<p>My son is applying to graduate school for English Lit, specifically Renaissance studies. He has a 4.0 GPA and is a very strong writer. He has applied to
Harvard
Yale
Berkeley
Northwestern
Columbia
as his 'top choices' so far. As far as more safety schools go, he applied to
UI-Urbana
Ann-Arbor
UT Austin.
I was wondering what exactly your opinions were on the top choices (and safety schools, for that matter). Obviously they are all good schools, but what are your opinions on atmosphere, student body, professors, research opportunities, with relation to Shakespeare/Renaissance studies? I had found some threads on English studies, but not Renaissance. Thanks!</p>
<p>There are no safety schools in Renaissance studies. He should only go if he gets into a program that fully funds him, and admission to all of those is highly competitive. He should wait and see where he gets in and what kind of fellowships he is offered, then go visit and interview. He needs to follow the money. Even Harvard PhDs aren’t guaranteed jobs so he needs to reduce the opportunity costs of pursuing a PhD as much as possible. Getting a good fellowship at a state school such as Maryland is much better than provisional admittance for a semester, with no funding, at Columbia, where you compete with others to avoid being cut (it’s the graduate version of Chopped).</p>
<p>For English Renaissance he should also consider UMCP, UVa, UCLA, Penn, Stanford, and Rutgers.</p>
<p>What specific subfield(s) within Renaissance Studies does he want to study and do each of those universities have enough faculty who have similar research interests or are at least, supportive of them? </p>
<p>Does he have a specific potential research topic he hopes to work on?</p>
<p>Does he have at least 1 or preferably more potential faculty advisers he hopes to work with from each of those universities? </p>
<p>Has he asked and worked with his undergrad adviser to ask about graduate programs in his desired area and listened to his/her take on each of those universities’ English lit departments and strengths in his desired area of study?</p>
<p>Do they provide funding for all or only some PhD students? What are the conditions? Agree with NJSue on the funding issue. </p>
<p>What’s the average time of completion?</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for all the info!
Specific interests would be Shakespeare and Performance studies, and Performance History. BTW, should have said he has a Bachelors degree in English Lit with a double Major in History.
He has looked at faculty of all of these schools and yes, he picked these over Stanford and others because of faculty and research considerations.
His undergrad adviser is who lead him to these schools, between field knowledge and contacts at these schools.
We looked at funding, it varies, some provide full, some will only tell you once you find out.
That is interesting about the ‘provisional’ acceptance, we had not heard of that before?</p>
<p>How often does this happen and what are chances of being ‘chopped’? I mean, if he got provisional at Harvard vs accepted at UT Austin, suffice to say he would REALLY want to try for for Harvard!!</p>
<p>Interesting your comment about lack of safety schools, by this you mean all are kind of equally exclusive? How so? Of course, we are shooting for “Ivy League”, but there are other factors, atmosphere, location, etc. If they are all that exclusive, does a Harvard pedigree mean that much more than say a UI Urbana pedigree?</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the advice!!</p>
<p>As an example, I know of someone enrolled in a history Ph.D. program (but not Renaissance studies), who was accepted into Columbia and Harvard with no funding (so it would have cost her around $50K a year to attend) who decided instead to attend UC-Irvine (where she doesn’t pay tuition and receives $18K/year as a teaching/research assistant).</p>
<p>It also varies by school as to whether one is accepted directly into the Ph.D. program or first must do a Master’s before being accepted to complete the Ph.D.</p>
<p>Thank you very much…food for thought. Okay, so if he got accepted to, say, Harvard or Columbia or Yale and only got accepted to the Masters program first, then, what is the likelihood of getting accepted into the Phd?
Like NJSue said, he will ‘follow the money’ a free ride is a free ride, but what about the Masters/Phd thing? Is a full ride to UI Urbana or Anabor with Phd better than a Masters possible Phd to Columbia?
Thanks for all the help, first time going through the grad school process, so we’re learning a lot!</p>
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<p>For PhD programs, the reputation of the department and faculty matter far more than overall university pedigree though they do coincide at times. </p>
<p>For instance, while NYU, Rutgers, and UPitt don’t have the overall pedigree of their elite university/Ivy counterparts, they do trump them in most areas in the Philosophy field as the above named universities have been ranked in the top 3 or so Philosophy departments in the country.</p>
<p>It is virtually impossible to get a tenure track position as a professor in the humanities.</p>
<p>So, in my opinion, it’s important to take it one step at a time.</p>
<p>See where he gets money (even if it’s only for a Master’s) - and then take it from there.</p>
<p>If he does well with his Master’s, he will get into a Ph.D. program (kind of by definition).</p>
<p>So, going based on his Medieval/Renaissance rankings would be better than pure reputation. Thank you! We have been trying to determine just that for these schools, specifically within Renaissance and Shakespeare, and who is ‘hot’ in the field now! Good to know that you guys don’t think that a turn down from Harvard or Columbia or Yale would be the end of all job opportunities or fantastic programs. He is so smart, a good student a critical thinker, he isn’t happy unless he’s in a challenging curriculum, so that’s what we’ve been trying to find!</p>
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<p>Very few Masters programs are funded. Vast majority tend to be self-funded and regarded as cash cows by universities. </p>
<p>A reason why if money is a concern, most advisers and grad student friends I’ve talked with recommend to apply directly to PhD programs and attend ones which provide full funding. </p>
<p>In fact, it is known some grad students pursue this route specifically to obtain a “free Masters” and then drop out.</p>
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<p>IMHO yes. The Masters means little; it’s often thought of as a consolation prize for washouts or dilettantes as it has no value in the academic marketplace. The PhD is the necessary degree for getting any job in the field. Professors, naturally enough, like to invest their time and love in the grad students who will stay in their program. I would advise any student to do what Fendrock’s friend did. Her teaching experience and her stipend will look good on her CV come job-hunt time.</p>
<p>There is no earthly reason for your son to deprive himself of fellowship opportunities elsewhere in order to try for an Ivy PhD. It won’t pay off. If he does get a fellowship at an Ivy, great. But don’t pay to go there.</p>
<p>When we hire people in my department, we look to see what kind of funding and fellowships they have received in graduate school. It looks more impressive for a student to get a great four-year fellowship at a state school than to pay for a master’s at Columbia.</p>
<p>Thanks to everybody for the helpful comments!
So, basically we are looking at a waiting game here, and your advice is to take whoever gives a full ride. Good to know that Masters acceptance=Phd acceptance, that would have worried us!</p>
<p>That said, any thoughts/opinions on these schools, should two or more offer full rides? I know that that probably isn’t likely given the competition but during the LONG wait we are trying to weigh the schools and see what he would accept if two gave full rides? (say Ann Arbor and UT Austin, or something? Or Columbia and Northwestern, long shot I know but…)</p>
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<p>I have known acquaintances who were trying for a “free Masters” after planning to drop out of elite university PhD programs like Columbia’s in order to attempt entry into the prestige-laden i-banking or other lucrative prestigious entry-level jobs where degree name pedigree matters because they attended a lesser pedigreed school for undergrad. </p>
<p>Not sure whether they were successful or if this is even anything more than a deluded pipedream.</p>
<p>Huh, all very interesting, especially the hiring process! Of course, one step at a time, but he wants to set himself up for good career opportunities. So, a full ride ANYWHERE, even UT Austin (his last choice, kind of), means more merit than a partial and student teaching at, say, Northwestern.
Really appreciate all the feedback, we want to make the right choice come spring, not only for the next six years, but also for his career!</p>
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<p>While I’d agree that a full-ride fellowship is better, I’m not sure he can completely escape the student-teaching part as a TA. </p>
<p>I’ve been reading and hearing that PhD programs are increasingly making it a requirement for all PhD students to do TA work at some point in their program to provide opportunities for teaching experience.</p>
<p>Right, I didn’t mean that he wouldn’t want to TA, actually, he’d probably enjoy it! He liked being a supplemental instructor, and right now he is substitute teaching. They all, from our research, require student teaching, but I meant using the income from that to pay partial tuition instead of living expenses.</p>
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<p>It means that UT Austin wants him more than Northwestern does; but as long as he is guaranteed a stipend and teaching assistantship, that is OK too if the program quality justifies it. He should not, however, pay tuition anywhere. He should avoid debt.</p>
<p>What he ought to do is visit the places that accept him and offer him full funding (defined either as a fellowship or a teaching assistantship carrying tuition remission and a stipend). He should do some teaching because it is necessary to be competitive on the job market. He should not do so much teaching that it takes him 8 years to get through school. It’s a balance. Fellowships permit the student to focus on research and writing.</p>
<p>Right, I didn’t mean that he wouldn’t want to TA (He quite enjoyed being a supplemental instructor as an undergrad), I just meant it would look better to have a full ride, than a partial ride that is paid for by fellowship and teaching (rather than using teaching stipend to pay for living expenses).</p>
<p>I strongly suggest you check the job placements for the different PhD programs. Grad programs in many fields list these on their websites.</p>
<p>It’s hard enough to get a job as an English PhD that it’s a good idea to go somewhere where students have been able to get positions. One’s home institution is often important in getting a job, as is the grad student’s advisor.</p>
<p>Whoops, posted that twice, sorry, confused!
Thanks a lot for all the information, I didn’t know about possibility of being overloaded with teaching.
He’s applied to eight, what if, none, (worst case scenario) offered him anything? Should he try again to them and other next year, because they’d be looking for different people, or should he ‘settle’ and apply to the school where he got his undergrad (we know that he would basically be accepted there, due to his scores and the fact that the faculty know him)??</p>