cowgirlsdontcry

It's a math degree isn't it? Although it is pertinent to engineering, it's not engineering. And you feel you would rather get into this area because? Why change now and not get an advanced engineering degree unless you don't like it? You could spend your life going to school, gathering bits and pieces through fascinating degrees to yourself. If you want to be a perpetual student, then you should admit it and have fun doing it. If you want a career as an engineer, then go for the engineering Ph.D. If you want a career in management, then turn your eyes toward degrees that will create a manager out of the engineer you are. No one can make this decision but you.

Why do you believe you can obtain a Ph.D. in 4 years without a master's in place? I looked back at your initial post and you only indicate an undergrad degree. Virginia Tech's Engineering Ph.D. requires 90 hours, including dissertation. That would mean it will take 5-7 years to complete a Ph.D. in engineering. It seems you are all over the place with what you want to do. You have to go home at some point and do the required military stuff. With a degree in engineering you should have a choice of positions, although I don't have a clue about the requirements in your country. It's somewhat late to be trying to figure this out as it literally is the precipice for the fall semester. Do you really want to do computational research or is that an idea? Is it the same offer you have in engineering at VA Tech? Are you just trying to buy time to stay out of the military? These are all questions you need to really think about and answer for yourself. No one can do it for you.

I began searching for my MA thesis topic at the beginning of my MA. I made an A on it and two of my readers were very encouraging about several publishable papers coming out of the thesis. The title of it is "The Disillusionment of Cormac McCarthy" and it's 93 pages long. I have put so much time and effort into studying McCarthy, I plan to continue to do research and write about him for my dissertation. I was stressed to the max at times during the semester, but somehow dealt with the amount of work I had. I not only taught a class, but also was GA to a literature professor and met with all of his students requiring help with papers. Since my last post here, I have learned I have met all foreign language requirements, so that is now a non-issue, but the first year, I will still be taking 8 hours (6 of coursework and 2 of practicum for teaching) each semester. As far as being able to keep up with the work, I don't feel it will be that difficult even though the Ph.D. will step up the game again. This is a second career for me. I come from a background of being a paralegal/legal assistant for almost 20 years. Working in law firms, prepares one for working non-stop for 60 hours or so a week. I feel guilty when I slough off for a day, even though I do it. I work on something, almost all of the time. That is the key, I think, to getting the work done. Even if I'm not in the mood to write, there are always other things that need to be done in the way of research, reading, prepping for class or grading papers. Even so, the amount of reading required for classes is the most difficult to overcome. While I am a quick reader, reading 300+ pages from an author, plus several articles a week per class can be daunting. I have strategies to help with that. Other than that, it is simply the idea that I will rise to the expectations of me.

The majority of the English M.A. is a combination in person/online program, and it has students located around the world. It has been rated one of the top 10 online M.A. programs in the country as far as value for the cost. Because I lived in the area, I was a GA and got to know the professors individually, as it is not a large department. The English Department has a Post-Grad Certificate in "Writing for Business, Industry and Technology." They do have a pedagogy class that we took before teaching our own section of rhetoric/composition, but they do not have a specific pedagogy post-grad certificate. I'm not sure that I have seen a pedagogy certificate anywhere. The Ph.D. program I am beginning in the fall has one pedagogy class and two semesters of practicum that are required for teaching rhet/comp, that are more or less discussions about various issues encountered and how to deal with them. What I have learned thus far about teaching rhet/comp (and it's not much in the grand scheme of things), is that pedagogy classes are full of theory. That's fine to think about and it's usually required before you get to teach, but it takes actually teaching and discussing the issues with peers and professors to understand the ins and outs. Why don't you think about taking a pedagogy course from a school that offers it online, get to know the professor and talk to them about teaching rhet/comp online as an adjunct? You have the necessary qualifications and while it would add a burden to your load (not that gaining an additional certificate while you're writing dissertation wouldn't), you would gain valuable experience teaching that is necessary if you want a job in the future.

I heartily agree with being organized. Although I started out with a general spreadsheet, it quickly became onerous and once I realized that the programs I liked best were in the South, I changed focus. I looked for programs that were more generalized across the canon, American programs, that had some focus on Southern Lit. As I discovered those programs, I created a word doc and put information about the program (requirements, etc.) into them, ordering them by due date. I also elaborated on special things the program was looking for, with regard to SOP's, WS's, or even special documents. Several programs wanted a list of all of my English classes and grades (both undergrad and M.A.). Look at programs that you can adapt to fit your needs. You're unique and your research is unique. Advisors are there to keep you on track with your reading and research, but you are the expert on your topic. My M.A. thesis advisor told me this on several occasions, until I began to own it. Spaces exist throughout literature and some writers use them more. I would think that most Americanists have some sort of working knowledge about spaces and have written paper(s) on them because there are huge amounts of research on spaces. As an undergrad, I was in the discussion class of a Ph.D. student at UMass, whose dissertation was on spaces in 19th century Brit Lit. As I had taken classes where the 19th century authors had used spaces, she and I talked about that on several occasions. Just remember you are becoming a scholar on this idea and will be the expert.

You have a good story and worked very hard.

I can only tell you the story of my friends, as I am in the humanities. One received an undergrad degree in civil engineering, then got an MBA as his graduate degree. He works as a high level manager for a major engineering firm. Another person I know, received a chemical engineering degree and also went on to get an MBA. He is now a Sr. V.P. at a large oil and gas company. This is just my opinion based on what I have seen others do, but from having had a previous career, it seems that you are more interested in the management side of the business rather than day-to-day engineering. Therefore, you need the benefit of the MBA or some similar degree to enhance your engineering degree. Being a student is great because you learn so much, but just remember it takes time to work your way up the corporate ladder.

Really wondering, how many came into a Ph.D. program with a master's and how many came directly from undergrad? I think that the experiences we all had are valuable to undergrads as they begin to plan when to apply to master's and Ph.D. programs. When I started looking at English Ph.D. programs, I noticed there were quite a few combined programs that undergrads could apply to and skip the standalone master's degree. However, digging deeper into the websites, I would also come across statements like "as many as 25% of those accepted are BA only." As a result, I tested the water during my senior year with one application and was waitlisted and then went on to get an MA at my undergrad university. I applied to 9 programs last fall for entry this fall and was: accepted at 2, waitlisted at 2 (including, another waitlist from the same school as in my senior year), and rejected at 5. I accepted an offer from a school that has an MA prerequisite instead of a combined program and was excited to hear that 18 of my MA credits will transfer in, and I will be able to complete all classwork in 2 years before beginning to write dissertation. Most combined programs still take 6-7 years and I will be able to complete both MA and Ph.D. in the same amount of time. What I understand now, while I had to get an MA first, getting that MA greatly increased my viability as an applicant. It also allowed my critical thinking and writing skills to mature in an environment where I knew everyone that removed some of the stress. I was also accepted as a GA and the stipend was very welcome. What about your background and story?

Here's the equivalency concordance chart ETS puts out http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/concordance_information.pdf and here is the ETS percentile chart https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table1a.pdf. I don't think the links work but you can copy/paste. Good luck. PS The Percentile chart when you click it says not found, but try this page and see if it works. The link to the scores is on this page https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/scores/understand/

Oops!! Sorry I did post on the wrong forum.

OSU (Oklahoma State University) does not require the GRE. Some universities have lower requirements. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL) minimum GRE requirement is a 294 total score, however, the English Department requires a 308 if one is applying for a fellowship. I looked at department sites carefully, in addition to grad school sites. Sometimes departments will have additional requirements over and beyond the grad schools. I copied everything about each university I was interested in, into one document that I organized by Application Due Date rather alphabetically according to university. It was very handy when I was preparing the actual application. It's good to organize your work for the applications. I created a folder titled 2017 PhD Applications. Inside that folder I had folders for each university where I kept SOPs tailored to each university and various other things. I had one school I attended as undergrad many years ago that required a written request emailed to them requesting transcripts be sent to each school. Everyone is different in what works for them, but when you are applying to a number of programs, this is what worked for me.

All states, except Louisiana, operate under common law and equity. The basic elements of a contract are mutual assent, consideration, capacity, and legality. In some states, the element of consideration can be satisfied by a valid substitute. While I have not seen the form Why Not speaks of, I would assume that both parties have signed it. Consideration was provided in form of a stipend and/or waiver of tuition, etc. on the part of University A, while Why Not was to be given an education equivalent to (Masters or Ph.D.) and to provide reciprocal consideration as a Research or Teaching Assistant during his tenure as a student at University A. Both parties have official capacity to sign the contract, in that they represent either themselves or sign on behalf of the department/university. The legality of a document always concerns whether the parties have agreed to doing everything in a legal manner and does not involve doing anything to the detriment of either party. I was going to provide a link but couldn't get it to work. I had to sign a contract each year I was a master's student wherein I was given a stipend for my performing adequately both as a student and as a Graduate Assistant. There are also term limits in the contract as they cannot be open-ended. Although I was a GA both years, I was given a contract each year. I have signed both the offer letter and the accompanying detailed form for my Ph.D. program beginning in the fall, which together form a contract between me and the university. Edit: P.S. I was a paralegal for almost 20 years prior to deciding to gain a Ph.D. so I do understand contract law and what comprises it.

That form you signed is a binding legal contract. It protects both you and the school. Having said that, I don't believe any university would want to force a student to come there because it would not be a healthy situation for all involved. You do, however, need to write a formal letter to the department chair, copying the DGS and perhaps the dean of the graduate school. They need to respond similarly in order to void the contract. Just remember academia is a small world, if you plan on teaching, and professors have friends everywhere. Why don't you talk to your advisor about this?

It was not English except in the sense it was rhet/comp and other Freshman core classes, necessary for graduation. Thinking about what you say about literature not going out of style is true, but at the same time, critical essays have changed pretty drastically in the last 40 years because social and cultural objectivity has changed. We look at and analyze literature differently from ways in the past. I'm not saying that it couldn't be done, but I think it would mean having to learn a different way of thinking about the texts themselves, which might lead to some difficulty in grad school.

When I returned and got an undergrad degree I had about 22 credits that were 28 years old and they took them. Entering the MA program I attended I did read that grad credits expire after a certain amount of time. They also do not want the last foreign language class to be taken to be over 5 years old in areas of humanities that require them.

Great post Bill, especially about finding spots that fit with our interests and research. I am entering UA's Ph.D. lit program this fall. UA only admits a few outside the Strode Program, but they have a good number of Americanists among their faculty and a couple of Southern lit professors, both of which drew me. My area is contemporary American lit with a sub-genre of Southern lit and my thesis was titled "The Disillusionment of Cormac McCarthy." That will give you an idea where my scholarship interests lie. I'm very interested in the ways in which McCarthy challenges American ideologies, which then leads to study within early American writings, as well, to look at the beginnings of those ideologies. So I'm really all over the canon with my research and readings. I needed a school that had a more generalist feeling of the American text, which I believe I got. I will add to your idea about when to begin thinking about getting a Ph.D. Undergrad is not too soon to begin to think about getting a Ph.D. for an English major. Unless one is preparing to work in publishing or something similar (non-teaching), an English major should not stop at the master's level. One can only teach lower levels of English, with a master's, including rhet/comp or introductory classes of literature. That, in and of itself, is not going to satisfy the literature concentration person's thirst to discuss texts. As such, designing the BA to be geared toward an eventual Ph.D. in literature makes sense. Intense preparation in a single foreign language is also necessary. Many universities have gone to a requirement of a single language (although there are still two-language requirements around). UA just removed the two-language requirement so I no longer have to figure out how to get two additional semesters of intermediate Spanish ( I have six semesters of French and two of Spanish). If one knows they are going to apply to Ph.D. schools, the entire MA can also be geared toward it, as well. It's good to figure out what your thesis will be on and work on a chapter that will suffice as a WS for the Ph.D. apps and provide a chapter for the thesis. Make sure that you discuss in the SOP how the WS is a chapter of your thesis and fits within your research goals. I think that committees like to know a student can write a thesis and will then be able to write a dissertation. During the writing of the dissertation is when most students abandon the quest for a Ph.D. Knowing that you can put a thesis together is important for consideration of the overall greater picture of getting admitted to a Ph.D. program. Don't know what you really want to focus on for a thesis as you begin your M.A.? Most of us don't have a clue, but gain a perspective in that first year and start reading. If the focus is too large, then you have to find a way to narrow it to a manageable one. Save the big picture for the dissertation. You can't begin to discuss something like the origin of the American text in a 100 page document (like I imagined I could ). However, you can discuss one tiny corner through an author like McCarthy, becoming fascinated with the author in the process and decide that author deserves some serious scholarship.

This is how I handled my thesis. I knew what books of a particular author I was going to write on, with each taking a chapter. I kept chapters separate and wrote on each as a separate paper but connected. I planned to a certain extent when I would write and concentrated on getting a draft of a complete idea down before stopping, whether that was one paragraph or three pages. Once I had all chapters completed, I went back through the chapters relating similarities and connecting them to other chapters. When I work on that particular aspect, I do not stop until I have completed the whole chapter because relational ideas that connect to other chapters usually take 2-3 hours max. Sometimes the problem with scheduling writing time is that your mind is not ready to delve into the task, because some aspect of your thoughts haven't come together to form the critical thinking necessary for writing about a particular aspect. When that happens I use the time I had set aside for writing, to edit and revise other completed ideas I had already worked on. When I have a brilliant thought about something, I plug it into Siri as a note so that when I have time to write about it, I still have access to my idea. Sometimes those ideas come when writing something I will lose if I stop. Making a note using Siri is a way to lose no more than a few seconds and your current writing topic won't get muddled. Although I try to write sequentially, my mind often dictates what I write on. Therefore, only the barest of outlines works for me. I write as I think about things then move the sections around when the chapter is finished. The way I write could be seen as somewhat scrambled, but I work best when creativity hits me. Due to time constraints I have to schedule writing sessions, so work on ideas as I think about them or refer back to my notes. Otherwise, I use the scheduled time to do things that do not rely on creativity and textual analysis.

Maybe it's just me, but I really feel that part of my job is to help my students learn to be an adult and that means confronting things like cheating and knowing that they can do better. Zero tolerance teaches nothing but intolerance. My student got away with nothing. He still had to completely write a new essay. I did not allow him to even write upon the same subject. The rest of the essays he wrote for the semester, while they had some grammar problems because of his English, they were his work.

The same as all of the others! Some universities allow instructors to show mercy if it's appropriate and they believe the student can change. I made such a call because a student's life could have been ruined if I had summarily chosen to give him a F without another chance to do the work.

I am graduating as an M.A. student this week and teach Rhet/Comp. One of my students submitted a paper through Turnitin and the paper was 56% other work (i.e. plagiarized because it wasn't cited) and even 56% cited is too much and not his work, but that's a grading issue, not plagiarism. I spoke with the student and he claimed it was because they forgot to cite (student is international and English is not great). I had spoken with the Department Head prior to talking to the student and was told it was my call. The student was already on probation and by giving him an F in the class, he would forced to leave the university and lose his student VISA. I told the student this was his single opportunity and he had to completely rewrite the paper. He was also told that if any other papers showed such a large amount of work that was uncited, he would receive an automatic F in the class immediately and be expelled from my classroom. The remainder of his papers were fine--all he needed was to have me tell him that I knew about it. Thank goodness for Turnitin.

My own rhet/comp classes are usually either an essay or an assessment for the university, It's very difficult to cheat on the literature finals that I have proctored for professors. The questions are quotes and the answers are essay explications and so subjective that it's almost impossible to cheat. I watch to make sure they don't have a textbook with them or any notes and that's about it.

I totally agree with that thought Bumblebea. When we look at the American identity, much of it came from the Puritans.

Have you read Cormac McCarthy or any of the other post-apocalyptic writers? I'm not into it heavily but I am becoming a McCarthy scholar and this type of literature can be seen to relate to current issues within the world. If you look further, all issues at all times, seen through the eyes of a writer are relative and similar. As McCarthy said "books are made from books." Tell me what literature you study and I will tell you how it relates to dystopic and post-apocalyptic texts. If a successful comparison of Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year to the Rage movie 28 Days Later can be made, connections between other types of literature can be found.

Andy Crank was a professor at NSULA. He was my undergrad advisor and is a good teacher. Jay Watson is at ole MS. I went right down the SEC . As far as POIs, I want to meet the professors and get a feel for them before talking to them about being my dissertation advisor. It's about connection as much as anything with me. I believe any of them would work, but in grad school I've learned that who I thought I wanted in the beginning, was not who I wanted when it came to making the decision last summer. This time I'm watching and listening. I was waitlisted at LSU (still waitlisted) and removed myself from TN's waitlist when I received the offer from UA and received offers from UA & ULL. UA is a good fit for me, and it was not my first choice. I didn't really have a first choice, because I wanted to remain open minded and available to whatever came along. I looked over the schools well and knew any of them would work well and I would be happy attending the school and living there. Have you looked at Florida State? They seem to have a pretty awesome Southern Lit program.

I finished my thesis this semester. One committee member made the remark that I had at least two and maybe three publishable papers in the 85 pages and that I should focus on starting to get something published from it, as I begin a Ph.D. program in literature. Just add that to all of the other things I have to do this summer, including moving. Most of the English dissertations I have looked at are in the 300 +/- page range. I know nothing about other disciplines.