doubledogd

I attended a funded MA with significant comp-teaching experience included and found an adjunct job very easily. The trick, as you've pointed out, is figuring out how to turn it into a full-time, potentially tenured position. At the community college where I worked, I felt pretty comfortable that I would be able to turn it into a full-time position given a couple years of adjuncting and voluntary department service work. But the likelihood of getting that full-time position as an MA seems very dependent on the specific context (enrollment issues, hiring freezes, dept policies and atmosphere, openings, etc.) and if you can hack it on a very low salary for some time (or work at multiple schools). A friend from my MA program has been making that climb at a small four-year college but still hasn't gotten full-time work just yet. I don't have any good information about the usefulness of a rhet/comp PhD, but I thought I'd add my experience.

Their email said they had accepted a total of five students.

Hello all! I'm a postmodern/contemporary American literature PhD applicant. I was accepted to SUNY-Buffalo and waitlisted at Boston University. Still waiting to hear back from five schools (by early March, I hope). Given the very small cohort size at BU, I don't expect to be moved up from the waitlist (but it would certainly be a nice surprise!). Good luck to everyone!

I also applied to the Critical and Cultural Studies track and have not heard back yet.

For the UMD admits/waitlisters: would it be accurate to say that Rhet/Comp and Early Modern are the two areas that have been notified thus far? I'm an American lit applicant trying to stave off anxiety.

This was me! My email said that they accepted five applicants and have a total of twelve on the waitlist. I got the email yesterday; I'm not sure if that means they've notified everyone already.

I thought the deadline was Dec. 1. I'm pretty sure the website said the 1st (at least in October when I was looking through). They might have extended it? I'm wishing the best for you.

Right now I'm adjuncting at a CC teaching comp courses. While I'd like to eventually also teach lit courses and need to have a little more job security, I'm positive that I could very happily do that at any kind of higher ed institution. The dream, though, is probably a SLAC (due to nostalgia from my own undergrad, a focus on teaching smaller class sizes, a general liberal community feel).

I don't think a lack of indication necessarily implies a lack of desire or determination to help others, but I suppose this is a good reminder to indicate those things.

This may be kind of a goofy question, but I crave some whimsy as I begin the process of hurrying up and waiting for admissions results. I've been thinking about the "future career goals" part of my SOP and wondering at its lack of sharp detail. Without knowing where I will get in, if anywhere, any five- or ten-year plan seems so hazy. I thought I'd turn to this forum (especially since it has been a bit quiet recently) and ask: what is the career dream? Is there a specific idea you have of where you'd like to end up and what you'd like to be doing? If you had to describe a day in your future ideal life, what would it look like?

If the professor's letter is received by the deadline, I can't imagine they wouldn't include it. I think "under review" does not mean the adcom is currently looking at materials--just that they now have access to them. If it is received after the deadline, I imagine there is still a chance they will add it, but that is probably less likely. Try to ensure that your letter writer sends it in by the deadline, and you should be fine (as long as the adcom is open to reading an extra letter in general, that is).

I didn't apply to UT-Austin, but I would assume that "initial review" or "in review" means they've passed off your materials and application to the department.

Wrecking crew

You can do anything for ten seconds!

I can already feel it starting! My new recurring daydream: the impossible measuring and remeasuring of my chances at any given school. How to channel this anxiety into something productive? Maybe I'll create a blog. Watch every single item on Netflix. Start jogging. Spend all my money on junk. Develop an app that prevents me from obsessively checking all of my application statuses and gradcafe. Read every text Judith Butler has ever written. Take cooking lessons. Travel somewhere completely new. Caution all of my friends and family to avoid me until mid-March. I only submitted my apps a couple days ago, and I'm already losing it a bit. : )

All submitted! Now patiently and/or anxiously awaiting the receipt of remaining rec letters. Here's hoping I'll wake up tomorrow and it will be February.

I highly recommend simply emailing the graduate school with your query. I've had to do this with a couple schools, and all of the responses have been quick and helpful (much faster than frantic googling and logging in and out of the app system, it turns out).

If you're struggling to write a story about your past, focus on your future. How will what you research affect and/or intersect with contemporary concerns? What career do you envision for yourself?

Another idea is to find out if any of those schools accept Interfolio or dossier services. It could cut down the number of letters/uploading sessions significantly.

For anybody looking for this answer: I did contact ETS via email, and they gave me the second registration number I needed. Thanks, svent!

What is the worst case scenario? Maybe there are more people out there doing that topic than you thought. Maybe School Name doesn't have as many people doing that topic as you thought or at least not in the way you described it to him. Maybe he thinks it's strange that you'll only apply to one school. I don't know your POI, of course, but my instinct tells me that you'd be more likely to get a confused stare or a correction if you truly said something "stupid" or made yourself look bad. I'm with TakeruK--if anything, he may have felt you were being a bit overzealous in your estimation of School Name, but I can't see how that would be a bad thing at all. Best case scenario? He was gratified by your response and excited that you are so invested in this particular school.

I think 530 is quite good, actually! I have a friend who was accepted to two top-30-ish schools with a score in the 400s.

I don't know your relationship to the professor, but two days seems like an incredibly short amount of time. Often teaching and other commitments make replying to emails secondary concerns, and I don't know that this necessarily means they wouldn't honor the application deadlines. I would wait at least a full week and then decide whether you want to email a follow-up. In the mean time, figuring out who else to ask won't hurt (just in case).

On my online score report, it only gives me one registration number. Is that number for both my GRE General and Subject scores or only for my General score? If it is the latter, then how do I access my Subject Test registration number?

This might not be a doable option, but have you looked into whether your schools will accept letters from a dossier service like Interfolio? If a majority do, then you can have him send one letter to Interfolio and two letters to schools that don't accept it.