<p>Thank you for your responses everyone, especially you blukorea.</p>
<p>For something more light-hearted:[ul]</p>
<p>[li]Grad</a> Student Deconstructs Take-Out Menu | The Onion - America's Finest News Source[/li][*]Giant</a> Cockroach In Bathroom 'A Harrowing,Kafkaesque Experience,' Grad Student Says | The Onion - America's Finest News Source[/ul]</p>
<p>Hey -- I hope it's not inappropraite usage of this section, but I'm looking to get a sense of my strength "on paper" as an international Comparative Lit. applicant. Particularly, my GRE's are mediocre by the highest standard for native speakers, but possibly on the distinguished side for an international applicant (native language Hebrew, no residence or study in English speaking country): 790 Verbal , 760 Quantitative, 5.5 AWA (I'm egregious at "general" academic composition -- I can do journalism and I can do high theory, but not this terrifying hybrid they look for in AWA). My TOEFL is not great: 117/120, 27/30 speaking section -- I have a poor accent.<br>
My GPA is 4.0, from Tel Aviv University's department of General & Comparative Literature, which is a generally well respected department.
My three letters of rec come from two very reputable Israeli professors I've worked closely with, and from one very highly renowned American professor I have corresponded with. The letters might be enthusiastic, though one may express reservations about my organizational and presenational skills alongside possibly high praise for my intellectual capabilities. This is all speculation, though.
We don't do prizes in Israel so much, and don't do merit scholarships, so I have nothing fancy-sounding except my Summa Cum Laude.My CV maye be worth someting: I have graduated around my 20th birthday, and have been admitted to TA University at 16 after dropping out of high school, getting my matriculation certificate on my own during the university's summer vacation. I've done some work as an RA, though in an semi-official capacity only.
My third language is French. My French is exactly par for grad-level work.</p>
<p>I'm confident in my Writing Sample -- the big question for me is, are my stats attractive enough to get Yale\Harvard\Oxford\Cambridge\Columbia to look at it?</p>
<p>Much thanks to whomever might read through this,
Peli</p>
<p>peligrietzer: I can't speak for every school, but I know from working at the grad studies office at UCSD that the standards are much higher for international applicants, because of the correspondingly higher cost of their tuition. How it works at UCSD is this: the office of the president provides UC's individual graduate schools a certain amount of money each year. Based on performance reviews and the general success of the programs, grad studies provides each with something called a "block grant allocation," which the departments then budget for any use related to graduate students: operational costs, recruiting, dissertation fellowships, etc. The programs need to bring in enough PhD students each year to a) please the professors; and b) staff TA positions throughout the university, especially in the writing programs. Because UCSD is a state school and has lower costs for in-state residents, each department can afford to hire quite a few in-state residents. But they can also afford a lot of U.S. citizen, non-California residents because U.S. citizens will become California residents after a year living in San Diego, and their department-sponsored tuition bills will dramatically decrease. International students never become California residents, so their tuition bills will always be high, for all of their years in residence.</p>
<p>All of this is by way of saying that you probably want to look at programs where domestic/international students pay the same, because there won't be any incentive to choose a citizen instead of you. </p>
<p>As to your other qualifications, I'd say those are fine GRE scores, especially for a non-native speaker. I think they will help compensate for the fact that you went to a university that American faculty--rightly or wrongly--will inevitably consider less prestigious than one of the top U.S. undergraduate schools. I'm not as familiar with TOEFLs, but I know UCSD takes people with much lower ones. The only thing which concerns me is that I know, from investigating comparative literature programs, that the very top ones usually require you to have at least studied a fourth language (however briefly) before you start. You might want to consider adding Arabic (I assume your other languages are English and Hebrew). A lot of the fellowships in the U.S. right now are going to speakers of the so-called "critical languages": the ones that the State Department thinks might be useful in the future. These are most of the Eastern European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Turkic languages.</p>
<p>The other thing to think about is that a number of programs in the U.S. (not so sure about the UK) might raise questions about your age. It's generally desirable to work for at least a little while (but not too long) between your undergrad and graduate work, especially if you graduated young. Perhaps you should take another year to get some work experience in a related field--from personal experience, I recommend working at a university and taking classes on the side, which would give you the opportunity to study Arabic, perhaps--and then apply for Fall 2009 admission?</p>
<p>Hey - Thanks! That was very useful. I did take a year off -- 21 now -- and I have a decent CV as a translator, editor and journalist. Should I stress job experience on my application? It seems a little strange, but I guess I can see why precocity might be unappealing.</p>
<p>It's not that precocity qua precocity is a problem--it's that tons of people drop out of PhD programs, which expensive for the departments that fund them, looks bad in the Council of Graduate Deans survey, and is generally a waste of everyone's time. They're looking for some sort sort of assurance that you've seen what's out there and made a conscious decision to choose comparative literature. Too many people see graduate school as a continuation of undergrad, which it isn't, and just drift into their PhD programs unaware of what lies ahead. So if you modify your application, don't think about it as presenting a resume or highlighting your work experience; try to think about it as convincing your reader that you've a good sense for what a PhD program will entail, and that after spending some time doing something else, you're ready to take it on.</p>
<p>Once again, wonderful advice -- Thanks! What's your literary subfield, by the way? I do Modernism, Avant Garde, Aristotle, Russian Formalism, Drama, Literature & Philosophy. [I can almost defend this line of conversation as germane to the thread]</p>
<p>Well, after a lot of thought, I mostly applied for English programs instead of comparative literature (with the exception of Princeton). Like you, I work a bit on the Russian formalists, but I'm coming at it from a slightly different perspective than I think you are: via formal and structural elements in the novel, and the intersection between these structural elements and literary technologies. I'm particularly interested in digital technologies and their impact on verisimilitude, mid-century forward. In the end, it was just so much easier to find English programs that were strong in the novel and technology theory. It was a real dilemma: a lot of comparativists don't study the novel and English faculties don't see the point of Russian, which is probably my third strongest language right now. In the end, I kind of had to take a chance that the latter would come around on Russian. I was very clear about it in my personal statement so that those who don't like it don't admit me.</p>
<p>I am going to be studying the literatures of Medieval Iberia and France with particular emphasis on hagiography as well as the interchange of ideas, culture, and religion during the 11th and 12th centuries.</p>
<p>I've already applied to UPenn, UDelaware, NYU in Madrid, and will be applying also to SLU in Madrid, and West Chester University of PA as a safety/backup.</p>
<p>I really want to teach ultimately, but in the case that I don't teach right away, I will go into translation (Spanish and French, possibly Arabic eventually though as of now I only know the rudiments). I also write fiction so I'm hoping that through my travels abroad I'll be able to come up with something publishable. I've also looked into working with the FBI as a linguist, however that isn't my priority.</p>
<p>I'm glad this thread exists, because even among the humanities students of foreign languages are far from the norm!</p>
<p>Wait, do you speak portuguese?
Anyway, when you start publishing books or research, come on to CollegeConfidential (years from now, haha) and gimme links for ur books or something, or whatever you publish about medieval Iberia. (I'm portuguese, so it would be cool to read about good ole iberia...never been there though:(
)</p>
<p>I don't, though along with Italian it is a language I plan to tackle next.</p>
<p>Where in Portugal does your family come from? I studied at the Universidad de Sevilla, Espa</p>
<p>bump......</p>
<p>Does a PhD offer better teaching prospects than an MFA? Personally I'm more interested in Creative Writing and think that would be a better field for me to pursue because I do wish to write, but I know this doesn't exactly pay the bills so teaching is a likely possibility.</p>
<p>Given the likely difficulty of getting a job teaching with either degree, I would go with the one that you think you will benefit from the most. You will be writing a lot in either discipline although I'm sure that with the MFA you will be able to write more freely - I imagine that with creative writing you would be mostly writing fiction? (I'm not familiar with those programs). Plus with the MFA it might prepare you sooner to perhaps publish your own work of fiction which in and of itself could be as satisfying as a teaching position - not to mention several successful authors teach adjunct (some are perhaps even tenured) courses at local universities - so I don't think that you'd be limited if you took either discipline, its just a matter of the type of writing you would be doing that would probably differ.</p>
<p>hello everyone,</p>
<p>I am so glad that someone decided to open a humanities thread. In response to the pros and cons of a PhD- I just completed a JD 1.5 years ago and decided not to practice law, I am well employed at a fantastic non-profit organization, I have fun co-workers, live in a nice place, blah blah blah----I cannot wait to quit my job and get paid (providing I secure funding and am admitted) to read and study things that I am actually interested in studying. I cannot wait to have 4 months out of the year to just hang out, I cannot wait to be able to wake up at 10 am during the week and not have to feign illness, in short- I cannot wait to be a student again. Beyond that- I am sure that all of us could at least get the same jobs or better jobs than those available with the degrees that we already have so, basically, it is all a plus- the people that wrote those articles are just money/power hungry. I just want to make a living, influence some people, make the world a little better, and get to enjoy my life and family while I'm at it- academia is THE way to go!</p>
<p>On another note- where is everyone applying and in what field?</p>
<p>History PhD- Modern Latin America
Berkeley
UW
UC Santa Barbara
UCLA
Indiana Univ.
UT- Texas
CUNY
NYU
UPenn
Temple
Columbia
Emory </p>
<p>Yes...I aimed a bit high and am seriously nervous about it. Too late to wish I had chosen some lower ranked schools though...</p>
<p>What particular area of Modern Latin America? I will have my BA (May 2008) in History & Spanish (French minor), and took a few courses on Latin American Lit and Culture/Civ. My area of interest, though, is Medieval/Renaissance Iberia.</p>
<p>I applied to Romance Language Departments and 1 Art History Dept</p>
<p>UPenn - PhD Romance Languages (Spanish and French)
NYU - MA Spanish, Madrid Campus
UDelaware - MA Spanish & French
UDelaware - MA Art History</p>
<p>Backups:</p>
<p>SLU - MA Spanish, Madrid Campus
West Chester University of PA - MA Spanish (minor French)</p>
<p>I'm really anxious/nervous to hear back, I'm just wishing that February came sooner, even though that would be the earliest that I would find out anything!</p>
<p>come on, humanities....anybody? or is everyone in the sciences? haha</p>
<p>How is everyone doing? It is officially one month before early programs start to notify...how are we going to make it until then?</p>
<p>Sevillano1120: I am interested in modern Latin American (particularly south but also some central and north) resistance movements- last 20 years or so- my interests are less geographically centered than event/topic centered. Without getting too specific- where there has been the type of resistance activity that I am interested in studying - I'm there. </p>
<p>Is anyone else still out there? What are you guys doing to pass the time and where are you potentially headed?</p>
<p>Hola chicos!!
I am applying to PhDs in Spanish and Romance Studies as well.... My area of specialization is Latin Am literature, more precisely women writers. I have studied in Europe and... I am freaking out with these too-long-waiting-days!!!Good luck!</p>
<p>Always good to see others interested in Spanish grad programs!</p>
<p>Bocarriba - I imagine that Cort</p>