Congratulations on making a decision to go back to school. The worst day in school is better than the best day……….well anywhere, except skiing. So stay in school as long as you can……..or become a ski bum.

If you need to take out loans, go for whatever provides the longest deferral, the lowest interest rate, and the longest payback time span. You will be happy for less of a financial burden once you finish. While I didn’t take out loans for grad school, it did take me 10 years to pay back my school loans.

Can we talk a little about the study of English? One of my under grad degrees was in English and while I wouldn’t trade away the degree or experiences, over time I found that most studies in English were the height of subjectivism. Professors commonly refused to employ or acknowledge historical or scientific accuracy into their descriptions. Worse if you didn’t fathom and agree with the pet theories of the prof you were doomed to failure. As example, one of the profs I studied with was an expert on William Faulkner. The prof was talented. He brought in a lot of elements of Faulkner’s life and his education, and the greater times in which he lived. In fact he taught the classes to be as much as historical reflection on the time period as to tie into the genera of literature Faulkner created. He was everything one would want in a Professor.

In two other classes which touched upon Faulkner, my work was marked down for pointing out elements of historical relevance in Faulkner’s work. Both profs said historical information was “filler” and had no significance for Faulkner’s work. Instead, they wanted to focus on symbolism. But it was exclusively their own interpretation of and largely their own created symbolism. Because this kind of thing came up time and again in the English dept, I was happy to be done with the dept.

This said, is the study of literature you experienced in under grad school similar to what I described above? If so, and even if not, what is the appeal?

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"