Princeton University
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
http://slavic.princeton.edu/
December 1: Application deadline for applicants outside North America.
December 31: Application deadline for applicants within North America.
Graduate program
The aim of our graduate program is to further interest, knowledge, and
scholarship relating to Russia and Slavic Central Europe, primarily
through the cultural humanities. To this end we urge our students to
explore new intellectual paths and approaches, having first provided
them with a strong background in the Russian literary tradition, an
introduction to major schools of theory, and the opportunity to conduct
research abroad. (Please note that the program in Slavic Linguistics
has been discontinued.)
Our students play a central role in the life of the Department in ways
that hone their professional skills - teaching language and/or
literature, helping select speakers, participating in the dissertation
colloquium, and organizing conferences. They also take active part in
the profession, presenting papers at national and international
conferences and publishing in journals in the field.
Candidates accepted into the program receive full funding (full tuition,
health insurance, and living stipend) for five years. As part of this
award - and as part of their professional training - students normally
teach at least two semesters of literature, language, or both, usually
after the general examinations.
Students are in residence full-time during the first two years, doing
course work and preparing for the general examination which usually
takes place at the end of the second or the beginning of the third year.
Upon passing the examination, students begin work on the dissertation
and receive supervised training in undergraduate teaching together with
classroom experience. In the fourth year students may opt to conduct
dissertation research abroad. The fifth year is spent in residence
teaching and completing the dissertation.
About us
Princeton's graduate program is small, with usually no more than two
students entering each year. Admitted graduate students are offered a
stipend of full tuition and fees together with a five-year fellowship
that includes summer salary. The program of study is flexible enough to
allow students with different backgrounds the opportunity to explore
areas of special interest (which may extend beyond the Slavic Department
and even beyond Princeton). Meetings with professors - both formal and
informal - are frequent, and advanced graduate students work closely
with their dissertation advisors.
Applying to the program
To ensure a good fit between prospective students' expectations and what
our Department expects and provides, we urge students to carefully
consider both our requirements and our offerings before applying. The
faculty encourages prospective graduate students to visit Princeton
before submitting applications. To organize such a visit, contact the
Department Manager. If this is not feasible, the faculty may wish to
arrange a telephone interview after receiving your application.
The backbone of the program is the Russian language, which entering
students are expected to read easily and speak fluently. Beyond that,
students are required, by the third year, to achieve a level of reading
competency in two other languages selected from among French, German,
and Slavic languages other than Russian (Polish,
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, and Bulgarian are offered on a regular basis).
Given the nature of our program, complete command of both oral and
written English is absolutely necessary and experience in Western
universities highly desirable. We strongly urge Russian students who
have had no previous experience in Western universities to contact the
Director of Studies before applying.
All of the portions of the application are important and should be
completed thoughtfully. The writing sample plays a particularly
important part in the admissions process. It is highly desirable that
the writing sample you choose to send us be:
1) written in lucid English.
2) devoted to a Russian literary text, with quotations (and
interpretation) that demonstrate the text has been read in Russian.
3) 10-20 pages long. (It is acceptable to send two samples if the
combined length does not exceed twenty pages.)
Above all, however, you should aim to submit a sample that represents
your very best work even if it does not fulfill every one of these
criteria. If you are uncertain about what to send us, feel free to
contact the Director of Graduate Studies for advice.
Contacts: http://slavic.princeton.edu/graduate_program/inform_app.php
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