ToldAgain

For what it's worth, I know that Kentucky funds medical fully. Most of my other offers have been something around 75 or 80% remission.

Empress, my understanding of the April 15th deadline is: - You can accept an offer at any time AND - Rescind that acceptance without hassle up to the April 15th date BUT - Rescinding an offer after 4/15 requires written permission from the program. I know that most programs would maybe have some hard feelings if you rescinded before 4/15 and that it is generally better (more ethical?) to stick to your word, but if we're just considering the rules of the game, I always thought it was okay to take your acceptance off the table up to that point. Maybe somebody can chime in to confirm or deny this.

Tony, that is a tough situation. Here are some thoughts and observations based on what I know about you (almost nothing): The general rule, which you obviously recognize yourself, is: don't pay for grad school. It looks like in your first season you applied exclusively to really selective schools (and not very many of them) and the second season looks like you applied to three different kinds of programs (Higher Ed Admin, Student Affairs, and CW). To me, it looks like you haven't applied widely enough to give yourself a chance at success. I also cannot tell what your goals are, do you think this might be coming across in your SOP? Two questions you should ask yourself: Can you tough out another season? Why am I considering changing the obligations I laid out for myself at the beginning of this process; what has changed in my attitude/situation that warrants this? I hope this helps at least a little bit.

I'm shipping off to Purdue!

My area is American in general. I don't know if UK does their waitlist by literary periods or not, but if they do I was probably under modern and contemporary. I'm accepting an offer from Purdue, but the people at Kentucky are pretty great. I hope you get it!

Turned down an offer at Kentucky today.

Just turned down MA/PhD at Mizzou (Contemporary Americanist).

Congrats!!!

Thanks! I'm talking with the DGS tomorrow morning. I am really excited.

I just got an email from Purdue; apparently I am being taken off their unofficial waitlist for their MA in Literary Studies, funded with a TAship. This complicates my decisions substantially, but in a good way!

This is exactly how I feel. I will actually be turning down an MA/PhD offer in favor of my terminal MA degree (with the option of being funneled into the PhD, though). I definitely think it will be better in the long run, and I can see myself as a much stronger job candidate because I took some time to really explore the field before committing myself to a PhD program, and I am sure that I will be a better candidate for PhD programs in two years.

Hi there! I will be starting a funded MA this year. I, for one, am starting to get my applications together for the PhD cycle already. Frankly, it's the last thing I want to do right now. But I think if I have a decent idea of where I want to apply, I can try to tailor my first MA year to fit my desired programs. A big part of my decision as to which program to attend has been the supportiveness of the program in general but especially the PhD students. The school I think I will attend has some of the most helpful and kind grad students I have been in contact with, and I think something like that is a great resource for getting comfortable in my new role as an academic and teacher.

Thanks for this great advice, especially about fit. As somebody who is really sitting on the fence between Lit and Rhet/Comp (I did equal work in both in UG), I have always thought: Well I'll just do everything! I'll find an awesome project that integrates scholars from every field imaginable! And I'll throw in Paula Dean, too, because yum, I like butter. As I start to prepare for my MA, though, I know I am going to have to make a choice soon and really start working toward a clear and easily understood goal that is marketable. This is obvious advice, but maybe sometimes it is good to remind yourself that your curiosity can be both a strength and a weakness. It can either lead you to explore an unknown question or leave you trying to juggle too many interests all at once. I, for one, think that I need to separate my interests and my professional specialization.

Thank you for these resources! I've mentioned freelancing as one of my possible backups. Do you have a plan for establishing an alt-ac possibility during your PhD?

I do freelance editing and writing, and I pick up good work every once in a while. Through this side project that takes maybe ten hours/week of time when I am busy, I have gained a few clients who trust me and send me work when they need something edited or written. I plan to keep this going, at a low level, all through grad school, so I can at least attempt to scale it up if I need to. I'm currently working a two-month full-time gig for a marketing agency, though this sort of thing is rare. I'm happy to give out advice regarding what I do to pull in extra bucks.

Goldfinch's Law?

Sigaba, thanks for your thoughts. Do you think there is a group C (one that holds views different from group B, but have gone through similar experiences) or are they just deluding themselves (or are they the privileged/chosen few who are fast-tracked through this system)? And, regarding the salon article (and it's obvious that the "socialist" in that article is laughably naive, and is it possible that the writer might be romanticizing her job a bit?), is it right to say that the private or non-academic job market/life is any better? I know lawyers are complaining about the same things being complained about on this board. My friend is in business analytics and she is having a tough time finding a job, and says some of the same things. I have personally been on both the losing and winning end of systems of bias in hiring/promotion in my government job, as well as in the for-profit sector. I have been a nepotism hire, and I have lost jobs to nepotism hires. I have even declined a completely unfair promotion that I didn't want and which should have been given to my co-worker, and my supervisor's reply was: "If you don't take it, I won't give it to anybody." Not to say that since this stuff is done outside of academia, it's okay for it to happen in academia. So I guess my question, to anybody, is: To what extent are the problems of academia the problems of society, and not necessarily academia only? Not to pick fights. I have been talking to everybody I can get my hands on about this.

Sigaba, your post seems just as cryptic as you are accusing your professors of being. What are these institutional realities, explicitly, that we need to know about?

So why can't these emotions be brought up? That's an interesting thought. Didn't we have an adjunct walk out just a few months ago? Isn't that an expression of the frustration and anger of people looking for work in the university system? We all know what is happening, so what is the solution? Is there a solution, or do you think it is just grim and unfixable?

As long as we're talking about logical fallacies, your argument seems to be that you are very upset about not being able to join academia after grad school, or that it is difficult. From this piece of evidence, you assume that we will all feel very upset when we can't get a TT job, or when it is hard to do so. I am here to tell you that is a logical fallacy. Warning heeded. Thank you sincerely for that. But I have read all of the warnings, and am the bringer of doom to my friends and family who are convinced I will get a job at Yale and write 1,000 books because my emails are funny. Call me stupid or wrong for participating in the system if you like, but the statement, "Every PhD graduate will freak out when they can't find a job because they have invested their entire life into their PhD program and are but a rubbery husk without it, as a rule, just look at me," is false. If it is true in your case, I am sorry and I do hope it works out for you eventually.

This is where I heard about fire lookout jobs, too. I don't do fire lookouts, but that's what I was applying for when I got the job I have now. It's the perfect place for a wannabe academic.

The selfie is the art form of the future.

Oh well I got got. You will rue the day you crossed me, Vanity Fair. I still remember the outrage from Franco's acceptance.

I don't really know anything about Emma Watson. Do you think she is unqualified? She went to Brown. Do you think she is not smart enough? She is certainly not the first person to enter a PhD program as an independently wealthy person. Even more, she is probably not going to be competing with anybody for that great TT position at Berkeley or wherever, so she isn't really a threat as far as job prospects go. She is probably also not competing for any funded positions at Penn. I'm not trying to start a fight here, but I just can't get worked up when stars like Franco or whoever decide they want a PhD. I don't think the fact that they make movies precludes them from being good academics. Maybe they aren't. Maybe they just want their shot to do research in a supportive environment around people who are experts in their field, and I can empathize with that goal. So, am I missing something?

I pay the bills by manning a backcountry ranger station, so I will print out every article in my future field I can get my hands on, fill a box full of the books I think will be important, and -- you know, nature and stuff.