xolo

'Advise' in what sense?
I am just having trouble understanding exactly what you would prefer...a professor that is a female? Well, we already discussed why this might not be the case. As for something else...an 'administrator' that can help advise students in other capacities? Most departments do not have this at all...there is usually a graduate student adviser, but this is just usually a professor that takes on that responsibility within the faculty...or an administer that handles administrative tasks...but these people usually deal with things that are more procedural than anything else.

Because previous searches have not resulted in the best candidates being female?

So excuse my ignorance, but when did Comp Rhet become a mainstream academic path? Has it always been around? I always thought it was the English Department. The very terms seem so out of place in the 21st century of anthropology, psychology, and linguistics. Composition and Rhetoric seem so 19th century in the same way as Grammar and Dictionaries are.

Hey guys, I am currently a grad student in Germanics at a top 20 state Uni, so maybe I can give some advice. What I've seen from this post is that everyone is applying to Ivy league (or Ivy league-esque) unis. This is incredibly important. Indeed, the only real possibility you have of getting a decent position post-graduation is if you have attended one of these universities. This is quite unfortunate since there are very good scholars being produced from state schools; but na ja. 
I am not going to advise anyone not to pursue it because it has been an excellent experience for me. However, I would like to take this moment to share my two cents as far as academia is concerned. I had a professor who had done everything right: he went to JHU, then Yale, put his time in working at some smaller colleges, and eventually got a tenure track position at a top state research university in the country (the university happens to also be in one of the best cities on the west coast). On paper everything looks great. Yet, in reality, at least to me, it didn't seem to be worth it. On a hot summer day, our seminar, which consisted of only 5 students (make sure to ask how much cross-listing there is!!), we met to discuss a Lessing text. Unfortunately, I had not had time to finish the reading. But I wasn't the only one. Indeed, 2 other students hadn't read the material. So, out of 5 students, 3 hadn't read (we were all TAing and had exams coming up). The professor struggled to fill the time, and had to let us go early. It was at this moment where I thought to myself, "is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life; discuss a book with a bunch of 18-25 year olds that haven't read it, and that seem more bothered by real world issues."
I am not saying this experience is representative of academia as a whole. Nonetheless, it is definitely pervasive enough to warrant introspection. Furthermore, be careful of budgetary cuts (even Yale is facing some serious money issues). Hope this helps.
Also, I have been starting a blog that details my experiences trying to figure out if I should continue grad school or not. Check it out if you're interested please    
http://exgrade.wordpress.com
Übrigens, wenn jemand in NRW ist, sag mal Bescheid. Wir können uns bestimmt beim Kaffee oder so treffen. Ich bin derzeit in Ddorf.

Sé que el programa de UNC es muy bueno - asisto a NC State en Raleigh, he vivido en "the Triangle" por veinte años y tengo muchos amigos que asistieron a UNC y que estudiaron las lenguas, unos para el programa posgrado. También he oído buenas cosas de South Carolina. Buena suerte y espero que reciba buenas noticias de los programas pronto.  

También chicos no sé si ya lo conocen pero he usado este sitio web fenomenal para buscar programas: 
http://www.spanishacademic.com/spanish-graduate-programs/spanish-literature.aspx 
http://www.spanishacademic.com/spanish-graduate-programs/spanish-linguistics.aspx

@rising_star makes some great points. I used a rubric and liked to see an "a" paper first, then I kind of had a mental yardstick. Depending on what you are testing, for the quizzes I made them all multiple choice (and one super bonus fill in), that way I could really zip through them. I would try to meet folks that might be able to offer you funding too. I was lucky enough to pick up funding after a semester so your time TAing might not work out to be as long as you are thinking it will. good luck!

@rising_star: That's great advice for paper-based classes. I have not yet taught or TA such a class but I will keep this in mind for the future, in case I do! And definitely second everything you said with timer and rubrics. In my past TA experience, I usually only have 3-4 minutes to grade about ~6-8 pages of math, so this is key!

I went through the application process last year. It was nerve wracking and grueling and exciting. If anybody has questions that I might be able to help with, just ask or PM me. I'll review SOPs and other materials that are for language programs.

I am with VulpesZerda. I got a few acceptances also and would love to help any person in need or just want to chat about the process. PM away. I'm at Rutgers University if that matters. 

I was glued to the 2015 Social thread last year. I ended up with a couple of acceptances, so I'd like to "pay it forward" by offering to PM back and forth with anyone who has questions!

Streamlining grading for papers is actually not that hard, provided you focus on quality and not quantity. That is, 3 really good assignments are better than 5 or 6 mediocre ones. In addition, think really carefully about the length of each assignment. First and second year students are going to struggle to write decent papers of more than 4-5 double-spaced pages so, if you're asking for that, you're putting yourself in a situation where you'll need to give a lot of feedback because they're struggling to do what you've asked. In my writing intensive second year course, there's only two assignments (the midterm and the final) that are more than 4 pages double-spaced. Everything else they write is under 750 words (I use word maximums, rather than page numbers) and several are capped at 300 or 500 words depending on the task. (300 words is if they're summarizing something; 500 if they have to do summary and analysis.) I've found that limiting how much they can write in this way forces them to be more concise which gives me less to grade. I've even had students thank me for forcing them to cut all the fluff out of their paper (aka, they hit the word maximum but realized they hadn't said what they wanted to say so they had to go back and edit heavily). 
For grading, use rubrics and a timer. The rubric makes it easier for you to know what to deduct for and also gives some consistency to the grading. I use rubrics for all of the papers I assign. If you go the rubric route, provide students with the rubric in advance (definitely before the assignment is due) so that they know how they are being evaluated. Some instructors even have students score themselves based on the rubric and turn in that self-assessment with their paper. I'm planning to try that out next semester so, ask me in May how that went. 
The timer is seriously the key to grading efficiently. Read through one or two papers without commenting and see how long it takes you. For a 500 word paper, the answer for me is like 3 minutes. So then, I'll give myself 6-8 minutes to read, provide feedback on, and grade each paper. I'll keep an eye on the timer so that I know when I'm about to run out of time. When time is running out, it's almost always because I'm filling a paper with comments. Too many comments will actually overwhelm a student so it may not be helpful in the long run. The timer keeps me from doing that. If I finish before the timer goes off, then I give myself a break to surf the web, change the music, pet the dog, etc. Then I get right back into it. I typically grade 5 papers in a block then take a mini break before getting back into it (think pomodoro technique). It really helps, I promise.

I think that time management is a really important part of academia and it's something we all really start learning in grad school. I think both teaching and research are things that can be described as "you can always do better". You can always spend more time on teaching---you can do more grading, you can tweak that lesson plan more, you can rehearse that part one more time, you can design that homework question better, you can provide one more piece of feedback. And, you can always spend more time on research---you can try a slightly different experiment, you can collect one more data point, you can read another review paper, you can reword that paragraph better, you can change the colours on the figure etc. There is always more to do!
So, instead of just pouring time and energy into teaching/research until it's "perfect" (it will never be), I go the other way around. I first assign how much resources I want to spend on this task and then budget my time to create the best effect. I do this for both research and teaching (after all, for research things, there is limited telescope time, and limited money to present at conferences etc.; the same principles apply). With teaching, it's a little bit easier because from Canada, I am used to TA work as contracted hourly work instead of salaried work. So, I decide how much time is supposed to go into teaching (based on any contracts that might exist and talking about expectations with the department or whomever is in charge of my teaching work). Then, I divide up my work and design the course to make the most of the time I have allocated towards this task.
In addition to what rising_star suggested, here are some other ways that you can reduce time spent on grading (which often is a big time sink and also the least fun):
1. Reduce the amount of material that will be graded. I can think of three ways to do this.
a. If your students will do homework even if it's not graded, then I would assign only a few questions that will be graded and the rest as ungraded homework that you'll just provide solutions for, but not grade. This works better for more senior students.
b. If you know that your students will only do homework if it's graded, then assign all of the questions for homework, but you tell them ahead of time that for each homework, you will only grade X questions, randomly. So, you might assign 5 questions per week but only grade 2 of them. 
c. You can also do a hybrid: assign a larger number of questions over a longer time period and then announce which ones you will be grading the class before it's due. So, you might assign 10 questions due 2 weeks from now, and tell the students that all questions should be completed but you'll ask for which 4 to collect for grading 2 days before it's due (so, in theory, the questions should all be finished and the student can just polish up the graded ones). This eliminates the "luck" factor from option b where you might choose to skip one question and have it be worth 50% of the homework grade!
2. Streamline the material you are grading. This works better in some fields than others. But you can design your homework/quizzes/etc so that you can grade them as efficiently as possible. In the lab sciences, for entry level labs with 1000+ students, one way to do this is to have fill-in-the-blank lab reports, so that the answers are in the same location on the page for every student, making it easier to grade. For physical sciences, our homework are often calculations, so you might require students to draw a box around all of their answers, so you can focus on that area. I'm not sure how to do this for papers though.
3. Prioritize your feedback. Spend more time on feedback that the student can use to improve their work. For example, I would spend more time providing feedback on quizzes, homework assignments, midterm exams etc. However, I would spend little time on feedback grading final exams, which the students do not get returned (and also, it's too late for them to do anything about it). When grading finals, I rarely leave comments, unless it's a strange thing that I need to make a note in case I need to justify the grade later. 
That's just tips for grading efficiency! 
You also can be strict with both yourself and your students on how much time you spend on teaching related work outside of the classroom. If you are finding yourself taking too much time away from other work because you have open office hours, maybe be more strict. Perhaps you can set aside a single day to do all of your teaching related work (prep, grading, office hours etc. and only take appointments from student on that day). Maybe you can set aside certain time periods where you will read emails from students (if you find these emails distracting you from other work). Of course, if you choose these strategies, make sure you communicate your intentions to your students well so that they know what is going on! (e.g. you might say "I will only read emails from this class on Mondays and Thursdays" or "I am not available after class for discussion, my office hours are X" and then close your office door when you get back after class). Be firm! This part is really hard for me because I really enjoy interacting with my students, but ultimately, if I let students have any part of my day that they want, I am letting down myself and other responsibilities I have as well. Luckily, I can only think of one course where I had to implement some of these measures because the amount of time I was spending on the course was getting out of control and impacting my ability to do other work.
For things like lesson plans, rising_star already said most of what I would say. Keep all of your notes and re-use them. Don't redesign your course each year. If you have any choice in what you are assigned to teach, try to pick the same courses at least 2 or 3 years in a row. Sure, getting variety of experience is important, but so is having enough time to do other things you need to do (e.g. research). 

The teaching gets easier and less time consuming the more you do it. You learn to streamline things, whether that's grading more quickly or giving yourself less to grade. If you teach the same course repeatedly, the prep time required for each day of class gets shorter, especially if you make lesson plans or notes the first time and then update them after each additional time you teach that. If you haven't been writing out what you're doing in class, you should. I save things by date and also with a descriptor in the file name so I can easily find the right notes when I need them four months later for another class. For lesson plans, do NOT reinvent the wheel. There are tons of great activities and ideas out there on the internet and Google is your friend. Quite a few of the activities I do in class are based on activities I find online, whether modified or not.
But, honestly, a lot of what makes getting anything else done is managing the grading. Maybe you let students correct one another's quizzes, rather than doing it yourself. Maybe you mark errors but let them redo parts of a paper/exam for additional points. Maybe you make a "cheat sheet" of common errors which you can quickly reference on assignments (I have one for papers which points out things like run-on sentences, missing citations, lack of supporting evidence, and other common undergrad writing mistakes). 

When meeting with the student, be polite but firm. Stick to the facts and don't say more than is necessary. Freely invoke the higher authority (you and the professor spoke and agreed that nothing could be changed because of X and Y). You can remind them that a B+ on their transcript isn't the end of the world, but I wouldn't both arguing with them about the effect it has on their med school application, or accuse them of over-reacting. If the student remains obnoxious, tell them that the discussion is over and ask them to leave. 
Hopefully though the student will have calmed down a bit about their grade by the time of your meeting. 

Not to jump on Prof's party, but since she already knows this, I thought I would share that I got my first PhD acceptance today.

My first year has had real ups and downs. I feel pretty good about having survived so far. The main "achievement" for me was teaching a class (I was the only "professor" in the classroom) and grading  the papers. I wrote one exam. That probably doesn't measure up to going ABD (congratulations) or possibly publishing papers (congratulations) but I'm pretty happy overall about the life experience.

My first year has had real ups and downs. I feel pretty good about having survived so far. The main "achievement" for me was teaching a class (I was the only "professor" in the classroom) and grading  the papers. I wrote one exam. That probably doesn't measure up to going ABD (congratulations) or possibly publishing papers (congratulations) but I'm pretty happy overall about the life experience.

I feel like you have said two different, but similar things. Maybe not intentionally? But the first post sounded like:
1. It is not the TA's place to correct email etiquette and therefore it is wrong for a TA to do so.
And the second post sounds like:
2. It is not the TA's responsibility to correct email etiquette and therefore, a TA should not feel obligated to do so.
I do not agree with the first statement. As I wrote in my post above, the scope of things a TA could correct goes beyond the class material. I believe the TA could also help students develop better email etiquette or just generally improve communication skills in their field.
However, I do agree with the second statement that no TA should feel like they must correct email etiquette. I think there are a very large number of things a TA could do and almost every TA will not have the time to do all of them. TAs have to prioritize what is important to them and what they want their students to get out of the class. If there are other more pressing concerns (or if the TA is simply overworked---assigned too few hours for the class size), then it is very reasonable that a TA may choose not to address this. TAs should not be required to correct email etiquette unless it is specifically part of their contract / job description.

Of course everybody has to decide for themselves what their goals and priorities are, so, I'm glad this strategy has worked out for you, telkanuru!
That said, the suggestion that you can really know enough about various graduate programs to be able to accurately predict where you'll be happiest, where you'll find mentors and colleagues who challenge and encourage you in the best ways, where you're able to do your best work, where your interests 3 years from now will be and therefore where those interests will make you a good fit, etc., is a pretty, um, ambitious claim.
While the job market is of course competitive and terrifying in all sorts of ways, going to one of the "best" programs doesn't guarantee you a job (or even guarantee that you'll finish the degree), and going to a lower ranked program doesn't guarantee that you won't get a job (though it might guarantee that you won't be teaching at Harvard).
I think the great majority of informed PhD applicants in the humanities apply broadly because indeed their goal is to do a PhD, which you can't do if you're not accepted.
Tineblas, I applied to 12 PhD programs, across the ranking spectrum, and am so far pretty happy with how it went. Best of luck!

I don't think it's your responsibility to correct your students. I know you only have good intentions, but it's not your place and could come off as you "mommy"ing them. Let them figure it out on their own.

Of course it's a teacher's responsibility to correct their students. How are they supposed to figure it out if no one tells them? 
That aside, as I already noted, I have some minimum conditions for how I would like to be addressed, and I don't want to wait for anyone to "figure it out." I'm going to tell them. Again, as noted above, it's nothing fancy or complicated. Just a bare minimum of how one should behave in professional contexts. I understand that for most students this will be the first time they find themselves in such a context, so I'm not upset if they are lacking some knowledge, but I also don't see the point in waiting for them to just pick it up (or not) at their leisure. 

telkanuru has said what I was thinking. It sounds like it might not be you, it might have been your supervisor.

Hello poster who started a professional (MSW) degree a year ago in Canada. Why are you giving such definitive-sounding advice to someone about to start a research-based PhD in the Humanities in the US? You clearly don't have any experience or knowledge of how such programs work. I assume you didn't mean to come across as dismissive of people whose degrees are from programs that have a "everyone gets an A" policy (a sizable proportion of people on this board, I would say, most of whom to my knowledge not studying basketweaving), but you did. 
 
As rising_star and I said above, the default grade in Humanities (and Social Science) graduate programs is an A. The letter grade is there because most universities are simply set up to expect it, but you are not studying for a grade anymore and shouldn't be worrying about it. You are not an undergrad anymore. These programs use grades simply to indicate "doing graduate-level work" (A) vs. "struggling, red flag" (B or less). Anything other than an A is very rare.
I would urge you to contact someone -- the DGS or senior students -- at your prospective department and ask two questions: first, what is the grading policy in graduate courses (does everyone doing acceptable work get an A, or is there more of a range)? Second, how often are students kicked out of the program for poor grades? I would be willing to bet that it is exceedingly rare, if it ever happens. Don't pursue imagined doom scenarios to illogical conclusions; instead, find out what truly holds by asking the people with the relevant knowledge what the facts are. 
 
Also, see here for some more discussion of grades: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/27201-do-phd-grades-matter/ . The thing to take from the discussion is that regardless of whether the program gives everyone As or uses grades differently (which you might notice correlates to a high degree with whether the program is in the Sciences or in the Humanities/Social Sciences), the expected GPA you have to maintain also changes accordingly. The minimum GPA you have to maintain is not going to be the average for the program, it is going to be significantly lower than that.  So when people in that thread say "most people in my program have a 3.7 average" or whatever, that is clearly within what is expected for their program and is not a problem. 

AWA 4 is usually considered "safe". i.e., it can't hurt you and in engineering I would think this is plenty good.
 
for random question 1, I think this might depend on policy and budgets which vary
 
for random 2, why not try to ask the advisor if you can talk to a prof when you're there
 
for r3, PhD programs are usually funded, MS varies so YMMV