rhetoricus aesalon

To echo fuzzylogician, I agree that your best resource for this will be your major professor/thesis chair/advisor(s), followed by other grad students in your program. No two schools do this the same, even within the same field, and quite often departments can decide to change these requirements after a few years as well.

When I was looking into MA programs, I was in a very similar situation--I wanted to get teaching experience. Even though there is still absolutely a national-level bias toward fellowships that fund students without the "burden" of teaching, I think you're in good company in rhet/comp in valuing the kind of learning that can only happen when you're teaching in a classroom. With that said, a number of years ago I was very close to going into TCU's MA program. Maybe things have changed since then, but it was made clear to me that it isn't legal for students who only hold a BA to teach at the college level in Texas--instead they are mostly funded with work in writing centers. This is fantastic experience, but if you are mainly looking for funding through a TAship, I would suggest looking more on the national level. It's a small program (no PhD), but I highly recommend the institution where I got my MA in rhet/comp: Oregon State. From looking over your professional interests, I think it's worth looking into. They tend to admit no more than 6 rhet/comp students a year and only 3 of those are funded with a TAship (the others are funded with scholarships). Most students graduate from the program and teach at community colleges in the area, but there are also grads who go on to the biggest rhet/comp PhD programs in the country (Penn, Wisconsin, Purdue, Ohio, among others). Because the program is small and yet situated at an R1, there's huge potential to get what you want from the program. I'm just graduating from the program ... oh, in 3 days!! ... so it's very fresh in my mind. If it might interest you, I'm happy to answer your questions or chat more. Good luck with the search!

I'll echo what has already been suggested and say make your SOP and WS an early priority. I gave myself a good two months to fine tune the SOP, and I had wished I started much sooner. Even if it's just a "zero" draft, the sooner you have something down, the sooner you can ask for feedback from your mentors. And that's another thing: give your SOP to as many people as you can for feedback. The SOP is a strange genre, and there is certainly a right and wrong way to do it, and that way has changed considerably in the past 5-10 years.

Another good read is in the three "Octologs" published from former panels at CCCC by Rhetoric Review. They focus mainly on issues of historiography but also offer a great sampling of some of the biggest names and perspectives in the field. They are also published once a decade, so it's an interesting look into how the field has changed over the past 30 years.

rgwen, do you mind me asking what your goals are after receiving the PhD? Are you mainly interested in taking classes for fulfillment of your passion? To help study for the GRE subject test in literature? Your original post makes me think you might be seeking out a career with the degree. Outside academia? As tenured faculty? As an adjunct? I'm not familiar with any online programs like the ones that you're asking about, but I also took non-degree seeking courses before returning to graduate school in 2012. I think the experience was incredibly helpful, and my wife has reminded me many times that they helped keep me "bearable to be around" since I was able to be studying something I loved again and not store sales reports. Furthermore, I am still in contact with all of the professors I took courses with, and one in particular has been instrumental in supporting me in graduate work. I think that as long as you are proactive in building relationships with your professors--which arguably may be much harder when you are not face-to-face with them--you could surely use the experience to your benefit. To get into Harvard? Eh, probably not. That's hard enough as it is. But to get back into English? Absolutely. Another thing to keep in mind, though. If your end goal is a PhD in English, be prepared for 6-8 more years of school in degree-granting programs before you have the degree. I think some programs will grant a PhD after 5 years of study from the BA, but I am hesitant to say that having an MBA will shave much (if any) time off your coursework.

I think this is a great point, and it also hearkens to a debate that's been played out (perhaps with no real resolution) in these forums before: does institutional prestige equate to better chances for employment. It's tough to say for sure, especially in a market like the one before us. And--perhaps most confusing of all--prestige will depend on sub-field as well. Certainly the most prestigious schools in medieval literature are different from those in rhetoric and composition--and if we know the difference, certainly a hiring committee will know the difference. Plus, I can imagine that every hiring committee will have its differences, not least of which are obvious differences between committees filling positions for R1s vs. SLACs.

Are you hoping to be hired in a linguistics department after graduation? Do you mind me asking why you chose to enroll in an English department and not a linguistics department? In my opinion, the two fields share common interests and even share scholars (as you've pointed out), so I'd think you shouldn't have an unnecessarily hard time fitting into either department. I would suspect that if it was a detriment to your future professional goals, it wouldn't really be possible to do what you've already done in lining up advisers from both departments.

For graduate schools in your sub-field, "top tier" will probably be something more like 1-3 schools. For the organizations that rank universities and focus on undergrad, "top tier" is around the top 50 schools. USNWR uses the term "Tier 1" to describe the top 130 or so universities as well. Bottom line, it's a very subjective term.

How rhet/comp of you. Also, I'm so in.

Oh, it is so tempting to get in on this, but I am determined to spend the summer before starting up PhD work dedicated to pleasure reading Cloud Atlas and Red Rising. Could I blog about that?

AHHHH!!!!!! What??!! CONGRATS!! This is very exciting news.

Totally agree. I hate this feeling. But, remember to stay positive and kind. These schools may have faculty that will be on a hiring committee for you one day!

Just sent in my official denial of admission today, so there will hopefully be at least one more slot!

I think the Sophists were pretty bad ass, actually.

Anyone familiar with Phi Kappa Phi? I've been invited to admission as a graduate student, but I have no idea if it's worth the $65 fee to join ...

Yes! This is a great idea. PM to follow. :-)

Either way, it's hard to ignore their strengths as cognitivists. I don't know too much about the program other than it's great and at one time I heard a rumor that their faculty are against impossible standards to gain tenure and, as a result, the department changes a lot. But, IMO, their work has been really undervalued and underused.

I have to ask -- did you apply to CMU? We should be friends!! :-) I'm finishing up my MA thesis, and a chapter is devoted to complications among the legal definitions of disability, the Disability Rights Movement, and the driving undercurrent of Ed Roberts and the Independent Living Movement. I'm pretty scattered, too, but I think I'm fairly grounded in my interests in bodies and technology. I've also always been very interested in theory. Right now, I'm becoming really into transhumanism, too, which seems to be running counter to (yet sometimes is also referred to as) posthumanism. I think this interest is also taking me (for now) down the path of gender studies/sexuality. I just read this amazing post the other day on reddit about sex and technology--maybe influenced by Her a bit. Totally fascinating. But, as rhet/comp is also very practical, I enjoy WIC/WAC and WPA work as well.

The desire to see presentations and publications is much lower if you are coming out of a BA, regardless of whether you are applying to an MA or PhD. But, to offer my experience--when I was in undergrad, I worked at my university's writing center, interned for an academic journal, presented at a regional MLA conference, and published in Sigma Tau Delta's academic journal. My interests are mainly in bodies, (dis)ability, and technology, and I incorporate a lot of theory into that. Having 4Cs experience, though, would be a big thing to include. I didn't even know Cs existed until I started grad school. I think you are on the right track. Keep an eye out for opportunities and take them as you can. But also focus on your work. Do you have a thesis component to your BA? Have you checked out CompPile.org? It can be a good tool to see what research in the field looks like, and if you look at the "WPA-CompPile Research Bibliographies," you will be able to get a general sense of topics that are of interest to the field.

I've been seeing the same. Part of the award is to relieve you of teaching, while still getting paid, so you can focus on your research. This is why fellowships typically are awarded in the dissertation year, or first year (to allow you to focus on comprehensive coursework). But that's for internal stuff. External money, I would expect, wouldn't take away internal money.

Completely unacceptable remark. Wow. I agree that OP is out of his/her mind, but really with this?

I think we could reasonably assume that Berkeley is acting in their best interest by offering admission to candidates they feel will bring the most to their program based on a complicated and unique formula of merit, achievement, scores, etc. Unfortunately, you do not have access to the applications to see where you fit, nor the other information they have access to. In fact, it is illegal to give any of that out to you. Also, I don't agree that you should see the application process as a peer review process. It's in the name. You are applying to their program. They have made no agreement with you other than to review your application and notify you of their decision by April 15. That's it. If you want that level of feedback on your materials, you can ask your mentors, use the resources of a career services department at your undergrad, or pay someone for consultation. Don't blame Berkeley for seeing to their interests and not yours.

I'm a bit late in responding, but thanks for this, ComeBackZinc!

I'm not sure I have much to add that hasn't already been offered here, but with your interests ... I don't know ... I'm wondering, are you also considering MFA programs? Or maybe PhD programs with a creative dissertation element? This may be totally off base, but I'm trying to get a good picture of what you mean when you say you're interested in "writing as an art form and speaking." Do you mean all writing as art, or creating artistic forms of writing?

YES! ONE OF US!! ONE OF US!!