Query for current University of Maryland English PhDs/MAs

[25or6to4]

Hello, everyone, 

I'm a hardcore lurker who has greatly enjoyed the many conversations I've stumbled upon over the past few months - as application season bears down upon us, however, I figured I should reach out and see if anyone who currently attends UMD for the PhD or MA would mind sharing how they feel about the program?

I won't be looking at the MA, as I'm in an MA program at the moment, but I'm really interested in the department for the PhD. I've tried to get as much info as I can from the interwebs/advisors from my department - I've heard, of course, only good things, and absolutely plan on applying as UMD is looking to be one of my top choices.

I am curious, therefore, about the things one may not know - for example, what is the department culture ? This is hugely important to me and I'd love to hear the thoughts of anyone currently attending (or who knows something). 

I'm quite happy to PM anyone as well, if this sort of conversation is perhaps better had in a more private way. 

Thank you all in advance!

[ProfLorax]

Sup! I'm a third year PhD student at UMD prepping for comps. I'm very happy here (the only time I wish I chose another school is during those humid humid summers). I find the department culture is be incredibly supportive. However, like most programs, your experience will likely vary depending on your advisors. My advisors are fabulous, and I chose them specifically because of their fabulosity. Other advisors are less fabulous. But like I said, I imagine that's the same everywhere! Do you have any specific questions? I'm happy to have this convo in public, and if others have questions about UMD, I'm happy to answer them too! WT can answer questions about the MA program. 

[25or6to4]

Thanks for the quick response, ProfLorax! 

I'm so happy to hear that the department is supportive - that is a big factor for me. All about that friendly department life. 

I definitely have some questions, but cannot articulate them particularly well at the moment - however, I will absolutely send them your way once I figure them out! 

Thanks again!

[25or6to4]

And a thought has been formed! I noticed that (from the UMD website) the placement rate is pretty good for the department. This is great, as I would absolutely like to consider staying in academics professionally. However, 5 to 7 years is a long time and I've realized, from conversations with the PhDs in my department, that a traditional academic career is not always the best option, nor is it the only one. 

So, how is UMD is terms of alt-ac or non-ac career paths?

[Dr. Old Bill]

Hi there!

Yes, as Prof Lorax said, I'm a first-year MA at UMD. While I obviously have nothing to compare the program to (i.e., this is my first grad school experience), I'm very happy with the program, and feel supported etc. All three of my current courses are enjoyable, and while the workload is high, that's to be expected anywhere. Part of that is because I also work a full GAship, which eats up a lot of hours. The workload would be much more manageable for a Ph.D. candidate without the 20 - 25 hour per week work commitment. My cohort is quite friendly, and there have been many opportunities for socialization, even though I haven't personally been able to attend many of them. Everyone at all stages seems to be cheerful and pleasant, however, and at least one current Ph.D. candidate has been known to come into my office raving excitedly about the Hamilton musical...

I can't really speak to alt-ac options at this point, though I'm not sure that such things can be determined on a program-by-program level anyhow. Having said that, as with Prof Lorax, I'm happy to talk more in this thread or via PM about any questions / concerns / thoughts / comments etc. you might have.

[ProfLorax]

So, how is UMD is terms of alt-ac or non-ac career paths?

Ooooh this is a good question. 

Culturally, PhD students who decide to pursue alt-ac jobs are supported. Of course, this varies by advisor, but overall, the three recent/soon-to-be grads who have chosen to pursue alt-ac jobs have felt like they were encouraged by their colleagues and professors. One of our current grads has an emerging and prestigious freelance career (she actually gets paid to write!). Another is looking for nonprofit work. And the last is teaching high school... the best high school in the nation (Thomas Jefferson). So there are definitely people who pursue alt-ac jobs. Also, the department and the college put on a few alt-ac events a year, at least one a semester. 

That being said, our program is geared toward academic professionalization. I think this is true of most English PhD programs, if not all. We are encouraged to present at conferences and publish in academic journals. Our dissertation should be scholarly. Our coursework is focused on English studies, theory, critical reading. So while there are resources and events (I'm just now remembering a grant writing workshop for humanities grad students), the program itself is built to produce professors. Again, I think this is just reflective of the larger issues of PhD programs in the Humanities. Programs try to be aware of the job market and support students pursuing alt-ac positions, but there's reluctance to dramatically overhaul the PhD program as its operated historically. 

tl;dr: while the program itself is geared toward academic professionalization, professors, students, and the college are all supportive and helpful toward PhD students pursuing alt-ac work. 

[ProfLorax]

Any more questions from potential UMD applicants? This is more fun than grading!

[EmmaJava]

I'll take you up on that - tell me about Gerard Passannante. I love his writing. I see from the website that he's gone for this AY, but have you had interactions with him, and if so, what are they like?

[ProfLorax]

Everyone at all stages seems to be cheerful and pleasant, however, and at least one current Ph.D. candidate has been known to come into my office raving excitedly about the Hamilton musical...

This is me, btw! 

I'll take you up on that - tell me about Gerard Passannante. I love his writing. I see from the website that he's gone for this AY, but have you had interactions with him, and if so, what are they like?

Ah I wish I could help. There are so many faculty here, and I really only know a handful of the literature professors. I can't tell you anything about him, but I'll ask my Renaissance friends if they have any experiences! 

[EmmaJava]

All good, just curious. I'm debating whether to apply there. Thanks!

[Dr. Old Bill]

Oh! I'm in Jerry Passannante's seminar "On Thinking in Images: Metaphor and Analogy as Critical Context." The course is great, and so is Jerry! I bumped into him in the hall earlier this morning and chit-chatted for a few minutes. I quasi-apologized for not being as articulate as normal in the last session, and he assured me that that was not the case at all.

More generally, Jerry has that great combination of being extremely smart (I know the same can be said of any professor, but he is particularly heady) and extremely kind. He's a deep thinker, but he's also able to drop a pop culture reference here and there, which grounds him somewhat. He's also fairly "young," being in his late thirties, which makes him easy to relate to (I'm personally only a year younger than him, but that statement seems to hold true for the younger folks in the class).

All told, I think he's pretty great. You can feel free to PM me with any specific questions about him / his scholarship / his style etc.

[EmmaJava]

Thanks, 'Terps. Will PM you soon.

[25or6to4]

Ooooh this is a good question. 

Culturally, PhD students who decide to pursue alt-ac jobs are supported. Of course, this varies by advisor, but overall, the three recent/soon-to-be grads who have chosen to pursue alt-ac jobs have felt like they were encouraged by their colleagues and professors. One of our current grads has an emerging and prestigious freelance career (she actually gets paid to write!). Another is looking for nonprofit work. And the last is teaching high school... the best high school in the nation (Thomas Jefferson). So there are definitely people who pursue alt-ac jobs. Also, the department and the college put on a few alt-ac events a year, at least one a semester. 

That being said, our program is geared toward academic professionalization. I think this is true of most English PhD programs, if not all. We are encouraged to present at conferences and publish in academic journals. Our dissertation should be scholarly. Our coursework is focused on English studies, theory, critical reading. So while there are resources and events (I'm just now remembering a grant writing workshop for humanities grad students), the program itself is built to produce professors. Again, I think this is just reflective of the larger issues of PhD programs in the Humanities. Programs try to be aware of the job market and support students pursuing alt-ac positions, but there's reluctance to dramatically overhaul the PhD program as its operated historically. 

tl;dr: while the program itself is geared toward academic professionalization, professors, students, and the college are all supportive and helpful toward PhD students pursuing alt-ac work. 

This is fantastic to hear - I absolutely want a program that prioritizes academic professionalization. Heck, I'm writing this post as I sit in a hotel room in New Orleans as I (procrastinate) finishing up a conference paper for an 8 am panel tomorrow (so on my game today) .... that being said, I think it's awesome that UMD is aware of, you know, life and is supportive of students who ultimately decide alt-ac/non-ac is more suitable for their needs. 

I also had a few questions about teaching (having spoken to students at different programs than my own); I assume PhDs teach their second year, but I'm curious as to what they're asked to do in terms of a pedagogy class. I.e., my current university stresses THE pedagogy seminar in the fall semester, while other programs do it over the summer. Also, (again I am assuming here) how structured is the writing/comp class I assume is the first task of the new teaching PhDs? In short, tell me everything about the teaching of the youths, if you don't mind. 

I very much appreciate it!!!

 

Edited October 16, 2015 by 25or6to4

[bhr]

Hamilton? I'm in love with that show. If you are around you, Prof and I should have lunch when I come in for the holidays (I'm likely done before you are). I suggest Franklins

[Dr. Old Bill]

Hamilton? I'm in love with that show. If you are around you, Prof and I should have lunch when I come in for the holidays (I'm likely done before you are). I suggest Franklins

As long as no one else is in the room where it happens...the room where it happens...

Seriously though, it's a date! I saw it in August, and I've got tickets to see it again in January. It's just that good.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Wyatt's Terps

[ProfLorax]

I also had a few questions about teaching (having spoken to students at different programs than my own); I assume PhDs teach their second year, but I'm curious as to what they're asked to do in terms of a pedagogy class. I.e., my current university stresses THE pedagogy seminar in the fall semester, while other programs do it over the summer. Also, (again I am assuming here) how structured is the writing/comp class I assume is the first task of the new teaching PhDs? In short, tell me everything about the teaching of the youths, if you don't mind. 

Teaching the yutes! Our teaching load looks like this:

Y1: no teaching

Y2: 1-1

Y3: 2-1

Y4: 2-1

Y5: 1-1

There are a bunch of RA and GAships that can take the place of teaching as well, as well as a handful of fellowship opportunities. Next year, I'll be working in the Academic Writing Program office as an assistant director, which will eat up one course each semester. Your first year, you take English 611 in the Fall or Spring. WT is in that course right now; I took it a few years ago. It's basically an intro to rhet/comp as a field, with an eye toward how to use those theories to teach English 101, our first year writing course. English 101 is very rhetoric-based (a holdover from Jeanne Fahnestock's days). The first time you teach it, you're asked to stay pretty close to the standard syllabus. You can change a due date here and there and drop a reading, but overall, you'll stick to the schedule. Also, the first time you teach 101, you'll have weekly mentorship meetings. As someone who taught for three years before returning to school, I actually found the mentorship program to be helpful instead of a waste of time. After you have taught 101 once, you have a lot more freedom. I like the basic structure, so I didn't change much this semester, other than the order of the assignments and added a theme for the course. 

Most students will teach 101 at least a few times, but we'll also teach discussion sections as TA's and 200-level courses as the instructor of record. We have a ton of freedom over our 200-level courses! I'm teaching one right now that's in my field (Writing in the Wireless World), and I'm having a blast. I created the syllabus myself, after looking at several other syllabuses for the class. I am also in the process of creating a new class from scratch! It's a lot of work, but I've had a ton of support. Right now, I'm ushering it through committees to get GedEd approval (basically, for enrollment purposes, I need the class to count for some GE's, and the university is looking over the materials I created and deciding if my course actually fulfills the GE's I claim it does). Fingers crossed, it looks like I'll teach the class next Fall! And when I'm on the job market, I'll be able to say that I created a course from scratch. A handful of students have done this before me: one created a service learning writing course, and another creating a course on science and literature. 

Hamilton? I'm in love with that show. If you are around you, Prof and I should have lunch when I come in for the holidays (I'm likely done before you are). I suggest Franklins

Oh hells yes. I love Franklins! Let's rise up, not throw away our shot, and eat all the onion rings. 

[greenmt]

I'm a 1st year PhD student in the program, entered with an MA, interested in alt-ac, having spent much time in nonprofit-land.  I'd be happy to answer questions via PM, too.  I want to echo what others have said.  The department seems unusually collegial - the students are great.  The boundaries between disciplines and between degree tracks (MA, MFA, PhD, and even related subjects like women's studies) seem fruitfully porous... at least, I have interacted with people across these tracks already, in my first semester.  I've found the faculty to be supportive in a way that suggests genuine interest in what their students are up to.  This has been true, in my experience, even for the senior, well-established, faculty.  I've noticed that they seem to have good relations among themselves, too. I've felt welcomed and supported by the department, the faculty, and fellow students.  Following national trends, the dept. seems to be accepting fewer students, but the new PhD cohort is quite diverse, by area of interest, race, gender, and national origin.  A couple of local people, the rest (including me) moved from elsewhere.  Current students (including some on this thread!) provided helpful context when I was trying to figure out a complicated move, as did the department.

I would re-emphasize, and maybe expand a bit on, what ProfLorax said about alt-ac.  The faculty are sympathetic about the current state of the job market (though, as I've said elsewhere, that seems to move cyclically, and could be different in five to seven years), and supportive (including in some tangible ways, such as the grantwriting workshop) for those interested in alt-ac.  Having said that, they are all academics and therefore not necessarily well versed or well connected in the nonprofit or government (or other non-academic) circles. The default funding package is structured to support research and teaching, and the courses, too, are structured so as to emphasize theory / research / teaching.  It's *possible* to forge an alt-ac career path, but UMD doesn't have (nor to my knowledge, any other PhD in Lit program) internal structures that tangibly support students wanting to follow those paths.  In fact, I was told (and not just by faculty at UMD) that it would be wise to de-emphasize my interest in alt-ac in my application materials.   In short, I was told that the depts. see themselves as investing time and money in people who have a reasonable shot at contributing to the field of literary studies, so emphasizing that is one's best shot at catching the eye of the admissions committee. (This may vary from school to school, of course.  I wound up talking about my professional interests, but I tried to draw a through-line between what I was already doing, what I proposed doing in PhD land, and what I hope to do, highlighting how it would benefit Lit / the Humanities.)  I suspect that English depts. will eventually develop strategies to deal with the frightening reality of the job market - maybe (hint, hint) by hiring more faculty with outside-the-academy experience - but we're not there yet.

 

[25or6to4]

I'm a 1st year PhD student in the program, entered with an MA, interested in alt-ac, having spent much time in nonprofit-land.  I'd be happy to answer questions via PM, too.  I want to echo what others have said.  The department seems unusually collegial - the students are great.  The boundaries between disciplines and between degree tracks (MA, MFA, PhD, and even related subjects like women's studies) seem fruitfully porous... at least, I have interacted with people across these tracks already, in my first semester.  I've found the faculty to be supportive in a way that suggests genuine interest in what their students are up to.  This has been true, in my experience, even for the senior, well-established, faculty.  I've noticed that they seem to have good relations among themselves, too. I've felt welcomed and supported by the department, the faculty, and fellow students.  Following national trends, the dept. seems to be accepting fewer students, but the new PhD cohort is quite diverse, by area of interest, race, gender, and national origin.  A couple of local people, the rest (including me) moved from elsewhere.  Current students (including some on this thread!) provided helpful context when I was trying to figure out a complicated move, as did the department.

I would re-emphasize, and maybe expand a bit on, what ProfLorax said about alt-ac.  The faculty are sympathetic about the current state of the job market (though, as I've said elsewhere, that seems to move cyclically, and could be different in five to seven years), and supportive (including in some tangible ways, such as the grantwriting workshop) for those interested in alt-ac.  Having said that, they are all academics and therefore not necessarily well versed or well connected in the nonprofit or government (or other non-academic) circles. The default funding package is structured to support research and teaching, and the courses, too, are structured so as to emphasize theory / research / teaching.  It's *possible* to forge an alt-ac career path, but UMD doesn't have (nor to my knowledge, any other PhD in Lit program) internal structures that tangibly support students wanting to follow those paths.  In fact, I was told (and not just by faculty at UMD) that it would be wise to de-emphasize my interest in alt-ac in my application materials.   In short, I was told that the depts. see themselves as investing time and money in people who have a reasonable shot at contributing to the field of literary studies, so emphasizing that is one's best shot at catching the eye of the admissions committee. (This may vary from school to school, of course.  I wound up talking about my professional interests, but I tried to draw a through-line between what I was already doing, what I proposed doing in PhD land, and what I hope to do, highlighting how it would benefit Lit / the Humanities.)  I suspect that English depts. will eventually develop strategies to deal with the frightening reality of the job market - maybe (hint, hint) by hiring more faculty with outside-the-academy experience - but we're not there yet.

 

Thank you so much, greenmt! The department vibe sounds amazing, which is great!

And thank you for your 'reading' of UMD in terms of alt-ac stuff, lol. I seriously appreciate it. As it stand now, I definitely would prefer to stay in academics (and I will definitely, having read your thoughts, emphasize that strongly in my personal statement); good to hear though, that it is possible to forge other paths if needed. 

 

[25or6to4]

Might any have you all worked with Linda Kauffman, perchance?

[Dr. Old Bill]

Just spitballing here, but one of the possible alt-ac benefits of UMD is that Washington D.C., which is just a hop, skip, and a jump away, is pretty much the national mecca of non-profits and think-tanks -- prime avenues for alt-ac careers for those with advanced degrees in English. A quick search on Idealist.org shows countless jobs that are open to folks with M.A.s and Ph.D.s. Pay scales vary, of course, but the location is one of those intangible considerations.

 

[greenmt]

I'd second WT there.  DC is one of three or four really important centers for nonprofit sector work: associations, think tanks, foundations.  Just saying that, like academia, each of these sectors have their own internal cultures, networks of communication, and expectations around what constitutes relevant experience.  Lots of PhDs in the nonprofit sector, for example, but from what I've seen they tend to make their way there through a subject interest and not so much just because they have a higher-level degree than the other applicant.

[Warelin]

Reviving out of interest: How much emphasis does UMD place on having publications by the time you apply? How important is the GRE score to UMD?

[Dr. Old Bill]

6 hours ago, Warelin said:

Reviving out of interest: How much emphasis does UMD place on having publications by the time you apply? How important is the GRE score to UMD?

To the first question, I'm inclined to say "not much," but as with all programs, they likely view the application as a total package. I know one Ph.D. candidate in her third or fourth year who insists that her constant conferencing is what swayed the decision to retain her as a Ph.D. student after getting her M.A. at UMD. By and large, though, publications and conferences seem to be the proverbial "cherry on top" in applications -- nice to have and can't hurt, but they're a bonus, not a requirement (perhaps unless it comes down to choosing between a few excellent candidates).

As for GRE, do you mean subject or general? I'm assuming the latter, since UMD doesn't require the former. It's impossible to say the weight they put on it, but my GRE score was "alright" (90th percentile in verbal, 33rd percentile in quantitative) and I got in.

[Warelin]

3 hours ago, Wyatt's Terps said:

To the first question, I'm inclined to say "not much," but as with all programs, they likely view the application as a total package. I know one Ph.D. candidate in her third or fourth year who insists that her constant conferencing is what swayed the decision to retain her as a Ph.D. student after getting her M.A. at UMD. By and large, though, publications and conferences seem to be the proverbial "cherry on top" in applications -- nice to have and can't hurt, but they're a bonus, not a requirement (perhaps unless it comes down to choosing between a few excellent candidates).

As for GRE, do you mean subject or general? I'm assuming the latter, since UMD doesn't require the former. It's impossible to say the weight they put on it, but my GRE score was "alright" (90th percentile in verbal, 33rd percentile in quantitative) and I got in.

Thanks for your response. =)

I think I've gone a bit too far in my research. I know that the WS and SOP are the most important but I keep coming across students with publications and it's a bit intimidating.