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SumEsseFuiFuturus

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Everything posted by SumEsseFuiFuturus

  1. To explain why this isn't in the teaching section: I am officially contracted as a GTRA, but my assignment is administrative, not in teaching or in research. This semester, I was hired in one of the academic offices on campus, with the same stipend and privileges as any other GTRA, I have the parking sticker, the faculty/staff mailbox, and the paycheck. The one thing I don't have, though, is any duties. I come into work every morning until lunch time (unlike the teaching and research GTRAs, I'm contracted for 20 hours, instead of 10 a week), sometimes deliver messages, sometimes copy things, and almost always spend a lot of time doing my own reading/research or looking at fora like this. I guess I shouldn't complain, but I feel guilty not really doing anything commiserate with my higher pay compared to the other student workers, because the faculty member who I work for is still evaluating the work I did last semester for her; we're working on academic procedures, so that all has to be yay'd or nay'd before I can keep working. It's a small department that just doesn't have a high work volume. Should I be more aggressive about trying to get assignments? I'd just keep working on the project on my own, but what I still need to write depends on the approval of the summary pieces, and if I write a handbook about policies that haven't been finalized yet... Well, that would just be silly. Should I feel bad about being a drain on the university's resources?
  2. I'd caution against that last piece of advice. I work in my university's graduate office for my assistantship, and I know that here, at least, your second C is your last C before you must leave the program. Check your handbook and the university catalog to see if this is true for you! As long as your grades show a trend of getting better by the end of your program, you should be ok in terms of going on, but the other posters are right: a C in graduate school is more like a D or an F in undergraduate education.
  3. I got a Fossil messenger bag at the start of graduate school, because I thought it looked a little more grown-up than a backpack. Usually, I have: My Samsung Chronos Laptop (Like this one but a few months older than touch screen and Windows 8 fanciness). It's not like I'm an engineering student and need to do autocad or have an opportunity to game during the day, but it's nice to be able to have a slim, incredibly fast computer for my daily word processing and internet needs. The university's computers are not known for their... non-obsolescence, so I take it with me everywhere. My iPhone 4S, mostly for email purposes. It's always nice to surprise professors by responding within minutes, or sometimes seconds to queries. Books for the day Dozens of pens A legal tablet And, for some reason, a check book. I've really found, though, that in graduate school, I don't take notes, except very rarely. All of my grades are based on written assignments that take weeks to do, and are done out of class. I've not found anything I've scribbled down, except marginalia, to be very useful, so I don't take much more than a single legal pad with me at any one time, to occasionally jot something down.
  4. Just to respond to Quant_Liz_Lemon on this: Translation is every bit as challenging as new composition, if not more so. Bringing something into English from another language presents a number of problems, and a balance between creating something that is good, idiomatic English, while still retaining the sense of the original work is an incredibly daunting prospect. Translating a novel is much more problematic than translating, say, an academic article, because preserving the artistry and the "feel" of a work is paramount. It's relatively easy to just go word-for-word and translate, but translating ideas and not just words is in a completely different ballpark. I think that in Romance Languages, it would certainly be impressive to publish a translated novel, especially if your emphasis is translation studies, and especially if it is through a big name publisher like Penguin. I doubt that it would be the only thing that got you tenure, but I don't think it would hurt your chances to do it, along with some more traditionally-academic writing. Translate the novel, and then write a critical book about the author's work. A meaty introduction would probably help, too.
  5. So, my DGS was putting the thumbscrews to my MA cohort to submit to a regional literature conference. She liked my abstract, so I submitted it. They rejected it, because it didn't really fit in. (Thematically, it worked, but my background is in classical languages, and it was probably the only Greek paper at the conference, so I understand where they're coming from.) The organizer suggested I apply for a seminar, instead. None of the seminars deal with my topic, so it'd involve some extra research (versus getting to read an already-finished paper). A few are peripherally-related to my research interests, but nothing's really a slam dunk. Is it worth signing up for a seminar, in terms of my CV? I'm presenting at a national conference next month, and I'm organizing a local conference next semester, so I might be set on research and service for Spring 2013. How does seminar participation rank with paper presentation? I'm sure it'd be an interesting experience, but being a poor graduate student, I don't think it's worth the drive and the hotel, if it's not going to be at least a nice little gold star to append to the end of my CV.
  6. I think my experience is somewhat different than most new graduate students, as I'm attending the same institution for my MA as I did for my BA, but I'm really enjoying the start of this new program. My institution has a focus on undergraduates above all else, so I never felt like I was ignored by professors by any means, but I can certainly feel a difference in perception from faculty members with my new status. A few days ago, a professor I had as a freshman and sophomore stopped me in the hall to say how happy she was to have me in the program, which pleased me. I had already had her research interests in mind over the summer, while I was plotting and conspiring about my thesis project, so I visited her in her office on Thursday, when courses formally began, and within 20 minutes I had her lined up as a thesis adviser. She even called over to the library herself to get them to buy me a book on my topic, which I thought was awfully nice. So, as someone who's had two actual days of graduate courses, I have a thesis adviser and preliminary topic lined up. I've also got a committee assignment to work on the WGST conference. It's shaping up pretty well, I think. I'm also enjoying the courses I've started. I honestly didn't really want to go here; I wanted to go out into the world, but application results and money made this the best option for me. I didn't really even want to get an English degree; I wanted one in classics, but with my research project tying into both aspects, and such early and enthusiastic faculty support, I'm feeling a lot better about it.
  7. If you wanted to go into Classics, you'd need advanced (Junior/Senior-level) credit in either Greek or Latin, and preferably both for most programs. If you didn't get it in your undergrad, you'd probably want to do a post-bacc, because you'd be making it up in graduate school, anyway. Most programs that I have been looking at require 3-4 advanced courses in one language, some require both. You'd probably want those for history, anyway, but history wouldn't require study in the original languages.
  8. I'm in my fifth and final year pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and in English with a History minor. By May, I will have had four years of Latin, three of Greek, three of French, and one of Italian, as well as six courses in translation, three Greek history classes, and a Roman history class (Two of the History classes are at the graduate level). My research interests mainly revolve around Latin poetry, Gender in the Ancient World (especially masculinity studies), Greek Epic, and Mythology. I've presented research for the last four years, and will again this year, I anticipate a relatively good GRE score (at least based on practice tests and good performance on the ACT), and I have outstanding co-curricular experience, in the form of having served on two separate national boards for classics organizations for a total of three terms, as well as state and local activity. Classics is really my thing; I enjoy it a lot, and I'd love to get into a PhD program. There seems to be one problem. My GPA is not bad, and certainly my major GPA is fairly good (3.5), but I had a rough first few years (I started out my first semester with mononucleosis, a break-up, my grandmother's death, and then an emotionally-abusive relationship), and I'll end up graduating with a 3.0 overall. That was compounded by the fact that my university requires ~40-50 hours of work in the Liberal Studies Program, and certain courses in that program have put an undue strain on my overall average. Is this going to be a huge obstacle for me? I'd like to think that programs look at candidates holistically, and some in the APA Guide say that they don't have a minimum (overall) GPA or don't consider it to be a factor (Though, I imagine that it is a factor everywhere, at least to a degree...). To help you get a better idea of what I've been looking at, here's a list of my potential schools (Yes, I know that there's no such thing as a 'safety school', but my adviser had me break it down like this, anyway.): Reach: Columbia University in New York City University of Chicago University of Texas - Austin University of California - Los Angeles Target: University of Arizona University of California - Santa Barbara University of Iowa University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign University of Kansas Boston College Safety University of Missouri University of Arkansas Are those realistic choices? Does anyone have experience getting in with only an average overall GPA?
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