English PhD Advice for a puzzled undergrad

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>If this is the wrong place for a Chances? type thread, feel free to delete. Also, this is long, but I didn't see the point in not painting a full picture of what I've done as a student. I apologize in advance for the wall of text!</p>

<p>I'm a current English undergrad at a state Honors College that places quite a few graduates at Ivys for their PhD and master's every year. About a year from now, I'll be applying to grad schools and I would love some advice that's tailored to my situation. I'm not sure how low or high I should set my sights, I'm pretty confident I'll get in somewhere but my non-major GPA makes me worried that a high level program is out of reach. I've wanted to enter academia/get my PhD since 9th grade, it's been a matter of finding what area of the humanities fits me best. I started as a philosophy major and am now a very happy English student. For a while now, Cornell's English PhD program has been my dream, so I'd love any advice people can give that's specific to that program. However, I've had some setbacks and I don't know if I should give up that goal and work on getting in somewhere else or doing something else.</p>

<p>This is me so far (the good):</p>

<p>-National Merit Scholar on a full ride due to my designation (no idea how grad schools see this or if they care)
-Historical/academic bibliographer working on a database with UToronto and my own school to support myself outside of my scholarship, I work in both English and French
-My focus is lit/critical theory and the research I'm doing this semester involves the development of curricula for theory courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, I will be allowed to take any graduate course I help with as soon as it's offered despite being an undergrad. I'll also be involved in some editing for a new book with the head of my department.
-I just got offered a nationally recognized fellowship normally reserved for grad students, and if all goes as planned it'll be official by next week
-I've always excelled at any non-math-based standardized test and my practice GRE scores look great
-My adviser thinks I'm ready to start my Honors thesis early, so I'm kicking it off next semester after spending this semester on topic exploration/an outline. It will definitely be theory related, both because it is my passion and my desired area of study for grad school
-Great academic relationships with multiple professors in the English department due to my involvement in different projects and above-par participation in their classes.</p>

<p>The bad:</p>

<p>-I had to defer my scholarship and go on medical leave twice. I finished out a semester before leave while dealing with severe PTSD and another while suffering from a severe concussion, and my overall GPA dropped and is now about 3.1 (my major GPA is still 4.0 after re-taking a class over the summer). If I keep getting the same grades I managed during the summer semester, I'll top out with about a 3.5 but retain my Honors status at graduation and high major GPA. I'm a 21 year old entering my 5th semester right now, over a year behind where I would have been without medical issues.
-I bounced around a few majors before finding my groove in the English department, and my transcript shows this.</p>

<p>The probably irrelevant:</p>

<p>-I'm involved with many different things outside of my major, I've held multiple student jobs with the university in addition to playing a sport semi-professionally and contributing to various nonprofit programs and projects.</p>

<p>I've been trying to learn all I can about the graduate admissions process, but higher-level input from humans who have gone through it is something I could really benefit from. The "we'll help you prep for grad school" seminars at my college are tailored more towards people who don't know what the GRE is, which is a point I passed a long time ago.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance to anyone who reads through this giant text wall even if you don't respond. :-* </p>

2

<p>

“Chances” do not work for UG and less G so lose that.

Again, lose the Ivy fixation. Graduate dept. strengths do not match perceived undergraduate ideas of prestige. Some top English depts. are UC Berkeley, U Mich, Rutgers, UW Madison, UT Austin, as well as Yale, Harvard, etc.

Lose the dream school drama. You are trying to find a departmental fit.</p>

<p>Graduate School is about finding a department, not a school, that wants you and that you want. The fit is based on your research strengths and plans, and the faculty with whom you will be working. You want a school that will support your research. The school wants someone who will bring them something, and wants someone who will stick to their work to the finish and earn the Ph.D. Your current profs who know you are your best resources right now. They can steer you toward departments where you will do the best work. Best wishes.</p>

3

<p>^Agreed with snarlatron on all points.</p>

<p>First the obligatory: Given that you want to be a professor in the humanities, I feel obligated to warn you that the market in the humanities is pretty grim. English is one of the worst (if not the worst). The average time to the PhD in English is 9-10 years; 50% of people don’t finish, and I think it’s estimated that only 1 in 5 people who begin the PhD in English will actually go on to a tenure-track position as a professor somewhere. You need to be willing to move anywhere in the country to chase this dream. Philosophy is perhaps a tad better but not much.</p>

<p>With that said, you need to try really hard to get into a highly-ranked program in English, if that is your goal. The well-reputed/high-ranked programs in the field (I’d say about top 30 or so, although top 20 is better of course) have the best record of placing their graduate students into tenure-track positions and/or prestigious postdocs that lead to tenure-track positions. Most of the Ivies are actually pretty good in your field, although I agree with @snarlatron and say that you shouldn’t focus on them but think more broadly about what places you can pursue the scholarship you want to pursue.</p>

<p>Cornell enrolls 12 PhD students a year. They probably admit around twice that, so ~24. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they got around 200-300 applications a year, so that’s probably less than a 10% acceptance rate, maybe 15% at the highest. I agree here also with @snarlatron…don’t set your heart on any particular program, and apply to a range.</p>

<p>After reading through your post it seems like your only worry is your lowish cumulative GPA. Don’t worry about that. First of all, there’s nothing you can do to change it. Second of all, it is easily explained by your medical leaves (although you don’t have to get specific about why you had to take medical leave). And third of all, you have a 4.0 in your major, which is enough to offset any concerns about your academic performance.</p>

<p>Other thoughts:</p>

<p>-You said that your interest is in critical theory; I would spend this year further narrowing your interests and finding out what area of literature scholarship you want to spend at least the next 6-10 years of your life studying. Part of the key of good graduate applications is showing how you fit into the department in your statement of purpose. Although you don’t have to find a ‘lab’ to work in like you would in the sciences and social sciences, you do need to find some professors at your departments of interest who can direct your scholarship and serve as an adviser to you. You also need to find places that have resources that might be useful to you - like libraries, special archives, courses, concentrations, etc. You can mention those directly in the statement of purpose. I was a dork and started a spreadsheet of potential graduate programs and listed pertinent information like this in the spreadsheet to keep track. Since it’s only your junior year, you can do it kind of idly this year when you get a free hour here or there. If you like this kind of stuff you may have a solid list by the end of this year without really trying much.</p>

<p>-You’re on a roll if you already know French well enough to work as a bibliographer! Most English programs will require you to have reading proficiency in 2 languages other than English. French is a good language and the other one will be something that will help your scholarship (I think German is a popular choice). If you have room in your schedule, you might want to start working on your second one this year. Many English students don’t start working on the second one until their MA or PhD programs, but if you start now you’ll be ahead of the game! Of course, you need to be planful about what that second one is, and make sure that it’s relevant to your interests.</p>

<p>-It’s good that you’re starting your honors thesis early, as you might be able to use an excerpt as a writing sample. You could also use something from one of your classes that you got an A on. I would start editing whatever it is over the summer of 2015, because most English programs are going to want a writing sample.</p>

<p>Oh, almost forgot:</p>

<p>Do not do an unfunded PhD in any humanities field. The top programs offer full funding to all of their admitted students. Full funding means tuition, fees, health insurance, and a stipend. In the humanities, the stipend might be quite low - somewhere between $20K and $30K a year, with most probably being in the $20-25K range. It’s usually enough to live frugally on.</p>

<p>Some less reputable/lower-ranked programs might offer an unlivable stipend (like $15K) or no stipend at all, or a deceptively decent stipend that they expect you to pay tuition out of. Don’t do it! Academics don’t make that much - assistant professors on average start out around $60K and you can easily make less in some areas. But the tuition at a fancypants Ivy can exceed $40K a year. Usually you only have to pay the high tuition for 3-4 years and then after that you pay a maintenance fee (~$3-5K) to keep you enrolled and give you access to the libraries. But even best case scenario in a 6 year program, that’s ~$130K in debt not including your living expenses, which you will have to borrow at least in the first 2-3 years because you will not have time to work. You won’t be able to afford to repay that. So don’t do it!</p>

<p>(Also, as a note, your graduate schools are not going to care about anything before college. So the NMS status won’t matter. However, the full scholarship can be a line on your CV.)</p>

4

<p>I say go for it but put together plan b, plan c, plan d, and plan e. Even if you don’t do your master’s at Cornell, it’s possible to finish there nevertheless. But try to fall in love with some other programs too so you won’t be stuck on the sidelines of the dance floor in case Mr. Cornell meets someone else on his way to the dance. I’d say your best chances to get Mr. Cornell’s attention would be to get published and/or present at a conference. Can you do that?</p>