UC Berkeley Rhetoric

[vozz37]

I've done a search on here for posts about Cal's Rhetoric Dept, but they seem to be old threads. I figured I'd throw this out there and see who bites: 

Anyone else apply? What's the word on the street? 

[KappaRoss]

One of the best. Extremely hard to get into.

I see that your location is Berkeley. I hope you aren't asking just because you're already there and it would be convenient if you could just stay in Berkeley. People with perfect GPAs and near-perfect GREs (even the math!) have gotten rejected. It certainly helps to have poster presentations, be published, have teaching experience, but even applicants with all of the above have gotten rejected. The program even advertises that it usually has an acceptance rate below 10%.

I would assume a big thing is fit. So have all of the above and also fit well with a faculty member.

So I would still encourage you to apply, even though their own website discourages potential applicants with lines like "The admissions process is highly competitive and acceptance rates are usually below 10%."

 

As far as the program itself, it's one of the best in the country, and it's in an ideal location. As you can probably attest to, no one is shoveling snow in Berkeley right now.

If you take a look at job placement on their site, graduates have gone on to teach at Stanford, Princeton, and NYU.

[vozz37]

 

16 hours ago, mikeck said:

One of the best. Extremely hard to get into.

I see that your location is Berkeley. I hope you aren't asking just because you're already there and it would be convenient if you could just stay in Berkeley. People with perfect GPAs and near-perfect GREs (even the math!) have gotten rejected. It certainly helps to have poster presentations, be published, have teaching experience, but even applicants with all of the above have gotten rejected. The program even advertises that it usually has an acceptance rate below 10%.

I would assume a big thing is fit. So have all of the above and also fit well with a faculty member.

So I would still encourage you to apply, even though their own website discourages potential applicants with lines like "The admissions process is highly competitive and acceptance rates are usually below 10%."

 

As far as the program itself, it's one of the best in the country, and it's in an ideal location. As you can probably attest to, no one is shoveling snow in Berkeley right now.

If you take a look at job placement on their site, graduates have gone on to teach at Stanford, Princeton, and NYU.

 

Thanks Mikeck. I've already applied and know what you mentioned in your response. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. I was mostly curious to know if anyone else on this forum had applied for the upcoming year. Also curious if anyone had any info on whether their posted deadline for announcing admissions is firm, if people get interviews, etc. 

I'm located in Berkeley but that's not why I applied.

[democracy stirs]

On 1/19/2016 at 1:18 PM, vozz37 said:

Anyone else apply? What's the word on the street? 

I applied, but there seems to be very little information out there. Judging from the results posted here from previous years it seems as though relatively few of those who get accepted are on GradCafe. Which leads me to believe they've all gone out already and all that's left are rejections. But I'm also an anxious and inaccurate prognosticator. 

You wouldn't happen to be the admit or wait-listed person?

[democracy stirs]

Just to follow up, vozz, I just received a rejection email.