bhr

Most of my graduate class options this semester are in the afternoon/evening. I assume that is, in part, so they have TAs available for class/office hours during the day.

It strikes me that you (OP) seem to want to use this against "Person A", in which case you are an awful person and not looking out for them at all.

One thing I would do, if you have the ability, is to talk to professors and ask for their advice. Your profs likely know if anyone out of your program has attended a program here, what schools they have relationships with, and what those schools are looking for. I would also check to see if any of them attended a program here as well, since they may have contacts at those schools they can use for your benefit. You are going to need profs to write your LoRs anyway, and if they are willing to do that, why not see how much other help they could be. Lots of schools have "pipelines", even internationals, where they regularly place students in a program. If that's the case there, it will give you a leg up.

I feel like I'm saying this too much, but don't sweat a low GPA. Work on closing out well (Jr/Sr. GPA and Major GPA), and if you are doing a Masters first, I'm guessing that your BA GPA isn't even going to be considered by PhD programs. I applied with a 2.4 GPA (finished with a 2.85) and didn't get any pushback thanks to a 3.8 Major GPA. Just make sure to explain it in your SoP. Now, poor writing samples could be a bigger problem. That's where you show what you are capable of producing as a student, so schools really do read them.

I'm a little ashamed that I forgot George Mason, as I spent a lot of time with a couple of their profs this week. They have MA funding, I believe, but I was led to believe that it is on the low side, stipend-wise, and that's an expensive area.

*Forgot Florida State ** Ohio State is an MA/PhD

As a just-entering MA, I can definitely understand the funding search side of things. I will say that all of my acceptances eventually came with funding (mostly full), but I had to wait it out for the PhD money to shake loose. Programs I know that have funding, via TA/RA/GA slots: Purdue (guaranteed funding with acceptance) Ohio State Michigan State Michigan Penn State Michigan Tech Minnesota ECU (Full funding only includes in-state tuition, no waiver for out of state) Washington State (Proflorax and I were just there, it's a pretty area and an exciting program) West Virginia Arizona State University of Washington Syracuse Clemson NC State IUPUI Iowa State I can't vouch for the amount of funding at each school, but they all offer some funded MA slots. The bigger the university, the better your chance of getting funding, from my experience, as there is an increased need for TAs.

Well, I honestly don't know. I'm just starting my MA myself, and while my end goal is a small teaching school rather than an R1, I didn't really spend too much time checking the difference. My own small state school has been on a hiring frenzy in recent years, with hires out of the PhD programs at Wayne State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Indiana. The local CC meanwhile has a lot of M.Eds rather than PhD/MA hires. I would suggest, if you have a specific type of school in mind, going on their website and seeing where they are hiring from. The top handful of CCs in Maryland, for example, seem to show a lot of hires out of Maryland, Penn State, and WVU.

Here's what I know/my opinion: Tech is the best of the bunch on your regional schools. Hugh Burns is at Texas Woman's, but that's about it for that program. The rest of this list is mid tier at best? For the national list, Findlay has invested quite a bit recently, but doesn't have the rep you are looking for if you want to get into an elite PhD program. CMU used to be the big swinger, but they've dropped off. Maryland is good, but, as Proflorax sort of explained, they are an English program offering R/C.

Check for CL listings in Ridgely's Delight (and that area). It's over by the stadium and just a quick walk over to the Med/Dental/Law complex. Most of the area there is professional/older students, but it's a quick walk over to the bars and stadiums if you need a little excitement.

That may be the case in Lit/English, but definitely not in Rhet/Comp. I've hardy met anyone in R/C programs without an MA, and people in those programs seem to have a bit more seasoning.

I'm going to keep posting this to encourage people: Don't worry about grades, as they are one of the last things that will keep you out of grad school. If you had a rough start to college, there isn't a program in the world that will rule you out for that. The people reading your applications are human too, and understand this stuff. Coming out of a small state school, with a 2.4 GPA at the time I applied, I got mostly or fully funded offers at 4/5 programs I applied to. I explained my grades in my SoP, had great letters, and had all that "other" stuff they look for. If you are worried about your grades, make yourself a better candidate. Attend a conference. Submit a proposal to a magazine. Volunteer as an assistant on a scholarly mag. Just go out and "do" the stuff you are looking to study.

I'm here, and having a blast. East Coast time is kicking my ass though. I was up before six both days.

Well, I'm about as close of a match as you can get. I dropped out of college twice (once in my teens, once in my early twenties), and just returned last year to finish my final three semesters of undergrad, graduating last week at the ripe old age of 36. I experienced no pushback except for my own misgivings when applying to programs, and got in to 4/5 of my schools (including Zinc's). I think it's BS to think that you will be teaching for "a considerably shorter period" if you finish at 40ish. That still gives you 25 years until average retirement age, and longer if you are one of the myriad of professors who work into your 70s. I would think that, once hitting the job market, that a 40ish recent PhD will be looked on favorably in comparison to the 27 year old. You may appear to be a more stable hire, and more likely to stay in one place your entire career. Use your age. Talk about your journey, and how what you've done brought you to where you are. If you have vocational degrees, consider programs in tech comm, where your life experience makes you uniquely qualified. (I will say that I opted to go MA first, and not apply straight for the PhD except for one program)

I kept meaning to add in on this threat. I applied with a 2.47 GPA (I brought it up to 2.85 by graduation), and got into 4/5 of the MAs that I applied to (well, one was an MS), including a couple that are among the top in my field. I explained it in my SoP, and had outstanding supporting materials (strong LoRs, an assistantship on a journal, volunteering at a major conference, great GREs). Honestly, I think it comes down to convincing them that the student you will be for them is not the student you were when you got those bad grades. Obviously that's not going to help with schools that have instant cuts for certain GPAs, but I think most schools, if you look like a serious candidate, will at least see what you have going on.

Honestly, I'm not sure that you really need all that. You've proven that you can complete graduate level work with your MBA, a 3.4 won't kill you as an undergraduate GPA, and, while it will hurt you with some programs, coming from the service may help at some schools (especially if they are trying to increase their outreach). Look into University of Maryland, University College, which offers online and on-base programs for military members (I'm not sure what's at the UG vs Grad level). Your best bet is to call or email one of your schools/POIs and have a conversation about what they are looking for. My guess is that they will tell you to work on your writing samples, SoP and maybe attempt to publish or present before applying. Heck, they may be able to rec a program that you can take classes from. You may also look for overlap courses. A number of programs have courses where the MA/PhDs are taking undergraduate courses with an extra paper or two. In those cases, it may be easier to find an online section.

I had an account with Highrise from my old sales days, but any contact management software will probably work better than a spreadsheet. you can key in reminders, deadlines, track contacts, etc. in almost any of them.Of course, anything you use to manage this list is only as good as the information you put in. (Something I learned the hard way) so double check everything.

Let me speak up for my own little corner of the Rhet/Comp world. I'm a new MA accept for next Fall, (go Sparty!) but I've gotten some great exposure to the digital side of the world, and think it's gotten ignored above. (especially because you mentioned Kairos) First, go read anything you can by Cynthia Selfe, particularly The Politics of the Interface. It's 20 years old, but one of those benchmark works that you need to know. Read anything you can by Gail Hawisher on writing studies, and James Gee if you are into gaming. She's not as big of a name, yet, but Cheryl Ball is the editor of Kairos and has a few books on digital humanities that are worth reading (as is her regular column on the industry for Inside Higher Ed.)

My GPA at time of application was a 2.7, and I got into my top choice program (and MA).

Some pretty cool folks over at CUNY-GC already have a system in place to trade writing studies folks. http://www.writingstudiestree.org/

16 credits, (12 needed), and I'm slacking off big time. Doesn't help that six of those credits are with a prof with incredibly lenient policies for late work. All I know is that there are 11 class days left of this semester (before finals) and I'm going to be handing something major (or a lot of something minor) every damn one of them.

Unrelated, but I was incredibly excited that next year's is in Wisconsin. Now to prep my own proposal for 2015.

I'm also pretty sure that we are going to be recording at least a few of the panels with Glass as part of our panel.

Yay you guys! I think this means I can make Purdue people buy the first round in Pullman, right?

Composition and Tech Comm, with some rhet tossed in for good measure. I see no reason to believe that there won't be fewer lit jobs in five years than there are now. Lit is already being heavily underwritten by FYC, and if more schools start splitting writing studies type programs away from English you will see a rapid contraction of the job market for lit profs.