rhetoricus aesalon

Oddly enough, I just heard this same thing for the first time today. It makes some weird semblance of sense, though. High prestige applicants are probably bad investments--the first opening at an Ivy and they're gone. Or so it is assumed.

I could imagine this might also give them an idea of who else you see yourself working with. Since academic worlds are small--especially at the subfield level--I'm assuming people will know each other's programs and be able to gauge how well you have pinpointed your interests, your potential, and your value.

So, as you can see, there is no straight answer to your question. But, I do want to add caution against some of the more defamatory remarks about MA programs. This has not been my experience at all, nor does it seem to align with what I've witnessed. Especially in a job market as crappy as ours, I have been told it can actually work to your advantage to network with more advisors (and their networks) rather than stay confined to one program for 6+ years. The opportunity to negotiate better funding between the MA/PhD split can be much more tricky when remaining at the same institution, too. My advice is to be wary of unfunded MA programs, but not the programs themselves. Your best bet will be to contact the schools to ask about their preference. Some will be very up front in what they look for, in which case everything else you are being told is hearsay.

Nice. Vegas was much easier for me to get to, plus I have family that I stayed with. I have some PD money for travel, but I probably won't be able to be in Indianapolis much longer than the day I present (Thursday), which sucks! Bedford throws such a good party. :-)

turkish delight

Hey all! Anyone looking into going to 4Cs this year?

Uh, kind of. I'm applying to their composition & cultural rhetoric program, which is technically separate from the English department. Syracuse is one of few schools to separate English and rhet/comp, and I believe it was the first.

You have many interests, but I'm having a difficult time seeing how these are culminating in graduate studies in rhet/comp. Though the field is certainly interdisciplinary, IMO your work sounds like it may be better supported by a comm graduate program. But perhaps I'm missing a link that you see? You may already know this, too, but there are MA programs that fund students with TAships teaching first-year composition you might be interested in looking into. Though, these are less common than PhD programs that do the same. With that said, graduate students make up a good chunk (if not the vast majority) of instructors who teach most sections of first-year composition; adjunct faculty (who make around $18-$20k a year) will normally teach the rest of these sections, which is probably not the career you have in mind. If introductory composition is your true passion, I'd recommend looking into writing program administration. Does your institution have a Director of Writing or Administrator of First-Year Writing or something else to that effect? I'd recommend connecting with her/him to see if this work is something that truly interests you. You can also check out the WPA listserv: http://wpacouncil.org/wpa-l

So, how are you all managing stress over applications? I have been a nervous wreck, and I can tell it's already starting to affect my sleeping patterns and making it difficult to focus on ... you know ... the rest of my life.

Mine do, though I'm thinking they do it manually? I was sweating bullets over the weekend because I waited until the 14th to complete the initial application, though. I have never heard of a "waiting period" of 1-2 business days to receive a separate login to complete a supplemental application. I have had to learn 11 different literacies to complete 11 applications that all use different online submission programs. It's ridiculous. Oh, well. End of rant. :-)

Yes, though to me it felt more like ripping it out of my hands. Good grief, apps are expensive. Have they always been? Maybe I've just never applied to this many schools before.

I've never thought of submitting an application on time as hurting. My assumption would be that a deadline means the committee will not give serious consideration to any application until after that posted date. It may vary from school to school, but I would assume that most faculty are far too busy in the middle of a term (which is when deadlines usually fall) to really put any effort into looking at graduate applications. One thing you might want to consider, though, is that your GRE score may be sent to schools a bit after the deadline if they require an early December application. Sometimes you can check online to see if a school has received your score, but you might think of emailing schools to ask/let them know you took the GRE before the deadline and the score will be to them as soon as ETS gets it there.

Has anyone here ever attached a Works Cited to their SOP? I came across a sample from U of Louisville the other day (granted, for a PhD in ... curriculum and instruction?) that had one attached. My first thought was that it was a rhetorical choice since the applicant was showing proficiency in APA, but then I though to check with you all to see what you do.

Just because this is an interest of mine as well, I feel like I should agree that what you are being asked to do is absolutely ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with you, and you did not have to overcome your disability to succeed but rather the messed up, backwards, elitist institution of higher education. Ugh. Just had to get that off my chest. Also, I wanted to ask what your interests in medieval lit are. I'm not a medievalist myself, but I have been reading in medieval disability lately and it seems like a lot of work needs to be done in that area.

Yeah! A rhetoric page for 2014ers. This is quite exciting and well overdue. Thanks for starting one. The resources you've listed are the exact ones that I've looked at, and I think they are really nice. You've probably already noticed, but Rhetoric Review's Survey is 6 years old, so that might be something to take into account with the (very, very cool and comprehensive) information that it has listed. Specifically, I imagine that admission has become much more competitive in recent years to many schools. The batchgeo map is awesome, and they have also started to make ones that feature job listings in rhet/comp for each academic year that you might be interested in checking out. The first one, as far as I'm aware, was last year and it is here: http://batchgeo.com/map/587e08777d68113388ea134608265b19 I would say that it might not be a bad idea to priviledge MA programs. You will most likely not be getting a degree any faster in a BA to PhD program and you will also be limiting the amount of exposure you get to different pedagogical approaches and networking opportunities during your studies. You might also not be able to negotiate a higher teaching contract if you stay within the same program and move from MA to PhD. I also think that since you are still interested in so much, a comprehensive MA program will really benefit you. Honestly, the best program that I know of for comprehensive background coursework in rhet/comp is Purdue, and (correct me if I'm wrong ComeBackZinc) they don't offer a BA to PhD track, only seperate MA and PhD programs. With that said, I'm at Oregon State right now, and I absolutely love it. There is a lot of support (financial and professional) here for MAs (the school does not grant a PhD) and the program is heavily based in pedagogy, which was important to me as I wanted to have strong teaching experience going into a PhD. This is pretty rare for an MA program. There has been some transitioning with faculty over the past two years, but for being an R1 instutition, it feels more like a tightly knit liberal arts school in the program. And the rhet/comp faculty all come from very strong programs and have excellent knowledge and participation in the field. If you'd like more information, feel free to PM me.

Seattle is amazing, as is most of the Pacific Northwest. I moved to Oregon from Las Vegas, and I still love the months of sunlessness that seem to really bog others down. Just take your vitamin D, and you will be fine. But, I have heard that UW does not offer first-year students funding and doesn't guarantee it for your second year when sending acceptance letters. In the words of Tina Fey, "That's a deal breaker, ladies." At least ... it is for me.

Have you done much looking into The Lion and the Unicorn, the academic journal interested in children's lit? You might take a look and see who is publishing in it and where they have affiliation. http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/

Why not email or call the school and ask? If you get lucky, you might find out that the school doesn't prioritize the GRE very much over the POS and WS, and the information might have been a notch in the school's belt from 10 years ago. I'm in a similar situation with the GRE Test in Literature. One school I'm applying to asks for it, but my score is abysmal. Though, you might expect that given I have no intent on studying literature.

Whoa. I've never heard of this! It sounds like that bias that applies to job applicants with old PhDs is now creeping into graduate school admissions. How ridiculous!

Granted, this information probably was biased and given only to make a point, but I was once told that the average opening in literature for TT jobs gets about 600 qualified applicants. The average in rhet/comp gets 60. I'm sure this will (and is) changing as more and more schools create graduate programs in comp, but for now I'd say that's a very tangible difference in the job market. To be specific to your situation, plznE3, I've heard that Comp Lit is even worse off than Lit. With that said, it sounds like your professor is already showing you how a degree grants you transferable skills into other fields. If you can teach German with a comp lit degree, or Spanish or Latin or whatever else you will learn, it will undoubtably give you the option to apply to more positions and more instructor pools later. I would say be honest in your meeting with this Comp Lit professor and share your concerns as well as your interests. To me, someone not in any way connected to Comp Lit, it sounds like you are already asking some good questions that a professional in the field should be able to answer, but be prepared for candid answers that may not be encouraging.

Hm ... what about schools overseas? I feel like I've seen somewhere around here that those programs tend to be less selective than schools in the States.

I would second the motion to reconsider teaching. You may hate it now, but that might change when you are offered "free school" if you teach some writing courses, which will inevitably end up improving your own abilities as a writer and editor as well.

I tend to think that conferences and publications are an integral part of your research experience and scholarly goals. Teaching, especially in my field, is also often tied to research experience/scholarly goals. In sharing these experiences, you are not only showing adcomms that you have already set your course within a specific PhD program, which I agree takes precedent, but I would think it also works to list such accomplishments inline with interests. In this way, they act more as evidence for your clearly established (and, in the eyes of the adcomm, continuing) research experience rather than leaving your SOP as a statement of your research interests. I almost feel that listing them separately runs the risk of coming across as self-indulgant. But, that might just be me.

This is a great question. For my MA, my SOP started with a kind of personal story of when I knew I loved rhetoric while studying it in the classroom. But now, I feel like it's a bit silly. I wonder if it was, at that point in my application process, meant to show adcomms that I had chosen a subfield and was prepared to work within that subfield for two years. For PhD applications, though, I'm wondering if it might be better to showcase other strengths. Teaching experience? Conference work? Publications (if, by heaven, you have any)?

Let me first say, I know nothing about AmSt/Asian American Lit programs. But, I am a bit shocked that there really aren't any funded MA programs in that subfield! Are you sure? Funding might be competitive, but when I was looking into MA programs a year ago I don't recall seeing a single program that didn't offer some kind of funding/tuition remission. Is this common for American Studies programs?