Rhetoric/ Composition decisions?

[brussell]

So, to all the other Rhet/Comp applicants: I'm curious as to how you're going to compare your offers (if you're lucky enough to have a choice). Since there are no rankings, I'm having difficulty putting together decision-making criteria. Money, location, and teaching assignments count for me, but I'm curious as to what everyone else is privileging. There's a vague pecking order led by a few older, established programs (CMU, Penn State, Pitt, etc.), of course, but I'm not really sure how valid that is these days, especially with so many new groundbreaking, interdisciplinary programs. What do you guys think? How are you going to compare/contrast your offers? How do you quantify "reputation"--whatever that means in our discipline--and how will it factor into your decision?

Good luck to all the other applicants.

[PaperChaser]

So, to all the other Rhet/Comp applicants: I'm curious as to how you're going to compare your offers (if you're lucky enough to have a choice). Since there are no rankings, I'm having difficulty putting together decision-making criteria. Money, location, and teaching assignments count for me, but I'm curious as to what everyone else is privileging. There's a vague pecking order led by a few older, established programs (CMU, Penn State, Pitt, etc.), of course, but I'm not really sure how valid that is these days, especially with so many new groundbreaking, interdisciplinary programs. What do you guys think? How are you going to compare/contrast your offers? How do you quantify "reputation"--whatever that means in our discipline--and how will it factor into your decision?

Good luck to all the other applicants.

I am only speaking for myself, but here's my "valence":

1. If I applied to a school where I knew a graduate of the program, how pleased they were with their experience. (That says a LOT to me.) I.e., if they had it to do all over again, would they have chosen the same program?

2. Funding. Sorry, it's reality. I have more than $130k in law school debt, so I had to rank schools with the best stipends and committed funding (i.e. Louisville) over schools with shaky guarantees and low stipends (i.e. South Carolina, even though USC was high up on my "people I'd like to have on my dissertation committee list"). I can only take out a little bit more money in loans, so I have to go somewhere with a stipend I can make work.

3. Location. Again, kind of shallow, but it's 4 years of my life, and I have to be able to tolerate the climate.

4. Job placement rates. At the end of all this, I need to know I'm marketable AND that the school will help market me. I'd rather be a bigger fish in a smaller pond than struggling at a "top" program, but again, that's just me, and I've been jaded by 3 years of law school!

5. Willingness of program to encourage/allow interdisciplinary studies. Since my interests fall best into Rhet/Comp but also involve the law, I don't want to go somewhere that discourages interdisciplinary studies.

6. Campus visit/current students/current faculty. I either get a good feeling or a bad feeling and go with my gut. Could I see myself here for 4 years?

I didn't apply to any super-prestigious programs, so I do have the luxury of multiple offers. I'll make my final decision after all the (paid, thankfully) campus visits, but right now I'm leaning very hard towards U of Louisville. The students have reached out to me, the faculty has been SO nice, the funding is as good as it gets, and I think I'd be a good fit. I can't compare that to the "top" programs, since I didn't apply to any of them, but it's a school with a good reputation, great placement rate, and happy students/grads.

That's just me! Hope it helps!

[brussell]

Wow. Louisville's stipend is huge. Wish I'd seen that before their application deadline had passed.

I agree: in a field as weird as rhet/comp, interdisciplinarity is key. One of the programs I'm leaning toward are openly interdisciplinary: NC State's CRDM. But they're not established like some of the older big names, like Louisville, which have long, accomplished records. They have few (if any) job placements, and I'm not really sure how their students will match up in the job market. So that's a big question mark for me. Not that anyone on the Rhet/Comp job market is struggling that badly.

I've considered most of the things you listed, and I've also tried to see how their students are publishing/presenting. But without the job competition that affects literature PhDs, and without clear rankings, Rhet/Comp requires a completely different set of decision criteria. I guess I'm just trying to figure out what other people are using to compare programs. We seem to lack several quantitative criteria that other folks can use when making decisions.

You're right: location is crucial. Who wouldn't want to move to the South, especially after this winter?

I still can't believe how good your funding is.

[PaperChaser]

Hey man, after law school, I had to get a little greedier! Plus Louisville pays all expenses for a visitation day....$700 value to me! I wouldn't have known it existed if my MA WPA director hadn't gone there and raved about it. I think they're way more about teaching great teaching than teaching shameless self-promotion. I have friends who went to NC State. I know that being in Raleigh/Durham would offer you MANY more social opportunities, but that's just an opinion. As far as I'm concerned, it takes a ton of perseverance to actually complete an application (!!!!), so we're already winners, ya know?

[lcampb]

So, to all the other Rhet/Comp applicants: I'm curious as to how you're going to compare your offers (if you're lucky enough to have a choice). Since there are no rankings, I'm having difficulty putting together decision-making criteria. Money, location, and teaching assignments count for me, but I'm curious as to what everyone else is privileging. There's a vague pecking order led by a few older, established programs (CMU, Penn State, Pitt, etc.), of course, but I'm not really sure how valid that is these days, especially with so many new groundbreaking, interdisciplinary programs. What do you guys think? How are you going to compare/contrast your offers? How do you quantify "reputation"--whatever that means in our discipline--and how will it factor into your decision?

Good luck to all the other applicants.

If you haven't taken a look at the 2007 "Portrait of the Profession" for Doctoral Programs in Rhet/Comp, I would HIGHLY recommend it. This really helped me make my decisions about where to apply because it gives a great sense of the size of programs, what their placement is like, their teaching loads, etc. There's even a section for programs to talk about their "strengths" and "challenges." Obviously, since you've already applied, you'll want to base decisions off of more than just the facts, but in my opinion, the facts never hurt either

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~enos/

[PaperChaser]

If you haven't taken a look at the 2007 "Portrait of the Profession" for Doctoral Programs in Rhet/Comp, I would HIGHLY recommend it. This really helped me make my decisions about where to apply because it gives a great sense of the size of programs, what their placement is like, their teaching loads, etc. There's even a section for programs to talk about their "strengths" and "challenges." Obviously, since you've already applied, you'll want to base decisions off of more than just the facts, but in my opinion, the facts never hurt either

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~enos/

Very solid advice, lcampb, and how I ferreted out the better-funded programs. I'd second your HIGH rec to read the "portrait," especially if you think you're up against 200 other applicants....you (we) are up against far fewer than our Lit counterparts.

[murkyama]

If you haven't taken a look at the 2007 "Portrait of the Profession" for Doctoral Programs in Rhet/Comp, I would HIGHLY recommend it. This really helped me make my decisions about where to apply because it gives a great sense of the size of programs, what their placement is like, their teaching loads, etc. There's even a section for programs to talk about their "strengths" and "challenges." Obviously, since you've already applied, you'll want to base decisions off of more than just the facts, but in my opinion, the facts never hurt either

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~enos/

I know I am coming into this thread months after it was originally posted; however, I just wanted to say thank you for the link.