Minnesotan

Haha! Damn the audience and their pitiful need for clarity. This thread really isn't going anywhere, is it?

Yeah. Rankings don't often even consider proper sub-fields. I'm a rhetcomp guy, and the only thing to go on as far as rankings go s a general sense of a program's reputation. Even if there were rankings, though, I had other factors that were far more important: -Who would I be working with? Is their research helpful to my own? Are they productive and well-admired in the field? -Will I get enough money to live via fellowships and assistantships? -What is the cost of living in the area, compared to my stipend? -Are there enough universities nearby for my partner to get a job and continue her studies? The list could go on.

Bah! My MA thesis was 180 pages. There was no way I was getting that done in a month! In fact,I rarely left the house for three months.

Word! My cat and gf probably saved my sanity.

Better yet, talk about theirs. It is an invariable rule that people, especially career academics, love talking about themselves. The best way to make a connection is to listen to their schpiel, then chime in if what you are doing dovetails.

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People who know you well are best. For a third reference, I think someone who can evaluate your professional experience would be good. If you didn't have any professors it might look bad, but two professors and a boss wouldn't be out of the ordinary at all.

Proceed with caution. Academia is a small world. I let those emails hang when I received them, mainly because I felt there was no reason I needed to share my acceptance/rejection information with other schools. It's not very discrete, like asking someone how much money they make. Coupled with the "What other schools did you apply to?" question on the application form, each department you reply to can piece together every decision for and against you this season.

Although this seems daft, prima facie, it is actually an astute query. By way of answer, I have developed an uncanny ability to read and absorb material when hungover. I credit all of the practice sessions I conducted as an undergrad. =)

That makes me feel a lot better for you -- I was worried you were stuck with a total ass for an advisor. I was dumbfounded at the callousness inherent in the first response.

Stalk much? I think you need to have a little fun over the summer and forget about science (and scientists!) for a while. Go camping with some non-academics. Have a few parties at your place. Put away the human hair dolls and go get some fresh air. =)

I'm willing to bet that at least half of the professors who evaluate your application will know which university currently employs them.

GRE scores are rarely used as anything more than: A) an initial cutoff to weed out the weak first rounders, or a small part of a holistic application evaluation. While a 730 might not be impressive for your field, I doubt it is damaging. I would worry more about the SoP and writing sample.

The bad job market existed well before the current recession, and will (unfortunately) likely last well beyond it. Maybe I'm a little sick of hearing about it, but not everything in the world can be blamed on the media-driven economic downturn the U.S. has endured of late. The sad fact is, if you're getting a PhD in history, you had better A) stand out as a superstar in grad school, or be prepared to work under less than ideal conditions (i.e. as an adjunct, at an unknown institution, outside of academia, etc.). The professors who tell you how bad the job market is are trying to do you a service: while they may like you and want you to succeed in your field of choice, it is also unethical to send someone to grad school without at leas a stiff warning about how bad the market is (and has been for 20 years in history).

An opportunity to repeat myself has arisen, and I shall, of course, take it: Washington State has a top-ranked American Studies program that has quite a few people working on similar topics. Also, I believe some folks in History and Comparative Ethnic Studies would be helpful for you, too. I'd check the program out and contact some professors. As fr general advice, definitely use the shotgun approach when applying to grad school. Put out lots of applications to a variety of programs -- some ranked high, some medium, some low; some for PhD, some for MA; some in cities, some in inexpensive college towns. The important thing is finding an advisor and department that fits well with your needs. Beyond that, make sure you're not limiting yourself by paying too much attention to college rankings guides, or other trivial matters.

Washington State has a top ranked American Studies program, and because of budget cuts it has been joined by Comparative Ethnic Studies and Women's Studies to form an interesting interdisciplinary unit. AmSt is very closely tied with English at WSU, too.

I think you're all hot shit just for being here.

Yeah. Being a pest is free. Get everyone and their dog to evaluate your SoP, and you should be fine.

Sorry -- you asked about our schedules when school's in session, too. ~1 hour before first meeting/seminar/course to teach: wake up and get to school Until bedtime: read, teach, grade, and talk about reading, teaching, and grading ~6 hours before tomorrow's first appointment: try to sleep (and, no, you will not get 8 hours of sleep as a grad student; if you do, you're not working hard enough) On the weekends, for one glorious 24-hour period I accomplish nothing. This is non-negotiable. Grocery shopping, spending time with the girlfriend, playing games, reading fiction, whatever most people get to do in real life that I miss out on for 9 months out of the year.

I'm glad I'm in the Humanities. All I do over the summer is read and plan next fall's courses. Here's a typical day in the life: 1pm Wake up, clean self, check email 2pm grab breakfast 2:30pm go to gym 4pm talk to girlfriend, play with cats 5pm translate something from Latin to English 6pm read or write for personal research 9pm cook something 10pm read or write for teaching 11pm read for fun 12am watch Reno 911 reruns, play on the Xbox 360, have some beers ~5am pass out on couch ~9am move from couch to bed I get a little busier if there's a grant application or conference deadline approaching, but that's a pretty standard summer workday for me during first session, with weekends completely devoted to leisure. I teach one course during second session, so add an hour of that thrice weekly, which nibbles away at personal research and personal play time.

Try to get a job that lets you read. Library work, overnight security at a car lot, etc. That's what I did as an undergrad, when I had to hold down three jobs to pay the rent.

Video chat with dying grandmother, eh? Nice advisor. I would do what you feel right doing. It's the summer, it's your family, and it's not like you're choosing to spend a week drunk in Cancun -- you're visiting a dying relative! I realize the hard sciences are a less caring place to be than my home in the humanities, but let's get real: a person is going to take a couple of days to visit a close relative who has been hospitalized. I do agree with the previous poster, though, that you should try to cut both commitments down a bit, in order to show your advisor you take your lab responsibilities seriously. Four days is more time than a wedding requires, anyway.

MA programs are less selective, so it wouldn't hurt to apply to one or two. Likewise, the top ten list in U.S. News and World Report is neither accurate nor field-specific. I would look for better advice about fit and worry less about "prestige." Just getting a PhD is prestigious; find the people you want to work with, not the school whose name looks best on a diploma.

Washington State's English Dept. guarantees full funding for two years. TA stipend, waiver, health.

Are you in lit? Most RhetComp programs don't make you take the English sub. Most international programs don't, either. By the by, I've never heard of any committees that took the English subject test seriously, as compared to SoP, writing sample, recos, etc. Why not give it a shot?