Shakespeares Sister

I know many young male professors who have also had this happen to them. It's not sexism. It's ageism. The admins who hire you are from an era where bell bottom jeans were the style.

What do you mean? Clemson still offers a strong stipend for COL, at least.

Good luck to the 2021 applicants! It's too early to say about the impact of the Coronavirus. But applicants do have a lot of time to make the most impressive file if they start early.

If it's online only in the fall but residence is required for funding purposes, I wonder if we can't stay OOS then?

I am. I had always envisioned teaching a class in person for my first semester of doctoral studies, but I may now be teaching it online... I just remember that these are first-world problems. Most people do not continue their education to the doctoral level.

This is actually the problem. Some people are still waiting, so they can't commit, so everything gets jumbled till the very end (similar to how we write conference presentations on the plane ride there). Made much worse by a killer virus.

I would accept the offer and not wait for the next cycle, which may be the worst cycle in the history of English PhDs. We live in a time of great economic uncertainty, nonexistent job opportunities, and professors who will never retire. Programs are already limiting their incoming cohorts, meaning less spots, meaning less of a chance to get in. Next cycle could be much worse than this one. Or that huge unemployment could mean that lots of students go to school and so some applicants adjunct in college instead of applying, which is what didn't happen this cycle because unemployment was so low. The low unemployment caused a huge spike in applicants this cycle because many adjuncts/non-TT didn't have jobs and decided for a PhD.

I 100% agree. The less work you do, the more time you will have to do research. With the job market, you need publications to get the jobs everyone wants. A higher stipend also directly affects quality of life. Given the job market and how their are no jobs until the baby boomers are forced to give up their cushy admin roles bestowed to them for free because of time period and "right place right time" luck, I would choose quality of life over even ranking... I would just go to the place you like the most and feel the most comfortable at and feel like you'd have the most fun. Since there are no jobs anyways.

Here is a list of MA and PhD programs: https://rhetoricsociety.org/aws/RSA/pt/sp/graduate_programs Some are more professional writing oriented. UCF has an MA program. I recommend trying to make the most of your UCF experiences. Terminal MAs in Professional Writing lead to jobs after because of the internships and connections you make, but you can make those right now if you want.

+1 Never incur debt with this job market. 25 years ago, it would have been fine. There were jobs at the end of the tunnel.

Should I apply to post bac programs or MA programs for the spring deadline? If you want to do that. You could also strengthen your application and apply again, or try both. You can also do one after the other. You can even get multiple MAs before getting a PhD. Is the multiple disciplines of my letter writers a problem that needs to be addressed? No. Should I situate myself more strongly into a traditional discipline? Yes. Your research and writing should always be situated in conversations that scholars in the field know well. If so, how do I figure out which one is best for me? If you still have access to your university library, you should read the journal articles from the famous in the fields of the most prestigious journals. When you see their inspiration in the research of the greats, you will find out what works for you. And how would I make the convincing case that even though I did not major in it - I could still be a competitive applicant? You do not need to have a BA in a subject to be admitted to a PhD program in the same subject. If you are unable to navigate concrete research interests that align with faculty members in the program, your best bet is to simply try to score as high as possible on the statistical measurements (GPA, GRE) so the programs take a chance on you simply because you are smart. Keep in mind, you also need to develop research interests that are rooted in some sort of important scholarship for the programs which you are applying.

I find this excessively rude, especially to someone who just wants help. And truly, with that level of repetitiveness in your own writing (I mean really, "did you write your writing sample?" ?), you will certainly make a competent social science writer. But obviously, if you intend to critique someone's writing, you should at the very least exhibit a higher level of word choice. As a scholar in your writing, you want to show competence and mastery, not condescension and mockery.

I did the opposite for my MA. You will end up saying "this semester" in conversation a lot in the beginning. Old habits die hard.

next week is a big one!

I'm still waiting to hear back from many schools.