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Ramus last won the day on October 1 2016
Ramus had the most liked content!
About Ramus
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Rank
Mocha
- Birthday 02/19/1990
Profile Information
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Location
Columbus, OH
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Interests
Early modern literature/culture, Milton, Spenser, Shakespeare
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Application Season
Not Applicable
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Program
OSU English PhD grad
Recent Profile Visitors
5,923 profile views
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EM51413 reacted to a post in a topic: Statistics for English MA or PhD??
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havemybloodchild reacted to a post in a topic: Is it possible to do Law School and Graduate school at the same time?
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schlum reacted to a post in a topic: Date of Degree Expected
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Most MA programs in literature are structured so you complete your degree in four semesters (excluding summer terms). Unless there's something unusual about your situation (e.g. part-time enrollment), just put down four semesters from the semester you began. If, for example, you started in Fall 2019, put Spring 2021. Also, don't worry about anyone holding you to the expected semester. Programs don't care when you graduate so long as you can prove you have your MA in hand by the time you start the PhD. I ended up taking an extra summer for my MA, graduating a mere two weeks before starting
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ashwel11 reacted to a post in a topic: Statistics for English MA or PhD??
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dancewmoonlight reacted to a post in a topic: Statistics for English MA or PhD??
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Ramus reacted to a post in a topic: Statistics for English MA or PhD??
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Bumblebea reacted to a post in a topic: Statistics for English MA or PhD??
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Statistics for English MA or PhD??
Ramus replied to scratchedrecord's topic in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
I would split the recommender from the recommendation. Yes, I think you're right to assume this advisor doesn't know the standards of English departments. The reason they're recommending you take statistics is that it's a prerequisite for a lot of graduate programs: PhD students in political science, sociology, economics, psychology, public policy, education, history, business, and engineering all routinely take stats. Statistics are often fundamental to their methodologies, and it's often on the basis of their methodological (and thus statistical) knowledge that they gain employment afte -
kirbs005 reacted to a post in a topic: 2021 Closed Admissions
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profhopes reacted to a post in a topic: 2021 Closed Admissions
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OSU English has decided to proceed with grad admissions as usual.
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kirbs005 reacted to a post in a topic: 2021 Closed Admissions
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They're still debating the approach within the department. If I see anything definitive that comes across the departmental listserv, I'll let y'all know.
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Ramus reacted to a post in a topic: 2021 Closed Admissions
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Can confirm. There's an ongoing debate within OSU English about whether to cut or suspend altogether 2021 grad admissions.
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DasRainbowbrite reacted to a post in a topic: Current English PhD students - Q&A
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Ramus reacted to a post in a topic: MANY CAMPUS VISITS!! TERRIFIED OF ILLNESS/VIRUS
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You should be good. Funding details aren't populated in the application portal.
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Ramus reacted to a post in a topic: Literature PhD options
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Ramus reacted to a post in a topic: Literature PhD options
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Campus Visits
Ramus replied to allplaideverything's topic in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
For all of you attending the OSU Open House on Monday, feel free to send me a DM with any last minute questions or concerns! I'm happy to help in any way I can. -
Ramus reacted to a post in a topic: Need Help Deciding Between Comp Lit, Critical Theory, and English
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I genuinely sympathize for you. It's shitty feeling like you've gotten wins in this arduous process but that those wins might not be enough to position you well for your end goal (presumably, a TT job). As one of those commenters ragging on the odds of getting a decent TT job from a lower-ranked school, I'll just say that I hope it's clear my remarks are not designed to make readers feel like shit. I get no satisfaction from that. My concern is with the consequences of the well-meaning optimism on this site. I'm all for celebrating, but the back-slapping and congratulations can obfuscate the r
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Ramus reacted to a post in a topic: English Programs with the Best Academic Climate for Grad Students
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Ramus reacted to a post in a topic: Online PhD in English Program
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Online PhD in English Program
Ramus replied to LittleShakespeare90's topic in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
You're right -- this is GradCafe, which is worse. As one of my mentors once joked to me after reading some of the advice on this site, 90% of the material on here is just the blind leading the blind. That includes any advice that describes online PhDs in English as "perfect" for anyone. For anyone who wants to teach at the college level, the online PhD is right up there with attending the Chicago MAPH in the category of dumpster-fire-bad ideas. On this topic there are no caveats, no "but...if"s, no "it might work for some." Just don't do an online PhD. -
Wisdom of the terminal MA
Ramus replied to Starbuck420's topic in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
This is half wrong. The prestige of the MA program generally doesn't matter all that much. In fact, a terminal MA program's prestige needn't even correlate with the prestige of the same institution's BA or PhD programs. (I'm looking at you, UChicago, Columbia, and NYU). But you are absolutely, 100% dead wrong to think that BA prestige doesn't matter. Don't believe me? Check out grad student CVs and departmental pages at Berkeley, Harvard, or Yale. You're not going to see a bunch of people listing Central Michigan, or Truman State, or Montevallo as their alma maters. Instead, you'll see a -
Ramus reacted to a post in a topic: Online PhD in English Program
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All fair points. My advice for OP would be dramatically different if they were trying to split hairs over two programs ranked in the 20s ("Do I pick 23 or 26???"). One can certainly place too much stock in rankings. I'll only add that few programs publicly report their placement statistics as thoroughly as WashU. (As someone who's ditching academe upon graduation, I especially appreciate that WashU reports alt-ac placements as well. Too often those graduates are simply excluded from placement reports. ) For example, OP's two options don't post the kinds of placement information that on
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As evidenced by this thread, you'll find examples of those who do well outside the top 20 as defined by US News (or top 30, or whatever your threshold is). That's not really the issue. The issue is whether a program consistently places its graduates into tenure-track lines. And, of course, we haven't even started the discussion about whether a program places its graduates into good tenure-track lines (with a livable wage, livable teaching expectations, etc.) But it sounds like you may have already made up your mind, OP. In all seriousness, I wish you the best of luck. I just don't want y
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That may be so—though I'd caution applicants placing too much stock in this kind of anecdotal claim—but it isn't especially relevant to the present discussion about Miami University of Ohio and Ball State University. As I've said elsewhere, the ranking systems are by no means perfect. My concern is that critiques of them, like yours, @Regimentations, might lead young applicants to believe they don't measure anything or that they can be outright ignored. In fact, they are especially important for cases like OP's. In the present case, the US News ranking system, even with its wa
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ETA: Now that I'm in front of my computer, allow me to elaborate. The most common (if much maligned) ranking system is the US News one: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/english-rankings. People like to grumble about it, but it's a decent approximation of prestige within our field. According to this list, Miami ranks #77 nationally. Ball State does not place in the top 153 programs surveyed here. Make of that what you will. I'll just say that if I knew the realities of the academic job market when I was applying for schools, I wouldn't consider programs o