Glass half full?

[antecedent]

Do you have a gluten allergy?

I'm testing for food intolerances so I currently can't eat dairy, gluten, legumes (including soy), nuts, and seeds. I used to be vegetarian but I had to start eating meat because of it. So all of the tasty burrito and pizza ingredients are off limits. Which kills me cause Mexican food is pretty much my favorite. Ever.

[homeric_voice]

Seems like I'm not the only one who's been completely pummelled this week. The only glimpse of a silver lining happened just this afternoon, when a classmate told me about a PhD friend of hers who had gotten rejected from a bunch of English jobs. She said, and I quote, that there had been "800 applicants for a single job opening".

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Hey, if I don't get in to a PhD program, then I'll never have to worry about the phenomenonally crappy academic job market, am I right???

So what's your "glass half full"? Let's cheer ourselves up, people!

Was this a job in a town like NYC or Boston? 800 applicants for a job in one of those towns wouldn't surprise me in the least.

If this was for a job in Nowhere, USA...I'm going to go ahead and go into panic mode.

Edited February 17, 2012 by homeric_voice

[poeteer]

If anybody takes a trip to Yale, you gotta try Sally's. Pepe's is great too, but Sally's is the best. Call ahead.

I think Modern Apizza is the best, actually!

[bdon19]

As a Chicago native, I have to say that NYC Pizza = barf. Chicago style pizza FTW!

SO true! (But I'm biased, too.)

[ComeBackZinc]

Those in the know go with New Haven.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/13/best-foods-in-the-world

(Disappointing pizza: pizza in Italy. Although, of course, I'm dealing from a small sample size.)

Edited February 18, 2012 by ComeBackZinc

[Stately Plump]

(Disappointing pizza: pizza in Italy. Although, of course, I'm dealing from a small sample size.)

The only good pizza in Italy is in the south! Napoli, specifically. Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan all have terrible, terrible pizza. Although in Florence, there is a pizza shop called Gusta Pizza and it's owned by some dudes from Napoli. It was the best pizza I've ever had in my entire life. No joke.

[perrykm2]

When I studied abroad in London, we'd have meet-and-greets for international students. We ALWAYS went to Pizza Express. If I ever see another Pizza Express pizza, I'll punch it to death.

[TripWillis]

Glass half full: If you don't get into grad school, you don't have to spend the next 5-7 years living on ramen noodles.

[ComeBackZinc]

My brother lived in Toyko for years and he said the thing he always missed the most was good pizza. He claims that too often, Japanese pizza has the same problem as a lot of American sushi: putting stuff in that doesn't belong. For example, he once went to get pizza in Tokyo and they were selling mayonnaise pizza.

[Timshel]

My brother lived in Toyko for years and he said the thing he always missed the most was good pizza. He claims that too often, Japanese pizza has the same problem as a lot of American sushi: putting stuff in that doesn't belong. For example, he once went to get pizza in Tokyo and they were selling mayonnaise pizza.

My husband and I have spent some time in Paris, and when we're there, we always miss good pizza. They put ham on basically everything (which I don't like), and all of their pizza has a raw egg on it. Seriously. They crack a raw egg in the middle of the hot pizza, and by the time you get to it, it's partially cooked. WTF

[TripWillis]

Glass half full: You will not have to start freaking out about taking a comp exam, as I am doing right now, and I haven't even chosen a school yet. (I am not a very well-rounded student when it comes to literary periods)

[Stately Plump]

Glass half full: You will not have to start freaking out about taking a comp exam, as I am doing right now, and I haven't even chosen a school yet. (I am not a very well-rounded student when it comes to literary periods)

Trip: remains faithful to thread through distractions, sets up self to succeed in graduate school

[hermia11]

No need to frantically remember how to conjugate the subjunctive mood in foreign languages you haven't spoken since college!

[TripWillis]

Trip: remains faithful to thread through distractions, sets up self to succeed in graduate school

I haven't checked out what Amherst's comps/orals look like, but CUNY's seem like maybe a nightmare. But I guess rigor is what we all want, eh? That's why we apply to the best...

[DorindaAfterThyrsis]

Umm.......what's a "comp/oral", and when do I need to start freaking out about it?

[JElliott]

Was this a job in a town like NYC or Boston? 800 applicants for a job in one of those towns wouldn't surprise me in the least.

If this was for a job in Nowhere, USA...I'm going to go ahead and go into panic mode.

I recall when I was doing work study for our department (English), we had about 200+ applications for a tenure-track position here. We're not Nowhere, USA, but we are school-you-haven't-heard-of Canada. That and one of my prof's desperate pleas that I take a PhD in anything, ANYTHING but the flooded market of English put me off applying for a PhD for quite some time.

My consolation prize for that one: if I don't get into a PhD, at least that otherwise-unnecessary MA gives me access to a higher payband at government jobs and teaching community college. If I have to go back to either after this, I might as well make a little more!

[TripWillis]

Umm.......what's a "comp/oral", and when do I need to start freaking out about it?

If you did well on the subject test, I imagine it won't be too much of a problem for you. If you got a 530 (like me!), you might want to start studying.

Comps are "comprehensive exams" and are usually taken after the first or second year of study. They are essentially very long written exams testing your reading abilities and knowledge in a wide range of genres and periods in the discipline. At CUNY, I get two chances to pass this. The next year, I take oral exams which test my expertise in three fields of specialization as part of the process of ascending to candidacy (the other being the approval of a dissertation prospectus).

I think if I cram a lot of classes in where I have gaps of knowledge this year (maybe 6 classes) and organize study groups this summer and next, I'll be able to skate by. The next year, for the orals, I'll probably take a lot of coursework that more closely aligns with my fields of interest (queer, Af-Am, eco, 20th C.).

But yeah. Tests make me crazy. It'll be weird. I am very thankful that I already have my M.A. and that CUNY accepts so many transfer credits, because this could've been a lot worse.

This is basically my plan:

First Year: Knowledge Gaps

Second Year: Build Expertise

Third Year: Continue To Build Expertise, Prepare Prospectus

Fourth Year: Ascend to Candidacy, Publish, Begin Dissertation

Fifth Year: Job Search, Dissertation

[DorindaAfterThyrsis]

Can I borrow your plan?

Pretty please?

<--has no plan. Is drifting.

[koolherc]

Oh man, I refused to even try it. I'm from California and we have some AMAZING Mexican food here. My friends who have grown up here and moved away have literally cried when eating burritos elsewhere. I'm scared

This post is from the first page, but I thought it worth citing because of the underlined. I might offer a "I don't think you know what that word means" but you're an English PhD. It follows that I started getting kinda worried about your friends.

The only good pizza in Italy is in the south! Napoli, specifically. Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan all have terrible, terrible pizza. Although in Florence, there is a pizza shop called Gusta Pizza and it's owned by some dudes from Napoli. It was the best pizza I've ever had in my entire life. No joke.

This is the kind of fact that I feel like I should write down for my future 8 years later self, but I know there's no way in hell a piece of paper in some notebook is gonna survive that time.

This is basically my plan:

First Year: Knowledge Gaps

Second Year: Build Expertise

Third Year: Continue To Build Expertise, Prepare Prospectus

Fourth Year: Ascend to Candidacy, Publish, Begin Dissertation

Fifth Year: Job Search, Dissertation

God, that sounds like such a waste of time (no offense). What happened to just studying what you're interested in? I realize the two things are largely co-extensive, but your plan sounds so externally imposed and dictatorial. It bothers me.

Also, Trip, I'm at the GC, too! In Linguistics, though.

Edited February 19, 2012 by koolherc

[koolherc]

oh yeah..

positive: If one doesn't get into PhD programs, one's extremely academic and topically obscure opinions will never have to be challenged and/or torn apart because one is necessarily utterly unable to discuss those topics with non-academics.

[Silent_G]

This post is from the first page, but I thought it worth citing because of the underlined. I might offer a "I don't think you know what that word means" but you're an English PhD. It follows that I started getting kinda worried about your friends.

Yep, I truly meant literally. It's happened to three of my friends. Broke down in tears when eating burritos in: Seattle, London, and Glasgow. I think all three of them were just feeling homesick and the physical act of eating something they associate with home and having it be all wrong just reduced them to tears. It really does worry me.

[TripWillis]

God, that sounds like such a waste of time (no offense). What happened to just studying what you're interested in? I realize the two things are largely co-extensive, but your plan sounds so externally imposed and dictatorial. It bothers me.

Also, Trip, I'm at the GC, too! In Linguistics, though.

You're right! They are largely co-extensive! I'm interested in my knowledge gaps, and my proposed areas of expertise. I'm interested in literature, and I'm hoping to learn a lot more about it over the next five years.

I'm also very type-A; I need highly structure plans in order to succeed. It's probably because I'm so working-class, muthafucker.

Edited February 19, 2012 by TripWillis

[TripWillis]

Yep, I truly meant literally. It's happened to three of my friends. Broke down in tears when eating burritos in: Seattle, London, and Glasgow. I think all three of them were just feeling homesick and the physical act of eating something they associate with home and having it be all wrong just reduced them to tears. It really does worry me.

I always cry when I eat burritos. I don't really know why.

[ComeBackZinc]

Not to be that guy, but what happened to just studying what you're interested in is that the university writ large is subsidized by gatekeeping entities, and in the purview of those gatekeeping entities, the political economy of English and literature is threatened on an existential level. That threat means that most people don't get to follow their bliss anymore.

I hate that it's true, and if I could wave a magic wand and change it I would. If it were up to me everybody would be able to study what they want, beyond purpose. But in reality, more and more external assessment measures are being imposed on departments and universities (both public and private), and young scholars have to be cognizant of the need to demonstrate the external value of their projects.

[Sparky]

God, that sounds like such a waste of time (no offense). What happened to just studying what you're interested in? I realize the two things are largely co-extensive, but your plan sounds so externally imposed and dictatorial. It bothers me.

Teaching. Teaching happens. The point of comps is to prove that one can teach more than just one's tiny little subsubspecialty. In some cases, the preparation also forces you to helps you acquire skills necessary to keep up with research in your field (e.g. the ability to read a 500 page secondary work in two hours and still get out of it everything you need. Especially important for people whose interests are interdisciplinary in one or more ways).