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This x1000 You can still do it but you have to be really excellent now. It's just not going to be given to you on a silver platter anymore, like it was for past professors, and professors won't understand because they were handing out TT jobs like candy in the previous millennium. All of my letter writers had TT jobs lined up before they got their PhDs because it was a good job market back then. Now the job market is awful, and applicants -- you know -- actually have to publish articles, present at conferences, develop scholarly manuscripts or look like they're going to, etc. I think we all know those associate professors who coasted to tenure, published little, and work half work weeks sipping martinis on the quad chatting up undergrads, but that is not a reality any longer. Those professors were a product of a good job market. I think we'd all love their lax lives, but it is just not available to us any longer. Basically, it's worth attending a lower-ranking program if you intend to be good at your job.

You can also email and ask them. They are there to help you put together the best application. I found UCSB's 10 page limit to be peculiar. They may actually want to read the whole thing and get tons of apps, which is why they have such a small limit. Still, 10 pages is more like an undeveloped conference presentation than a polished PhD writing sample.

https://www.bankrate.com/career/most-valuable-college-majors/ By "valuable," they mean salary and unemployment rates. For me, I believe the job market changes over time. Twenty years ago, rhet/comp had amazing placement with small class sizes and loads. Now, you're lucky if you're not grading stacks of 100+ essays every 2 weeks. You really do, nowadays, have to commit to the idea that even with a PhD from a top-20, you may very well be a freeway flier teaching freshman comp x5 forever. I, personally, would (and have) found great value in rhet/comp and teaching freshman comp because you can have an extremely positive influence on students' lives. What is everyone's thoughts on their degree's "usefulness?"

Depends on the program, but you should be fine. AW is the least important because they can see your writing in the writing sample and SOP. Your verbal and Quant scores are both excellent for English PhD applicants. If I were you, I would apply to many top 20 programs.

The AW score matters the least. Your SOP and writing sample will show how good you are as a writer, not your AW score. (I say this as someone who scored a 6 on AW.) Your GRE scores are impressive -- a 330 is excellent for any program in any discipline. I would definitely not worry about the GRE at all.

Focus on the positives (your acceptances). For the rejections, think of it in terms of if you were applying to medical school. The acceptance rates for PhD programs in English and medical schools are low. Many med students go to less prestigious programs and become respected doctors. Many English PhDs go to less respected programs and get tenured positions. Granted, you are not looking at the same salary or employment opportunities, but people always get rejections and bad news in their lives. It is all about how you respond to it and about falling forward, not backward.

I would definitely apply to some funded MA programs.

Thanks everyone! Two of the schools I'm planning to apply to don't even want the scores, but then a few others expect a higher score than what I have. My GRE scores are honestly bizarre and I tried too hard on the AW and Q.

Thank you! I do certainly agree that performing well on the GRE really does not "prove" much and my time would be better spent writing and teaching than taking the test. I still think that my scores would be considered mediocre for some programs and low for the elite programs. As you said though, there is really just so much more to a PhD applicant than GRE scores.

Ironically, the programs you were accepted to in your signature. What schools would you consider applying to? I am looking mainly at who publishes in the academic journals for games studies (Games and Culture, DiGRA, and the other digital rhetoric journals) and where they are located. I know! That is really the issue and why it tears at me. Two small points and I am 6 percentile ahead. I practice tested 3 years ago anywhere between 156 and 163. Part of the issue was I spent way too much effort on the writing portion. I wrote two 1,000 word essays because the writing score was what my MA program was going to look at mainly. I was so drained when I got to the actual test afterward. I needed to better prepare for stamina than I did. Also, I put more than enough effort into the math. I also had some sleep deprivation. However, I think that these are mainly just excuses. If I look at my SAT and ACT scores, I do score in the high 90s in writing portions and in the 80s in verbal portions.

Yes, I've looked at rhet/comm programs, and I do intend to apply to a few that mesh particularly well with my scholarly interests. I just wonder, though, whether it would hurt me on the job market vs. an English or Rhet/Comp PhD. The Rhet/Comm and Rhet/Digital Media programs actually produce exactly the same scholarship that I would like to do, so they are arguably a better fit. I have seen professors transition from having an English PhD to doing rhet/comm and digital media, but I do not know about the opposite. My scholarly interests are the teaching of writing, history of rhetoric, rhetorical theory, video game studies, and new media studies. The last two certainly apply more to comm and digital media, while the former three are more relevant to rhetoric and English/ Another point is that I really do want to teach FYW, and some of the Digital Media and Comm programs focus more on RAships than TAships for FYW.

Thank you for your comments, Warelin! I have some questions, and if you wouldn't mind replying, I would really appreciate your thoughts. I am. I was considering applying to both Rhet/Comp programs and also English programs that have a specialization in Rhet/Comp. What I want to know is, what ranking list are you referring to for rhet/comp? I want to make sure we are both pulling from the same places. Finding English PhD rankings is quite easy, but rhet/comp is more difficult. I am relying, mainly, on who publishes in the big journals, who is at the conferences, and who has made major contributions to the field. I am also focusing on schools with professors with similar research interests. To me, it is almost as important, although from what I've seen, placement is largely based on how high ranked you attended. Yes, I have looked through the academic journals and professor interests for many programs and intend to apply to schools with professors who will appreciate my non-ac prolific writing. Thank you for reinforcing this! I did not do this as much when applying for my MA, but it turns out that the professors who will provide me my strongest LORs now are the professors who are really impressed by my prolific non-ac writing and who have academic interest in it. This is extremely important; thank you so much for bringing this up. Such an excellent point! Yes, I do suspect that I will need to be highly adaptable for FYW at my PhD program. When I apply, I do have to highlight my strengths as a teacher, but I also have to show that I will teach FYW to their expectations and that I can adjust to their expectations. I have had two very different writing program experiences from a student at my UG to a teacher at my MA program; they both taught FYW and writing in general totally differently. Maybe highlighting that will help? My UG taught writing more as a general program and a WAC model, while my MA program (where I teach FYW) teaches strictly rhetoric and writing. I do not really have a preference, although I do teach the rhetoric and writing extremely well according to senior faculty members and my students. Yes, I do suspect is it is more of a sample size issue. Also, the results section typically does not have many important parts of the application (LORs, WS, experience, etc.). Still, it's kind of scary seeing so many rejections with 4.0s and 95%+ verbals. Thank you so much, Warelin!

Thank you! I do agree that the other parts of my application certainly show my worth. The GRE appears to me, for a lot of adcoms, to be more of a box-checking thing. Thank you! I will. I had always thought about it, and my thesis advisor certainly thinks I could do it. Yes, I agree. Thank you for your comment.

Hey everyone! I know this question has been asked before, but I wanted to know if I should retake the GRE and what my chances are for rhetcomp and English PhD programs. In my eyes, you all have a lot of experience with admissions, and I highly value your input. These are my GRE scores: Verbal: 158 (80%) Quant: 153 (50%) AW: 6.0 (99%) My GPAs: UG: 3.35 (top 10 public university; 3.7 J/S GPA; 3.1 English GPA, 4.0 Writing GPA, 3.8 Psychology GPA) MA: 4.0 (respected program; most graduates who go before PhD adcoms have 3.8s and 3.9s and have been accepted to my targeted programs) My experience: I work as a university lecturer at my MA college (a top 50 public university). I was nominated for a teaching award (one of only 40 out of 1600 faculty members at my school), and my student evaluations are much higher than department/class/school average (around a 4.8 out of 5.0 with an 80% response rate and glowing qualitative comments). I am an extremely prolific writer. My writing has been read millions of times, and I have won many discipline-specific awards. It is niche online writing, however. I write professionally, but I love teaching more. I have spearheaded the development of a course for the writing program, including drafting syllabi, creating teaching materials, going before councils, etc. My developed teaching materials for FYW are taught as "standard" for the new GSIs at my university. I am working on publishing a chapter for a textbook that will be used for FYW at my college. Would have extremely strong LORs, a strong WS (my thesis) relevant to the discipline, and potentially a forthcoming presentation at a top conference. I want to know whether I should spend time on the GRE or put my efforts elsewhere. I would much rather try to publish now and work on conference presentations than try to score higher on the GRE verbal, which just feels like a waste of my time. However, I do not want to get rejected from a school just because I scored an 80% on a verbal score that I took 3 years ago. On some level, I hope that my 99% on the writing would make up for a lower verbal, but I know how important the verbal score can be in "weeding out" applicants. I know that scoring high on the verbal is a rite of passage. In addition, I do feel that my experience, WS, and LORs will make up for a slightly low GRE. The programs I am considering apply to are mostly 20-60th ranked programs (depending on ranking system). I guess really what I want to ask is am I crazy for thinking so much about the GRE? Most of the schools would just love to have me teach FYW on a graduate student pay scale and would marvel at my non-ac writing experience. Also I'm wondering whether I should apply to top 20 programs. My UG GPA is also low and my English GPA is even lower. I would hope that a high J/S GPA would make up for this and a perfect MA GPA would help. When I look at the results section though, everyone seems to have a perfect MA GPA and a 90%+ Verbal and many get rejected. Please let me know what you all think.

How many times have you taken it? If you've only taken it once before, I think you should definitely take it again. If you've already taken it a few times, then you should work on another part of your application.