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[ak404]

This is my second post here, so you'll have to excuse me if the tone is different from what you guys are used to reading.

I'm interested in graduate school - (Post)Modern Literature, focusing on the Asian-American Diaspora and Immigrant Experience.  Because this was not a specialization offered at my undergrad alma mater, this is a relatively new and exciting experience for me because my previous focus was on Victorian England and Post-Colonial Studies.  I do a couple of pieces on the mass media, focusing on video games as literature on the side.  While I may have to dig up all of this info on AA Lit by myself instead of asking my professors about it, I want to jump into this for personal and professional reasons...and one of those reasons ain't because it's hip and cool.  I'm Filipino: this stuff is going to affect me, personally.  But, yeah.  I love the subject enough to know that it's so specialized that I'm not going to talk about it to my parents.

The problem?  According to my GPA, I'm either stupid or average, which is the same thing to an admissions office: 2.47 out of 4.  I guess that's what happens when you fail and drop out for a few years and work construction and cooking, which comes to professional reason #5 for attempting graduate studies: no more heavy lifting or working in a restaurant.

I don't have any outstanding achievements, I've never been a part of a club, student council, or sports team.  My command of a second language is horrible: I constantly carry Japanese and Tagalog 'how-tos' on me so I can read them when I get the time.

I've never had my work published in print, nor do I know how.  It was only during the last half of the last year of undergrad that I even considered post-graduate work, so by the time I came to this conclusion, I suddenly got to know about the s***storm I had headed my way from my conversations with associate professors and graduate students.

There's another problem: I'm no egghead and I'm no poet.  I've listened to a couple of my fellow English majors, the ones who knew they were going all the way, and the stuff they talk about goes way over my head, with post-this, Foucault-that, Virilio-blah.  I can understand what they're talking about, but that doesn't mean I like the jargon: if they can't break it down to the point that a college freshman can understand it, then they don't completely understand it, but that's my opinion.  (I've read enough Hofstadter to know when I'm crossing the line into anti-intellectualism, but I've read enough Said and listened to enough Hicks to know what I should be doing as an intellectual, and enough Hoffer to not drink the Kool-Aid when I become one.)

But I want to go into post-graduate studies anyway, because that's what reasons #1-4 are for: the public service, the joy of imparting information into ready (if not willing) minds, reinforcing the importance of reading in a digital age, and all the crap that's going to go into my statement of purpose.  The number one reason is purpose: I've met enough people who've fallen short of their ultimate goals to know that I know what I want to do and should not fail, ever.

The first problem, though, is the most important, because I'm sure academia will beat out any working-class values I have out of my head in a couple of years, but with a lackluster GPA and a spotty academic record with a seven year attendance gap, how the hell am I going to prove to any university, never mind the ones I really want to go to, that a self-depracating, Zen Buddhist, anti-authoritarian, video game-playing, Filipino knucklehead with leftist tendencies like me should be considered to be one of 'them'?

And no, I don't think five grams of dried mushrooms and a copy of Grand Theft Auto 4 is going to help.

[litcrittr82]

Ak404,

I just went through the (demoralizing) English PhD application process, and will start my program this fall.  Others will give you the rundown from the faculty/admissions committee POV, and this will be more useful to you than what I have to say.  But I do have a few comments from the 'recent survivor' perspective that will hopefully be of use to you as you prepare to tackle this animal.

1)  While your proposed area of study (20th c. As.Am. Diaspora) is both interesting and relatively hot these days, now is the time to get back in touch with Victorian lit., or even something older and less sexy.  The sheer volume of applicants proposing to study anything 20th c. American, including ethnic studies, including As.Am. lit., will be staggering.  Having almost applied for 2 of the last 3 years (this past year being the year I actually bit the bullet and let my applications fly), I'm reasonably confident in my ability to read applicants' minds.  Seriously.  Most are making connections between 20th c. lit. and film/media/globalization/ethnic studies, and loving the possibilities here for sexiness.  Applicants are making these connections because, in a lot of ways, they're good connections.  Literary scholarship is still coming to terms with media and globalization theory, still seeing regionalisms stretch and change and break down, and still seeing interdisciplinary and comparatist work enter the field from unexpected angles.  The problem is, so many will apply with these issues at the forefront of their statement of purpose, and only a few will actually stand out.  You'll stand out more by showing interest and facility in earlier periods.  It's perfectly fine to discuss you interest in 20th c. As.Am. diaspora; just make sure you also show, prominently, your interest in working in an earlier period.  Keep this in mind: the majority of faculty in any department you apply to *do not* study 20th c. lit., much less 20th c. American lit.  After all, someone has to teach that three-person Piers Plowman seminar; and you need to impress that person, along with nearly everyone else, to really give yourself the best chance at admission.  Once you're admitted, you can pretty much study whatever you want. 

2) Research the programs and faculty intensely.  I can already think of two English profs I've met over the past year who are study the Filipino-American experience.  I'm not gonna give myself or others away here, but feel free to PM me about this.  And then, if you haven't already, become stalkerishly familiar with faculty research interests at every school you'd even remotely consider.

3) Re. the GPA, you obviously want every advantage you can get, but you'll also have plenty of opportunity to prove it a fluke in the application process.  You can address it briefly in your statement of purpose/personal statement, and you can demonstrate that you're capable of doing quality work by submitting a polished and extraordinary writing sample.  The writing sample, which should be perfect (almost literally), will outweigh your GPA in importance.  If it's really exceptional, it will blow any concerns about GPA off the table.  Re. extracurriculars, I wouldn't worry too much about that.  Most programs don't care at all.  Sometimes I actually get the feeling that academics hold me in contempt for having been a varsity athlete in college.

4) Likewise, I would look at being 'no egghead and no poet' as an advantage.  Too many grad. students are overprofessionalized.  Too many others are just downright posers.  You don't have to tote a copy of 1000 Plateaus with you everywhere you go, and you don't have to talk (yet) like someone who does.  You'll have an intro. to theory/grad. studies/methodology/whatever course your first semester of grad. school.  You'll learn how to talk the talk in that course.  You'll also learn a bit of theory history, the lineage of the jargon terms being tossed about, etc., so they'll begin to make much more sense (even when deployed nonsensically).  You sound like you're ahead of the game already, so you shouldn't have difficulty as a grad. student realizing the difference between people talking theory and people talking rubbish. 

5) One bit of real caution: I have a chip on my shoulder as big as they come, so I understand the 'no failure' mentality.  But you have to approach the application process knowing that it's very possible that people who are not as smart or qualified or hard-working or deserving as you will get in instead of you.  When a PhD program has 10-15 spots for 400-700 applicants, all sorts of factors that we have no choice but to call 'chance' undoubtedly come into play.  Maybe the admissions chair is a dinosaur and you're brilliantly cutting-edge.  Maybe the admissions chair is a postmodernist and you're a medievalist.  Maybe the admissions chair is going through a bitter divorce with someone of your surname.  Maybe one of your rec. letters doesn't arrive, and you never find out about it.  You never know.  Sh!t happens.  So be prepared to fail, and be prepared for the possibility that failure was inevitable for reasons beyond your control.

I've rambled for too long.  Again, PM me if you'd like to discuss further.

[bewilderedta]

Would it be possible for you to take some classes as a continuing ed student? This would give you a chance to put together a really good, current writing sample with feedback from a professor, and also to so impress said professor that s/he will write you a glowing letter of recommendation. Both would help mitigate the effects of a mediocre GPA. A kick-ass GRE score wouldn't hurt either. This is the approach I took to getting ready to apply to grad school, after a non-stellar (though not awful) undergrad career and several years in the workforce. Worked for me.

As far as the theory/jargon stuff - Every industry has a jargon, right? I remember being very turned off when I first started reading it. I find it helps me to approach it with an attitude which is less about whether I like it or agree with it, but more about how it can be useful.

[ak404]

Well, I'll try to take these in order.

To litcrittr82:

Wow, I think I was thinking ahead of you, because when I was thinking of AA studies, it was definitely going to veer off into mass media studies, like video games, television, the Internet, and so on.  So there's a ton of text to deal with.  However, going back to Victorian lit is a good idea: I was thinking of using it as a fall back or secondary specialization because no professor really gets to teach what they want to teach unless they can somehow link it to whatever agenda the department has in mind.

As for the luck thing, believe me, I know all about it: I play MMORPGs, and when you have to wait 24 hours for a single monster against a room of 300-400 people with their fingers hovering over the 'instant claim' key and the only thing separating your kill from a long walk home is a nanosecond...yeah.

To bewilderedta:

One of my advisors suggested taking courses after graduation; I tend to think this is a good option.  However, this would mean taking the classes at the graduate school of my choice, which still doesn't guarantee admission and the tuition is coming out of my pocket, besides!  It's an option, but if I can bypass it with a kickass GRE score, wonderful.

To both:

The problem with I have with jargon is somewhere along the lines of what Richard Feynman thought about jargon: if you still can't break it down and explain it to a first-year student, then you're using jargon to cover up your ignorance.  If you don't understand it, then you're a poseur.  The only solution, I suppose, is constant vigilance: you always have to know what you're talking about.

[litcrittr82]

To litcrittr82:

Wow, I think I was thinking ahead of you, because when I was thinking of AA studies, it was definitely going to veer off into mass media studies, like video games, television, the Internet, and so on.  So there's a ton of text to deal with. 

I agree that these are very fertile ideas and topics; but let me stress that linking, as you say, As.Am. studies with mass media is well within the bounds of the 20th c. lit plus film/media/globalization/ethnic studies formula I'm talking about, and well within the scope of topics that will be overrepresented in the application process.  My point is primarily strategic: link your past work in Victorian lit. (and post-colonialism, if need be) to your 20th c. As.Am/mass media interests, and show admissions committees that you're versatile.  There are only so many grad. school spots available for each subfield.  The market for 20th c. American/postmodern lit. is so glutted that everything within this subfield is hypercompetitive.  You'd rather be in a pile of, for example, 30 proposed Victorianists than 130 proposed postmodernists.  I made the numbers up, but the ratio probably isn't that far off from reality. 

Of the people I know who have been successful applicants recently, the vast majority are medievalists.  I have medievalist friends who had 4-5 top 10 programs courting them by March, in part because so few people have the desire (and the language capabilities) to study medieval lit.  To have that kind of run as a proposed 20th c. Americanist, you usually have to be one of *the* stars of the year, one of the best and most connected applicants nationwide.

[zharkov]

I'm not in lit, but some people in English suggest getting an MA, even if you have to take out loans, as a stepping stone to get into a PhD program.  This strategy would be a way to overcome the mediocre undergrad GPA, and naturally you need to have a great GPA in your MA program.

The risk, of course, if that taking on debt in a field with an existing oversupply of candidates means you might be paying for a career that you'll never get.

[dr_dre]

I'm not in lit, but some people in English suggest getting an MA, even if you have to take out loans, as a stepping stone to get into a PhD program.  This strategy would be a way to overcome the mediocre undergrad GPA, and naturally you need to have a great GPA in your MA program.

The risk, of course, if that taking on debt in a field with an existing oversupply of candidates means you might be paying for a career that you'll never get.

Yes. Although, you might also find that a mouthful of real graduate work is all you need to see that you don't want to pursue the Ph.D., and that can be a very useful thing to know. For some folks, that ends up being money well spent.

[tom74]

Hey Ak,

If you really know games well, I recommend rethinking what you are doing and focus on asian american identity and videogames. Expertise in the latter will get you grants and publications and positions, in the former street cred and intellectual cred.

Also (some) videogames studies has an awesome no bulls*** attitude to theory (so its an acceptable position at least).

[jonesey]

Hang on to your "working class values."  They probably trump most so-called "academic" values, and they're sorely missed in the Ivory Tower.  Be proud of who you are. 

You may want to lay off the WoW for a bit, especially if that's what lead to your sub 3.0 GPA : ), but I like you're proposed area(s) of study. 

I agree with you 100% about jargon; many profs throw out the GRE vocab words to show how smart they are.  I'm all for a solid vocabulary, but there's a fine line between being smart and being obnoxious.

Are you west coast?  Between Hawaii and SF (and the Phillipines) I've spent a bit of time in/around the Filipino community.  Good to see you here, and I hope you're successful in your pursuits. 

[seniorscholar]

As a former director of graduate studies in an English department, I think your undergraduate GPA is a *real* problem. The graduate school rules here do not allow departments to offer funding to students with a GPA under 3.5, though in a few cases we can offer a special plea and be successful. After all, the typical doctoral student in English will be teaching freshman composition in the first term of study (that's where the funding comes from), and the grad school believes (rightly) that GPA depends not only on brains but also on work, responsibility, etc.: all things that are important in people who will be teaching our freshmen.

In addition, someone has mentioned the applicant numbers total, as well as in various fields. The admissions committee looks at the load already carried by the well-published people who should be the ones directing dissertations. One recent year we admitted no candidate in 20th Century American because the appropriate professor already had 10 dissertations in progress. (There are two other faculty members in the area, but one is an Associate Professor who hasn't published anything in years: a very good undergraduate teacher, as a matter of fact, but not a supervisor who would be up on the recent trends in the field, and the other is a not-yet-tenured Assistant Professor who won't be eligible to direct dissertations until after tenure.) So out of about 160 applicants for the doctoral program, the odds were not 8 in 160 (we admitted 8 students with funding) but 0 out of 160 for anyone in American 20th century.

[ak404]

Yeah, I'm aware the GPA is a handicap.  I'm just wondering how to overcome it, negate it, make the admissions board overlook it somehow.

I'm thinking a few graduate-level courses to prove I can handle the workload should do it, but I'm not sure most colleges will see it that way.

[zharkov]

Yeah, I'm aware the GPA is a handicap.  I'm just wondering how to overcome it, negate it, make the admissions board overlook it somehow.

I'm thinking a few graduate-level courses to prove I can handle the workload should do it, but I'm not sure most colleges will see it that way.

A few might help, or maybe an MA.  In any case, you need to have a grad school 4.0 gpa or something very close to it, in order for your applications to PhD programs to be taken seriously.  (That is, the 2.47 was a fluke, you had growing pains, whatever.)

When I work with doctoral students, I tell them that A level work is expected for doctoral students.  It doesn't mean that that is what they always get, but that is my expectation. 

That's your challenge.

[mfaer]

Yeah, I'm aware the GPA is a handicap.  I'm just wondering how to overcome it, negate it, make the admissions board overlook it somehow.

I'm thinking a few graduate-level courses to prove I can handle the workload should do it, but I'm not sure most colleges will see it that way.

I think you should enter an MA program and leave with a 4.0 Masters GPA, then apply to PhD programs two years from now; or, at least, you should apply to a few MA programs in addition to PhD programs.

btw, there are plenty of MA English programs that offer tuition waivers and stipends.

[octoprof]

Yeah, I'm aware the GPA is a handicap.  I'm just wondering how to overcome it, negate it, make the admissions board overlook it somehow.

I'm thinking a few graduate-level courses to prove I can handle the workload should do it, but I'm not sure most colleges will see it that way.

Note: I'm in a totally different field.

I overcame my less than stellar undergraduate GPA by kicking butt on the GMAT (Equivalent of GRE for business folk). That got me into a decent masters program, where I earned a high GPA and proved my abilities at research. Those then lead to an acceptance into a good PhD program at a different school.  That was two decades ago.

On the other hand, do you really want to get a PhD in a field that is over populated with qualified applicant already?

[questioning67]

Yeah, I'm aware the GPA is a handicap.  I'm just wondering how to overcome it, negate it, make the admissions board overlook it somehow.

. 
Might I recommend the Jedi mind trick?  It worked on my admissions board like a charm!  I even got funding!

Seriously, my story is similar to yours.  I had a not so hot undergrad GPA, but fortunately my MA program considered more than just GPA.  I did fairly well in that, and when I retook the GRE again to apply to Ph.D. programs several years later, I did very well.  But I studied for almost a year for that test.  I've now been in a Ph.D. program for a year and am doing quite well.  All this is to say that I'm sure you can pull yourself up as well.  But as others have said, you will probably need to start with a MA program (and I would suggest applying to some less competitive ones) to prove to yourself and professors that you have the dedication and drive to excel in a grad program.  And if you can't get in that way, you might be able to get in on a provisional or continuing-ed basis until you prove you can handle the work. 

I might also recommend doing some things in the meantime to boost your resume like volunteering for a local organization or tutoring children.  There's a lot you could do before December when application packets are due to make yourself look a bit more attractive to admissions boards.

May the force be...well, you know.  Good luck.