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Tybalt

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Everything posted by Tybalt

  1. 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).
  2. 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).
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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).
  11. 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).
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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?
  16. Some tips for y'all--mostly made up of things I really wish that people had told me back when I was applying: 1 - Admissions committees often look to admit applicants who match up with their own interests or with the interests of faculty who have openings for new advisees. Don't just look at who you want to work with. Try and find out if they even take advisees. Are they half a semester away from retirement? Do they already have 15 advisees? Are they the dept oddball who gets hidden during visit weekend? Look at recent commencement info. Most schools will indicate recent graduates and their advisors. Those advisors may well have an opening. So much of this is based on logistics as much as and even more so than pure talent on paper. 2 - People will tell you to apply to a range of schools. I used to be one of those people. You need to be thinking about your future job well before you even apply to grad school. Do you want to get a TT job with a teaching load of 3-2 or less? You need to limit your applications to top 10 programs. Yeah, there are outliers, but that's exactly what they are. Are you pretty sure that you want to go alt-ac after the degree? Most top programs have NO experience in doing that, so much of the training they offer in that area will be woefully inept (I've even heard--refreshingly--a DGS at an R1 say that she's not remotely qualified to offer advice on pivoting out of academia). You can't really change your institutional pedigree, so if you start at a mid-ranked school and then decide that you want to teach at an R1 or a SLAC, you have just given yourself absurdly lower odds of ever achieving that goal. 3 - Don't get all twisted up about the SoP. Use it to give a clear sense of what you aim to do and why the people/resources at that school make it a good fit for your work. Ask 15 people for advice on the "correct" format for an SoP, you'll get 20 different responses. I went narrative in my first version. A prof at my MA school told me that nobody cares about that stuff, and that "you are your project and nothing more." So I revised to make it sound more Vulcan-esque. My application cycle? An admit and a pair of wait lists using the narrative SoP and an admit and a pair of wait lists using the Vulcan SoP. You can't predict how adcoms will react to things like style. A style that generated acceptances one year might lead to rejections a year later under that year's different admissions committee. Beyond making sure that you are conveying the info clearly (see 2nd sentence above), the rest is unpredictable and not worth stressing over. This goes double for the GRE, which most schools don't give a flying fart about. 4 - The thing that IS worth stressing over? The writing sample. Good writing is the universal greeting for grad school. Someone earlier mentioned including an abstract. That's excellent advice. Other good advice--avoid the "biggies." Are you a medievalist? I guarantee you they don't want to see ANOTHER writing sample on the Canterbury Tales. Find something interesting to say about a text. Look to the top journals in your field for models to emulate. Spend the lion's share of your time on that document. Spend even more on the first two and last two pages. They may well be the only pages that get read, so make them perfect and make sure that your argument, methodology, and the stakes are stated clearly in those pages. 5 - I was non-traditional (31 when admitted to PhD program). If you are non-traditional, don't try to hide it, but don't shine a spotlight on it either. People will say that emphasizing it will show all the things you've gained from those years of experience. Your CV will do that. There are schools who seem generally welcoming to non-traditionals (Indiana has a long track record in this area). But the reality is that again--it's less about the school and more about the attitudes of the profs on each admissions committee. If a school has one member of an adcom who is predisposed to toss non-traditional applicants in the bin, you likely aren't getting in there if your app makes that too obvious. My own advisor, who was the head of the adcom the year I was admitted, had no idea how old I was. In most cases, they aren't Googling you--they don't put THAT much time into each applicant. Your age will never be the thing that gets you in, but it COULD be the thing that gets you tossed. Don't emphasize it and don't apologize for it. TL/DR: Own your accomplishments. They will be what gets you in. 6 - Wait lists are WONDERFUL things. Getting in off a wait list doesn't make you a lesser candidate. Out of an initial cohort of 8, I was the only one admitted off the wait list. I'm also one of the three who finished the degree (two are still dissertating), and only two of us ended up with tenure-track jobs (both with a heavy teaching emphasis). Anecdotally, I've noticed that wait-list applicants in my old program tend to do better in the long run, possibly due to that anxiety that they weren't a "first choice." That brings us to... 7 - Getting into a program is step one. It's the starting line. From that point forward, it is ALL about the hustle. Build a network. Start filling out your CV. Don't look at seminar papers as "coursework"--look at them as first drafts of articles aimed NOT at your professor but at a particular journal. Don't go to EVERY conference, but pick two (one regional and one national) to go to regularly. Talk to people when you are there. Get involved in committees and such. We used to joke that you had to have the dossier of someone coming up for tenure just to get an interview for a TT job. The job market was that bad. It's about to get much worse. You need to be ready to start the hustle from day one. If you DON'T feel ready to do things like major conferences, networking, publishing, etc, then think about doing an MA first. I did, for exactly those reasons. 8 - As PART of that hustle, build your CV in a way that shows you can wear more than one hat. Teach/present outside of your main specialty in some way. Do your thing and theory. Your thing and Digital Humanities. Your thing and Film. Your thing and one of its adjacent fields. As schools get fewer and fewer tenure lines, departments are going to continue searching for candidates who can cover more than one area. Build your CV with that kind of hybridity in mind. 9 - No matter HOW much you want that tenure track job, it might not happen, and it won't be because you did anything wrong. The numbers are absurdly stacked against you. I missed out on a job last year that was PERFECT for me. It went to an Ivy candidate who was three years out from his PhD, had two prestigious VAPs, several journal articles and a book already published at a major press. I would have hired him over me as well. I ended up with a TT position because I hustled from day one and I got absurdly lucky (a school that posted a position looking for my primary field with "preferred secondary interests" in literally everything else I do). Before that offer came in, I was already preparing to reach out to my alt-ac network. There will come a time on the job market where many of you will need to make a choice--toil as an adjunct for year after year, or walk away and refuse to be exploited in that way. That's a very personal choice for most folks. I recommend setting a set time frame (ala: 2 or 3 application cycles post degree conferral). Set it, and then stick to it. Insomnia has apparently inspired me to write a small novel here. Apologies for the length and for any sense of doom and gloom. For what it's worth, even if this job hadn't come through, I wouldn't change my decision to do the PhD. I found my time in the program personally and intellectually rewarding and I met some of the best friends I've ever had, both in and out of the program. I'm not saying "don't do a PhD because the job market is scary." I'm saying "do a PhD with your eyes wide open." Best of luck, everyone. And always remember to support each other. Academia is (or rather should be) a community, not a blood-sport. Don't aspire to grow up to be Reviewer #2.
  17. You keep repeating this as if people are unaware of it. What you are missing is the fact that identity has always been used as a criteria in academic hiring decisions. The only difference is that--in a tiny minority of current postings--it is being used as a criteria for inclusion rather than exclusion. The obvious "tell"? -Departments that are 100% white faculty? Crickets. -Job postings that openly exclude LGBT applicants (and two cycles ago, there were SEVERAL such positions)? Crickets. When complaints about "diversity" and "identity" only arise when the "victim" is the straight/white/male trifecta, the issue, as someone said earlier, is one of privilege.
  18. It seems like you have possibly already made a decision, but just to toss another couple of pennies into the pile: I've always had a dog, and I don't know how I would live without one. There are a lot of things that you need to adapt to in order to have one, but after a while, you don't even notice. Some things to consider: -Having a dog means asking potential landlords "Do you allow dogs" as your FIRST question. The answer will eliminate at least half of the potential rentals. -Dogs are expensive. In addition to regular vetting, there is food, toys, damage, grooming, emergency vetting, etc. Having a dog means that the dog's needs come before your own. -With the above two details in mind, a lot of it comes down to budget and location. I have always lived in areas (including during grad school) where the cost of living/income ratio allowed me to properly care for my dog. I did not consider moving to places where that would not be the case (because when I adopt a dog, it's for life). While you want to do what's best for this dog, you need to look at your financials and see if you'll be able to properly take care of it. -As far as schedules and other such details, you will soon have a community of folks, MANY of whom are pet people. Other grad students have dog-sat for me. I've dog (and cat, and chinchilla etc) sat for them. Professors end up in this cycle as well, though usually they do more "getting grad students to watch their pets" than vice versa. I will say this--as someone who has had at least one dog for about 95% of my life--it's worth it. Especially in grad school. When imposter syndrome strikes, that dog believes in you. When you don't want to leave the house, that dog makes you. Having a dog is GREAT for mental health. Even when they do obnoxious things, like having a better professional head shot than you (see below, haha).
  19. Apply. If you get in, you can worry about it then (and you will be better able to make an informed decision, by carefully asking the right folks--potential advisors, current students, etc-- at the visit weekend). If you DON'T get in, you won't have to worry about it at all. Step one before step two. That's a useful thing to keep in mind for grad school in general.
  20. Adding to Bill's excellent response: You need to specialize in the field you are most passionate about. It's not about improving your odds at a job five years from now. It's about doing your best work in a field where you would then be spending 30+ years of a career. I really like Chaucer. I'm incredibly fond of Victorian novels. I dig comics and graphic novels. But I can't imagine spending 30 years working on any of those topics. But Renaissance drama? I LIVE for that. When I teach it, I come alive and I never tire of seeing it, thinking about it, and writing about it. Whichever field gives you that feeling, THAT'S the field you should specialize in, because the work you do in that field will stand out on the job market, whether you are up against 20 competitors or 200.
  21. The above is some great advice. There are some programs with defined specialties in the area. Beyond that, the key is to figure out which programs have profs who could make up your committee. Look at it not just as trying to find a "S.F." school, but a school that has people who can do S.F. AND the things that intersect with your work. What, for example, is your particular interest IN S.F.? Gender? Race? Technology? Utopia? Post-Apocalyptic? In what genre/mode? Television? Film? Novels? You want to find a school where you can form a committee. Case in point, my school (Rochester) doesn't have a dedicated S.F. person, but we have a post-modernist (Jeff Tucker) who does S.F., Utopia, and issues of race. We also have an Anglo-Saxonist (Sarah Higley) whose academic specialty is Old English and gendered monstrosity, but she's also written professionally in the S.F. world (she wrote the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that debuted the Reg Barclay character, for example). That's my advice for ANYONE looking at making a list of programs for an application season. Don't hunt for a singular advisor. Hunt for a committee.
  22. It could also be programs shifting to reflect the job market. There have been a LOT of jobs the last couple of years that want Med/Ren. Some were specific about wanting a Ren who could dip back, but most just wanted someone who could show that they could handle both fields. I wouldn't be surprised to see programs shifting to make sure their early fields folks get good coverage on both sides of the Med/Ren divide. For those of you starting grad school now, I would recommend focusing your work (not your Diss, per se, but coursework, conference presentations, and maybe a publication or two) on achieving a 70/30 or a 60/40 balance of Med/Ren or Ren/Med (depending on which one you are). Also, this site is wild in the way it lets you track where the slots go. Same thing happened in my year. Someone had an admit to Indiana, but was waiting on another school (I don't recall which one). She got in to the other school and turned down Indiana, who then accepted another poster who was in at Rochester but waitlisted at IU. That poster accepted IU and turned down Rochester who then admitted me. All of this happened in about a 10 hour span on the 13th of April and we were tracking it in realtime on the Gradcafe, haha.
  23. I did (a condo/townhome) for many of the reasons you mentioned above (I live in Rochester, NY). I don't regret it at all, but there are reasons to/not to do this. I'm on the way out the door at the moment (headed to Atlanta for SAA), but feel free to PM me with any questions.
  24. Hi all, I'm on the board for a regional branch of the College English Association (a great conference that has equal emphasis on both lit crit and pedagogy). This October, I'll be running the conference here at the U of Rochester. It's an interdisciplinary conference, so all subfields are welcome! The New York College English Association (NYCEA) has a great reputation for being welcoming to graduate student, and the last few years, they've reserved a round-table session for graduate student professionalization topics. Let me know if you have any questions. The CfP is on the UPenn site, and here it is on our website: http://www.nycea.org/fall-2017-conference.html NYCEA 2017 Conference Call for Papers Marking the Margins and Setting the Center October 20-21, 2017 University of Rochester, Rochester NY. In partnership with the University of Rochester's Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program "Minority art, vernacular art, is marginal art. Only on the margins does growth occur." --Joanna Russ. As the quotation from Joanna Russ--a prominent science fiction author and feminist--indicates, this year's New York College English Association conference is concerned with exploring art, literature, and pedagogy on or around the margins. But what do these terms “margin” and “center” mean, and why have they been so tightly associated with one another? How have their meanings – and the relationship between their meanings – changed in different historical and cultural contexts? Who has determined these meanings and relationships? Who has benefitted and who has suffered from them? At this year's conference at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, we will connect these more general questions about issues of marginality to some of the specific challenges faced by researchers and teachers. Please send 250 word abstracts to NewYorkCEA@gmail.com Abstract deadline is August 15th 2017 See www.nycea.org Paper topics may consider, but are certainly not limited to, any aspect of this theme, including: -The role of adjunct and itinerant teachers in academia. -Under-represented authors and characters. -Effective ways to reach marginalized student populations. -Queer/Feminist/Race/Gender/Disability Theories. -Manuscripts and marginalia. -Marginal comments and peer review in the composition classroom. -Digital Humanities, technology access, and digital divides. -Cultural appropriation -Social justice debates--Occupy, BLM, University origins and racism, etc. -The campus experience (trigger warnings and safe spaces) -Monsters and monstrosity in literary texts -Roma art, literature, and culture -Great books and the canon -After the "Theory Wars"--the current state of critical theory -Addressing the unique needs of the military veteran student population -International students and cultural considerations -Interdisciplinary scholars as [institutional drifters] -Pop culture, comic books, children's literature and the quest for academic legitimacy -Utopias, Dystopias, and speculative science fiction
  25. This is one of the better, infographic representations of perceived vs. actual "imposter syndrome." I found it useful when I first saw it, particularly in keeping things in perspective.
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