KappaRoss

@imsocorkyyIt was very helpful, thank you so much!

@Aequorea Thank you, that was a very informative post. I'm going down next week to look at the school and surrounding area. It sounds like finding a house on craigslist is probably the best move. From what I've seen, most of the apartments near SDSU charge really high rent, and the ones that don't have terrible reviews. Of the areas close to SDSU, which are the best to look at? Also, is SDSU parking really as bad as they say? Most of my classes will be in the afternoon.

If I were you, I would apply to more than 10 unless you are certain you're going to get into at least one and with good funding. Good luck to you!

Depends. Generally, the advice is not to do an unfunded MA, but it really does depend on your specific situation. As you said, the other MA students are perfectly fine with the debt. What rising_star said rings true for most graduate students. You don't want to be saddled with even more debt if you don't have to be. But still, it depends on your situation, how much you're willing to go into debt, what you think your chances are for getting a funded offer the next cycle (as you may very well not), how long you are willing to wait to get the degree (the longer you wait, the more money you miss out on anyway as you do the English BA job dance), how prestigious the program is and whether you are willing to sacrifice that for money, and how willing you are to put yourself out there for another admissions cycle with no guarantee of getting into a good offer from anywhere. I remember I was downvoted for saying that students should chose happiness over money, with happiness being how much you like to be at the program, how good of a fit it is, and whether you are willing to painfully wait another year to attend graduate school. So, it depends on your situation of course. But most people would say take a fully funded offer anywhere, as it does not matter where you get your MA if you're going to do a PhD anyway.

I thought this thread was about how the GRE was a lie. =]

I disagree. I think two years of classroom teaching experience looks better than one year of classroom teaching experience on job applications. The more actual experience you have, the better the chance you have of landing a job. Think about it from the employer's perspective. Would you rather hire a fresh grad with one year of classroom experience or two years of experience? You are absolutely correct though that it kind of cheapens the initial teaching experience and throws you into it, though most students seem to do OK. In a perfect world, you would take classes and gain an actual educational background of teaching before you actually teach. This is logical sense and why teaching credential programs do not have you teach your own class as soon as you step foot into the program. But for graduate school in English, putting students to work is cornerstone to universities. A line of grad students teaching English 1 to high-tuition freshman students saves a lot of money for the school.

You're very welcome. I would also suggest that you look at this board: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/43-literature-and-rhetoric-and-composition/ It's basically the English board on this website. Full of users who are already in graduate school or who are going to apply like yourself. You can lurk around there and find a lot of meaningful information.

That's an amazing quantitative score for an English program. It's too bad they normally just look at the verbal. A combined 326 is pretty darn good. Maybe a take a breather during the math section, to conserve for the verbal? Kidding, kidding. Try your hardest on each section. If the schools normally accept applicants with 166-170s, then I guess you should shoot for that. You don't want to get rejected just because you were a few points below par on a dumb test, and it would give you peace of mind knowing if you could do better or not. Just make sure it doesn't detract from other parts of your application. If you're still in school, you should be making meaningful connections with professors to procure good letters. What did you score on the practice tests? Did you score higher or lower than 162? Also, people generally do better the second time they take the test. So, if that was your first time, you might see some improvement just from less test anxiety and more familiarity with the test center and the procedure of the test. And of course, knowing a few choice vocab words can make a difference on your score. I guess I would take the test again. It feels to me like you're a good test taker (especially from your quantitative score) and it sounds like you think you could score higher if you drill vocab and practice questions more. But again, it's not an essential part of the application. What's way more important is the writing sample, research interests, awards, letters of recommendation, and GPA.

That's the 90th percentile, which is usually around the "cutoff." It depends on the program and your application. If you have a high GPA, great LORs, SOP, and experience, then it won't hurt you. A 162 will not help you get into a top English PhD program, but it won't hurt you very much either if your entire app is otherwise stellar. I would advise that you look at the results board and see what the scores were for people that were accepted into the programs that you want to apply to. How did you score on the writing and the quantitative? The quantitative is not looked at really at all, but if it's really low like it is for some English majors, your overall GRE score could be too low for university-wide scholarships. This is usually a low cutoff though, like 300. If you think you can score higher on the verbal, then you should probably take it again. If you think 162 is your peak, then I'd focus on more important components of your application. If you don't know, then also consider how you did on your practice tests.

Take a year off and try to figure out what you want to do. That's what I did. If your initial interest was journalism, I would get a job doing that. You can just try it out and see if it's for you. If you want to write fiction, perhaps an MFA would be a better fit. How did you like your undergrad Creative Writing classes? Literature, journalism, and creative writing are usually three separate programs. Try to figure out which one is most for you. The best way to do this is to get actual experience doing it. As far as your low GPA, you are still a junior. Get all A's from now on -- that's without question. You should aim for a 4.0 for your whole senior year so you show an upward trend. I had a low GPA, similar to yours, and I was able to raise it during my last year.

Yeah, it's pretty different for an MA. The general advice is to go to the school that gives you the most funding. This is because you can get an MA at any state school and still go to basically any PhD program. So, you can have different criteria for MA programs, and you can more heavily factor things such as location and support. And of course, support is actually really important in an MA program if your plan is to pursue a PhD afterward.

Finally rejected from the program I've been waiting on for 20 days. Kinda salty since it took so long because the department delegated the rejection duty to the school. Would probably not want to go to a school that alienates/frustrates its rejected applicants. The results board is full of salt and whine because the department didn't even have the decency to notify rejected applicants until almost a month later. I was, however, accepted to three out of five programs, as well as one of my top choices. It's more prestigious than the aforementioned program, but not as funded. I wish everyone else well in this admissions cycle!

Fit, placement, and funding. The others seem somewhat minor and transient in comparison (weather, summer funding, congeniality).

Still waiting on the last one, been weeks now. I see loads of rejections in the department but it's a different area. They're general graduate school rejections, not even from the department itself, which might be why the wait is so long. This is really driving me crazy. I hope they make a decision soon. They sent out some acceptances three weeks ago.

And as I said in the other thread, I think you should apply to PhD programs. I'm not familiar with NYU, but I think you should apply to several programs and go to the one that fully funds you. I see on the results board that NYU applicants typically have high GRE scores, but there are other things you can focus on. It sounds like you've got some experience at NYU with classes you've had, and it will definitely help that you did your thesis on one of the professor's research. To stand out at NYU, I would make sure the writing sample is a fit for that professor. I would try to retake the GRE for a higher verbal. And don't underestimate your teaching experience, as you will be most likely teaching a freshman English/composition class while you are there. I'm pretty sure your main hiccup was that you don't have LORs. Perhaps you can take more summer classes and get those LORs. Try to work on your application between now and Fall. Obtain good LORs (which is not easy) and study hard for the GRE. The writing sample and SOP are also vitally important; you can use the LOR professors to look over these things to make them even better.

Thanks :-D I figured it wouldn't be as known here, but Bob Ross is amazing Great to watch him while waiting for decisions ha

I think you could take the GRE again. It's not a vital part of the application, but if you could bump the verbal up to 90%+ and keep the writing score you'd be good to go. You're only like 10% away from 90%.

Waiting and waiting for a decision from my last school. It's agony. Checking email/portal 20 times a day. I'd go if I got in. There is an acceptance for the school on the results board from 20 days ago, but I haven't received anything from them yet.

Anyone know any good places near SDSU that don't cost $900 to share a room? Looks like the rent is outrageous near SDSU for even double occupancy, and it sounds like the transit system/traffic/parking is horrible. Where's a good place to get a room that doesn't break the bank? It'd be nice to pay 800-900 for my own room and near campus, but that sounds impossible from looking at apartments and Craigslist.

I'm in the same boat as you, but I've already applied for Fall 2016 rhetoric/composition MA programs. You can teach writing at the community college level with an MA, but make sure you get experience teaching freshman comp while you are getting your MA. This is really important because when you go on the job market, employers will generally want at least one year of experience teaching on the level. So, only look at schools that offer teaching opportunities for MA students. Your MA should always be at least partially funded in your specific situation. Schools will offer teaching assistantships because you want to teach freshman comp and they need graduate students to teach freshman comp. You're not going to be working for free. A good example is Oregon State's MA program, which offers a two year teaching assistantship if you are funded. It comes with a tuition waiver and a living stipend. But a lot of state schools might want you to take a class in teaching writing first, which means you'll only get one year of teaching writing. This can hurt a little when looking for jobs. I applied to only five schools, but I wish I would have applied to more. I suggest applying to many schools and going to the one that offers a full teaching assistantship. This is a decent place to scope out programs, especially PhD programs if you are considering that: http://associationdatabase.com/aws/RSA/pt/sp/resources_gradprograms But also lots of state schools offer an MA in English with a complete focus on composition. It's much more cost efficient to go to one of these state schools, and lots of them aren't on that program list. They might also have Spring admissions, which I see is your target season from your profile. @ProfLorax Great information; you are a fantastic poster on this forum. I did not know about Fullerton's online certificate program. I wish I would've done that while I am waiting for Fall 2016 to arrive.

Only thing you can do is wait, and I'd advise that you wait until you make a final decision.

Tell them this. One of my professors had a TA who was constantly questioned because he was not in the department. He was a gender studies grad student and it was an English class. I swear it felt like some students were planning a mutiny against him because he gave them an A-. "It's an A paper," "he hasn't even read the book before," "he doesn't know anything about English," the list went on. Felt like they were dreaming up a class-action lawsuit. The next time papers were graded, the professor made sure to mention that she convenes with all TAs before grading and that they graded the papers together to make sure they were on the same page. And most importantly, she said that if someone had any questions with a grade, they were free to go to office hours to speak to her. The key is "go to office hours" -- most students will whine to a TA or in email, but it takes some effort to go to office hours, especially a professor's office hours. Also, I had another professor who probably had some of the same problems earlier in his academic career. What he said was that if you think there is "a grading error," you can come to talk to him. But then he said that, in all his years of teaching, he has almost never found "a grading error" and that he sided with his TAs 99.999% of the time (he was a statistics in social science teacher). You shouldn't have to alter your teaching style or even create avenues where the student can petition a grade. Instead, you should stress that it's the same grade the professor would give.

Toward the end of my undergraduate career at UCD, I lived in Woodland and commuted to the school. The commute is painless and there is never any traffic on the highway. For Sacramento however, there can be quite a bit of traffic on 80. I do not know how much of the stipend you are going to put towards rent. My family does some property management in Sacramento, and $800 can get you a full house in some parts there. Just looking on craigslist for houses would be what I would do. I recommend Davis or Woodland over Sacramento, however. You might be able to find a room in Davis that allows bigger dogs. It might end up being on the far side of town, but everything is easily bikeable in Davis. Also, what type of pet is it? Some landlords have insurance which does not allow certain breeds. Finally, if it is a house, you can still inquire about the place, especially if they do not seem firm about a no-pet policy. The fact that you are a graduate student with guaranteed money can help your cause. Generally though, I would advise against Sacramento. There are some really bad areas there. We actually manage some property in those bad areas, and while they are getting better, they are in a completely different world than Davis.

I agree with what fuzzylogician has said about what to do -- tell them that you really want to go but that you can't attend without funding, and do not compare yourself to other applicants when you do this. Unless you know the applicant's SOP, CV, LORs, and full life story, you simply do not know enough. Maybe they were a bestselling author or they invented Velcro. And even if they didn't, you are questioning the committee's judgment and also tarnishing the applicant. Not so sure about this blanket statement. I think it depends on the area of study, program, and level. For the GRE it might ring true, but we would be remiss if we said that GPA was not an extremely important factor for many programs. All things considered, GPA is really the only transparent yardstick that admissions committees have to determine whether an applicant can succeed in the classroom. Some schools also have GRE cutoff scores for university-wide aid. In the OP's scenario, however, it appears like we're splitting hairs. A point less on the GRE is not going to factor majorly into a decision on funding.

You put in a lot of work to be there, though.