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Undergraduate students planning graduate study in English literature and language can do a number of things to prepare:
Seek faculty mentors: English faculty are your best resource for graduate school preparation. They can assist you in discovering and developing your academic interests in English literature and language study, make suggestions about schools and programs, supervise independent writing and research you may take on as an undergraduate, and write letters of recommendation to graduate programs.
Take at least one course in critical theory: ENGL 300 to 305 or C LIT 400. ENGL 304 (Contemporary Criticism) is especially helpful.
Take additional upper-division courses beyond the minimum course work required in the undergraduate major. Choose courses from your area of interest or focus in literature and language study.
Complete the English Department Honors Program if at all possible. Applications are accepted each year during Spring Quarter. Applicants must have a minimum UW GPA of 3.30 and a minimum UW English GPA (in 200-level courses and above) of 3.70. Honors students complete a three-quarter cohort program, enrolling in an honors seminar in Autumn and Winter quarters and completing a supervised honors thesis in Spring quarter. For more information, visit the English Honors page.
Consider taking a graduate seminar. Graduate courses are sometimes open to advanced undergraduates with the instructor's permission. Graduate course descriptions are available on line. (Click on the course number link, if active, for a description written by the faculty member who'll be teaching the course during a particular quarter.)
Begin to develop your critical writing sample: Most graduate programs have a January deadline for students seeking admission for the following autumn, so you'll need to have your critical writing sample ready early. The critical writing sample is usually 12-20 pages of your best writing, often a revised paper from an undergraduate course or part of a senior project. It is always for the best if the paper concerns works or issues within or closely related to your stated areas of interest for graduate study. If you've written a paper for an English course that you're thinking of developing into your writing sample, talk with your instructor. He or she may have suggestions for you on how to improve it, or may be willing to work with you on further revisions.
Begin to write your statement of purpose: English Undergraduate
Advising offers Statement of Purpose Workshops every autumn quarter. Watch
your englmajors
e-mail for workshop dates. Some relatively low-cost statement of purpose
writing courses are also offered through the UW
Women's Center
. Your statement of purpose is an extremely important part
of your application materials; you should plan to spend a lot of time on it
and rewrite it many times. For English Advising's online
information about statement of purpose writing, click here.
Investigate schools and programs. Ask faculty and current graduate students for their recommendations. Request admission packets and begin to look over the materials. Click here for links to graduate programs in English Language and Literature.
Start a "LEO" Credential File with the UW Career Center. Most
graduate programs will ask you to waive your right to see your letters of recommendation.
You can direct those writing recommendations for you to send them to the UW
Career Center for inclusion in a Letters
of Evaluation Online (LEO) file. The Career Center will send letters out
to graduate programs upon your request. There is a fee for this service.
Prepare to take the Graduate Records Exam (GRE). Some students
choose to take GRE preparation courses; others use books or software programs.
Most schools will require both the General Test and the Subject Test in Literature.
Check with each school for their admission requirements. Some relatively low-cost
preparation courses are offered through the UW
Women's Center. You can visit GRE online at www.gre.org.
