JeremiahParadise

If you haven't already, you should check out Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. Great read -- and really helpful!

Just wanted to say that, as a person who's not applying until next fall, watching you all wait for these decisions is really exciting to me. No, I'm not a sadist or anything. It's just that I know it's crazy stressful, but you're at the verge of a major, life-changing event, and I think that's awesome/exciting. Keep it cool (as best you can) and remember to enjoy the interim -- if things work out, you'll never be back in this time/place in your life again! Savor friends/family/freetime (what little you might have) for now. Who knows, you might need to start planning a cross-country/Atlantic move pretty soon!

...unless they're a bunch of misogynistic capitalists.

Right? Seems like a REALLY crappy way to get the news.

Yes! This was definitely my experience as an MA student. I had classes with both Lit and Comp PhDs, and there was zero animosity/oneupsmanship between them. In fact, a few of them had significant research interest overlap (trauma/scriptotherapy/selfwriting). It was actually quite heartening.

I was in a similar boat my senior year (2008-2009). I applied to and was accepted by the MA program I wanted, but I decided to take folks' advice and take some time off to be sure. I ultimately only took a year and worked a crappy insurance job, but I can honestly say my professional work experience totally, 100% reframed my approach to grad school. That is, I stopped looking at graduate school as "school" and really started to see it as a professional endeavor. Looking back, I think this change of thought was something I couldn't really have understood as an undergrad -- I mean, you and I aren't the same person, so take this with a grain of salt -- but I didn't have any idea what it meant to be a professional, let alone a professional academic. Sure, people will tell you grad school in the humanities isn't a professional degree -- and I suppose it's technically not -- but it's probably way more of one than you'd imagine. You're not being taught by your professors, really -- you're teaching yourself, teaching your classmates, and being taught by them. You're not a student either, really -- you're a colleague, so you need to think, act, and contribute like one. Now, since I've finished my MA, I've built in a year of teaching at a community college before I apply to PhDs. I decided not to go straight from one grad program to another because I saw how beneficial it was to take time off. Now, with my year off, not only am I able to retake my GRE General Test (and hopefully increase my scores) as well as teach (a lot), but I'm also able to present at a couple more conferences (this spring and summer) and really prepare well for the Subject Test. I don't know -- do what you think is best, obviously. It's hard to get work nowadays, so you might take a year off and end up screwed for work and feel like you're wasting time... which you might be. But you could also really grow, and that growth would be invaluable as you move into whatever grad program you decide to attend. Either way, good luck -- sounds like you're committed and interested in the field, so I don't doubt you'll get where you want to be.

Thanks for the response -- that's what I was guessing. I have also been wondering, though, if prior teaching experience preempts one from having to take the (usually) requisite "Teaching College Writing" course(s)... because that'd be awesome. Any ideas, others?

I know institutional preferences will vary, but I'm wondering if anyone has insight into how much of a boon it is for one to teach, say, at a state/community college before applying to PhD programs. I've been at it for a couple semesters now, and I'm wondering if my time and effort will be rewarded (beyond the daily rewards of teaching, of course) when I seek admission this fall. Do you know of any institutions that frown on prior classroom experience? Do you know any that either require or all but require it? Thanks, as always, for whatever input you can offer.

Yeah! It was a good conference and a great excuse to check out San Antonio. Sadly, I won't make it out to Albuquerque. I will be giving a paper at the Louisville Conference, though. Anyone else?

It'd be nice to know ahead of time which holes in their "range" each university was trying to fill! Son of a.

Yes, I'd love to hear about this, too -- also, when do they generally want to talk to interviewees? Next week? Next month? I'm not applying til next fall, but I'm interested -- just in case!

Yeah, this was great -- really recommend checking it out.

Keep it cool, but I think it's OK to feel good about it! Great stuff.

Congrats on Edinburgh! Are turn around times like that typical for them? Anyone?

http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-English/124728/ Take a look. Which would you weigh more heavily: potential programs' S-Rank or their R-Rank? The NRC site says the following on the subject: "R-Rank: Programs are ranked highly if they have similar features to programs viewed by faculty as top-notch" and "S-Rank: Programs are ranked highly if they are strong in the criteria that scholars say are most important." I know it's foolish to take any rankings as fact, but I think they can sometimes be helpful for determining how potential employers will view our degrees. And I'm wondering which metric gives a better indicator of those views. What do you think? Has anyone used this page as a resource? Is it all garbage? Thanks.

Not a specific work, but I haven't read much of any Romantic poetry. Missed the survey course in undergrad, then never had the opportunity in my MA program. Seems like a huge problem heading into the Subject test. Blah.

That sounds great -- where do you go, if you don't mind my asking?

I have nothing to contribute except to say that I loled x2 -- thank you both.

So my significant other is a grad student at Vanderbilt, and I'm currently an adjunct at another college in town. Sometimes, I accompany her to the Vanderbilt library to grade papers, read, and whatnot. Something I've learned about the VU Central Library is that I'm almost always within an inch or two of cracking my head when I walk the main stacks and computer labs. Obviously, there are reading rooms with big, tall ceilings, but the stacks themselves seem to have really (really) low ceilings. I'm 6'2", which is tall-ish, but not superhuge, so I think it's sort of wild that their ceilings are so low! Have you experienced or heard of any similarly odd or surprising peccadilloes concerning potential grad programs?

Retreading Moby Dick. Loving it... again!

Probably Tufts at this point, but we'll see what I'm thinking when I apply this fall.

Good for you -- good luck!

Hi all, I'm an MA-holding, humanities adjunct at a community college, and I was recently accepted to present a conference paper this spring. The conference is within driving distance (3-4 hours), but since my current department only offers travel funds to its tenure track faculty, I'm going to be left paying transport and lodging expenses myself. My question is this: do you happen to know of any other places I can look for funding? I will apply for grants from the conference itself, but I'm interested in whether or not you know of anywhere else -- NPOs, etc. Thanks for whatever help you can offer! (x-post from Writing, Presenting, and Publishing)

Hi all, I'm an MA-holding, humanities adjunct at a community college, and I was recently accepted to present a conference paper this spring. The conference is within driving distance (3-4 hours), but since my current department only offers travel funds to its tenure track faculty, I'm going to be left paying transport and lodging expenses myself. My question is this: do you happen to know of any other places I can look for funding? I will apply for grants from the conference itself, but I'm interested in whether or not you know of anywhere else -- NPOs, etc. Thanks for whatever help you can offer!

Have you already written your conference paper? I mean, was it a seminar paper of yours or something? If so, I'd really really try to do both. Then again, I don't know your other, outside engagements. If they're really big impediments, then I'd definitely just... well, I guess I'm not certain, really, so I won't say for sure either way. Good luck though! EDIT: Just because I'm curious -- and maybe it'll help folks help you -- what's the conference?