ProfLorax

WARM FUZZIES! WARM FUZZIES EVERYWHERE! Congrats, Two Expressos and Girl Who Wears Glasses!

I'm on Spring Break and avoiding grading right now, so I went ahead and looked at the programs' websites. You are right! Loyola Marymount's website isn't very helpful. They don't have any information on the English Graduate Student Association. They have it listed as an organization, but no link or info. I would suggest checking that the organization still exists. I may be biased, but I wouldn't go to a program without a grad student association. They tend to be the advocates of grad students and organize much of the professional development opportunities within MA programs. One last thing: know that your questions are reasonable questions to ask. I've noticed that admitted students (not necessarily you) are often timid and afraid of asking too many questions. I felt the same way, until my advisor gave me this bit of advice: "My main advice would be to ask probing questions, so long as they're not rude or impolite. Remember: they've accepted you. Now it's your turn to figure out if they are right for you." If you can't find the info on the website, feel free to ask your questions directly to the DGS. This is a big decision, and you deserve to have all the information you need to make the right one!

It is perfectly acceptable to ask the departments for information about their placement numbers into PhD programs. You could also ask about what resources they have available for MA students who want to prepare for PhD programs and applications (for example, conference workshops, mock conferences, student publications, travel funding, etc). Also, consider checking in with the graduate student association. They can often tell you if the focus of the program is getting students into PhD programs, teaching jobs, or both. From experience, it's awesome to be classmates with similar goals. I took some years off before applying to PhD programs to teach, and I had access to SoP's and spreadsheets from colleagues who had already applied and gotten in to PhD programs. So helpful! Lastly, see if you can get ahold of any departmental newsletters from the programs. They often feature announcements about graduating students and alumni, including where they are going for their PhD.

Hi katja! I PMed you my impressions from the visit day a few weeks ago. I hope that's helpful! Good luck with your decision!

I think it's been a few pages since this linked was posted.

Ugh! That's frustrating. Can you talk to any of your professors from undergrad? I had lots of support and feedback from my undergrad and grad professors, and I've been out of school for over three years. I'm sorry that your profs aren't offering lots of support. Could you audit or take an upper division undergrad or grad lit class this summer or fall? I just think it would be so hard to write a good seminar paper from scratch in isolation. Not impossible, but challenging. In a class, your ideas develop due to the discussion and debate among classmates and the professor. And as a student, you'll be able to visit a professor during office hours and get more targeted feedback on your writing sample. Hell, if you don't live near a university, even taking a lit class at a community college could provide some resources for feedback and guidance.

Congrats! When I presented at Significations a few years ago (okay, five years ago. Jeesh, I'm old), I observed a real sense of professionalism and collegiality among the Cal State LA cohort.

I had two different bookmark folders: one that contained the links to the English Department website for each program and one with links to the application itself. That probably saved literally hours of searching over the course of six months.

I would suggest no-- with a caveat. Essentially, you don't want to get into both conferences with the same exact abstract; your CV will look fishy if you list the same title (or very similar) at different conferences. Some conferences even ask you to verify that you haven't submitted that same abstract to another conference (HERA comes to mind). That being said, a conference paper ends up being about seven pages, and most seminar papers end up are 20 pages. You can split up a paper into multiple conference presentations; they will have a similar theme, but still cover different material. For example, I divided my MA thesis into a few different presentations by the time I was done with it. The chapter in which I discussed Gwendolyn Brooks, I presented at a conference about poetry at UC Santa Cruz. The chapter in which I discuss pop culture, I presented at a different conference. And so forth. PAMLA was my first professional conference as a grad student. It had a wonderfully welcoming atmosphere! On my panel, there was an independent scholar, me (a 1st year MA student), and a professor, so they really are open to inviting various experience levels to speak.

Even if their area is different than yours, your lit professors still know what good literary analysis looks like! I would suggest trying your former professors first, then contacting graduate students.

Found this, had to share. When researching programs, universities, and professors, you'll find this to be incredibly true!

I do not think you're crazy! In my world, the most important number associated with a humanities PhD program is not ranking; rather, the number I care most about is TT job placement percentages. I remember you posted a while ago about WVU's impressive placement stats, so its reputation is obviously well-regarded enough for WVU's graduates to find jobs. Good luck with your decision making! When choosing between two programs that both offer great placement, funding, atmosphere and fit, you cannot make a wrong choice.

There are some good suggestions in this recent thread: A few people suggested finding a realtor, which I never considered for rentals.

Yes, my offer letter also led me to believe that consortium courses would be included in our funding offer, but alas! It is not true. I'm waiting to hear about how much a three unit class will cost, and I'll let you know. Nope! I haven't heard anything yet. I imagine Sangeeta is waiting until April 15 and everything is settled before taking the next step. I am really excited and eager to figure out my class schedule! I have been obsessively reading over the course selection, trying to figure out what my schedule will be like next semester.

The nice thing about sites like LinkedIn and Academia.Edu is that you have a professional online profile for search committees to find if they google your name. Most importantly, you can obsessively check the stats to see how many people have been googling your name and checking out your profile. I was happy to have as many sites as possible to compulsively check during January, February, and March.

I've been asking about financial aid, units, and the consortium, and I thought others might find this important: "The financial aid package provides 10 tuition remission credits and any credits taken over are not reimbursed. Regarding courses taken through consortium, I like to inform you that tuition remission awarded to graduate assistants cannot be used to pay for courses at other consortium universities. Graduate assistants and fellows must pay for any courses that they take under the consortium arrangement."

No, I definitely think this is weird. I only applied to state schools (it wasn't intentional, and I didn't even realize the commonality until February or so!), and all of my acceptances and my one wait list detailed funding that was guaranteed for five to six years. There was no ambiguous language, no contingencies. My impression of any offer is that if we accept, it is a contract; they have to pay us the stipend as long we maintain the standards they establish for their grad programs. Unless, of course, the school puts loophope language into the contract. In fact, University of Arizona, which is in a state that is facing terrible budget cuts and attacks against education, waited until early March to contact their accepted students because they didn't want to notify until they were sure they could guarantee the money for five years.

As an alternative perspective, I have been teaching basic writing and reading at a community college for three years now. These students are often the poster children for underpreparedness, and it is this student demographic I will miss the most. Students who come to college without the required skill-level are often very intelligent and thoughtful students who have never been taught how to compose an essay-- for various reasons. Some have learning disabilities that were never diagnosed. Some were placed into lower level English classes because they didn't know English at a young age, and then after they mastered the language, were never moved into a different class. Some had shitty educational experiences that turned them off from writing. The best part of my job has been showing these students just how awesomely capable they are. And they are capable. There is something so rewarding about watching skills develop throughout the semester, watching students discover their inner writer. I freakin' love it. So, if you get into your first class and see that they are not writing at the level you expected, do not despair. You have an amazing opportunity to be the teacher who shows them that writing isn't a humiliating task-- but an explorative and empowering process.

Let's talk specifics: what is everyone's favorite route? I have only driven as far as Utah and Arizona, so I am fairly unfamiliar with the interstate system. We are thinking of going US50 because it goes from CA to Maryland and it sounds pretty, although 80 offers a faster and more direct route.

Ah, I see what you mean. That's why there are more respondents for the second question than those who actually have an MA.

I don't think this should be a huge concern. Most of us are entering a grad program with huge holes in knowledge. I am applied to rhet/comp programs, and I have only taken one rhet course and one comp course. I literally have no idea who Kenneth Burke is. But my writing sample and SoP both demonstrated my ability and eagerness to work within the field, so I fared well this season, despite my relative newness to the field.

Perhaps look into University of Maryland's English program. Because University of Maryland doesn't have a separate rhet/comp program, it is easy to study both rhetoric and literature as an English PhD student. I met a student who focused on both lit and rhetoric from the Renaissance. He was graduating, and already had a TT job lined up! They seem to have a lot of faculty working on medieval and Renaissance lit and rhetoric: http://www.english.umd.edu/people/areagroups/medieval Specifically, Jane Donawerth works on rhetoric from the Renaissance. I met her during my visit day, and she seemed both approachable and brilliant.

I just want to clarify my first post offering advice. It's good advice, I swear, but it's really mostly relevant for those who take out a small sum. I did take out loans for an MA, but I took out way less for my two year MA program than you will have to for just one year at University of Washington. Of course, it's absolutely up to you if you take money out or not, but I do hope that you look into creative solutions to keep your debt down. The full-time position is a great idea, for example. (But be warned: getting a full-time position at a college, even if it's just an administrative position, takes FOREVER because of all the bureaucratic loops). Good luck, skybythelight. I can tell you from personal experience that debt sucks, so do whatever you can to reduce the burden!

Also, now that many of us have heard back from all or most of our schools, and some of us have even decided where we will attend, have ya'll shook the email checking addiction? Even though my inbox is now pretty tame, I still compulsively check it all the time. I JUST CAN'T SEEM TO STOP.