rhetoricus aesalon

I see. Good to know, thanks!

Many thanks for the info, Chadillac!

Just to give you a head's up, you will not know whether or not you have a fellowship by the time the department contacts you. If you know that you've been accepted, you have almost certainly been nominated for a university fellowship by the department, which will open up some funding to allow you to visit campus in March; Dr. Garcha will give you more info when he calls. 

This is interesting! I've specifically avoided sharing statistics both on the fora and in my (single, lonely) acceptance result post for two reasons.
 
The first is because I hadn't thought the stats would actually be useful in a meaningful way to other applicants. Given published information on minima and averages, it's clear that even the best schools admit applicants with a range (sure--a much smaller range in some the case of some programs) of scores and GPAs, and I think sharing those more easily quantified items distorts their importance in a field like English, where all evidence suggests that what really discriminates between applicants at the final stage of the process is both luck and the highly subjective, much less quantifiable parts of the portfolio. There's no handy way to communicate the details of your writing sample, statement, and letters (to say nothing of research fit!) on the results board. And even if there were, self-assessment of those parts of the application wouldn't be a particularly sensitive diagnostic, anyway--presumably we all think ours are good, if we've used them in our applications!
 
The second reason is pure midwestern reticence/reluctance to self promote, combined with the sense that it's often that sort of thing that has animated some of the less salutary aspects of GC--worry, anxious comparison--which I have zero interest in contributing to. Numbers are easy to hold on to, but that doesn't make them good handholds.
 
So hearing this from you--someone whose discernment I respect and whose numerical parts of the application (this isn't intended to put you on the spot, and I hope it doesn't) are very, very stellar--really makes me think about things in a different way, especially if you (and others) would find that sort of sharing useful and even generous rather than just overweening. It's presumptuous to assume I'll get another acceptance (and given the way the timeline of the next set of notifications is structured, I'm much more likely to get a rejection first!), but if I do, I'll be sure to include the relevant data.

You guys are swell.
 
I know it's not a rejection. I'm not really all that bummed out. I am, however, trying to console myself with the fact that in Wisconsin, there will be a lot of this:
 

Hey, GradCafe-ers! I'm currently in my second year at Ohio State in the MA/PhD program (I study queer theory, LGBT lit/pop culture, and the Gothic). I haven't been on here since my app season in 2013, but I know that our DGS (Aman, who is awesome) started contacting those accepted recently and I figured I would stop by to offer myself as a resource if you have any questions! Feel free to PM with specific questions or just respond here with more general queries. Best of luck to everyone!

Congrats, mightysparrow! And yeah, OSU's interface was THE most annoying of any application I did this season, aside from the myriad of janky online job applications I've filled out. But I'm stoked to visit and actually meet some of wonderful GC people I've encountered virtually over the past months!

Just heard from Dr. Amanpal Garcha. I got in! A fellowship nomination as well. He told me to expect a call with details on Saturday.

Toasterazzi, I wrote to him at 12:45 am Columbus time, and he replied in four minutes!

Congrats to everyone who has heard back from OSU! I'm looking forward to meeting you at the department's Open House in March!
 
mightysparrow - In my experience the website can be really wacky. I've had all kinds of crazy stuff on my account, and I usually just ignore it. It's probably not the best solution to the issue, but I will echo that when I received my acceptance last year, it first came as an update to my application status, then a phone call from Dr. Garcha (our DGS) a week later. (And the call was very late -- around 8 pm PST, which meant he was calling at 11 pm from Ohio.)

Seriously! And yet he is ALWAYS cheerful. It baffles my mind!

Conversely, he called me at like 9:50am, right before I was about to go teach haha. I sometimes wonder when that man actually sleeps...

Congrats!
 
As I said to the others, lemme know if you have any OSU and/or Columbus questions.

Congrats OSU admits! I'll echo toasterazzi's welcome and invitation - if you want to talk about the program or the city, I'm happy to email/skype/chat.

Well, here's to hoping that oldmangandhi doesn't get those positions. 
 
Despite everything in/not in, right/wrong, biased/unbiased about this study--I completely agree that prestige matters. Clearly it does; we didn't need this study to prove that. And--I don't believe the study does prove that. If anything, given the huge margin of error lifealive drew our attention to, it shows a real need for use to be able to approach and interpret statistical data on our own because I have a real distaste for the carelessness and confusion that these authors have sewn into this research.

Well, here's to hoping that oldmangandhi doesn't get those positions. 
 
Despite everything in/not in, right/wrong, biased/unbiased about this study--I completely agree that prestige matters. Clearly it does; we didn't need this study to prove that. And--I don't believe the study does prove that. If anything, given the huge margin of error lifealive drew our attention to, it shows a real need for use to be able to approach and interpret statistical data on our own because I have a real distaste for the carelessness and confusion that these authors have sewn into this research.

Your tone is really unnecessarily nasty and I'm not 100% sure why. I wouldn't say anybody here is arguing about this topic - just discussing the statistics and questioning what is the best route for post-PhD success. Of course an Ivy league will help you get a job, but the question is: how much, and for what careers. Also, Ivy League is a misnomer in this situation: Dartmouth and Brown don't place in the 'top 6' rankings of US News anyways. (Source here)

Eek. My mistake. Guess that would explain that one ...

This study defines tiers that are too small and problematic to have any reliable conclusion for all of English studies. In fact, I think the statistics should be interpreted more as telling where five schools farm their faculty than anything else. And you wouldn't have to do a study like this to find that out--just visit the program websites.
 
One example: at first I thought this article almost entirely ignored jobs in rhet/comp. Well, then I realized that of the "top six" programs on USNWR, only one has a comp program at all that I know of, and it is rarely (if ever) listed among the "top" programs in the field. In fact, I'd say "top programs" are situated more around the 45-75 mark, so of course we would all be getting jobs of "comparable" prestige when the first "prestigious" schools in rhet/comp appear in Tier 3. So, that supports the article's claim for--what--like a third of all jobs in English? 
 
Also, why is this article only looking at data from 2008-2011? Why aren't schools equally distributed into tiers? Why aren't all schools in each tier considered? Why don't these tiers match up with USNWR? The whole thing just smacks of English self-flagellation propaganda to me. I would take it with a huge grain of salt.

This study defines tiers that are too small and problematic to have any reliable conclusion for all of English studies. In fact, I think the statistics should be interpreted more as telling where five schools farm their faculty than anything else. And you wouldn't have to do a study like this to find that out--just visit the program websites.
 
One example: at first I thought this article almost entirely ignored jobs in rhet/comp. Well, then I realized that of the "top six" programs on USNWR, only one has a comp program at all that I know of, and it is rarely (if ever) listed among the "top" programs in the field. In fact, I'd say "top programs" are situated more around the 45-75 mark, so of course we would all be getting jobs of "comparable" prestige when the first "prestigious" schools in rhet/comp appear in Tier 3. So, that supports the article's claim for--what--like a third of all jobs in English? 
 
Also, why is this article only looking at data from 2008-2011? Why aren't schools equally distributed into tiers? Why aren't all schools in each tier considered? Why don't these tiers match up with USNWR? The whole thing just smacks of English self-flagellation propaganda to me. I would take it with a huge grain of salt.

This study defines tiers that are too small and problematic to have any reliable conclusion for all of English studies. In fact, I think the statistics should be interpreted more as telling where five schools farm their faculty than anything else. And you wouldn't have to do a study like this to find that out--just visit the program websites.
 
One example: at first I thought this article almost entirely ignored jobs in rhet/comp. Well, then I realized that of the "top six" programs on USNWR, only one has a comp program at all that I know of, and it is rarely (if ever) listed among the "top" programs in the field. In fact, I'd say "top programs" are situated more around the 45-75 mark, so of course we would all be getting jobs of "comparable" prestige when the first "prestigious" schools in rhet/comp appear in Tier 3. So, that supports the article's claim for--what--like a third of all jobs in English? 
 
Also, why is this article only looking at data from 2008-2011? Why aren't schools equally distributed into tiers? Why aren't all schools in each tier considered? Why don't these tiers match up with USNWR? The whole thing just smacks of English self-flagellation propaganda to me. I would take it with a huge grain of salt.

I feel like this might be a bratty comment, but it's 5 a.m. and I'm on a Grayhound bus, so forgive me if I seem a little rough around the edges--to me, I've grown to learn that rhetoric isn't always about what texts to read as it is about asking the right questions about texts, their motives, purposes, effects, & consequences.

So here's the bratty part: I think the discipline has had an ongoing identity crisis, and sometime around the 1960s, classical rhetoric was haled to strengthen the identity of a discipline that can't ever seem to situate itself like other disciplines can. Haling classical rhetoric as a basis for the field required sound, sophisticated arguments--and even today it's hard to avoid seeing some kind of theoretical underpinning that stems from Aristotle. You're going to come across texts as far ranging as the Greeks to Foucault (as bhr mentioned), Dewey to Derrida, Burke, Stuart Hall to bell hooks, Friere, De Certeau, Lacan, Latour, blah blah blah. We have to borrow theory from other places to make arguments, and that theory usually comes from disperate sources and disciplines, making ours rightfully muddled and confusing. Thus concludes history of the discipline, Pt. I. Lol kidding of course. And I have zero interest in producing a Pt. II.

Anyway the point of all that is you're likely going to encounter texts from said theorists, but it's important to ask the right questions while you read them. There are other, more practical ways of learning about this stuff, too. It's worth checking out an issue of College Composition and Communication, and just read the articles for the style of writing, the article structure, the kinds of research the authors present, and if they happen to present any sort of theoretical basis for the arguments they present. I think you'll find that the discipline is unique (apart from ed. and applied linguistics) in that teachig forms a strong core for the academic work in writing studies. There are open access journals I can point you to if you don't have institutional access to that one. I just feel that a brief skim of practical, recent scholarship can be a better way to get a sense of the field than delving into the theoretical stuff that gets thrown around. But regardless of what you read, it's always about really questioning those texts.

So idk if that's ranty or helpful at all? I hope it is. As a final note, don't bother with The Rhetorical Tradition. (For reasons I can elaborate if anyone asks or is intersted)

This is a situation where Yoda's maxim applies: do or do not, there is no try. Going to an unfunded MA in rhet/comp would be inadvisable. A funded MA is always better than an unfunded one, because it means that the department is invested in your success and you'll be getting valuable professional development opportunities through teaching. The good news is that rhet/comp revolves a lot around FYC and so there are usually assistantships available in those programs.
 
To add to your list, though: Bowling Green State University (in Ohio) and Illinois State University have good rhet/comp programs, and to answer your question: ranking doesn't mean as much as one would hope, look at job placement rates instead.

As far as I know, Purdue and OSU both guarantee funding for all accepted MAs in Rhet/Comp, and MSU (and others) do their best to do so as well. The nice thing about R/C is that we can usually TA FYW for full funding, or, in your case, work in the writing center. I applied/got in to three of the programs on your list, (and am in a cohort with an Oakland grad) so feel free to PM me with any questions.

Hi everyone,
 
I recently came across this site while researching information about graduate school, and I'm so happy I found it! I have some specific questions about Purdue and rhet/comp MA degrees in general, and I'd appreciate any help and insight!
 
 
To start, I'm currently a junior majoring in Writing and Rhetoric and French Language and Literature at Oakland University in Rochester, MIchigan. I've been told that Oakland is pretty well-known for its undergraduate Writing and Rhetoric program, and I've indeed learned a plethora of useful and meaningful things thus far in the program. I've fallen in love with the field of rhetoric and composition and can truly see myself studying it even further and then teaching other students about the discipline. My professors are very encouraging of my academic pursuits and one of them actually graduated from Purdue with her PhD back around 2007, which is actually why I'm interested in Purdue in the first place.
 
My professor has told me stories about the experiences she's had there and about the program itself, and I really feel like it's where I can excel. She also warned me about how competitive it is and how there aren't a lot of MA students that get accepted, so I'm also looking into the programs at Ohio State, University of Miami at Ohio, and Michigan State since some of our previous students attend grad school there for rhet/comp.
 
Basically, I want to give my applications my absolute all. I've never wanted anything more in my life - I just want to get into a good program so that I can learn and follow my passion. I've yet to take the GRE and will probably do so this summer, and my GPA is currently a 3.92 and shouldn't dip below a 3.9 by the time I apply in the fall.
 
So, here are my experiences so far, and I'd appreciate it if anyone could tell me of other ways I can make myself more competitive:
 
I work at our writing center (I started my sophomore year) and have been able to present at a couple of conferences through my employment there, one national conference and one regional conference. I also participated in what we call our Embedded Writing Specialist (EWS) program where a writing center tutor goes into a basic writing class once a week to help the professor workshop with students, and next semester I'll be an official TA for an upper-level writing class. I also have a publiation in the manual we have for our EWS program. Additionally, I won a writing award the department offers and I'm the president of one of our writing clubs and the chief editor of our corresponding journal.
 
Beyond the writing and rhetoric stuff, I've studied abroad in Montreal, Quebec and will potentially study there again this summer or will possiblly go to France next fall. I've also won a few awards for my French performance and hope to start tutoring French at our university's tutoring center.
 
This is what I've achieved so far, and while I know that I should proud and happy for what I've done, I still feel like I could be doing more. I'm sure there are people applying who are waaaaaay more qualified than myself, and since I still have some time before applying, I'd like to maximize my potential. Additionally, I understand that there's the issue of funding, especially for MA students. I know they say to not to go to grad school if you don't get funded, but what if I were to pay for my MA and get funded for my PhD? Isn't that how it works sometimes? I have a nest egg of money that I could contribute to grad school since I have a full-ride for undergrad, but would that be a foolish thing to do?
 
Thanks so much for reading, and thanks in advance for any responses!

I've become extra invested in my activism in the last few months. I've long been involved in certain causes, but as a Black woman in America, these last few months have really kicked me into high gear. I've benefited from being in a program that has scholars who are really passionate about activism as well. And I see their examples of thriving in scholarship while also protesting and such as something that I can really aspire to be. Also, a lot of the people in my cohort are equally passionate and that helps to create a great environment. I've been collecting resources for future writing as well as possible classroom use in the future, and one of the best things I've come across is: http://zinnedproject.org/2014/11/teaching-about-ferguson/. They've collected some great resources there. Also, check out #fergusonsyllabus on Twitter.