Admissions
Admission to the Ph.D. program in English is administered through The Graduate Center Office of Admissions. General guidelines and requirements, as well as the online application form, are listed on the Admissions Website.
Information regarding the application deadlines can be found here.
The Admissions Process
Admissions Committee: Admission to the Ph.D. Program in English is very competitive (in 2010, for example, approximately 275 people applied for some 25 positions). The Admissions Committee meets regularly from early February until mid-May to review completed applications. Committee members -- ten professors and two doctoral students -- study each candidate's credentials looking particularly for five key strengths:
solid academic record
excellent references
strong test scores
an articulate personal statement
writing sample that demonstrates critical and analytical acumen
No single item is considered in isolation.
Acceptance Decisions: You will be notified by the Office of Admissions when the Committee reaches a decision about whether or not to admit you. These notifications begin in March and continue through June. We give careful consideration to more than 275 applications every year, and it is thus necessary to place some temporarily on hold and review them at subsequent meetings. If you have not heard from us, please contact the Office of Admissions to make sure that your application is complete before you contact the English Program.
Note: There is no Masters Degree offered by the English Program. However, Other CUNY schools offer the MA in English and other related fields -- see www.cuny.edu for more information. There is also a Liberal Studies MA program offered at the GC. For more information regarding an "en route" MA, please click here.