Tybalt

A lot of excellent points in this thread, that I hope newly-admitted PhD students are taking to heart. One I will add: Take advantage of the resources at your school, not just the resources of your program. Odds are, the people in your program won't know a thing about preparing for a non-academic job. The vast majority of English faculty at PhD granting institutions have never held/applied for one. But your school will have tons of resources, and quite probably a whole office, for job placement/development. Don't dismiss those resources just because they are intended for the undergrads. Develop a resume alongside your CV and keep both updated accordingly. Do an internship during your program. If you make a point of contributing just one thing to each world (ac and alt-ac) in every semester and every summer, then by the time you finish your program, you'll be ready to put your best foot forward regardless of the path you decide to walk (and you'll be better prepared to pivot if you start down a path and realize that it's not what you'd hoped).

It CAN be done, but that move is difficult as well. In most of those fields, companies are wary of hiring a PhD because they seem "overqualified" for the entry level positions while also lacking the experience for the more advanced positions. I know a lot of folks who take the PhD off of their resume when applying in certain fields, but even that's tough, because how do you explain a 5+ year gap in your employment history without mentioning that the teaching was part of your PhD program? I think this topic (realistic plans outside of academia post-degree) should be FAR more prominent, because of the reality that there are significantly more PhD graduates than there are TT jobs. Too many people adjunct for years hoping that the TT will happen, and it usually doesn't (though full time lecturer positions seem to be getting more common, which is at least a good middle ground). I will say that if you ask most people what their "backup" plan is, they will offer vague responses about museum work, library work, or (and not digging at you here, as I've heard other people say the same thing) publishing work. The problem there is that ALL of those fields have job markets that are as dismal, if not more so, than academia, and they often have their own certifications that you won't get from your PhD program. I have some friends who started library science programs once they got to the candidate stage with their PhD, so they will at least have both degrees by the time they finish, but even then---academic library positions are a specialized field, often run by the same penny pinchers who are adjunctifying the TT job market. I would encourage every PhD candidate to start diversifying their job materials as soon as they are ABD. Don't rely on the professors in your department--not because they don't mean well, but the odds are that they don't know what they are talking about. Most of them went right from high school to grad school to an R1 position that prizes research over anything else. They've literally never HAD to search for a job outside of academia, and it isn't really fair to expect them to know how to guide students to do something they've never done. That said, every university has job prep/networking kinds of resources. Look for the job center. See what kinds of workshops they offer. Get feedback on how to transform your CV into a proper resume. Take advantage of alumni networking opportunities. Start building up your LinkedIn network. Pick up some certifications (it doesn't have to be something as massive as an MLIS degree--you can pick up certifications in Microsoft Office, coding, and I know that Google has a whole series of certification programs). I know that all sounds like a lot, but if you do one thing per semester and one per summer, you'll have a resume that looks like you are ready for a job outside of academia, rather than a poorly translated CV that looks like you are considering that job because you didn't get what you really wanted. You can still do all of these things after finishing the degree, of course, but they take time, and it's better to build slowly and deliberately (and to use those job center resources while you still have student status at your PhD program). Finally, I would recommend setting a concrete cap on the number of years you will play the academic job market. It's up to you to figure out where your comfort level is, but going into the job market year after year, adjuncting your way through, is a recipe for disaster. It's like a drug, and I've seen people stay on the job market for years and years almost chanting "one more year." I decided going in that I would do a trial run, a run during my final ABD year, and then two to three years with degree in hand. Whatever your comfort level, set a limit, and as you get closer to that limit, start diversifying your applications (some in academia and some out).

It ultimately depends on what kind of academic career you want to pursue and what the job market even looks like in 5 to 7 years. The latter, you can't really control. As for the former, you need to figure out what you are actually able/willing to do. Are you only going to be happy at an R1 or a SLAC with a 2-2 (MAYBE 3-3) teaching load, where your primary job is research? If that's the case, then Temple won't open those doors (neither would my program, to be clear). Does that mean it's impossible? No. You could publish your backside off, and move into such a job, but the odds are a fraction of a percent without a top 10 degree. That said, if you are interested in teaching, don't mind having ~half of your load as composition courses, can teach a 4-4 (or a 5-5 at some places), then a degree from Temple would be fine. There isn't one job market. There's a job market for R1s and SLACs and a job market for teaching focused schools. How you prepare for each of those markets is different as well. For example, I have a few publications (a book chapter, some DH stuff, etc), but my research portfolio would be blown out of the water by half of the ABDs at Harvard/Yale/Princeton. My teaching dossier, however, is longer and more diverse than some of the full professors at those schools. I got my job because of the latter. I've lost out on jobs because of the former. Every job requires a bit of each, but how you build your CV should be influenced--from the earliest stages of your program--by what kind of job you eventually want. And even then, the odds are better than not that a TT job won't happen. I'm not trying to be a downer, or one of those "it's easy for you to say that when you have one" people, but my job happened by dumb luck. I had applied to 90 positions. Had a handful of interviews. Was adjuncting and teaching a 6-5 load across three schools. I was at the point where I was ready to walk away, and just got lucky that a school needed someone not only with my--frankly odd--set of secondary interests AND a credential from a prior career that 95% of job applicants won't have. This Fall will be my 3rd semester here, and I still won't have taught my primary specialty (Shakespeare). I will also say this--much of this advice pretty much echoes what I was told by a newly-hired professor that I first met during my MA program. He had just earned his PhD in Renaissance rhetoric from Temple, and was willing to relocate to a school beyond the middle of nowhere and teach a 4-4, where composition would be his primary responsibility (he even ran the writing center for a bit). Not having an Ivy degree doesn't mean you can't get a job. But it might not be in a place you'd like to live. It will probably be a generalist position rather than a job directly in your specialty field. You might need to wear a lot of hats, and you will definitely need to teach your backside off. If that sounds completely unappealing, then it might be best to roll the dice again, targeting only top programs.

Program rep is a big thing, especially if you plan to go on the academic job market, but personal happiness and health is super important as well. That's the thing I always tell prospective grad students to keep in mind. A bad fit in terms of location/mentor/program makes it exponentially more likely that a person won't complete their program (and a LOT of people who start a PhD never finish it. My cohort started with 8--three of us finished). You want to look at that comfort level--on the virtual visit, get as much information as you can. Ask prospective advisors questions. Ask them to explain what an average advising meeting might look like. Ask them what their expectations of advisees might be in terms of production of chapters, lists, etc. See if you vibe with them. If it's awkward now, it probably won't get better in the program. You can also ask them questions about how grad students make it on the stipend. Do they do a lot of room shares? Is there campus grad housing? If you get the sense that you can complete your degree there, to me, Toronto is the clear choice for a medievalist. If you have doubts, though, and feel more comfortable at Rutgers or IU (both excellent programs, and IU also has a stellar rep for medieval), then that would be the better choice. Get the information that you need, and if you still have doubts after the visit, you can always ask them for more time to make your final decision.

You will need to take personal comfort level into account (which is something only you can really decide), but while all three of those schools are excellent programs, Toronto is one of THE top medieval programs. IU and Rutgers have fine medievalists (I actually know a bunch of medievalists from IU), but it isn't the calling card of their program the way it is for Toronto.

What I would do is this: get as much information as you can. BOTH of those stipends sound amazing (says the guy whose grad stipend was 18k, haha). Email the departments. Ask if they can send you academic and alt-ac job placement data for the last few years. Wisconsin has that data on their site, but the last ~3 years are unaccounted for. That will give you an idea as to job support. Be open about your situation. Is there an option to defer admission for a year? Would you be able to take a semester or a year in absentia or take a short leave when your mom gets her new heart so that you can be there for her? Think of anything else that you want to know and ask them. Preferably via email (because then you have their response--and anything they promise you in that response--in writing). They've already admitted you. That means they want you and want to compete for you. Once you have all the info you need, look at it objectively. It's not about a difference of a few thousand dollars. This is graduate school. You're going to be poor at the end no matter what. What matters are things like: What is more likely to make you miserable--being further away from home or passing up the dream school? Who has the best people in terms of helping you develop a project? Who has the best resources for your field? Finishing a PhD is difficult in an ideal scenario. Doing it while being miserable about things you passed up, culture, location, etc can be almost impossible. Ultimately, you're the only one who can answer those questions. You know what kinds of things slow down your work and brain activity. Get all the info, look at that info, and pick the school where you are most likely to be able to finish the degree.

Saw that the offers and wait lists for U of Rochester went out. I know a lot of folks can't do campus visits because of the pandemic. If anyone has any questions about U of R, feel free to send me a DM.

In my application year, we were actually able to track wait-list movement in our version of this thread. Someone who was admitted to Indiana got in off a waitlist at her top choice. Her spot at IU then went to someone who had been admitted to U of Rochester, and that person's U of R spot went to me. We saw all of that movement happen from like April 11th-13th. The wait is agonizing, but don't give up. The departments are hamstrung until they hear from the people who received initial offers, and those people might be waiting on their own waitlists. A LOT of movement happens in early April, usually.

It works in the opposite direction as well. I grew up in the Northeast and now work in the deep South. I think every teaching evaluation I've ever received has had a note about slowing down the rate of my speech, haha.

Probably varies from school to school, but I doubt many people put much stock in the "almost finished" tag, haha. Lots of people are "almost finished for literally YEARS. I started being almost finished in 2017. I defended in summer of 2019. A friend of mine has been almost finished since 2015. She's defending in April. Time does funny things in graduate school. For real though, each program is unique in how they determine that. Some programs allow pre-tenured faculty to advise--some don't. Some have faculty who can, and enjoy, advising many students at once. Others might have faculty who get overwhelmed beyond one or two. One program might be filled with profs who see grad students as an interruption to their research time. Others might view students as energizing to their research. It's borderline Dickensian, haha. The TL/DR is that you can look at things like that to make the call between the last couple of schools on your application list, but if you try and use it to predict the future, you'll just drive yourself to distraction. The main takeaway is to be aware that the vast majority of times, these committees aren't deciding against you--they are making their decisions on a huge pile of factors that have absolutely nothing to do with you. Frankly, I would love it if programs were more up front about what they were looking for, re: pairing grad students with certain profs/fields, though in retrospect, that might have cost me my own admission way back when (I was admitted off the wait list at a school where my advisor hand-picked her new advisee herself. I got in because a medievalist they admitted for another faculty member ended up turning them down).

One thing that might help to alleviate some of the stress/anxiety is to remember that admissions committees are practical groups. They aren't looking for the six or seven "best" applications in a vacuum, as odd as that may sound. They are looking for fits with current faculty members. If a program has a Renaissance scholar who already has six advisees, then you would need to be an absolute rock star to get accepted at that program in that year. If not, they already have six of you. They want to find a student for their Modernist colleague who just graduated both of her advisees. You can track that a LITTLE bit by looking at commencement programs at schools on your list. Who were the advisors for their PhD graduates over the last couple of years? Those are likely the higher percentage sub-fields at that school for this application cycle. This is why it's important to mention POIs in the cover letter--they are looking to match people to faculty, and once admitted, even if the faculty member wasn't on the adcom, schools sometimes have those POIs contact with the offer of admission (potentially, at that point, to engender a connection with that school so that you select them over any other offers). There are also internal politics that are pretty much impossible to figure out in advance. Many schools have a "toxic" colleague or three that that try to hide on visit weekends and NEVER match with grad students. If your SoP mentioned wanting to work with that prof, your app is often dead on arrival. The TL/DR of it all is to remember that even if you are going through a rough application season, it almost certainly has nothing to do with YOU. There are so many little things that adcoms care about that grad school applicants just don't have access to (ie: the practical side of the process mentioned above).

Assuming it isn't funding related, I doubt VCS' actions will have any bearing on the English department. They are wholly separate departments in just about every way. I have no info on their decision process at all (I graduated in 2019 and am working at a school on the other side of the country now), but am more than happy to answer any questions people might have about U of R, living in Rochester, etc.

I'm not incredibly familiar with their department, but a couple of friends of mine did their PhD's at UB, and said that the program was ridiculously strong in psychoanalytics, poetics, and theory in general. I got the vibe that it had a kind of crunchy theory/creative vibe as well. I did my degree an hour and change down the road at Rochester.

Don't try to predict the job market at this stage--it will be different in any number of ways by the time you are ON said market. For example, the big new thing when I was in my application cycle (2011) was Eco-criticism. It seemed like every third job had Eco-crit as a primary or preferred sub-field. Five years later, when I first started tracking the market, Eco-criticism was far more rare, and digital humanities was the new big thing. Fast forward to this year, and the overwhelming emphasis is on race and indigenous culture (long overdue, IMO, and influenced by the protests last summer). It just isn't possible to predict what will be "hot" when you hit the market. There are three major things to consider (in my view) at this stage of your career: 1- What is a target school's completion rate? The sad reality is that a LOT of people who start PhD programs never finish them. I started with a cohort of 8. Three of us finished the program. Get as much data as you can on this--do NOT just trust the data released by the school. Look at recent commencements--which professors seem to regularly have advisees graduating? Are any of those professors working in your field? School prestige is a great thing to have as an option, but it only means something if that school's name and your name eventually wind up on the same sheet of paper. 2- What kind of job are you interested in after graduation? If you want to work at an R1/SLAC or bust, then the reality is that you need that prestige diploma. If you are all about teaching, can see yourself teaching a 4-4 (or more) load, would be fine with a TT job at a regional public or a community college (and don't knock those--CC jobs often have a LOT of perks. A couple of my friends went that route and couldn't be happier), then the prestige doesn't matter quite as much. I'm in a TT job now, and the main reason I got the job was because my CV showed that I could wear a lot of hats--I'd taught a wide range of courses and they knew that would give them scheduling flexibility. If I had come out of a top 10 program with only two or three courses in the teaching column of my CV? I wouldn't have been offered this job. Each path (prestige vs. less-so) opens different doors to different kinds of job markets. The key is figuring out which kind of job you legitimately want, because making the switch is difficult in either case (to appeal to teaching heavy schools with an Ivy degree, you would need to likely spend a couple of years post-degree building up your teaching chops. To appeal to an R1 or a SLAC with a degree outside of the top 10-20, you would likely need to get a TT position at a teaching school and rapidly publish a LOT of well-regarded material in the hopes that you could make the jump before earning tenure). 3- Be wary of schools where you only see ONE person that you want to work with. The importance of the advisor/advisee relationship cannot be stressed enough, and you likely won't know until you are already there if the person you are dreaming to work with is a legit dream or a total nightmare. You learn a lot about the faculty during coursework, and schools with multiple potential advisors in your field offer you options if your primary presumptive advisor turns out to be a bad fit. This one cycles back into the first point--grad students with poor advising are less likely to complete the degree.

Just saw this post, and had a quick question--based on your interests, Buffalo seems like it might be an ideal fit for your work. Did you look into them at all?