Fall 2018 French

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

Guys I just got an interview invite for Stanford. I'm quite shocked since I thought it was a long shot (the research interests are a loose fit and my GRE isn't very impressive).

This has been such a good day

[HomewardBound]

@Carly Rae Jepsen !!! Ok, now I'm starting to wonder what YOUR application looks like! Congrats!

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

Thank you! I literally have no idea how it happened. To think I just applied because they waived the app fee.

[Saltshaker]

@Carly Rae Jepsen That's amazing! Congrats!

Ha, that was me with the application fees. A good portion of schools waive fees for AmeriCorps, so I figured, why not?

Edited January 23, 2018 by Saltshaker

[frenchlover]

@Carly Rae Jepsen woooooooow!

[Yanaka]

STANFORD! Oh my gosh. Congratulations!!

[awhiterussian]

Wowzers!!!  Congrats!!

[madamoiselle]

@Carly Rae Jepsen OH HELL YEAH!!!! Huge congrats to you, Stanford is phenomenal!  Who knows, maybe I'll see you in the bay! 

Edited January 23, 2018 by madamoiselle

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

Thank you guys!

That'd be awesome @madamoiselle . I've never been to California before so I'm really excited.

[frenchlover]

California is it. I was very tempted to apply to UCSB just because it was in Santa Barbara lol.

[Yellow Mellow]

Does NYU have the best program in French literature in the US? Please discuss

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

11 minutes ago, Yellow Mellow said:

Does NYU have the best program in French literature in the US? Please discuss

We are applicants so I think we wouldn't know. It does well in rankings from what I've seen though.

[Imenol]

23 minutes ago, Yellow Mellow said:

Does NYU have the best program in French literature in the US? Please discuss

Sarah Kay and Emily Apter are extremely influential scholars, even if I do not love the latter (Kay, though, is fantastic). 

[madamoiselle]

@Carly Rae Jepsen @frenchlover California is absolutely STUNNING. One of my favorite states in the whole continental 48. You're gonna love it; March in northern California is still kinda cold (that's actually when I'm going as well, but on the 18-19th!) The Bay is incredible and the state as a whole is a natural sanctuary. 

[frenchlover]

I think the best program depends on sub fields, tbh. Tulane and FSU are excellent for Francophone literature, for instance. UCLA, too, when they had Lionnet. For medievalists, I'd look at Yale. For modernists, Berkeley. But of course, if you want to be a dixneuviémiste, you should probably go to Princeton or Columbia. And I guess Johns Hopkins for 18th-century studies.

Edited January 23, 2018 by frenchlover

[madamoiselle]

^^ This is it. One of the best posts on a thread I previously read is that French is such a small subject, that every single department has an incredible, distinct flavor. All of my advisors and prior professors could have told me just about every detail and nuance of each program just based on their circle of colleagues and the intimacy of conferencing in small departments. Some programs, like Duke and Penn, tend to have a greater spread than others, but grad school is so ridiculously idiosyncratic, it kind of makes my head spin. As I've mentioned before, feminism is my personal hot take and off the bat, feminism is generally large at Harvard, Penn State, UConn and Berkeley. But even a topic such as feminism is so nuanced over libidinal psychoanalysis (obscenity? Maternity? Freud?)/sociopolitical history (MLF? 1968?)/philosophical periods (modernism? Postmodernism? George Sand? Christine de Pizan?) Each and every department has their own little niche that they're trying to recruit minds into in order to create a more rounded, interdisciplinary program whilst maintaining their areas of strength and influence. 

My advisors told me that rankings can be somewhat ~*important*~, but to really look at what's being published out of the department, faculty, interdisciplinary opportunities, placement (of course) and which seminars are being held. If a department can't answer these questions or create a fit for you, even if they're number 1, your work will not be as high of quality. In departments like French, and many humanities, fit is absolutely imperative. I kept convincing myself to apply to Yale because it's such a good program, but it was merely impossible with what I want to study. That's, in my opinion, the largest distinction between grad school/undergrad. Saying whether or not something is the best is difficult to put a finger on and can't be as numerically tangible as your general college (or other, larger fields, especially in STEM). 

Edited January 23, 2018 by madamoiselle

[awhiterussian]

My focus will be in post colonial/ immigration studies/ imperialism and it seems Columbia is the best for that?

[madamoiselle]

@awhiterussian Columbia is AWESOME for post-colonial studies and the francophone world in general. I believe Yale does really well in that field as well, and Duke. 

 

[Imenol]

26 minutes ago, frenchlover said:

I think the best program depends on sub fields, tbh. Tulane and FSU are excellent for Francophone literature, for instance. UCLA, too, when they had Lionnet. For medievalists, I'd look at Yale. For modernists, Berkeley. But of course, if you want to be a dixneuviémiste, you should probably go to Princeton or Columbia. And I guess Johns Hopkins for 18th-century studies.

Is Ralph Howard Bloch still taking students? He is legendary, but I am not sure if Yale has anyone ele in French medieval literature.

[frenchlover]

He is really old, so I suppose not. I suppose their Old French requirement will also disappear when he retires. Yale does offer a graduate program in medieval studies, so I'm sure they will try to keep the tradition alive by having someone in French.

[awhiterussian]

20 minutes ago, frenchlover said:

He is really old, so I suppose not. I suppose their Old French requirement will also disappear when he retires. Yale does offer a graduate program in medieval studies, so I'm sure they will try to keep the tradition alive by having someone in French.

Yeah he gone.  We’ll see.  Hopefully the interview THURSDAY will go well.  I’m totally not nervous at all..........

[Green.Mango]

@Carly Rae Jepsen Oh my God, Stanford! That's amazing news! 

A friend of mine goes there and I've visited the campus... it's absolutely gorgeous. Huge and green and wonderful

Best of luck for your interview! 

@awhiterussian do you have your Columbia interview this Thursday? Wow, deep breaths, it'll go great! 

Even I'm interested in post colonial/ immigration studies but my focus is that and cinema studies. What would you guys say is the best fit for that? ( Considering how much more you guys seem to know about professors and schools etc. ) 

 

 

[madamoiselle]

@awhiterussian yes, absolute best of luck on your interview!!!

@Green.Mango I would also throw Yale in for this because, if I'm not mistaken, they have a joint PhD in Film Studies/French (with a great colonialism department). Corbin Treacy at Duke is also really awesome at Northern African film (post-colonial at Duke is pretty good in general, from what I understand.) Actually, my Alma Mater (UTexas) has a few students working on African post-colonial culture and film, but the department is mainly linguistics-based. 

[Green.Mango]

@madamoiselle I've applied to Yale but when I spoke to one of the professors there, Prof. Dudley Andrew ( who was really sweet), he said the joint PhD program was really challenging and really specialised. Basically, for people who have a very strong knowledge of Film and French. I've applied to the regular PhD program though, without high hopes :/ 

It's strange but I looked through so many schools that I can't remember why  I didn't apply to Duke. Oh well... 

 

 

[HomewardBound]

@Green.Mango I'd also throw Boston University into the mix of "great film/postcolonial studies". Also, rarely-mentioned school on the forum, but University of Iowa's French program has a lot of well-published professors working in immigration/diaspora studies.