were in the 2nd and 5th percentiles for verbal and quantitative, respectively, with a 1.0 in the writing section. Fortunately, all of the schools got the right scores, it was just the report to me, that was off.

[bluewhisky]

sigh. i should have known it wouldn't be that simple. rather incompetent this ETS machine...(btw they made me pay TWICE for my subject GRE..as though $150 is not a large enough amount)...sorry to hear about the packet gone missing minnesotan...that really sucks!!! i have been constantly checking for updates on my various online applications..BUT how on earth would i know IF goddamn ETS sent the wrong scores to the universities!? I havent even received the letters from them yet...which are meant to convey my official score reports. Bah. humbug.

[Minnesotan]

When I was applying to econ programs a few years ago, ETS sent me someone else's scores. I called every school to which I applied, because the guy's scores I got were in the 2nd and 5th percentiles for verbal and quantitative, respectively, with a 1.0 in the writing section. Fortunately, all of the schools got the right scores, it was just the report to me, that was off.

That is possibly the funniest thing I've heard in relation to grad apps. Sheesh! I bet you were wetting yourself for a while, there.

(And, yes, it's only funny now that we know it didn't burn you.)

ETS overcharges for incompetence, but they're the only game in town.

[schamber]

Hi everybody!

(All together now: "Hi, Dr. Nick!")

Just thought I'd drop by to say hello. I'm applying to a slate of (mostly) English programs for Fall 2008, and after finding College Confidential a little inadequate,* I somehow got myself here and was glad to see that it's not all bioengineers.