Ph-rienDs
Resources for Aspiring PhD Students
Getting into a PhD program requires more than intellect; students need to be prepared to “play the game.” PhD programs expect that students know the field they want to enter (Medieval, 19th C. American, etc.), the scholarship they want to pursue (performance and queer identity, finance and Romantic poets, etc.), and the programs/professors best suited for that field. Below is a resource guide written like an FAQ to help you navigate these expectations. But keep in mind that these resources can not replace talking to a faculty member face to face. Go talk to them. You can't get into a PhD program if you don't have letters of recommendation from faculty in your field.
Students who move on to the PhD must start to imagine themselves not as students in a classroom but as a professional scholar in the field. That means forgetting about the grade you get in a course and instead working on making academia part of your life. The best prepared students tend to do the following:
- Talk to faculty mentors regularly
- You can't get good letters of recommendation unless your faculty know you. Talk to them.
- Attend local conferences
- As presenter, chair, or visitor, attending conferences gives you greater awareness of the field, expectations of literary discourse, and opportunities to share your ideas and network with peers.
- Some great local opportunities include CPP's English Graduate Symposium and the Student Research Conference, as well as regional conferences like CSULA's Significations, CSULB's Re/Inventions, and PAMLA.
- Attend guest lectures frequently, even those not at CPP
- CGU, UCLA, USC, Cal Tech, UC Irvine, UCR… all of these programs have English departments and invite speakers. Bookmark these homepages and keep an eye out for their events.
- Maintain journal alerts and read at least one new scholarly article per week
- This also includes RSS feeds, listservs, Facebook feeds, etc. Author societies, the Society for the Study of American Women Writers, boundary 2, etc. All of these groups have web presences that you should try to connect to.
- Organize reading groups
- Outside of class, gather together a group of like-minded people who are interested in your area (gender studies, trauma theory, postcolonial lit). Read an article every other week and meet over drinks to talk about it.
- Organize writing groups
- Outside of class, gather a group of trusted peers to submit work to. Writing or thinking in a vacuum is a great way to suck at writing and thinking
Choosing the right program involves many factors, and there are both professional and personal considerations that need to be accounted for:
Professional Considerations
Program Quality
- MLA Guide to Doctoral Programs in English: Including how to apply for admission to a department's program; course and other requirements needed to complete a department's program; tuition costs; fellowships, teaching assistantships, and other financial support; medical and health insurance coverage. https://apps.mla.org/pdf/gdp_report0405.pdf
- Assessing doctoral programs: Name recognition of programs is important, and that information can be found using a simple ranking. These can be found at the links below. More important, however, is the mentoring relationship you establish with a faculty member in your field. Cultivate these relationships early.
- Program rankings based on US News and World Report: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/english-rankings
Faculty Research Interests
Your PhD program is an apprenticeship. You want to work with particular faculty in your specific field. You should find the faculty doing research in your area of study and determine programs based on that.
Personal Considerations
Quality of Life
Many students choose their program simply because of location, but that is a poor strategy, as many strong programs are in the least desirable places to live. Try not to let "weather" be the determining factor in your decision. PhD programs, like the job market for Assistant Professor positions once you graduate, require that you remain flexible. A PhD is not a VIP pass to all the hottest clubs in town; it's a reservation at Hertz—the chances of them having the car you want (or ordered) is slim, and you may wind up using mass transit anyway.
Costs/Funding
NEVER EVER EVER PAY FOR YOUR PHD. PhD programs in English will support you through TA opportunities, fellowships, and grants. If a program will not, that is not the right school for you.
Applying
For specialized insights on the application process, read Professors Graff and Hoberek‘s article “Hiding it from the Kids” (1999): http://geraldgraff.com/graff_articles/hiding.pdf
Every program is different, but the main items you'll need to produce (and revise incessantly) are:
- Cover letter
- Also called a "personal statement," this document is NOT a memoir of how you came to love literature or linguistics, but rather a detailed document about your scholarly agenda: the research you're working with, the papers you're presenting, and the direction of your scholarship
- A CV
- A record of your professional accomplishments, including presentations, articles, awards, and so on.
- A REVISED seminar paper, written in your field of interest.
- GRE General Test Scores (almost always)
- GRE Subject Test Scores (usually)
- Transcripts
Noteworthy here is that PhD programs like to see teaching experience, but it is rarely a determining factor for your acceptance into the program nor does it determine whether you are eligible for a TA position. Keep that in mind as you think about proportioning your time.
For more CPP-specific notes on the application process, read Ryan Leack’s PhD Application Guide posted here: https://www.cpp.edu/~amderosa/gresources.html