<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>I'm going into my fourth year, applying from a top 20 university (member of AUA). Going into this coming year with 3.20 overall, 3.85 in English. I applied to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA, Berkeley, and probably Irvine or Penn, and Toronto for MA.</p>
<p>Besides these marks, I am/have/have been the following:
- Vice President of student union
- President of English students
- Co-editor of undergraduate journal
- Organized and co chaired a research symposium
- Organizing and chairing a creative writing conference with big name keynote (happening in Winter)
- a Governor of the University
- poetry to be published in a textbook in Winter, to be released under Oxford University Press
- summer research fellow and travel grant recipient, traveled to Asia and USA for library and field work
- doing two honours thesis: scholarly and creative
- contributing writer to an arts magazine, writing lit and film reviews
- presentation at a humanities conference a year and a half ago
- forthcoming presentation at a research symposium on my current work</p>
<p>I have some good references, including a Harvard graduate and a Mellon fellow. What are my chances to a top-tier English program? I have a project in mind, leading to American and transnational/diaspora studies. What else do you folks recommend I should get done?</p>
<p>I’ve also got the following GRE scores: Q151 V159 A5.5 and I am taking Literature subject test in September.</p>
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<p>This is where you start. You need to, perhaps starting with your current professors, find out which school has a department best suited for your research vision, and which faculty you might best work with. Grad school in the Humanities is more department-specific than university-specific. You may be surprised that the best fit for you might not be one of the schools you have mentioned in your post. Good luck!</p>
<p>The non-writing, non-research ECs don’t really matter for PhD admissions in English (vice president of student union, governor of the university).</p>
<p>It’s impossible to predict your chances, as those depend entirely on intangible factors that we can’t judge here (the strength of the applicant pool, the strength of your writing sample, the strength of the accolades you list - which conference? which textbook?; your personal statement, departmental fit). “American and diaspora” studies is also a ridiculously broad field and kind of confusing, too. Do you mean the study of diasporas in America? Or the concept of some “American diaspora” into other countries, which doesn’t really make sense?</p>
<p>Additional tip is to make sure that your writing sample is outstanding. Most lit programs I know of require one.</p>
<p>I will say that English is a very very competitive field these days, and even great candidates sometimes strike out their first year. I’m assuming that the programs you’re applying to are carefully chosen based upon fit, but they are all very prestigious programs. Personally, I’m not a fan or advocate of the idea of “safety” schools for PhD admissions and I think that, especially in this tight market, students should aim for the very top programs - or maybe more mid-ranked departments if they are very strong in a student’s subfield. But if you are determined and passionate about going to a PhD program next year, you may want to consider adding some less competitive departments. I also might add one or two more MA programs - really strong, competitive MA programs that are known for springboarding students into PhD programs.</p>
<p>Also, the job market for PhDs in English literature is absolutely dismal. Just FYI.</p>