runonsentence

I think Tybalt's advice is spot on, on both counts. Writing textbooks—there's a great thread here: I recommended the writing teacher's sourcebook there, it's a great intro to rhet/comp pedagogy. However, note: instructors are able to get FREE exam copies of textbooks (just tell your rep from the publisher that you'd like to consider teaching it, and they'll send you a copy), so don't rush out to buy them just yet. See also this recent thread on teaching:

Most graduate students fund their studies through competitive fellowships and assistantship positions offered through their universities. The availability and amount of funding, as well as what the school expects you to do in order to earn it (i.e., teach, research, administrative tasks) depends entirely on the programs you apply to. Usually, funding will provide a full or partial tuition waiver, a stipend to cover living expenses, and at least some help with health insurance. Funding is more common at the doctoral level than the master's level, and more common in disciplines like the hard sciences, social sciences, and humanities than in the arts or professional degree programs (i.e., medical school, law school). It's highly unadvisable to go deep into debt to get a graduate degree, but some students do finance their degrees through federal and/or private loans.

I don't know about any scholarships off the top of my head—but one suggestion I have for you is to inquire with the department to see if they'd consider deferring your acceptance one year. I have a friend in art who did this so that she could spend the year applying to scholarships with fall/winter deadlines in an effort to fund her M.S. in textiles.

I think it completely depends on (1) how extroverted you are and (2) your department culture. I've been lucky, in terms of a social life in grad school. I came to a city 10 hours away from home and made instant friends in my department (with whom I constantly hang out). My biggest problem many weekends is balancing work and play. I have a department of friendly people who enjoy socializing—but that being said, I had to make an effort to leave my comfort zone and reach out and meet new people in order to tap into that network. If it's your goal not to be lonely, my advice would be to push yourself to go out, attend functions, and reach out to your new colleagues as much as possible at the beginning of the term. Remember that blowing off steam a couple nights a week is a very healthy thing to do. One of my undergrad tutors had a very wise saying: Work will always fill the time you give it.

One idea for people with common names: I use my middle initial, to help differentiate me from duplicate names floating around out there. I also did some work to standardize how my name appears on profiles/pages linked to my name on the Web (i.e., my online teaching dossier, my Twitter account, my CV/profile on my department site, etc.) and created a Google profile. This can at least help keep things organized if someone were to simply Google your name after reading your pub.

Phil Sparrow is right in that it entirely depends on the program. Northwestern was the very same example of a school where this is NOT true that I was thinking of (on their website, they make it very clear that MAs have no more of an advantage for getting in than do outside applicants). I think your best bet would be to concentrate on schools that have some kind of MA-->PhD system, though as Phil Sparrow mentions, these are often more competitive MA programs, especially because they fund the master's degree. Penn State and Ohio State are two examples; UNC used to be an example but, as of this year, seems to be moving away from its current MA–>PhD model. Some of these schools make it clear that they like to move their MA students into the PhD program; for other schools, knowing that it's some kind of MA–>PhD program is matter of hearing the word on the street, so to speak. What subfield do you hope to move into, and what are your research interests? Knowing these details might help us to throw out some names.

Agreed—is the issue that you don't feel that you're doing well in your classes and not putting forth strong research? Or is the issue simply the letter on the transcript? In the former case, then it's wise of you to start thinking of other option. In the latter case, I'd agree that your grades aren't going to matter nearly as much as the more important components that make up your overall package on the market: your dissertation, your letters of recommendation, your CV....

You're welcome! Your best bet is to get in contact with current graduate students in engineering. People in my discipline usually have to move across the country to get a full-time job.

I made a longer post further up in this thread that might be useful about the general feel of the city. Sorry to say I don't know anything about jobs, since I have a TAship. Are you talking about full-time jobs for after you graduate, or part-time jobs while you study...? Let us know if you have any more specific questions!

Gerdsen apartments rock. My friend is living in one now, and the building is SO well maintained.

My TAship allows me to work only up to 7 hours per week. I spend 5 hours per week tutoring in the writing center, and occasionally take up gigs copyediting theses. Unless you find something that would give you really limited hours (something like 3-4 hours per week), I would echo what you're hearing from your program and NOT recommend working while in school. Also, keep in mind that I waited a term and a half before starting to work, so that I could acclimate to my program first.

This is my own opinion, but I think that polished theses are sometimes a bit too ambitious for a master's program, which is why my program moved away from doing them for so long. It might be different in your field, but I don't think it hurt my applications not to have a thesis, and probably because a lot of graduate programs realize this. (I instead focused on presenting at conferences and getting my first publication accepted, for example.) I didn't even have a lit review or comp exam, in fact, and I still had three acceptances, two of which were very competitive. However, I've also heard on some of the list servs in my field that some PhD programs do like to see you coming in already familiar with the process of writing a thesis. I guess it depends—but if your program suggests you do the lit review, I'd personally do that. The goal is to take on something that you can succeed well in, not throw yourself at the most ambitious project you can. A strong lit review, I think, would look better on an application than a mediocre thesis, and it sounds like your program's experience has mostly been mediocrity for the theses students have elected to do. Last, re: the advantage of having a thesis for apps: if you do a thesis in the same year as your PhD applications, it actually won't be ready in time for your fall/winter deadlines, anyway.

P.S. I'm also curious as to why you're "not looking for rhetoric programs per se"? Are you trying to make something more interdisciplinary/blended work with medieval studies? Or are you not decided yet whether to move in a lit or a rhet/comp direction?

I think that a previous poster was correct in that a program that "does" history of rhetoric will be a program that has one (or possibly two?) scholars in your area. While I'm personally not ever an advocate of choosing a university based on one person you want to work with, looking up programs attached to scholars you have read might be a good starting point. But something else for you to look for might be programs that are known for archival work. I think that Penn State has some strong archival work being done, but someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Someone asked about money earlier, too—check with your program, but I know that at mine we don't get our first pay check until 2-4 weeks into the term. (Have to wait for the pay period to end and for the check to clear.) This is one of those hidden moving expenses (fronting money until your pay kicks in).

I think the only reason I'd urge you to visit (at this point) is to scout out places to live—but you've already chosen to live on campus, and you have a cousin in town. I say go ahead and save yourself the money and trouble.

In the humanities (or at least, in my department) we have grade inflation, so a C is unheard of. The profs in my department use the A- and B+ to send you a message about the quality of the work you're doing (i.e., step it up!).

I've never understood the supposed utility of Uggs. I got a really trendy, waterproof, warm, and all-around functional pair of snow boots off of Piperlime. I bought them in June, so they were priced 60% off. I recommend trying to shop for snow boots off season!

I'm a born-and-raised Mid-Atlantic girl, and I have to say that I'd find the winters freezing if I only had a pea coat, depending on the amount of walking I were to do outside. Growing up in the suburbs a pea coat worked out fine, but once I started working in center city Philly after undergrad I found I was cold all the time once December hit and needed a second coat. A nice coat with some proportion of down filling is a nice thing to have; I bought mine on a pre-Thanksgiving sale at Macy's for at least half off (Liz Claiborne!!) and I'm so glad I did. LL Bean and Eddie Bauer also make nice, warm coats that can still look somewhat dressy. A pair of galoshes is a surprisingly awesome thing to have on hand. Zappos has some cheap and durable pairs. I bought my last pair at Target for $20 and regret it; they're only about a year old but falling apart (I walk a mile each way to school).

I'm not in the sciences so I can't answer your questions directly, unfortunately, but I hope that some of the questions and ideas below may be of help to you. How much cheaper is SUNY Stony Brook? The cost of living there will actually be exceedingly high (real dearth of rental options on Long Island, so you'll likely end up commuting in on the train from the NYC outer boroughs), so unless there is a sizeable difference in the cost of attending, SB might not actually be the cheapest option of the three. (I don't know much about the Connecticut area—though the cost of living in the state in general is pretty high—but I'm positive you could live more cheaply and within easier reach of your school if you went to school in Philadelphia.) If you'll be basing your decision primarily on job prospects, though, you should make sure you go on more than just your hunch. Have you tried contacting current graduate students in each of these programs (either directly, with contact details off of websites, or by asking the DGS to put you in touch with some students)? Current students might be the most knowledgeable about this word-of-mouth kind of information. The DGS can also tell you about opportunities to network with industry and job placement statistics. Good luck with your decision!

I visited Stony Brook during my previous round of applications (for Fall 2009), and this is what I gleaned about the living situation from current grads: LI in general (and SB in particular) have been zoned in such a way that preserves the look and feel of the historic fishing villages, Port Jefferson being a prime example. This means that it's not really possible for anyone to build huge apartment complexes. (This is probably also where the idea of "illegal" apartments come from?) I liked the feel of the little villages, but as a tourist destination, not exactly as a place to live. The grad students I talked to in the English department said that a handful of people lived in basements/spare bedroom apartments in town their first year, but most ended up in the outer boroughs of NYC (Brooklyn, Bronx) and commuted in on the train line. The impression I got was that everything was sort of disparate, in terms of areas people lived in; there's no real area that draws most of the grad students. The cost of living on Long Island is pretty high. Lower than NYC certainly, but not by much (remember that this is an area ONLY accessible through NYC or ferries from further north). The campus itself was okay. The student offices and inside of the building itself for the English department is nicer than other places I've been, but I remember the library being a real depressing building and a lot of the buildings looking rather ho-hum, at least on the outside.

My advice, and take it as you will: go straight to the DGS. Do not pass "go," do not collect $200. Set up an appointment with the DGS, and then tell him/her the situation and that it's already affecting your thesis. If it were me, I'd tell the whole story to the DGS, and tell him/her that because of some strange misperceptions associated with your personal life, you're finding it difficult to work with faculty. This is NOT something you need to stand. My own DGS is very invested in the success and happiness of all of us grads, reaching out to us individually even on occasion, and my boyfriend's DGS in the sciences was really helpful in clearing up an issue with his advisor (he felt he wasn't getting enough guidance), even going so far as to offer to help him analyze future data. Neither of us have/would regret going to our respective DGS on an issue like this; but I recognize that this could also be a product of our own departmental cultures.

Are you teaching freshmen? If so, it'll work to your advantage. You may think you look young, but wait until you walk into the classroom.... And if they're first semester freshmen, they will look absolutely terrified on the first day. One thing we tell all our master's students here (who teach with full responsibility their very first term!!): remember that no matter how unsure you may feel, you still know more than they do. And hopefully you'll have some department support to help you through this as you go along. Adopt a persona that's comfortable for you. I tend to dress a bit more formally because it's somewhat natural for me, especially toward the beginning of the term, and ask students to call me "Ms. XX," but some of my colleagues prefer to dress a little more down-to-earth and tell students it's okay to call them by their first name. I've generally found that students respond well to either approach, as long as it's genuine. You should do whatever feels natural to you, department culture and policy permitting, because students will see right through it if you're tottering on high heels/choking in ties just to try to impress them. And you'll always be a more effective presence in the classroom if you're comfortable. Definitely ask for as much help and as many samples as you can from colleagues. Don't try to reinvent the wheel your first time out!! Take everything a few steps at a time. And like Kessith said, don't be afraid to mess up or admit you're not sure about something.

Oh, James Franco. He had our department in a tizzy when he applied to our PhD in creative writing. Didn't ask for funding, but he still would have had to teach at least one comp course to finish out his degree requirements.

Excellent suggestions posted so far. We currently have MA funding and tons of teaching experience (from your very first term, if you're fully funded, or in the second year if you don't get full funding) at U Cincinnati, but that may change because our governor is a douche. When I did my first round of apps I think I remember some MA funding at Baltimore(??). I could very well be wrong on this, though. UNC Chapel Hill also had a funded "feeder" MA program (really just a formality designed to move you into the PhD program) when I did my round of apps in 2009, but I think that's changing because of budget issues? May want to check on that.