lcampb

I'm not sure where you're at in the application process, but I'd encourage you not to come out with guns blazing in quite this way as you investigate schools and possible mentors in Rhet/Comp. I think you'll find that there are a lot of faculty willing and happy to support more empirical work in composition and that interdisciplinary work (taking classes in statistics, quantitative research, etc.) is encouraged. However, you're likely to alienate people with this kind of critique, which as Between Fields points out (as do many of the commenters on the article you found) is not very in touch with current research. On that note, I'd also encourage you to start checking out more recent research in composition to get a sense of the kinds of quantitative work that resonates with you. Understand that the cognitivist movement of the 80's is far gone. Flower, in fact, now does research on intercultural inquiry at a community literacy center, precisely the "cultural studies" research you mentioned above. You might start with this site, which offers summaries of recent articles in the field (http://collegecompositionweekly.com/summaries/), or take a look at some of the more empirical-leaning journals in comp (Written Communication and Research in the Teaching of English might be good places to start). Finding contemporary research that resonates and then figuring out where those scholars got their degrees and/or where they teach now can help clue you into appropriate departments.

While I agree with bhr that if your end goal is to teach at a four-year institution, you might want to expand your search beyond in-state schools, I don't think the argument that the highest ranking institution is the best option necessarily holds true for community college jobs. I know in my state at least (at it sounds like you're finding this to be the case as well), there is something to be said for the networking that happens between in-state MA programs and community colleges. Many community colleges hire graduates from Western Washington's MA program, for example, and so I could see advantages to being in a program that's well-known locally over a more highly ranked institution, depending on your goals.

I just wanted to respond to this because I'm a graduate student now at UW now in the English department. While this is true of a number of the humanities departments, the university has been allocating funds based on student enrollment in departmental classes and this means the English department is doing a little better than other departments because of composition enrollments. We're okay on funding - almost everyone is able to get 6th year funding and I don't know of anyone who hasn't gotten second year funding. That said, they're not great about first-year funding (only about 50% of the incoming class as others have mentioned). So I think your chances of being funded in your second year are very good. Also, I've seen people find a number of options, from TAing for the Comm department to enrolling for only one or two quarters the first year, to reduce first year expenses until second year funding arrived. So as others mentioned, be on the look-out for options and support. Regardless, wait until they've made funding decisions to start worrying too much.

I've posted this in other places on gradcafe before, but it was a life-saver for me when I was applying to rhet/comp programs 2 years ago so I like to share it whenever someone is looking for more information This is a 2007 review of Rhet/Comp programs in the US: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~enos/ . It offers information on funding, the types of dissertations people are writing, etc. etc. Enormously useful. Also, I'm at the University of Washington and based on your interests (and I'll admit I only skimmed this thread) you might want to check out their "Language and Rhetoric" track. They only fund a certain number of incoming MA's (4/10 my year) but some of those are lang/rhet people. Like Penn State and Ohio its MA -> PhD. Happy hunting!

As someone who's currently in a "Language and Rhetoric" concentration that's part of a larger English PhD program, I'll weigh in in support of being in a larger department. As a caveat, I am in the first year of the program, so this is mostly just from observation, but it seems like since Comp/Rhet students are in the minority in my program, the opportunities to be involved in first year writing and other composition initiatives are much greater. From what I've seen, the upper-level comp/rhet students (pretty much all of them) are the one's running TA training, running the writing center, contributing to the Intro to Composition textbook, etc. In the big picture of what gets you jobs, I'm guessing that these kinds of leadership roles play a part, and they're certainly less competitive when you're a minority in the department. That said, I usually have less classes to choose from that are specifically Rhet/Comp focused, which is certainly a disadvantage. My program also only had one core requirement so I'm not being forced to take a lot of literature classes that are less relevant to my interests. For rhet/comp programs housed in English, make sure to take into consideration how many literature classes the program requires as part of your decision as well.

I'm still waiting on Penn State and Purdue, as well. No idea what's going on but I've essentially given up on them. If they actually wanted me, wouldn't they have told me something by now?

If his short story writing is any indication, I don't think I'd want to see his SOP: http://www.esquire.com/fiction/james-franco-fiction-0410 I particularly like this line: "The building is beige, but the shadows make it shadow-color." Ah yes, shadow-color. So... grey?

Cool! I'm finishing my undergraduate thesis on contemporary female mental illness memoirs at the moment, specifically examining accounts in relation to class, gender, and "self"hood. My sophomore year I wrote a paper that compared Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Benjamin Franklin so I feel like I might have an idea how your combination would work, haha. In general, I'm interested in gender studies (this year I've been focusing a lot on marginal 70's feminist rhetoric - Black Panther women, women addicted to valium) and psychopathography (autobiography about psychology/illness). I still have a lot of figuring out to do, though. And of course, I wouldn't be going for Rhet/Comp if I wasn't drawn to Composition studies, as well. I'm working my way through Rothenberg's "Creativity and Madness" for my thesis right now and he argues that creative inspiration is a myth perpetuated by the artistic community but I definitely subscribe to PaperChaser's "spark" theory

I applied to the MA in Rhet/Comp at Penn State and have not heard any news. A professor of mine is in contact with one of the directors of graduate study there, though, and has confirmed that the decision process is still underway. My understanding (from Penn State's website) was that applicants have to reapply to the PhD program during the second year of their MA. I'm not sure if that would qualify as terminal or not, but I know my application was specifically for the Master's program.

I still haven't heard a peep, either. Foyo, I'm guessing from your list of schools that you've applied for rhet/comp? I have as well, so that might have something to do with it. I hope it means we're still under consideration and not just that we're on the bottom of a pile they haven't finished putting in the data for :-/

It's nice to find someone in the same boat!! My thought was that decisions might be later for Masters programs than they are for PhD, but I really have no idea. I'm not sure about OSU... they definitely have extended all of their fellowship and internal acceptances, but there have only been 1 or 2 external acceptances without fellowships. My status also hasn't been updated. I was sure Penn State was done in February but there have been rumors there might still be more coming. Purdue's decisions typically come later so I'm holding out on that one. Typically, there is a lot less competition for Rhet/Comp programs, but I have no idea how finances are affecting the number of acceptances a department can offer. Good luck! I hope we both hear soon!

It is March 10th and I am still sitting on 6 nothing's! What is going on? I pretty much oscillate between optimism and pessimism hourly and then there's the occasional moment where I start to think the whole application process was one bad dream. Maybe rhet/comp acceptances just come later? Or its because I applied without a masters? I don't know what to make of it... even my professors seem perplexed. Sorry, I just needed to rant a bit and the "nothing" forum seemed like the place to do it.

I've been in a bit of a state of panic (I think partially from seeing how competitive the literature departments are at the schools I applied to) and my dad reminded me to take a look at the acceptance rates in the 2007 "Portrait of the Profession" for Rhet/Comp programs. I thought I'd share since I know they helped ease my mind. These are the rates of acceptance for U. of Arizona's Rhet/Comp program: Approximate number of applicants to rhetoric PhD per year since 2000: 60 2005-2006 50 2004-2005 48 2003-2004 42 2002-2003 30 2001-2002 Approximate number of applicants admitted to rhetoric PhD per year since 2000: 26 2005-2006 25 2004-2005 23 2003-2004 25 2002-2003 20 2001-2002 That's almost 50% for most years! Those are good odds! If you want to check out the whole survey, here is the link: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~enos/ Best of luck, I know the waiting is getting really stressful and I empathize entirely!

If you haven't taken a look at the 2007 "Portrait of the Profession" for Doctoral Programs in Rhet/Comp, I would HIGHLY recommend it. This really helped me make my decisions about where to apply because it gives a great sense of the size of programs, what their placement is like, their teaching loads, etc. There's even a section for programs to talk about their "strengths" and "challenges." Obviously, since you've already applied, you'll want to base decisions off of more than just the facts, but in my opinion, the facts never hurt either http://www.u.arizona.edu/~enos/

Looks like there have been a few acceptances into the RCTE program on the results board, although most of them mentioned possible fellowships so I'm hoping there are still more to come. It does seem early for their program to be notifying but there also aren't that many results from past years. Anyway, I applied and am still waiting to hear. I also don't have an MA yet, so I applied for an MA/PhD. If the accepted wanted to share their research interests and backgrounds (Masters, work experience, etc.), I know I would be interested!