ProfLorax

Actually, I think it's important for our advisors to know that we have priorities outside of the academy. My advisors were among the first people I told I was pregnant, and they all hugged me with enthusiastic congratulations. I still get the same emails about CFP's of interest, but now they are coupled with articles about motherhood in academia. So my advisors still see me as a scholar, but also acknowledge that I have a life and interests outside of grad school as well.

If your priority is what you state-- to strengthen your eventual PhD application by developing your research skills and relationships with faculty-- than the MA program in literature would be more beneficial. Letters from the field you are applying to (literature) will carry more weight than letters from faculty outside of literature. Letters of recommendation should speak to your skills as a literary scholar, and letters from literature professors can speak better to the skills ad comms are interested in. And a literature program would give you an opportunity to write and revise a killer writing sample. There is no ranking system for MA programs, so the prestige of an MA program, especially if your BA is from a highly ranked university, matters less than the work you produce. And great faculty are everywhere. I attended a grad student conference at CSULA a few years back and was impressed with the program; almost all the students I talked to were planning on applying to PhD programs and were on track to do so. Of course, I don't think an MA in an outside field is detrimental to a PhD application, but if your main purpose for attending an MA program is to strengthen your PhD application, then I'd say go for the MA in your field. ETA: I just re-read your initial post and saw that the Comm Management MA will be a good for your job, so feel free to disregard my above advice!

I'm really happy that you have a community of support, both online and offline! And I'm especially happy that you contacted someone on campus. Ultimately, the best person for you to contact is the person you feel most comfortable talking to, and it's great that that person is your PI. Good luck, and like others have suggested, definitely invest some time and energy into self-care!

I just want to respond to victorydance's suggestion and provide an alternative perspective. This behavior is happening in the workplace, so therefore, it is a professional issue. I also don't believe that anyone on the receiving end of harassment should have to wait for it to escalate before reporting it, especially when escalation can mean violence. You have tried to resolve it, but he refuses to take heed. You are entitled to feeling safe in your workplace, and based on the title of this thread, it doesn't seem like you're feeling safe. Here's the deal: there's a reason we are telling you to log communication. It's because we recognize the potential for this situation to escalate, whether that mean simply that he causes problems with your fiance or DGS or he resorts to violence. ss2player, Munashi, and I are all recognizing his behaviors as the same patterns of abusers. I don't believe in telling people what to do, but I want to affirm that you are under no responsibility to protect him, his feelings, or his job. If you're up to it, find someone on campus you trust--your advisor, a counselor, the ombudsperson. Unfortunately for the world we live in, I can pretty much guarantee that you are not the first person to deal with this situation on your campus, and someone should be able to help you. I once reported creepy behavior in the workplace. My situation was different, and honestly, not nearly as intense as yours. When I was an instructor at a community college, I found out that a student (not my student) was taking pictures of me in the library without me knowledge and consent, then sending them to his friends with sexual comments. I felt unsafe and violated, so I went to my supervisor. She agreed that the behavior was totally inappropriate and went to her supervisor, the VP of Student Affairs, who issued the strongest warning possible to the student. I didn't see the student for a whole other year, and he never made eye contact with me again. Frankly, I am fine that I resolved the conflict through my supervisors. He learned that his behavior was unacceptable (well, he was at least made to act as if he learned that), and I was able to continue putting my heart and soul into teaching and tutoring without worrying about my safety or privacy.

Okay, first of all: this is not your fault. You are allowed to talk to people without expecting this kind of intensity and harassment. By talking to him and enjoying his company online, you did not invite his controlling, enraged, intense behaviors. Second of all: I don't want to alarm you, but the intensity he is showing concerns me. The rapid change in moods, the possessiveness he feels-- all of these are red flags. He may do absolutely nothing, but even if he never resorts to violence, he is displaying extremely unprofessional and inappropriate and yes predatory behavior. In your position, I would talk to an advisor. Show the emails. You ask when: I say now. He has crossed the line so many times over at this point. And remember: no matter what comes out of this, YOU are not the one creating unnecessary drama-- this guy is.

Yup! A few years ago, Ohio State ended their MA program and changed to an MA/PhD program. Students earn their MA first, and then are moved straight onto the PhD program. And working with Cynthia Selfe would be amazing; she was my mentor at the GRN, and I loved her spunk and kindness!

I love mini-vacations! I went to Savannah, Georgia with the hubs back in June. It was lovely and the first time this Californian had real sweet tea. Now I'm hooked! As for the rest of the summer, I was fortunate enough to receive a hefty summer fellowship to complete my language requirement, so I didn't have to work or teach. I spent a month at Gallaudet University in their immersive summer ASL program, and as of this week, I am the first English grad student at UMD to satisfy the language requirement with ASL! The program itself was great, too. We had wonderful teachers and great classmates who were dedicated to becoming fluent in sign. I want to continue developing my ASL knowledge and skills throughout my time here in DC, so I'm sure that wasn't my last class at Gally. Other than that, I've been assisting in a research project for my writing program, marathoning all the things on Netflix (I finished up re-watching The Office and the first four seasons of the West Wing; now, I starting Nikita for the first time), and preparing for all things baby. I've read through a couple of pregnancy books, did a prenatal yoga class, and started the registry. Oh, we also had our twenty week ultrasound this week and found out we are having a girl. Next week, the hubs and I fly out to California for some much needed family time. We won't be able to fly out during the holidays (doctors frown on going into labor while 30,000 feet in the air), so we're spending two weeks with both of our families, soaking in all the family love, oceanic breeze, and burritos we can.

I agree with almost everything you wrote, except this little bit. Ohio State, Miami University, U of Illinois, Penn State, and U of Arizona are a handful of programs I know that do accept and have accepted direct-admit PhD students sans an MA. Last year during campus visits and on GradCafe, I met some folks with BA's who applied to and were accepted into those programs. Actually, Penn State is notorious for only accepting applicants with a BA. In general, the question of whether to apply first to an MA or not depends so much on the candidate. I think it's wise to apply to both; I'm grateful I did that my first round, as I was rejected from all PhD programs (I also was an American lit applicant at the time). An MA gives students time to narrow their interests, potentially gain teaching experience, and write a killer writing sample. However, an MA takes more time and money (many funded MA programs don't offer enough money to cover all living expenses). There are certainly pros and cons to both approaches, and I am happy that I earned my MA first (otherwise I would have never been introduced to rhet/comp!).

Oh, absolutely! I think this whole thread speaks to how different strategies work for different people. That's why I only speak in terms of my own experience with the shared electronic calendar. It has been a lifesaver for me; YMMV! Sounds like you and your husband have a great strategy that works for you!

For anyone in a long-term, committed relationship, I want to throw in a plug for any electronic calendar that allows you to share calendars with someone else. Since my schedule changes every semester, and random meetings, reading groups, and study sessions pop in throughout the semester, my husband can never when I'm at campus and when I'm not. Having a shared calendar has helped us immensely in planning travel, doctor's and vet appointments, and social outings. As someone with a nontraditional work schedule (like all grad students), having a shared calendar is a lifesaver.

Ha! Can you tell I'm feeling homesick? I don't know much about San Jose itself, but I have lived in cities that surround it (Monterey and SF). What I would give for a mild, non-humid summer surrounded by delicious food!

I wasn't bored last year when I was in the same situation as you, but that's because I used all my freetime to explore my new home. You live in San Jose, a great location to explore all the Bay Area has to offer! Drive to Santa Cruz for the day and check out the boardwalk, the beach, and downtown; you can find great vegetarian eats in Santa Cruz. On another day, drive down to Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur, and just soak in the ocean views and grab some clam chowder. Then, take the Caltrain up to SF and neighborhood hop: eat a burrito in the Mission, taste some dim sum in Chinatown, grab some cannolis in North Beach. SF has so many free festivals and events right now (one of my biggest regrets was never going to the Stern Grove concerts!). On another day, eat some pizza in the East Bay. And of course, San Jose boasts some of the greatest pho in the states. Take this time to do all the touristy things you can; once you get started, you won't have the time! (This message brought to you by a Bay Area native who is stuck in D.C. for the next four years. I'm also pregnant, hence my obsession with food.)

Hi madhusirmani! Welcome to our community. You are asking good questions, but I'd say they are the type of questions that suggest that you are just starting your grad school application journey. Lots of people can give you good advice here, but I really encourage you to find a professor at your university who can fully explain the grad school application process in the United States. We strangers on the internet can give you some great advice, but it will be so helpful to meet with a professor who knows the field and knows your work early on. You can also ask your professors to get you in contact with professors or grad students from your country who studied or are studying in the US. After that, go to the English Department websites at some universities that interest you. See what they list as the requirements and such. I found that looking at twenty different programs (that I wanted to go to!) and their application requirements helped me better understand my field and the process. And for more info about the subject test, go ahead and search for"GRE subject" in the lit/rhet/comp forum. You'll find lots of discussions about scores and preparation. Good luck! And once again, welcome!

I hope you get lots of helpful responses! Until then, have you visited the blog PhD(isabled)? It's written by and for graduate students with disabilities. Perhaps you'll find some relevant experience and advice there: http://phdisabled.wordpress.com/.

Okay, now we can get started! If writing centers are an interest of yours, check with Academicat; one of her main interests is writing center administration. She's heading to Ohio State, but I can't remember what other programs she applied to. For feminist rhetoric, University of Arizona, Miami University, Ohio State, Maryland, Arizona State University, and Penn State are all great places. Miami and the two Arizonas both have funded rhet/comp MA's... I think. There are definitely more, but those were the programs on my radar. The great thing is that most all rhetoric programs will welcome students who are into nonconventional texts or media. I don't know of any with a stated cultural studies emphasis, but since rhetoric is found in pretty much any medium, you'll likely be encouraged to go out and discover some ripe pop culture texts for analysis! I am working on an article right now about a queer feminist zine that was popular in the early aughts; I also work with Twitter hashtags. I've never had a problem convincing a professor in rhet/comp that a certain text was worth studying. Still, it may be wise to look at the last few issues of some of the big journals in our field (Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Rhetoric Review, CCC) and see if anyone is doing the kind of work you want to do. Then, see where they work/study and where they went to grad school. That may help you narrow down the list. As for your concerns about your competitiveness, I'm with Chadillac. You seem like you actually have some pretty strong assets under your belt. One of the great things about our field is that prestige of your undergrad institution doesn't hold weight. I don't think I know any rhet/comp grad students who came from the Ivy system! Rhet/comp as a field flourishes in public institutions (I don't know of any privates that even offer a rhet/comp emphasis), so don't consider your undergrad a deficit.

I agree with mikers and Wyatt'sTorch that no PhD program should be considered a safety school, but if we know your interests and goals, we can suggest programs where you'll be a more competitive candidate. What are your research interests? Are you applying to MA and/or PhD programs? What is your career goal (university professor, community college instructor, high school teacher, editor, etc)?

I agree with Chadillac: rhet/comp is a different beast, primarily because so few universities have undergrad programs in writing studies. My BA and MA are both in literature, so when I made the jump, my best seminar paper was a paper from a literature class. However, it did still align with my stated interests. In my writing sample, I looked at the representation of writing in two autobiographies through a feminist disability studies lens. Since disability studies and feminist theory were stated interests in my SoP, my WS wasn't a huge departure from the candidate persona I was trying to present. As writers, we frame our work in different ways depending on our audience; in my SoP, I discussed my previous work in literature in a way that lined up with my rhet/comp research interests. If you want to see how one successful candidate made the switch from lit to rhet/comp, I'm happy to share my materials with you!

That is inaccurate (with the exception of Penn State). 6/8 of my cohort came in with MA's, and many applicants here on this board have ended up at wonderful institutions post-MA. Read through the posts on this forum, and go talk to your recently hired professors. There are tons of threads here about English MA programs: the advantages and disadvantages, funded MA programs, and so much more.

I haven't found this to be the case in the least. Just because we're older, doesn't mean we lose all patience and empathy! At least I haven't. I thoroughly enjoy listening to my younger cohort member's concerns and issues, and I love drinking their blood to stay youthful soaking up their energy and enthusiasm. To the OP: I wouldn't worry about it. I may not be that much older than some of my cohort (I'm not even the oldest!), but I sometimes feel like I am. I came into the program a married home-owner with savings and plans on starting a family. Now, we're expecting our first kid in December. There are days I feel so old! Fortunately, my program is friendly and welcoming. I listen to my younger classmate's rants about her roommate and give her rides, and she asks about the pregnancy and offers to help babysit in the future. Even though we are in such different stages of life, we have grad school, values, and a similar sense of humor in common. Temperament, values, and goals are more likely to be the big factors in creating an inclusive, friendly, and welcoming cohort. I will say that sometimes, a cohort just needs a leader, someone to organize social outings and unify the group. That may be you!

Good advice here so far. My addition is this: find out more about what academic careers entail. You mention liking reading and writing, which is great! But while those interests are key, I would say enjoying research and teaching are even more integral. So much of the academic career is obsessing over one unanswered question and going to great lengths to discover or craft an answer. I'd say that most often, the research takes up more time and resources than the writing. And then there's teaching-- with the way the job market is changing, more and more full-time jobs are teaching intensive. Perhaps talk to some professors in your department-- preferably recent hires. Ask about their job duties, scholarship, and grad school experience. See if how they describe their career aligns with what you envision for yourself. Also, I'd like to end with the reminder that you can always write and read, no matter your field. I find that I did more writing when I was not in grad school, oddly enough.

Hi there! I'm in English, not History, but I can speak a bit to your third question. I just wrapped up my first year as a PhD student (hurray!), and my husband and I are expecting our first child in December. We're thrilled! But honestly, a huge part of our peace of mind is that my partner has a steady job with a good salary, we have savings, and we bought our house last year. So, my question is, would your wife be working full-time while you're in school? ETA: One more thing about your third question. You ask how to explain to your wife the advantages of attending a PhD program. Now, every relationship is different, so I won't tell you what yours needs. But I will say that me returning to grad school was a partnership decision. We talked about my thoughts and his thoughts every step of the way. He had veto power when I was choosing schools, and he only vetoed one (in his defense, I wanted to apply to U of Hawaii because I was looking at pictures of Hawaii, and he realized I was in a temporary state of fancy). Basically, I had no explaining to do, ever, because we were together every step of the way. It made making decisions about programs, money, and moving much easier because we were doing this together. So I'd humbly suggest a similar strategy to you: include her in the process, hear her worries and face them together from start to finish.

I'm gonna vote for totally not worth it. Down the line, when you are on the job market with your PhD, employers won't care about your MA (or MA's). They will only care about the work you did as a PhD student: publications, dissertation, conference presentations, and teaching. Also, most PhD programs will train their graduate students. No one expects for an applicant to be fully prepared to jump into their dissertation, at least in the States where one to two years of coursework is the norm. At Maryland, the English Department is hugely involved with MITH (Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities; English professors have historically been leading MITH). We offer classes in DH in the English Department, and MITH and the i-school offer workshops, intensive trainings, and roundtables on all things DH throughout the year. My point isn't to sell you on Maryland, so much as to illustrate that any English program with a strong DH presence will have the tools and people to train you as a DH scholar. And I didn't even touch the money aspect. PhD stipends are pathetically low; I'm very grateful that I'm paid for what I do, but I wouldn't be able to live in such an expensive area without coming into the program with some savings and a fully employed partner. Many of my colleagues take out loans to supplement their PhD stipend. This may not be such a problem if you are in a rural area, but if you want to end up in NYC, it's smarter to take this next year off to work, work, work and save, save, save! Lastly, welcome to TGC! In the future, post your questions in the lit/rhet/comp forum. It's much more active, and you'll get more responses.

I have a friend doing 20th century American with an emphasis on trauma studies at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. I think she's even started a trauma studies reading group! I'm not sure how interdisciplinary the lit track is (I'm more familiar with the writing studies track), but it may be a program worth looking into.

It really depends on how you are as a shopper. I have a handful of store credit cards that I use for the discounts, but I always pay them off as soon as I get home. The interest rate is often much higher than the discount, so if I don't pay if off right away, I've lose all the benefits pretty quickly. That also means that I never put anything on store credit cards that I can't pay off right then.

All good suggestions so far! I haven't been apartment hunting in ages, but I recently went along with my friend to give her moral support. In addition to what has already been suggested, I have a few more recommendations. Bring along a checkbook. Many landlords and property management companies require an application fee (to cover the cost of a credit check). Cash works too, but at least with check, you have a record of payment. Also bring along the contact info of any references you have. Some apps ask for two to four references, and usually you only need a name and phone number. If you have a co-signer, though, you may also need their social security number, as the landlord will often also run their credit report. Don't lie about being a grad student, but don't oversell it either. My friend thought her grad student status would make her a desirable tenant because it demonstrated responsibility. But really, most people just think of self-imposed poverty and don't know that many of us receive a paycheck. She got more positive responses when she changed gears and played up her current job (which she is leaving in a few months) and her high credit score. She never lied about being a future grad student; she just framed her qualifications differently. And I have to echo seeingeyeduck: if you find your dream place, be willing to put a deposit and first month's rent ASAP. You don't need to physically move in right away, but landlords want as much money as quickly as possible, so having the funds ready to go can really push you to the top of the list.