Pick Leee's next school, win a dollar

And to answer Clare's query: very carefully.

princeton is private -- i'm guessing tuition is around $30K/yr.

I think you're going to run into bumps with this in nearly any PhD English program -- they're more and more theory-driven these days, both at the curriculum level and the dissertation level, and that's going to be more and more true the higher up the ladder you go. (My ex is ABD at Tulane; she didn't take a single course without a heavy theory component, and they're not even a specifically theory-oriented school.) There are bound to be exceptions, but if this is key for you, you want to look carefully. If this is very key for you, I'd weight it higher than what authors and movements a school favors, because it's going to be easier to get interested in other authors, or work with the ones you like somewhere with imperfectly compatible faculty, than to jump half-heartedly into theory.

(You're not very likely to find a department with a strong interest in Ondaatje, Woolf, and Pynchon that isn't theory-focused, for instance.)

The last time I looked -- which was a bunch of years ago now -- Bowling Green was the best place to go for comic book stuff, but that's in their popular culture department, which is heavy on theory (and my dislike for theory in popular culture departments is why I dropped the pop culture major and didn't go to Bowling Green). But that was .... six or seven years ago now, and Understanding Comics hadn't been out very long. Comics As Literature classes are as common as they are condescending, but they tend to be "get the freshmen interested in college, teach classes on wacky subjects like the X-Men and Star Trek!" classes.

It's been that state now for years upon years. It's probably just gotten worse.

long story short: if you want to do english grad studies, go for it.

It's come to my attention that I never want to read another novel again, which kind of deep sixes my original plan; probably my current thing of emphasis is more towards pop culture (specifically tv and comics). So is it Bowling Green (despite its theoretical foundations)(and what other schools?) for me?

do you think you might rather do tv and comics from within a communications department? (no more novels that way at least)

a lot of good schools for pop culture are on the tip of my brain but they arent coming yet.

Hahaha, Leee! This was me exactly three years ago: my last two years as an undergraduate, I was dead-set on doing an English Ph.D., and then once I graduated and started looking into programs, I was all like "Read Milton? Fuck that noise!" And so I kept groping for places that I could do, like, general cultural-studies work but, like you, started to develop an aversion to theory (or at least academic bullshit), and so that ruled out dozens of places. And then I thought I'd maybe do a creative writing/criticism program at CalArts, but when I visited it seemed like such a sad and lonely place, and that's when I realized, "Wait, I don't actually need to go to graduate school, do I?"

That said, I know that Northwestern's Comparative Literary Studies Ph.D. program is fairly unique: You can choose one of three tracks -- Diaspora Studies, Film and Media Studies, and Literature and Critical Theory. Focusing on Film and Media Studies might be the way to go.

Also, the University of Chicago has a Master's Program in the Humanities (2-year program) that is one of the most flexible graduate programs I've come across: you have to take one or two intro classes on theory, but then after that you can choose classes from any humanities department pretty much a la carte.

What do you mean about Bowling Green's "theoretical foundations"? My impression of that school (my dad did graduate work there and befriended a couple of the pop-culture profs) is that it's actually fairly non-theoretical, i.e., pop culture approached more from a historical, American-studies angle. Perhaps it's changed, I don't know. But the work published in the Journal of Popular Culture (edited at BGSU), from what I remember reading of it in the late 90s, bore little resemblance to French-influenced (or even British-style) cultural studies.

plus, you'll only be 45 mins away! Beer in Ann Arbor!

I have a few questions on this subject that you MIGHT be able to answer...I'll email you when I get a moment.

Also, a stack of my comics just fell over. Not a good omen.

what will that make, like five of us ilxors in the midwest? (chicago doesn't count)

Are there even that many?

xpost I'm not an official Ilxor but I live in ohio

(oh and j0hn doesn't count anymore, he moved)

ugh, which time? *sobbing in fetal position*

"Spy Like Us: Alias and the Secret Identity of the New Television Superheroine"

Woohoo!

What I meant about "level of discourse" was an obfuscating way of saying "How smart are my would-be classmates." I sat in on one class for each school; at BGSU, they got stuck on a fundamental issue that shouldn't have been part of the debate; at U of C, there was waaay too much emphasis on psychoanalytic theory but in spite of which, the rest of the students were sharper.

I also asked about the college backgrounds of the incoming BG students, who were almost all from mid-west state schools. (One from UPenn and one from UCLA.)

But the real kicker in favor of U of C is that they're offering a graphic novel WORKSHOP next fall!

A point in BG's favor though is that the head of the Pop cult dept. has the season 1 Alias DVD, and a fair collection of Batgirl comics.

xpost awesome s1ocki, I have a plan for the future!

By the way! An important to consider. Critical, in my experience:

How many of the graduate classes -- not just the ones on the books, but the ones actually offered, as well as the ones which form the core required curriculum for the program -- are actually classes unto themselves, and not simply graduate sections of a larger undergraduate course? Most of the "graduate" classes I'm encouraged to take at IU are actually a section of 2-3 grad students in a 40-200 person undergraduate class, with extra papers and meetings added on for us; the level of discourse, in other words, is exceptionally poor. I've had to ditch those types of courses whenever possible and form my own curriculum, which is not making me popular with the administration.

Second suggestion duly noted!

That sounds key to me if your goal is still to teach.

I still have two papers left, but I don't know when one of them is due. I'm ready to sleep for 20 hours.

But, getting an idea of the very finite financial resources for which I'd be competing with other students who, I'd assume, are smarter/more driven than I am, and perhaps for the first time, I'm very very scared. Then again, I've already committed $45 to the letter of recommendation service, so there's no point in throwing that money away! Still, if you can offer assurances, that'd be appreciated; I do think that grad school/academia is something that's right for me, despite the Fears I have.

xpost - shhh!

Alas, "funology" is my neologism.

I highly recommended taking the Academic/Professional Writing course. Improved my writing tenfold, and possibly it taught me finally how to read non-fiction prose.

Not that you'd suspect any improvement from that last sentence.

I have the phear that I will have the dreaded giant-sized sombrero and go 0 for 7.