rhetoricus aesalon

Congrats to all those who are already hearing back with good news from schools! And a special congrats to all the OSU acceptances! I'm a PhD candidate at OSU in my 3rd year (I entered with an MA) and look forward to meeting you all at our Open House in March. I'm happy to be in touch with any questions you might have about the program or my experience in Ohio in the meantime, especially those who will be considering our rhet/comp program. Edited to add: From my understanding, OSU only accepts people the program can nominate for university-wide fellowships now. So if you have an acceptance, you will be nominated for a fellowship. Last year, every incoming graduate student in English entered with at least a one-year fellowship.

I don't see any big gaps, but I did want to clarify that this is a PhD program map, so masters only programs are not listed.

I don't know much about the program, unfortunately. I only know of it because a colleague applied a number of years ago. But I wouldn't be deterred by their summer residency option. As you might know, TESOL is a thriving field within secondary education--more so than in college composition I'd say--and I sense IUP is accommodating grad students who teach full time during the academic year and still want an advanced degree. I'd be more concerned with their funding for students (it doesn't seem like they fund all their students, and just from their "recent" dissertation list [which is 7 years old] the program looks huge) and their placement rates into careers that interest you. They might not be focused on placing graduates into tenure-line college-level work, but might instead focus on secondary administration or alt-ac work. This isn't bad, but it is something you'd want to know for sure, and isn't information I see readily available on their website.

Corvallis is a wonderful little community of about 50,000 people. The program is really top-notch in rhetcomp, too. You might be interested in checking out this GradCafe forum dedicated to Corvallis for more info, too: I don't recall exactly what the stipend was when I was there, and it will be different now in any case because it does go up with cost of living every year. I remember the stipend wasn't huge, but cost of living in Corvallis isn't too bad and it's absolutely do-able. It may also interest you to know that graduate employees are unionized at Oregon State, so benefits and pay tend to improve every year. Corvallis also has free city-wide transportation for everyone (not just students), and it tends to be fairly reliable. I lived on the north end of town (the university is situated somewhat in the middle of town) and took a bus my entire first year until I realized I could bike and it would be the exact same amount of time to campus. It might be nice to have a car for trips to the grocery store, but Corvallis is also very bike friendly. Edited to add: I also heard the university recently changed its parking regulations, and it's now quite a headache paying for parking on campus. Unless you were to decide to live outside Corvallis (in a surrounding town like Philomath or Albany) I don't recommend driving to campus if you can avoid it.

Oh, that's awesome! I did my MA at Oregon State, and it's a really wonderful program. I'm happy to be in touch with any questions you have about it or life in Corvallis, as you continue to consider programs. All my best for your applications!

Second language writing is not my subfield, so I am not really sure of any MA programs that are strong in both rhet/comp and second language writing, but I do know that IUP is one of the only programs (if not the only program) in the country that offers a PhD in composition and TESOL: http://www.iup.edu/english/grad/composition-tesol-phd/ You might consider looking up where scholars that you are interested in are teaching (or where they studied) and looking into those programs. I know, for example, that Oregon State just hired a new faculty member who does ELL work and they fund the vast majority of their MA students.

Welcome, stumbleine! You've received some great advice here, and I'll try to supplement with my experience and observations. I agree, I suspect you will be a competitive applicant given the information you've listed here. Even though programs in rhet/comp are proliferating across the country, it is still relatively uncommon for undergraduates to have specializations in rhet/comp. Your experience will make you stand out, especially if they relate to your research interests. Professionally speaking, there is no difference between a graduate degree in English with a specialization in rhet/comp and a degree in rhet/comp. What matters more is that there are faculty members at the institution who you can work with (i.e. are respected in the field of rhet/comp and can direct the kind of work you want to do). As klader suggested, differences in how a degree is titled has far more to do with individual university histories and politics than the quality or robustness of education you will receive in either type of program. There are a lot of good programs in the northeast, and you have some of the best listed here. I support your feeling of expanding your search if possible, too. Not because programs in the NE aren't great, but cost of living is higher and even if you're fully funded you will still be living off a pittance. I can go into more detail about what I know about a number of the programs you've listed in a PM if you're interested. And the map kirbs005 shared with you is, I feel, the going standard for rhet/comp programs. Rhetoric Review published a listing of doctoral program in the field (which I think is what the other link kirbs shared is based off of) but it's nearly a decade old: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~enos/. This is going to be completely program specific and you will need to ask the program. I know that Purdue will just place students without a masters into their MA program even if they applied to the PhD, but other programs may mark you as ineligible and reject your application. This can be a great way of making connections, but isn't something I would expect will make you more competitive for a program. Admissions procedures can vary from program to program, so sometimes the person you connect with may have no impact whatsoever on your admission. Making connections is, in my opinion, never a bad thing, though. Rhet/comp is still a small world and you might benefit in the future from using application season as an excuse to reach out and meet other scholars. I will say that I did not personally reach out to faculty when I was applying to schools. I'm less familiar with certificates, but my assumption is that certificate programs are ways of making students more competitive for the job market when they otherwise would have no exposure to rhet/comp. Regardless, these programs I assume will still have core faculty in rhet/comp, which again is the most important thing to be looking for in programs. So I wouldn't necessarily be turned off by these programs, no. Happy to be in touch more if I can help with anything else/share more of my experience. Best wishes for your application season!

Also, I give that picture TWO flippers up! #dadjokes

Cardinal sin? Absolutely not! 10 years ago, just about no one was writing rhet/comp writing samples. My understanding is it's not generally an expectation of adcoms, even in the current climate of proliferation of rhet/comp programs. But I sense that tides are changing and even if expectations haven't caught up with reality, you should know that now it is not uncommon for a substantial amount of other applicants to have writing samples in rhet/comp, especially for the more prestigious institutions. Everyone I knew and met during my application seasons (both MA and PhD) could speak to their specific interest within rhet/comp from taking multiple courses in the field, and this leads me to believe they also had strong writing samples. You should expect to be competing for spots alongside students who have very clearly-articulated interests within rhet/comp and writing samples that show they are familiar with the literature pertaining to conversations and studying within that subfield. This doesn't mean that your materials don't do this -- they very well may! All this is to say that while a number of years ago the idea of a newly-found interest in rhet/comp was the norm, I feel like it is not something you really want to convey in your application materials anymore.

Second the OSU recommendations: both Oregon and Ohio. As someone who's been to both universities, I can tell you they'll get you where you want to go with both funding and excellent work/life balance.

Hey, I just went to that conference, and it was AWESOME. Many kudos to you and the other grad organizers -- I heard multiple people say it was the best conference they'd ever been to.

Another current OSU grad here: Just adding that the stipend is slightly lower if you do not have an MA. The school offers a health care subsidy that covers 85% of the cost of your (and any dependents') premium, and there are many opportunities at OSU for fellowships outside the initial university offer (though winning a fellowship comes with an added bump to your stipend by a few thousand dollars per year after the end of the fellowship). Also, everyone is funded in the program. EDIT: Like the others, I'm very happy to talk more about the program through PM, especially for those rhet/comp admits looking to connect with current students.

Really @bhr? Congratulations! Where is the top choice? This is such great news!!

For an MA application, you're probably in the same boat either way. My feeling is that what makes apps stand out is a coherent narrative of who you see you are as a scholar or scholar-teacher. So, if you have no interest in applying work you've done in your writing sample to grad study, you will want to make sure you have that articulated especially well in your SOP and letters of recommendation. I've made this recommendation before, and I will surely make it again: if you can swing it, take an independent study with a faculty member you trust to push you and your work. Explain that your expectation for the course is to produce a writing sample for graduate school applications. You will not only have something you can then use for apps but also a faculty member who can speak very specifically about your work, your interests as a scholar in rhet/comp, and your work ethic.

Seriously, I wrote everything in Baskerville. Because of "science": http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670556/are-some-fonts-more-believable-than-others

What's wrong with shallow? In many ways, the SOP is a shallow document: you are describing definitively work that everyone knows you're going to change and that you need years of training before you can start. I don't think there is any good reason to discount mentioning specific faculty and excluding much of their work if you are doing it in such a way that it reads as "I know who works at your institution, and I specifically see these people helping get to where I want to be." I mean, the SOP is more about your work, not theirs. If your SOP reads as your work aligning with the people you've mentioned, the committee will know you've done your homework.

So, I also got a 157, and I was accepted to 5 programs (3 on your list) and wait-listed at 2 (1 on your list). I'm now in the PhD program in RCL at Ohio State. It's definitely possible. But with that said, and even though my score didn't keep me from acceptance in multiple programs, I'm certain it did keep me from getting fellowships. I received no university-level fellowship offers, though I did receive one department-level fellowship offer. This doesn't mean that my offers were unfunded -- it just means that I've been teaching while also taking courses. So that may be something you want to consider: A $100 test now could mean less teaching later. Though, to build off Proflorax, this doesn't necessarily hold the same sense of appeal in RCL as it does in other fields, since so much of what we do (and routinely gets us hired) is tied to pedagogy. I think you might also be interested in looking at UW Milwaukee, as it has a reputation for digital media studies. You have a great list here, though, and I'm also very happy to talk more about my experience in the graduate program at Ohio State if you're interested or have other questions.

I am thinking about it! There's just so many cool things going on this year, it's hard to decide!!

What are you hoping to get out of your MA? Are you only considering funded programs? Are you hoping to continue on to a PhD?

So, just out of curiosity, do you have a list of programs that you'd want to apply to? I had a colleague in my program come from law, but he was getting an MFA. I'd say in my experience it is not common, though not unheard of. Something you might consider is taking graduate-level classes as a non-degree-seeking student for a semester or two at a college near you to test out if this is the kind of transition you really want to make; it might also help with some of the stress of feeling like you're not doing anything right now. I did this before going back to grad school, the credits transferred into my program, and it also helped me build relationships with faculty who eventually wrote letters of recommendation for me when I did apply for a degree granting program. I could be totally reading into your situation here too much, but it's my feeling that you're rushing this and need guidance from an adviser, not a discussion board. As you've already gotten from others, it doesn't seem like you really know what you want or what you're signing up for, and whether that's true or not -- it isn't something you want to have come across in a statement of purpose.

Are you thinking about going to Crip Futurities at U of Michigan? I just saw that CFP go out last week, and it looks AWESOME!!

My tactics probably aren't the best (and are by no means expert), but I'm very happy to try and share what I do if you might find it helpful. Honestly, I've found the best way to cope is by talking about it, and that can often be the hardest thing because, like you said, no one wants to talk about it. Sometimes I've thought, though, that if I don't talk about it then no one will -- and you bringing this up could very well bring to the surface a lot of issues others in your cohort have been trying to suppress as well. I try to tell myself that I'm allowed my feelings and try to trust that by sharing respectfully and honestly I will be drawn to the right mentors and colleagues who want to see the work I do succeed. For me, my feelings of depression come mainly from feeling like I do not belong and that nobody cares about me or my work (which is in some ways fair -- nobody is required to like me or what I do), but I think what's important about this is that I've come to a point where listening to my body in this way (trying to understand why I feel a certain way) has helped me redirect primarily negative feelings into primarily productive conversations that have helped me grow as a person and scholar, and in some cases even encouraged change in the programs I've been in.

If you feel comfortable with any of your professors, I would schedule a meeting and talk with them as soon as possible. I would be honest and tell them about your current concerns with the program and that you are questioning your place in it. They hand-picked you for a certain reason to be there, and if you are struggling to feel accepted and supported, there is nothing wrong with you stating it and asking for help -- even if that help means leaving the program. Your concerns don't sound all that far off from the (unfortunate) depression that is common among many grad students. I have certainly felt it and know many others who have, too. I truly wish you the best with this ordeal, and please keep us updated (if you feel comfortable, of course) in what you decide and how things develop.

Wow, so this conversation has hit on what I think is a really big issue that has persisted in the field (and on these forums) about the legitimacy of rhet/comp and its contribution to English studies and the university in general. But that's not what you asked about, so l won't get into that beyond quickly saying I think what you're saying here is important, and there is certainly a place for that passion in rhet/comp. Like BetweenFields mentioned, I think you can do cognitivist work in just about any program regardless of who you want to work with. The way you're wanting to use cognitivism here seems to be more as a subject than a methodology -- or maybe you see it as both? The field is overwhelmingly post-process now, so you might consider a specific population you are interested in studying/working with because that will yield more specific programs and scholars -- I did notice that the three scholars you've listed are all around retirement, which is something you might want to keep in mind. If you are looking for more empirically-learning departments, Carnegie Mellon as a program has that reputation (I think mainly because of its resources and Flower's long presence there). Because of CUNY's funding structure (which I think is changing but as of now requires you work as an adjunct at another campus while going to class) I don't recommend it for the kind of research-intensive work you're suggesting. But, again, I think you can do empirical work in any department, though it will certainly be easier and less stressful if you land in one that has established experience and support for going through the IRB process and/or is currently funded or applying for funds to conduct research in some of those areas that incorporate more empirical collection of data. I can tell you from experience that Ohio State does (I'm working with faculty on two such projects: one through the Gates Foundation and another funded through the Ohio government). I suggest reaching out to programs and asking if there are faculty that are using external funds for research, which can be a good sign they are doing something empirical. Another alternative is to find departments that allow you to have a foot in another department. I know UW Madison does, though I recall most students being situated in rhet/comp and either communications or education -- though I'm sure they'd be open to have someone also in psychology.