In the Fall semester following your first year at Temple, you’ll have to go through the Second Year Review process.

Your professors should write evaluations of your performance after you’ve completed their courses, so be sure to check with the Graduate Coordinator (Tara Lemma) and/or the Graduate Director (Miles Orvell) to see if they’ve been sent to our office. If one or more of your professors didn’t write an evaluation, check with the Graduate Coordinator to see if they might help you get that feedback.

With your evaluations, you’ll write a reflective piece that is outlined in the Graduate Handbook. This work should explain how you are working with the advice and criticism in your evaluations, how you plan to improve your weak areas, and any successes–conference presentations, publications, awards, etc.–you found in your first year.

Next, you’ll need to pick your best essay from your first year to send in for review with your packet. This should be a research essay that you’re most proud of, and you should check out the Graduate Handbook for the most recent guidelines.

Once you send these in, you’ll meet with professors from our English department. You’ll discuss your self-evaluation, your courses, and your research essay. Too, you might find that the evaluators will ask you to define your areas of interest to begin discussing who might work best with you as you move into your Preliminary Exams.