How important is it for your degree to come from a well known school in the Rhet/Comp field?

[Bennet]

I wanted to get a general idea of people's opinions on this. I'm in the process of applying to graduate schools with a MA program in Rhetoric and Composition, and I have a broad range from my reach schools that are well known in this field (Purdue, Miami University, Penn State, etc.) and safety schools that are local for me but name-dropping the universities would hardly be impressive.

One of my safety schools has been in contact with me (the result of one of my professors talking to her colleague who is head of the department) and we have "unofficially" been discussing the assistantship I would receive. It would pay for my tuition and includes a nice stipend. This has made me feel better about my application process (although I'm not delusional, I know that email correspondence does not equal official acceptance into the program), but it also makes me wonder.

Obviously I'm far off from receiving acceptance/rejection letters in the spring so I don't know what's going to happen, but if I were offered admission to a big name school without funding, yet my safety school offered full funding, which would be better to take? I would go into serious debt to afford graduate school without funding, and I plan on going all the way to my PhD, so the more I think about it, the more sense it would make for me to go wherever gives me the most money. But at the same time, I can't underestimate the importance of an acclaimed university that is prominent in the Rhet/Comp field.

So long story short, I'm not getting ahead of myself, I'm just curious of others' opinions who are familiar with the Rhet/Comp field on the importance of a university's name vs. free higher education.

[runonsentence]

I've seen a number of debates about the importance of institutional name-recognition for PhD admissions around the forum. While it certainly doesn't hurt to have done your BA or MA somewhere super prestigious, I personally don't think that an MA from a solid program that doesn't happen to be in the top 15 would hurt your PhD applications. The most important components of your application will be your writing sample, SoP, and LoR (loosely in that order, though the first two may be more of a tie).

IMO, this is even more true in rhet/comp, a field I'd loosely characterize as egalitarian by nature. After all, many of the ivies and top-ranked English programs in the country don't even have PhDs in rhet/comp, and most of the strongest rhet/comp programs are at large state instituions in the Heartland.

But above all, let me stress this: if you come out of this application season with a choice of acceptances and some of them have funding, DEFINITELY take the funding. It's better to be funded somewhere less known than paying out the nose to be at Purdue or U-T Austin.

If I may ask, what are the other schools you have been in contact with that seem likely to offer you funding?

[natsteel]

Always go where the money is.

[lyonessrampant]

Especially for the MA, follow the money. A funded or partially funded MA from a less prestigious school is far better than an MA from a fancy school that you pay for.

[Bennet]

Thank you everyone! The school I've been in contact with is Salisbury University. It's located in Maryland.

[bdon19]

http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~csvilmar/gradschool.htm

I'd recommend this link to just about anyone as a sort of "tough love" view into grad school admissions, but since you explicitly mentioned Salisbury, I figured I'd post it here. It was written by Christopher Vilmar, a Restoration/18th-c. professor at Salisbury, who I don't know personally but know enough about to have found this page. I think it takes on a relatively negative view of both the admissions game as well as the bleak nature of the job market, but at the same time it's fairly realistic. Of course, he's speaking to lit majors generally rather than rhet/comp people, but I still think it brings up a number of valid points from the perspective of a seasoned veteran, rather than those of us Grad Cafe-ers, who, while we might be quite knowledgeable regarding all of these things, still don't have the experience of those who've gone through it backing up our statements. Plus, I just figured your mention of Salisbury would be a good excuse for me to post this link, which was one of the first things I looked at when I started thinking about grad school. And it freaked the shit out of me.

You also might (if you haven't already) take a look at the discussion a number of us had last week on here about the relative merits of top-25 or so programs vs. lower-ranked programs for Ph.D.s. Of course, you're looking at M.A.s for rhet/comp, so two of your variables are a tad different, but you might find some of the comments useful nonetheless. I know I sure did!

[Two Espressos]

http://faculty.salis.../gradschool.htm

I'd recommend this link to just about anyone as a sort of "tough love" view into grad school admissions, but since you explicitly mentioned Salisbury, I figured I'd post it here.

This is a great resource! Thanks for sharing it.