I've been a bit quiet recently. Part of the reason is that I've been battling through the ages old 'should I - shouldn't I?' postgraduate dilemma.
I've decided to apply to the US as well as the UK, which is difficult on many levels. It's something like the stages of grief, but I would group them as follows:
1.a) Indecision (Should I do it? Five years is a long time. And it might be longer.)
b.) Irrational panic (What if I never come back?!)
2.) Self-doubt (I'm not good enough! Why am I even trying?!)
3.) Rational panic (Do I even know three people to act as my referees? Visas?!)
4.) Headache-inducing confusion. (What do you mean Rhode Island isn't an island? How I am supposed to pick universities?)
5.) Renewed self-doubt (Lecturer: well, I suppose you could try, but..)
6.) Intermittent bursts of confidence (Why yes, I did spend last year translating pages and pages of Latin and Greek in my free time. And actually.. I speak Italian and my German's okay. And I delivered a paper at an international conference. Maybe someone will want me.)
7.) Apathy (I'm just going to pretend it doesn't exist.)
8.) Blustering false confidence (Well, I might as well try! I'll regret it if I don't! What will be will be!)
And that's pretty much as far as I've got. I think I'm back in the 2nd stage, but I've signed up for the GRE ($190, and I have to travel to London to take it..), so there's no backing out now...
DOOMSDAY BOOK: HALFWAY THENCE.
2 hours ago
Good luck! AFAIK the main problem with doing anything in the States atm is that they're having all the same anti-immigration drives that we are, but it may be that that doesn't apply to postgrads. Sounds like you should have no trouble getting a place here, with your experience, having given a paper already is really impressive!
ReplyDeleteGo for it! One of my great regrets in life is not properly applying to do postgrad study in Classics in the US (conversely, another of my great regrets is having ended up doing it here instead, but that's another story). Painful though it may be, I suspect applying for visas will be as nothing compared with the hell of trying to get humanities funding in this country.
ReplyDeleteDo go and spend some serious time in the Fulbright Commission's library--it's full of helpful materials on studying in the US. Work out how you're placed for deadlines on the various UK-US scholarships--Kennedy, Knox (Harvard), Proctor (Princeton), Thouron (UPenn), Fulbright (anywhere), there are probably others--these may have mostly passed by now if you want to start next year, but there's nothing to stop you taking a year out (in which you could even do a one-year Masters over here) and applying for the following year. (And don't forget that they're not the be-all-and-end-all: US departments will find funding for you if they decide to take you on.) Find some sympathetic members of your department, and milk them for information, contacts, and support for all they're worth. Make contact with some professors in places you might be interested in going to (whether UK or US)--even go and visit, if you can.
But you know all that already. In short: if you're going to do it, go all out on it.
And, as to (2) and (5): on the evidence of this blog, you're more than good enough.
Thank you both for your kind comments. I've resolved to 'throw myself' at it (and as a consequence, I'm spending much of my waking life at the library.) The pressure is on - hopefully it will pay off. Again, thank you.
ReplyDelete