Plan Bs

[erosanddust]

I know I had considered applying to this: http://www.andover.edu/summersessionoutreach/ifroteachers/pages/default.aspxand the application isn't due until April 1st.

 

I also looked into some paid internships in editing over the summer like at Ferrar, Straus, and Giroux http://us.macmillan.com/fsg/about

 

There's also a list floating around here on fully funded MA in English programs which I had started going through to find ones close-ish with late deadlines.

 

That being said, I wish you all the best of luck in these next couple of weeks.

 

Thank you so much for these suggestions! They're exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, and there's a very good chance I'll apply to at least one of 'em.

 

Thanks to everyone else who has shared their experiences and advice here, as well. Many helpful things to consider.

[ProfLorax]

I just wanted to briefly share my own experience with Plan B's. I first applied to graduate school right out of undergrad. I was flatly rejected from all PhD programs and only accepted to unfunded MA's. I enrolled in the MA program closest to home and spent two wonderful years living in the best city in the world (San Francisco), making close friends, and changing my field from American literature to rhetoric and composition. I also started dating this great guy.

 

After earning my MA, I moved in with this great guy and lived for three years in one of the most beautiful areas: Monterey. I taught writing and reading at the local community college, a job I passionately loved. I woke up everyday thrilled to go to work. Two years after moving to Monterey, I got married to that great guy. I then realized that, while I loved teaching, I missed writing and research. I decided to apply to graduate school again, and the hubs enthusiastically supported my efforts. I applied to nine PhD programs and was accepted to five and wait-listed at one. I am now happily attending my dream program, loving what I study and teach, and enjoying my time with my growing family. 

 

I was so devastated my first go around. I taped my rejection letters to my bedroom door so I could be reminded of my failure everyday. Fast forward five years later, and I am grateful everyday that those programs rejected me. I would have never started this family, and more relevant to this forum, I would have never discovered the field I now love. It's hard to see the silver lining right now, but sometimes, Plan B's can freakin' rock. 

[thirty_birds]

The painful introvert in me is not one for really posting on forums, but I was so moved by proflorax's post that I decided to come out of the shadows (just this once) and tell you, messily, what happened to me too.

I didn't apply to graduate school right out of college. Many moons ago, I finished my undergrad degree at a high-ivory-towered institution, after having struggled with depression, rocky grades, and general out-of-placeness throughout those four years, and having constantly been pushed by my father to absolutely stay in school while I was still young (a push that I think was the result of his own sense of failure as a working-class immigrant man in the US, though that's another story entirely). A professor of mine talked me out of doing it right away, knowing that I had mixed feelings about it and wanted to spend some time with music instead– so I didn't even try. I didn't feel like I was even good enough to try, so in my mental state at the time the choice made me feel both relieved and awful at once.

I was still incredibly depressed when I finished school, but I knew that if I went back home I'd be even more miserable. So I spent the summer in New York alone in a sublet room of a friend's apartment, trying to get myself out of a funk. The economy was a total disaster at that time, so I had tough luck getting a job for a few months, but I was able to make ends meet with some odd jobs/teaching music lessons through the summer, and eating LOTS of PBJ. I finally landed a part-time office job at a community music school that I loved when I started, and I kept doing freelance music work on top of that. However, as some months went on the unstable office dynamics of that workspace began to show (with poor pay and long hours), I felt uneasy and felt myself veering toward misery again. A year into that job, I applied to a part-time Liberal Studies MA program at CUNY – not so much as a route toward a PhD but for the sake of having *something* constant to do if the job fell apart. I got in but didn't go.

Two years after starting there, surprise surprise, I got fired from that job – and on Valentine's Day to boot! Oy, things felt pretty awful at that point. Well, a few weeks later I got a call from the Liberal Studies department at CUNY, saying they still had my application on file and that if I wanted to come that year. Figuring that I had nothing else to use (and that I could stay afloat on a small bit of loan money as I tried to sort things out), I said yes.

I started my MA while subsiding as an after-school music teacher, and eventually I landed another much better part-time non-profit office job. I was making pennies and living frugally –but I felt so much happier to having this balance of things in my life that I could explore before committing to anything in totality. As I took graduate-level classes I realized that I loved what I was learning, and came to shape an MA project that brought together my interests in experimental aesthetics, racial identity and the role of art as activism. This was totally, totally different from what I thought I might be interested in as an undergraduate! And I came to realize genuinely that maybe academia and teaching was something that could make sense in my long-term future

There are lots of other nooks in this tale, but long story short: four years after starting that MA program, I've just about finished my thesis, I've held stable work that's allowed me to live comfortably for the last two years, and in midst of all that I've found a new artistic life as a poet with a wonderful creative community around me, and a dear loved one who has been so much of my backbone along the way. AND last but not least, this week I got two notifications: a rejection from my undergraduate alma mater (which I wasn't too sad about), and an acceptance to the CUNY Graduate Center (which I am TOTALLY stoked about). I am still waiting to hear from other places, but I have no doubt that I got into a place that is right for me. I feel 100 times more prepared for a full-time academic future than I did fresh out of UG, and I now have all this experience that will be useful no matter what I do when I finish my PhD.

All that being said, the simultaneous time spent doing other things has made me realize that I'd be just fine if I hadn't gotten in anywhere for a year, and would have probably cherished the extra time, actually. The last few years I have totally fallen back in love with life, and I am so grateful for every major letdown that has occurred over the last 7 years. My Plan B and all its sub-routes– though I hardly knew it was a Plan B when I started– worked out in the best way.

Edited February 13, 2015 by thirty_birds

[lazaria]

All that being said, the simultaneous time spent doing other things has made me realize that I'd be just fine if I hadn't gotten in anywhere for a year, and would have probably cherished the extra time, actually. The last few years I have totally fallen back in love with life, and I am so grateful for every major letdown that has occurred over the last 7 years. My Plan B and all its sub-routes– though I hardly knew it was a Plan B when I started– worked out in the best way.

 

Thank you for sharing this! I've yet to net an acceptance but I am continuing work in my field and it's been very inspiring for me. So, your story resonated with me. If I end up having to reapply next season, I think I will be better acquainted with my field and have a more sophisticated application. 

[greenmt]

It's refreshing to read people's stories of Plan Bs past and present.  I have one observation, which I hope people won't find presumptuous.  (I've just come back to this board in the last few days, mostly to see who's sending out acceptances, so feel free to ignore, if this sounds like the new guy in the room spouting off.  It's basically, if you don't want to read further, an apologia for Plan Bs.)  

 

I work at a college where most of our students are professional whatever-they're-studying-fors: teachers, writers, artists, mental health workers, so I'm around students who range in age from teens to, no joke, 80s.  Most of the faculty are people who did whatever-they're-teaching for a while before they pursued their post-graduate degrees.  Both faculty and students are *driven* in their academic work, in part because the questions they want to answer have arisen through life / work experience.  So, at least for some folks, taking time outside the academy can be beneficial.  When you realize how little you know, and you're hungry to know more, or do more, or integrate disparate threads of experience / inquiry, that's a good moment for school, in my experience. I've spent over 20 years in the nonprofit world, and it's made me much better prepared for academic study: I research, organize information, and write for a living, and I've managed small- to medium-size orgs, which means explaining complicated / abstruse ideas so they become understandable; disseminating those ideas, and the tools that hold / carry them; learning how to talk to all kinds of people; managing budgets and other logistics; and not being afraid to ask for money!

 

I'm also - because I've been reading the job boards - seeing a fair number of inside / outside the classroom gigs; humanities centers, archives, digital humanities, and given the experiences of people in my circle who have PhDs, I suspect there'll be more of these coming down the pike.  Many / most colleges are nonprofits, and even the community / state / land-grant colleges are needing to think more strategically about where the money comes from and goes.  Getting some experience running something might not be bad experience for the job market five years from now.