How to Apply
In order to apply for admission to the graduate program in English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill, please submit the following material:
Submit directly to the Graduate School via their online application
(1) The online application
This is your official application and once you have completed it and paid your application fee you will be able to track the status of your application online. Be sure to provide accurate contact information (phone numbers, and especially email address) so we and the Graduate School can reach you. Update this information as necessary. (For information from the Graduate School, read the page for prospective students; for the application itself, click ELECTRONIC GRADUATE ADMISSION APPLICATION on that page. The first time you click the APPLICATION link you will be taken to a page which allows you to create an identity for the purposes of making and tracking your application.)
Detailed information from the Graduate School on the admissions process can be found here.
(2)Application fee ($75)
You can pay this by credit card online or by mailing a check. When your online form is completed and you application fee has been processed, you may obtain a PID (Personal IDentification number). (Fee: Online or mail to Graduate School; you may obtain your Person IDentification number here.
(3) GRE test scores
Beginning in the 2006-07 application year, only the General Aptitude test is required for applicants to the graduate program in English. These scores must be sent officially from ETS, and should be sent directly to the Graduate School. Since ETS is often delayed in the reporting of scores, applicants should complete all GRE exams by the end of October to ensure timely receipt of test scores. When sending your score report to UNC, please use the institutional code number 5816. There is no separate code for the Department of English. Do not send photocopies of your GRE exam scores; our Graduate School must receive “official” test score reports directly from ETS.
(4) Official Transcripts (to be sent both to the Graduate School and to the Department of English and Comparative Literature)
Please note that you must send transcripts for all courses taken that count towards the degree(s) you claim as the basis for admission to graduate school, including courses at community or junior colleges, summer school, and study abroad programs. If you seek entry at the M.A. level, you must send transcripts of all courses counting towards the B.A.; if applying at the Ph.D. level, you must send transcripts of all courses counting towards your M.A. as well as your B.A. degree.
IMPORTANT: Please send two copies of your transcripts, one to the Graduate School and one to the Department of English and Comparative Literature.
(5) Critical Writing Sample
Your writing sample should be a representative essay of 15-25 pages in length. It should be analytical rather than creative in content. Readers will look for the lucidity of your thought and expression, your ability to analyze texts closely and in a sophisticated manner, your ability to incorporate and enlarge upon previous critical work, and your demonstration of research skills.
(6) Intellectual Statement of Purpose
Your statement of purpose should provide readers of your application with a strong sense of your skill in, and commitment to, advanced graduate study in English. Your statement should not offer general biographical details; instead, include relevant details about your academic experience, background, qualifications, or goals not already evident in other portions of your application. If you have had the opportunity to pursue independent research at an advanced level, either inside or outside of an academic setting, you should describe the nature of this work as well as its relation to future scholarly and professional aims.
(7) Three Letters of Recommendation (with form)
The online application will ask you to provide the names and email address of three referees. You will not be able to submit your online application until you have provided this information. Once you have provided the names and email address of all referees, you will be allowed to choose a notification date for those referees to be emailed by our online admission system. If one or more of your recommenders prefers to submit a paper recommendation, you may provide him or her with the online recommendation form provided by the Graduate School admissions site.
The online application will also permit you to upload documents such as a Curriculum Vitae (optional for all applicants) and a Teaching Statement of Purpose (optional for all applicants but recommended for direct-admit Ph.D. applicants who wish to be considered as teaching fellows in their first year)
(8) For Comparative Literature Applicants Only, a Tape or CD of Foreign Language Fluency
Applicants to the Program in Comparative Literature who are interested in securing a teaching fellowship in the Department of Romance Languages (French, Spanish, Italian, and/or Portuguese) should send with their application a tape or CD of themselves speaking in the language they wish to teach
For information on deadlines, see Deadlines for Submission.