TeaOverCoffee

Obviously, I have no idea where you are located, but you may want to look into teaching public school if you think that's something you can handle.  Getting subbing certification just requires a BA in my state, and since I live in an area with (sadly) very low teacher retention rates I was able to get a job doing long term professional teaching on an emergency certification.  It's hard work, but respectable and rewarding. 
 
There's also freelancing (someone on here a while ago was talking about E-Lance, which can be pretty legit).  I know a bunch of people who do Americorps and I also know people who have found paralegal work with just BAs in English or Comp Lit.
 
These are just things I've experienced or seen others do.  There are obviously many options -- more, in my opinion, than you may have been led to believe in undergrad.  Entry level work in fields like technical writing or copywriting/editing can lead to quite good careers as well, I believe.  There are places for technical writing that I've seen that hire straight out of B.A.s (the main example I know of near-ish me that has hired lots of people from my alma mater is Epic Systems in Madison, WI).

I had several jobs with only a BA in English before going back to school (I'm old). I taught high school, was a marketing assistant, worked as a paralegal, developed content for legal training, and, ultimately stuck with publishing working first as an editorial assistant then moving through the ranks to developmental editor. It is still very early, but I did want toilet everyone know that you can do pretty much anything with a BA in English (as I have been told by many an employer, it's basically proof that you are an effective communicator, which is the key to most positions).

I currently am unsure of what I could actually do with only a BA in English if I don't get accepted to grad school with funding. I mean, I could try to do an internship this summer in hopes of getting a PR job. But honestly, I'll probably look around at universities to get an office assistant job so that I can apply to grad school again the next year. It's so sad to think I won't get accepted anywhere, but it's also a bit heart-wrenching to think about what I could actually do with a BA in English without taking the Praxis and with no experience working a full-time job. I've saved enough money to move to graduate school, so I could use or to move somewhere else I suppose. I built my undergraduate career around going to grad school, so I am MORE than open to options outside of academia if someone wants to share.

Take a list of questions with you.  There was a great thread on this back when I applied, and I took this and asked them of the DGS when meeting with her, grad students I met there, and some here with people at the schools I was considering.  Depending on where you go, you'll probably be put in contact with a current grad student.  These people are great resources, and most will answer your questions directly about both strengths and weaknesses of programs.
 
I just looked to see if I still had this list in an old folder, and here it is.
 
-PLACES TO STUDY AND WORK
-Where do most people do their writing and reading?
-What study spaces are available? Do students get a carrel? Do those who teach get or share an office?

-LIBRARY
-What is the library system like? Are the stacks open or closed?
-What are the library hours?
-Are there specialized archives/primary sources that would be useful to my research?
-Are there specialist librarians who can help me with my research?

-FACULTY
-Are the faculty members I want to work with accepting new students? Are any of those faculty members due for a sabbatical any time soon?
-Are professors willing to engage you on a personal level rather than just talking about your work?
-Are there any new professors the department is hiring in areas that align with my interests?
-Students’ relationships with their professors – are they primarily professional, or are they social as well?

-FUNDING
-Is funding competitive? If so, do students feel a distinction between those who have received more generous funding and those who haven’t?
-How does funding break down among the cohort? i.e., how many people receive fellowships?
-How, if you don’t have much savings, do you make enough money to live comfortably?
-Are there external fellowships one can apply to? If so, what is available? Does the program help you apply for these fellowships? How does receiving an external fellowship affect internal funding?
-If people need more than five/six years to finish, what funding resources are available? (For instance, Columbia can give you an additional 2-year teaching appointment.)
-Do you provide funding for conferences or research trips?
-How often is funding disbursed? (i.e., do you get paid monthly or do you have to stretch a sum over a longer period of time?)

-COHORT
-Do students get along with each other? Is the feeling of the program more collaborative than competitive?
-Do students in different years of the program collaborate with each other, or are individual cohorts cliquey?
-How many offers are given out, and what is the target number of members for an entering class?
-Ages/marital status of people in the cohort – do most people tend to be married with families? Are there younger people? Single people? What sense do you have of how the graduate students interact with each other socially?
-Do people seem happy? If they’re stressed, is it because they’re busy or is it because they’re anxious/depressed/cynical/disillusioned?
-Is the grad secretary/program administrator nice?
-What is the typical time to completion? What are the factors that slow down or speed up that time?
-I’ve read that there are two kinds of attrition: “good” attrition, in which people realize that the program, or graduate study, isn’t right for them and leave early on, and “bad” attrition, in which people don’t finish the dissertation. What can you tell me about the rates of each, and of the reasons why people have chosen to leave the program?

-JOB MARKET/PROFESSIONALIZATION
-What is the placement rate? How many of those jobs are tenure-track?
-What are examples of institutions in which people in my field have been placed?
-How does the department prepare you for the job search? Are there mock interviews and mock job talks?
-Are the people helping you navigate the job search people who have recently gone through the process themselves?
-If you don’t get placed, is there anything the department can do for you? (e.g., can you stay an extra year?)
-How does the department prepare you for and help you attain conference presentations and publications?

-SUMMER WORK
-What is encouraged/required?
-If there separate funding/is the year-round funding enough to live on during the summer?
-Do people find themselves needing to get outside work during the summer in order to have enough money?
-Am I expected to stay in town in the summer, and what happens if I don’t?

-LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT
-What is done to help people who don’t have language proficiency attain it? Does the university provide funding?
-What is the requirement, and by when do you have to meet it?
-Given my research interests, what languages should I study?
-When do you recommend doing the work necessary to fulfill the language requirement? (i.e., summer before first year, summer after first year, while taking classes, etc.)

-LOCATION REQUIREMENTS
-How long are students required to be in residence?
-How many students stay in the location for the duration of the program? (i.e., how many dissertate in residence?)
-How is funding affected if you don’t stay?

-Incompletes on papers at the end of the term: What is the policy, how many students take them, and how does this affect progress through the program?

-TEACHING
-What sort of training is provided?
-What types of courses do people teach?
-Does teaching entail serving as a grader? Serving as a TA? Developing and teaching a section of comp?
-How are students placed as TAs? Is there choice about what classes you teach and which professors you work with? Do classes correspond to your field?
-How many courses do you teach per semester/year?
-How many students are in your classes?
-How does the school see teaching as fitting in with the other responsibilities/requirements of graduate study?
-How do students balance teaching with their own work?
-Is the department more concerned with training you as a teacher/professor or with having cheap labor to teach their classes?
-How, if at all, does the economic downturn affect teaching load/class sizes?
-What are the students like? Can I sit in on a course a TA teaches to get a sense of them?

-METHODOLOGY
-Is a theory course required?
-What methodology do most people use?
-Where, methodologically, do you see the department – and the discipline – heading?
-Is interdisciplinarity encouraged, and what sorts of collaboration have students undertaken?

-Typical graduate class and seminar sizes

-What should I do to prepare over the summer?

-Ask people I know: What are the questions – both about the program itself and about the location – I should ask that will most help me get a feel for whether this is the right program for me?

-Ask people I know: What do you wish you knew or wish you had asked before choosing a program?

-Is the school on the semester or the quarter system, and how does that affect classes/teaching/requirements?

-What is the course load for each semester, and how many courses are required?

-What kind of support is provided while writing the dissertation? I worry about the isolation and anxiety of writing such a big project. What does the program do to help you break the dissertation down into manageable pieces, and to make the experience less isolating?

-What do writing assignments look like in classes? Do they differ based on the type/level of class and/or based on whether you intend to specialize in the field?

-Ask professors: what have you been working on lately?

-Ask professors: What is your approach to mentoring and advising graduate students?

-How long are class meetings?

-How often do professors teach graduate courses?

-Are course schedules available for future semesters (10-11, etc.)?

-Can I see the grad student handbook? Are there any other departmental documents – such as reports on the program prepared for accreditation – that I can see?


-QUALITY OF LIFE
-Prices – how does the cost of gas, milk, cereal, etc. compare to other places I've lived in?
-Cost and quality of typical one-bedroom apartment.
-What does the university do to provide you with or help you find housing?
-When (i.e., what month) do people start looking for an apartment for the fall, and where do they look?
-Is it easy to find a summer subletter?
-How close to campus can—and should—one live?
-What grocery stores are there in town?
-How late are cafes, bookstores, malls, restaurants typically open?
-What do people do to make extra money?
-Does the town have more of a driving or a walking culture? What is parking like near campus (availability, ease, cost)?
-Where do most English grad students live? Most other grad students? Most professors? Where is the student ghetto? Do most students live near each other, or are they spread out far and wide?
-How far does the stipend go in this location?

It's officially eight weeks since I applied to UMD and OSU. I'm on the edge of my seat for some news... What do you think? Will it be today?

I received an unofficial acceptance by phone from a POI today! I can't say where yet because official acceptances haven't gone out, but I'm so excited! Congratulations to everyone else who has received good news and best wishes for speedy acceptances to those still waiting!

There's a Cornell Comp Lit result up!!!! AHHHHH

Congratulations!
 
Mine too, jhefflol. I keep checking because of the acceptances posted here, but nothing has changed. I'm starting to think it's going to be a "no."

Edmund Burke states, "[A]stonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its objects, that is cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it." Though this is often referenced to gothic fiction, I'm fairly confident it describes every person waiting to hear positive news from a graduate program.

Thanks everyone! My pernicious plan to infiltrate and conquer the Boston suburbs seems to be falling into place...(laughs manically) 

Edmund Burke states, "[A]stonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its objects, that is cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it." Though this is often referenced to gothic fiction, I'm fairly confident it describes every person waiting to hear positive news from a graduate program.

Edmund Burke states, "[A]stonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its objects, that is cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it." Though this is often referenced to gothic fiction, I'm fairly confident it describes every person waiting to hear positive news from a graduate program.

Edmund Burke states, "[A]stonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its objects, that is cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it." Though this is often referenced to gothic fiction, I'm fairly confident it describes every person waiting to hear positive news from a graduate program.

Edmund Burke states, "[A]stonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its objects, that is cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it." Though this is often referenced to gothic fiction, I'm fairly confident it describes every person waiting to hear positive news from a graduate program.

Edmund Burke states, "[A]stonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its objects, that is cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it." Though this is often referenced to gothic fiction, I'm fairly confident it describes every person waiting to hear positive news from a graduate program.

Edmund Burke states, "[A]stonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its objects, that is cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it." Though this is often referenced to gothic fiction, I'm fairly confident it describes every person waiting to hear positive news from a graduate program.

Oh! I totally missed ToC saying that.
 
Yes! I love The Monk too! The day I finished reading it, my wife posted this status update on Facebook:
 


 

Lol YES. I love The Monk. That book is among the most ridiculous, puerile, morally disgusting, and over-the-top annoying novels I've read.

I'm reading The Monk by Matthew Lewis, and it's such a strong novel. I mean, it's the typical gothic novel, but who doesn't love gothic? 
 
 
I read As I Lay Dying in high school, and I grew obsessed with Faulkner. There's just something so gothic/morbid about his work. Maybe it's how he marries normality to the disturbing aspects of life and death? Read his short stories; you'll thank me later.

I am so happy for the acceptances on here; I can't even imagine how great that must feel. You deserve it.
 
I still haven't heard anything back either, but I believe it's too early for any of my programs to start notifying (mid-February is when I'm expecting at least one response). In the meantime, I've been pacifying myself with endless bowls of Honey Bunches of Oats. Oh, and I bought a pair of Dr. Martens today, because, well, I gotta look fabulous, right? 
 
Alas, the waiting game is stressful, as everyone in my camp knows— "the unknown," or maybe I'll start referring to it as limbo since I was raised Catholic. Miraculously, I've actually been losing weight in spite of my cereal addiction. Maybe it's the fiber? 
 
Good vibes for everyone— try to stay healthy!

Congratulations to everyone!! One of the perks of being in the other hemisphere is waking up to the good news on GC It definitely makes up for waking up to 17 emails, none of them from the schools to which I applied. 
 
I mentioned this elsewhere yesterday, but just telling myself not to expect any communication has been really helpful---I've learned to refresh my inbox less, and I actually got some decent amount of sleep last night! And also, I second lyonnessrampant's suggestion on taking care of yourself during this process. I started cooking at home again last night, and I found that smashing tofu for my tofu scramble was the first thing that made me laugh in a long time. 

Congrats childermass and TeaOverCoffee (definitely a step in the right direction)!
 
 

fangirling over Harper Lee news  
 
 
Welcome, Krystal! I made it my job to deliver this news to half of my campus today. Are you a 20th c. Americanist too?!
 

Of all the times to be a Leo...

I know I've been feeling unmotivated lately (which is unfortunate since I'm in my final semester before graduating with my BA), so I turned to the video that I watched a few times during my own personal writing sample debacle. I'm sure some of you probably know of this, or at least of zefrank. There is an f-bomb in there, if you're sensitive to that sort of thing.
 

 
 
Hopefully this will help anyone else who may be having a hard time getting things done while waiting.

My contribution: This, you guys. Because we're not going down without a fight!
 
http://youtu.be/PstrAfoMKlc
 
(Yes, it's cliche, corny, and definitely not cool, but it's the best I can do. Blame it on the jetlag...)