illcounsel

seems like i'll be taking: the biopolitical enlightenment, carribean poetics, and literary scholarship (the first of a set of required course). i'm pretty excited and terrified, though probably (absolutely) more terrified than excited lol

I would love to know what the readings for this class look like !

What classes are everyone taking in the Fall? In addition to the Intro to Graduate Studies that I am sure most of us have, I am taking a class on Eco-poetics and one called Global Chaucer which looks at international influences on Chaucer in the Middle Ages and his global significance since. 

A real thing to think about is letters of recommendation. If your MA institution is different than where you did your undergrad, you will only have a few short months to develop meaningful relationships with your professors. While it can be done, you will have to work hard to make sure you can get quality letters written. It might be worth waiting another cycle to have stronger letters and a (hopefully) high MA GPA.

It's amusing that some of us are already set up for the fall semester & I just got an email today asking for my official transcripts so I can actually be a real Ph.D student now. lol. (They're busy, I know, it's totally fine. ) 
I'm thinking about this problem a lot too! Mostly about the pre-1800 and post-1800 reqs (I need two courses in each), coupled with the fact that I plan on pursuing two different certificates which both have different course requirements as well. Along with all of the regular required courses + stuff that just sounds interesting.... Basically I'm gonna need a lot of guidance from whomever my advisor is about which classes to take. ? 
Me, trying to figure all this out in my brain:

I totally understand your position. I was an engineering+English major who had a 3.2 cumulative with a 3.8 in English.
When I started the application process, I feared that my GPA would ruin my chances at admission. It did not. 
After decisions were made, I spoke with a number of admissions committee members at universities that accepted me and at others that rejected me. No one made their decision based on my cumulative GPA. Overwhelmingly, decisions were made based on my writing sample, my statement of purpose, my letters of recommendation, and some notion of "fit."
To paraphrase one adcom member, "I thought your GPA was concerning until I saw your English GPA. After that, I never thought about your GPA again."
However, my GPA did cause a couple of problems:
My GPA disqualified me from admission at a handful of schools with school-wide GPA cutoffs. These cutoffs are occasionally "soft" (i.e., an admissions committee can stump for you if they really like you), but they're frequently "hard" (i.e., you have no chance).  My GPA disqualified me from certain university-wide fellowships. Graduate schools only have a couple of ways to compare PhD students from different disciplines. GPA is one of those ways.

A lot of people apply during the fall semester of their second year in their Master's program. I think the biggest hurdle you might face with a one-year program is potentially not having strong recommendation letters. Since applications are due in Dec/Jan, it's likely that you'll have to ask for recommendations at a time where your first major paper hasn't been assigned yet. As a result, your instructors will have very little to work off of. (Edit: @illcounsel seems to have been thinking the same thoughts at the same time)
The second area of concern is that your interests might change within that time period. And while a program doesn't force you to stay within a specific time period, I think they can read into whether you seem passionate about something or whether you're writing about something because it feels safe.

A real thing to think about is letters of recommendation. If your MA institution is different than where you did your undergrad, you will only have a few short months to develop meaningful relationships with your professors. While it can be done, you will have to work hard to make sure you can get quality letters written. It might be worth waiting another cycle to have stronger letters and a (hopefully) high MA GPA.

I haven't gotten many new emails since April, so there's not much going on on my end... I have, however, probably memorized their website, graduate student handbook, and all the degree requirements for the next ~5 years, at this point... Yeah, I really need it to be August now.

What classes are everyone taking in the Fall? In addition to the Intro to Graduate Studies that I am sure most of us have, I am taking a class on Eco-poetics and one called Global Chaucer which looks at international influences on Chaucer in the Middle Ages and his global significance since. 

I got to register for all my classes and no one understands my wild excitement.  ? Especially when I looked at the bill and it kind of all washed over me what a financial investment is being made in me, my work, and my future.  It’s unreal.
Like @ArcaMajora I too can’t believe I actually get to call myself a graduate student.  I looked at my interview invite email from SMU again the other day and just cried and cried haha. How is this real life? What an incredible journey we’re all beginning ❤️

I’ve got my housing down, waiting for my visa and other administrative stuff. Excited to register for classes already and get all the final which will hopefully be soon.

Also very excited for the upcoming Fall too Actually getting more real as the days pass haha. I've gotten first signs of life from UC Irvine post-4/15. It won't be long til I get my institutional e-mail, housing assignment, and I just submitted my request to enroll for English seminars for the upcoming Fall. If everything falls through, I'll for sure know my schedule and living arrangements my mid-June or July.
Can't believe I can call myself an official graduate student. It's surreal.
Excited for all of you as the summer progresses. This really is only the beginning of a journey tbh.

it was hard, but i luckily got hooked up with a friend of a friend looking too and she found us somewhere that i absolutely adore as well through a private owner. we'll actually be a ways north of campus area but still an easy commute via metra.  if you haven't checked out the maroon marketplace, that might be helpful if you're really eager to stay in hyde park. i had tried and it seemed most places didn't open up before july. 

i got the gig! 40 hrs a week starting tomorrow through september for a pop-up concept, and i explained my availability will of course change then but if we mutually work out there's potential room to stay on part time. i am SO excited.

I just received my TA assignment and........ it's in my field!!!! YAY

Anyone else kinda going crazy with anticipation for the fall? I have a ton I still have to do, and I'm grateful to have the summer to decompress, save money, do research, etc. But also there's a part of me that just wants to be there already.

I just received my TA assignment and........ it's in my field!!!! YAY

So yes, I don't know the full lived and affective experience of what it's like to be an adjunct, or to complete a PhD. (Though I have published and done lots of other things that come with the PhD experience.) But I do know that the odds of getting tenure-track or even just solidly permanent employment in my field are not great, and I have no rosy vision about that. Nor, and I'm going to keep stressing this, does anyone else I know who is currently getting an English PhD. Your picture of the post-PhD life doesn't "threaten" me or anyone on this forum; we know that those possibilities are quite likely. I have never once read your comments (or the comments of others who have expressed similar things to you) and thought, "Damn, I didn't think that could be a possibility for me."
My point is: this forum is designed for people to come and talk about their experiences applying to graduate school, getting into grad school, etc. I am willing to wager that most people already know the grimness of the job market. The fact that they've then chosen to apply to PhD programs doesn't mean they've stuck their head in the sand about the picture you describe; it just means that they've chosen to take the calculated risk and pursue something that's important to them. 
The logic of what you're saying in your post seems to be, "If you're applying to English PhDs, you're necessarily ignorant of how bad things are." That's not true in the slightest. As I said, it's not like the choice is between total uncertainty and doom on the PhD track and job security anywhere else we go. If the profession truly slides into the ocean by the time I complete my PhD and I'm forced to get work elsewhere, it will suck but I will live with that. And, crucially, I won't regret having earned a degree that's really important to me, nor will I regret getting to do work that's important to me.
I stand with you in calling out departments who present graduates with an overly rosy picture of what getting a job will be like. It's important that we as grad students, and those like you who have earned a PhD, to hold departments accountable to an accurate representation of placement. But I also think that even in the face of a contracting discipline that getting a PhD is still worth it for many people, including myself, and I don't have to put my head in the sand to feel that way.

I just received my TA assignment and........ it's in my field!!!! YAY

Might I suggest we stop feeding the troll?

If I may.
I say what I'm about to say while still recognizing that there is truth in your comments. The discipline is not what it once was. There is a vast disparity between how many people get PhDs and how many academic jobs are available for those PhDs. Tenure is being gutted at universities across the country. It is, indeed, not the best time historically to get an English PhD (not to mention other types of PhDs). It is also good to point out when departments exaggerate placement statistics, as it well seems Rutgers may have done here. It is concerning that Rutgers' placement page just lists "jobs gotten", without specifying who got those jobs and when they received their PhDs. (And, even if there is some truth to the 87 percent figure, it's worth noting that Rutgers qualifies that by saying, "In assessing our success, we exclude data from the most recent three years, since the job search has evolved nationally into a two- or three-year process, often requiring jobseekers to hold temporary positions before moving into tenure-track jobs (during this transitional period, Rutgers continues to offer support to our students, financial and otherwise)." That is to say: it takes awhile to get to that 87 percent, if it truly happens.)
With that said.
I've been in graduate school for four years now, and *never once* have I met a graduate student in my department or elsewhere who is either deluded or ignorant about the job market. The "holy shit what is happening to the profession" panel has been a staple of just about every significant conference I've ever been to, and they're quite well attended by current graduate students. Professionalization courses, including ones which tailor to non-tenure track jobs, are starting to crop up in grad programs across the country. All this to say: I think it's safe to assume that most people applying for PhDs in 2019 know that things are not great, academic job-wise. I do not know a single person who has ever thought that a published article(s), good letters, and a smile will get them a TT job the minute they turn their dissertation in.
Why do I say this?
During my application season on Grad Cafe and, it seems, somewhat persistently since, there are a certain crop of "grad school nihilists" who come on here and insert themselves in conversations being had by people who, in the face of crappy odds, are working hard to chase a grad school dream. Many if not most of them are already struggIing with the high difficulty of just getting into a funded PhD program at all, with all the resultant anxieties that come with that. I don't want to suppose right off the bat that you're necessarily one of these people, but your post does remind me of that kind of unqualified negativity I've seen on these forums.
To be fair, some of these more nihilistic posts come from people who, not unreasonably, have had their hopes charred after a successful time in grad school, only to find slim to no pickings job-wise. I'd be bitter in that situation too, and it's a reality for which I'm going to have to prepare -- and, in fact, something for which essentially all of my colleagues have prepared. But the brutal reality of the job market is known by people who are signing up for PhDs, so coming onto Grad Cafe to tell people that they're foolish for chasing a "dying profession" doesn't really help things, and at worst it can needlessly stoke the anxieties of prospective applicants who, again, already know how bad things are getting, and continue to get.
Because the other thing is -- and in the face of job market nihilism I always find myself asking this: what's the alternative? Precarity and oversaturation are hitting all different markets right now in the US. Sure, your odds of making a living wage are better if you'd started off being a computer programmer, but even now those programs at universities are getting overcrowded. It's not like the dichotomy is, "Either you risk everything on the chance of a tenure-track job, or you go for something more stable in a non-academic environment." Plenty of people with seemingly "stable" jobs get downsized, and whole industries right now are facing similar circumstances to the academy. The other career I was interested in prior to committing to grad school -- web publishing -- suffers an "independent contractor" disease even worse than the adjuncting crisis in the academy; I tried working there to see if I prefer it, and I made the calculated choice -- factoring the very risks you talk about -- to go to graduate school. 
So, taking your comments charitably, I would suggest that in a forum like this one -- whose directive is connecting people who have already made the decision to apply to grad school -- defeatist comments are at best pointless and at worst needlessly destructive. We know what we're getting ourselves into.

I just received my TA assignment and........ it's in my field!!!! YAY

I just received my TA assignment and........ it's in my field!!!! YAY

Just secured housing!! It is all starting to feel so real in the best way. My DGS has been out on parental leave so there has been mostly silence from my program, but having a cute little house is making things feel much better.

Just secured housing!! It is all starting to feel so real in the best way. My DGS has been out on parental leave so there has been mostly silence from my program, but having a cute little house is making things feel much better.