chateaulafitte

Nibs, Re-entering is all good, but it means that you either: 1- get the visa before you first enter the country in June, somehow convince the CBP agent to let you enter on the B1/B2 visa instead of the F1 visa that's on your passport, then exit at the end of July and re-enter, this time on the F1 visa. I believe it is unlikely that this would work out. 2- get the visa in Canada or Mexico, between the end of July and the beginning of your program in mid-August, during the peak season of visa appointments season. Are you sure you'd be able to get a visa within two weeks then? Have you emailed the international office people at your future university? What do they say? For both Nibs and Infy: this document from CMU explains how to apply for a visa in a country that is not your home country: www.cmu.edu/oie/forstu/pdf/visa-in-3rd-country.pdf Be aware that refusal in a third country is more likely than in your home country.

Check out the TCAT website to learn about buses: http://www.tcatbus.com/ I'd say the graduate residences are not a bad idea for a first-year international grad student. They're actually quite accessible if you don't mind walking for 10-15 minutes. However, a few years back, the housing services would usually not put first-year students in studios or 1BR units, first because their number is limited; second in order to avoid isolation within a vulnerable population. Maplewood Park was considered the international student community. Maybe this has changed, though.

It is doable; it's called an "adjustment of status". See this doc for example: https://iss.washington.edu/procedures/change-status/b-1-b-2-to-f-1 Note the questions mentioned on the page: Also: I am not sure what your 'summer workshop" entails, but be aware that only recreational study is permitted under a B1/B2 visa, so make sure your workshop qualifies for that. Best of luck!

Youngcharlie, that should be your first step, really. Your writing sample might not be right for your target schools / programs. Perhaps your SOP is not good. You mention having shown it to a few of your profs; how about getting it through a few rounds of peer review with people in your program, or from this board? Have you had someone read your recommendation letters? (Interfolio makes this possible for a third party, such as a DGS, to access reco letters so they can tell you whether you should eliminate (a) letter(s)). All in all, I feel like you're all over the place and focusing on the wrong things (your GRE, getting another MA), instead of working on improving what probably needs work: your writing sample and SOP. I also read in another other topic that the schools you were still to hear from are Penn, CUNY, Rutgers, and NYU. If the schools that rejected you are of the same caliber, it might be a good idea to apply to a wider range of schools.

They actually do not have to retire and many do not intend to: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/17/data-suggest-baby-boomer-faculty-are-putting-retirement They'll die in the classroom. And when that happens, adjuncts will pick up the corpses.

I have a few friends from grad school who got placed in the UK or in Asia. The UK market is brutal, requiring many more publications and grant seeking than the US market (google "Research Excellence Framework"). Those who got placed in Asia were natives of the countries. Continental Europe is terrible. There are few positions in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and Switzerland and "nepotism" is the name of the game. In comparison, the US is the land of plenty.

1- @mollifiedmolloy: Eileen Joy is great and does great work, but she has the impact she has also because she's a former tenured professor. If she had been an adjunct all along, I doubt she'd have the kind of audience she has (because sadly, adjuncts = nonentities in academia). 2- I'm a debt harpy too and would upvote 1Q84's post if I could. I have yet to read a post from someone who: - got into debt for an MA - has now graduated and is on the job market or has a job - AND is happy to have gotten into debt/does not regret it. The only people "advocating" for debt are still in their PhD program. Folks, the difficult part is yet to come. 3- People who say the market is bleak are not overdramatizing it. They are realistic. The market is very, very bleak. If you have the time and envy, read this blog: http://zugunglueck.blogspot.fr/ It is about PhD placement / the job market in German, but it gives a good sense of what's going on in MLA fields. 4- It's hard to score a TT job on your first try on the market and it's a matter of luck as the 10-15 (sometimes 30-45) top people for any given job are roughly equivalent in terms of pedigree, publications, etc. (seriously, those who think they got a job because they're "good", "very good", "brilliant" or "deserving" and who don't acknowledge the role of chance are sociopaths. Avoid them at conferences.). If you don't get a job on your first try, you'll most likely end up adjuncting. Once you start adjuncting, you're screwed, since for search committees adjuncting is akin to having syphilis: they wouldn't touch THAT with a ten-foot pole. Also, a PhD that's more than three years old is basically seen as stale (yes, even if you keep publishing, you're not that starry eyed bright young thing anymore, you're chopped liver). Conclusion: given the low ROI, only go to grad school if you're fully funded (guaranteed funding, none of that "competitive funding after nth year" BS). Don't get into debt while in grad school (live frugally). Don't think you can enroll in an unfunded MA program and "work on the side". If you want to make the most of it (i.e., write and read, read and write, repeat), working on the side is not an option. Wait for a year and apply for a funded MA instead. Finally, go into the best PhD program that takes you (best = best fit for you + best placement record). Even then, even if you publish while in grad school, network, do everything right, you most likely won't get a TT job. Be prepared for that eventuality and start lining up plans B, C, D, etc.

This is this one of the best post to date about unfunded MAs: http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/03/22/dont-go-to-graduate-school-an-inadvertant-guest-post/ Unfunded MAs make me mad because they target the most vulnerable people, those who don't have a family support system, those none tells it's a bad idea to accrue so much debt. Because: 1) Yes, it is possible for some students (those who are independently wealthy or have a spouse with a lucrative career). 2) And of course they would offer it even if it was not possible, because they know some people will get into debt to get that MA in the hope that it makes them more competitive for a PhD. Some people see education debt as "good debt". But if you don't make any money with your degree (and with a humanities degree, you'll make little), that's not good debt. That's debt that puts you in a hole before you even start working. Being an academic is not a ticket to middle-class living anymore. In most cases, it's a ticket to adjunct wages and food stamps. Unfunded MAs are criminal. drownsoda, I'm sorry if I sound brutal, but it would be irresponsible to tell you to just go with the unfunded MA because dream. For now dream is enough, but at some point it won't be and then you'll bitterly regret getting into debt for an MA. if you're set on getting a PhD in the future, I'm sure you can find other ways to hone your skills, ways that won't cost you so much.

Do you know whether this MA program has a record of placing students in good PhD programs? Is it a program that would give you that much of an edge when you apply for PhDs? Because that's a 50+K edge. Keep in mind that if after your MA you manage to get into a good PhD program, the odds of getting a TT job will still be pretty low. The odds of getting a TT job that will allow you to live comfortably while repaying your 60+K loans are even lower. People in English at Big 10 schools or at prestigious SLAC make in the mid 60s. Unless you get into a top program, you won't get one of these jobs. You don't want to have to make payments on an adjunct salary. Please read this: http://theprofessorisin.com/2014/01/22/the-shame-of-ph-d-debt/ Some of those people are on the TT/tenured, still buried in debt. These are good, wise, and realistic suggestions. Never go unfunded (especially not for a humanities MA).

The NRC rankings make little sense (eg. UConn is very well-ranked, but I don't think their graduates do well on the job market, or that they graduate many people). Programs perceived as "prestigious" would be the usual suspects: Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Duke. But I want to urge you to think in terms of of "fit" and "marketability" of your degree rather than "prestige". What I mean by "fit": If you want to study francophone, UCLA is the way to go. If you're more of a theorist, Cornell is a better bet. You want to work on Haïti? Duke, no doubt. Digital Humanities? Stanford. What I mean by "marketability": Princeton, Yale, Harvard are prestigious (and that's a great program, with amazing faculty), but they don't place their graduates better than U Minnesota, U Wisc or UCLA. They don't even necessarily place them in "better" institutions. When you get accepted into a program, ask about funding, teaching, research, etc, but also ask about placement. Where are the people who graduated in the past five years? What kind of institutions hired them? Beware of schools where people tell you about that one student who got a great job but don't mention what happened to the rest of the cohort. Also be aware that there are very few jobs, that there have been fewer and fewer in the past five years, and that it's likely there will be even less by the time you graduate. The academic job market is a crapshoot. Finding a program that is supportive is the safest way to give you a small chance to be competitive. Good luck!