empress-marmot

When I began my MA, I didn't have any set research interests, so I looked around the field and guided my interests towards PTC and rhetoric of science. At the time, I was definitely being careerist. Now, though, I've realized that these are conversations I want to be part of. And in the end if there are no academic jobs for someone like me, the things I've learned from PTC are transferable to the non-academic job market as well. While I agree that scholars shouldn't choose a research topic just because it will lead (maybe) to a job, I think all research is valuable (or perhaps, has to be valued). I've spoken with professors who were steered into certain fields because tenure committees told them to do it--or else. Is their contribution to knowledge less valuable just because it wasn't their passion at the time? I just came from a seminar where the teacher pointed out the dangers of ranking paradigms, so I'm sorry if this comes off as moralizing.

Balancing thesis-ing, researching, teaching, applying, reading, and writing is really hard. I'm kind of glad I have no life, because right now I don't know what I would do without weekends in the office. However, I gave up internet at home a couple months ago, and it's helped me restructure my schedule into something approaching 40-60 hrs/wk. I'm not plastered to email, and I can't stay up late doing research. I can't wait until the last minute to read for class or write papers. (Though sometimes writing papers with just the information I printed out before is relaxing.) Plus, I get to read more at home. Good luck to everyone else!

I presented at ATTW and stayed for Cs as a first year MA. ATTW was really, really valuable. I met so many awesome people who care about the same sorts of things I do. Cs was ginormous and a little harder to network at, but I will admit I didn't study the program beforehand. My university has sometimes funded people who chaired at conferences. You could always contact the conference organizer and ask to volunteer, then use that volunteer appointment to apply for funding. Maybe that will make out-of-pocket expenses a little less. I don't know that sitting in on sessions will help you be a better presenter down the road, though it gave me a much better understanding of what people in R/C are doing.

I took my GREs back in 2013, and I certainly don't plan on retaking. Now, Rhet/Comp-ers in general care less about testing (I think), and there is no reason for me to take the literature test. Still, WT, I think I remember you writing somewhere that your GRE scores were respectable? You shouldn't need to retake. You have it right when you write about programs that look good to you, and finding fit. Given respectable-enough GRE scores, fit is way more important.

I've only been here for a year or so; I don't know anything about downtown Tampa. Somewhere earlier on this thread I wrote that rush hour can be as bad as 10 minutes/mile on the streets around USF. I live about a mile away from campus, and sometimes it's taken me over 20 minutes to get back. (I'm from the middle of nowhere in the midwest, so this past year has been an exercise in city driving.) Of course, as long as you schedule your classes at non-rush hour times, you're totally fine.

Some friends of mine live in Clearwater, and it takes about 45 minutes from campus to get to their place. Once during Friday rush hour (6:30 PM), it took an hour and 45 minutes. I know some (undergrad) commuters who dropped out of classes rather than keep fighting traffic. Maybe if you were able to line up all your classes on one or two days a week, it might be feasible. Anymore than that, and you'll spend way too much time in your car.

When I applied to MA programs, I was accepted to Kansas State and Southern Illinois University on assistantships/fellowships which would have been fully funded. Keep an eye on IL politics though; the state's having some issues funding universities. Here's the thread I remembered. The information is a couple years old, and they may not be Rhet/Comp programs. http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/21451-funded-english-ma-programs/

I'm in Rhet/Comp, and I've specialized my research interests to the point where not many programs do what I do. I'll be applying to about five programs, including my current university's PhD. It's probably less stressful for me, because MA students applying to my university's PhD program tend to be admitted. I'm not too worried about acceptances/rejections, though that could always change... But I'm still happy to cheer you folks onward!

If you honestly think that something caused you to do poorly on that final (maybe you were sick, or maybe you studied the wrong material), you might mention it respectfully to the professor. But he may not be able to give you extra credit, or another chance to take the exam. At the university where I teach, giving one student (above all others) extra credit or an extra chance to complete an assignment could get me fired. I can't change an individual student's grade unless I change all of them. Your professor might not be "stubborn," as you write above, but just following the rules of your university.

In my case, the adcomm's going to see that I went to community college for ten years without graduating, due to my enrolling in a music class for college credit in third grade, then dual credit courses through high school. Oops. I'm probably going to contact the departments and clarify whether I have to send official transcripts, though. A couple emails might save me a hundred dollars or so.

Wonderful advice. If you need other ideas about where to look, go through the last couple years of a journal/conference in your field. Who's doing research you like? Where do they work? Good luck!

You guessed right! Somewhere amid thesis stuff, summer funding (yay!) stuff, conference stuff, and grading stuff, I'm fitting PhD program stuff in somewhere. I really like my school's PhD program, but I'll apply to a few others. I'm looking at the writing and rhetoric programs, as well as programs in professional/technical communication. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. It's nice to share another application season with you, WT! I'm looking forward to this fall (probably because it's six months away, and that doesn't even register on my panic-o-meter yet).

Hey, potential Rhet-Comper! As others here have said, look into state programs, particularly ones which will let you teach right away. Try to find programs which fit your interest in instruction. For example, a lot of people in my program are interested in assessment, so that might not be what you're into. If you're accepted to a program, let your future professors know about your career plans. You might be able to teach a wider range of classes or get some administrative experience, which might help when it comes to applying for lecturer positions. Question: do programs in Composition and Rhetoric focus more on pedagogy than programs in Rhetoric and Composition? Is it like reading ingredients lists? I have no idea.

If you have an idea of where you want to do your PhD, why not check out the CVs of the PhD students in its program? See what those people are doing, and what they did during their MA. You are correct when you write that adcomms like to see awards, perhaps conference presentations, perhaps publications, etc (depends on field). I think we can all agree that PhD programs want to see someone who is beginning to know their research area, and has a good idea of the (general) kind of research they'll be doing in that program. Your CV shows that with the type of awards/grants you've earned, what activities you've done in your MA program, etc., etc. Again, activities depend on field/program. For example, my program encourages its students to apply for conferences, but your field/program might not. Better than ranking MA programs, why not choose one that will help you acquire the skills you need for the PhD/future careers? How does the faculty mentor students through the PhD application process? Are they willing to do research with you? What about reviewing conference proposals, or giving career advice? As bhr said, don't be afraid to ask about placement.

There are a few other people with my name running around the world, and one of them has a blog named something like "SassKittenThoughtz102." Obviously, that's not the first result I want people to see if they google my name. I fixed this problem by creating a personal website, a twitter, an academia.edu, a linkedin, and a g+ page in my name. Linking accounts together, so I've heard, makes your accounts appear higher in the results pages. All the accounts link back to my personal site, which has a current cv. Excessive, maybe. But SassKittenThoughtz102 was embarrassing me.

Hi bhr! If this were me (and this might be me next year), I would probably take the opportunity to ask about collaborating with faculty, or perhaps a professionalization plan for the future. If you've already satisfied most course requirements for the PhD, what other classes would they suggest you take? Could you expect to take your exams earlier? Do you want a particular faculty member to be your mentor/adviser? Since you already know the program and the faculty, why not take a couple hours to figure out what they can do for you?

I'm presenting at ATTW and lurking at 4Cs this spring, though I'm applying to some other conferences held this fall. Anyone else headed to Houston?

Thank you so much for the recommendation! I'm pulling up my library book-ordering website as I type!

Somewhere around 20 freshmen are taking my early-morning class tomorrow! With any luck, they'll all be asleep and won't hear the inevitably awkward things I am going to say. I did manage to print out syllabi for all of them, so between that and my presentation, maybe they won't look at me so much. My first graduate course is tomorrow too. I haven't done the reading yet, but the day is still young. Good luck to everyone starting school soon!

I saved money on textbooks in college by figuring out what pages of the Norton I was supposed to read, then checking the original versions out of the library. For some reason, my classmates thought I was really motivated instead of really cheap. Professors sometimes get free editions of those anthologies as well, so you can ask them for any materials they're not using. Also: good luck on the GRE, biyutefulphlower!

These articles/forums/blog posts suggest common ideas some academics hold, but they're certainly not conclusive. Everyone's academic experience is different, and I don't want to start a fight over the issue of academic contingency. Perhaps we shouldn't be asking if adjuncting is the kiss of death, but if the lifestyle of the adjunct is the kiss of death. A two-year lecturership is different: those students know/should know that they need to build their CVs. The employment is stable, the money is better than what adjunct professors earn, and they're in a community with fellow scholars doing the same thing. Vitae just ran the aforementioned "Is Adjuncting the Kiss of Death" article assuring its readers that at community colleges, adjuncting is not the kiss of death. The commenters don't seem to agree. The sometimes-divisive Karen Kelsky advises her readers not to talk about their time as adjuncts. While I think Kelsky's advice is extremely conservative and geared toward mostly elite institutions, it speaks to a general consensus. A director of FYC explains why the department has to hire adjuncts to teach composition: “would the typical R1 English department faculty member agree to teach composition on a regular basis in exchange for more hires?” The argument is to increase the number of secure NTT positions. I agree. This VAP writes that it's hard to be hired on the tenure track at the same university, though her evidence is anecdotal: “I have kept track of their careers and must admit that for the majority of these visiting professors things have not panned out as they and their advisers initially expected. Instead, my friends have found themselves in one of the following situations: unemployed after their visiting contracts expired, or compelled to begin yet another, and then another, visiting appointment in a different location; demoted to adjunct or lecturer status, accompanied by a major salary cut; forced to take on a higher course load for less pay; or, in one case, compelled for financial reasons to work multiple jobs.” This philosopher argues that TT hires should go to people who have spent time in a VAP or adjunct professorship, based on an earlier post that “that nearly half of this year's TT hires so far have been hires of people directly out of grad school.” These people admit that they had a very small sample size, but they asked fifty or so people how long they'd been contingent faculty. Based on their sample, they estimate “it looks like the window of opportunity for getting a tenure track job is the first five years after the awarding of a Ph.D.” This is a forum, but the responses to the question of adjuncting increasing your TT job chances are negative: “Not only does adjunct work carry a stigma, but the stigma is sometimes both justified and necessary. Every society needs a place to dump its misfits while simultaneously keeping them busy, and the adjunct system performs that function splendidly.” (Please note: I disagree with that response. Adjuncts are more-than-qualified for non-contingent jobs.) “my take is that this is really shifting. the stigma of adjuncting post phd is really waning because it's just a market reality for many.” “it's not as intense a stigma as it used to be. the issue seems to be now that adjuncting is still a dead end trap for many. if you're supposed to publish your way into a TT job, how is that feasible when you're teaching a 5/5 load for 30K a year?” This author points out the phenomenon: “I am beginning to get the sense that everyone and her brother believes that NTT faculty are made up of PhDs who didn’t get TT jobs.” This Slate writer (not Schuman) summarizes it nicely: “But there are significant obstacles in between adjuncts and positions that hold the promise of tenure. Since adjuncts must often teach five or more classes (sometimes on multiple campuses) each semester to make ends meet, they don’t have much time to conduct their own research or publish articles. This puts them at a disadvantage for tenure-track jobs (compared to postdoctoral fellows, for instance).”

Yes, that would be comforting, especially since some schools stop funding after the fifth year or so. I remember seeing an article about "assistant adjuncts" at UC Irvine. Basically, PhD students are expected to graduate in five years, then teach for two years. It's reassuring to have two years of stable employment, though one of the quotes given in support of the program made me raise an eyebrow: I have an issue with people selling teaching experience as "absolutely crucial," when numerous articles suggest that adjunct instructors have a much harder time obtaining non-contingent employment despite all that crucial teaching experience. As unraed mentioned, what you're seeing (especially if the large state university's program is the same one I'm thinking of) is a little different than this "assistant adjunct" thing. It's comforting to have full-time employment right out of graduate school, and I'm happy that some programs aren't "throwing us to the wolves." I only wish they'd stop saying that teaching for two years is preparation for the academic job market. Graduates should be told that those two years are for applying to the academic job market, and preparing to transition out of academia if necessary.

I'm not exactly excusing my ignorance here, but I had no idea that this stuff was going on until about...hmm, a year ago. In my defense, I come from a blue collar family, and I've always been told that education is the door to opportunity, or something like that. I suppose I'm the stereotypical sheltered child. I didn't even know what adjunct faculty were until I TA'd for them in undergrad, and even then, I unknowingly bought into the myth that they were adjuncts because they weren't good enough to get a better job. That's how my advisers treated them, anyway. While I can't excuse my ignorance or terrible-if-uninformed thoughts about others, I can understand why the veterans on the GradCafe are tired of fielding this discussion over and over. The GradCafe is often the first step prospective applicants make towards graduate school. For people like me, it's our first wakeup call. Cue shock, denial, anger, etc. I don't think I qualify as a forum veteran yet, but in the future, I'd like to recognize conversations like this and steer them in a more productive direction. I think it would be useful to say "Here's what the rest of us are doing--come fight for a better university with us."

I like adviser. Like others pointed out, advisor sounds too formal. And it rhymes with 'incisor.' And I don't want to think about my advisor's incisors. Hence, adviser.

Thank you for pointing this out, kurayamino. My thoughts are in line with the prevailing wisdom here on GradCafe: don't stress too much about retaking the GRE. Spend your time studying what interests you. With test scores, you should aim for the target, not the bull's eye. As I was reading this post, I wondered if I could write my thesis on ETS, actually. It would be scathing interesting.