renea

A few months ago prior to actually doing any work, but right after a few successful networking experiences with future programs oh yes, I am amazing. Everyone wants me in their program. I am such hot shit. I'm going to be the next *insert your preferred scholarly powerhouse.* I can't wait until February. I bet I'll get recruited. I'm going to have schools fighting over me. I'm going to negotiate a fellowship. I'm going to ask for a tech budget...yes...new laptop for me. Time to start on my SOP where I'll dazzle everyone with my fresh takes on rhetorriiicccccc. Seconds after submitting my final application So I guess this is it. My interests don't make sense, my work is not unique. I don't have any publications and my CV is pathetic. No hope left now. Why did I just waste all this money. What do you even do with just an MA? Work at a community college? Or I guess I could *shudders* work as a social media manager? I'll need to learn to build websites or something. Time to get my, why you should hire writing majors pitch ready. I guess I could be a stay at home dog mom. My husband can support me on a grad stipend, right? The real me feels fairly anxious but hopeful and optimistic. I regularly give myself motivational speeches about working hard and knowing my worth, but this crappy version of myself is in the back of my head telling me that there is high potential that I won't get in anywhere. It's not true, I know it's not true, but it's a possibility and that possibility is going to haunt me until that first acceptance gets here. The worst part is that my remaining programs do not usually notify until late February or early March, so I've got a ways to go.

I'd also like to know the breakdown of concentrations for these numbers. For example, in rhet/comp, how many of these are for teaching positions versus WPA work. Or in terms of breakdown, are these labels such as American Lit or Rhet/comp accurate to the program requirements. I know for rhet/comp there are many programs which slap the term rhetoric on the degree, but when you actually look at the requirements, it's pretty much a lit degree with a few writing theory classes thrown in. Certainly a name alone can't account for the number of new graduates in the field.

I saw these numbers on a Facebook post the other day: Recent numbers on the academic job market for American and Brit Lit and rhet/comp/tech comm) Doctorates Earned (from the 2017 Survey of Earned Doctorates, which reported on calendar year 2016): American Lit: 342 British Lit: 414 R/C: 212 MLA-JIL Ads for 2015-2016 American Lit: 107 tenure track (184 total) British Lit: 120 tenure track (197 total) R/C: 159 tenure track, (249 total) Tech Writing: 49 tenure track (90 total) I would say at least for rhet/comp it seems a little more optimistic than some might argue. However, I suppose we should recognize that these tenure positions are most likely going to more experienced scholars than new graduates at least the numbers aren't as harsh as the lit ones* *Disclaimer: please don't attack me lit ppl, we're all in this together

I understand where you are coming from, and for some programs and institutions this is probably true, but at best these are well meaning, but inaccurate excuses. My husband and I are applying to different programs at the same universities and often have different requirements. At some schools one of us will have to submit the gre and the other will not, one will have to have official transcripts and the other can send unofficial. This is the same for my current program which does not require the gre when many programs at the university do. To say that departments cannot control their own requirements is ridiculous. Secondly, no english program reads your whole writing sample. At best they skim or read a small percentage as tie breakers, but I've been told by many faculty that writing samples, while important, are not closely read. I have no doubt that many large english programs receive quite a few apps, but we're being naive to assume most receive hundreds. I'm currently at MSU Wrac, a top program in rhet/comp, highly competitive and we received around 40 PHD applications this year. Lastly, it's perfectly fine to offer reasons for these decisions but often they feel like excuses to justify poor policy that could be changed if we talked about it more, brought it to the attention of our departments, demanded that they consider the consequences of those choices, and recognized the hypocrisy of fields which claim to care about social justice and systemic inequality and continue to participate in admissions practices that largely, negatively affect poor people. Just because there are potentially logical reasons for these choices ( to keep pools down, to lower labor costs, to comply with universities) doesn't mean the choices are ethical or efficient. This thread is actively giving personal accounts of how the application process failed them. This thread is also offerin suggestions for improvement. I don't know what benefit there is to making excuses for institutions which would not defend you. We are the most vulnerable and most abused in the hierarch of academic titles, why would we advocate for policies that don't benefit us?

I remember being in a professor's office, and they asked me if I was considering graduate school. I said I wanted to go, but I didn't even know where to start. The internet is so vast. I came to him with a list of schools (I'd really tried my best to do the research and figure out the programs). He asked me what I wanted to research, I told him the schools I picked out and he just said no. He gave me a list of 10 schools that would be a good fit for me. I didn't lack the ambition, I had good grades, I was a good writer, but I didn't know how it worked. I didn't know the keywords and field knowledge necessary to find a good fit. If he hadn't helped me, I'd probably be at a school that wasn't right for me. Note though: I was very lucky that he reached out and helped me through the process. According to U.S. News Rankings, Undergraduate academic reputation accounts for 22.5% of the ranking which is a combination of peer assessment surveys and counselor surveys. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/ranking-criteria-and-weights For English PHD programs: "U.S. News also ranks a variety of programs – including doctoral programs in science and social sciences and humanities, master's programs in public affairs and fine arts, and graduate programs in health-related fields – based solely on the peer assessment data from academics involved in that particular field."

I'm rhet/comp, so school rankings do not usually apply- but networking totally does. I got *very* lucky that I had two rhet/comp professors in my undergrad that were well connected. I didn't know they were, but later I realized my professors at my MA knew them, were fb friends, etc. I'm sure their LOR meant more than others, even if they said the same thing. In my field, it's rare to have an undergrad mentor in the field. I'm grateful for the help- I needed it, but not everyone is so lucky.

I also hate the generic response from programs "there are always fee waivers to help with the burden.".....How many? Seriously, count them. This is a blanket excuse that is really code for: maybe some random fee waivers exist, but I'm not going to help you find them. I think we should also recognize how (much like financial aid in general) many students do not know that the few waivers that do exist are available. They may qualify, but due to lack of mentorship (such as those from non-research schools) or first-gen (aka: no family to help or explain) they miss out.

Case in point: I'm applying to Georgia State- their rhet/comp pages all stated (explicitly) that they wanted two letters of recommendation. It said this in more than one place. I'm about to submit my app and decide to double check the catalogue requirements. It says 3. I have to contact the director. They say three too. Now I have to contact my third letter writer to see if they can write it and send it in. So much extra work. Please keep the policies up to date and clear. Please keep the website accurate. It saves everyone time.

Transparency please! We wouldn't grade our students without giving them rubrics or providing them with prompts, why do we treat the SOP like a mystic formula. Not everyone has the time to contact every graduate director for the inside scoop. Academia is full of required "volunteer" service activity used to justify tenure, pay raises, work, ect. We review articles for free, we do university service for free, serve on committees, etc. It's not fair, but that doesn't mean we should use unethical practices to lower the labor. Instead we should be changing the expectation that the work should be done free. It's not an applicant's fault that departments don't pay the admissions committee money for reviewing. That's the department's fault, maybe budget a few less pizza days or find althernative ways to honor and thank admissions committee members- but no program should use that as an excuse to enforce instutional bias against poor people.

There's a difference between the *intended* reasoning behind fees in a hope that it leads to more tailored applicants (this is the optimistic reasoning which we hope programs have) and the reality--which is that those with money generally have more resources and time to apply to far more programs thus increasing their chances of being accepted and increasing competition for those who can't afford more than a handful. We should also recognize that fit does not always mean research interests. There are many individuals who do not have the privilege of applying to just a handful of programs that are the best fit. Some applicants are limited geographically (perhaps limiting them to schools that even though aren't a perfect fit they would still thrive in), they have partners who they are applying with (thus narrowing their choices and simultaneously adding in another factor- both partners being accepted to the same school), they might have a weaker portion of their application such as spotty grades from when they were younger, gaps in their school due to family problems, health issues, or financial reasons, they may be unable to take a subject gre test (or even the regular gre) due to money or work schedules. they might have niche research interests that don't have a clear "fit" They might not have the resources, support, or mentorship at their undergrad to help them figure out what a good fit would be Applications are complicated. They take time and require a myriad of factors. When money is an issue or one of the above situations factor in, individuals would benefit from having lower application costs, because they'd be able to apply to more programs. My husband and I are both applying to programs. Of course I applied to programs that were a good fit for me, but some schools were a compromise (good fits, but not the best) because we both had to like the program. We also had to reduce the amount we applied to because of $$$. Had applications cost less, we could have afforded to throw one or two programs in that we loved, but didn't know if we were competitive enough for. Let's face it, there are programs we are great fits for, but on paper many institutions throw candidates out due to good, but not amazing GRE scores. I wanted to apply to Purdue so bad, but my husband's gre scores were not at their recommended score. Sure we could have risked it and applied as a reach school (a good fit, but not a sure thing), but we're barely could afford the schools we did apply to. We saved for months for these apps, and we didn't want to waste the money. Let's stop using fit and labor as an excuse for gatekeeping policies.

I think what makes me the most sour is how so many departments talk about promoting diversity and making education accessible and equitable, and yet they continue to stick with traditional, outdated application methods. I'm sure the answer is that it requires labor and time to change these systems, but I also feel like faculty are so distant from this process they have forgotten what it feels like- or else they remember and feel like it is something everyone should go through because they had to do it.

that's bullshit. That would be amazing, but even just a, "We expect that offers will be sent out on the third week of february. Offers will be sent out via email. Please ensure this email xxxx@xxx.com is saved in your inbox so that our letter is not sent to spam" If departments are so disorganized that they can't even provide that information, then they have no business holding graduate applicants (who have the least professional experience) to higher standards then they are held. You can't provide a date range for applicants? Well then you shouldn't be penalizing an applicant whose professor submitted a letter two days late. I mean, programs know whether they'll be calling or email. I should hope most have a projected date for decisions. Also, I had a friend whose acceptance email straight up went to spam a few years ago. She was accepted for weeks and didn't know until she contacted the department.

Haha, yes! I mean, why lie anyways? Wouldn't you be found out when you accept and have to send in official? What. Is. This? I didn't apply to Chicago, but you're telling me they send out 40 and then rescind 15 of the offers?.....on purpose?

and only let's you use pencils... I understand wanting to prevent students from just randomly applying to every school they are remotely interested in, but come on- some schools charge $80+ in addition to all the other costs involved (gre, subject tests, transcripts). Also let's ponder, where do these fees go? I know at my institution, faculty are not paid to review applications. It's all volunteer, sometimes grad students even help review. So where does the money go? How about if you get accepted they give you your fee back or we reduce the fees or provide fee waivers based on something other than my parent's income when I was in undergrad. Unless you're a McNair scholar, good luck paying for fees. I consider myself a strong candidate, and even I had to limit my schools down to 6. With mine and my husband's programs combined we spent a little under $1500 applying this year (and that was only bc I was able to use my gre scores from two years ago). Let's not even get started on the schools who take your money and never even give you a decision. 2 schools from my application season 2 years ago never even officially rejected me. These were top programs with top fees. There's no system to keep schools accountable after they take your money, and the anxiety over being professional keeps many of us from ever addressing the issue with directors or faculty at those programs.

Every school, "We consider all applicants holistically, we do not have any cutoffs for GRE scores....but........ successful candidates usually have xyz. Also unofficial scores will not be accepted" Translation, "We believe that a highschool level test with nonsense questions that is timed in a cold computer room that won't allow snacks will help us decide if you're prepared for graduate level work even though you're literally already sending us a cumulative record of all your college classes, a writing sample you spent months on, a personal statement that you crafted, and letters from professionals vouching for you...but yeah, we'd like you to spend another $200 + $27 for that numeric score"

UGH YES THE PORTALS. And the complication for LORs on portals. I had two schools that required me to submit *and pay* the application fee before it would send instructions to LOR. Which meant I had to send my application in a week or two early or else I risked having late letters. Some schools even have the graduate application portal and then some other department specific application that asks basically the same questions.

This is a general rant/reflection as the application season is nearing an end and the waiting is happened. I know a lot of us have started considering what we wish we did better, but I'd love to know- what do you wish programs did differently. Also, I'm sure this goes without saying- but I'm not bashing, just recognizing how stressful this process is and the places that schools could improve. I'll start us off. Just take the unofficial transcripts dammit. Don't make me pay $10+ dollars for each transcript that I have to send. Don't make me send paper copies. If you accept me, I'll happily go through the trouble. Quit with this community college bullshit. I just received an email from a program saying that once they receive an official transcript from a community college that gave me credit for a math class I took in highschool then my application will be complete. It was a dual credit class! It's listed on all my other transcripts and wasn't even taken at the college. Do you really care what I made in calculous 7 years ago? Do you really need that to review? Just give us the projected acceptance dates. Please don't make me crawl through the results page. Please don't give me anxiety checking the portals, email, mailbox... We're expected to turn in everything by a certain date and time. If our application is late, many schools won't even consider it. So I ask, why is this a one way street? We paid you the money, can't we at least know when we'll find out. What are your top 3 pet peeves of this application season?

Thank you! I very much agree that it was stressful, but my husband took two gap years while I finished my MA up and was ready to head back. He's thrilled with the acceptance right off the bat, as he had a stressful application season two years ago.

My rhet/comp people <3 I'm currently applying to PhD programs. I'm interested in the intersections of cultural and digital rhetorics especially in the context of digital storytelling. I'm currently at MSU WRAC and have been doing research on food rhetorics, identity formation, and literacy practices online. I'm also interested in visual rhetorics, multimodal composing, and technical writing. Similar to most MAs, I've got a lot of interests that seem a bit all over the place. I really feel like a cultural rhetoric lens is valuable for digital humanities research and that's where I see my future projects. Since I've been able to study cultural rhetorics quite a bit at MSU, I'm hoping to focus more on digital rhetorics in my PhD. I'm looking for programs with opportunities to teach technology-focused classes (like technical writing, professional writing, or user experience and design) and collaborate digital rhetoric/digital humanity projects to join. My requirements for programs were that it had to be a rhet/comp degree (not a lit degree with a few rhet/comp classes), and that there had to be scholars open to both digital and cultural rhetorics (not all people in the field recognize or support those methods). My husband is also applying this year (not for rhet/comp, but for biomathematics and physics) so we also narrowed down to programs he was interested in and that we believed were a good fit for us. We also agreed that we would prefer to move South rather than further North, bc I hate the cold (or else I would totally apply to Michigan Tech). Oh and we only picked schools in lower-cost of living area with at least decent stipend histories. We're applying to the following programs: Michigan State Florida State University Virginia Tech Georgia State University Miami (of Ohio) Texas Christian University I'm dying bc according to most results, most of my programs will be notifying mid-February- March so I've got some waiting to do.

Georgia State isn't due until March (I want to say 3rd?)

I would reach out to program directors at target schools and see what they say. I'm Rhet/Comp which has some different standards and expectations than lit, while most people in my MA/PhD program came from an English program, others came from different backgrounds (with some coming from philosophy, psychology, or anthropology departments). I know for a lot of lit programs the subject test is considered as part of the application. Studying and scoring well on the subject test could be a way of demonstrating that you could keep up in a lit program. Your writing sample will also be key to demonstrating your literature knowledge. Basically your application just needs to prove that you are (1) a good fit for their program and that (2) you will do well in graduate school. If your gre, writing sample, and personal statement all show your interest in literature and that you've done your research on the field and the school then you've proved those two things. For a MA program especially, your bachelors degree will be very unimportant if you can do those things. With that being said. Taking some classes if you have the time and can afford to is never a bad thing. Enjoying literature as a hobby and devoting time to it as a site of research are very different. A few upper level lit classes might help you decide if it's right for you.

I think if you have the time and want to ask questions, start conversations, ect- then it won't hurt you. However, I also think it won't hurt you if you don't reach out either. @jrockford27 is probably right that many POIs will not be on the admissions committees, in which case that professor will not have any influence on decisions. The only case where it will hurt is if a program's instructions say to reach out to a certain person. I'm in rhet/comp and a good example of this is Clemson's RCID application instructions that specifically say to reach out to Victor Vitanza (their director). After speaking with a current grad student there she said it was very important to do so, as he has the strongest vote on the committee and all the other applicants will have reached out...blah blah blah. This is not a common instruction however. Personally, I've reached out to several people at programs I'm applying to, but only really when I had a genuine question or some sort of connection. One of my professors, for example, put me in contact with an alumn who was a faculty member at a university I'm applying to. Another example would be me reaching out to faculty member at a conference I was attending. I thought, why not. I'm trying to network anyways and I can learn more about their program and put a face to the name. Plus it gives you the chance to see if you jive with the ppl you want to work with. Sometimes it worked out really well (attending a panel where I happened to sit next to the graduate director of a program) other times it was more awkward (cue: long phone calls that should have lasted 5 minutes). Overall, I think the best contacts are not because the committee remembers you, but because you gain insight and information that better informs your decision to apply and your application.

My chair advised me that if I submitted a portion of my thesis as a writing sample, that it should be annotated at the beginning with an explanation of what the sample is and why you are showing that part. Why not write a short paragraph stating: this writing sample is a portion of my thesis. Due to length requirements, I have chosen this sample to demonstate....xyz... This sort of framing will not only give the committee a preview and summary (let's face it most people skim the writing sample), but it will mean they'll have no doubt about what the sample is or why it feels disconnected/incomplete, ect.

If the app is already turned in (and due) I would just let it go. Unless they are reviewing blindly (which I don't think is common?) this information shouldn't hurt you. I'm sure most programs assume your writing sample is either the result of a course or part of your thesis (in fact some programs prefer that your sample is from a class). It seems like a minor thing that won't really matter in the long run. Imagine a program that doesn't accept someone because they left a heading on their writing sample- who would want to be in a program anyways that values formatting over content? *Also: if you took the class with someone well known in the field, who knows that might not be a bad thing to have at the top of your paper

So I just saw you received notice, but I thought I'd share my own experience with this. When I was applying for my MA there were two programs (out of my 7) that I never received notice from. No waitlist notification. No rejection. I contacted the program and was told several times that they were "still making decisions." Needless to say that I never received a decision and assumed this was a rejection. However, this was March and it's December now. I think it's safe to assume those programs might have notified the people who were definitely not getting accepted and may have extended some interviews (for whatever reason: most competitive applicants, applicants they were on the fence about, fellowship nominees, who knows). Different departments have different admissions methods and might extend invitations on a rolling basis or in stages. For anyone else waiting, try your hardest not to worry* *Note: this is coming from someone who is still freaking out everytime I hear about an acceptance for my programs