Advice for everyone considering an English PhD Program
If you’re pondering the prospect of getting a doctorate in English, you need to read this first. It’s a compilation of advice from various English PhD students–what they wish they’d known before they enrolled.
- Don’t go enter an English PhD program just because you don’t have any other ideas about what to do. It’s better to be out in the job market without a clear purpose than it is to be in a PhD program without a focus. PhD programs are a huge commitment, and if you’re not motivated by a personal and professional ambition, you’re going to flounder.
- Grad school is NOTHING like undergraduate study. In large part you’ll be isolated–you won’t feel a huge connection with your peers because you’ll be working independently most of the time. I felt very alone in my struggles enrolled in an English PhD program, but it was worth it for the intellectual growth. If that won’t justify it for you, it’s probably not the route you want to take.
- Be clear about your funding situation! Without funding you will not make it, unless you have a lot of resources at your disposal. There’s no “working your way” through an English PhD program. That’s fine if your funding depends on a teaching fellowship and you’re guaranteed to get one–but grad programs are often the ones that get cut, so beware.
- Don’t enter an English PhD program expecting a professorship to fall into your lap when you’re done. That’s just no the way it goes. If you want to be a professor, obviously you have to take this course. But the happiest grad students I know are the ones who enrolled because they had a passion for research and for the field and were willing sacrifice careers to be involved at that level.