This_madness

I still haven't heard from them either. I'll assume that I'm in the same boat...but why couldn't they just say so a few weeks ago? It doesn't matter in any case, as I've already accepted another offer.

Just sent my acceptance notes to UMass-Amherst. I delayed for a few days because I had a strange fear of finalizing the entire process. Anyone else feel similarly?

Yeah, Pitt's English department doesn't really accept its own undergrads into the PhD program, unless that student is so perfect that the adcom can't reasonably deny acceptance. (One of my profs mentioned that only 2 of the department’s undergrads have been accepted into the doctoral program in the last decade, and both declined for Ivy League schools? Or something like that.) I guess it stems from the difficulties of the TT job market, where people with all three degrees from the same school are at a disadvantage. In any case, the Writing Center is wonderful. The tutors are a healthy mix of faculty members, grad students, and highly trained undergrads who each tutor for 10 hours a week. The undergrad tutors are paid hourly, but I'm pretty sure the faculty members/grad students get 1 course release for 10 hours of tutoring. It's a nurturing, supportive environment, seemingly free of the infighting that occurs within the rest of the English department. (As an undergrad, I wasn’t privy to the nature of the department’s infighting, but I did hear it mentioned on numerous occasions and one of my recommenders said that it made her regret taking the position there. I’m not sure how much this dysfunction affects grad students in the department.) Tutors attend professional development meetings about once a month or so, usually conducted by tutors themselves who specialize in one thing or another (ESL, developmental editing, etc.) I’d estimate that 50% of the tutees are ESL students, and another 15-20% are freshman engineering students who have to take a rigorous research writing course. Some of the tutors I worked with found the frequency of ESL/engineering students to be dull and repetitive, but if you’re the sort of person who likes to work with writers of any sort, you probably won’t mind.

Me, of course. (Okay, that was hilarious in my head.)

I was offered a TOship today! Woo. I'm going to give it the weekend to mull it over, but I think I'm almost definitely going to accept. I suppose I'll see you there, Ategenos!

I went to Pitt for my undergrad and loved it. Loved the English department, the composition faculty I came to know, and loved living in Pittsburgh. Had I been able, I would've applied there for my PhD in comp/rhet. Since I tutored in the Writing Center, TAed for freshman classes, and took almost every composition class offered to undergrads, I know many of the faculty members well and have a good sense of how the comp program functions. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them!

Proflorax, I think we might be intellectual twins. I don't know much about Mad Men, but I've argued on numerous occasions that The Wire is just as great, if not greater, than any work of literature to emerge in the 21st century. I even wrote a term paper stating as such for a contemporary literature course. Also, I'd love to read your thesis sometime! Is it available online anywhere?

I'm not sure that I'd throw away the traditional canon, but revise it. It might be important for students to have a sense of what used to be considered the canon in order to better appreciate the progress, if that's what it is, the new canon exemplifies.

Awesome! I just sent an email to see when/if I'll be notified about the TOship. If I was, in fact, hired, I'll probably accept this week. If I wasn't, I suppose I'll go to Louisville or Nebraska...but I like UMass so much more.

Congrats, proflorax and ategenos! Do either of you think you'll accept? I haven't heard from anyone yet, although I'm not as nervous about that fact as I could (should?) be. I can't imagine my interview went so horribly that I'd be declined--I am a rhet/comp person, after all. How were you notified--telephone or email?

Thanks for your input. I did consider the lack of Elbow and Herrington, but neither of them were my POIs. With any luck, the department will hire some new associate/full professors in rhetcomp soon! I won't hold my breath on that, though, and still find the remaining faculty attractive enough to attend. I should get accustomed to Massachusetts' winters. People say Pittsburgh winters are bad, but the last few have been mild...my cold defenses are probably weakened. (In any case, I don't deal well with hot weather at all...so I'm better off in New England than, say, Florida.)

I'm leaning, strongly, towards UMass-Amherst's MA/PhD program, provided that I get a TOship. The Rhet/Comp faculty, although small, does interesting work and aligns the most closely with my interests. The faculty members I've spoken to already have been nice, and obviously interested in my work and research interests. (One even drew a rather unexpected comparison between my interests and her own that I never would've considered, exciting me greatly.) More pragmatically, UMass offers a nice funding package (guaranteed for seven years!), good placement records, and is in a great location. If they don't offer me a TOship, I'll attend Louisville.

That's a shame about Pitt, my undergrad alma mater. They've actually managed to place a lot of their recent grads into good TT jobs.

Thanks! My nerves are bit calmer now.

Has anyone heard about TOships from the Writing Program yet? I thought the interview went well at the time, but I keep replaying it in my head, thinking of things I should've said.