Isocrates2.o

Something that helped me was to email a particular professor ahead of time about the work they've published. Something along the lines of "I was intrigued by your treatment of X in your essay X...." Academic writers work incredibly hard on the intricate process of publishing an article, and then often receive an underwhelming and oftentimes non-existent response from readers in the disciplinary community. Sending these emails demonstrates at least three major items about you: 1. That you keep up on disciplinary literature, 2. That you're interested and invested in that subdiscipline (Object-oriented ontology in Victorian literature; Community literacy in Rhet/Comp, to name two), and 3. That you have a distinct interest in that scholar's particular work. 
After doing this, ideally ahead of time, feel free to mention that you're considering their graduate program for MA/PhD work. Only after. Tell them a bit about yourself, and mention your interests. They'll ideally be able to tell you if you're a fit or not. 
Do this MONTHS ahead of the grad application's due date. It's a low-risk way to get your name out there, at the very least. It helped me get into two top-tier grad programs. 

@Isocrates2.o
I'm a current MA student in Comm at Clemson though I'm not in that rhetoric comm program (I'm in dept of Comm, and the rhetoric program is in dept of English). I don't know their program a lot but I know some of their PhDs also collaborate with professors in my dept. I highly recommend Clemson as a nice place to live! Here is rural but I love here A LOT. Housing is very cheap here and you never have to deal with bad traffic cuz we are a small town. We are 1 hr driving to Greenville, 2 hr driving to both Atlanta and Charlotte so it's still convenient to shop and take flights, etc. Weather is awesome, we get snow maybe once or twice a year. 

So I officially accepted my offer at Texas Christian University. For future rhet/comp ppl who are lurking or applying for their PhD next year, if you are interested in New Media studies, multimodal work, or food rhetorics I would highly recommend the program. I just visited last week and found the department to be very welcoming and the stipend is very competitive to the other offers I received.
For anyone waitlisted, I'm declining offers today at Miami University, Virginia Tech, Georgia State, and Florida State. Hope this helps someone out! 

Oh, how to choose between a program with a 100% TT job placement rate and a dream program (and perfect fit) in my research field.  Anyone out there in the same pickle as I am? 

So, last year I was rejected from every PhD program that I applied to. My thesis advisor presented me with two options: give up on academia, or commit to some serious reading over the course of the year. What he told me to do was simple: read the past five years of the major rhetoric and composition journals. 
Obviously, you don't have that much time. My recommendation is to read as much of CCC (College Composition and Communication) and College English as you can. These journals are the most prestigious in the field, though they're not specified to a particular sub-discipline within rhet/comp. Once you understand the general outline of the discipline, ie. the major debates scholars are still arguing about, you can specify the journals you're reading into those tackling only your specialty, such as those dedicated to queer rhetorics, etc. 
If you can show up on day 1 and make references to the major theorists in the field (Burke, Elbow, Flower....), imposter syndrome won't be quite so resolute. 

So, last year I was rejected from every PhD program that I applied to. My thesis advisor presented me with two options: give up on academia, or commit to some serious reading over the course of the year. What he told me to do was simple: read the past five years of the major rhetoric and composition journals. 
Obviously, you don't have that much time. My recommendation is to read as much of CCC (College Composition and Communication) and College English as you can. These journals are the most prestigious in the field, though they're not specified to a particular sub-discipline within rhet/comp. Once you understand the general outline of the discipline, ie. the major debates scholars are still arguing about, you can specify the journals you're reading into those tackling only your specialty, such as those dedicated to queer rhetorics, etc. 
If you can show up on day 1 and make references to the major theorists in the field (Burke, Elbow, Flower....), imposter syndrome won't be quite so resolute. 

So, last year I was rejected from every PhD program that I applied to. My thesis advisor presented me with two options: give up on academia, or commit to some serious reading over the course of the year. What he told me to do was simple: read the past five years of the major rhetoric and composition journals. 
Obviously, you don't have that much time. My recommendation is to read as much of CCC (College Composition and Communication) and College English as you can. These journals are the most prestigious in the field, though they're not specified to a particular sub-discipline within rhet/comp. Once you understand the general outline of the discipline, ie. the major debates scholars are still arguing about, you can specify the journals you're reading into those tackling only your specialty, such as those dedicated to queer rhetorics, etc. 
If you can show up on day 1 and make references to the major theorists in the field (Burke, Elbow, Flower....), imposter syndrome won't be quite so resolute. 

It's worth a shot. I know the UB English department (got my MA there two years ago) and they typically are more than happy to help out with travel assistance with possible grad students. They also host massive wine and cheese parties with the members of the department. So, not something I'd want to miss, haha. 

@Isocrates2.o congrats!
@whitmanifesto  I'm so glad I have four more years on my parents' health insurance. That's just one more thing I don't think I'd be able to handle.

I got accepted with funding to NC State yesterday (2/20).

Woo hoo! I'm in at NC State's RCDM program w/ teaching!
Wishing the best to all the other NC State applicants. If anyone else plans to visit or is accepted to the program, feel free to message me! 
 

Woo hoo! I'm in at NC State's RCDM program w/ teaching!
Wishing the best to all the other NC State applicants. If anyone else plans to visit or is accepted to the program, feel free to message me! 
 

Woo hoo! I'm in at NC State's RCDM program w/ teaching!
Wishing the best to all the other NC State applicants. If anyone else plans to visit or is accepted to the program, feel free to message me! 
 

I haven't heard anything from Penn State, but I applied to their English program. Response time should vary based on department.

So I grew up in StL. It is a neighborhood-based city, but great number of the metro area which is considered STL lives in the suburbs (50-60s white flight). This is changing to a certain extent, especially in the last 10-15 years, but it has also created a dialogue of safe and unsafe neighborhoods. This has been perpetuated both by the city population as a whole and institutions like SLU and WashU. So the result is that students tend to gravitate to the areas by campus that are considered "safe."
This being said, there are definitely areas that I, as a young person, would not want to walk through alone at night. These areas frequently border some of the most fun parts of the city too. My point is to take all the discussions of "safe/unsafe" areas with a grain of salt and go see the areas for yourself. 
But to your point about more "cultural areas": Cherokee street is the sort of LatinX and Mexican area of the city (though its small) its also a street with a lot of bars and STL style chill (small dance bars). The Grove (mentioned above) is STL's open queer scene (i.e. lots of gay bars and undergrads). The Hill (italian food and groceries); Benton Park=hipster-dom (but with a little money); Lafayette and Soulard are the French quarters (and excellent BBQ). The Loop used to be edgy and was the new area before the Grove (which was before Cherokee), but has been bought up a lot by WashU. Grand/ Tower Grove are my personal favorites- yummy variety of food and on the affordable side. Botanical Gardens are also in the area and close to SLU. Mid-town is kinda industrial, but has lots of theaters small for standup and large for broadway. New hip restaurants etc. Central West End is sorta the affluent closer to the city area, best indie bookstore in the city (Left Bank Books) and lots of Med students. ON the opposite end of Forest park from WashU. Wash Ave is the downtown "Night Out Street". A lot of "business types chill around there. 
My descriptions are generalizations-and I am sure I skipped some good ones-but it gives you an idea of the layout.

Yesssss congratulations!!!

I'm in at Miami! They sent me an email stating I'd have a decision posted to their online portal in 48 hours. Exactly 48 hours later, an acceptance! Happy to possibly join this program. Best of luck to everyone else. 

I'm in at Miami! They sent me an email stating I'd have a decision posted to their online portal in 48 hours. Exactly 48 hours later, an acceptance! Happy to possibly join this program. Best of luck to everyone else. 

FWIW, my department's secretary sent out a list of housing complexes students have used in the past, and here's the list:
Miami Village http://www.miami-village.com/
Oxford Commons http://www.oxfordcommons.net/
Oxford Real Estate www.oxre.com
Park Place Real Estate http://www.parkplacerealestate.net/12-13AvailabilityList.html
College Property Management http://www.collegepropertymanagement.com/index.shtml
Sundance Management http://www.sundancemanagement.com/pages/default2.asp?active_page_id=83
Fox and Hounds Apartments http://www.foxandhounds-apts.com/
Miami Properties http://studenthousingmgmt.com/miami/?page_id=4
Swift Rentals https://www.facebook.com/pages/Swift-Rentals/108872865864193 (This one is run by a VERY sweet family right in Oxford)
Hometown Rentals and CJ Management hometownrentalsinc.com/
CKC http://www.ckcrentals.com/index.html
South Campus Quarter http://www.southcampusquarter.com/
Century 21 http://www.c21thacker.com/site/
Also not on this list because this is an older list is Hawks Landing, http://www.hawkshousing.com/. 
Hope this can help some people out!!  

I got in to Miami as well! 

I'm in at UNC-Chapel Hill!!! This was my number one!!! Omg!!!

Hey gang. In preparation for what could be a brutal week, here's the Official Implied Rejection Anthem, courtesy of the 1990s:
 

Also NOT FAIR that the words "Submitted" and "Admitted" are so similar