midwest-ford
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Posts posted by midwest-ford
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1 hour ago, Melvillage_Idiot said:
Anybody have any experience at a writing center you can share? Just so I know, should I go Denver, what I'm getting into?
Me! I've been working in a writing center for two years.
Before I get into why I love them, I will say I'd consider whether you will get any TA experience at Denver, or if you'd be all writing center, all the time. I know that getting the instructor-of-record experience is important for getting an academic job later on, so do look into that for this position (I know that some are WC for one year, teach for 2 years, WC for the last year, etc, so you get both experiences). So, make sure you know what you'll need for a job search.
WC work is usually 1-1 tutoring, although "tutoring" is not really the right word. It's 1-1 work on someone's writing, but you do your best to help them figure out what they want to say (rather than prescribing what to say, etc) by asking open-ended questions ("What do you notice in this paragraph?" "What are you trying to say?" "What are you most concerned about in this piece of writing?"). Ideally, you're helping them gain transferable skills that make them a better writer rather than just producing one piece of better writing, ya know? Personally, I feel I've become a much better writer because of my WC work--it's made me a more patient teacher, and it's also helped me focus my thoughts when I look at my own writing. Writing centers are also very progressive, open-minded places and tend to be very feminist in the underlying theory that drives them. (If Denver offers a writing center course, I'd recommend taking it!) It's also a less common experience that may help you stand out, especially if there's an opportunity to be in an admin spot in addition to tutoring.
This is a super short explanation, so please ask or message me if you want more information!
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20 minutes ago, Warelin said:
Speaking as someone who has done an MA, I don't think it is important to have professors with similar interests. The MA isn't really a specialization degree. I got into rhetoric programs without having a professor who had any interest in rhetoric and composition. I got into programs with a focus on other specializations despite only having one class in them. Doing well and forming connections with the professors are what is important in the MA. A strong writing sample and SOP are also important later on, but being immersed in the field is equally as important. I think being in a place that you feel comfortable in and don't have to worry about finances will allow you to produce the best work possible.
@canadianchart, I agree with this. My MA is at a school that doesn't even offer a single rhet/comp class, but I got into several rhet/comp PhD programs because my faculty supported my interests. They helped me with LORs, publications and presentations in other areas, and with opportunities like working in the writing center, etc, and I did an independent study in my area to help get some official looking courses on my transcripts. So if they don't have the exact interests as you, you can still make it work. Personally, I'd look more at the opportunities you'll have and how supportive they seem to be
- CanadianEnglish and Warelin
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23 hours ago, klader said:
Had mine today too! I think it went well? They also said they'd decide by the end of the month.
Good luck, @midwest-ford, if you haven't gone yet!
Thanks! Mine was yesterday as well. I thought it went pretty well...it’ll just depend on what they’re looking for i guess. Good luck to you guys as well!
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42 minutes ago, renea said:
Yay! Congrats. I guess I'll see you at MSU's recruitment weekend soon and then Miami's. Has anyone from Miami reached out yet? I'm trying to decide how long I should wait
It took OSU about 3 days to email me after the acceptance went up on the portal, if that helps.
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18 hours ago, renea said:
good luck! Also mine updated *exactly* at 48 hrs, no sooner or later
I got in to Miami as well!
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1 hour ago, renea said:
good luck! Also mine updated *exactly* at 48 hrs, no sooner or later
Good to know, thank you! ...I actually think I received the email exactly 24 hours after you... This is too much precision for me to handle!
I haven't been watching this thread super closely--have you been accepted to other programs yet?
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Thanks for everyone's input on the pet thing! Those are some really good points, especially about having continuous blocks of time.
Mostly, I am thinking 1) I love dogs!, and 2) wherever I go, I'm going to be completely alone and at minimum 6 hours away from my family and most of my loved ones (not that I won't make friends, but, you know). It feels like it might be the right time. That said, I am nervous about making sure I have enough time to care for any animal.
Also, I have a strict "no puppies" rule. I want to adopt, so I'd be looking at dogs that are at least a few years old. I know for sure I wouldn't have the time to train a brand new lil guy!
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6 hours ago, semioclasm said:
Hey all,
I was recently accepted to my top choice (Buffalo) and invited out to a visiting weekend. They mentioned setting me up with a place to stay, but said nothing about covering travel expenses. I went ahead and booked my flight, which wasn't cheap, but I see that many of your programs bought your tickets. Should I ask my program about funding, or would that come across as too needy?
Thanks in advance!
I would email the program director or whoever set up the visiting weekend and place to stay and ask if there is any funding available to cover transportation. I straight up have begun to ask programs "What funding is available?" and at most places I've been told there is some (MSU paid for everything, OSU and UNL covered a portion of the cost). One school did flat out say that they didn't offer funding, but it wasn't awkward. They understand that funding is a big part of this.
Edit: I will also add that one school didn't mention funding until I specifically asked, and then they did provide some. So asking is always in your favor, in my opinion.
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3 hours ago, renea said:
I told myself that I was going to sleep in today to avoid the anxiety of waiting for Miami's portal to update (at 10:40am), but I woke up at 8:00am. Finally updated and I'm accepted!
Congrats!! So excited for you! My mentor went to Miami and absolutely loved it there (his only gripe was Oxford itself). I'm still waiting for my Miami portal to update!
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14 minutes ago, renea said:
The name thing is not petty. My name has a ~nontraditional~ spelling and I get so peeved when people spell it wrong when it is clearly visible (I'm looking at you prof I've interacted with a billion times who addressed my email wrong last week). Like sure I don't expect my starbucks to be spelled correctly, but formal documents-those don't get a pass.
Also: congrats on the acceptance: I've heard nothing but good things about the program
So glad others understand what I mean here! I mean, the good side of it (for me) is that it has made me insanely aware of name spelling. Like, if your name is any official directory anywhere, I will NEVER spell it wrong in an email, EVER.
One time, my mom’s employer (a large corporation) mispelled her name on a plaque thanking her for 25 years of service. The worst part is that she is a proofreader for the company.
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Got accepted into Urbana-Champaign for the English-Writing PhD but they...they spelled my name wrong on the official acceptance letter.
(This happens to me enough that I’m actually sort of pissed about it. It might be petty, but it’s also...my name? Which is in my email address and all over the application I paid $100 to submit???)
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13 hours ago, renea said:
see when I got the email I was actually thinking to opposite. I would assume they would email or call accepted applicants and send the rejects to the portal, but maybe I'm just paranoid
Also received the same email this morning. I wish they’d just email when a decision is up—I was feeling pretty calm about it but now I’m going to be checking all the time.
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2 hours ago, Wooshkuh said:
Are you the other Syracuse interview on the results board?
(I was using the search function to look for past posts and stumbled across this one.)
Yes
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On 2/4/2018 at 4:59 AM, bumbleblu said:
Currently, I live/teach in Europe, so going to a campus visit wasn't really something that I was considering. However, on Friday I heard from UW-Madison that they'd managed to increase the reimbursement for international travel to $1,000. So now it's financially feasible, and I'd just have to see about getting my classes covered. However, it seems an awful lot of bother just for 4 days. On the other hand, this is the school I'm leaning toward, so I might be spending the next 5 years of my life there and it would be good to get a feel for the department and the city.
I don't have any insight on whether you should go, but if you want more info about Madison, feel free to private message me. I'm a Wisconsinite and I lived and worked in Madison for 2 years between my BA and MA.
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20 minutes ago, JDRichter said:
PhD applicant here. I've been accepted to the Saint Louis PhD program, but I'm eagerly awaiting others because it's not my absolute first choice.
I've also applied to VTech, Clemson, NC State, Penn State, Memphis, Miami and Nebraska. Has anyone heard back from any of these PhD programs?
Wishing you all luck!
I got a phone call from Nebraska-Lincoln on Monday for an acceptance into rhet comp. I also applied to Miami and haven't heard back yet.
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Accepted into the University of Nebraska Lincoln's Comp/Rhet PhD, unless they rescind my acceptance for being totally braindead on the phone call!
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My friend and I have this simple mantra: "Food, water, sleep." Basically, if I'm feeling extra despondent about my work--as in, stressed about irrational things and jumping to irrational conclusions about my future prospects and worth--I think about whether I've had enough to eat, enough water, and enough sleep. It sounds way too simple, but I swear that nearly every time I've been teetering on the edge of something, I've realized that I need food, water, or sleep. It doesn't take away the normal stress that comes with academia, but it does help me identify situations in which I'm completely overreacting because I'm not in the right state of mind. Even the worst, most stressful times (hello, PhD application season!) have felt more manageable after I've taken care of my basic needs.
Lately, I've also been using the water tracking feature on my Fitbit. While I can't always get 10,000 steps a day, I can always make sure I get enough water, and I know it's helping me in other ways, too.
I've been going to the gym regularly this year, which is good, but I think I'm beginning to realize that working out is a time commitment, and it will never be something I can do quickly or fit into my schedule without affecting other stuff--and that's okay. I feel like I spend a lot of time thinking "Okay, I'll get up earlier to go to the gym so that I'll still be able to get to campus at exactly the same time as when I don't work out," and that absolutely never works. But staying physically active is an entire component of my life, just like cooking or working or spending time with my boyfriend. It will have an impact on the rest of my schedule, and it should. This was a huge realization for me, and it's helping me be okay with reorganizing my schedule so that I can prioritize physical health.
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4 hours ago, Jacqui said:
I'm in my senior year of undergrad applying for MFA programs. I know I'm still young and "have the rest of [my] life" to figure things out, but I've been incredibly disheartened lately. I applied to 7 fully-funded programs and I'm realizing that I'm nowhere as good as I need to be to get into a program. I had been so set on going to grad school (and ever so hopeful up until this point) that now it feels as though my entire future is thrown out of wack.
Hey, I know that this isn't what you want to hear right now, but lemme tell you a thing: MFA programs are hard as hell to get into. It's not just about being good, it's about being lucky as heck. You can be a fucking amazing writer and get rejected because they get tons of great writers and they are looking for a specific type of fiction/nonfic/poetry that year that's not your thing. They're fully-funded programs? I bet you most of them admit less than 10 people per year and have over 500 applying--and at many schools, that ratio is much, much worse. It is not a reflection on you as a writer if you get rejected, ok? I mean, be real about your work and constantly seek out people who will give you true feedback and work your butt off to make sure that you're the best you can be, but don't let those schools dictate how you perceive yourself!!
My (super) senior year of undergrad, I applied to 12 MFA programs. I got waitlisted at 3, but then ultimately all of them rejected me. The next year I applied to 9, and all of them rejected me outright (even the ones that had previously waitlisted me). Again, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but the best possible thing I could have done at that time was take some time off and work a job (make money!! have money!! is so great!!) and figure out exactly what I wanted and why. When I went back for an MA, I was a much better student than I would have been if I'd come straight from a BA because I knew why I was there and I knew what life was like on the outside. I know that right now this feels like a giant sack of shit, and it is (because the academic industrial complex is a giant sack of shit), but I promise you that you're gonna get through it and learn a lot from this, no matter what. Keep your head up!!!
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2 hours ago, FishNerd said:
He also worries that his involvement with the creative writing sides of his undergrad and master's departments doesn't really matter since he is applying to do English literature programs and not creative writing ones (he just enjoys being involved on both sides but ultimately prefers doing academic research).
He should not worry about this, and if he doesn't get in, it won't be because of this!
I'm in a similar situation (creative writing undergrad degree, doing a creative nonfiction MA thesis, applying to rhet comp programs), and based on what my mentors have told me & the schools I've been accepted into, I think if anything it helps to have a diverse range of experiences. It shows that he brings something unique to the program and that he has specific, unique interests that he actively pursues! One of my professors also mentioned that she thinks you're more likely to get a job if you do creative writing alongside your main field, because you can teach a wider range of classes and you're able to think and work in multiple ways.
(Sidebar about feelings of desperation and rejection: I think most people on here would tell you that it's normal, common, and not a reflection on you (of course) if either of you end up not getting accepted this time. Sometimes it does take a round or two to figure out 1) what you want, or 2) how to articulate it in the best way possible. After my BA, I applied to 12 MFA programs and a Fulbright for an MA and got rejected from everything. The next year, I applied to 9 MFA programs (including 3 that had waitlisted me the year before) and got rejected from everything. I went back to my BA institution to get an MA. This year, I applied to 7 PhD programs and it's going well. Those rejections hurt (both my heart and my wallet), but ultimately they DID make me a better applicant and a more confident, assertive academic because I learned that this is for sure what I want to do. So best of luck, but please know that there is a positive side to this either way
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Just got accepted into the University of Massachusetts-Amherst PhD in rhetoric and composition!
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3 minutes ago, FreakyFoucault said:
That's strange ... MSU is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools. Seems kind of sketchy...
My understanding is that the April 15th deadline agreement isn't binding in any way, so they can actually do whatever they want when it comes down to it (which is a pain for me because the OSU open house is after the MSU deadline).
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5 minutes ago, FreakyFoucault said:
Yes, the Council of Graduate Schools set April 15th as the universal background. You can learn more about it here: http://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution
HOWEVER, there may be one or two programs that use different dates. I don't see how that'd be possible, but crazier things have happened. Perhaps someone with direct knowledge can weigh in on this.
MSU told me April 1st.
2018 Acceptances
in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
Posted
I say give it until the end of the week (as hard as that is). This has happened to me with a couple of schools--they got in touch within 2-3 days.