empress-marmot

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

USC just emailed. I'm. in. 
 

 
Actually crying real tears right now as I sit in a pile of books. 

I'm working on something similar, and I ended up with about twenty pages too. As much as I dislike the format of "10 Things You Didn't Know About [insert Anything Here]," I figured that limiting myself to ten guidelines was a good idea, and I explained my reasoning for each one.The result was about a page long. I summarized below, even though I'm sure a lot of this information has been listed before. Some of the advice seems so obvious, but a lot of students at my university end up doing those online, unfunded programs. I would like that to stop.
 
1. Read the Chronicle, InsideHigherEd,The Professor is In, and Schuman's Slate Articles. Know what you're doing. 2. Apply to mostly MA programs. 3. Don't take out loans. 4. Take a hard, harsh look at your application before applying to the best schools in the country. 5. Create a GradCafe account. 6. Start thinking about specializations.  7. Ask for placement information at MA and PhD programs. 8. Gauge when you will get decisions back from your programs, and be ready to apply to programs with later deadlines if necessary. 9. You will have to deal with these programs again. It's a small field. Be nice. 10. Don't talk about graduate school to people who haven't been through grad school. They won't understand.

I'm working on something similar, and I ended up with about twenty pages too. As much as I dislike the format of "10 Things You Didn't Know About [insert Anything Here]," I figured that limiting myself to ten guidelines was a good idea, and I explained my reasoning for each one.The result was about a page long. I summarized below, even though I'm sure a lot of this information has been listed before. Some of the advice seems so obvious, but a lot of students at my university end up doing those online, unfunded programs. I would like that to stop.
 
1. Read the Chronicle, InsideHigherEd,The Professor is In, and Schuman's Slate Articles. Know what you're doing. 2. Apply to mostly MA programs. 3. Don't take out loans. 4. Take a hard, harsh look at your application before applying to the best schools in the country. 5. Create a GradCafe account. 6. Start thinking about specializations.  7. Ask for placement information at MA and PhD programs. 8. Gauge when you will get decisions back from your programs, and be ready to apply to programs with later deadlines if necessary. 9. You will have to deal with these programs again. It's a small field. Be nice. 10. Don't talk about graduate school to people who haven't been through grad school. They won't understand.

I just accepted an offer last night! The DGS can't rescind admission because I didn't catch a typo in the email, right? I blame it on my shaking hands.   And I agree with what everyone's saying. Personally, as hard as it is to admit, I wasn't ready for some of the programs to which I applied. I think the director of my MA program recognized that, but the program is looking for scholars to brand. The professors seem interested in working with me, the cohort is small, and I'm really excited about the sort of research I'll be doing. Plus, I'm an hour away from my family.    I'm tempted to laze about till August. I'm done!  

Haven't been posting lately because my focus has been on school and since I was rejected at every place I applied to and waitlisted at one, I was waiting for it all to pan out.
 
Well, it panned out. I got accepted into the PhD program at Brandeis with a package of around 22,000/year (exempting summers) for 5 years. I was thrilled -- but my decision is more complicated than it would have been a few months ago. 

It's April!

I think it goes without saying that certain sentiments on this thread are not shared by all who hold literature PhDs. But because I didn't see a lot of literature people chiming in, I wanted to make that clear. My teacher training took place almost exclusively within the rhet/comp division. I don't agree with everything they do (who does), but I've certainly found their perspective valuable. And indeed, they are keeping English departments afloat right now. If it weren't for rhet/comp, we truly would have gone the way of philosophy or Classics.
 
A lot of the resentment toward them does indeed have to do with funding issues and the job market.
 
Which is to say to the OP: If you can make the transition to rhet/comp, do it. The job market isn't spectacular, but it's better. I, unfortunately, just could not have done rhet/comp because I didn't have a high interest in it (that's not say it isn't interesting--it just wasn't for me personally). I would have liked to do it, but at the end of the day I couldn't muster up the desire. Remember that you have to write a dissertation in your chosen field, and that means having a burning passion for something. That's what will carry you to the finish line above all else. So if you feel that you can get interested in rhet/comp the way you can get interested in postcolonial pirate stories, then go for it. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised by the opportunities.

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.

Not sure where to post this but a brutal and depressing read from VICE:
 
Striking Grad Students on What It's Like to Live on $15,000 a Year
 
Luckily, York U has been successful in striking for their demands. Toronto on the other hand... still going.
 
Another one, from the perspective of two grad students.
 
University of Toronto: Boundless Exploitation–“Business as Usual” IS the Problem

Hey! Congratulations on your acceptance, and I hope that additional funding comes through for you. Fall class schedules should be up for most universities, so find three or four times/classes which work for you, and email the professor teaching the class. Be polite ("Dear Dr. Whoever: Dr. DGS directed me to email you regarding an informal TAship for your ENG 101-XX course...") and offer to send them a CV with your teaching experience/references. 
 
You could also see if a friendly student/professor contact within the department would be willing to make introductions. I've never dealt with asking a professor for a TAship, though. Good luck!

I'm one of your cohort, albeit in a different specialization, in a different part of the country. I spent my week looking through some of my professors' CVs to see what accomplishments I'll need to be competitive in the field. Then I narrowed down the list to ten goals to tackle my first year. It's boring work, but I like having a "checklist" of some sort to follow.
 
Congratulations to the other MAs! 

I just keep watching the tentacles go by. They're mesmerizing.

I'm one of your cohort, albeit in a different specialization, in a different part of the country. I spent my week looking through some of my professors' CVs to see what accomplishments I'll need to be competitive in the field. Then I narrowed down the list to ten goals to tackle my first year. It's boring work, but I like having a "checklist" of some sort to follow.
 
Congratulations to the other MAs! 

VirtualMessage, if you are still here, I am really sorry about your job search. On one campus visit, I learned the PhD students had applied to 80 jobs apiece. By the time I go on the job market, I imagine I will have to apply to way over 100--and definitely apply outside academia as well.   You are a fantastic person for making it through a PhD program, for publishing several articles, for believing in teaching and research. I agree that sometimes academia is pretentious and self-aggrandizing. I also agree that everyone should know the risks and what they're willing to give. But most of us have found that teaching and research make us better people, and that being a better person is worth the downsides. Most of us have been told "just don't go," too.    Some people on the GradCafe have been accepted to fantastic schools, and no one should start their career with a cloud of doom thundering overhead. Instead of posting once, why don't you stay here? We need more people to give us smart talk and advice from the other side of a PhD. 

I just keep watching the tentacles go by. They're mesmerizing.

VM might start by reading some of the field's response to Bousquet: Harris, O'Neill, and Waktins all have pieces in JAC 22.4. 

Regarding management science VM might check out Strickland's "The managerial Unconscious in the history of composition studies"(2011) in order to engage with the existing critique. 

As for who teaches FYW and academic freedom, VM might see Miller and Cripps (2005) who lend an interesting perspective in their defense of "The Rutgers solution" in their essay "Minimum qualifications".

Edit: I'd also recommend "Tenured Bosses Disposable Teachers" - there is a specific article but I haven't got my copy in front of me.

I detect a consistent theme in your posts, VirtualMessage: a deep committed to over-extrapolating from your own experience.

WPA work exists because institutions and stakeholders continue to value the importance of teaching college students how to write, despite the terrible assault the humanities has endured for decades. And thank god that they do, because it is the teaching of writing, above and beyond anything else, that keeps the lights on in English departments writ large. It is the teaching of writing that pays our bills. You might find the teaching of writing to be unglamorous "service" labor; I find it to be invigorating and important. But then, I'm a member of my field, and we take writing seriously. Part of taking writing seriously means acknowledging that running a writing program effectively-- developing curricula and training teachers and assessing our progress-- requires specially trained labor. That's not the only work of rhet/comp, but it's valuable work that can have a deep, meaningful impact on the lives of the students who go through our writing programs and whose future academic and professional success requires strong writing skills.
 
As far as not being able to stomach the work-- well, nobody asked you to. I don't go around medievalist threads and insult their discipline because it's none of my business. Perhaps you should consider doing the same.

So I'm doing this right now as an MA student and it's very difficult. It's sort of like learning a new language in preparation for writing a dissertation in that language a year later, when you've only studied the language at the beginner or intermediate level (via your composition methodology course, if you've taken one). One thing I've noticed about the field is that it leads to more opportunities to do administrative and service work within the department or university. At my program there are 4 rhetcomp faculty members; 3 of which do part of their work in administration. I'd imagine that with literature there just aren't as many administrative positions that fit with one's research interests. This can be good or bad depending on what kind of job you want, because it seems to me like if you want to work as a WPA then it would be helpful to have a RC degree instead of a lit one. But it also works against the perception of the field. Marc Bousquet writes a lot about this; whereas literature is pigeonholed as elitist and snobby, RC is pigeonholed as not being a real field given that it is complicit with the ongoing trend of eliminating full time teaching jobs and replacing them with full time administrative jobs (or pulling professors out of the classroom to devote part of their time to manage the writing center or the first year writing program).  

Yes, switching to rhet/comp after getting an MA is literature is quite common. Just from the list of interests you mentioned, comic studies, multimodality, etc. is definitely a "thing" in rhet/comp. The rest may carry over, sometimes in surprising ways. R/c is a heterogeneous field. I wish I could give more specific advice for you.
 
@empress, my experience has been that many undergrads don't have as much exposure to rhet/comp as they do to lit. So they may not have a very clear idea of what they want to do in rhet/comp, or what a "map" of the field would look like, when they apply to MA programs. They just know that they're into it, somehow. That was true for me at least. My writing sample when I applied to my MAs was from a literature class and only tangentially related to rhet/comp. 
 
Of course, all this may be changing, quickly, as r/c undergrad programs and classes grow. But it does create a unique challenge for MA admissions committees.

So let's just say, please, to everyone writing and reading here: don't be fooled. You will not be the exception. The odds of you getting a TT job at any institution are punishingly low. Massively qualified people have emerged from the highest ranked programs with books written and not gotten jobs. So understand all of this, going in. Understand that the question for the large majority is not whether they get that cush R1 gig but whether they will be one of the lucky few to grab on to an instructor position with a non-punishing teaching load and at least decent salary and a long-term contract.
 
And when you're done, if you're saying that you'll be one of the ones who can move on from academia without regret, make it your responsibility to not become the embittered academic we're talking about. Don't graduate and write that essay we've all read a thousand times. 
 
We have a responsibility too, though, those of us who are sounding the alarm: we should respect that it is possible to make this choice and to see it through and to emerge without regrets like these people are saying they won't. I in fact know more than a few people like this. So it is possible and in the end, everyone has the right to determine their own path in life.

Hi, friends! I'm just checking in to see how everyone's doing! I'm still waiting to hear back from 4 (?!?!) schools, but I was unofficially offered a job teaching comp at a CC in the fall, so I'm excited about that! However, I'll be back next year for my second season of applications. I'm so happy for all the amazing acceptances this cohort has had! Woooo!

I am hard pressed to think of any profession that is not "predicated on mass exploitation, inequity, and total hypocrisy" in some way. I might be old-fashioned or naive in believing that careers in the humanities are less so than, I don't know, say, corporate law or commercial real estate. 
 
Now I'M the one running off the rails with odd comparisons...