Give me a qualitative analysis of the GRE.

You have time. You can always reapply next year, too, if you don't get in this time around. You should work on getting your letters of recommendation immediately, though, as my experience has been that this can be time consuming (meaning you may have to wait on professors to write them.)

LiveJournal's applyingtograd community would be a good place to cross-post this.

Everyone I know with a humanities PhD got terrible quantitative GRE scores, so I wouldn't lose sleep over that. I would, however, lose some sleep over the state of the English job market. Everyone is convinced that they will be the exception, I know, but at least right now it really is tough. Do some research, find out what the projections are for five or seven years from now, and do some honest self-evaluation of your attractiveness as an academic job candidate. English as a field (like some other disciplines) has come in for some well deserved criticism for continuing to take in large numbers of graduate students, knowing that there were jobs available for only a fraction of them. (Partly that's because they use grad student TAs to do their service teaching, so when evaluating grad school offers look closely at funding and teaching expectations.) Are you ready and willing to spend years in one-year visiting positions if you are lucky, and adjuncting if you are not lucky, while applying every year to dozens of tenure-track jobs? Looking forward to paying your own way to the MLA every Christmas and enduring cattle-call interviews in auditoriums? Even people coming out of first-tier places, working with big-name advisers, and working on good projects, can have a lot of trouble on the job market. Not all, though -- some people I know got slotted directly into prestigious positions in exactly the geographical places they were hoping for, but they are the exceptions to the rule. So it's not all gloom and doom, obviously. But if you are coming out of a lower-ranked program, and with a less supportive adviser, or with a not very exciting project, it's a really brutal job market. The numbers are against you, in a way that they aren't in some other fields, and I think that you have to be realistic about that before starting.

Forktine - Somebody brings this up whenever somebody says they're interested in going back to school in the humanities (spec. English, it seems.) You're absolutely right that the job market is tight and wise to make sure zoomorphic knows this. While a certain amount of pragmatism is wise in making a decision to spend the next five or six or more years in school, zoomorphic seems to have already made the decision to go to school. While academic jobs are hard to come by, they are less so from top schools, and there are many other opportunities for work outside of academics should one not land a job. Yes, everybody seems to think they're the exception, but if zoomorphic's dream is to teach, it would seem foolish to me not to pursue that goal. Would it be better to hang around some job you hate wondering 'what if I'd given it a shot' the rest of your life? That seems like a far worse fate to me. So, in your school search, one statistic you can usually get from the dept (if not their website) is their placement rate. See where people are landing jobs. If you haven't already researched this, it'll also give you an idea of what you'll do after your graduate. Sorry for the derail - thought it was worth responding to the inevitable 'there are no jobs' response.

Nope, haven't registered for the Lit GRE. I haven't seen any of the PhD programs require it, but I tested very well on the practice one. I'm think I'm ready for grad school, but I'm not prepared to run myself ragged over the next month in a foolhardy attempt to beat the clock, especially when that mindset will affect my scores and writing. I'll take this entire year to plan my application process next winter. Honestly, before this realization dawned on me five days ago, I had no idea what programs I should look into, when and how to study, and what my schedule should look like. For the most part, I still don't. I can stand my current situation a bit longer as long as I know that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't my editor's victory cigar as he corrals me into another 6 years of mindless journalism. Again, thanks everyone, and I hope you're all as intelligent and forbearing when I ask more grad school-related questions over the course of next year.

Forktine - You're right that the job market is tough. I'm sure zoomorphic gets that. As a prospective applicant, though, the most useful info you can look at is the particular school's placement rate and where those students are getting placed. At least in my program, they are very forthcoming with their job placement rates and where students end up getting jobs. I think it's foolish to look at something like this in terms of lost income - if you're miserable doing what you're doing and know what you really want to with your life and have the opportunity to pursue it, then do it. Money is not going to cure that, at least it didn't for me. That said, Forktine's absolutely right that the job market is tight, so just know what you're in for. I wouldn't go to any program that didn't fully fund its graduate students and offer a chance to teach undergraduates - that's where you're going to learn if this is really the right field for you.

Also, for what it's worth, and may be in danger of veering off topic, but I don't know anybody that regrets their PhD. Maybe I don't know enough unemployed, jaded PhDs?

Also, for what it's worth, and may be in danger of veering off topic, but I don't know anybody that regrets their PhD. Maybe I don't know enough unemployed, jaded PhDs? I think you're correct on this point. Or, more to the point, it's not so much that anyone regrets their doctoral degree, as such; but it is very common to find humanities PhDs who do regret the opportunity cost that the degree bears, especially when combined with the harsh realities of the academic job market. In other words, Forktine is offering you the gift that we cherish the green for . . . GREAT ADVICE. Think very carefully on what he says.

Thanks, especially to Forktine and drobot, for your insights. I realize how arduous and unforgiving a life in academia is. I put it off for two years because I really, really wanted to make a living in the "real" world, and while I've been successful, I'm not very happy. I live for the incandescent moment while writing an analysis when all my mental labors fuse together to create a single, elegant point. My family cautions me daily with the hard realities of academia, and they're also adherents to the American utilitarian belief that work means product, not scholarship. Personally, I just want the most enriched inner life I can ostensibly lead. Studying literature and all its attendant pursuits in the humanities is what makes me happiest. I could absolutely ignore that desire and tread water for the rest of my life until I dwindle into corporate senility, but I'd prefer to wrestle with debt and a dessicated job market than some larger ontological dissatisfaction. Forktine, you haven't remotely dissuaded me from gunning for that PhD, but you've certainly eased my impatience in commencing the process RIGHT NOW. It seems provident to wait a year, truly prepare my essays and testing abilities, and land a slot in best department within my abilities, rather than to accept a slot in a sub-par department just so I can escape my current situation. Thanks again.