EALC 2018

[pudewen]

7 hours ago, archimon said:

Thanks for the reply! I applied to the Ph.D. only because it seemed like there was nothing to lose - they generally redirect your application if you are a good fit for the school anyway. I am definitely aware that I need to work on language skills/deepen my competency as a research in the discipline (especially when it comes to working with Classical Chinese primary sources - my research interests are Song/Yuan/Ming social/cultural history), and their email to me seemed to imply that it was language skills that they were most concerned about. I suspect an MA would help quite a bit with this. 

 

Has anyone here done the Harvard A.M.? I'm quite interested in learning about what sorts of funding opportunities are available for foreign language study - I'd definitely like to get to work on Japanese as a masters student.

You should have time to work on both Classical Chinese and Japanese in RSEA, and I'd recommend you do both. Once you start a PhD program, you'll likely only have two years before your general exams, at which point you will be expected to have met all your language requirements in addition to all the content work you'll have to do, including a whole lot of monograph reading. The stronger your language preparation is going in, the better. Note that improving your Classical Chinese is not just a matter of taking the two years of courses at Harvard titled "Literary Chinese," but of doing research seminars that will have you working with primary sources in the language. Unfortunately for you, given your interests, the best one of those at Harvard is focused on a slightly later period than the one you work on (Qing, mostly), but it would still definitely be worth taking if you're at Harvard when it's offered.

The Reischauer Institute (Japanese Studies), Fairbank Center (Chinese Studies), and Asia Center all have grants for summer language study that grad students (including MAs) can apply for.

In relation to your earlier post, it's a great sign that you were told they want you to come. I think you have reason to hope that means that your forthcoming RSEA admission offer (you'll almost certainly be admitted, I expect) will be accompanied by some degree of funding.

Edited January 23, 2018 by pudewen

[mxiongturquoise]

Hi folks.  Thrilled to join this family!  I just finished my master's at UChicago (MAPH) back in June last year, and I've been teaching college-level writing on campus and waiting for the PhD application results as y'all are doing.  I applied to a mixture of EALC, Comparative Literature, and Rhetoric& Composition programs, but the direction I'm most drawn to is the comparative study of Irish/Chinese modernist poetry.  I'm also intrigued by classical Chinese lyrics, which have been the subjects of several of my course papers and theses.  It feels great to have a community of devotees of the humanities studies!  <3

[narple]

1 hour ago, mxiongturquoise said:

I just finished my master's at UChicago (MAPH)

Just wanted to shout out. I did MAPSS (History) 

[kotatsumuri]

Welcome to the fam @mxiongturquoise! Irish/Chinese poetry sounds like a really unique mix. Best of luck to you this season

[Naito]

@mxiongturquoise. Welcome! Very nice to see a comparative literature person joining the thread. Comparative poetry sounds very interesting!  

 

[mxiongturquoise]

On 1/23/2018 at 7:38 PM, narple said:

Just wanted to shout out. I did MAPSS (History) 

Yay MAPSS!  We really are like sister/brother programs, except that the Social Science Division is much more well-funded than the Humanities.  I have several friends in MAPSS whose focus is history--maybe you guys know each other or have taken classes together!  Regardless of the program, we definitely share the struggle studying at "Where fun goes up in flames, to be reborn from its ashes. Just like your dreams.” lol

[mxiongturquoise]

On 1/23/2018 at 9:04 PM, kotatsumuri said:

Welcome to the fam @mxiongturquoise! Irish/Chinese poetry sounds like a really unique mix. Best of luck to you this season

Thank you so much!  Yes, this direction is certainly a "less traveled by" path, but it holds the ultimate appeal to me.  There are numerous commonalities between the two cultures considering how modernists re-appropriated or reinvigorated ancient language and culture (including mythologies and folklores) and maneuvered the poetic form to contemplate modernity, as well as to achieve cultural revolution or intellectual awakening.  I am aware that not many scholars would be interested in this mix, but those who would I'd appreciate working with.  We'll see~

[mxiongturquoise]

On 1/23/2018 at 11:46 PM, Naito said:

@mxiongturquoise. Welcome! Very nice to see a comparative literature person joining the thread. Comparative poetry sounds very interesting!  

 

Thank you, Naito!  Comparative poetry&poetics is pleasantly challenging for sure 

[SUMMER715]

Just saw two admitted by Chicago EALC  in the results board, anyone in our thread would like to claim for that? Congratulations to those who get in!!

I haven't heard anything from the POI in Chicago after the interview two weeks ago, maybe they will refer me to the MAPH program.

@mxiongturquoise really nice to have you here! My field is modern and contemporary Chinese literature and I'm interested in how the modern&contemporary writers make use of the traditional language and the oral tradition, your research seems very interesting to me! I remember there is a professor in Cornell focuses on Chinese modern prose&poetry. 

[mxiongturquoise]

51 minutes ago, SUMMER715 said:

Just saw two admitted by Chicago EALC  in the results board, anyone in our thread would like to claim for that? Congratulations to those who get in!!

I haven't heard anything from the POI in Chicago after the interview two weeks ago, maybe they will refer me to the MAPH program.

@mxiongturquoise really nice to have you here! My field is modern and contemporary Chinese literature and I'm interested in how the modern&contemporary writers make use of the traditional language and the oral tradition, your research seems very interesting to me! I remember there is a professor in Cornell focuses on Chinese modern prose&poetry. 

Yeees!  Professor Andrea Bachner.  She's such an inspiring scholar and skillful writer.  I have to say compared to Irish, European and American writers and classical Chinese poetry I am quite ignorant about modern&contemporary Chinese lit, so I look forward to learning from you.  My college senior thesis examines Lin Yutang's "Chinese humor" in his literary biography of Su Shi, my favorite poet ever (头号男神), and I've written on Lu Xun, but overall there's so much to read about and reflect on when it comes to my study of modern Chinese writers.  It seems that there are many common themes among our research interests--so exciting! 

I saw the news too.  I applied to the Comp Lit program at UChicago, so the waiting game is to continue...

Best of luck!

[Guest1101]

8 hours ago, SUMMER715 said:

Just saw two admitted by Chicago EALC  in the results board, anyone in our thread would like to claim for that? Congratulations to those who get in!!

I haven't heard anything from the POI in Chicago after the interview two weeks ago, maybe they will refer me to the MAPH program.

@mxiongturquoise really nice to have you here! My field is modern and contemporary Chinese literature and I'm interested in how the modern&contemporary writers make use of the traditional language and the oral tradition, your research seems very interesting to me! I remember there is a professor in Cornell focuses on Chinese modern prose&poetry. 

found one result of Chicago EALC from a Chinese forum.

http://bbs.gter.net/thread-2145723-1-1.html

Edited January 26, 2018 by ba1dp

[Naito]

2 hours ago, ba1dp said:

found one result of Chicago EALC from a Chinese forum.

http://bbs.gter.net/thread-2145723-1-1.html

Thanks @ba1dp, this is a very useful forum. I didn't think about checking Chinese forums at all! Such an oversight/gross negligence...!

A quick look yields a thread on someone's experience interviewing with WUSTL. Very helpful to know the specifics. "WUSTL EALC面经" http://bbs.gter.net/thread-2142945-1-1.html 

I wonder what one can find on Japanese and Korean forums as well...

 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Naito

[bakedmanapua]

@SUMMER715 I was accepted to UChicago EALC yesterday! I put off posting because I’m still reeling a bit. ? Crossing fingers for good news for you, too! 

Edited January 26, 2018 by spicyramen

[Naito]

@spicyramen Congrats, spicyramen!

[bakedmanapua]

Thank you @Naito!

[kotatsumuri]

Congratulations @spicyramen !! How exciting! I almost asked about some of the EALC results too. There were Stanford, OSU, and Yale admits, too, so congrats to those folks as well!

As a side note, it always makes me chuckle to see people conversing with each other through the results comment section...

[mxiongturquoise]

3 hours ago, spicyramen said:

@SUMMER715 I was accepted to UChicago EALC yesterday! I put off posting because I’m still reeling a bit. ? Crossing fingers for good news for you, too! 

Congratulations!  Please let me know if you decided to come or came to visit the campus. 

[bakedmanapua]

@kotatsumuri thank you! I am likewise giggling at the conversations happening in the results forum XD Although I also applied to that exact same Yale program, so I’m also intrigued as to how it will play out. And congrats to the admits, if you’re here at all! 

 

@mxiongturquoise Thank you! It went right by me that you’re on campus. I’ll be sure to DM you if I visit/come in the fall! 

[nc484dsltyyz]

Hello everyone! So glad to find this topic! I am an PhD applicant of 2018 EALC, and my focus is about medieval Chinese poetry. Congrats to those who got great offers!  

[nc484dsltyyz]

5 hours ago, kotatsumuri said:

Congratulations @spicyramen !! How exciting! I almost asked about some of the EALC results too. There were Stanford, OSU, and Yale admits, too, so congrats to those folks as well!

As a side note, it always makes me chuckle to see people conversing with each other through the results comment section...

Oh! There are Yale admits?! Sad news for me...

[Naito]

3 minutes ago, nc484dsltyyz said:

Hello everyone! So glad to find this topic! I am an PhD applicant of 2018 EALC, and my focus is about medieval Chinese poetry. Congrats to those who got great offers!  

Welcome @nc484dsltyyz! It's great to see so many medievalists joining recently!

Hopefully there will be more pre-Qin people joining!

[Naito]

I think this advice from a Chinese national who got accepted to Princeton last year is quite helpful: http://bbs.gter.net/thread-2070258-1-1.html

[Naito]

Hmm do Chinese students from China have an advantage? I wish I were Chinese!

[Naito]

http://bbs.gter.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2070259

He/she got accepted everywhere, except UC Berkeley which he/she described as not "friendly" to Chinese students...This is a student extraordinaire (學霸是也！神人也！） and his/her test scores remind me of two drama series from Japan and Korea...(1) ドラゴン桜 and (2) 공부의신 ...

And I like his/her quote, which is directly from the classics: "人一能之，己百之。人十能之，己千之。果能此道矣，虽愚必明，虽柔必强。"

 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Naito

[kotatsumuri]

6 hours ago, kotatsumuri said:

There were Stanford, OSU, and Yale admits, too, so congrats to those folks as well!

I need to correct mysef: the Yale result was actually an interview (PhD). Sorry about that! There's still hope for you yet, @nc484dsltyyz and welcome to the thread, too.