<p>I still have three more semesters to go, so keep that in mind, too. I still have a lot ahead of me.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.4, Major GPA: 3.7
GRE: Not taken yet.
Undergrad: Colgate
Strong letters of recommendation, strong extracurriculars, SOP not written yet, 2 scholarly publications, 1 creative publication.
Specialization: English Literature (20th C. British literature, emphasis on WWI and/or Critical Theory), Creative Writing joint-MFA possibly (depends on the school)?
* First in my family to go to college, Hispanic, low socioeconomic background.</p>
<p>Harvard
Georgetown
UChicago
BC
BU
Princeton
NYU
UPenn
Oxford
UC Berkeley</p>
<p>(To be narrowed down. Other recommendations encouraged.)</p>
<p>Thank you so much, guys.</p>
<p>— Falthor</p>
<p>You seem to be approaching grad school admission in an undergrad admission way, with the big brand name school list. You need to be looking at departments that are best for your interests and faculty with whom you can best work. Some of the best departments for your interests will not necessarily be the usual suspects targeted by high school students. For example, in writing, places like Florida State, University of Iowa, and Boston University (which is on your list) have very strong departments. So start to identify your strengths and interests and look for departments where you will fit. The work you hope to do may be as important as the work that you have done in grad school admissions.</p>
<p>My daughter’s boyfriend is currently applying to grad school for MA/Ph.D. Not only do you need to research departments, you need to research departments by strength in what area you are most interested in researching for your thesis. Not all departments will have the strongest faculty necessarily across the board ranging from Shakespeare to 20th Century Russian literature for example. Studying for the GRE and the grad school literature version of the SAT is practically a full-time job in itself. Your own faculty mentors will advise you as to what programs they recommend for you and that is a good beginning.</p>
<p>People coming from LACs have very little idea of what’s truly involved in graduate school because they don’t have interactions with TAs or have true opportunities to sit in graduate-level courses (at Colgate, they just make you do an extra paper). You need to talk to a lot of people, especially those coming from doctoral-granting institutions, even undergraduates (they interact with TAs).</p>
<p>Seek out the MOST junior faculty members in the English department and have a long conversations with them about graduate school. Ask them about their experiences. Ask them if they’d do it over again if they could. Ask them why they wanted to become English professors despite the horrible, horrible job market. The older faculty members may not necessarily be the best to look up to unless they have excellent relationships with people in research institutions (like Cornell or NYU, just to throw some names). Colgate has more students going for PhD in the sciences or social sciences than in the humanities so professors in the humanities are not always very well up-to-date with graduate school admissions expectations.</p>
<p>Definitely plan on doing honors thesis. Definitely plan on taking time off. Consider finding a funded MA programs (or a program in a cheap state school) to get your feet wet.</p>