bluecheese

I taught and upper-division creative writing course this past semester. The rec letters were for internships, scholarships, and grad school (MFA/Education MA).

Continuing from Junot Diaz: Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace, etc. Contemporary-ish, realist dude-novels are generally bothersome things.

I don't know, the form rejection isn't going to hurt you. It just isn't going to help you much. I've been asked to write 6 recommendations for various things from teaching last semester (including two for graduate school). I can imagine how many instructors who teach multiple sections are asked to write. I'm sure some of them end up being form-ish by default, simply because of a lack of time. I didn't do that, but yeah... a couple of the students didn't give me much to go off of, so their recommendations ended up being rather generic stuff about their performance in class. I don't think that is going to hurt them.

Yeah, it is kind of rare for someone to write a negative recommendation.

Yeah, I'd assume that they are, and I'm sure that they'll be much more concerned with your statement of purpose, recommendations, and writing sample.

I just assume that everyone has ambiguous genitalia until its been proven otherwise. ikr, I want to drink some right now even though it is kind of early in the morning (no I'm not an alcoholic, it just is fucking delicious and is much more appealing than the oatmeal I just ate).

Best of luck!

I wasn't saying that the complaining about the grading was annoying. I was saying that it sounds annoying if it is true. Sorry if there was any confusion there.

Ah! Two weeks! I still have some applications to finish for the 15h, but still.... that seems so close, yet the time will likely pass extremely slowly. I will have to keep myself distracted with reading, writing and prepping for teaching. And drinking gin.

All of this stuff about Chicago sounds annoying. I do know some people who attended the MAPH (? is that the acronym?) program and they never explicitly complained about the grading. I'll ask people about programs again, should I (by some chance of luck) get in. My experience at a "public ivy" has been that the grading between courses is very dependent upon the whims of the professors. I know someone who got an A- after crying in front of a professor who was threatening to give them a B. I was in a seminar where half of the people didn't write the final paper, and the professor gave everyone an A. I've been in classes with grades that are given after a page of typed explanation (I received an A- on the paper, but I received an A on another assignment... so it worked out). I've been in classes where students have just received a B when the end of the semester came around (with little to no explanation). I have a 4.0 GPA from my graduate education, but I can surely see someone with A- grades being fine. Even someone one or two B grades. Honestly, this stuff ultimately has little to do with publication and teaching. Classes are often unpleasant meat grinders filled with raging egos.

Important application season update: my partner made grapefruit-hibiscus gin from scratch. It is delicious, I will guzzle so much of it as I wait.

I agree that you should be okay. I don't think you're going to get eliminated right off the bat for the lower scores from a professional writing program. They're going to be more concerned with your writing sample, and how "professional" your application packet looks I suspect. They want people they'll be able to secure jobs for.

Ugh. I hate Billy Collins.

I'm always singing along to biggie.

I think it is worth considering leaning toward places that are a bit more interdisciplinary their approach to continental theory/philosophy. English departments can even be a good place to look--you can still write in highly theoretical and philosophy driven modes (english and literature departments are where continental philosophy found its home in US academic institutions), but you can also spread out to writing about literature and diversify your prospects for employment. Unless you obtain admission at one of the major continental oriented institutions (Chicago, Berkeley, etc.), I think you're better off going somewhere that will give you job opportunities. There aren't enough jobs in continental philosophy. Lots of highly trained and brilliant people are wondering jobless or as adjuncts. It's worth considering.

Yeah, this program sounds really great. There are always 2-3 people that I would love to take a course with teaching. I usually don't have enough money though. Hopefully there will be some summer funding at whatever PhD program I attend. I want to do this and Naropa (a similar program for creative writers... awesome faculty, week long classes).

Contemporary Theory: Sara Ahmed Judith Butler Judith Halberstam Elizabeth Grosz Also, the OOO crowd... (Harman, Meillassoux, Brassier, Shaviro, etc.) "Minor" Theorists: Husserl Heidegger Merleau-Ponty Foucault Deleuze

I actually went back to school to become a high school english teacher (after receiving a degree in History). In the state I was attending the requirements for teaching were so extensive beyond the english courses themselves (there are a lot more teaching jobs in writing and english) to the tune of another two years of education courses (which tend to be unbearably boring) that I decided to get an MFA instead. In retrospect, an MFA doesn't exactly put one any closer to acquiring a job... that said, should I get a job in my field (either literature or creative writing) I'll be much happier.

I would try sending en email first. It is less intrusive to admin assistants (who are already often overworked).

I think it is probably neutral or positive. There is a good chance that it is positive though. If they were simply going to through out your application they may not have bothered to ask for the scores. You have that going for you. I found out similar news because I had a tardy recommender. I received an email from a grad student at one of my top choices that said "I can't forward your application to the next round unless we have all three of your recommendations." So, I at least made it past the first cut. I'll probably still get rejected, but it provided a (much needed) morale boost.

Ah, I thought they had funding. They do have some great funding for the MFA program, and they used to have great funding for the MA program as well. If you're doing "postmodernism," you might want to check out the philosophy program which bent fairly heavily toward the continental side of things (I still think the philosophy program has funding for an MA). I think the funding is in the 16k range (although I could be wrong). If they still have it for the English MA, it should be in that range too (I'd suspect).

Have you considered LSU's MA in English? They have some _awesome_ faculty (both inside and outside of the department). Some of their theory and creative writing faculty are especially awesome. They also tend to have great funding.

Seriously, I think applying widely is important (although I don't suppose everyone will agree with us). I think everyone should apply as widely as their interests and pocketbooks allow. You don't know who is going to be on the admissions committee (grad programs often suffer from nasty departmental politics that might result in a person who is a perfect fit on one level not getting in on a particular year, also you might get faculty who are interested in the prestige [or lack thereof] of your undergrad institution, faculty who are interested in diversity and those that aren't, etc. reading applications ...there might also be graduate students weeding out the low hanging fruit... which can be equally arbitrary).

I think 800-1000 words is a good ballpark no matter what field you're in. Unless they specifically ask for more (which is rarely the case). I showed a longer statement to someone who is regularly on acceptance committees for multiple departments at my university (when it was around 1200 words) and she thought it was a bit on the long side. It shouldn't take that long to get to the point about what you want to research (if you know what you want to research). I'm sure there are exceptions, but I think it is best to error on the side of being concise and precise as possible. They have to read a lot of these--make it stand out, and keep it readable.

I totally get this. Geography will play into my decisions, and played into my applications to a certain degree (although there are a few outliers). I guess I'm just okay with more places. I have family in the midwest, and my partner has family on the east coast. And I wouldn't mind living in Cali. I did keep Rice--they have some awesome faculty--but I probably won't attend unless it is one of my only choices for that reason.