cowgirlsdontcry

You mentioned having regrets. Which would be the greatest regret you can imagine, not going to this MA program, or living away from your SO? Or is it the exciting young adult life in the big city, you think you will miss the most? You need to look at each aspect and decide what you want. Going to grad school is always going to be an option, but perhaps not this particular program, if you decline at this late date. Just need to take a walk alone and think about what you really want.

Look under the grad school of your university. That's where my school has everything--from formatting, to style, even to the type of paper it must be printed on (thesis paper-25% cotton).

I just finished an English MA that was partially online/partially in person for me. Most of the students were at a distance. I just happened to live here already and ended up as a GA for the term of my masters. Financial Aid calculates all of the same things into your loan that it would if you were at the university in person. You will always having living expenses and transportation costs no mater where you are and it's simply part of the calculation. Some students who are at a distance work and some don't work but take full class loads instead, the same as if they were in person at the university. You can take partial loans if you so desire. Hahaha, I'm sure you have it all figured out now. Just realized this was an old thread.

I understand why you feel like this, but he is only doing his job as your advisor. Have you talked to him about specifics as to why he thinks you won't progress through the comps to your dissertation proposal? Have you failed your comps previously? Usually, they give you two shots at it before asking you to leave. If you have done the proper research, your proposal shouldn't be that difficult to write. If you haven't written one before, it can be daunting. I had two professors who started with UGs doing proposals for their final papers, in order for us to learn the mechanics of how to do one. I finished my master's thesis proposal last fall. Sometimes, advisors and committees will want an annotated bib and sometimes not. You don't say what field, but I'm basing this on what I am familiar with--English.

This is what I have seen others do. They get the Master of Arts in English with alternative certification. It adds hours to your degree because of the certification to teach grades 7-12, but you have the MA in English. I don't know if that interests you or not, but it is one way to get both. Teaching English at CC level requires a master's plus 18 hours of graduate level English or the MA in English. I don't believe they will accept a MAT as it is not English heavy. Look at highered.com for jobs in academia at the CC level. Unless you simply want to teach high school English, I would stay away from the MAT. It will not advance your career in English. All of the high school English teachers I know, went back for the MA in English, rather than MAT. The university I attended for UG/MA has been long known as a teacher's college, because it began life as a normal school in the 19th C. The master's students in education are all interested in administrative jobs in education, rather than the teaching master's.

I've tried everything for presentations and usually email it to myself on the school email and put it on a flash drive. There is no one size fits all (unfortunately). I will find out this fall how good the tech is at UA, because between teaching and my own classes, I am in three buildings.

If you have the right cloud drive, you can set it to automatically back up whatever you choose at certain points. I have mine set for every 15 minutes.

I took the GRE back in 2014 and I used Magoosh. It worked well. I don't believe any of the programs work on a quick basis. You have to practice, practice, practice. Go through Magoosh's review of answers. It helps you understand why certain answers are correct. That is the secret to taking the GRE (or any standardized test) whatever program you use. Keep practicing until you understand how/why. When you understand that, you can answer any question the GRE throws at you. I put in 2-3 hours a day the summer before I took the test. You don't have to be a genius to score really highly. If you want to raise your score by 10 points that's the only way to do it. I wanted to be over 90% and I got it. At that point, if you have the GPA, the WS and SOP need to come into play. Get good recommenders and have them critique your WS/SOP. Edit, edit, edit until you feel you have reached your limit at that particular point in time. There's always better, but sometimes it has to wait until we learn/understand more.

I agree, although I have a cloud drive that backs up every 15 minutes.

I just finished a combination online/in person MA in English (lit track) and starting a PhD program this fall. Here's what I do for taking notes, although since my field is American literature, I don't take many notes in class. Will tell you what I do for close textual analysis in moment. I found 1/2" 3-ring binders (Walmart), that are flexible, not hard. I use one of those for each of my classes, but in grad school there are usually only 2 or 3 classes. If the sheets tear I use those little round reinforcers. I can add in any handouts from my professors, which can't be easily done in spirals. Since we also read a lot of critical essays, in addition to the primary texts, if the class is an in-person one, I put a copy in my 3-ring binder. Your laptop becomes your "notebook" in an online class. I use folders for each class on my laptop. I'm really organized and anyone on my laptop could find something according to what we discuss. Professors will usually put links to all of the critical essays we need to read. I have "file folders" within each class folder on my laptop. There is usually so much research, that I keep it in folders according to the text we read. You could organize yours by topic. As for lectures in online classes, literature professors usually either video a short presentation (maybe 20-30 minutes) or may write the same write out a lecture and place it on Moodle or Blackboard. Online classes require a lot more writing in my field, because there is no live class participation. Each student is required to post a "complete thought" (about 500-800 words) about some aspect of a text, then respond to at least three other posts. Sometimes these back and forths may end up generating several thousands words from a poster, each week. If you double or triple it, a literary student can end up writing the equivalent of a 10-20 page paper each week. These "thoughts" can be interesting to save, because others may have ideas we never consider and it's good to have to look back through. I do not take notes when close reading texts for class. I do put a little tabbie on the page and a "?" next to the passage, so I can bring attention to the matter during class. Many literary scholars do take notes and use tabbies (some even color code tabbies and inks to topics) when close reading, but I like getting a feel for the text first without stopping. If it's a text I plan on writing on, I will read it again and make notations before starting my research. I also get an electronic version in Kindle or Nook, because I will remember enough of the important parts I want to write about to do a string search in the electronic version. By the time I have finished writing a paper, I have read the text a third time. I found an app for my iPhone that is fabulous for keeping track of texts you keep. Since English is a field of reading/writing, I have over 200 books, and will accumulate that many more during my PhD, as I have been told that I should have a list of at least 100 primary texts for comps, plus another 40-50 on my dissertation topic. The app does all the work for you. You simply go into the app and tell it to add a new book. The camera comes on and you place it over the barcode. Voila! It's added in your app. Occasionally, if I have a used book, I can't get off all of their stickers and have to manually enter a text. Sometimes I can enter an ISBN and it will find. A more likely scenario is that I have to type in the name of the book and sometimes the publisher, before I find the version I have. I catalogued every book I have as I packed it to make the move to my PhD school. It took about 4 hours to scan and pack all of them. There are many apps. I use Book Buddy because I can add a genre that is of my own design.

Although different fields, both of our paths are in humanities. You are going to need a higher GRE verbal score in any of the humanities. I came from a Southern Region Tier 1 university (which is excellent for a small university--MA English program rated #6 online nationally), but knew I had to be at the top of my game to be admitted anywhere. I had GPAs of UG-3.82 and MA 4.0, followed with a GRE verbal of 163 (92%), excellent LORs (the programs I was admitted to said they were outstanding) and WS/SOP that were critiqued by the three recommending professors. I applied to 9 programs, was admitted to two, waitlisted at two, and rejected at five. Your AW score is excellent, so no worries there, just need to get that verbal into the 90s.

I have been really happy as a grad student and if you are happy as a student of law, then you will be happy as a grad student in linguistics. If I had known early enough as an UG that history fits so well with literature, I would have done a dual major, both as an UG and in my master's. Then headed for the PhD in literature. I do understand your desire to do this and sometimes we get sidetracked into other dreams and interests. That's the pitfall scholars can find themselves in. I believe Thousands is correct about there being higher standards to admissions to a PhD program if one has a master's. I am going in as first year PhD, but it's not the same first year PhD as the combined programs (no terminal MA), because it is like I am a third year PhD in one of those combined programs (with full teaching load immediately). The program will bring in 18 hours of my MA and I will have 30 hours left of class room time. In effect, I will have 60+ post BA hours on the road to my PhD. My program only exists as a terminal MA and PhD, so the master's was necessary. Depending on how long it takes me to write dissertation, I will finish in approximately six years (post BA), which is low to average. Obviously, you have excellent credentials as you are in law school in a top school. Your background is geared toward obtaining a PhD in English/Linguistics and admission committees will see that you have what it takes to complete a program as indicated by dual majors and a law degree in progress. That is a big concern of committees--whether a student will have the necessary drive to complete a program. You don't mention any conferences and should try to pick up a couple of those, if you can. One last thought, is that you want as high of GRE scores as possible. You should do well in any event, with your background, but to be on the safe side, take the practice tests ETS has to make sure you don't need to review for the GRE. Linguistics is humanities and possibly a track within English depending on the University. Verbals are the most important score and you want to aim at 90%+. The AW score is also important, but not as much so. It's geared toward analytical writing, rather than the argument, which I learned the hard way. My score was only average because I wrote an argument. Good luck.

Since linguistics are many times combined with English programs (was at my UG/MA school), I feel somewhat qualified to answer. You're in a top 5 law school. Why do you believe you would need a master's in linguistics to be admitted to a PhD program? I assume you will be applying at the same university where your law school is located. You will need to take the GRE because you took the LSAT for law school. I got a master's after my BA in English (minor in foreign language) because I felt that I needed more time to develop my CV even though I had excellent grades (3.82 UG, 4.0 MA). It turns out I needed the master's because I was admitted to a PhD program that required a master's to be admitted. I was a paralegal for years before I decided to go for a PhD. Honestly, many lawyers have BAs in English. What do you hope to do with a PhD in linguistics and a JD? While the language/English BA comes in very handily in understanding the law, and perhaps communicating as a trial lawyer, I'm trying to imagine how you would need a PhD in linguistics if you are going to practice law. If law isn't turning out to be your cup of tea, then I can completely see the PhD in linguistics.

Have you looked at master's programs and tried to find one that was a little more relaxed on admissions? I don't know your field at all, but felt I did not have enough oomph to my CV to get into a PhD program from my UG, so got a masters. My grades were great and my GRE scores were good. I had never presented at a major conference, so I felt there were things I needed to do. It was good for me academically, as well.

Some universities want international grades converted to American equivalencies. Each program may use a different conversion system--be sure to use the system the program says to. One such system is located at https://www.wes.org/gradeconversionguide/. This will give you some idea about where your grades stand in relation to American grading systems. Since you received your master's at Columbia, you might check with them as to what system they used. Your lack of A's as an undergrad may be offset by your MA grades.

I have used quotes and scenes from movies to emphasize certain things, just as you want to do for Bannon. Quote it! Write it! You own it then. I used John Hillcoat's movie The Road to illustrate things about the woman/wife/mother in the chapter on McCarthy's novel The Road, in my master's thesis. It became my analysis not Hillcoat's. I agree with the others on this. Don't submit such a project as your WS to an English department. You can do this without clips.

You may have to wait until Monday and contact the grad school, if no one has any thoughts. Wishing you the best of luck in this. I also just went through the application season and know how difficult it is waiting, then to receive a message and not be able to access it.

Good deal that you aren't too far apart. I applied to 9 programs for PhD. Taking everything into consideration, there really wasn't anywhere else I would have wanted to attend, or had the money to apply. Even so, that was still about $900.

Positivitize you said you were the supporting partner. Now that your fiancé has a TT position, I see you were accepted to Syracuse for your MA. I hope that your fiancé is either at the same school or nearby for you.

You will be fine. I'm having the same trepidation going into my PhD, even though I did this throughout my MA. Different school, etc. etc. TAing in a large lecture class is great to begin your teaching career with. I attended a smaller state university for my MA and TA'd for all 4 semesters in 4 American lit classes, that were all upper level seminar classes, so maybe 25 students. The last semester I taught a section of first year rhet/comp, as well. You have probably learned by now that you will have some sort of teaching orientation prior to school beginning. I have a week of it. That should calm you down. Give yourself a few weeks to get your sea legs and you will be in the swing of it all.

Would any of the professors who have dealt with this professor for you in the past, be willing to speak to the department chair on your behalf? I don't believe either options 1 or 3 are viable options for you and going to the department chair is the only thing you can do. Does the department have an assistant chair who takes care of things like this? That might be a more relaxed situation for you.

I understand that upper level students need to understand the style and there's nothing you can do about it, as it is not your class. Makes it really difficult for you to do your job. The professor should make it clear to the class that this is his rubric and you simply follow his instructions.

I worked as a TA to professors during my MA. Although I did not grade for them, I did meet with students about their papers. Occasionally, something would be so bad, I would tell them they had to rewrite it. Sometimes, they would try to go around me and ask the professor to read their paper. The professors would always ask if I had seen their paper, because I would tell them when a student paper was so bad I had to ask them to rewrite it. I could not attend every class I TA'd for, as I would have been on campus all day every day. But, over the two-year period, I had attended enough of the classes to know what the professors wanted. What I'm getting at here is that you need to talk to the professor about this to be sure you are on the same page. This is completely superfluous now that I see your last post, but might explain why the professor changed the rubric to give students more points. The other thing of note is whether you are grading too hard on Style (APA in this instance). One thing I learned when I taught my first section of composition last year, is that many times, other departments expect the English department to have taught all of their different styles in first year writing. We do not do that. We teach MLA, our own style. It gives students who are not English majors an opportunity to begin learning how to use style, but individual departments need to teach whatever Style they wish for students to use. Even university writing centers may only know MLA and Chicago. I was really careful as a TA to go over MLA (the style English departments use) in both class and when going over papers with students. It takes time to understand Style. I still use Purdue Owl for reference as MLA had its 3rd change in 5 years in 2016, and I have to keep looking at how things are handled. Unless the rubric specifically discusses Style and assigns a portion of the grade to it, I discount a grade very little for poor usage of Style, unless the student is an upper level.

I found the actual test to be easier than the Magoosh questions and did better on the test than my practice tests.

my question is does this employer think they are getting a PhD for a master's salary? I have only heard of and seen jobs in higher ed that allowed for dissertation to be completed. ABD (all but dissertation) is how they usually label those positions where the university is willing to hire someone contingent on the dissertation being completed within a certain period of time.