Advice for the Lost Undergraduate

[AdaGoose]

Hi all,

I am one semester away from graduating with a double major in political science and English. I have some fantastic mentors who have pushed me to conduct research and present at conferences. So far, it's been a thrilling experience, and I have fallen deeply in love in rhetorical research. Recently, the conversations have turned toward what I want to do in the future, and I've decided that graduate school is how I want to move forward and spend my time. However, I cannot seem to get any of my mentors to give me any solid or consistent guidance on programs that fit my interests and suit my needs. After spending countless hours scouring the RSA graduate programs list, I am a bit overwhelmed to say the least. And now, I turn to the masses. What are the highest ranked schools for rhet/comp? Is there a reasonable expectation of tuition remission or GA-ships across the board? Should to apply to schools that have highly regarded faculty, or are there other considerations that are more important? I realize that the answer for some of these questions is probably, "it depends." Even so, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

If it helps, I have a few schools on my radar, but I have no idea of their reputation; University of Washington and University of South Carolina are two that have come as suggestions. As of right now, my research interests include environmental rhetoric, political communications, and archival writing. I will take any and all advice that you are willing to give!

[Pnwonder]

Hi Adagoose,

I won't try to tackle the job of identifying top ranked programs - as you've already noted, and is so often the case in all manner of conversations around rhetoric, the answer is almost always 'it depends'. But as someone who identifies as working with environmental rhetoric myself, I can offer a few schools you might be interested in. First, have you considered an MA? Oregon State has a fully funded MA with some excellent faculty who work with environmental rhetoric (speaking from experience). University of Washington and University of South Carolina are definitely worth considering for PhDs, though UW's stipend is a bit out of balance with the cost of living in Seattle IMO; I'd also look into UT Austin, UW Madison, and Arizona State for similarly strong potential as well as NC State for a different, more digital media oriented program but with strong potential for an environmental emphasis as well. It's worth pouring over the faculty pages for these and other schools to see where there is the greatest concentration of faculty with research interests you might be able to work with. And coming from English, as I did, you're likely looking at rhetoric programs housed in English departments rather than Comms. If this is the case, it's worth looking over the faculty in comms departments at the schools you're applying to since you will probably be able to take courses with them as well, and you might find more people doing environmental/political comm work in those departments. Hope that's helpful, and happy to answer any more questions if you have them.

[AdaGoose]

Hi there!

Thank you so much for your thoughts. I'd love to hear more about your experience at OSU. I came upon their program recently and I'm very interested, to say the least. I'd also be interested in what you have to say about the application process for University of Washington. One of my nearest and dearest mentors did his MA and PhD there and absolutely loved it, but it was a good 25 years ago.

I'll definitely take a look at the other schools you've mentioned. I hadn't even considered looking at the Communications faculty in my search, though it totally makes sense.