Hi, all! To preface, sorry if a similar question has been answered, first time posting here.  I’m a rising Senior in undergrad planning to apply to English Lit PhD programs this fall, and am a little stuck when it comes to presenting a specialization and addressing program fit. A lot of the research I have been doing has focused on 19th c. British lit, with a grant and several conference presentations in that area. However, my thesis this upcoming year is focusing on Early Modern poetry, and I’d like to primarily work on Early Modern poetics, philosophy, and classical reception ..read more

I was interested in applying to St. John's next year, but I hear that the English PhD program is very new. Any thoughts?  ..read more

I applied to the Creative Writing Masters at Trinity College Dublin in early March, and my application status has said "additional assessment scheduled" for a few months now. Does anyone know what this means? I haven't seen anyone post about their results from Trinity for creative writing this year, so I'm wondering if they haven't made decisions yet, or if instead of just flat-out rejecting people they just never update the status. Does anyone know about Trinity's Creative Writing admissions process? I sent an email to the academic registry in April asking about it, but they just said it ..read more

I'm going to be starting an MA in English this fall and even though I am no where near getting a visa in hand, my major concern is still preparing myself for no regrets.  It should be no surprise that a large chunk of students across the world adore the US Education system. A South Asian myself, seeing my undergraduate department fail miserably in handling the pandemic, I have jotted down multiple reasons to be happy about embarking on this journey even though the university I'd be joining isn't a prestigious one.  However, I've seen multiple international students struggle to unders ..read more

Hi everyone, long time lurker here, hope you are all doing great! As an international student whose native language is not English and who intends to apply for a CompLit PhD program in the U.S., I feel like it is essential to improve my academic writing skills since the quality of my writing sample matters so much during this whole application process, so would you please recommend some books that would be helpful here? It doesn't have to be a technical book, any book that you think is enlightening, or anything where you find the prose and style is beautiful, is very very much apprec ..read more

Hello,   I have a low cumulative GPA (3.25) from UC Berkeley with a major GPA of about 3.58. I suffer from a mental illness and was unmedicated for most of my undergrad, causing my grades to suffer. Will this hinder my chances of getting into a PhD program? I have a 163 in GRE Verbal which I am retaking because I was very ill when I took it last, and two of my letters of recommendations are coming from Columbia professors, as I recently took some English classes at Columbia since I have been away from school for a long time. I would also appreciate advice on how I can make my applica ..read more

I’m an international student aspiring to apply to Comparative Literature PhD programs in the US (probably in the Fall 23 cycle...I’m planning ahead?) but I know pretty much nothing about US universities, apart from what I have read on their websites. I have a few questions that will definitely influence the courses that I take in the next year, so I would be very grateful if anyone here would be willing to share their insight!☺️ I have read on here before that certain universities have quite specific reputations when it comes to literary theory. This is a huge ask ..read more

Hi everyone,  First of all, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all the active users on this forum. I discovered GradCafe a few months ago and it has been an immensely helpful resource as I figure out the next steps in my academic career.  I finished my BA in English Literature last May and am now starting the process of applying to grad programs for fall 2022. It has, quite frankly, been really overwhelming for me. I’ve been in touch with a few professors/faculty members from my alma mater, but I got a lot of conflicting information from them, so I really appreciate all the ins ..read more

Hello all. I'm interested in applying for comparative literature PhD programs in the U.S., and have been researching on them for a while. Partly it is because of the programs' focus on critical theories, which is my interest and strength, and partly because most of the work I've done so far involves more than one language (I have a BA in translation, and have many experiences in translation.) I was wondering, in general, how fluent the programs expect of the applicants in the three languages at the time of application? I emailed some of the programs about my question ..read more

I've seen a lot of posts on Gradcafe where people say MAPH is a cash cow, that professors give MAPHers less attention, that the program isn't even super competitive (that they let a good number in because they are willing to pay). I wanted to ask, is UChicago's MAPH the real deal? I'm feeling really proud to get into such a great institution, but I'm hearing all this talk about how it's a makeshift degree at a first-rate university...  I got a 10,500 dollar scholarship, but that's a small dent in overall expenses if I decide to go.  I studied poli sci in undergrad, and thought M ..read more