lyonessrampant

Rhet people interested in UMN, I'm in the English department, but I'm doing/have done a graduate minor in rhetoric and took courses in writing studies and comm. If you have questions about rhet here or funding, let me know. We have many very respected professors and a lot of opportunities, but the rhet/comp field is housed in a fairly new department (Writing Studies) so a lot of people have questions about placement/prestige/etc.

Our prospectives visit is this week, so I would suspect people will start to hear things after that. We are on spring break next week, however, so that may delay notifications. I'm not sure.

Always follow the money, particularly at the MA level. If she's got a fully funded offer, I'd be hard pressed to come up with reasons to go in debt for an MA in English. If she's interested in publishing, do you mean editing? Working in a publishing house? If so, she should take courses or do intern/extern-ships (as mentioned above). Simply being at a school with a large publishing presence doesn't guarantee experience with the press. At neither Chicago nor Minnesota have I had press experience, though both have huge publishing presences. I say this to indicate that simply being somewhere with a big press doesn't mean you get those opportunities. Perhaps being at a smaller place will allow more direct experience. Whether she's considering the publishing/editing career route or the Ph.D. route, my advice is the same. . .follow the money, especially for the MA.

I think MAPH with a full-tuition scholarship is worth going. I did my MA there with about 1/2 tuition funding. In retrospect, I wouldn't do it again paying any tuition (I had no idea there were funded MA programs and only applied to several tippy top Ph.D. programs. . oh the woes of isolated liberal arts students). However, I did grow tremendously as a scholar, learned a great deal, and became a much better writer. I think that the conservatism associated with parts of UC are not applicable to the entire institution. I found the MAPH core theoretically oriented and driven and found supportive readers for my theoretically informed med/EM work. If you don't have a more compelling offer, I'd do MAPH with full tuition. Live in grad housing (it's reasonably priced) and be frugal. I worked 20 hours a week (albeit I could work from home on my own schedule) and managed to handle that during the admittedly rigorous and grueling MAPH year, and I'm sure you could work some to cover basic living expenses. As an alum (and debt holder), I regret the cash cow association of the program, but having had the experience, I wholeheartedly endorse it if you're not paying tuition. I graduated several years ago and am very happy in my current Ph.D. program, but if you have questions, feel free to PM me. Edited to add that I had five offers after MAPH, and I didn't find overall that the degree was undervalued because of its contentiousness in terms of funding. Since you can put a nice big line on the CV about a full tuition scholarship, that would be even less the case for you.

The waitlist is broken down by subfield. There are three subfields: medieval/early modern, 18th/19th, 20th/21st. The waitlists are usually ranked by subfield with offers being extended in order as soon as someone who has been accepted declines. As far as the standard funding package goes (this is on the website as well), it is a 1:1 load. Usually first year everyone has at least one semester of fellowship and many a full year. The standard stipend is $14,000 and excellent health insurance. There are university-wide fellowships that provide opportunities as well. Funding is guaranteed for 6 years, though the department usually finds support for 7th years who need it. There are book scholarships and additional perks often offered for the first year. Good luck to everyone on the waitlist!

I'm pretty sure that this week will include some admits, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Recruitment team hasn't been given the list of names yet (or at least my subfield hasn't) so that suggests to me that things aren't fully ironed out yet.

Hi folks. I'm a current Ph.D. student at UMN in English. I'm trying to remember how it all went, but I got a phone call at or about the same time as my online portal went to awaiting decision. There was variation with the rest of my cohort, though. I do know that our timeline is for me (I'm on the recruitment team) to be notified of first-round admits soon to contact, so I believe if you're a first-round admit, you will have been notified already or will be this week. If you don't know after this week one way or the other, you're likely in the next pool. Don't despair, though, we often do have many next-round admits. If you have questions about UMN, feel free to PM me. I'll try to remember to log on to grad cafe for the next few weeks. Good luck!

Apply to the Ph.D. first and then after/during your first year start talking to people about the MLIS. I investigated doing another MA while doing my Ph.D. and was given the option. My school has graduate minors, so I just did that instead, but it is definitely do-able. Good luck!

If you do French, Minnesota. Mary Franklin Brown does both rhetoric and medieval (and theory). She's brilliant and very strong in languages, rhetoric, and poetry in particular, but if you don't do French lit at all, that won't be as helpful for you.

University of Minnesota has a really vibrant, interdisciplinary DH program. Michael Hansher (sp?) is one of the top people in the field, and he runs the program here. I don't know a lot about it, but we get emails about him and the program a lot!

I know our department is TOTALLY swamped with grading, paper writing, Kalamazoo, departmental awards, etc. It isn't because your new departments don't love you that you're not getting info; it is because profs, staff, and students are fighting to survive I got info from my department in May/June and corresponded a bit with POIs over the summer. I would just really recommend you wait until mid-May to start contacting people so everyone can get through the hellaciousness that is right now.

For some of the disciplinarity stuff, check out Carnegie Mellon's David Shumway.

I think it is an excellent intro-intro text. . .if you've had much theory at all, when you read it you'll find yourself arguing with Eagleton, but either way, I think it is a good text to have read if you put critical theory as an interest on your CV.

Somebody didn't get answers they liked on Grad Cafe. . .lol!

This is tricky because it will be well past the deadline. Each institution has different policies about someone changing their mind. For the week or so after April 15th, schools expect some people to change their mind and that usually isn't really a problem. However, if you're talking the middle of the summer, there likely will be a financial penalty, not getting back a $500 deposit or something. However, there won't be legal penalties or anything like that. It will burn some bridges at that university (especially if the decision is really late), and they will want to know why. You can lie and say personal circumstances have come up that prevent you from going to grad school this year, or you can tell them the truth, apologize, and thank them for your interest in you. I'd probably go the truth route myself, but I include the lying option just to illustrate that you can handle the situation in a variety of ways. You should contact the UK scholarship about your situation and get as much information about a time frame as possible.

Trolls are trolling

35775 • Wojciehowski, Hannah C She is wonderful (or so I've heard from a friend in the department). . and her work is awesome. . I'm jealous

I would email the DGS and ask for a clarification about your acceptance. Hope you got into the Ph.D.!

Yeah, U of O is a pretty good program all around, but if you strictly want to stay in the PacNW, there aren't a lot of strong English Ph.D. departments beside UW and UO. Oregon State may have a Ph.D. program, though I'm not sure; they do have an MA program, but that's all I know for sure. U of Utah (not PacNW but within striking range) has a Ph.D. program and is actually a pretty solid program. It's also a good place for flights being in Salt Lake City. Otherwise, there aren't really any other Ph.D. programs, or the ones that are there are a little. . .sketchy in my opinion. I'm from Montana and really, really wanted to stay in the Northwest and almost took offers at UO and U of Utah, but ultimately, they didn't fit my interests as well as my current program, so I feel your location desires. Congratulations on the engagement! I'm sure there are also some great Canadian programs as well. UBC and maybe U of Alberta, right?

If you're a medievalist (or early modernist) I am jealous of you getting to work with Noah Guynn! Good luck!

Especially if it is paid for, I don't think it will hurt you, and it is a better option than going for an unfunded MA at this point. I disagree with the statement that all unfunded (or not fully funded) MAs are cash cows, and even if they are a revenue-raising avenue for the university, this does not categorically mean the program is bad. That said, I would do this and apply again either this coming fall or do the whole year and apply in 2014. I think it will make you more competitive in terms of refining your interests, enabling you to generate a new writing sample with graduate faculty supporting your revision process, and likely produce a more focused SOP that meshes well with your new writing sample. I think it is a good option, and I know people who have done this and similar programs and have been quite successful. Best of luck with whatever you decide!

Sorry rainy! Best of luck next year! With those three waitlists this season, I'm sure you WILL get into ALL the schools next season!

Sorry to hear that Swagato. Best of luck for the next season!

Sorry Trip But CUNY is an amazing program to have in reserve! Patricia Ticineto Clough from CUNY spoke to the English and Comp Lit theory group yesterday, and she was amazing. So many great people at CUNY!

Congratulations!!!!