SILCS Blog

In our third profile of graduate programs, we are discussing Cornell University. The graduate program in English Language and Literature enrolls twenty students per year in its Ph.D., M.F.A. and joint M.F.A./Ph.D. programs.

Courses for undergraduates range from Chaucer, Shakespeare, and James Joyce to critical theory, creative writing, cultural studies, and ethnic American literatures. The Honors Program challenges English majors to produce a major critical project as the culmination of their degree. The Ph.D. and M.F.A. programs enable advanced students to pursue intensive study with a distinguished faculty committed to creative and intellectual community. Courses and related programs link students at all levels with interdisciplinary opportunities on campus, while a lively series of speakers, colloquia, and conferences provide a context for sustained learning and debate within the humanities.

The Ph.D. program enrolls about twelve students per year. Students design their own courses of study. In the fourth semester, students must pass the Advancement to Candidacy Examination in order to proceed toward the Ph.D., prior to their dissertation.

The M.F.A. program enrolls eight students per year, four each in poetry and fiction. The two-year program culminates in the completion of a book length manuscript.

A small number of students enroll in the joint M.F.A./Ph.D. program, which takes five years and includes writing workshop courses and Ph.D. seminars for credit. At the end of the fourth semester, candidates submit the M.F.A. thesis and receive the M.F.A. degree, then go on to complete the Ph.D. and dissertation.

Students in the Ph.D. and joint M.F.A./Ph.D. programs are offered five years of funding, including a first-year non-teaching fellowship with a full tuition fellowship; two years of Teaching Assistantships with full tuition fellowships; a fourth-year non-teaching fellowship for the dissertation writing year, with a full tuition fellowship; a fifth-year Teaching Assistantship with full tuition fellowship; summer support for four years; a stipend; and health insurance.

Students in the M.F.A. program receive two years of funding, including a first-year Graduate Assistantship working at Epoch, a periodical of contemporary literature published by the Creative Writing staff of the Department of English; a first-summer teaching assistantship, which is linked to a teachers training program for which residency is required; a second-year Teaching Assistantship with a full tuition fellowship; a second summer fellowship; a stipend; and health insurance.

The deadline for all programs is December 15.

In the second in our series of graduate program profiles of our sponsoring Consortium members, we will be discussing the University of Pennsylvania. From the English Department website:

One indication of our interdisciplinary orientation is that our faculty are serving or have recently served as directors of the Penn Humanities Forum, Kelly Writers House, the Material Text Seminar, the The Center for Africana Studies , the South Asia Center, and the Programs in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, Cinema Studies, and have won more teaching awards than any other department in the School. Our undergraduate Alumni have gone on to highly successful careers in advertising, publishing, journalism, law, information technology, and other fields; many of them participate in our Career Nights or have joined our English Career Liaison Database, providing a network of helpful contacts for current Penn English Majors.

U Penn has an English graduate program that enrolls 5 Masters students and 12 Ph.D. students per year. The terminal Masters program, which takes place in one year, is a challenging option for those not able to make the longer commitment of the Ph.D. program. Students provide their own funding.

Students in the five-year Ph.D. program all receive the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, which covers tuition, general fees, and health insurance for 5 years. The total value of the fellowship for one year, including all benefits, was $53,000 in 2008-09. In addition, U Penn offers the William Fontaine Fellowship to African-American/Black, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Native American students.

The U Penn English department works closely with students on job placement after graduation, and over the past nine years has placed 66% of graduates in first-time tenure-track positions at a range of colleges and universities.

The deadline for application for graduate study at U Penn is December 15, 2010.

We are starting a new series to highlight the graduate programs of a few of our sponsoring Consortium members. Each week, we will focus on one program in particular. This week, we will be discussing Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University’s English and American Literature program is well funded, with students receiving full tuition remission and yearly fellowships worth $18,500 in the 2010-11 academic year. The first three semesters do not require teaching. Students work closely with their mentors and enjoy co-teaching opportunities with experienced faculty. All students enter the program as PhD students, as Washington University does not offer a terminal MA. The deadline for application is January 8, 2011. Teaching begins in fourth semester, with one course per semester. From the program website:

In recent years, our graduate students have found tenure track positions at institutions such as Drury University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Rutgers, San Francisco State University, Susquehanna University, the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, the University of Dayton, the University of North Carolina, and Wittenberg University. We believe we are successful in placement because of the high level of support we offer in the first three semesters (which do not require any teaching), because of training we offer to our graduate instructors throughout their course of study, and because, with a favorable teaching load for ourselves as well as for our graduate students, we are able as mentors to work closely, individually, and actively with these beginning teachers and scholars. This support has provided our graduates with expert training and the chance to go on to publish books with university presses including those, most recently, of Cambridge, Notre Dame, Oxford, Penn State and Yale.

Washington University also has a Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship Program (CGFP), which provides financial support to diverse students interested in careers as college or university professors. The package provides a full tuition scholarship plus an annual stipend and allowance in the amount of $27,500 for the 2010-2011 academic year. A brochure on the fellowship can be downloaded here [PDF]. The closing date for application to the Fellowship is January 25, 2011.

In addition, Washington University offers a rigorous two-year MFA program. Last year, the program accepted 12 students out of 350 applicants. All new students receive a complete tuition waiver and a stipend, which in 2010-2011 was $18,500.