brussell

From what I understand, Clemson is more of a rhetoric program with a media sub-emphasis, whereas NC State is more of a communication/media program with a rhetoric sub-emphasis. The Clemson curriculum is more rhetoric-based and humanistic, while NC State seems to be more oriented toward media studies. The Clemson TA-load is pretty heavy, 2-2, while NC State's is 2-1 or 1-1. And from what I can gather, Clemson seems to be placing its students a little better, though NC State's students have more diverse assistantship opportunities. (As perhaps expected from the curriculum, Clemson's current students don't seem to be teaching anything other than Composition; but NC State's students, on the other hand, are teaching lots of different lower- and upper-division classes in both English and Communication.) That being said, both programs, despite their newness, have placed at least some of their very few grads in R-1s. That seems like a good sign. I spoke with students from both places, and all were really enthusiastic. Hope this helps.

Wow. Louisville's stipend is huge. Wish I'd seen that before their application deadline had passed. I agree: in a field as weird as rhet/comp, interdisciplinarity is key. One of the programs I'm leaning toward are openly interdisciplinary: NC State's CRDM. But they're not established like some of the older big names, like Louisville, which have long, accomplished records. They have few (if any) job placements, and I'm not really sure how their students will match up in the job market. So that's a big question mark for me. Not that anyone on the Rhet/Comp job market is struggling that badly. I've considered most of the things you listed, and I've also tried to see how their students are publishing/presenting. But without the job competition that affects literature PhDs, and without clear rankings, Rhet/Comp requires a completely different set of decision criteria. I guess I'm just trying to figure out what other people are using to compare programs. We seem to lack several quantitative criteria that other folks can use when making decisions. You're right: location is crucial. Who wouldn't want to move to the South, especially after this winter? I still can't believe how good your funding is.

So, to all the other Rhet/Comp applicants: I'm curious as to how you're going to compare your offers (if you're lucky enough to have a choice). Since there are no rankings, I'm having difficulty putting together decision-making criteria. Money, location, and teaching assignments count for me, but I'm curious as to what everyone else is privileging. There's a vague pecking order led by a few older, established programs (CMU, Penn State, Pitt, etc.), of course, but I'm not really sure how valid that is these days, especially with so many new groundbreaking, interdisciplinary programs. What do you guys think? How are you going to compare/contrast your offers? How do you quantify "reputation"--whatever that means in our discipline--and how will it factor into your decision? Good luck to all the other applicants.