Getting a Master's Degree in English (the personal opinions of Professor
Suzanne Keen)
Getting a master’s degree is a good way
to enjoy graduate study without committing your
whole young adulthood to the project!
Master’s programs differ from PhD
programs. Some, like Georgetown, offer only
a terminal master’s degree. These are
excellent, though funding may be more
limited. PhD programs often grant MAs along
the way to the PhD, which means that a person
often leaves a PhD program (having decided to
drop out) with a master’s degree. The
only reason to aim for a master’s from a
program really set up for the PhD is to get
better funding: you act as if you want the PhD,
take the fellowship, and leave when you’ve
earned your MA. However, PhD programs are a lot
more competitive, so this isn't really a very
sensible route. Think about summer programs such
as the Bread
Loaf School of English, where W&L English
grads have earned Master's degrees while holding
down teaching jobs. Disclosure: Professor Keen
teaches for Bread Loaf.
Applying:
You apply to five or six programs. To do
so you ready your:
•languages. Most programs require
1. Find out which languages count before you
start a new one. The actual exams in grad school
tend to be pretty easy--translation tests, taken
with a dictionary. You should be able to learn
and pass one language during your one or two
years of grad school. Almost all programs will
expect you to pass at least one exam during the
first year of study. For the application, it is
important to be able to claim preparation in
languages. A person who looks weak in languages
might be eliminated from the applicant pool on
that ground. So, if you can claim proficiency in
one language and reading knowledge in another,
that’s great.
•personal essay. Write an
intellectual statement of purpose, not an
autobiography or starry-eyed hymn of praise to
the glories of your discipline, a famous
professor, or institution X. An argumentative
personal essay is fine, so long as it
doesn’t insult or disparage certain
approaches. Use your natural writing style. You
may weave in remarks about a special collection
at the library of Institution X, or about
particular professors (especially if you have
corresponded with them, or based your thesis on
their work), but avoid the
law-school-application-essay style of "I
first read Wordsworth in the eighth grade, and
from then on I knew it was my destiny to. .
." Even if it's true! Imagine your essay as
the one opportunity for you to lay out your plan,
your big questions, and the way in which your
academic experiences—research, writing,
publishing—have altered your ideas. Write
about your senior thesis, if you wrote one, and
where you see yourself going from there.
It’s ok to indicate a change of direction.
Be specific. And don't worry, no one will hold
you to anything you write in your application.
You can change your mind once you’re there.
Many people do—that’s one of the
reasons for required course work and broad
general examinations, not unlike the
“comps” in English.
•dossier of letters from the best
known scholars, those who know you best. It's
unfair, but fame counts, unless the famous person
says “I taught Joe as a freshman and he
earned a B+.” Do get a letter from your
thesis advisor. This is especially important if
the thesis isn’t done yet, and can’t be
part of the writing sample. Find out where
professors studied or taught earlier in their
careers. A letter from a “known
quantity” means something to an admission
committee. Give neatly paper-clipped forms,
stamped addressed envelopes and instructions to
your recommenders as early as possible.
(Recommended: sign the waiver.) Write down
the deadlines for completed applications. Some
programs will send a postcard about incomplete
applications, but assume that you are on your
own. Two weeks before the earliest deadline,
politely ask your recommenders if they’ve
had a chance to send the letter in. Most busy
professors will appreciate the reminder.
•GRE. Take it
early—October is best. Or, take it in
the spring of your junior year, and again in the
fall. High verbals and high subject test scores
matter the most. Prepare using the materials from
ETS (reviewing anthologies and notes from survey
courses helps). Don’t waste money and
time on Stanley Kaplan.
•writing sample. There is no one
recipe here, only general guidelines. This can be
the most important part of an application. Choose
your very best recent paper and rewrite it.
Respond to criticism, and take it back to the
professor to see if you’ve succeeded in
making improvements. Make sure your argument is
clearly stated on the first page, or at the very
latest on the second page. Proofread obsessively.
Spell check. If your middle names are not
“Strunk and White,” get a person with a
perfect grasp of grammar and syntax to read your
essay. Revise for clarity and elegance. Use MLA
style for citations, not just any old format. Do
not use a bad printer, a micro-font, or an arty
font. Your readers will be sitting down to
read sixty files in a weekend, during the school
year. You musn’t give them an excuse
to cast your work aside with an oath.
OK. It’s early April and the Fates
have smiled upon you. You’ve gotten into
three or four good master’s programs. Then
what?
Making a decision
requires specific knowledge about:
•financial support. Unless
you have applied to PhD programs intending only
to do the MA, you will probably not get a big
financial aid package. Look at the state
university programs in your home state, where you
may qualify for reduced tuition. Assume that
financial support is merit based, even when the
institution requires parents’ information.
Don’t pay tuition to an MA program on the
hopes of making it into a PhD at the same
institution.
•the library: main collection and
special collections. In most humanities fields, a
puky library means a big hassle for you. The kind
of work you can do in your courses and in your
dissertation will be shaped by the availability
of texts. Ask if ILL (interlibrary loan) use is
free and unlimited. If your interests will
most likely take you abroad to foreign archives,
ask if summer funding for research trips is
available.
•the professors. Do your homework.
Who are they? Do they really teach courses
(look at the graduate course catalog). Do
they teach grad students? (Some famous professors
at places with superb undergrads teach grad
students reluctantly.) Use automated
bibliographies in your field, such as
FirstSearch’s “Articles1st” to
pull up periodical publications. Look at the
dates of publication. Is the famous professor you
admire still active in her field? Are all the
fields you hope to study represented by
distinguished senior professors and up-and-coming
younger professors? The latter can be as
important as the former, since younger professors
still building their followings may devote more
time and energy to you.
•the structure of the program. All
masters programs require course work— 1- 2
years, 8-14 courses—, language examinations
(usually 1 in addition to English), and some
require a master’s thesis.
•the visit. If you can
afford to visit campus before you decide, do it.
Ask to be housed with a grad student, and go to
classes. Talk to the Director of Graduate
Studies (the “DGS”) and professors in
office hours. Do the grad students seem
happy? Do they seem to have a community?
Dissertation-writing groups? Colloquia or reading
groups based on common interests? Real
lives? Are they working second jobs in
addition to their teaching or research
assistantships? Are they divided into
“camps” about some issue that
doesn’t matter a whole lot to you? Or,
conversely, are they passionately upset about
something that matters a lot to you, and might be
a source of unhappiness if things don’t go
your way? (Real life examples: unionization,
sexual preference.)
•the place. Attractive? Dangerous? Bucolic? In an exciting city?
Before you decide to
go:
(If you care about going on after your
master’s), ask about placement in graduate
and professional programs: ask the Director of
Graduate Study where recent MAs have gone to
undertake PhDs, what law schools they’ve
entered, what professional schools they’ve
chosen after completing the MA. Then try to
get names and talk to the individuals who’ve
gone through the MA program and found a
successful path in the direction that interests
you.
Beware Composition
Slavery:
It is a national disgrace, but many graduate
programs exist solely to provide cheap labor for
universities. Bad signs:
•The program wants you to begin
teaching in your first semester of study.
•All the composition courses and many
of the lower-level undergraduate courses are
taught by graduate students, not by professors.
•The program expects you to teach the
same course (composition) over and over
throughout your years of study.
•Very few students in the program
complete the MAs.
There are always exceptions, but you should be
aware that teaching experience, a vital component
of your graduate training, should never overwhelm
the other parts: course taking, independent work,
thesis-writing.
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