BrandNewName

Hm. I only use Western Digital externals and I think they are absolutely the best (I just bought myself a new one for Christmas, but my last one suffered a great deal of abuse--including a dismantlement at one point in time--for over four years and never gave me a problem). They have dropped drastically in price over the past few years as well. Here's a 1 TB WD HD for $150 Amazon - Western Digital 1 TB External Hard Drive.

I personally wouldn't get the Time Capsule, I don't think it's as affordable or easily transportable (though I'm honestly not familiar with the exact size). Plus, from what I've heard, a lot of them die within two years.

You can set up any external HD with Time Machine (I use about 300 GB of 500 GB WD External for my Time Machine and I've partitioned off the rest storing films and other files I don't access that often). That being said, my hard drive is now configured for use with a Mac and if I plug it in to my PC at work it doesn't show up...maybe it's a problem with my own settings, but my partner had the same issue. The reverse order seems to work though, externals used with PCs are able to be recognized on Macs.

So, IMO, get a large capacity WD external hard drive to use with your Time Machine for backups and extra storage space. And, since I'm assuming your prime computer is a Mac, just have a 2GB Thumb Drive that you use on your PC and synch up with your Mac once your home. Another option would be Dropbox to synch up your files on both computers and offer the extra security of having them backed up on a server somewhere.

Both are great schools and excellent programs. I applied to Cornell, but decided against Harvard's English program because it seemed much to traditional for my liking. Also, I worried that many of those rockstar professors would be nearly impossible to connect with in any sort of productive way. The latter point was total conjecture, but the former point is, I think, an important one. As someone who is interested in critical theory and political philosophy, where do you fall? Are you more of a traditional English scholar (and I don't mean for that to sound negative) or do you find yourself writing about disabled queers and the confusion of modernist sexualities (just play along...)? The nature of my engagement with critical theory and the sort of work I hope to produce led me to believe that such interests wouldn't necessarily be shutdown at Harvard English, but that they wouldn't necessarily be nourished either. Cornell, I felt (and still do), had an impressive range of professors in every imaginable field and some well-established connections with other programs that allow for a greater deal of interdisciplinarity within the English program. It's tempting to pick Harvard -- and for you, perhaps, it is the better choice -- but Cornell would win out in my book.

One of the most telling things you can do is to access online course catalogs for each of the programs you're considering. Go back through at least the past two or three years and make notes about the classes offered that interest you. Also include a separate list of courses that sound intriguing and are somewhat outside of your current interests and/or comfort zone. Because you'll be spending two or more years taking these courses, because they will help shape and develop your research interests, and because they serve as your primary means of connecting with potential advisors, I think envisioning which courses you would have taken if you had been a student for the past two years might give you a sense of how well a program 'fits' for you.

Good luck! I'm jealous of your Cornell acceptance; rest assured that if I was on the waitlist I would totally be encouraging you to go Harvard.

Hm. I only use Western Digital externals and I think they are absolutely the best (I just bought myself a new one for Christmas, but my last one suffered a great deal of abuse--including a dismantlement at one point in time--for over four years and never gave me a problem). They have dropped drastically in price over the past few years as well. Here's a 1 TB WD HD for $150 Amazon - Western Digital 1 TB External Hard Drive.

I personally wouldn't get the Time Capsule, I don't think it's as affordable or easily transportable (though I'm honestly not familiar with the exact size). Plus, from what I've heard, a lot of them die within two years.

You can set up any external HD with Time Machine (I use about 300 GB of 500 GB WD External for my Time Machine and I've partitioned off the rest storing films and other files I don't access that often). That being said, my hard drive is now configured for use with a Mac and if I plug it in to my PC at work it doesn't show up...maybe it's a problem with my own settings, but my partner had the same issue. The reverse order seems to work though, externals used with PCs are able to be recognized on Macs.

So, IMO, get a large capacity WD external hard drive to use with your Time Machine for backups and extra storage space. And, since I'm assuming your prime computer is a Mac, just have a 2GB Thumb Drive that you use on your PC and synch up with your Mac once your home. Another option would be Dropbox to synch up your files on both computers and offer the extra security of having them backed up on a server somewhere.

Hm. I only use Western Digital externals and I think they are absolutely the best (I just bought myself a new one for Christmas, but my last one suffered a great deal of abuse--including a dismantlement at one point in time--for over four years and never gave me a problem). They have dropped drastically in price over the past few years as well. Here's a 1 TB WD HD for $150 Amazon - Western Digital 1 TB External Hard Drive.

I personally wouldn't get the Time Capsule, I don't think it's as affordable or easily transportable (though I'm honestly not familiar with the exact size). Plus, from what I've heard, a lot of them die within two years.

You can set up any external HD with Time Machine (I use about 300 GB of 500 GB WD External for my Time Machine and I've partitioned off the rest storing films and other files I don't access that often). That being said, my hard drive is now configured for use with a Mac and if I plug it in to my PC at work it doesn't show up...maybe it's a problem with my own settings, but my partner had the same issue. The reverse order seems to work though, externals used with PCs are able to be recognized on Macs.

So, IMO, get a large capacity WD external hard drive to use with your Time Machine for backups and extra storage space. And, since I'm assuming your prime computer is a Mac, just have a 2GB Thumb Drive that you use on your PC and synch up with your Mac once your home. Another option would be Dropbox to synch up your files on both computers and offer the extra security of having them backed up on a server somewhere.

Hm. I only use Western Digital externals and I think they are absolutely the best (I just bought myself a new one for Christmas, but my last one suffered a great deal of abuse--including a dismantlement at one point in time--for over four years and never gave me a problem). They have dropped drastically in price over the past few years as well. Here's a 1 TB WD HD for $150 Amazon - Western Digital 1 TB External Hard Drive.

I personally wouldn't get the Time Capsule, I don't think it's as affordable or easily transportable (though I'm honestly not familiar with the exact size). Plus, from what I've heard, a lot of them die within two years.

You can set up any external HD with Time Machine (I use about 300 GB of 500 GB WD External for my Time Machine and I've partitioned off the rest storing films and other files I don't access that often). That being said, my hard drive is now configured for use with a Mac and if I plug it in to my PC at work it doesn't show up...maybe it's a problem with my own settings, but my partner had the same issue. The reverse order seems to work though, externals used with PCs are able to be recognized on Macs.

So, IMO, get a large capacity WD external hard drive to use with your Time Machine for backups and extra storage space. And, since I'm assuming your prime computer is a Mac, just have a 2GB Thumb Drive that you use on your PC and synch up with your Mac once your home. Another option would be Dropbox to synch up your files on both computers and offer the extra security of having them backed up on a server somewhere.

I think it's a bit odd as well. But if he's waiting until next year then it means he will have finished coursework and comps at Yale English leaving him with a dissertation to complete. He'll then be taking the required courses at UH (many of which, I think, might be considered fulfilled because of his coursework at Yale and beyond). So, really, what you're looking at is someone who is writing a dissertation and a larger creative piece. Yes, his celebrity is definitely a factor, but I doubt seriously that he has funding at any of these schools. What is more, it's not entirely unheard of to get more than one PhD/complete more than one graduate program...the thing that often isn't the case, however, is being able to do so simultaneously. Again, his celebrity and the ability to travel without the slightest consideration of cost factor in and make this an option not available to most others. Don't know him, never met him, but I don't have an issue with doing everything you want to do...I can't say that I wouldn't be trying to juggle the same things if I had an ample supply of cash and a name/smile that allowed me some wiggle room.

Both are great schools and excellent programs. I applied to Cornell, but decided against Harvard's English program because it seemed much to traditional for my liking. Also, I worried that many of those rockstar professors would be nearly impossible to connect with in any sort of productive way. The latter point was total conjecture, but the former point is, I think, an important one. As someone who is interested in critical theory and political philosophy, where do you fall? Are you more of a traditional English scholar (and I don't mean for that to sound negative) or do you find yourself writing about disabled queers and the confusion of modernist sexualities (just play along...)? The nature of my engagement with critical theory and the sort of work I hope to produce led me to believe that such interests wouldn't necessarily be shutdown at Harvard English, but that they wouldn't necessarily be nourished either. Cornell, I felt (and still do), had an impressive range of professors in every imaginable field and some well-established connections with other programs that allow for a greater deal of interdisciplinarity within the English program. It's tempting to pick Harvard -- and for you, perhaps, it is the better choice -- but Cornell would win out in my book.

One of the most telling things you can do is to access online course catalogs for each of the programs you're considering. Go back through at least the past two or three years and make notes about the classes offered that interest you. Also include a separate list of courses that sound intriguing and are somewhat outside of your current interests and/or comfort zone. Because you'll be spending two or more years taking these courses, because they will help shape and develop your research interests, and because they serve as your primary means of connecting with potential advisors, I think envisioning which courses you would have taken if you had been a student for the past two years might give you a sense of how well a program 'fits' for you.

Good luck! I'm jealous of your Cornell acceptance; rest assured that if I was on the waitlist I would totally be encouraging you to go Harvard.

I think it's a bit odd as well. But if he's waiting until next year then it means he will have finished coursework and comps at Yale English leaving him with a dissertation to complete. He'll then be taking the required courses at UH (many of which, I think, might be considered fulfilled because of his coursework at Yale and beyond). So, really, what you're looking at is someone who is writing a dissertation and a larger creative piece. Yes, his celebrity is definitely a factor, but I doubt seriously that he has funding at any of these schools. What is more, it's not entirely unheard of to get more than one PhD/complete more than one graduate program...the thing that often isn't the case, however, is being able to do so simultaneously. Again, his celebrity and the ability to travel without the slightest consideration of cost factor in and make this an option not available to most others. Don't know him, never met him, but I don't have an issue with doing everything you want to do...I can't say that I wouldn't be trying to juggle the same things if I had an ample supply of cash and a name/smile that allowed me some wiggle room.

I think it's a bit odd as well. But if he's waiting until next year then it means he will have finished coursework and comps at Yale English leaving him with a dissertation to complete. He'll then be taking the required courses at UH (many of which, I think, might be considered fulfilled because of his coursework at Yale and beyond). So, really, what you're looking at is someone who is writing a dissertation and a larger creative piece. Yes, his celebrity is definitely a factor, but I doubt seriously that he has funding at any of these schools. What is more, it's not entirely unheard of to get more than one PhD/complete more than one graduate program...the thing that often isn't the case, however, is being able to do so simultaneously. Again, his celebrity and the ability to travel without the slightest consideration of cost factor in and make this an option not available to most others. Don't know him, never met him, but I don't have an issue with doing everything you want to do...I can't say that I wouldn't be trying to juggle the same things if I had an ample supply of cash and a name/smile that allowed me some wiggle room.

I think it's a bit odd as well. But if he's waiting until next year then it means he will have finished coursework and comps at Yale English leaving him with a dissertation to complete. He'll then be taking the required courses at UH (many of which, I think, might be considered fulfilled because of his coursework at Yale and beyond). So, really, what you're looking at is someone who is writing a dissertation and a larger creative piece. Yes, his celebrity is definitely a factor, but I doubt seriously that he has funding at any of these schools. What is more, it's not entirely unheard of to get more than one PhD/complete more than one graduate program...the thing that often isn't the case, however, is being able to do so simultaneously. Again, his celebrity and the ability to travel without the slightest consideration of cost factor in and make this an option not available to most others. Don't know him, never met him, but I don't have an issue with doing everything you want to do...I can't say that I wouldn't be trying to juggle the same things if I had an ample supply of cash and a name/smile that allowed me some wiggle room.

I have been out of undergrad for four years, but submitted my applications with two letters from undergrad professors (a thesis adviser and a wonderful professor-turned-friend from my undergrad institution working in a similar field) and one letter from my most recent adviser/boss.

I didn't have much choice in the matter as the number of professors in German academic departments is much smaller than in the States, but there was another option I considered here. Well-known academic who knew my writing, but didn't necessarily know me that well.

When it came down to it, I decided that I wanted letters from the two people who knew my writing and research skills the best. For the third, I went for someone who I knew liked me personally and was acquainted with the specific field I was interested in/knew people in those programs. I had only taken one class and produced one paper with him though; not much, but we have kept up via email and Facebook since graduation.

Of my 10 applications, 4 were successful. Among them was a program that specifically stated that two of the three letters had to be from the most recent institution. Broke that rule without explanation and they still let me in. If the letters are good and from academics, I don't think they'll care too much.

In short, pick the person from undergrad and the person from your MA who know your work the best (most likely your thesis advisers). For the third letter, pick a professor who knows and believes in your ability, yes, but also someone who genuinely knows and likes you.

Talk about seeing someone crack...

On the whole, people on these boards are well aware of the current academic environment and what lies ahead. At least more so than the general public and the idealistic undergraduates I teach. The thing is, and bear with me here, you are already a professor and we are talking about the period of study leading up to our respective entries into our respective fields. GradCafe. I hear what you're saying, but making the argument that graduate students should be taking on 2-2 teaching loads or more is ridiculous. Time to completion rates are already horrendous at most schools and there is something to be said for quality as opposed to quantity, especially in the early stages of one's career development when habits and methods that last a lifetime are crystallizing. I take issue with any argument that says the best way to prepare for having to teach many courses in the future is to begin teaching many courses from the moment you take up graduate studies. Any person who may eventually have to teach a 6-6-4 load like yourself will, I think, be well served by (1) spending the time necessary to become an expert in their chosen field and (2) learning to teach well before they learn to teach a lot. They would also do well to not spend 10+ years in graduate school accumulating debt because their programs suddenly decided to assign them 4-4 loads on the advice of a self-proclaimed crank. Frankly, you sound like you hate what you do and, if that's palpable even on a message board, maybe you should take your own advice and find a 9-5.

thanks! that helped!.. its kind of expensiv for me to go as reimbursement they offer wil only cover part of my airfare. does any1 know what % of students mt sinai interview get accepted?n id b really grateful if u cud tell me whther ur interviews were intensive or casual? i ve never been to any phd interview so i m totally lost to d whole process

I've debated weighing in on this discussion for a while now, ultimately deciding against it due to a sense that I might just complicate an already tortuous thought process for those of you considering MAPH. The more I consider it though, the more I feel an obligation to speak up. I'm currently a Phd student at Chicago, and from what I have observed and imbibed from the habitues of MAPH, as well as my general knowledge about the state of graduate study in the humanities in these dark days of neo-liberal evisceration, I would not suggest doing the MAPH Masters. Firstly, the MAPH people are assigned too much work, 3 classes a quarter as opposed to the two required of Phd students, and consistently seem flustered and worn down. Secondly, there are too many students in the cohort so they tend to get lost in the crowd and find it difficult to ratchet the attention of faculty. At a place like Chicago, not only is the department small in terms of the number of faculty, but the 10-15 stars who everyone wants to work with are already worn thin by the needs of Phd students. One year is not enough time to build a strong mentor relationship with faculty, and it is these kinds of relationships that need to be built if they are going to advocate for you in a manner that will get you into top Phd programs. In fact, I could go on and on about why the MAPH is neither worth the money nor the energy. If your goal is to pursue a Phd in English and you have been rejected this year, my suggestion would be to save your 40-60 grand, rent a cabin in the woods, and completely revamp your application. Work fiendishly on your writing sample and your sop, retake the gre if you need to, and READ, READ, and READ more...

Talk about seeing someone crack...

On the whole, people on these boards are well aware of the current academic environment and what lies ahead. At least more so than the general public and the idealistic undergraduates I teach. The thing is, and bear with me here, you are already a professor and we are talking about the period of study leading up to our respective entries into our respective fields. GradCafe. I hear what you're saying, but making the argument that graduate students should be taking on 2-2 teaching loads or more is ridiculous. Time to completion rates are already horrendous at most schools and there is something to be said for quality as opposed to quantity, especially in the early stages of one's career development when habits and methods that last a lifetime are crystallizing. I take issue with any argument that says the best way to prepare for having to teach many courses in the future is to begin teaching many courses from the moment you take up graduate studies. Any person who may eventually have to teach a 6-6-4 load like yourself will, I think, be well served by (1) spending the time necessary to become an expert in their chosen field and (2) learning to teach well before they learn to teach a lot. They would also do well to not spend 10+ years in graduate school accumulating debt because their programs suddenly decided to assign them 4-4 loads on the advice of a self-proclaimed crank. Frankly, you sound like you hate what you do and, if that's palpable even on a message board, maybe you should take your own advice and find a 9-5.

Both are great schools and excellent programs. I applied to Cornell, but decided against Harvard's English program because it seemed much to traditional for my liking. Also, I worried that many of those rockstar professors would be nearly impossible to connect with in any sort of productive way. The latter point was total conjecture, but the former point is, I think, an important one. As someone who is interested in critical theory and political philosophy, where do you fall? Are you more of a traditional English scholar (and I don't mean for that to sound negative) or do you find yourself writing about disabled queers and the confusion of modernist sexualities (just play along...)? The nature of my engagement with critical theory and the sort of work I hope to produce led me to believe that such interests wouldn't necessarily be shutdown at Harvard English, but that they wouldn't necessarily be nourished either. Cornell, I felt (and still do), had an impressive range of professors in every imaginable field and some well-established connections with other programs that allow for a greater deal of interdisciplinarity within the English program. It's tempting to pick Harvard -- and for you, perhaps, it is the better choice -- but Cornell would win out in my book.

One of the most telling things you can do is to access online course catalogs for each of the programs you're considering. Go back through at least the past two or three years and make notes about the classes offered that interest you. Also include a separate list of courses that sound intriguing and are somewhat outside of your current interests and/or comfort zone. Because you'll be spending two or more years taking these courses, because they will help shape and develop your research interests, and because they serve as your primary means of connecting with potential advisors, I think envisioning which courses you would have taken if you had been a student for the past two years might give you a sense of how well a program 'fits' for you.

Good luck! I'm jealous of your Cornell acceptance; rest assured that if I was on the waitlist I would totally be encouraging you to go Harvard.

I know what you're saying and it would be rude for me to hold those spots if I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was going to attend a certain program. The thing is it wasn't until I visited one program (Duke) that it became the top of my top choices. Then, luckily enough, I was accepted to my other top of top choices (Yale). The thing that became clear to me was that, had I not visited Duke, I would have never known how great the program and people were. I've made too many mistakes when it comes to commitment -- we won't even go there -- to blindly accept an offer that seems perfect before checking it out. It's not a malicious undertaking on my part, I understand the stress involved in this process very well and I intend to notify every program as soon as I confirm what I think to be true.

Hey all,
I need help deciding between Harvard and Cornell's English Phd programs... i know this is hardly a problem - believe me, I'm through-the-roof grateful I'm in a position where this is my biggest problem - but I'm having a hard time deciding nonetheless, and have found so many of the responses throughout these fora immensely insightful, kind, and well-informed, so I figured there's no reason to make this decision without asking for others' input.
A little about me: Prospective early modernist, with peripheral interests in political philosophy, critical theory, and religious studies.
I know that Harvard outranks Cornell in almost every way (for all of its departments), but I'm not as familiar with the perhaps less quantifiable strengths of Cornell's English department (Harvard's is a bit easier in that respect, since almost every faculty member is something of a rock star in his or her field).
Anyways, any and all comments are very welcome. In return for advice, I'd be more than happy to share whatever "stats" I have with whoever'd like them (I get a sense these are rather popular in this community..

Talk about seeing someone crack...

On the whole, people on these boards are well aware of the current academic environment and what lies ahead. At least more so than the general public and the idealistic undergraduates I teach. The thing is, and bear with me here, you are already a professor and we are talking about the period of study leading up to our respective entries into our respective fields. GradCafe. I hear what you're saying, but making the argument that graduate students should be taking on 2-2 teaching loads or more is ridiculous. Time to completion rates are already horrendous at most schools and there is something to be said for quality as opposed to quantity, especially in the early stages of one's career development when habits and methods that last a lifetime are crystallizing. I take issue with any argument that says the best way to prepare for having to teach many courses in the future is to begin teaching many courses from the moment you take up graduate studies. Any person who may eventually have to teach a 6-6-4 load like yourself will, I think, be well served by (1) spending the time necessary to become an expert in their chosen field and (2) learning to teach well before they learn to teach a lot. They would also do well to not spend 10+ years in graduate school accumulating debt because their programs suddenly decided to assign them 4-4 loads on the advice of a self-proclaimed crank. Frankly, you sound like you hate what you do and, if that's palpable even on a message board, maybe you should take your own advice and find a 9-5.

Your advice is just plain wrong, not to mention snide - these are major life decisions involving relocations to the other side of the world for many people, you go take a Xanax if you can't understand people needing answers to sort out financial, housing, or alternative offer options.

If there are situations, especially where travel costs are involved (or where travel may be impossible without a speedy answer), call your schools and explain the situation to them. I did it with two programs in particular. One administrator told me that decisions would be out in at least two weeks. No luck. The other administrator gave me my admissions decision over the phone. Bingo!

There's also another program where I was informed by the DGS that decisions had been made, but that university policy forbade the adcom from unofficially telling students about decisions before they had been approved. I waited and waited (over two weeks) as others around me heard. Finally, I got in touch, turns out that a decision had been reached, but that my file had not been 'released' to graduate admissions for processing. It was sitting in no man's land.

As long as you know how to be polite, then by all means contact your programs if you want to. Don't listen to someone's broad statements about what you DEFINITELY should or should not do. If graduate school applications are nothing else, they are a business -- you paid and you have a right to know what is happening with your application.

One final tip, if you're going to call, I also suggest saying something about how you anticipate that the answer may be negative, but at this point you just really need an answer in order to make A, B, or C happen. This was my strategy and, I think anyway, people were more willing to give negative news over the phone if they felt certain I wasn't going to go ballistic or start sobbing on the other end.

Talk about seeing someone crack...

On the whole, people on these boards are well aware of the current academic environment and what lies ahead. At least more so than the general public and the idealistic undergraduates I teach. The thing is, and bear with me here, you are already a professor and we are talking about the period of study leading up to our respective entries into our respective fields. GradCafe. I hear what you're saying, but making the argument that graduate students should be taking on 2-2 teaching loads or more is ridiculous. Time to completion rates are already horrendous at most schools and there is something to be said for quality as opposed to quantity, especially in the early stages of one's career development when habits and methods that last a lifetime are crystallizing. I take issue with any argument that says the best way to prepare for having to teach many courses in the future is to begin teaching many courses from the moment you take up graduate studies. Any person who may eventually have to teach a 6-6-4 load like yourself will, I think, be well served by (1) spending the time necessary to become an expert in their chosen field and (2) learning to teach well before they learn to teach a lot. They would also do well to not spend 10+ years in graduate school accumulating debt because their programs suddenly decided to assign them 4-4 loads on the advice of a self-proclaimed crank. Frankly, you sound like you hate what you do and, if that's palpable even on a message board, maybe you should take your own advice and find a 9-5.

Talk about seeing someone crack...

On the whole, people on these boards are well aware of the current academic environment and what lies ahead. At least more so than the general public and the idealistic undergraduates I teach. The thing is, and bear with me here, you are already a professor and we are talking about the period of study leading up to our respective entries into our respective fields. GradCafe. I hear what you're saying, but making the argument that graduate students should be taking on 2-2 teaching loads or more is ridiculous. Time to completion rates are already horrendous at most schools and there is something to be said for quality as opposed to quantity, especially in the early stages of one's career development when habits and methods that last a lifetime are crystallizing. I take issue with any argument that says the best way to prepare for having to teach many courses in the future is to begin teaching many courses from the moment you take up graduate studies. Any person who may eventually have to teach a 6-6-4 load like yourself will, I think, be well served by (1) spending the time necessary to become an expert in their chosen field and (2) learning to teach well before they learn to teach a lot. They would also do well to not spend 10+ years in graduate school accumulating debt because their programs suddenly decided to assign them 4-4 loads on the advice of a self-proclaimed crank. Frankly, you sound like you hate what you do and, if that's palpable even on a message board, maybe you should take your own advice and find a 9-5.

Talk about seeing someone crack...

On the whole, people on these boards are well aware of the current academic environment and what lies ahead. At least more so than the general public and the idealistic undergraduates I teach. The thing is, and bear with me here, you are already a professor and we are talking about the period of study leading up to our respective entries into our respective fields. GradCafe. I hear what you're saying, but making the argument that graduate students should be taking on 2-2 teaching loads or more is ridiculous. Time to completion rates are already horrendous at most schools and there is something to be said for quality as opposed to quantity, especially in the early stages of one's career development when habits and methods that last a lifetime are crystallizing. I take issue with any argument that says the best way to prepare for having to teach many courses in the future is to begin teaching many courses from the moment you take up graduate studies. Any person who may eventually have to teach a 6-6-4 load like yourself will, I think, be well served by (1) spending the time necessary to become an expert in their chosen field and (2) learning to teach well before they learn to teach a lot. They would also do well to not spend 10+ years in graduate school accumulating debt because their programs suddenly decided to assign them 4-4 loads on the advice of a self-proclaimed crank. Frankly, you sound like you hate what you do and, if that's palpable even on a message board, maybe you should take your own advice and find a 9-5.

Talk about seeing someone crack...

On the whole, people on these boards are well aware of the current academic environment and what lies ahead. At least more so than the general public and the idealistic undergraduates I teach. The thing is, and bear with me here, you are already a professor and we are talking about the period of study leading up to our respective entries into our respective fields. GradCafe. I hear what you're saying, but making the argument that graduate students should be taking on 2-2 teaching loads or more is ridiculous. Time to completion rates are already horrendous at most schools and there is something to be said for quality as opposed to quantity, especially in the early stages of one's career development when habits and methods that last a lifetime are crystallizing. I take issue with any argument that says the best way to prepare for having to teach many courses in the future is to begin teaching many courses from the moment you take up graduate studies. Any person who may eventually have to teach a 6-6-4 load like yourself will, I think, be well served by (1) spending the time necessary to become an expert in their chosen field and (2) learning to teach well before they learn to teach a lot. They would also do well to not spend 10+ years in graduate school accumulating debt because their programs suddenly decided to assign them 4-4 loads on the advice of a self-proclaimed crank. Frankly, you sound like you hate what you do and, if that's palpable even on a message board, maybe you should take your own advice and find a 9-5.

Talk about seeing someone crack...

On the whole, people on these boards are well aware of the current academic environment and what lies ahead. At least more so than the general public and the idealistic undergraduates I teach. The thing is, and bear with me here, you are already a professor and we are talking about the period of study leading up to our respective entries into our respective fields. GradCafe. I hear what you're saying, but making the argument that graduate students should be taking on 2-2 teaching loads or more is ridiculous. Time to completion rates are already horrendous at most schools and there is something to be said for quality as opposed to quantity, especially in the early stages of one's career development when habits and methods that last a lifetime are crystallizing. I take issue with any argument that says the best way to prepare for having to teach many courses in the future is to begin teaching many courses from the moment you take up graduate studies. Any person who may eventually have to teach a 6-6-4 load like yourself will, I think, be well served by (1) spending the time necessary to become an expert in their chosen field and (2) learning to teach well before they learn to teach a lot. They would also do well to not spend 10+ years in graduate school accumulating debt because their programs suddenly decided to assign them 4-4 loads on the advice of a self-proclaimed crank. Frankly, you sound like you hate what you do and, if that's palpable even on a message board, maybe you should take your own advice and find a 9-5.