MFA/Grad School General

[Anonymous No.12246722]

Sup /lit/

Have you applied to any grad programs this cycle? Why not?

What to post:
-your stats
-your list of schools you want to go to
-what you think your chances are
-what your writing sample is
-any other details about programs or admissions


I'll start:

Stats:
3.3 GPA
170v, 166q GRE.
Any funded MFA program that will take me.

My writing sample is an essay about being working class and how much it blows.

First sentence is: "To be working class in America is to experience life as a series of increasingly patronizing farces." Then it talks about a terrible office holiday party.

[Anonymous No.12246735]

Do applicants applying to programs outside the humanities get to play?

[Anonymous No.12246786]

>>12246722
Just finishing my MA in English at a Canadian university. I had hoped to complete my thesis before winter term started but, alas, it does not look likely.

My cumulative GPA going in was a 3.6, though my GPA based only on my major (Philosophy) and minor (English) was 3.9. (I really fucked off for my first year of “General Studies” before I chose a major.)

I only applied to the one school, in my hometown, but applied to both the English and Philosophy grad programs. I got accepted into both, but the former offered more money, so it went with English.

I hated it and cannot wait to be finished with academia.

[Anonymous No.12246802]

>>12246722
Listen to me and listen to me very closely.
ONLY apply to top 10, maybe just maybe 15-20 of the grad schools. Apply to EVERY one of them, this will cost you 2k but believe me it is nothing compared to getting into a shity school
By shitty I mean anything below Ivy and Ivy Grade unis like Berkeley, UCLA, MIT. No University of Michigan is not Ivy level, no neither is UCSD, but Berkeley is, you get the idea.

Tailor your stuff to the professor, fuck your interest, if a professor in Harvard does mongolian basket weaing, guess what you would love to do mongolian basket weawing.

Your writing sample should be very much in line with your research interest and your research interest should be in line with your professor.

Proofread your stuff religious, I seriously hope you are considering for 2019 application as it is very late for 2018 applications ,most of whom are over by mid december.

Trust me on this, do not get into any school below ivy-oxbridge-uc berkeley level.

[Anonymous No.12246849]

>>12246802
Why so adamant about top ten schools and being willing to spend the next eight years writing about Mongolian basket weaving just to get into one?

I guess if your one and only dream is to be an academic this is the safest route, but people have other reasons for getting a graduate degree, and even those who don’t arent THAT unemployable just for having gone to a more middling school, it’s just a bit tougher to get tenured.

[Anonymous No.12246892]

>>12246849
Going to a middling school makes you unemployable. You have a very very very positive view of academia
Top 10ish schools is your only chance to land a job. If you are even on a top20-40 school your chances get very drastically low
>it’s just a bit tougher
You have no idea. The competition is extreme, it is normal, i mean very normal to have a position that recieves +200 aplications.

Of course I'm talking about Humanities, arts, history etc, you can get a chemistry phd from Bumfuck university and have a good carreer, but for Humanities? Prestige reigns supreme.
Academia is dead, the trends is for adjuncting. That is unless you go to a top10 school and believe me no amount of scholarship, publication, cv boosting you do in your bumfuck state university will get you ahead of a harvard phd with no publications and no conferences.

Unless you can sustain yourself as a neet do not enroll into academia. I'm in a top 30 college, Not one of my advisors students (6 I know) managed to find an academic job, not one, one is a fucking truck driver now.

[Anonymous No.12246922]

>>12246722
>First sentence is: "To be working class in America is to experience life as a series of increasingly patronizing farces." Then it talks about a terrible office holiday party.
I bet it's oh so on point.

[Anonymous No.12247015]

I graduated from a second rate university with a 2.9 and a terrible cocaine addiction

[Anonymous No.12247076]

>>12246722
Some general advice would be appreciated.

I'm graduating with a BA in History and International Relations from a 1st tier private university, not an Ivy though. I'm planning on doing a Master's next year in Germany in History. I've been thinking about a PhD in History beyond that, but I don't think I want anything to do with academia in its current state, and that history research is so utterly inconsequential to the world that it would be a massive waste of time. Not to mention the prospects of getting a job are so dismal. Still I feel sort of inadequate if I don't get that Dr. title in front of my name.

My plan after my Master's is to go either into foreign service or work for an NGO. I really hate the idea of being abroad for long periods of time though, so it's not ideal, but it will be far more meaningful than anything I could do during grad school.

3.5 GPA

[Anonymous No.12247602]

>>12246722
Well this thread sure is filled with positivity.

[Anonymous No.12247914]

>>12247602
welcome to academia my friend

[Anonymous No.12247935]

>>12246722
i used to want to go to grad school but then i realized it was a pathetic attempt to relive undergrad.

[Anonymous No.12248051]

I've got a stem degree with no formal lit training. Only applying to one school cause I can't move right now.
GRE verbal 168
Quant 155 (lol)
Writing 5
GPA 3.6
Writing sample is two short stories and a novel excerpt. Definitely not gonna get in haha.

[Anonymous No.12248092]

>>12247076
>doesn't like the idea of living abroad
>joining the foreign service

Anon, don't do this.

[Anonymous No.12248153]

>>12246722
Same GPA OP. Haven't taken the GRE yet, gonna study for that for a couple months.

Mostly interested in either MLIS or AI right now. Have no functional idea what my odds are. I'd imagine pretty decent, but the real hangup is that I'm not sure if either of those programs will make me happy.

Writing sample will be my final undergrad paper where I used Land and Kristeva to """analyze""" cyberpunk.

>>12247935
I see your reasoning, but that's not true, especially for degrees like mine (English) where you can't really do shit unless you get some higher education.

[Anonymous No.12248409]

MFA sounds a lot better than PhD in literature honestly. What is the job market for those people like?

[Anonymous No.12248457]

>>12246722
Not American but I'll try regardless:
>Applied to Cambridge, Exeter, and Birmingham (as a backup) for English Lit
>Had an interview in December, will find out results in January
>Predicted grades A*, A*, A
>Couldn't say what my chances are: interview went well (I think) but all I can do now is hope