<p>Hello everybody,
I am currently finishing my second year of graduate school at UCLA, in the comparative literature department. I have been mostly working in theory, taking a lot of courses in philosophy, including a few in the philosophy department. I was originally a philosophy major from Cornell; from which I graduated with honors. </p>
<p>Now, yesterday I had my second year review panel. And they seemed a bit weary about my theory focus, saying that it would be hard to find a job in a philosophy department, and that comparative literature departments were for the most part looking for culture-studies focus, or literature. This, they say, hinders my chances of finding a job, given my strong theory focus. </p>
<p>With this in mind, one of my teachers suggested I might want to consider transferring to a philosophy department elsewhere; probably one with a strong Continental bent. But in any case, I would like to know how feasible such a move would be, coming from a comp lit department. I suspect they wouldn't validate any credits, excepting perhaps the ones I have earned from the philosophy dept here. In any case, I don't know if this would help anyway, but I'm a bit scared at this point.</p>
<p>Any advice?</p>
<p>I’m a freshman, so no advice given, but I’m a comp lit major myself and I was wondering if you could talk more about your experience with comp lit, like, why you chose to go to grad school in it if you’re a philosophy major, how selective the application process was, and if the academic culture and the employment outlook are as bad as thomas benton says? </p>
<p>Once again, sorry if I’m wasting your time; I’ve just given grad school a lot of thought lately, and not of the good kind.</p>
<p>Hey buddy, </p>
<p>what’s your theoretical interests if you don’t mind? </p>
<p>Do you know German and French plus other languages? If you ain’t and don’t want to learn, comp lit is basically a no no unless you focus on stuff like digital humanities or new media. Do you have any other special skills besides your ability to philosophize? Cuz if you don’t, good luck with finding any job with a grad degree in the humanities.</p>
<p>Humanities is a exasperating field, and I am sure that you as a bright humanities student at a top ranking program have probably already realized that Comp Lit is the hardest graduate program to graduate and has the least job opportunities when compared to literature programs. Comp Lit is a crisis discipline. In fact, it isn’t much of a discipline at all as much as a program that allows you to design your focus. Therefore, it is extremely important for you to specialize in a subject that is going to make yourself marketable in the future. New Media studies is going to become the next big thing, and UCLA is the perfect place to study film. For a more theory orientated program, JHU(intellectual history, with a strong bend in French post-structuralism), Brown(new media+cultural studies), Duke (new media and marxism), and UCIrvine come to mind. Alain Badiou is teaching a seminar in UCI next semester just so you know. </p>
<p>Nietzsche was a philologist by profession but really philosopher by his writing. I see no reason why you can’t learn a lesson or two. Grad school in philosophy without background in STEM? Ha, it will be worse than a MFA in creative writing, they universally suck and good luck at never finding a job.</p>
<p>I would just listen to your professors and talk to your undergrad professors. See what the opinion is and take some time to re-evaluate yourself. It sounds like unless you conform to their expectations, they are basically asking you to leave, but will support your application to a Philosophy graduate program.</p>
<p>Oooh belligerent answer:)</p>
<p>And supposing one knows french+german and a couple others, does one still have to go into digital media or whatever, or can one live out one’s days cushily studying something generic like early modernism?</p>
<p>Also, what do you mean by special skills?</p>