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Yes this does seem like the best course of action... but I'm just not sure how much I would offend either department by doing so. I might make myself an outsider in Dept A and then never-fully-integrate in Dept B and lose out on the benefits of both. I guess it's very school and department specific. I'll have to do some more research into the culture of it all... I mean it literally: Dept B is more invested in radical (leftist) politics in terms of content, form, and methodology. Dept A, much less so, if any. In fact, many of the more radical professors have jumped from Dept A to Dept B over the years... one that I'm working with currently is apparently trying to make the switch.

I considered this and it would certainly be the easiest course. I wonder how Dept A would think about me as a student then if I'm just their student in name and don't actually engage or do much with them as a "community." That's kind of what I'm scared about in terms of bridge burning. I wouldn't say it's ranked over... they're probably about equal although Dept B is much, much smaller so that might be a concern. Joint committee definitely sounds like something I'd want to do. Thanks for the tip off on that!

Using throwaway account. Basically, I'm wondering if many people do this and, most importantly, how to do this without burning bridges. I applied and was accepted to Dept A under a more old-school field. I want to join Dept B, which is affiliated with Dept A because they're more radical and also align a bit better with my current interests. My school encourages a lot of cross-contamination between departments, so I could very well just take classes in Dept B while staying in Dept A. Here are some important considerations: - Both humanities departments. - Dept B has a much better placement rate than Dept A - I have full-funding from Dept A and probably would with Dept B too but when I spoke to the current chair, he said I would probably have to reapply. - I don't want to throw off my progress too much (I'm only in my first semester) so I do want to make this decision quickly. - The superstars in the field in Dept B are way more relevant to me than the ones in Dept A. - The cohort in Dept B seems way more genial and radical than in Dept A, which frankly seems a little stuffy and conservative. - Dept A and B, while affiliated, also seem like they're at odds with each other (whispers of rancor and drama between faculty.) I don't know. I feel a lot of guilt and anxiety... I got into this school from the wait list and my advisor in Dept A was also head of the admissions committee and I really feel like he took a chance on me. I really feel like I'd burn a lot of bridges if I left Dept A behind but I also really think I'd be a lot happier. Anyone have any advice or experience with this kind of thing? I've been stressing out so much about this for the past couple of months. Any perspective would be great appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Thanks! Embarrassingly, I've had three dreams in the past few weeks about taking a course with this rockstar prof so I'm definitely taking it as a sign. I'm entering as an early modernist but this course is in theory, though, so I hope it doesn't seem like I sold myself as a different type of scholar than I really hope to be. I will be taking this course over another one offered in Shakespeare as well... but then again I'm not a Shakespearian and I'm not into drama either. I'm not sure who I should be making these rationalizations to.

I feel unnecessarily torn up about my course selections for my incoming semester. I totally want to do a course outside my department since it's being taught by a rockstar scholar in my field of interest but I also think it would look bad if I didn't take the course being taught by my (appointed) adviser. Thoughts?

what has changed exactly since you last asked for advice and ignored all of it?

not expecting anyone to consider my opinion... just saying that there's a lot of selfabsorption in the room. how quickly we forget what it's like to be on the torturous waiting end! these are the kinds of attitudes that carry forward into academia and shows how profs can completely guiltlessly put applicants thru hell during app season. apply your very powerful brain for a day or two, consult everyone you need to consult, and make a decision. because of this dawdling and "WEEEEE I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DOOOOO HEE HEE!" some people will have to make the tough choice of turning down offers to gamble for a wait list offer that may come after april 15. it's awful.

yaaa no.... people in this thread are saying that "they know they should pick their dream school" but insist on being neurotic and beating the question to death by asking everyone and anyone their opinion. even when all of those opinions align with "pick the dream school" these people STILL don't decline offers. you people are gross, selfish and awful.

seriously? you all got into your "dream school" yet you still drag it out your decision until april 15? so unneccesarily cruel to other applicants.

Haha you're amazing. Yeah I think it's screen-shock a bit. I try to print out and read it there as much as possible but long papers tend to get much more unwieldy. Thanks, I'll definitely look at the school I'm entering for a writing intensive summer class!

I know there's lots of brilliant rhet/comp folks around here so I figured it'd be a good place to ask. I'm kind of a terrible writer. It's shameful for someone preparing to enter a graduate program. I want to really improve my writing by making it clear, concise, and compelling. My main problem is that I get kind of lost in words when I'm staring at a wall of text on screen. Either that or I focus way too much on composing ideas rather than the writing itself. Any suggestions for what I can do this summer to really kick it into high gear? TIA!

Thanks for the super long reply! I'm kind of looking to get into cultural studies and I haven't much found rankings that sort into that category. It's been mostly by faculty reputation. All three of the poster responses above have been quite comforting to me (namely the idea that some "lower ranked institutions" have better placement rates than some top-tier schools). I'm assuming it's simply a matter of perhaps being able to coast on top-tier reputation for a bit but still working quite hard to get a TT position, while lower-tier might just be all gumption and hard work. I'm okay with those odds but when I do school visits I'm definitely going to play tough with my placement rate questions.

Ah jeez. I didn't even think of weighing the department against the wider school. The NRC gives rankings by specific department, though. And I had no idea where the faculty come from was particularly important. It seems like pretty much every school I look at nowadays, the faculty come from Berkeley or Yale. They haven't updated the thing in five years? I guess it's the latest set of data out there, though, right? That's a tough call... anyone else mind sharing which type of reputation they're valuing more? I guess it's not really up to me since I didn't get into a Top 10 school...

So, obviously a throwaway account because I know faculty and current students lurk around here. I'm not intending this to be a thread to dump maliciously on schools or anything, rather I would like to talk frankly about different schools' reputation/rank in theory vs. the real world. One of the schools I've been accepted to traditionally ranks somewhat low (hovering near the bottom of the Top 50 of US News) but in the Chronicle rankings list I saw posted in another thread around here, surprisingly is pretty high up, especially compared to regional schools that are better regarded. I'm wondering how people feel about schools like that: if it has a low rank/reputation to a wider/uninformed audience (ie. US news seems to represent a broad, general public type of consensus to me) but has a decent rep within the specific field of English (Chronicle), is it worth attending? I'm worried that even though it's somewhat well regarded, the name won't carry much currency if I go national or even international after graduating. As you can tell, I'm pretty mixed up in my feelings about this. Any input is welcome!