hopefulscribbler2014

I'm not sure why, but this post kind of rubs me the wrong way. Maybe because I'm already feeling anxiety about being "too old" (I just turned 30), and I feel like this attitude is what I'm most anxious about encountering--a kind of patronizing "good for you!" masking potential underlying criticism. Well shucks, gee, it sure would be an advantage if I was younger, but there's this thing where time only moves in one direction...
 
The truth is that it just took me longer to get here. It took me 6 years to finish undergrad because of financial difficulties, I lived and worked abroad for a while after that, then got a regular job, then realized I wanted to go back into academia, so spent the last 3 years working full time, starting a family, and earning my MA. Voila, I'm 30. It's not as though you can't live your life before you get tenure, so if that doesn't happen until I'm 45 (or, let's be honest, ever), so what? I just don't understand the "racing toward tenure so I can start my real life" idea, which views it as a beginning, rather than a milestone or an eventual goal. Obviously it's an important goal/step in an academic career, but I'm not sure that being a few years older affects the granting of tenure, and something like 50% won't end up getting it anyway, so I think it's important to be open to other possibilities.
 
I'm sorry, I really don't mean to be snippy--I think I'm just grumpy about turning 30. But I don't exactly wear dentures and hobble around on a walker in my slippers. 30 is young. 40 is young. People change careers all the time, and from the people I've spoken to in grad programs, a 10 or 15 year age difference means nothing at all. It's not like I've decided to become a gymnast at 30--I think I've got a few good years before senility will rob me of my literature-teaching abilities.

The only question that I have to you folk over 30 (and in some cases around 35) is: why?
 
Are you doing the PhD as a passion project? If so, hats off and my congratulations--I love your spirit. Are you doing it in hopes of a traditional academic career afterward? If so, my congratulations again--I'm not sure I could stand the odds. You're looking at 5-7 years to complete (effectively placing yourself at or near 40). Then you're looking at a year or two of postdocs, and then you begin on the tenure track (at or near age 42-43). You're looking at something like 50 by the time you're tenured. This is in a market that will be full of PhDs at or near 30 (if I finish in 6 years, I will be 32, and I already think that's on the older side). Wouldn't there be a distinct advantage to being younger, or at least, within the usual age range?

Just FYI, if anyone's considering grad school in the UK: you can't register for a PhD (or DPhil in the case of Oxbridge) straight from a BA. You need a masters to apply to a research degree. I think that means you'd need an MA or MSt in order to apply to be a probationary research student, from which you would then advance to candidacy (MLitt or DPhil). There are also fewer opportunities to teach because in general the UK system doesn't normally allow for TAs, certainly not like the U.S. system (and there are no mandatory comp programs at UK schools to give us jobs) - undergrads are mostly taught by faculty.
 
I've been advised that I could be competitive on the U.S. job market if I chose to apply and do my PhD at a top tier (Russell Group) university at home, but that's because I have lots of experience in the U.S. system. Mixing it up doesn't hurt necessarily but you'd really have to take into consideration the different approaches to job placement in the U.S. and the UK. If you want to study abroad for a while - try out a different system - why not do an MA in the UK, rather than the PhD? It's less of a commitment, and it can help you work out your focus for PhD applications if you really want to end up on the market in the U.S. I really think the move from U.S. undergrad to UK graduate school is a complicated one... The American and UK systems don't align easily, but it can be a lot of fun to see how another country does it!
 
Funding for home students is bad enough in the UK; for internationals it really is practically impossible without being a complete superstar (and who knows what one of those looks like) or getting a Fulbright, etc. Sad situation, and one of the reasons it's unlikely I'll be applying to programs at home.

Rose Egypt, I believe that unless you're applying to PhDs with an MA, conference participation isn't necessarily an expectation, even if you are applying with an MA, I don't think it'll hurt applicants if they haven't had anything accepted just yet. It can't hurt to show that you're serious about your work with this kind of experience, but I wouldn't worry about the relative prestige of conferences at this point. However, to answer your question, a professional or graduate conference at an accredited university (with full departmental support: tenured faculty involved, if not running it / participating) is the basic standard. From there, prestige increases based on whether it is graduate or professional, the host institution, the reputations of the presenters / panelists, whether it is institution-bound as opposed to regional, and better yet, national, or international in scope. See comparisons:
 
Nice to have: paper in your field of interest presented at an interdepartmental / interdisciplinary graduate conference held by a department at your own institution
Very nice to have: paper in your field of interest presented at a graduate conference at a top-ranked R1 which is not your home institution, and that also has a specialist / dedicated department in your field of interest
Highly impressive (as a PhD applicant with BA or MA): paper in your field of interest presented at a regional or national professional conference: e.g. NEMLA, MLA, etc.
 
I think we need to be careful with presenting at "societal" conferences, e.g. "The (insert author name here) Society," etc. Some are really well renowned, attached to amazing institutions and run by reputable scholars, but others are tin-pot, and there's not much use in using up a great paper where it won't get you noticed (unless you desperately want the practice).
 
As for the international thing, well, I'm an international who is in her second grad program in the U.S., and I think it's probably true that if anything, adcoms would like to see a name they recognise. I don't, however, think the location is a real problem provided the conference falls roughly into one of the criteria above. If the conferences are undergrad conferences, they're also indications of your seriousness and commitment, but are obviously regarded less highly in terms of academic rigour.

As with all things, teaching in the MA has its pros and cons. FWW, I did teach during my MA and loved it - so there's my bias - but here's what I think in general:
 
Pros:
It's great experience, and at the very least it'll help you bypass some of that stage-fright and teaching persona stuff when you get to your PhD program. If you're able to teach in your field, it'll help you strengthen your knowledge of it. It can give you something tangible to discuss in your SOP, particularly if you're applying to programs that make special mention of the importance of teaching on their websites. Cons:
Teaching, as opposed to grading, requires an emotional investment, not to mention an substantial investment of time. The pace of grad school is radically different from that of undergrad and your duties as a student will no doubt be overwhelming at first. Add to that the responsibility of your own students and it can be very tough. At least if you go straight to a PhD, you generally get some time to settle in before you start teaching, with the MA it won't be that way. You'll have to hit the ground running, juggling a lot in terms of workload and switching between two mindsets - the grad student and the teacher. It's hard for even experienced teachers to manage the balance between their own work and their duties as educators, so that's something to consider. Teaching can also be really distracting - both in terms of the pull it has on you emotionally, and in terms of its use as a procrastination exercise. This is a danger for MAs especially, because the chances are they haven't quite settled on a specialism yet. If you're casting about for some solid ground, it's easy to mistake teaching for that / put all your energy into teaching because it feels like something clear you can achieve at. It can be hard to put your studies and your future before than of your students. Your profs are right about the fact you'll be retrained, and I don't think adcoms expect to see teaching experience from an MA. It doesn't seem to be the norm for departments to fund MAs via TA or graderships. Personally, unless you have a great love of teaching, I would go the grader route and use the MA to really concentrate on your own work with the least amount of distraction / pressure. After all, the writing sample and fit as determined by your SOP are the things that'll get you in to a great program.

Sorry, should've been clearer. I meant I was shocked by the level at Oregon in comparison to the freshmen I'd taught elsewhere. But the reasons why are, as you mention, pretty straight forward and common sensical. I think it's definitely a learning curve for TAs and instructors. Expectations need to be adjusted very quickly to avoid exasperation or, at worse, getting completely depressed by what you're confronted with. I've been teaching as an instructor for years now, and it's always a struggle / disheartening when you get group after group of real under-performers. I think it's best to be as prepared as possible for that, because it can really affect first-time teachers who feel like throwing their hands up in despair when they find they're teaching college students who really haven't developed writing skills past the 9th or 10th grade level. It can be very dispiriting to watch them struggle, to try to help them as best you can but to find, ultimately, that you have to let them go with improved but still not completely adequate skills.
 
I encourage all first-time teachers to spend a little time before they begin teaching reflecting upon the huge disparity between what they are capable of and what their students will be capable of, as blakeblake mentions. Sounds really obvious but I don't think many new teachers do this. It's also a good idea to focus on what you can give them in a given quarter or semester, rather than focusing on everything they need that you won't possibly be able to cram into their heads. If, for example, there's one particular component of the course that can really help everyone, make sure they leave knowing that one thing inside out. It takes a little of the pressure (and potential guilt) off.
 
 
Haha! Not in a mandatory freshman comp class you won't! HIGHLY unlikely! Okay, maybe one or two...

For any international applicants reading this thread, I was funded generously for my MA at UVa but had to take out a small loan (6K) to cover some debts at home and moving expenses, etc. I took out a Gate Loan which at the time (2008) was a private student loan available to international students without a US co-signer, offered through the Bank of America. It was fine - good rates (better than I would've got from a bank at home), and interest didn't accrue until repayment which began after graduation. All fine.
 
The only MAJOR problem was repayment once I moved home. The American Education Services website (which was the portal for repayment) didn't allow for payments to be made by a foreign debit or credit card and neither did AES accept foreign cheques. So, the only way to pay was to move money into my U.S. bank account, and use my U.S. debit card. Now, unless you had a bulk sum you're were able to transfer, keeping costs low, (which I didn't, as I had expected, foolishly, to repay using my monthly wage) this added an awful lot to the cost of repayment. In the end, when I could I borrowed the remainder of the outstanding loan amount from a bank at home and simply repaid the whole annoyings thing in one go.
 
When looking at loans, I urge internationals to make sure the company has convenient repayment options that work once you've left the U.S. It can really help you plan ahead and/or avoid unnecessary fees and charges.

Cross-posted in Applications 2014
 
Conference papers are often the basis for articles that will eventually make it to publication. It's my impression that they are "testing grounds" for ideas, and the expectation is that you will use the feedback from the conference to revise, expand, and deepen those ideas. As far as I'm aware, unless a journal specifies that a conference paper is acceptable, conference papers and articles are very different beasts, not least because of time, depth and tone (one may be written as an oral presentation whereas the other probably shouldn't be).
 
Your second question is mainly answered by my response to the first. Provided that you don't submit the conference paper to different journals in both English and your native language (which counts as self-plagiarism if accepted and published), you'll be fine. Furthermore, a conference should be upfront with you about what it intends to do with participating papers, and yes, if you present it and it subsequently appears in a journal, I do think it counts as both a presentation and a publication, although you should seek advice from an advisor on how best to represent that on a CV. It may be that the simple fact of the publication voids the need to list it as a presentation paper. Best to check.

For any international applicants reading this thread, I was funded generously for my MA at UVa but had to take out a small loan (6K) to cover some debts at home and moving expenses, etc. I took out a Gate Loan which at the time (2008) was a private student loan available to international students without a US co-signer, offered through the Bank of America. It was fine - good rates (better than I would've got from a bank at home), and interest didn't accrue until repayment which began after graduation. All fine.
 
The only MAJOR problem was repayment once I moved home. The American Education Services website (which was the portal for repayment) didn't allow for payments to be made by a foreign debit or credit card and neither did AES accept foreign cheques. So, the only way to pay was to move money into my U.S. bank account, and use my U.S. debit card. Now, unless you had a bulk sum you're were able to transfer, keeping costs low, (which I didn't, as I had expected, foolishly, to repay using my monthly wage) this added an awful lot to the cost of repayment. In the end, when I could I borrowed the remainder of the outstanding loan amount from a bank at home and simply repaid the whole annoyings thing in one go.
 
When looking at loans, I urge internationals to make sure the company has convenient repayment options that work once you've left the U.S. It can really help you plan ahead and/or avoid unnecessary fees and charges.

Rose Egypt, I believe that unless you're applying to PhDs with an MA, conference participation isn't necessarily an expectation, even if you are applying with an MA, I don't think it'll hurt applicants if they haven't had anything accepted just yet. It can't hurt to show that you're serious about your work with this kind of experience, but I wouldn't worry about the relative prestige of conferences at this point. However, to answer your question, a professional or graduate conference at an accredited university (with full departmental support: tenured faculty involved, if not running it / participating) is the basic standard. From there, prestige increases based on whether it is graduate or professional, the host institution, the reputations of the presenters / panelists, whether it is institution-bound as opposed to regional, and better yet, national, or international in scope. See comparisons:
 
Nice to have: paper in your field of interest presented at an interdepartmental / interdisciplinary graduate conference held by a department at your own institution
Very nice to have: paper in your field of interest presented at a graduate conference at a top-ranked R1 which is not your home institution, and that also has a specialist / dedicated department in your field of interest
Highly impressive (as a PhD applicant with BA or MA): paper in your field of interest presented at a regional or national professional conference: e.g. NEMLA, MLA, etc.
 
I think we need to be careful with presenting at "societal" conferences, e.g. "The (insert author name here) Society," etc. Some are really well renowned, attached to amazing institutions and run by reputable scholars, but others are tin-pot, and there's not much use in using up a great paper where it won't get you noticed (unless you desperately want the practice).
 
As for the international thing, well, I'm an international who is in her second grad program in the U.S., and I think it's probably true that if anything, adcoms would like to see a name they recognise. I don't, however, think the location is a real problem provided the conference falls roughly into one of the criteria above. If the conferences are undergrad conferences, they're also indications of your seriousness and commitment, but are obviously regarded less highly in terms of academic rigour.