Between Fields

It might be a good idea to apply for other funded MA programs. Some deadlines are still pretty fresh for places like Truman State (the deadline was the 15th, but they're flexible for funding). I've received similar advice that you should never pay for a graduate degree in English. I did, admittedly, pay for my first semester, before securing an out-of-department assistantship, but that was only because I applied sooooo late in the cycle.

So, being the precocious individual I was (and I think most people wanting an advanced degree can relate to that), I took a number of dual-credit courses in high school. They are all clearly reflected on my BA and MA transcripts. Most universities didn't care and I've even been accepted just on the scanned official transcript the application requested. Two institutions, though, a few weeks ago, wanted paper transcripts from those two universities sent before they'd send my file for review. I just got an email today that one file had finally been cleared for review... three weeks after the funding deadline. So, I'm freaking out (understandably), even though I'd sent unofficial transcripts to the program itself, along with all of my other materials, and had positive interactions with the DGS. So, the lesson I've learned is that none of my children will ever take dual credit courses. I would have saved so much headache (and after ordering all of these transcripts probably money, too) by just getting everything done at my undergraduate institution. Has anyone else had this problem?

I'm with you on this one... I really really want to drop a course I'm taking, but the professor teaching it is on my thesis committee. It might be... counterproductive. (I just can't stand reading even one more word of Jane Austen, and she did something pretty terrible in class the other day...) In your case, perhaps you could talk with the professor and try to work out something for due dates and expectations for reading materials? Otherwise, you might just have to slow your research down a little for this semester.

Probably not? I mean, you've been offered funding options at other universities, and are now trying to use them as leverage to get into his program? That doesn't sound like a smart move.

In my program, there are two professors who strongly prefer to be addressed by their first names, several that have it as an option (unless undergraduates are around), and a few older folks who prefer to be Dr. X to everyone. There are a few professors in another department that I'm close with, but with whom I've just never been able to use their first names; I had them for too many classes. I call my supervisor, advisor, and department chair by their first names. I have to use Dr. for several whose opinions don't really matter to me at all, so it's a mixed bag. When in doubt, it's better to be corrected for being too formal than being not formal enough, IMO.

If it's the norm for MA programs in PoliSci not to fund people, then I don't see how it would hurt your PhD application. If you happened to get into a funded one, though, then it might help your application. It's similar in English; teaching is a bonus for people with an MA, not an expectation.

Speaking as someone who used to work in graduate admissions, the fee you paid is to pay the person's salary who has to deal with your folded-over, stapled application materials in the copy machine, try to get tenured faculty to do anything on time, and then queue things up for an administrator to sign off on it. You're not contributing monetarily to the department at all, and you're certainly not a customer to those professors--you're a job applicant.

The fact that you're hoping that Kamisha's students are hot males really makes me hope there's no undergraduate teaching in your program...

You should get an advanced degree in something if you're passionate about it. All other reasons are inherently flawed. ... Yes, even that one. ... And that one. ... No! Stop trying to think of a way around it; you have to really believe that's what you want to do for the rest of your life, or it's just not going to work.

I was mired in department politics, but abandoned them to go show all of my professors my laptop screen, because I'm apparently a child.

Truman State University has funded MA's in English. (www.truman.edu)

If you can get your master's without paying for it, that's probably the way to go. As good as that first program might be, you'll just have to weigh if going in $50k+ worth of debt is worth it to you. Going into graduate school without solid funding is tricky. My first semester as an MA student was un-funded because I applied so late in the cycle, but I managed to find an assistantship in the dean's office. Maybe there are out-of-department funding options available you could look into?

I got an email back from URI and apparently May 1 is the deadline without funding to accept or reject, and that the graduate director would follow up about funding. I hope that's just a boilerplate and not indicative of a lack of funding.

My current stipend is $8k, so another $10k seems like quite the bounty indeed. (Even if living costs in RI are approximately 120% what my current costs are...)

My advisor told me, basically, that if you don't get at least some funding, they don't really want you. If they really wanted you and really wanted you to succeed, the funding would be there. Maybe look at alternative sources, though? I had an assistantship in the dean's office for part of my MA, and it was a lot of fun. (And awesome for networking!)

Hm. Well, it annoys me on a deep level, but I usually let it go. As my supervisor says, this year's freshmen and all succeeding freshmen will never have not had a cellphone; they have a difficult time putting it down because it's so ingrained in their lives. That doesn't make it okay for them to use them, but it does make our jobs significantly harder if we try to intervene in that. I teach mostly through discussion, and so I can usually get the cellphones to go away by calling on people who are using them. It's easier when you're in a circle. Otherwise, I just make it known that they're responsible for anything I say in class (pithy or not) and that I take that into account while I'm grading.

March 4th is still crazy, considering my last application wasn't due until February 1. I'll likely be in the same boat. (I'm guessing it's sort of a faux pas to accept and then need to back out later when another school offers a lot more... lol.)

You should be getting a different form from your university, the 1098-T.

My thesis advisor told me that she was shocked to learn that one woman had actually read the entire scholarly book that came out of her dissertation.

How soon did you get that after the initial decision? Was it snail mail? February 28th? That's... a little unrealistic, given how many programs haven't sent out decisions yet.

Honestly, I use a lot of summaries and read critical sources before I read the novel that's assigned, to help me go for key ideas. Reading every single word of Sidney's Arcadia is... unnecessary.

I'm often driven to clean my office, walk through the humanities buildings and close doors/turn off lights, experiment with my Kuerig, and/or (gasp) grade student work. Once I also alphabetized the sixty books I have in here with me to keep me company. At least most of those things are a form of work, right?

Awesome. Thanks. I'm finishing up my MA in English at Truman State University. It's a pretty tiny program (only 13 of us this year), so I'm accustomed to needing that sort of strategic thinking. It's one of the things that drew me to URI--it doesn't seem like you'd get lost in the crowd. My research interests are the center of a venn diagram made of rhet/comp, litcrit, and classical studies, so that does open the group of people I'd be able to work with up.

I just got accepted to Rhode Island. Has anyone else accepted there heard about funding, yet? The admissions letter said a second letter would come, which has tempered my excitement with anticipation and trepidation.

How did you end up handling your fellowship? I'm in a similar situation, in which the thing has nearly doubled my income but not seen the fact that it was purely to pay for tuition as a reason for a deduction... An accounting professor owes me a favor, so I might have to ask for some advice. Hah. I did find this, though: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-lafa/103901f.pdf So, hopefully, that applies to graduate assistants as "employees."