empress-marmot

Thank you for the advice! I have a couple ideas for ways to earn money without having an official job--editing, petsitting, tax sales, stuff like that. Plus, the terms of my fellowship were that I have to do 10 hours of research a week. If I'm allowed to set my own schedule, that means ten hours straight on Friday. I think I won this fellowship because I wrote about all the stuff I want to do on campus, like intern at the press, work on the literary magazine, work in the writing center, play in the ensembles. Add in volunteer work, and I'll be an overstressed mess by semester's end. I wouldn't have it any other way. LCB, thank you for your input as well. I reached my quota of upvotes for the day--sorry! I mentally upvoted a thousand times, I promise. My fellowship lasts 11 months, so it covers the fall, spring, and summer of my first year. For the remaining two semesters, I get a 2-2 teaching load. I'm trying to plan my degree so I take the harder classes my first year, and take the absolute minimum number of hours/easier classes while I teach. Has anyone ever asked the DGS about an internship with the university grant writer? I don't want to sound completely weird for suggesting it, but my fellowship did say that my 10 hours of research had to contribute to my "professional development" while "benefiting the university." Learning how to write grants seems like a really valuable use for my time, but I don't want the department to think I'm research-averse or that I don't want to work with their professors.

I understand! My university told me explicitly that I wasn't allowed to work while I had the fellowship. The other day I planned out my schedule for Fall 2015, and essentially...there's nothing. Mondays/Fridays off, classes from 3-7 TWR, and that's it. What am I supposed to do? Plus, I have a wonderful part-time job in the area. The pay is nice, the perks are beyond amazing, and I like my coworkers. But it's a fellowship. The tiny violin plays on. And lyonessrampant, I think every time you post that wonderful list, an angel gets his/her wings (or appropriate academic equivalent). Thank you so much!

I won a fellowship at a university from writing a "personal statement," so perhaps I can help. First, I wouldn't worry about those STEM people. They may be fancy-schmancy awesome scientists, but you're the wordsmith. You'll be fine. I'd agree with Pol4ris, though I would advise sucking up to the university's committee as you write their statement. When the committee reviews nominees, they want to see a company person, one who will contribute to the prestige of the university and continue to contribute to the university after graduation. Frame your professional goals in ways that everyone on the committee will understand and appreciate. Explain how post-Milton badgers affect everyone at the university, and why your researching them is absolutely necessary. You may want to consider writing about your professional goals in line with the university's mission statement. Perhaps not something as blatant as "Awesome University's core value is the preservation of poetic wildlife, and I will support this value with my research in post-Milton badgers," but I don't see any problem with showing that you know stuff about the university. I thought about my fellowship essay as a grant proposal for myself. (essentially true). What was I bringing to the table? If Awesome U gave me a fellowship, what could I do to benefit the university? How would the fellowship benefit me after I graduated? Most importantly, how would I benefit Awesome U after I graduated? If you'd like to read my essay, just let me know. It certainly wasn't a work of art, but it got the job done. Good luck!

I was just thinking about that the other day! I was exploring a hashtag campaign, and remarking to myself that social media crazes would be a cool topic to analyze. (Though I shuddered to think about what corporations would do with my research.) Good luck on your thesis!

Ugh, I know. While I am not giving up hope on my four remaining silent schools, I'm definitely seeing a BA-MA-PhD trend on GradCafe, now and in previous years. While some stellar people may be able to jump straight into a PhD program, I would advise undergraduate applicants to apply to MAs first. One program head I chatted with prior to my application season actually tried to dissuade me from applying to the PhD. "We'll be able to take two PhD students in your field this year, and you would be competing with students who already have MAs." It's irritating to find this out after applying to five PhD programs (and being rejected from two so far), but I have realized that I really don't know as much about my field as the MAs here. I have never even written a paper longer than ten pages (and the ten pagers were sophomore year, when I went through my sexuality-in-literature phase. Definitely never letting anyone read those). Now, I know that future undergrads reading this are going to be just like me--I totally ignored the advice of my professors, who told me to apply to an MA program first. However, an undergraduate application needs to be ridiculously stellar, outshining even the applicants with MAs. You have to show that you're worth it--and that can be difficult, because no matter how worth it you are, funding an applicant with an MA is less risky. I applied to the MA program at a university in my hometown with some misgivings. It has a good program in Rhet/Comp, and I matched research interests with a bunch of professors. The only issue is that I can still run into people I went to kindergarten with at Walmart. At the time, I considered it "Plan J." However, yesterday they awarded me a fellowship, and the DGS wrote to me that the adcomm and "the entire faculty, really" are excited to meet me. It's so wonderful to feel wanted. Plus, now I have a year to make myself look awesome for an adcomm. Is anyone else heading to an MA program instead of the originally-expected PhD? Do you want to be my academic workout buddy?

Could you give me an example of this? It sounds interesting! And congratulations on your acceptance!

Congratulations, jmol! It's a good day for MAs! Did you receive an email from the department? They might be a little behind the graduate school in notifying you. If it has been a few days since your online acceptance, you might want to contact the DGS and ask when you will hear about funding. Congratulations again on UNC! Good luck at UT-Knoxville!

I think we're going into graduate study during a turbulent time for higher education in the US. Some other people on the forums have mentioned some thought-provoking facts about rankings and PhD programs, and I think the takeaway is that no program is a sure shot at a career. This might be like comparing apples and oranges, but look at UC Berkeley's placement rate. 6/11 graduates are in postdocs or visiting assistant professorships. At Berkeley Rhetoric, 3/5 of their graduates have postdocs or lecturer positions. I know that postdocs are prestigious, so I'm not suggesting that their grads have postdocs because they "can't" find jobs. However, on the TT side of things, when I was researching the University of Nebraska, I believe they informed me of a nearly 100% TT placement rate. (One graduate had become an administrator, hence "nearly 100%") With the Internet and social media, literally anyone can become a famous author, an activist, or a scholar. I don't necessarily need a university's name to give me credence. While I'd love to do this the "traditional" way, I am not so sure this tradition is viable anymore. From my reading, I think the only viable way to turn a degree into a career is to market yourself more than your pedigree. Though a prestigious pedigree helps too, I'm sure.

I love it when that happens as well! The graduate school sent me a form welcome email with so many grammar errors I thought it was spam. (Albeit spam with an official letterhead.) Gmail even sorted it into "Promotions." I didn't get the official email till the day after. It was fun because I thought Academia was some sort of unattainable ivory tower, and imperfection gave it some humanity.

Congratulations, errantscribe! I've heard really awesome things about Louisville. I hope you get in!

Perhaps I posted too soon? One of my schools just awarded me a Master's fellowship! I don't know any of the details (except it's fully funded including summer study with a stipend), but I am so incredibly excited (and I kind of want to throw myself at the DGS's feet and thank him hysterically). I don't even know the proper way to thank a DGS hysterically via email. Any ideas?

Do you reread Boethius when you're down as well? I went through a tough time one year in college, and my research professor suggested I cover Consolation as a "side project to what we're studying in class." I thought I was doing such a good job hiding it from everyone, too.

Congratulations on your acceptance! Yay for being MA students! As for cost, some of the GTA stipend information I'm receiving is quite low, or contingent on scholarships which may or may not materialize in the future. I'm guessing that an MA means two years of lean living. Anyone else having this problem?

This is exactly the way I feel about debt. However, I think all of us going into graduate school need to do a risk assessment on ourselves. How much time will I spend? How much money? How much debt? How many years on the job market? How many semesters as an adjunct? What will I give for my dream? It's dangerous to say "everything." Congratulations on your acceptance!

Congratulations on your acceptance! And congratulations on a pre-deadline acceptance!

Thanks for bringing this up. I remember deciding between two college offers as a high school senior. One was a prestigious program which had placed Important People in Important Places, and one was an open-admissions school in the middle of nowhere. The difference was whether my bachelor's degree would cost $20,000 or $100,000. I pulled up the English department websites of Princeton and Stanford. I looked down the lists of faculty, and I felt the first twinge of bitterness as I saw that most of the professors had undergraduate degrees from top-tier schools. They followed up their top-tier undergraduate education with top-tier graduate degrees, and then they were insufferable enough to be tenured at a top-tier university. To some extent, I knew when I enrolled at my undergraduate institution that I was not helping my career. I don't think I necessarily hurt it, because I've seen so many inspirational examples of fantastic people from small universities being accepted to very, very wonderful programs. I'm certainly jealous of top-tier students--they have access to so many resources. It's tempting to believe that if I can just do this or that, then graduate programs will accept me. I am trying to break myself of this way of thinking. Academia is my dream, and one I'm going to work insanely hard to achieve. I won't let academia's rejections define me, though. (For me, this means that I'm leaving whenever the cost is too high.) I just have to remember that I'm worth way more than my application.

There are a couple ways of dismantling ETS. One, that everyone has to agree to get really awful scores. Two, that someone goes undercover, finds corruption, and the whole organization goes down in scandalous flames. As for Round Two, I think it's still too early to be assuming anything. That being said, I told my mother the other day that any news from this point on will likely be negative. It's safe to say that come August, I'll be in a tiny funded MA program. That means that I'll have one year to make myself into the ideal PhD applicant. I'm not sure how many of you read Karen Kelsky's blog, but she recommends putting together a five-year plan for your education. Mine is a six-year plan, and I'm building it in month-to-month chunks. Here are my goals for 2015: 1. Study my field. Learn about the major players. Develop specializations. 2. Start writing down research questions. Write papers about the research questions. Constantly. 3. Write a novel. I have about as much chance of being published as I do of getting a TT job. Why not? 4. Figure out what PhD programs I'd like to apply to. Cultivate POIs. 5. Spam journals with my (professor approved) writing. Go to a couple conferences. 6. Form alt-ac connections (gonnections) through volunteering, in case I want to get out of academia after the MA program. 7. Finish thesis draft. Hopefully if I pretend to be the ideal PhD applicant for a whole year, I'll just magically become the ideal PhD applicant by 2016. If not, I'll be a better scholar. Small victories.

I'm giving you a mental hug right now, TeaOverCoffee. An incredibly comforting mental hug. A mental hug which tastes (in case you feel like synesthesia) like the first time you bit into a Dove dark chocolate promise. And also, a mental cup of tea. I deal with my rejections by drinking a gin-and-tonic with too much gin and writing my Feminist Romance Novel. If chocolate and unhealthy food works for you, then don't feel guilty about it. And you have all of us here, if you need to talk.

Hello! I applied to a mixture of MAs and PhDs. Don't worry about those late deadlines--sometimes programs notify applicants who qualify for fellowships early. I don't have any evidence to back me up on this, but I'm seeing a trend in PhD applicants with MAs. (At least on the GradCafe.) While I will swear to my dying day that I would have been the most awesome PhD student ever at the three programs who've rejected me so far, I think PhD adcomms might lean towards applicants with MAs (evidence of determination, scholarship, standing in the field). I've learned so much about the admissions process from this forum, and in two years I hope I can dazzle adcomms with my...um, dazzling awesomeness. It's nice to have a thread for MAs. What're you all studying?

I am certainly going to try negotiating on a campus visit in a few weeks. Two of my acceptances come from schools ranked two places apart, but one is offering me a (much) higher stipend and (many) more perks. Whenever I chat with the DGS/program director/someone with power, I'm planning to mention "Yes, School X also accepted me. I would like to attend Your University, because I think (program fit/research interests/close to family). However, School X is offering me a $$$$$ a year and (perks)." I suppose I would let them take it from there? I have nothing to lose if they say no--there's no way I can attend this school without a higher stipend, though I'm definitely not going to be that blunt. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I'm terrified about this sort of conversation, but I have to have it.

I did hear some gossip when I took the GRE (in 2013) that it was a hard year. That would account for it. Thanks for clarifying!

When I went to order more score reports, I glanced at what ETS said my scores were (percentile only, remember). Their records don't match my original score report. But maybe I'm wrong, and they recalculate percentiles each year.

Speaking of control, has anyone noticed some differences between the scores originally received and the scores ETS is sending to schools? I'm not complaining much, because they bumped up my writing percentile score seven points. (and dropped my quant score four points...but it's quant) Still, I don't think percentile scores are supposed to change year-to-year. Anyone else notice this happening? Also, ETS is an awful, awful institution. Some of us should develop a free version of the ACT/GRE/Other Acronym Test. Then we could put them out of business!

Thank you for mentioning this nasty little trick of job-advice articles on the Chronicle/other 'helpful' websites. The structure of those PhD poverty stories is remarkably similar to victim blaming, is it not? (I was irritated enough to blog on the topic.) While I don't deny the job market is awful, I think a lot of these articles are written because it's easier to read about a poor PhD than to help one find a job.