portia_of_belmont

Anyone else going to Boulder in the Fall? I got into my top choice, so Colorado, here I come!

I'm awaiting an acceptance to Utah's Environmental Humanities MA. I think it'd be a good fit, so fingers crossed.

Hey, that's great you found a good fit! I also got an acceptance to the MA at Boulder, which I was super stoked about. With no funding, though, I will likely pass on both. My hometown university has fully-funded interdisciplinary MA/MS (I applied to the MA track) that I'm nearly positive I got into. My gut says to stay. Really hope I hear soon. (Today was the day I had heard thrown out as their goal.)

Got an acceptance to the MA from SDSU! (Snail mail, unofficial-official b/c it's conditional on the university.) Already booked a campus visit for a month from now.

Good to hear. Is OSU your top choice? Congrats, by the way!

This is similar to my situation. Thanks for the perspective!

Boulder actually is my top-top choice, so it's good to hear that I wasn't seeing things. :-)

One of my best friends just finished her dissertation for UMich's English PhD. I can get you her contact info if you'd like.,

I lived in Seattle and did a summer of classes at UW. Gorgeous campus and I had some good instructors with feminist theory leanings. Have you ever been to Boulder? Their commitment to pedagogy even at the MA level impresses me. I think the honor's thesis should count more than the GRE. This is as someone who is a clever test taker but failed to follow through with the honors thesis. Which is more relevant to scholarship? All my jobs out of college have asked for my (really good) SATs and GREs. Scam, IMHO. I think you'd be a good asset to any program. Any foreign languages? French or German might help. I started out in molecular bio, actually. I had kind of an odd route to the humanities. I love it, but I also think that the glut of English students is real and that the proverbial Plan B is definitely necessary. I didn't want to be a mediocre physician or research scientist (my brother on the other hand has found his niche in Chemistry -- and I know he'll be chasing the most exclusive East Coast programs he can!). Look at Cornell's # of graduate applicants on this page in 2003 vs 2013. That's an increase by half. These kids would have been shoo-ins in my day -- 7 APs, extracurriculars, 4.0s.) It's a s***show, and I think that the most prestigious institutions prey on ambitious kids with big dreams. That's kind of another rant, though. I think it's admirable to work and scrimp and save. I admit I may have some stereotypes of Ivy League kids getting by on their family credentials and relying on an army of tutors. Do you think you have any X factors that'd put you over the edge at your chosen institutions? Do you have career ins besides barista (hey if you like people I think a job is a job, but I know academia is kind of a b****). Maybe I'm just embittered that Stanford rejected me as a 16 year old. ?

I think California is truly the leader in public education. Too bad your state government is almost as messed up as mine, but in different ways. >.< One of my favorite mentors in undergrad was a rhetorician. I hope you found a great fit for your doctorate!

Thanks so much! This was very helpful!

However writing that out made me realize that I should probably consider M.Ed. degrees more seriously. I know Westminster (a small liberal arts school, but right here in SLC!), Utah, SUU, and USU offer them, and it may be the better fit. Worth going to their departments and seeing what they think. It may be that an M.Ed. with an endorsement in English Literature and/or French would open the most secondary teaching options for me. Hadn't really thought about that. ? French Lit and French Teaching were separate programs at my school, and I didn't realize how much I loved kids til I tutored full-time in '11-'12.

As I mentioned, I do want to teach at a private school at the middle or high school level. My undergraduate degree was in French, with a minor in English. The MA is the most common entry point for such a position (although I personally know MFAs, PhDs, BAs, and MEds in the positions I'm angling for). I myself was the top student at the top high school in my state with a full ride to a local univerity, so regionally, at least, I'm considered a strong candidate for what I want to do. A credential from Small Liberal Arts School or Insanely Expensive East Coast School may carry weight for those on the tenure track, but I think it would be neutral, if not a hindrance, in a community like Salt Lake. I'm serious about working with kids again. I have a fairly prestigious desk job (which actually involves writing), but I want to pay it forward. Also, staying local means that I will have a shot at part-time teaching or after-school-tutoring positions, which will help me immensely as I apply to teach for 2017. I think a huge difference between the mountain states and other places I've lived is an understanding that a personal life is not optional. The CEO of our company (JD from Harvard Law; his wife is a law professor elsewhere, kids go to the school I want to teach at) is an avid skiier. Being miserable at any point of your career is a silly proposition. I don't think a Plan B should be seen as a failure. But maybe that's my bourgeois practicality showing. As I stated, I have flawless test scores, and went to a preppie Type A high school.Tthe fact that I even graduated in Utah, the state with the largest gap between men and women in graduation rates, means I am indeed serious about my education. I do want to get married in my late twenties, which may be seen as retrograde, but is very much a pragmatic decision here. (I'm no longer a practicing Mormon, if that matters? Hence my desire to move out of Utah if possible!) I've done the whole long-distance thing. It sucks. I looked at my end goal, and worked backward. Perhaps I was a bit snarky, but I think I'm more pragmatic than someone thinking that they'll get into, I don't know, Columbia's MA or MFA. My lawyer got an MA from Northern Arizona, dropped out of CSU's MFA in writing program when he realized you're "waiting for your professors to die," got a job in the field, ended up acing the LSAT and going to Vermont. He uses the writing skills he honed in his Masters every day in his career. I think there can be many paths to higher education. ? Many of my peers ended up in the most prestigious medical residencies and investment banks in the country. Almost equal numbers are SAHMs. I'm a first-generation college grad just trying to navigate stormy waters. And I think that's what state schools are really for, people like me!

I got a 6.0 when I took the GRE in December 2008. (I'm retaking this October since my score is now expired.) The number one thing that I think helped me succeed was structuring my essay exactly like I would structure an argument for the debate team I was on at the time. It's easy enough to Google how arguments are structured in parliamentary debate. That way you hit evidence, counter-evidence, and a strong conclusion. Hope that helps!

The MFA is a backup option for me, but I've considered it at the Mountain States schools I'm applying to in English Lit. Utah, Wyoming, and Boulder* all have MFAs that interest me. BYU's does not, don't know much about CSU, and USU's is kind of a hybrid deal. Wyoming probably has the best funding of these six schools. *although their MFA site has to be one of the worst I've seen. Is this even a real thing? Their English Lit is excellent.