mariannem

Hi all! I was admitted to U WA's MFA Creative Writing program fully-funded as a fellow! I have the option to either teach 1:1/2:1 or take the fellowship and not teach during my time there. I have a few questions: how important is the teaching component to the MFA? I hear mixed opinions on whether or not it truly makes a difference. I'm considering a PhD afterwards, but not quite sure if I want to do that yet. Also, does anyone here go to U WA or have any true insights about the program? I hear the faculty is influx, which makes me a little nervous about fit and style of the program.

I would also love to see some sample WS from some rhet/comp folks. I was originally planning on using a research paper I wrote for a tutor writing pedagogy course I took, but the writing/analysis is so much better in my honors thesis (which is on an unrelated topic; sexuality in 19th cent lit). I know you're supposed to submit WS on a topic related to your field of interest, but I'm also stuck in the revision process and fear the quality of my WS won't be as good as the thesis I spent most of my senior year revising vs. a few months for a class.

Just wanted to say thank you for this. I felt like I was going to throw up thinking about my writing sample, but this curbed that.

And ProfLorax, I'll definitely be going through the faculty list to help narrow down this list. I will check out University of Arizona's RCTE!!

Thank you all for your honesty! It's very much appreciated. And rising_star, you're right, I absolutely shouldn't diminish my thesis, especially since I spent a majority of my senior year working on it!

Hello all! I will be submitting applications this coming December/January for programs in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy. I need some serious help narrowing down these programs! I graduated from Ohio State University in 2012 with honors in English and creative writing minor. Stats: 3.8 GPA, handful of internships with publishing magazines, writing associate in Ohio State's WAC program, obtained a research scholarship for my honors thesis, and completed a research thesis (unfortunately the topic was unrelated to my current interests). I scored a 157 (revised) on Verbal for the GRE. I should also mention I have speaking proficiency in Spanish (at least I meet the min 20 hours of coursework in a secondary language). I've been out of school for a few years--teaching for two years, coordinating logistics for a charter school's professional development program, and currently working at a publishing house as a marketing associate. Diverse experiences, to say the least. After being benched as an alternate for the Fulbright last year, I decided that I need to start getting more serious about applying to grad schools, so here I am! I've got a pretty solid list of recs: undergrad thesis adviser, former RCL professor (who also assigned the research paper I'm using for my writing sample), and director of teacher development at the charter school network. My ultimate goal is to get into a fully funded PhD program. However, I'm willing to go for MA programs that are a good fit for me and pursue a PhD thereafter. I'm looking for programs that have ample opportunities for teaching/graduate assistantships and offer a rigorous curriculum in interdisciplinary studies. My primary interest is in multimodal and digital composing practices, but with my teaching experiences, I am also very interested in pedagogical writing training. I've been out of the academia scene for a few years, so I'm petrified of applying to schools and not getting in... but I also don't want to psyche myself out of applying to top programs. I'd like to limit my list to 10 schools. I had Northwestern and University of Washington on here, but took it off because their program seems too generalized for my interests. I also was hoping to have more west coast schools on here, but somehow ended up with mostly mid-west or east coast schools! However, what do you think? Is my list feasible? What schools can I cut out of my list, or should I add any schools in lieu of others? University of Illinois, Urbana ChampaignMA in English (Specialization in Writing Studies)The Ohio State UniversityMA/PhD in English (Specialization in Rhetoric/Comp)University of MarylandMA/PhD in Writing Studies and RhetoricUniversity of Massachusetts, AmherstMA/PhD in Composition and RhetoricPenn State UniversityMA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies (PhD later)Miami University, OHMA/PhD in Composition and RhetoricCarnegie-Mellon UniversityMA in Rhetoric, Composition, and LinguisticsPurdue UniversityMA in Rhetoric, Composition, and Linguistics (PhD later)Syracuse UniversityMA/PhD in Digital Rhetorics, Pedagogies, and Technical CommunicationNew York University- SteinhardtMA in Communications: Media, Culture, and CompositionMichigan State UniversityMA in Digital Rhetoric & Professional WritingWashington State UniversityMA/PhD in Rhetoric, Composition, and Linguistics