Izulde's Grad School Quest: An RL Dynasty

[Izulde]

My aim: To be admitted into an MFA Creative Writing program that I want to be in.

The candidates: The programs listed at the AWP website, which appears to list all of the Creative Writing programs in the country.

Round 1:

To create a basic list, I included all Division I schools from any state I might even have the remotest desire to attend. The lone exceptions were schools I know I have zero desire to attend. UC-Riverside, we're looking at you. Two non D-I schools were included for the heck of it, though their chances are remote.

Round 1 Total: 107 schools

Round 2:

It was a fluff way to do it, I suppose, but for my second cuts, I removed all the schools who didn't have a football team. I love football, especially college football, and when I attended campuses that didn't have a team, I really missed it in the fall.

Three universities sans football were allowed back on the list:
-UC-Irvine (My best friend is getting her second bachelor's there and plans to attend graduate school in the area)
-Stetson University (Gorgeous campus from what I can see and there's a Delta Sigma Phi chapter there)
-Cleveland State (DSP colony and fencing team. I really, really miss fencing).

20 schools got tossed as a result, making numbers significantly more manageable. We've still got a long way to go, though.

Round 2 Total: ~85

Round 3:

I thought about winnowing things via fencing, but decided against it, for even if the school doesn't have a fencing team or club, it's possible that their city still has a club. Looking up roughly 85 schools and cities is too much work for something that should be more of a tiebreaker than anything else, so instead it's on to scrutinizing the individual programs.

Factors Sought:
- No more than 2 courses a semester for graduate assistantships. Ideally it'd be one a semester.
- Tuition waivers
- Working on literary publications optional
- Ideally GRE not required, though if I really like a school I'll allow it on there.
- No emphasis on American and British literature for the lit electives. I think that by doing this, you ignore the value of comparative literatures. Also, programs that focus heavily on the American-British tradition strike me as conservative and in danger of being dated, so thanks, but no thanks.

Not that strict a factor list, I know. But I'm keeping things general for now. :)

I've already started looking at programs and some schools have fallen off the list already for one reason or another. I'll list a few of the ones that got dropped, just for the fun of it.

San Diego State
Yeah, I know. Surprising considering my interest in San Diego, but it seems like their program's largely about publishing and editing their umpteen literary journals. Nice if you want to get into that field. I don't. While teaching at the collegiate level is still an option, I'd grow to loathe publishing/editing in a hurry. Bye-bye Aztecs.

Cornell
Ivy League is good. Requiring 4 of 6 electives be British and American lit is not. They also require first year students work on their lit journal. Two out of three in this ultra-competitive hunt :D is enough to get booted. See ya!

Indiana
I like three year programs, which Indiana has and their program is designed to churn out creative writing professors, which is cool, but in line with that focus, the teaching load is rather nasty. Three courses a year for three years doesn't leave much time for actual writing. If the only thing I wanted to be was a creative writing professor, the Hoosiers would be tops on my list. Alas, I want more than that. Goodbye!

Some interesting front-runners are cropping up so far, but I'll keep them secret for now as I've still got a lot of researching to do and things can change rapidly.

It's fun, though. :)

[Izulde]

Round 3 Results

Wow. After combing through the programs, I cut the numbers down from approx. 85 to 31 schools. That's without taking a closer look at the faculty, which will likely be my Round 4 cutdown.

Here are the 31 schools, broken down by state.

Arizona
Arizona State*#
University of Arizona*#

California
San Jose State*
UC-Irvine*

Florida
University of Central Florida
University of Florida

Idaho
University of Idaho*#

Indiana
Purdue University#
University of Notre Dame

Louisiana
Louisiana State
McNeese State

Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts*

Maryland
University of Maryland#

Michigan
University of Michigan*

Mississippi
University of Mississippi

New Mexico
New Mexico State#
University of New Mexico*

Ohio
Bowling Green State
Ohio State

Oregon
Oregon State*
University of Oregon*#

Pennsylvania
Penn State#
University of Pittsburgh#

Rhode Island
Brown University*

South Carolina
University of South Carolina

Virginia
Old Dominion University
University of Virginia#

Washington
Eastern Washington University
University of Washington

West Virginia
University of West Virginia

Wyoming
University of Wyoming

*-GRE not required
#-Delta Sigma Phi chapter

Notes:
Most of the schools that I'd say are my top choices after the initial academic review require the GRE General or strongly recommend the GRE to have the best chance at fellowships or assistantships if they aren't guaranteed, so it looks as though I'll take the GRE in any case.

McNeese State asks for a writing sample before the process of formal application even begins, so I'll be applying there for certain by sending in the writing sample. They also emphasize that guest writers hold 1 on 1 conferences with MFA students, which I like a lot.

An interesting tidbit--Brown, which is Ivy League, has MFA students take just two courses a semester. Light courseload for max writing time, Ivy League degree, extremely lucrative financial aid package all in one package and it's no surprise that Brown leads the pack in quoted applications with 850-900 a year, of which they accept single digits.

A few of these schools have graduate degree foreign language requirements, which I'm iffy on. My German has corroded to the point where I'm probably at a second-year level and the programs demand that you have reading proficiency on top of it. When you throw in that I'd look at acquiring a new language, it means a lot more time spent in acquistion, less time on writing.

If I had to list the five programs that I'm most strongly looking at right now in no particular order they'd be:

University of Florida
University of Idaho
University of Virginia
Louisiana State
Brown University

There's quite a few others that are right behind them, however, and the list is no doubt going to change pending further research.

I also need to check with schools once I get the list cut down even more and find out how they determine GPA for applicants. I've got a fairly extensive early history of piss-poor academics before I got my associate degree with a 3.5 GPA and have in subsequent years posted nothing lower than a 3.5 each semester at the universities thereafter (This past semester was 3.75, bringing my GPA at this school to 3.68 cum after a year here)

I've already got one letter of recommendation locked up, so I'll need at least one or two more over the next year or so. I have a good idea of who I'll ask for my second recommendation. The third is up in the air at the moment.

[Izulde]

Round 4 Results

The chopping block turned out to be Financial Aid. How likely are tuition waivers and/or graduate assistantships/fellowships? If they didn't seem likely or only had a limited number, I ruthlessly chopped them off, leaving 19.

1. Arizona State
2. University of Arizona
3. UC-Irvine
4. University of Florida
5. University of Idaho
6. Purdue University
7. Notre Dame
8. Louisiana State
9. McNeese State
10. University of Massachussetts
11. University of Michigan
12. University of New Mexico
13. Bowling Green State
14. Ohio State
15. Penn State
16. Brown
17. University of Virginia
18. University of West Virginia
19. University of Wyoming

Round 5

Wanting to cut it down a little bit more, I took out the schools that either don't have a fencing club at the university or in town, or that I know for certain have zilch for a sabre program. University of Wyoming, I'm looking at you. I love fencing and I really, -really- miss fencing sabre, which is my natural weapon.

The list narrowed down to 14.

1. University of Arizona
2. UC-Irvine
3. University of Florida (They have a graduate student on the team, so I know for sure they take them)
4. University of Idaho
5. Purdue
6. Notre Dame
7. Louisiana State
8. McNeese State
9. University of Massachussetts
10. University of Michigan (National Club Team Champions in fact)
11. University of New Mexico
12. Ohio State
13. Penn State
14. University of West Virginia

I'm enjoying doing this step by step cutdown. It's letting me get a good handle on where I'd really like to go. :)

[mrsimperless]

If you feel inclined give us a brief background on what kind of writing you're interested in doing and what you're hoping to get out of school. Enjoyed reading so far.

[Barkeep49]

As my friend applies to grad school in philosophy I was amazed that after careful consideration he applied to 9 schools. Seems like people apply to many grad schools, which was not something I'd realized outside of fields like law and medicine.

[RedKingGold]

When I was applying to law schools, I based my decision on where I wanted to be located first. Then, I applied to all those schools within a 50-mile radius of that location.

I found it a lot easier.

[RPI-Fan]

I'm surprised by some of your motivations. Why is taking the GRE such a huge concern? It takes like 4 hours and you can sign up on the day of the exam.

It just seems like your motivations for going to grad school aren't entirely in place, and if that's the case I would guess that grad school would be a very difficult road to travel.

[Izulde]

mrsimperless: I'm still figuring out just what type of creative writing I'd like to do, whether it's contemporary realism, fantasy, or even romance when it comes to genre. In terms of form, I'd stick to short stories and novels/novellas, though if I ever did want to write plays, I have a connection at a rep theatre who's interested in reviewing any scripts I send them.

What I hope to get out of school is a further development of my writing skills, to produce a longer work that's publishable and to gain knowledge and experience in collegiate teaching. I love the college life and I think I'd make a great professor of composition and creative writing courses (though I'd love to be able to get a lit section too).

Realistically speaking, there's only a tiny percentage of writers who ever become financially successful enough that they're able to just write. Being a college professor has always been an attractive 'real job' for me. Ever since I was a kid, I've been learning not only subject material from teachers and professors, but their methods of teaching, their philosophies of grading, etc.

I know poetry's out, by the way. I know I have very minimal talent in it and don't have the inclination to write it in any case.

Barkeep49: That's about right, actually. A website I found in my research giving tips to MFA applicants mentioned that you should apply to several grad schools. It's like a more intense version of the undergraduate application experience, because it's so competitive, particularly for programs like MFA degrees, where only a handful or so are admitted each year out of several hundred applicants. In fact, the lowest quoted applicant total I've seen so far is 200.

RedKingGold: Good idea if you have an exact idea in mind the location you want to go. I wanted to keep my options open though. Plus, I think it's a little more difficult with Creative Writing MFAs, as they're nowhere near as prolific as law schools. When I was narrowing down the list from 85, a lot of them got thrown out because I discovered that although they're an AWP-affiliated program, it was either an undergraduate degree or an undergraduate minor only. So if I was going by location, I'd be limiting myself to at most a couple of schools, even if it was a 50 mile radius.

RPI-Fan: You're right about the GRE. I don't know why it's such a concern myself. I've always done extremely well on standardized tests, particularly the verbal section, which is the only portion MFA programs look at. It's particularly silly a concern when, as the professor I spoke to about grad school mentioned, a lot of fellowships are determined in part by GRE scores. So scratch off the concern part. I don't know why I had it in the first place.

Some of my motivations for narrowing down schools may seem frivolous, I know. But for my own happiness, they're important, because they're about doing what I want to do or returning to the things I love. I attribute a lot of personal success in recent years to the self-confidence and sense of fulfillment I've gotten out of going and doing the things that I've wanted to do that I've missed out on before when I had the opportunity.

[Izulde]

Just a quick and small update.

I've started work on the generic portion of my Personal Statement and a short story.

Also, my friend at UCI is strongly considering taking a full time job opportunity that just opened up and leaving UCI to pursue her own master's degree rather than continue along the second bachelor's track.

[DaddyTorgo]

i think i'll do one of my own

[Izulde]

Took a look at the GRE website and breezed through the sample analogy, sentence completion, and reading comprehension sections.

I didn't bother with the qualitative because MFA programs don't look at that.

The written sections (Argument and.. I forget the other one) are more challenging, but should be fairly easy.

Cool thing is it's computer based and offered at the UW-L campus. You can take the GRE once a month, max 5 times in a year.

So I'll sign up to take it in February.

[SelzShoes]

Good luck to you. Grad School was, academically, the time of my life--it is like how you always thought school should be.

[Barkeep49]

The instant feedback on the GRE was very upsetting for a friend of mine, as he didn't too well on the Quant and Analyatical, but he blew away the essay making the whole experience better.

[Izulde]

SelzShoes: Thanks :) I'm really looking forward to this myself, no matter what happens. Though if I do get in, I'll probably be fresh off a semester in Spain, so I'll be whizzing from one new set of experiences, people and places to the next.

Which is a good thing. I love travel and new experiences :)

Barkeep49: Thanks for the story. :) I'll admit, I was shocked when I saw that it's all computerized now and that you can take it so many times. I figured it was still a paper test.

How soon after the exam did your friend get his essay results back?

[Barkeep49]

I think it was 3-5 weeks so there was quite a period where he'd grown depressed about his chances of going to a grad school of his choice.

[Swaggs]

Good luck, Izulde. Two things here:

One, it is West Virginia University. WVU is located in my hometown and is a really nice place to spend a few years.

Two, if you decide to take the GRE, get the Kaplan book that comes with a CD. I'm sure you can find it on Amazon or at any Borders/Barnes and Noble. It provides a lot of very useful strategies and prepares you for the format very well. I used it was very pleased with my results.

[Izulde]

Barkeep49: Ah, that'd explain the once per month maximum then. :)

Swaggs: Duly noted on the name and thanks for the tip. I'll definitely look into it. :) What more can you tell me about WVU, both the campus and the town?

[Swaggs]

I have a little different perspective of the town itself, since I am from there and remained there while the students left.

The things that come to mind are that there are two main campuses, one that houses most of the liberal arts/business/journalism-type colleges in the "historic" downtown setting and a more modern one that is the home of the engineering school a little ways away. There are roughly 28,000-30,000 students, but the town itself is relatively small, so there are probably less than 35,000 when school is out. Crime is very minimal and the student-nightlife is very, very good.

A lot of the student population is from West Virginia, but there are a large number that come from (particularly) Pennsylvania and New Jersey, because the school is very affordable compared to in-state options in both of those states. There is a great sports atmosphere, football is king (football Saturday's are awesome), but men's basketball is right up there--and both have been very successful lately, so their popularity is growing. Wrestling, men's and women's soccer, and baseball are also fairly popular. I was barely interested in the Greek life, but there is a pretty large fraternity/sorority population, as well. Public transportation is very good between the campuses and the downtown-area (there is a public rapid transportation system--essentially an above ground railway system--that is very well received by students) and bus systems. A car is a blessing and a curse in Morgantown. They are helpful, because there are some nice cities within driving distance, like Pittsburgh (nearest major airport--roughly 75 minutes away and a very easy drive) and D.C. (roughly 3 hours away) and the town, although fairly small, is very "hilly" and not always easy to navigate through. But parking and weather can make owning a car difficult for a student.

Kind of rambled there and didn't come close to covering a whole lot, but if you are interested in any other particular info, let me know.

[Izulde]

Thanks for the info, Swaggs. :) What's the climate like there? :D

Not an earthshattering update here. Just me starting to wonder if I actually have the talent to be able to get into an MFA program.

All my life I've had some people telling me I have talent and others telling me that I'm a terrible writer, pretentious and cliched (one board in particular that I won't mention likes to make semi-frequent mention of this opinion).

I don't know the answer myself.

A lot of times I doubt it. Then I look at the Golden Scribes here, a WritAAR of the Week award on Paradox and some nominations for quarterly awards there and I start to think, maybe, just maybe the ability's there.

I know, I know... nothing ventured, nothing gained, to use a cliche. After all, my biggest regret in life still is not applying to Princeton as an undergrad. Granted, I probably wouldn't have made it, but at least I could say I tried.

[Izulde]

After reading an article this morning, I have an idea for a short story. I just hope I don't lose the details in my 9 hour shift at work today.

[Swaggs]

What's the climate like there? :D

It is an area that each of the four seasons are very distinct.

It can get into the single digits or teens during the winter and there are usually a few pretty nasty snow storms a year. January and early-February are probably the two coldest and snowiest months.

Spring is pretty nice, temperature-wise. There is some definite rain and thunderstorms, but nothing too bad.

Summers are nice in late-May/June, but it gets pretty hot and humid in July and August, with temperatures sometimes in the 90s.

Autumns are great, as far as temperature and weather. School and football start back up in the Fall and it is probably the nicest time of year.

[Izulde]

It is an area that each of the four seasons are very distinct.

It can get into the single digits or teens during the winter and there are usually a few pretty nasty snow storms a year. January and early-February are probably the two coldest and snowiest months.

Spring is pretty nice, temperature-wise. There is some definite rain and thunderstorms, but nothing too bad.

Summers are nice in late-May/June, but it gets pretty hot and humid in July and August, with temperatures sometimes in the 90s.

Autumns are great, as far as temperature and weather. School and football start back up in the Fall and it is probably the nicest time of year.

Thanks. :)

[Izulde]

So after doing some more investigating and thinking I've narrowed it down to the following finalists as far as MFA programs go:

1. University of Arizona
2. University of Florida
3. Purdue University
4. University of Massachusetts
5. University of Oregon
6. West Virginia University

Of those, Arizona, Purdue, and Oregon have Delta Sigma Phi chapters. Yeah, it might sound silly to be so focused on the fraternity thing, but these aren't exactly small schools and at U of MN, I got really isolated and depressed because I had no real connection to anyone or anything.

But any time I've been involved with a fraternity, either pledging at Wyoming, or being intiated here at UW-La Crosse, I've been engaged, involved, and done a lot better emotionally, academically, socially, and yes, creatively.

It's about having a support system in place, which is the most important thing to have in my particular case.

The thing with MFA Creative Writing programs, that except for a very, very select few that offer insta-prestige and networking (Iowa or Columbia as an example) or ones that have a specific focus such as preparing for a career in the publishing industry (San Diego State) or in teaching creative writing (Indiana), they're by and large, as one prof I've talked to extensively put it "two to three years where you're being paid to write."

While the prestige and connections from top schools would certainly be nice, if it's not an environment where I feel I can flourish creatively for whatever reason, then I'm not going to go that route and while I'd like to teach collegiately, that's not the only thing I want to do and furthermore, I believe the programs that focus on preparing for professorship do so to the detriment of the actual creative development.

Publishing I have absolutely no interest in.

I do realize that there's a chance I may not make it into an MFA program, in which case I'd consider an MA program and then upon completing that degree, try again for an MFA.

So I suppose I should start looking at MA programs as a backup plan (which was recommended, actually) but then I get into the question of what area I'd wanted to specialize in.

And for that one, I have no clue.

[waitforit]

I'm actually starting graduate school today in counseling. It's exciting and nerve racking at the same time. Good luck with your experience, I've enjoyed reading it. I hope you get into a school you like.

[Izulde]

I'm actually starting graduate school today in counseling. It's exciting and nerve racking at the same time. Good luck with your experience, I've enjoyed reading it. I hope you get into a school you like.

Good luck to you as well! :)

And thanks for the well-wishes. The thread's going to slow down significantly now that I'm starting my senior year (I graduate in fall), but will receive periodic updates as relevant information becomes available.

[st.cronin]

I'm surprised Iowa didn't make the cut. Didn't they used to be the gold standard for MFA programs?

[Izulde]

I'm surprised Iowa didn't make the cut. Didn't they used to be the gold standard for MFA programs?

They still are, but Iowa as a state bores me.

[Izulde]

I've spent the last few days thinking about what I'd do if I didn't get into an MFA program and I've decided that if such happenes, I'll go into a graduate program in History.

I realize I said before I'd do the MA English if I didn't get into an MFA, but over the past year and a half, I've come to realize more and more just how much I hate literary research and theory. I was talking to a close friend of mine last night about it and I finally was able to articulate some things, such as my opinion that literary research and theory is mostly an exercise in mental masturbation that's utterly pointless, but historical research, on the other hand, I've always loved.

This became even more acutely obvious last semester, when I had research projects in an English class and a History class. I despised doing the research for the English class and in fact needed the help of the same close friend from last night to find the materials to finish the project. But I greatly enjoyed doing the research for the History project, even though I'm not that big a fan of the 19th century and despite the fact that I bitched repeatedly about having to write the paper for it, I really liked assembling the story and making it fit all together.

I ran into my prof from the aforementioned History class today and talked with him for a while. He asked me what plans were after graduation. I told him I graduate in fall, then plan on going abroad a semester and coming back and going for an MFA program in creative writing, or if I didn't get into that, then a program in history. He said he'd write me a recommendation in both cases.

That really lifted my spirits, especially since I've had a really crappy last month and because he's the single best history professor I've ever had, and I've had quite a few good ones over the years. He makes students work hard and is a notoriously tough grader, but he's a brilliant lecturer who -really- knows his stuff and is as well-versed in literature as some of the English professors I've had.

So I have a backup plan in mind and feel really good about that.

I'll be scheduling to take the GRE soon, too, either next month or in April.

[Izulde]

GRE scheduling will be done tonight and I'll likely take it in early April, giving me enough time to study, but before things get too crazy with end of semester work.

I'm going to make further inquiries with San Diego State about their MFA program to see if it's really just a publications sweatshop like its website seems, or if there really is an emphasis on creative writing, since the school works out in pretty much every other area I'm looking at.

If San Diego State does offer an actual creative writing emphasis, then it goes on the list along with the other three finalists of University of Florida, Purdue University, University of Arizona, and University of Oregon. I really, really want to go back to a Division I school. It's one of the things I miss most about Wyoming.

Thinking more about History and poking around with various searches, I realized that I wouldn't want to be confined to a specific historical period and even though I have the utmost contempt for literary criticism and its theories, I'd miss literature itself, so I've done a little more searching into that nebulous degree known as Area Studies, which, if I understand it correctly, focuses on the whole sweep of history, literature, culture, etc, but focused on a specific region in the world, which would be much more to my tastes.

My greatest interest in terms of geographical area is probably the Mediterranean Basin, particularly the intermingling and conflicts of a wide variety of cultures and peoples in the area that to my mind is really unlike any other area in the world. That the marketplace, given the current world climate, seems to be crying out especially for academics with Near Eastern knowledge (of which the Med. basin would include) is also a consideration.

A third factor is that while I have a fairly strong interest in learning more about othe regions of the world (the Far East in particular, where I have some knowledge of China and Japan), in terms of language acquistion, I have an extraordinarily difficult time grasping languages that use an alphabet other than that used in English (Roman, I want to say). Cyrillic was a headache and I'm not even going to get into character based languages. I had little trouble picking up German in my middle school and high school days and I suspect the same would be true with say, Spanish, Italian, Latin French, etc. (Greek might be a question mark, though I know the Greek alphabet thanks to my fraternity).

Of course, the questions then become the following:

1) Am I understanding the concept of Area Studies properly?
2) What universities offer a Mediterranean Studies masters degree?

From my searches, it appears that NYU and University of Louisville both offer the Med. Studies, but I'm not certain what other schools do.

[Izulde]

Had a fairly substantial chat with the prof from post #28 today.

His recommendation was that because I'm so late to the game foreign language wise that I should stick to British or American history/studies. He pointed out that the best scholars in non-English fields are the ones who are either A) native speakers or B) taken the language from middle school/first year of high school at latest on and that furthermore, I would need to understand the intracies of the language not only in its contemporary sense, but 300-400 years before and so on.

So I thought about what he said and I have to say with some reluctance that I agree with him.

Fortunately I do have significant interests in the ancient and medieval aspects of British history and am also interested in British colonialism and its effects both on the colonized people and the colonizers.

So with that in mind, I did my research into Delta Sigma Phi chapter schools (I decided that with the exception of University of Florida, which seems like an awesome place to be at and Gainesville a fantastic place to be in and Princeton, which is doctorate only and has so brutal a language requirement I'd never get in there anyway) and thus have now narrowed my schools list into two spheres:

History
San Diego State, Washington State, Kentucky
-Washington State seems particularly suited to my historical interests.
-Kentucky would require me to focus on the ancient/medieval areas as they don't seem to have much in the way of colonial/imperial specialists on staff.

Creative Writing
Florida, Purdue, Oregon, Arizona
-If Florida had a DSP chapter, it'd be my #1 choice without question.

So basically I'm looking at 6-7 schools, split between the two tracks. One or two may get dropped along the way or I may apply to all seven.

I requested info from WSU and Purdue because there were spots to do so on their websites. Didn't find that for the other universities.

Now it's time to start studying up for the GRE and continuing to work on the creative writing pieces I've started.

[Izulde]

GRE: Noon, April 25th

I've also decided I'm concentrating exclusively on the MFA. Time for me to stop screwing around with this backup plan stuff and reach for what I want, what I've always felt was within me, what was first articulated to me by my 7th grade social studies teacher:

"You should be a writer."

That in mind, the creative writing requirements by school (We're leaving poetry out of this. I'm not NoMyths, after all :D)

University of Florida: 2 chapters of a novel or 2 short stories

University of Arizona: 3 short stories or 30 pages

San Diego State: 30 pages

University of Oregon: 2 short stories, chapter of a novel, or "substantial portion of a sustained work" up to 25 pages

Purdue University: 2-3 short stories or a novel excerpt

Florida requires 2 letters of recommendation and no personal statement, the others require 3 letters of recommendation and a personal statement ranging from 200-500 words depending on the school.

Purdue also wants a critical writing sample, 10-12 pages, from an English course essay.

Arizona also requires a 1 page resume/CV.

Application due dates range from January 1st to February 14th. I'll have my applications in long before then because I plan on being abroad in the spring.

I also had a breakthrough last night regarding my personal statement, which was huge.

Now it's just a matter of putting it all together and polishing, polishing, polishing until it shines.

[nilodor]

Izulde, I was just curious what exactly is a GRE, I guess mainly what does it stand for and what is a good number to get on the test? From what I gather it is some proficiency test for students pursuing grad school in humanities. Is it similar to the LSATs for law?

Good luck with your applications.

[Izulde]

Izulde, I was just curious what exactly is a GRE, I guess mainly what does it stand for and what is a good number to get on the test? From what I gather it is some proficiency test for students pursuing grad school in humanities. Is it similar to the LSATs for law?

Good luck with your applications.

It stands for Graduate Record Examination and involves, for the GRE General, measuring Verbal/Quanitative (multiple choice) and Analytical (writing). So in some respects like the SAT with the Verbal/Math. It's also computer-based these days.

The GRE Subject examinations, though I haven't looked too closely at them because they're not a requirement at the schools I'm hoping to attend, appear to be like the SAT II Subject tests.

As far as a good score goes, generally speaking schools will require a minimum score of 1000 to be eligible for admission.

Creative Writing programs that require the GRE tend to care only about the Verbal and Analytical portions and ignore the Quanitative.

I'm not sure if it's similiar to the LSAT or not. I know one of my fraternity brothers obsessed for months over studying for the LSAT though and wound up taking it twice.

Thanks for the luck! :) Considering that Creative Writing programs admit, at most, around 3% of their applicants and in the case of programs like Brown maybe 1/10th of 1%, if that, luck certainly helps!

[Izulde]

I now have a third letter of rec lined up and some very fantastic news that I won't go into here for fear of jinxing it.

I'll just say that if the news is right, my chances of getting in somewhere just shot up significantly. :)

Still working on the writing samples to send in. I may also be changing the schools I'm looking at.

[Izulde]

Not technically grad school related, but I wrote up a short piece (1 page) to submit to the university lit rag. The topic for this volume was Dreams and the Subconscious, so I figured it was worth a shot... and I really need to start getting some stuff published, so there you go.

I have no idea of my chances of getting it accepted, though my personality is such that I have a natural pessimism... but we'll see.

I just know I'll probably chain-smoking from nervousness from now until the volume comes out. ;)

[Izulde]

Update #1: I finally decided to go with an idea I've had in my head for a few months now on a collection of connected short stories and am working on two short stories to submit for my writing sample.

Upate #2: I'm smoking way too much lately. My legs have been starting to hurt of nowhere today.

[Izulde]

I take the GRE in 11 days and I'm damned nervous about it.

I found out today that my short piece got accepted in the university lit rag, though I don't know when it'll be coming out.

Also, I completed the first rough draft of the epilogue to the short story collection. It'll naturally get expanded (it's only 2 and 1/2 pages right now) as I start writing more of the other stories, but I feel like I've accomplished something just getting the rough draft done.

In terms of schools, I've narrowed it down to San Diego State, Florida, and Arizona. I decided I want to go someplace warm that has a good-sized Greek life.

[Joe]

are you only applying to those 3 schools?

[Izulde]

are you only applying to those 3 schools?

Tenatively, yes, though I'll cycle through the other schools again and see what more I can add to get back up to five, as five seems to be a good number. :)

[Izulde]

GRE tomorrow.

High noon.

I'm nervous as shit.

[Tyrith]

Be confident. If it isn't deserved, well, fake it till you make it. Good luck :)

[Izulde]

Be confident. If it isn't deserved, well, fake it till you make it. Good luck :)

Thanks :)

[Izulde]

I did pretty well on the Verbal portion, enough to place me in the ballpark of the top third of English majors and in the 90th percentile of all test-takers in an average year.

My Quantitative section was below average, but I knew that was going to happen.

I'm pretty sure I sucked on the Analysis portion, but I don't have the scores for that one yet obviously.

So a mixed bag.

If anyone wants to know the specific Verbal and Math scores and to give their own assessment of how I did, they can PM me.

I sent my scores to Florida, San Diego State, Purdue, and Virginia. I'll be sending them to Arizona as well, since they like to see the scores if an applicant takes the GRE even though it's not required, but there was only room for four schools to send scores to.

[st.cronin]

My guess is that for MFAs the GRE really isn't that important. But I admit I don't actually know.

[Izulde]

My guess is that for MFAs the GRE really isn't that important. But I admit I don't actually know.

You're right, actually. The primary consideration is the writing sample, which I'm still working on.

[Izulde]

Presentation of my capstone course paper tomorrow.

It's nothing genius, I admit, and it's only a 2 credit course, so it won't matter much in the grand scheme of things.

But it's kickstarted one hell of a manic cycle anyway, along with the accompanying insomnia. (In 6 hours, I'll have been up 24 hours and I'm probably going to hit that fairly easily.)

I was panicking about half an hour ago, freaking out that I'm so close to my undergrad degree and that I'll end up failing just short of it... ruining everything I've spent the last five years building back up.

Especially since I still have the final stuff to do this semester and all of fall semester to go yet.

So I talked myself down from that paranoia by pointing out a bunch of things. But I realized that I really need to get into graduate school and get this MFA. I love writing and I want to teach collegiately. I wouldn't be happy with a 9 to 5, two weeks off a year typical job. My personality just isn't suited to that and I've been in school too long by this point to like that schedule anyway.

But by the same token, I don't want to go through master's and doctoral programs to teach literature or history courses. It's something I just have no interest in. Teaching high school English courses wouldn't be a bad gig at all either, so if I don't get into an MFA program, that's probably the route I'll go... getting my teaching certification at a school in California (since I plan on living in San Diego when I'm done).

Or maybe this is all just the insomnia and mania talking. I'll know more when I wake up after going to sleep whenever that happens.

The one short story I'm most concentrating on right now is coming along very nicely. It's something that, unlike this capstone paper, I'm actually pretty proud of.

[Tyrith]

You'll feel better about it all after you get some sleep. Deprivation tends to make the brain stop thinking rationally.

[Izulde]

Thanks and good point. :)

I fell asleep around 7 am (21 hours or thereabouts of being up), slept two hours and then got up at 9 am for classes. I've been awake since then because I had stuff to do between classes.

Giving my capstone course presentation on two hours sleep was an interesting experience, but I still did well on it even though my eyes are bloodshot enough that I look high. :D

I might nap for a couple hours before Heroes or do what would be smarter and just stay up until Heroes is over and then crash.

[Izulde]

Did some more work on one of the stories last night. Not totally happy with what I've got, but I can always go back and revise later.

Sidenote: It looks like I'll be graduating in May, pending the red tape of this fall semester in Granada working out. I had to switch from spring abroad to fall because I wouldn't have been able to officially graduate until August otherwise, due to grades taking a while to get from there to here and that would screw up grad school.

Not sure how much writing I'll get done this next week, what with finals and two fairly long papers to turn in, but hopefully I'll get a lot done this summer, even if I'm working full-time.

[Izulde]

I feel like I'm turning into Nicholas Sparks.

This depresses the hell out of me.

[st.cronin]

Nicholas Sparks has a lot of money. I suppose there are worse fates.

[Izulde]

Nicholas Sparks has a lot of money. I suppose there are worse fates.

True. It's the old writing dilemma though: Critical acclaim and immortality vs popular success.

[Izulde]

I've been low on inspiration lately, but I just woke up from a stunning dream with tears in my eyes.

I immediately dashed downstairs and wrote down the most important fragments that still lingered in my mind.

I believe I can make a story out of them, perhaps even a novella, possibly even a novel. I'll start work on it tonight.

[Barkeep49]

This is why I could never be a writer. I just don't have that kind of inspiration.

[Izulde]

This is why I could never be a writer. I just don't have that kind of inspiration.

It comes and goes, I'll be the first one to admit.

Oddly enough, my greatest inspirations tend to come from dreams that I've had.

[Izulde]

I've started a private online forum for a small writers' coterie. There isn't really a group I can get going where I live, so I figured it'd be a good idea to set something up online.

And frankly a writers' group will help me crystallize my own projects and help me to decide which of the three or four rough draft blurbs I've started for the grad school sample to pursue further.

If anyone would like the URL, they can PM me. :)

[Izulde]

Writing is going quite well. Just about finished with the first draft of one short story.

Also re-visited grad schools after finding the US News & World Report rankings on UC-Santa Barbara's website and going through the different schools again.

Virginia and Florida are probably my top two choices, with Arizona and New Mexico State in the second tier. Western Michigan is an outside possibility as I really like the program, even though it's not a warm climate. I also sent for more information from Syracuse as I had trouble finding information on their website.

[st.cronin]

New Mexico STATE? Really?

[Izulde]

New Mexico STATE? Really?

Yep!

I know it's been a while since I've updated this, but I honestly haven't had much to report till now.

I got an email offer from Stanford explicitly inviting me to apply to their MBA program as a result of my GRE scores and the like.

There's an information session in Madrid on the 17th, interestingly enough.

I'm sorely tempted to investigate the opportunity. It's something worth thinking about at any rate.

[Izulde]

Writing is not going as well as I'd hoped, but I'm still plugging away at it.

DePaul sent an email and I've received information at home from a few grad schools, but they're mostly small schools that don't hold any interest for me, as I miss Division I school life.

I've no interest in DePaul. #1, it's in the Midwest. #2, it has the typical American and British Literature bias common to this region and #3, it doesn't have an MFA in Creative Writing.

[Izulde]

Michigan came calling today, more specifically their School of Information, which is interesting from the reading I'm doing.

I have to admit, the idea of becoming a Policy Analyst is certainly an intriguing one, because it plays to my strengths in writing and, most importantly, I'd feel like I was having some type of positive effect and contribution to the world.

I've decided not to pursue Stanford's MBA as a fallback option because, yeah, I could see myself doing damn well in business and all that, but I also see myself being one of those guys who gets frustrated with the emptiness of it all and changing careers at 40 to something much more fulfilling and meaningful, like teaching. (Of course, they also usually end up being some of the best teachers I've had, which is an interesting phenomenon).

But I don't want to change careers mid-stream in life. I want to feel like I'm doing something meaningful or working towards something meaningful from the beginning.

Something that will leave an effect on the world, a worthwhile effect, no matter how small the ripple.

[Izulde]

This is just a note to myself to pick up Death and the Sun: A Matador's Season in the Heart of Spain, to use for research in a short story I plan on writing about a young matador's first fight.

[Izulde]

Sorry to be posting in this thread so much and sounding rather scatterbrained, but I've been obsessed with this for the past week or so...

I've been working on manuscripts for MFA in Creative Writing application, but I'm starting to have second thoughts.

I look at the statistics and see the low rates of acceptance and I feel the pressure, the need to perform. My writing doesn't flow as easily and carefree as it does when I write for leisure or for myself. The quality, too, seems to suffer.

The spectre of poverty also looms over my head. MFA's frequently have horrible salaries and long hours of pay.

I know there's been numerous published, well-respected authors who don't have an MFA. A good friend of mine who is one such individual. (Though he does regret not getting the MFA, as he'd love to have been able to teach in college.)

So I'm considering getting my Masters in Education instead and teaching high school, writing and coaching high school sports in my free time. I have a gift for inspiring enthusiam in others and for teaching... and while college professorship would allow me to engage in higher-level instruction, the path to a PhD is long, grueling, and I would suspect, ultimately unrewarding for someone who finds, in high-level research and scholarship of literature to neither be difference-making or immortalizing.

But then I ask myself, will I always look back and wonder what might have been? Will I continue to wonder if the talent's really there?

[Izulde]

After talking things over with a few people, I've elected to go for the M.A. in Literature and then weigh my career options from there.

One buzzsaw I've run into is that quite a few schools I'd consider require the GRE Subject Test, which I would in no way be able to take in time to meet application deadlines.

So after doing some extensive research today, I've narrowed down the list to 4, possibly 5 schools.

The four I will be applying to for certain are, in no particular order:

Arizona State
Florida
LSU
Arkansas

Clemson is a fifth possiblity, if I can access their English department website to look at their admission requirements, program info, and faculty specializations.

[Izulde]

Clemson is indeed a 5th possibility, after further review.

Two of the schools on my list, Arizona State and LSU, have Delta Sigma Phi chapters, for what it's worth.

If I had to rank the schools right now, I'd have to say that Arkansas is the clear-cut #1 for matching of my research interests pretty closely in most areas (I have a wide variety of literary interests), with the other four less certain as to their settling.

[Izulde]

After further, further, further review, some things are clearing up.

First, Clemson's out. They're heavily rhetoric-based, which is contrary to my interests in research and analysis.

Second, Arizona State's on the bubble of being tossed out as well. Phoenix is too spread out a city for my tastes. As a traveler by foot and bus when necessary, I like things more compact.

What this means is there's one, possibly two spots open, as I intend on applying to five schools, that being the general rule of thumb.

And of the three schools remaining, things have shaken out to a clear-cut 1,2,3 for the time being.

1. Arkansas
2. Florida
3. LSU

I wrote up a very rough draft of a personal statement today and sent it off to one of my professors back home for a review. It needs work, I know, but at least it's a start.

Also, the capstone paper I wrote, which would be an excellent choice for the critical writing sample (or so I think)... I only have a rough draft copy of in my email for some reason. So I emailed the prof for that course to see if she still has the portfolio.

If not, I'm not sure what I'll do.

[Izulde]

Currently slogging through UT-Austin's graduate school application process for Advertising.

Why advertising? It leads to a career in advertising, which matches well with my literature and marketing background academically and my retail background as far as work experience goes.

I'd work for an advertising agency as a copywriter, though. Something where I'd have a variety of different things to work on and not get tired of working with the same stuff all the time.

I'll still be applying to Arkansas and LSU for their MA in Literature programs.

Florida, however, presents a problem.

Not only are they the only other D-I university I've been able to find that offers a creative component to their master's in Advertising, but they're also one of my candidates for the MA in Literature and I don't know that you can apply to two different degree programs there.

Oh yeah, the prof got back to me and they have my final portfolio from my capstone course last semester, so I'll be picking that up when I go home.

[Izulde]

So I've got it broken down into the following schools and applications thus far:

Arkanasas - Literature
Texas - Advertising
Florida International - Tourism Management

I'll be applying to two more schools though just which two those will be and which of the three areas they'll be, I'm not certain yet.

Is this odd that I'm applying to three different areas? Probably, but I've always been a little offbeat that way. :D

[Izulde]

The slate's wiped clean, my destiny decided.

M.A. in Literature, leading to community college teaching, allowing me to concentrate on teaching and using my free time to write.

The schools being applied to:
University of Florida
University of Arkansas
Oregon State University

Florida's a real crunch time, with a deadline of January 15th. Oregon State and Arkansas have much more breathing room, at February 1st and March 1st respectively.

Wish me luck! :)

[Cap Ologist]

You'll always remember this as the day you avoided a serious mistake since you aren't enrolling at tu-A. ;)

[Barkeep49]

Congrats on this career path. Community Colleges do some excellent teaching and I'm guessing you'd find that alone quite satisfying above and beyond the chance to do your writing.

[st.cronin]

I've been watching this, just popping in to add that UF is on a very long "short list" I have going for my own grad school experience.

[RPI-Fan]

You'll always remember this as the day you avoided a serious mistake since you aren't enrolling at tu-A. ;)

tu-A?

[Izulde]

Cap Ologist: :D

Barkeep49: Thanks :) It's funny, when I was a kid, the running family joke was that I didn't want to screw up in school or I'd end up at the local community college. Lo and behold, in 2002, after getting kicked out of two universities for academics, guess where I ended up? Yep, the community college.

And it turned out to be just the thing I needed. I got my head straightened out there, kicked some serious ass, and I've been doing well ever since. What amazed me was just how good quite a few of the instructors were and while my fellow students weren't as book-smart as you'd find at a university, many of them were older and had wisdom that your typical late-teens/early-20s undergrad doesn't have the life experience to possess yet. They also had a much stronger desire to learn and were willing to work a lot harder.

My family gained a whole new respect for the community college setup as a result of my experiences there and I'd like to someday be in the position to help somebody like me along the way, someone who's capable of advanced scholarship but got lost along the way and is working their way back up.

Even if that situation never occurs, I'd like to teach the students I do have, if not to discover a love for reading and literature, at least to appreciate its value and what it can add to their lives. This in addition to the business writing courses I'd imagine would be part and parcel of it as well, and which I'd be presumably qualified for given my own associate's in Marketing :)

st. cronin: Yeah, UF is a seriously good school, in my opinion. I'm trying to beat the Jan. 15th deadline, which isn't going to be easy, and admittedly, my chances of getting in may not be the best, but I'm going to try anyway. I'd be happy to get into any of the three schools, to be honest.

RPI-Fan: UT-Austin. :)

[Cap Ologist]

tu-A?

Just a way that non-longhorns refer to UT, texas university at Austin. ;)

[Izulde]

Due to the situation with my grandmother for one and not hearing back from profs I've asked for rec letters, as they're likely on vacation, Florida is now out of the picture. I simply won't make it in time.

On the other side of things, Oregon State and Arkansas I can still manage, though the former is cutting it quite close now. I've tenatively added Southern Mississippi as a backup option and I'm searching other schools with a February or March deadline as well.

[RPI-Fan]

not hearing back from profs I've asked for rec letters

You don't ask, you tell.

Plus, those deadlines are wicked soft. Don't make any more excuses and get'er done!!!

[Izulde]

You don't ask, you tell.

Plus, those deadlines are wicked soft. Don't make any more excuses and get'er done!!!

Thanks :)

Will do!

[Izulde]

Final Final Final List

Arkansas
Oregon State
San Diego State
San Jose State

Southern Miss as trailer poss.

[Izulde]

School doesn't start back up until the 29th, which is making it impossible for me to get a hold of my letter writers... and the more I'm thinking about it, the more I'm considering delaying a year so I can apply to all the schools I want to and not be restricted by deadlines.

My only concern is that my student loans would kick in during the year... unless I can get a deferrment of some kind.

[Izulde]

dola,

That'd also give me the opportunity to take the GRE Subject test in Literature for those schools that require it.

[Izulde]

Transcripts have been sent out from all schools to all three universities.

The Spain transcripts are going to be the biggest hassle, as they're going to take a while to get there, but I've already informed the Oregon State English Department of it and they said it wasn't too great a concern.

So here's the updated applications listing:

Oregon State
-Application completed
-Transcripts sent
-Personal Statement written
-Critical Sample selected

San Jose State
-Transcripts sent

Arkansas
-Application completed
-Transcripts sent
-Critical Sample selected

For all three schools, I've got my rec letter writers picked out and sent them my Oregon State personal statement to work off of.

I still need to do the following:

-Write a CV for one of my rec letter writers
-Write personal statements for SJSU and Arkansas
-Edit the critical samples
-Complete online application to SJSU
-Get GRE scores sent to SJSU and Arkansas

I'm in the process of putting together the CV for the writer who requested it. It's very bare bones, because I don't really know what I'm doing with it, having never written one, but it should provide them the information they need.

February is going to be a very, very busy month.

Then March is going to be a month of me smoking heavily and nervously until I start hearing back.

[Izulde]

CV written and sent, critical sample for OSU edited and sent.

GRE scores will get sent out tonight and the SJSU application will be completed.

I'm hoping to have the personal statements for SJSU and Arkansas written by the end of this week.

Two bits of bad news:

1) Oregon State's Graduate Admissions Office is behind on processing transcripts, so none of my transcripts are registered as being entered in. This makes me *very* nervous, considering the Friday deadline.

2) I moronically had the SJSU transcripts sent to the Office of Admissions, not realizing there was a separate Graduate Studies Admissions office. So I'm trying to get that one straightened out.

The good news is, everything's in at Arkansas transcript-wise, so there's a lot less to worry about there and despite the Oregon State transcript anxieties, that application is complete.

[Izulde]

Still working on my personal statements for SJSU and Arkansas, though I now have the rankings determined prior to visiting any of the schools.

Pre-Visit Rankings
1. Arkansas
2. San Jose State
3. Oregon State

I'm going to try and visit San Jose State for Spring Break, because they want their teaching assistants there in May to receive training. Plus, it has the added benefit of being somewhere warm for the break. :D

Oregon State, I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to go out and visit. Though, honestly, the only way I see myself going there is if they offer me a teaching assistantship and the other schools don't.

Arkansas I'll visit either during Spring Break or right after graduation in May.

So really, I think what the visits are going to decide is what the shift in rankings is between Arkansas and San Jose State, if there is in fact one.

I gave very strong consideration to Villanova after hearing from them and there being certain aspects of the college and program I really liked, but then I took a closer look at the faculty research interests and the courses offered... and quite frankly, it'd be a terrible match in terms of my own interest areas, so they were removed from contention.

[Izulde]

Things are now down to the following:

1) Write letter of application for teaching assistantship for SJSU and send it to my rec letter writers.

2) Write personal statement for Arkansas and send it to my rec letter writers.

This really has me sweating, especially the Arkansas one. I still remember staring at the rejection letter for transfer to UC-Santa Cruz and how damned much that hurt.

I don't want to have to look at three more rejection letters. It's got me somewhat paralyzed and terrified.

Oh and an update on Oregon State: All my transcripts are officially listed as received, except for my most recent college, which is the most important. :rolleyes: Considering the due date was Feb. 1st, it doesn't make me very happy, though all the transcripts other than that one are listed as having come in well before the deadline (mid Jan), so maybe it's when they're listed as getting in that's important.

With regards to my own foul-up concerning SJSU, I still haven't gotten an email from them, so I'll call them Wednesday if I hadn't heard back by tomorrow, since my Tuesdays are all full from 9:30 am to 8:15 pm with classes with just enough time in between them to eat.

[Izulde]

Letter of application for TA position at SJSU is done and e-mailed to my rec letter writers.

I'm still having major problems writing my personal statement for Arkansas, precisely because it's my #1 choice of schools right now.

Oh yeah, I also have to go through my writing sample for Arkansas and SJSU (I'm using the same one) and do some editing before I send it off. Although I got an A on it for my capstone course, it's still rough to me.

March and April are going to be very, very critical months in determing my future for the next year, maybe for forever after.

[Izulde]

Personal statement for Arkansas is done!!! :woohoo:

I think it's safe to say that it's the best of the three personal statements I've written so far. :)

The next task is editing the critical writing sample, as I noted in the previous post, as well as filling out the fairly extensive application cover for Arkansas.

If all goes well, I should have everything mailed out by this weekend and then it turns to a case of sitting and waiting. Everything will, I imagine, be all sorted out by mid-April at the extreme latest.

Oregon State still isn't listed as having processed my current university's transcripts, by the way. I'll shoot the Graduate Director an e-mail to see if they've got them yet or not.

[Izulde]

Bad news. :(

Because of the slow as hell admissions office at Oregon State, the English Department *still* hasn't gotten my current school's transcripts. The department indicated that they would simply go ahead and evaluate my application as is, and if I'm accepted into the program, they'll ask for the transcript then.

So yeah, it's sounding like because OSU's admissions office is so damned slow about processing transcripts, I may well have lost my shot at getting accepted there. :(

[Izulde]

I just received word from Arkansas that I've been accepted into the Graduate School.... which means the first hurdle's been cleared.... now I have to be accepted into the English Department.

But that's half the battle won. :)

I'll be sending in the rest of the application materials for Arkansas and San Jose State out this week.

[Izulde]

Finally settled on a critical paper after discussing it with one of my rec letter writers, who felt it was quite good and not in need of tweaking, save for the conclusion, which they agreed with me was weak.

So I'll edit the conclusion tonight and send all the materials to SJSU and Arkansas tomorrow morning.

I've had a lot of conversations with people the last few days about my graduate school choices and I'm getting a much stronger sense of where I'm most likely to go if I get accepted at all three schools, or even at that one school in particular.

March is going to be a long, long month, as I wait for April and word of acceptance or rejection.

Though my guess is I'll hear back from Oregon State sometime in March.

[Izulde]

...and I'm having trouble working on the conclusion... still too upset over my Children's pick in the Lit Draft... it's gonna bother me all week.

[Izulde]

Got the conclusion re-written. I still don't know if it's all that great, but it's much, much better than what I had before, though I emailed it to the prof I was talking to, to see what they think of it.

Everything gets mailed out tomorrow, no matter what the response.

Time to try and get some sleep. I've slept 7 hours, if that, over the last 2 nights and 3.5 hours of sleep a night, combined with the stress of trying to get everything done, isn't exactly the best for my health right now. :P

Expect me to update again once I have replies back from the schools. Oregon State I imagine will be in a couple weeks at the very latest. San Jose State and Arkansas won't be until sometime in April.

[Izulde]

And now the waiting begins.

[Izulde]

So, after a much more intense review of the programs, Oregon State's creeped back up into 2nd place. Their TA program is especially hard to ignore, with the promises of actual sections to teach and a rich benefits package.

I just hope the Grad School Admissions didn't screw me over by being extremely late in processing my last transcript. They finally processed it about a week ago, so it's been sitting there for over a month before they finally ran it through.

Yeah, I'm seriously ticked about that.

San Jose State, on the other hand, is seeing its stock rapidly falling.

Arkansas's still the clear-cut #1.

I'm hoping to find out by the time Spring Break rolls around whether or not I made it into Oregon State and got the TAship. If I did on both counts and I get into Arkansas, either with or without a TAship, it's going to be a difficult decision to make...

[Barkeep49]

Waiting is the hardest part.

[Izulde]

Waiting is the hardest part.

You ain't kidding! :)

[Izulde]

So, San Jose State sent me an email.... and they only just now referred the application to the English Department. :rolleyes:

I hope this doesn't affect the TAship chances there, even given that SJSU is a distant third on the list.

If there's one thing I'm learning from this, it's to get stuff in at least two months before the due date if at all possible, because the graduate admissions offices are so slow, it takes them a month to get anything done.

But the good news is, this means I've passed Phase One of the SJSU admissions process, which is apparently dual admission required like Arkansas.

Still nothing from Oregon State and I e-mailed two weeks ago to find out a ballpark estimate of when I should be hearing back on an admissions decision and have gotten no answer.

So it's still more waiting.

But I've decided if I don't get into any schools this go-round, I won't give up. I'll just try again next year with an expanded list of schools in hand, now that I won't be facing crunch times because of study abroad.

[Izulde]

March 31st was a big, big day.

According to the Arkansas website, that's the day when the priority list for teaching assistantships is finalized. Those with the highest scores will receive notification of their acceptance and their assistantship "shortly after that date". Also shortly after that date will be notified those who are admitted, but didn't ask for a teaching assistantship (which most certainly is -not- me) and those who have been rejected for admission.

Those who don't get an assistantship right away get put on an essential waiting list and given notifications of assistantships as they become available, some as late as mid-summer.

So, whether that means they'll notify everyone of admittance or rejection relatively soon and then let those who are on the waiting list for assistantships know of their awards as the months progress, or whether those who are admitted, but still waiting on an assistantship won't be notified until the assistantship becomes available, I'm not sure. And to be honest, I'm a little gunshy about e-mailing, since Oregon State is -still- silent on the e-mail I sent them asking about when applicants could expect to hear back, since I couldn't find that info on the website at all.

All I know is, if I -do- hear from Arkansas soon, I hope it's not a rejection, because I'd be seriously crushed if that happened. I'll be honest, this last semester has been the roughest I've had since probably that first, dark year of college, for a variety of reasons.

But I just keep telling myself that I should hear -something- from at least one school by the end of the month, if not more and that I've got 6 weeks to go to graduation.

[Barkeep49]

I can tell you that my last semester of college was by far my roughest, but it's a great reward when done.

[Cap Ologist]

Cowboy up, Izulde. You aint' going through anything compared to Nick and Melody. Shameless hint for an update. ;)

Hang in there, it will all work out in the end.

[Izulde]

Barkeep49: Thanks and I agree about the reward thing. :) It's not the academics that's killing me (outside of Stats) so much as it is the social aspect and well, with one of my best friends passing away Friday as I found out Sunday, it's going to make the final 5-6 weeks that much rougher. But I'll definitely gut it out.

Cap Ologist: I'd have definitely said that before Sunday, but this death's proving a lot tougher to deal with than I thought. I'll keep trying to cowboy up, though and I''m sure things will work out for the best in the end.

Incidentally, ran across one of my rec letter writers today and he said I should be hearing -very- soon from the grad schools, his guess is within the next week or two.

Sure hope he's right.

[Cap Ologist]

Didn't realize you'd lost a friend, crawling back into a hole now.

[Izulde]

Didn't realize you'd lost a friend, crawling back into a hole now.

It's okay. :) I had a thread about it in General Discussions, but it wasn't obvious from the thread title what it was about, so you just didn't catch it apparently.

[Izulde]

Oregon State:
REJECTED.

:(

[Izulde]

May 17th is Graduation Day and I've been trying to enjoy the last few weeks of my undergrad career, but I haven't wholly been able to.

This waiting has been driving me insane and I've taken to a diet of clove cigarettes and Code Red. Keep rotating music listening between 50s/60s doo-wop, 90s R&B and eurodance and 00s boy bands and K-pop.

SJSU in particular has me nervous, because their TA training is in May and I still haven't heard from them. I'll be honest, if I don't get a TAship from them, I don't go, because I can't afford living in San Jose and paying tuition without it.

A month ago I was pretty sure of my chances of getting into at least two of these three schools, but after Oregon State rejected me, I'm starting to get paranoid I'm not good enough and there's two more rejection letters waiting with my name on them.

I'm trying to be nice and fatalistic about the whole thing, but it's just not working right now.

On the bright side, it's been easy academically this semester, save for Stats because I have this mental block with math and I'm actually thankful for classes because they pass the time.

[Cap Ologist]

Perhaps writing about Nick and Melody would be soothing. ;)

[Izulde]

Perhaps writing about Nick and Melody would be soothing. ;)

:D

We're actually down to the endgame, as you've no doubt seen.

Won't be too long before the dynasty's done.

[Cap Ologist]

I know, so get your ass up and writing. ;)

[Izulde]

Remember how Oregon State rejected me?

Well, today I get an e-mail from Oregon State!

"Congratulations, I. Zulde you've been given a financial aid award package. Please login and view your award to accept or reject it."

...Yeah, okay.

I go to check to see what the award is, just to get an idea of what I might receive from schools that actually, you know, accept me.

...Only I can't.

Because I don't have a Student ID number, because they never accepted me.

And yet, I have a financial aid award package! :D

[Izulde]

I GOT ACCEPTED BY ARKANSAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

They said they'll have to do some negotiating to try and get me an assistantship, but that I definitely qualify for it. :)

[MJ4H]

!!

[Izulde]

!!

What a great, great 24+ hours it's been since I got that email. :)

I'm going to be a Razorback!

[Izulde]

I received notice today that I've also been accepted by San Jose State, which is really awesome, but considering the English Department said there's no assistantships available for incoming students and that the earliest chance I'd get would be Spring, it's pretty much a given for Arkansas.

The only temptation that might come is if the assistantship falls through at Arkansas and I really get wowed by San Jose State's program when I check out the campus, as I plan to visit both campuses.

Of course, if San Jose State's program were at San Diego State instead, then I'd have a genuine dilemma on my hands. :D

[Izulde]

Change in Directors has no effect on my assistantship chances, yay!

Still playing the waiting game to hear whether I have it or not, though.

[Izulde]

Looks like I may not be going. :(

I'm not getting an assistantship. :(

[Barkeep49]

Oh man

[Izulde]

Oh man

Thanks. I'm doing some more funding hunting, though and haven't given up on going this fall yet.

And I've already got a backup plan in mind in case I have to sit out a year.

[Izulde]

I qualify to apply for a fellowship which would cover my tuition if I get it. :)

Would still leave me to come up with money for books, housing, food, et. al., but it'd be a huge, huge load taken care of. :)

[Barkeep49]

That would be awesome.

[RPI-Fan]

Don't you typically have to compete against people who already have assistantships to get a fellowship?

[Izulde]

Barkeep49: Indeed it would. :)

RPI-Fan: For most fellowships, yes that's the case. However, this particular fellowship has one of its requirements that applicants not already have an assistantship, a full-time job at the University, or another tuition-paying scholarship.

[RPI-Fan]

Nice! When will you find out whether you're successful or not? What's your backup plan? Did you apply to Master's or PhD program?

[Izulde]

Nice! When will you find out whether you're successful or not? What's your backup plan? Did you apply to Master's or PhD program?

Late June/early July.

Backup plan is to sit out a year, visit Arkansas, Kentucky and Florida for sure this summer, maybe South Florida as well, and whichever school I like best, move to that state and work a year to establish state residency, then apply to the round of schools again next year, including Wake Forest probably.

Master's program because 1) I'm not sure if I want to go ahead and get a PhD, 2) For community college teaching, which is what I'd rather do, you only need a Master's and 3) I'll be 29 next month. My mom will be 58 next month and my dad turns 75 Saturday. I'd really like to have a job and get established somewhere before they pass on.

If I was younger, maybe I'd give a lot more thought to the PhD and university teaching, but then I think about all the problems that come with university life, particularly the publish-or-perish phenomenon and it's just like, no, I don't want to be a part of that.

Besides, I'd rather write literature than research and write scholarly articles about it, which plays into the whole community college vs. university teaching as well.

Of course, that's not to say that I won't ever get my PhD. Getting my MFA at some point is a possibility as well, particularly if I find myself missing university life after teaching community college a few years, because MA + MFA = much stronger possibility of teaching university than MFA alone and there the publish or perish phenomenon would tie into creative writing, which is what I'd be doing.

So yeah, very long-winded answer. Sorry about that. :D

[Izulde]

Summer job hunting has been absolutely brutal. I've got a few part-time jobs that offer very limited hours and not much in the way of pay. I've tried temp agencies to get something full-time, but my hometown has the highest unemployment in the state so competition is fierce.

A small bit of sunshine, today, though. The Graduate Director for English at UArk got back to me and they're willing to nominate me for the fellowship. :)

[oliegirl]

Summer job hunting has been absolutely brutal. I've got a few part-time jobs that offer very limited hours and not much in the way of pay. I've tried temp agencies to get something full-time, but my hometown has the highest unemployment in the state so competition is fierce.

A small bit of sunshine, today, though. The Graduate Director for English at UArk got back to me and they're willing to nominate me for the fellowship. :)

Sweet! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you :)

And good luck with the job search...

[Izulde]

Sweet! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you :)

And good luck with the job search...

Thanks :) My guess is though that I'll end up working like two or three different part-time jobs this summer because FT temporary employment is virtually impossible where I live.

[Izulde]

In Fayetteville. Exhausted. Doing Wisconsin to Arkansas in one day = not a good idea.

Will write more tomorrow.

[MJ4H]

Hey bro. PM me if you need anything.

[Izulde]

Hey bro. PM me if you need anything.

Thanks. :) I'd suggest a mini-FOFC meet but I'm going to be dashing here and there and everywhere trying to get in as much as I can before my 3 pm appointment at the University and then I'm headed out shortly after to start the trek back home.

Too short a trip, I know.

And a deluge of rain on top of my only day here this go-round! :D

[Izulde]

Pretty campus and I liked the town (Jim's Razorback Pizza is delicious), but for whatever reason I just wasn't feeling it and on top of it, I got a really bad vibe when I was in the English building.

So chances are, I probably won't be going to UArk even if I get the fellowship, but that's why it's recommended to make campus visits. :)

Anyhow, now my likely course is going to be to visit University of Florida, University of Kentucky, Wake Forest and possibly South Florida in July.

There's some other options I'm considering as well, but I'll take the time to think more about them.

[MJ4H]

wat

[sovereignstar]

wat

lol

i luv u

[Izulde]

MattJones4Heisman: Sorry, man. I just got a really bad vibe when I was in Kimpel to where it was like, I wouldn't be happy at Arkansas. The last time I didn't listen to that kind of vibe was at Minnesota and it took me 11 years to erase that nightmare. It's nothing against the University or Fayetteville, it's just one of those cases where it's not meant to be.

sovereignstar: :D

[MJ4H]

haha Kimpel hall sucks. There was a shooting in there about 6 or 7 years ago I think. I guess if that's where you were going to spend most of your time, I can see that. The rest of the campus rules though.

[Izulde]

Arkansas just called and offered me an assistantship.

Things just got a hell of a lot tougher.

[Izulde]

dola,

It's 2 classes in the fall, 2 in the spring, full tuition waiver and $9900 yearly stipend.

[Swaggs]

If this particular degree is what you are looking for, I would say go ahead and take the plunge. The job market isn't that great right now and, if you plan on earning this degree at some point in your life, it will be much easier for you to survive on $9,900 (+ some minimal loans, I'd imagine) than to go out and start making decent money AND THEN going back to eating mac and cheese four times a week.

Even if you don't love the campus/area, how long is your program? 2-3 years? You can survive that easily.

[Izulde]

If this particular degree is what you are looking for, I would say go ahead and take the plunge. The job market isn't that great right now and, if you plan on earning this degree at some point in your life, it will be much easier for you to survive on $9,900 (+ some minimal loans, I'd imagine) than to go out and start making decent money AND THEN going back to eating mac and cheese four times a week.

Even if you don't love the campus/area, how long is your program? 2-3 years? You can survive that easily.

Good points. Plus, it's awfully hard to turn down the teaching experience. I mean, I'm getting to teach two sections right off the bat. That doesn't happen in a lot of places.

I've got a literally a day or two to think about it. I'm going to do lot of walking, talking and thinking, that's for sure.

[Izulde]

It's been over a year now since I finally decided to take that assistantship at Arkansas and go.

And a year later, despite my anxieties and uncertainties at certain points, I'm glad I took it. It was a great year academically, as I currently have a 4.0 through two semesters and strange as it sounds for me to use the word, professionally. I loved teaching (except grading) and I'd definitely have found it difficult to enjoy working like 20 hours a week in a writing lab or some such thing the first year, like with a lot of other programs. Of course, being highly rated by both the students and my reviewers helps, too. :D

I'm still trying to figure out my exact thesis topic. I was going to do it on passing and have a readings course set up for it this fall, but I'm not sure that's what I want to do. I do need to decide soon, though.

I also have to brush up on my German and finally take that language proficiency exam to get that out of the way.

And....

I also need to to do some refining of my writing samples. Because I'll be applying for my MFA in Creative Writing at various schools. I know that if I don't, it'll be like Princeton back in high school all over again, where I've been haunted ever since by the question of 'What If?' Sadly, Princeton doesn't have an MFA program or I'd be applying there right quick.

[Izulde]

This semester's been a tough one so far, thanks to my schedule setup and the courses I'm taking and teaching. I've also been pretty isolated, which doesn't help matters. But if I can get through this semester, hopefully with my 4.0 still intact, a good start on my thesis, and the German reading proficiency exam -finally- out of the way, my last semester is shaping up to be a thing of beauty.

I'll only have one class to take next semester and it's an elective, based on how I have it mapped out. I already know which class I'll be taking, I think, though there's quite a few tempting options on the list. The rest of the hours are thesis hours. I'll also hopefully be teaching World Lit next semester like I've been wanting to since I came to campus, but if not, I'll teach Comp II like I did last spring.

But the biggest reason I'm updating this thread is because it's time to start looking at MFA programs again. In my darker moments this semester, I've pondered not applying to any and just graduating in May, but, as I said in the last post, if I don't, it'll be like Princeton back in high school all over again.

I've already secured one letter of recommendation and I need to check with a second letter of recommendation writer to make certain they'll still be able to do it.

As for the writing sample, I've been going back and forth between a section of a novel versus two short stories. But I need to decide very soon and start polishing the hell out of the writing sample I'm submitting, as a lot of schools have early December deadlines and it's already mid-October.

Next update will be a re-visitation of possible schools. Some things have changed since the last time I went through this process.

[Izulde]

I've been smoking a little more heavily again as stress levels ramp up with the rush of semester's end, the wiring *still* not fixed because the apartment complex's maintanence people insist there's nothing wrong, and the recent cockroach invasion of our apartment. And some other stuff, too.

On the MFA front, I've got two schools for certain on the list. Need to choose three more by the end of the week and keep polishing my writing sample, which I've been working periodically on when I can manage it.

I've set December 15th as the target to have at least two of the applications done and taken care of.

[Izulde]

List of five schools is in hand. Four of them have Feb. 1st application deadlines, one has the time-crunching Dec. 1st deadline.

A few of them don't offer great financial aid, but that just means I'll be that much more gung-ho about getting what sources are available if I get into and choose to go to one of those schools.

[Izulde]

So I've applied to UC-San Diego and am applying to Columbia University, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia and McNeese State.

They all have things about them that attract me, though I obviously have a ranking list in mind, which I won't reveal here. As far as my chances of getting in.. let's just say that getting into an MFA in Creative Program is going to be difficult no matter which one you apply to. It's that competitive.

That said, the most selective school on my list is the University of Virginia. 630 applications for less than 10 spots, but then, you might expect that from a program that's one of the Top 5 in the country. Iowa still remains the gold standard, but I have absolutely no interest in Iowa. Columbia, as a point of comparison, typically has 600 applications and accepts 80-90.

As far as funding, all of these departments offer teaching assistantships and/or fellowships that I'd have a good shot at, although most of Columbia's aid doesn't kick in until the second year.

Deadlines:
UC-San Diego - December 1st (applied already obviously)
Columbia - January 2nd
Old Dominion - February 15th
Virginia - January 4th
McNeese State - 30 days prior to registration

So after I get all these applications done, I'll basically be freaking out with nervousness until April.

[Izulde]

After a long conversation with myself this weekend, I've dropped Virginia from the list. The basics of it boiled down to this:

Self 1: Sooo, you're applying to Virginia, are you?
Self 2: Yeah.
Self 1: 600 applicants for a handful of spots, yeah?
Self 2: Yeah.
Self 1: Charlottesville's a pretty small city. Thought you wanted to go someplace a little bigger.
Self 2: I do.
Self 1: Um, oooookay. So, Virginia's like, your top choice, right?
Self 2: No. It's like, tied for third with **** behind **** and ****.
Self 1: ....
Self 2: ....
Self 1: Okay... so you're applying to the #2 most selective school in the entire country that's in a small ass city and it's not even your top school?!
Self 2: You have a point.
Self 1: Damn right I do!

So, I'm not sure what I'll put for the fifth school. Probably a safety school as a backup in case I don't get into any of my top three choices, all of which I'd be thrilled to get into.

McNeese State's application process starts by sending the writing sample and cover letter, just to make sure applicant and school are a good fit. I like that aspect to it, as it means $20 saved if I have no shot at getting in. So I'll do that tonight, because they'll take it by email.

Tonight, or, more likely tomorrow, I'll fill out the online application for Columbia and send out the transcript requests.

I'll apply to ODU in early January, when it'll be much easier to get a hold of my rec letter writers than it is this time of year.

[Izulde]

Had a very odd situation happen to me at a college clothing store in Chicago last week.

Struck up a conversation with this pretty blonde girl who got accepted into Columbia for the fall and is going there.

Then, a set of parents were there whose son had just gotten into Yale and they were buying clothing for him for Christmas presents.

Another girl and her father were there, and a friend of their father's came over to talk to them. The girl goes, "Yeah, I got into Northwestern, Columbia and Harvard and I'm having a hard time choosing between them.

Her father laughs and says, "Go to Northwestern! I went to Northwestern, your mother went to Northwestern, your grandfather went to Northwestern..." Girl just gets that noncommittal look on her face and says, "Actually, I kinda like Harvard."

And I'm just standing there thinking what the hell? Is this Ivy league hour up in here or what?

Speaking of Columbia, my third rec letter is sitting at home and we'll be going home tomorrow. So that means it'll be overnighted with the rest of my supplemental/creative materials day after tomorrow.

[Izulde]

I had a slight delay with the supplemental materials for Columbia, so it'll be overnighted tomorrow.

Sure am glad I have my thesis to write this semester in addition to the usual teaching load, because I'll be nervous until late April/early May when I receive my notice.

[Izulde]

Packet mailed.

Now a whole lot of hoping, praying and nervous anticipation goes on. Late April/early May is when I'll find out.

UC-San Diego's decison will be sent in February, but I'm quite dubious about my chances there.

Old Dominion's stuff will get mailed out next week or the week after.

Still deciding on a fifth school to apply to. Still need to email preliminary packet to McNeese State, but I need to finish the personal statement first.

[Izulde]

Ahhh, the stress of final semester and thesis writing.

I've been smoking heavily again as a result of it and my stressing out over the MFA programs and the agonizing waiting. I'm also kicking myself for not informing Columbia of my disability in my personal statement, which could have added to the diversity factor.

Schedulewise, this semester's great. I'm taking one class that I love and teaching two sections with a day and time setup that's worked out perfectly.

I'll find out about UC-San Diego sometime in February, but if I'm perfectly honest, it's late April/early May that I'm most eager to hear about. Still have a couple other applications to finish, too.

If I don't get in anywhere, or I get into a school that I decide after visiting isn't right for me, well... then I'm not sure what I'll do.

[Izulde]

Well, I can't say I'm surprised, because my gut told me it was going to happen, but it was still disappointing to officially receive my rejection notice from UC-San Diego.

[Izulde]

Sent everything off today that I had left over and filled out the FAFSA and what is essentially the Ivy League graduate financial aid application (for $28).

So just to recap:

The Schools Applied To
1. UC-San Diego
-Already rejected me. Small program plus major bias to in-state students = gut feeling I didn't have much of a chance anyway. UCSD, by the way, is the second UC school to ever reject me. UC-Santa Cruz did the same thing when I tried transferring there during my undergraduate years.

2. Columbia
-I'd rate my gut feeling as 50/50 whether I get in or not. Financial aid, of course, will be a concern, particularly in the first year. But if I get admitted, I'm going. I don't care if I have to drown in student loan debt to do it. Columbia has become for me what Princeton was for my undergrad years, and even though I'll be devastated if they reject me, at least I can say I tried and not play the What-If game I've had to do with Princeton all these years.

3. Old Dominion
-I'm getting the same vibe here that I did from UCSD. Small program and I just don't think I'll be accepted. Anything's possible, though.

4. UNLV
-Yeah... this one I shocked myself when I applied to it, because I've always had this love/hate relationship with Vegas, but they've got a really sweet focus on international literature, as well as a required study abroad component. I feel like there's a match in scholarly interests as well. I've got a hunch that I've got a good shot at getting accepted here.

The Schools Formerly Considered But Dropped

1. University of San Francisco
-The more I looked into it, the more I realized their whole specialty is creative non-fiction, which isn't my bag. Plus, I really, really don't like San Francisco as a city. I'm all about San Diego.

2. McNeese State
-Good program with a lot of nice things about it, but the university's overall academic reputation is terrible and I'm too much of a snob to ever feel happy about going to a school like that.

3. University of Florida
-I kept going back and forth on this one, but ultimately, I'm tired of college towns and want a major city to be in. If, by some chance, I don't get accepted anywhere, I'll bring them back to the forefront for the year after.

And that's all I'm going to say about that. There's other schools I'd consider if I don't get into any of the places I applied, or if I do and they don't offer financial aid or, if, after visiting campus, I don't like the place after all, but I don't want to think about that right now. I'm just trying to stay positive and focused.

In other news, the thesis isn't progressing as quickly as I'd hoped and bipolar disorder has been kicking the shit out of me lately. I need to do something about it, but such is the curse of the disease that it's a struggle just to get the energy to do something about it.

Hopefully the next update, whenever it comes, will bring better news.

[Izulde]

I heard back today from Old Dominion. I was accepted, but they don't have any assistantships available. I'm still waiting to hear from Columbia and UNLV, but it's a hell of a confidence booster to get into a small, extremely competitive program that only has 10 to 12 students in each concentration at any one time.

So we'll see how this plays out.

[lcjjdnh]

Congrats!

[Izulde]

Congrats!

Thanks. :) Hopefully something can come through funding wise, whether it's from ODU, UNLV, or Columbia (if I get accepted into the latter two schools).

[Klinglerware]

Congrats, it always feels good to get an acceptance letter.

If you want, feel free to PM me about Columbia (I went there for grad school, though I would not know anything about your particular program)

[Izulde]

Congrats, it always feels good to get an acceptance letter.

If you want, feel free to PM me about Columbia (I went there for grad school, though I would not know anything about your particular program)

Thanks. :) If I get into Columbia, I'll definitely be PM'ing you.

[Izulde]

After doing some more research on ODU, a few things raise serious red flags:

1. It's a commuter campus.
2. It's racially segregated.
3. It's in a high crime area.

I've hated every commuter school I've ever attended and another school I went to that also had a high degree of segregation was my least enjoyable experience. The crime thing doesn't bother me quite so much, as I've been in downtown Chicago by myself at night with no problems, but it's another warning note combined with the other two.

By and large, the undergraduate comments I've read indicate that a lot of students don't like it there, but on the flip side, the graduate students seem to like it just fine or quite a bit.

As I said, I'm still waiting to hear back from Columbia and UNLV, but these are some more things to keep in mind, particularly as I'm the sort who tends not to do as well if I'm not happy with the area I'm in, no matter how good or enjoyable the program may be.

[Izulde]

Columbia rejected me.

My weekend is ruined.

I'm not sure what I'll do now.

[Autumn]

Bummer, sorry man

[Izulde]

Thanks.

After some Jimmy John's and a long walk and talk with myself, it's probably for the best. I would've been in debt for most of my natural life going to Columbia and, if I'm totally honest with myself, I like UNLV's program the best (who is the last school I'm waiting to hear from).

I guess I just let myself get too caught up in the idea of making up for the regret of not trying for Princeton out of high school, and I've always dreamt of being an Ivy Leaguer. But at least now I can say I gave it my best shot and that it just wasn't meant to be.

Doesn't take the sting away entirely, but it helps.

[Klinglerware]

Sorry to hear that, Izulde.

I know that this won't make you feel any better, but these things have a way of working themselves out.

My general advice about grad school is that people have to go for the right reasons, and people generally should prioritize program selection based on fit. The reputation of the program as it relates to the student's planned specialization is more important than the school's overall reputation.

[Izulde]

That's where it gets interesting, actually.

Columbia has traditionally been considered one of the elite programs in Creative Writing, but they've experienced a prodigal drop in recent years compared to their prior standing, which has a number of factors related to it, not least of which is their lack of funding compared to other top programs. They're still considered a great program, but not on the level they used to be.

I also suspect that with the current economy, applications are up even higher than they were, say, five years ago. I know that was the case when I was applying to MA programs; application rates were almost double what they'd been.

Then there's the fact that MFA applications are the biggest roll of the dice in the graduate world. It all comes down to if the committee member or members like your writing, art, etc. Say for example you write a vampire story. There's some people reading that who will immediately toss you in the reject pile, so if the wrong person gets your application, you're done even before you start.

[bbgunn]

That ain't fair, man. But keep your head up. It'll work out.

[Eaglesfan27]

Sorry to hear about Columbia. :(

[Izulde]

Thanks, guys. Just have to keep the faith, I guess.

[Izulde]

I've been waitlisted by UNLV and should find out next week if I've been admitted or not. The AWP conference is this week, so most of the faculty will be there I imagine (as well as a good number of people here at UArk).

The good news is, if I'm admitted, I'm guaranteed a TAship.

So yeah it's going to be a nerve-wracking week of waiting, fo' sho.

[JediKooter]

Hey, at the least the housing in Vegas sucks ass so bad, you might be able to buy a house on your salary at UNLV. :)

Good luck in the hunt Izulde!!!

[Izulde]

Hey, at the least the housing in Vegas sucks ass so bad, you might be able to buy a house on your salary at UNLV. :)

Good luck in the hunt Izulde!!!

:D Thanks. I really hope I get in. As I said, in some respects I liked UNLV's program even better than Columbia's.

It's funny you mention the housing thing. I was thinking this morning how delightful it would be to live in a Vegas hotel, eating various flavors of hot Doritos and writing by casino night lights.

[JediKooter]

:D Thanks. I really hope I get in. As I said, in some respects I liked UNLV's program even better than Columbia's.

It's funny you mention the housing thing. I was thinking this morning how delightful it would be to live in a Vegas hotel, eating various flavors of hot Doritos and writing by casino night lights.

I always said, if the right job came along in Vegas, I would not hesitate to move there.

Haha, awesome! Just don't stay in the Plaza hotel or all of your writings would probably sound like Poe was writing them. ;)

[Izulde]

I always said, if the right job came along in Vegas, I would not hesitate to move there.

Haha, awesome! Just don't stay in the Plaza hotel or all of your writings would probably sound like Poe was writing them. ;)

Ugh. I'll *never* stay in the Plaza again. Last time I did, one of the employees stole it out of the room and we had to raise hell for them to do anything about it. The security guard didn't care. Just shrugged and said file a report. I eventually got it back in the mail a couple weeks later, but the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth.

On the other hand, it led to an interesting experience at the Las Vegas police department, where my mom, sister and I overheard this immense guy in a cowboy hat wanting to file a report "cuz my wife, she took my rifle and threw it in the a-kwee-ducked and I want to file charges against her."

[JediKooter]

Ugh. I'll *never* stay in the Plaza again. Last time I did, one of the employees stole it out of the room and we had to raise hell for them to do anything about it. The security guard didn't care. Just shrugged and said file a report. I eventually got it back in the mail a couple weeks later, but the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth.

On the other hand, it led to an interesting experience at the Las Vegas police department, where my mom, sister and I overheard this immense guy in a cowboy hat wanting to file a report "cuz my wife, she took my rifle and threw it in the a-kwee-ducked and I want to file charges against her."

What did they steal? Yea, the Plaza hotel is the worst place I have seen so far in Vegas. I highly recommend to anyone going to Vegas to not go there.

Haha! That is awesome. There is definitely no shortage of human curiosities that visit that town on any given day.

[Izulde]

What did they steal? Yea, the Plaza hotel is the worst place I have seen so far in Vegas. I highly recommend to anyone going to Vegas to not go there.

Haha! That is awesome. There is definitely no shortage of human curiosities that visit that town on any given day.

Whoops. Thought I put it in there. My wallet, with everything in it. I had to use the police report to get on the plane.

Agreed! Vegas is a goldmine of material, particularly for the subjects I often write about.

[JediKooter]

Whoops. Thought I put it in there. My wallet, with everything in it. I had to use the police report to get on the plane.

Agreed! Vegas is a goldmine of material, particularly for the subjects I often write about.

Oh crap! I would have been beyond pissed if they took my wallet. What a PITA.

Goldmine is a good way of putting it. That would be cool if you do get the UNLV gig. I would definitely give you a ring and buy some drinks when I visit Vegas.

[MacroGuru]

:D Thanks. I really hope I get in. As I said, in some respects I liked UNLV's program even better than Columbia's.

It's funny you mention the housing thing. I was thinking this morning how delightful it would be to live in a Vegas hotel, eating various flavors of hot Doritos and writing by casino night lights.

My dad and step-mom relocated to Vegas this past year. It's a mixed bag for them...My dad has a slight gambling problem so it doesn't help there, but my step-mom keeps him away from the casino's as much as she can.

But they are amazed at how low cost it is there.

[Izulde]

JediKooter: That'd be awesome. :)

MacroGuru: Yeah, my dad has a bit of a gambling problem himself, so I know the feeling there. I keep hearing how cheap it is to live in Vegas, which is frankly a blessing to my impoverished ass. ;)

So it's the 10th. I'll find out by the 15th if I got in to UNLV or not. If I do, the decision's pretty easy. Major city with lots to do (even though I was quite disappointed to hear the theme park and Wet n Wild are both no longer there and even though I don't like gambling), kick-ass program with required study abroad and guaranteed assistantship = win (especially since I've always been happier abroad than in the US overall).

If I don't get in, well, that's where the difficulty sets in, unless I get considerable funding from somewhere and love an ODU visit. I do plan on applying for a fraternity scholarship, no matter what happens with UNLV, and see what comes of that, but essentially, if I don't get into UNLV, I have two options: 1) Go to ODU or 2) Get a job at a resort back in Wisconsin that I have connections to, work for a year, and start the application process anew next year.

Only a few weeks left to the end of the semester. I'll be walking across the stage in May, but won't actually finish the degree until the end of the first summer session, due to a change I made. Although it means I'll be in Arkansas til the end of June rather than totally done by the first week of May, it's a decision that saved my sanity.

As for my Arkansas experience overall... the professors I've had have been awesome and the teaching was a great experience, although I enjoyed the first year far more than the second, if I'm totally honest. The university itself is a pretty campus and the ice storms were fun events.

On the flip side, it's also been a very lonely time here. I've had quite a few acquaintances, but only one true friend in Fayetteville itself (the roommate on internship this semester). Now granted, I'm used to being by myself, but this was still a major adjustment from La Crosse, where I had the fraternity, and Gateway, where I was living at home, to name the other two schools I've officially graduated from. Oh, by the way, I loved hanging out with you the times we did, MJ4H. In fact, they were the most fun social experiences I had here.

This sense of isolation has been exacerbated by the fact that there frankly isn't much to do in Fayetteville and the food is, overall, the worst I've had in any city I've ever lived in. Isolation, boredom and poor eating habits = triple whammy for bipolar disorder, particularly this year, when it's hit hard and often. I did go to the mental health clinic, but when I was standing there and they ignored me, then asked if they could help a girl who came in after me, I told them to go fuck themselves and stormed out, never to return. (Yes, rage has been a huge problem for me this year as well).

So overall, it's been a mixed bag. In the end, though, I'd say I don't regret coming here. From an educational and professional growth standpoint, it's been wonderful and without my time here, my chances of getting into an MFA program would be significantly reduced. On the other hand, it's been a disaster from a social and mental health standpoint. In fact, the last time it was this bad was Minnesota, or, as I call it, The Lost Year.

And yet, even that shows how far I've come from those dark days. Back then, or during the equally miserable days of UW-Parkside, I would've given up and just quit. Now, I've fought through it and am in excellent shape to graduate from a masters program with a strong track record.

[Izulde]

I should have a further update in a few hours, but right now, things are looking a bit grim.

[Izulde]

Okay, latest update is that I'm still waitlisted and it's not for certain one way or the other yet. The good news is, I'm on the waitlist and apparently considered UNLV quality.

So they suggested I wait until next Wednesday and if I haven't heard by then, I can check back. But here's to hoping I've heard something by then.

[Izulde]

I GOT ACCEPTED TO UNLV!!!!!

[DeToxRox]

'Grats man.

[lcjjdnh]

Congrats!

[Swaggs]

WTG!

[Izulde]

Thanks, guys. :)

I'm still pinching myself over this, because it doesn't seem quite real yet... that I would get accepted and fully funded by a fantastic MFA in Creative Writing program like UNLV's.

[Izulde]

I still had a lot of thinking and pondering to do, which I've done over the past week. But ultimately, after talking to a lot of people and weighing all my options, the choice was clear.

I officially committed to UNLV this morning and will be a Writing Rebel.

Now to convince Coach Hauck to put the names back on the football team's jerseys, which the previous guy stupidly took off. :D

[Klinglerware]

Congrats! Both on getting in and getting funded!

[Izulde]

Congrats! Both on getting in and getting funded!

Thanks. :) I think it's going to be good times.

[Izulde]

It was an interesting first year, with a lot of ups and downs. I'd say overall I've been happy here - the program is excellent, and although I'm still far more antisocial than I should be, my social life is improved immensely over Arkansas. The weather, of course, is a huge plus, something that's hit home even more clearly after having been back in Wisconsin for a week. I also had a pedagogy paper accepted at AWP, the major national writers and writing program conference, and finally got to see Junot Diaz give a reading and actually spend a couple minutes talking to him at a bar afterwards.

On the down side, I spent most of the year struggling to write, and even though the program is great, the faculty and my fellow students wonderful, I still suffered from chronic depression (which contradicts the overall happy, I know) and have never gotten over the fact that I never tried for Princeton and never went to a private school. The latter is especially eating away at me what with the budget crisis here and the asshole Republicans wanting to destroy education in Nevada. My program is still safe, as it's one of the highest ranked in the school, but.. yeah I'm not going to go on about it. Makes me angry all over again just thinking about it.

Love life is still nonexistant. Had a possibility of a thing developing with a Romanian girl, but before it could really get started, I got cold feet and vanished on her. Then again, Las Vegas is a terrible city to be a single intellectual, particularly for the women, which is why a good number of the relationships that form here are within the program. I just haven't really been attracted to anyone.

The worst part of this year was probably failing the MA exam at Arkansas a second time. That means no MA for me. I don't regret the two years I spent there, though - I learned a lot and wrote my MFA application manuscript there.

Second worst part was probably today, when I received word that one of the PTIs here, who graduated with his MFA last year, passed away suddenly. Big time shock.

I'm still not sure yet where I'll study abroad - part of me wants to go back to Europe, another part of me wants to go South America, and another part of me wants to go to Japan or Korea or somewhere around there.

I'm also not sure what I'll do once I graduate in 2013. Teaching would be easiest, but 1) the job market is horrible, 2) I don't really like teaching all that much, to be honest. I know I have to get some sort of day work, because I'm not going to be able to make money from writing right off the bat. I've considered getting a paralegal certificate (loved the law course I took as an undergraduate). I've also thought about trying to get into something sports related, but I don't have the connections to do that, unfortunately.

So we'll see what happens this second year. Fall of my third year I'll be studying abroad, and I'll have my schedule set up so that my final semester will be entirely thesis hours.

[Izulde]

First week of Year Two is in the books.

Tried for World Lit, but didn't get it because MFAs are treated like second class citizens, no better than MAs, when it comes to teaching assignments. A large part of it is PTIs and PhDs get first priority at World Lit and the number of sections have gone down, so it's understandable, but still very frustrating to still be stuck teaching freshman composition courses. So teachingwise, my morale is pretty low right now, although it's nice to finally teach the second semester rather than the first semester course. On the flip side, the second semester course here is essentially what the first semester course at Arkansas is, so it's very much a :banghead: thing.

On the flip side, I'm excited for my taking classes this semester, although one of them has me extremely nervous because it's a combo class where most of the grade is 25 question quizzes and I hate the percentages of that. I want to maintain my 4.0. If I can keep it going this semester, I should be in the clear the rest of the way through.

I'm now shifting my international sights to this next summer and am working on establishing state residency by then so I don't get charged out of state tuition (although I think the language in the GA contract indicates I wouldn't anyway). I've also pretty much settled on Argentina as the country I want to go abroad to, ideally for youth sports coaching. It'll cross another continent off my list and allow me to get back to the coaching I miss so much.

Going next summer would take a lot of pressure off my final year. I'd be doing thesis hours both semesters, plus one of either a translation or a critical essay in the fall. My guess is it'd be the translation, because I'm taking both my poetry requirements this spring and a critical essay will be an easier brain break from poetry than translation would be.

I need to decide who my thesis committee chair will be by the end of the semester. We have three choices, all of whom would be great to work with. I've been wrestling with it for the last week and I think the question I need to answer is, "Which one will make me the best writer I can be and the best thesis I can write?"

In terms of my actual thesis, I'm struggling with trying to decide what to do. Both are novel ideas. While most people do a collection of short stories, I'm still not as comfortable writing short stories as I am working in the longer venue of a novel.

One novel idea, my application manuscript, I have a very strong, well-drawn protagonist whose voice comes easily to me and another very well developed feature character. I also have some solid sections and several minor characters well fleshed out. The biggest stumbling block is the novel's main female character. As real and as engaging as the first two characters are, the female hasn't crystallized into someone real yet and I haven't found the solution. Nor has anyone one else I've discussed this with.

The second novel idea I just started last spring and actually spun off a short short piece from it that somebody recommended I tighten up a little more and send to a specific literary magazine (I've done some tightening on it, but I'm scared to send it). This other option has a much more believable female lead, but the voice of the protagonist is fuzzy and the story and plot both are on much less sure footing than my first idea.

So we'll see what the semester brings.

[JeeberD]

Give Irizarry my love...

[Izulde]

Give Irizarry my love...

Will do. :) He and I have been talking about going down to Argentina together at the same time to do sports coaching for our required international experience.

[Izulde]

Light and darkness alternate swiftly;
The sun and moon shoot back and forth like shuttles

4.0 maintained. After further investigation into the sports coaching thing, I'd essentially be a glorified assistant gym teacher. Not what I want to do, so it's dropped. I'm presently looking into other abroad activities and will certainly be going somewhere in summer to fulfill the requirement.

I spent the winter break reading quite a bit, mostly Chinese literature, including re-reading Volume I of The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei. I didn't write anything substantial, as the end of last semester was one of the more stressful ones I've had in my lengthy travels in academia.

This semester is poetry-laden, as I'm completing both cross-genre requirements. Should make for an interesting one. But I won't be entirely absent fiction either, as I'm writing a critical essay on The Great Gatsby and Trimalchio (the original title and draft of Gatsby). I'll also be reading Walt Whitman's fiction for one of my poetry classes, which I hear should be quite enjoyab

What this state of events means is that my final two semesters will, except for a translation I'll be doing in the fall, be entirely devoted to my thesis. I feel more on the ball with things at the start of the semester than I ever have been, which is a great feeling.

That includes knowing what I hope to do after I graduate in Spring 2013. But I won't know if these hopes will be realized until the end of April 2013, so that's a year away.

[Izulde]

I have a thesis advisor now. I asked the person I thought would be the best option for me personally, and they said yes, so that's super awesome.

I've actually found some time to do leisure reading at night in the bath. Been plowing through James Clavell's Shogun, which is quite marvelous in a lot of ways, flawed in a few, but oh so gripping and intriguing a narrative.

I have no intention of trying anything involving Japan, though. Spain will be a very tempting locale to set a story or two in, based on experiences in Granada and my leaning towards the Basque region this summer.

I'm a bit conflicted, though. Part of me wants to go to a whole new country/continent rather than back to Spain or even Western Europe. Another part of me says since I'll be there only a month or two at most, that the time it would take to pick up survival level of an entirely new language would essentially rob me of the fullest possible enjoyment. A third part notes that Basque society and culture will be entirely different from the rest of Spain and also offers comparatively easy travel access to the Galician and Catalan regions.

I won't lie - I'd love to go to Japan and thought a lot about the JET program, but that would have meant delaying graduation a semester and frankly, I'm tired of Las Vegas in a lot of ways. I no longer hate it like I did when I was a kid, but I'm really ready to go somewhere else at this point, and I've a whole year to go yet. The other half of the equation is that you're expect to have a basic grasp of Japanese characters, etc. before you even get there, and as my experience with Russian demonstrates, I don't do well at all with non-Latin alphabet based languages. That's just how I'm wired.

South America would be awesome, too, except the thought of winter does not appeal to me at all, which is when I would be there. Africa I won't ever go back to. Morocco was fun but I just have no interest in the actual continent itself, although I do enjoy some of the literary traditions.

In what will be the most interesting news to FOFC, I'm putting together a themed freshman comp course on something like Sports and American Society (bland title I know, but it's just a working one). If my proposal is successful, I'll be able to teach it next fall, which ties in to my post-graduation goals.

[Alf]

If Spain is your choice, aim for Barcelona.

[Izulde]

A couple of the other MFAs are going to Barcelona this summer for their international component, ironically enough.

[Izulde]

Funny how swiftly things change in a few days. I decided Friday morning that I didn't want to go to the Basque country. I love Spain, but this is my last chance in a very long time to live someplace completely new for a couple of months.

So I decided to hell with the language barrier and I'll sort it out as best as I can, learn as much as I can before I go, and I'm going to Japan like I've always wanted to do, Kyoto specifically, the city I've always longed to go to.

I did some searching on airbnb.com, a place a number of others in the program have used to find places (including the ones going to Barcelona). Although I haven't officially booked yet, I'm in a conversation with a place that I'm very, very close to booking. I'll be there two months once everything's locked in place.

And frankly I am excited and nervous as hell all at once about it, which is a terrific feeling.

[Izulde]

It's official. My place in Kyoto, Japan is booked for two months this summer. May the kami have mercy on my soul.

[Izulde]

In a month and a day I'll be on the plane to Kyoto by way of Seoul. I'm super stoked about it, not only because I'll be living abroad again for a couple of months and I've always wanted to go to Japan, but because it'll mean what has been a tough semester schedule and motivation wise will be over.

It's the start of much better times ahead going into my third and final year of the MFA program. Not only will be I summering in Japan, but, as many of you know from the Random Thoughts thread, I got approval to teach a themed freshman composition class in the fall dealing with college sports.

You see, over the last year and a half I've realized that I have little to no interest in teaching academia and unless I come up with some bestseller or something, living by writing isn't possible. So I've been mulling what I want for a career, while still writing on the side. I've come to realize that my desire and qualifications find a match in the field of sports management.

The problem? I'm not exactly walking around with a list of contacts in my phone, nor do I have any experience in it. Hell, even my connection to sports in general is slippery at best (a year of youth soccer coaching, being the DDS:PB community manager for Gary's WS, and now teaching this college sports course in the fall).

So I'm sitting in the union today, looking over rough drafts of my students' research papers in preparation for revision workshops that start tomorrow, when I'm handed a summer internship and career fair flier.

I figure eh, what the hell, I'll go even though my summer is already planned. I love going to career and internship fairs and just seeing what employers and positions are being offered.

Long story short, I found out the Las Vegas Bowl has fall internships available and the guy at the table gave me his business card and I'm pretty sure he said to contact him.

Application deadline is May 15th and I leave the 18th, so I'm not sure how that'll work in terms of the selection process. I do plan on applying, however. They're looking specifically for people who want to get into sports management.

[k0ruptr]

doooooooo it. Japan is awesome, but if possible that intern with the Las Vegas bowl is double awesome.

[Izulde]

Yeah I went back and talked to the guy to ask how the dates would affect the selection process and he said if it came to that, not to worry and that they would work around it. He told me to apply anyway.

[Izulde]

So, Japan was very, very cool. Those of you who are FB friends with me were able to follow along until about the second day of Tokyo photowise, at which point I neglected to update (I still have a ton of pictures though, and will get back to it at some point).

I got back to the States and no word from the Las Vegas Bowl. So I emailed the person in charge of the internship to see what the status is... and the email bounced back with an unknown address.

Obviously the internship isn't happening, but perhaps it's for the best. I've been working on another sports-themed project in its place, have started teaching the college sports-themed class this semester, am working on my thesis and a translation.

Thus, it's going to be a very busy, hectic semester even without the internship (which is why I haven't been reading/posting on FOFC near as much as I used to).

I also need to start sports management programs applications in the next few weeks. Granted, many of them don't have deadlines until February or March, but this isn't something I want to procrastinate on.

[Izulde]

Georgetown sent me an email last week saying they're now taking applications for next fall's Sports Management program, so I dug out my old notes and list, and have a list of four schools that I will for sure be applying to, likely to add a fifth one after weighing some factors.

The Certain Four (in no particular order)
1. Georgetown
I love Washington D.C. and the program offers a plethora of internships and a mentoring program. Alumni seem to report one of the biggest benefits of the program is how well they teach networking skills, which is something I'd definitely like to grow stronger in. The program's split into two specialization tracks - management and operations, or sports marketing, both of which are intriguing. The downside is there isn't much in the way of financial aid support, it seems.

2. Drexel
Philadelphia offers a ton of different possibilities for internships and Drexel's program seems to really emphasize engaging with the local sports community. Philadelphia is also one of the few cities where all four major professional sports teams are in the city limits. Assistantships are also available, which will be a key factor if I can get one.

3. St. John's
The program's quite new, but assistantships are available, it's in New York, which goes without saying as to the internship options available. Your capstone here is either an internship or a thesis. Naturally, I'd be doing the internship. One of the coolest things about this program is that it offers high school coaching certification with it, something I'd definitely be interested in getting, as I miss coaching terribly.

4. San Francisco
See a growing theme here of major cities? Most get some form of financial aid and assistantships are available. The huge factor for this program is that students have multiple internships, so students get a wide variety of work experiences.

Many of the other schools on the list I discarded because either they're A) not in major cities, B) don't put much emphasis, if any, on an internship experience or C) the biggest killer, your chances of getting in without prior work experience in the field are pretty slim. Since I don't really have that, with the exception of youth-coaching and my work with Wolverine Studios (and I'm not sure how much the latter counts), it's not worth wasting the time or money.

[Young Drachma]

What's your ideal job, you think? Like once you're done with this new masters?

[Izulde]

What's your ideal job, you think? Like once you're done with this new masters?

Ultimate dream job? GM of an NBA franchise.

Realistic dream job? Torn between working in a university athletic department in some capacity and in the marketing department or front office of a professional sports team.

I'd also love to get back into coaching at some point, although because I don't have any college playing experience, I know I'm probably limited to a ceiling of the high school level, and most school districts require coaches to also be teachers.

[rjolley]

If you want to coach, there's always AAU, Little League, or whichever youth sports organization supports the sport you're interested in coaching.

[Izulde]

Yeah that's what I'll end up doing most likely. Like I've mentioned elsewhere on the forums, the year I coached a U-14 soccer team was one of the best experiences of my life.

[Izulde]

Work is progressing on all four of the listed applications. Transcripts are going to be a real pain in the rear, considering the number of schools I've gone to.

There's also a fifth school I've added, Canisius in Buffalo. I quite liked the look of the program as I was reviewing it, and of course, there's a number of FOFCers there. I know it sounds stupid that it's a factor, but I find life goes much better for me personally when I know people (however remotely) in a given area.

[Izulde]

Three months changes things.

I'm working on finishing my thesis and graduating with my MFA this semester.

I've also decided that if I'm really serious about wanting to coach (which is really my first love) and in particular coach basketball where I haven't played the sport since middle school, another master's degree isn't going to cut it.

I need to go out and get experience first, even if that means taking a job in another field and volunteering with a local high school or some such thing until I can work my way up.

[Young Drachma]

Well, I'd suggest avoiding the Mike Rice school of coaching. ;)

Realistically though, I think the best play would be to volunteer as a counselor at a camp somewhere so you can see the work up close. Getting a HS JV or freshman gig isn't that hard, really. Especially at a private school, because they're usually desperate to find someone competent enough to show up, especially at non-competitive institutions or schools like where I once coached where all of the kids had to be involved in a sport for a certain number of trimesters of their academic career.

But the coaching camp experience would give you a coaching reference to be able to land some kind of lower level HS job where you can use the tactics you learned at camp (drills, etc.) to implement if you can manage to land some kind of freshman basketball assistant job or at a small school, a stipend to be head coach.

But yeah, it's not really realistic to think you're going to show up off the street and make a living at something that has so many people trying to get in, unless you have an in.

Hell, outside of the camp to some sort of HS freshman/JV thing which I think is your best bet for references/experience, you'd almost be better off working in the classroom as a faculty member at an private school or community college and then trying to latch on as an unpaid assistant to the basketball program. Even if you're just watching at first and even if the coach isn't very good, with the right place you can almost land yourself into a "volunteer assistant job" but then you've "coached college" and use that experience down the road to land a head coach job at the freshman or JV high school level once your experience is up to snuff or you've found a program that's not competitive where you can learn along with them.

[Izulde]

Good points and I'll definitely have to go one of those two routes.

I'll also try, if nothing else, to also coach youth basketball in the winter as part of acquiring more experience until I can have an actual higher level season coaching gig.

Hell, my experience coaching youth soccer got me offered a stipend position as a JV coach at a small school. Ultimately I didn't take it because it was an hour and a half drive each way and I couldn't make it fit around my school schedule.

[Izulde]

Thesis defense on Thursday. I've been really nervous about it, but I just got the most awesome email that really gives me a confidence boost heading into it.

It looks like I'll be staying here another year and adjuncting. It's the best thing for me to do right now, while I take time and figure out for sure where I'm headed. To be honest, and I never thought I'd say this ever before I came to UNLV, I really like living in Las Vegas, especially after I got my own apartment this year.

Heard from one of my former students that there's openings for assistant coaching in the district, but the application process is a bit strange, and there's a couple things I need to do before I can formally apply (I've filled out most of the application, though).

I've also applied for a summer camp counselor gig in Kenosha (Thanks for the idea, DC/YD!), but haven't heard back on that yet.

Also went to the graduation one-stop sendoff today to pick up cap and gown and all that.

It's funny how different this last semester has felt compared to Arkansas. Back then, I had a lot of anger and depression and felt a lot of stress re: the thesis with a completely useless director and then failing the exam.

Here, there was still stress with getting the thesis done, but my director was extremely helpful and encouraging, and helped keep me on track, and my committee members I had thesis hours with really gave me fantastic feedback.

Teaching has also been much more enjoyable this last year with teaching a themed class, probably the most fun I've had since my second semester at Arkansas. Still hate grading with every fiber of my being, but then, there's always going to be some part of every job to hate.

Social and romantic lives are still nonexistent, but I'm oddly okay with that right now. Depression issues still hit now and then, but I'm able to work through them and do the things I need to do.

I really have accomplished a lot for me the last three years when I think about it:

1. Presented a paper at AWP, my first conference presentation.
2. Got a 4.0 for my entire program.
3. Wrote a critical essay that I think could potentially be publishable/presentable with a little bit more work.
4. Translated a short story from German to English (This was easily one of the most difficult things I've ever done)
5. Went to Japan for two months and had amazing experiences there, even if it was a bit lonely at times.
6. Wrote my first novel length work since The Beautiful Girl and the History class.
7. Got several stories written, one or two of which I think will be publishable with just a bit more work, even though short stories are the medium I'm least comfortable with.
8. Taught themed courses, the first semester of which earned me my highest student evaluation marks since my second semester at Arkansas.
9. Lived by myself off campus for the first time.
10. Won my money pool in the NCAA tournament after years of coming so close. (Okay this last one is a bit silly, but still.)

If I'd gone somewhere else, like say if Columbia had accepted me, or if Old Dominion had offered me an assistantship, who knows if I would have accomplished the same things? Japan definitely not, as that was part of my program here. I also probably would have been saddled with huge amounts of debt at Columbia, whereas here, I have no added debt. In fact, I've managed to save enough that I'll probably be able to pay off at least one of my two smallish undergraduate loans before the interest kicks in.

I don't know - maybe all these things sound stupid or silly, but I wanted to note them anyway.

[Izulde]

Thesis defense.... PASSED! I feel like just stared down the ogre of the past and slayed a mighty beast.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I didn't see this until just a bit ago (sue me, I fell asleep early) but it's damned sure worth a hearty http://shannon-duke.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Homer-woo-hoo.jpg

[Qwikshot]

Awesome

[Young Drachma]

Congrats man. I know that's a tough thing. Good job.

[britrock88]

Congrats. (And I finally put 2 and 2 together with this thread and the FB FOFC page.)

[Izulde]

Thanks, all. :) Spent today running around collecting signatures for the umpteen Graduate College forms. Still need to collect one signature for two of the forums, print out the hard copy of the properly formatted thesis, and hand the giant package in.

Hoping tomorrow, but it may not be til Friday.

[Izulde]

"Tell me what drew you to creative writing."

It was all I could do to suppress a groan as the pretty, young woman looked at me from across the desk.

The first thing you need to know about writers is that we despise any form of the question, "Why do you write?". And this was a form of that question. I decided to be honest.

"It's instinctive, something innate that we're born with. Like I heard Junot Diaz say once, there's no real explaining *why* writers do what we do. It's just a compulsion, a calling."

She raised her eyebrows, nodded politely, and jotted something down on her pad, the well-put together blues and greens of her business professional attire attesting to her fashion sense and capability.

Yep, Izulde had a job interview recently. I can only nebulously say that it was in a business-related field and that they promised to call me if I made it to the second round of interviews.

They didn't call.

This didn't surprise me. I surmised after the interview, with the preternatural ability I have about job interviews and roleplay scenarios in competitions, that I hadn't made it. (I've only been wrong once in my life - the time I thought I had a job at a Panera Bread opening in my hometown. Turns out they went with all older women for the launch, which was smart, but I was still annoyed. I'd nailed that interview. To this day, I've never eaten at Panera for that diss.)

Anyway, I bring this up because the interview also illuminated several other things:

1. When asked what I looked for a job/career, I answered variety - doing different things and having a wide array of experiences and meeting different people. The thought of being in one place and doing the same exact thing day after day was anathema to me. (This job involved half-days in an office, and half-days in the field meeting with clientele, FWIW).

2. When asked if I was a people person, I said yes and no. In formalized, structured situations with clearly defined roles, such as work or the classroom, absolutely. In social situations, no, most likely because there the roles and landscapes of the conversation and interactions were undefined. (Note: I realize this was the wrong answer according to conventional wisdom about the question, but damn conventional wisdom anyhow).

3. Further reflection on the interview made me realize that I did genuinely enjoy many moments of teaching at the college level, and the relative freedom and flexibility are very important to me. Of critical importance, actually.

This last point became particularly clear when I received my teaching schedule for this semester and was ecstatic to discover that I had all evening classes. The night hours are when I'm most awake and most effective, and my various student evaluations in the five years I've taught at the university level attest to this. With one exception, the later my classes are, the better the evals are (The outlier was an early morning class at UArk where I loved the material I was teaching and got excellent evals as a result, and my best overall evals until last fall when UNLV started giving me later classes and allowed me to start teaching my comp classes as a themed course in college sports, whereupon the last two semesters have had the highest ratings of my career.)

Drifting along in the wake of all these recent revelations - the recognition that I really wanted to reach the pinnacle of degree achievement and become Dr. Izulde Jestor (to use my fictional alter ego).

Of course, there can be only one route for me - the PhD in Creative Writing. 32 or 33 schools (I forget the exact number) offer the degree (really a PhD in English with a creative dissertation as opposed to a research dissertation).

My GRE scores are null and void, so I need to retake it, in the scary, new, harder format this fall, and I will also have to take the GRE Subject test most likely. So it's a good thing that although I really, really wanted to teach World Lit, that I'll instead have three sections of my Contemporary Issues in College Sports class to teach. New course prep is very time-intensive.

I'll conclude this post by noting I feel very blessed right now. So many of my fellow adjuncts across the nation are struggling to make it, and more than a few have to teach at more than one campus to survive. But I've been very fortunate to be given full-time adjunct status, which comes with health insurance benefits. That's huge, particularly since it makes me think of one of my friends still in retail, still stuck with just below the hours to qualify for benefits, who is *still* paying off a surgery he had to get a few years ago.

[Izulde]

GRE re-take scheduled: October 17th, in the afternoon. Will make my scores valid for another five years, but I'm determined to get into a PhD program for next fall.

[Izulde]

Dusted off my manuscripts and have started reworking one or two of my short stories for submission.

I've also been researching possible careers outside of academia, just because of how brutal the market is, particularly for those in the humanities (English, especially.) It appears there's a growing number of PhDs who are leaving the academy and transitioning into teaching at private/independent high schools.

Have to admit, it's damned appealing an option. I've seen this semester what a life as an adjunct would be for me personally. I go to office hours, teach classes, go home... and there I sit. I have no social life beyond out of town friends coming in or my going to see them, and in the former case, that's only if they're interested in hanging out with me for an evening while they're here.

I've come to genuinely love teaching, discussion and seeing my students grow as writers and as people. Research? Hate it, and I found early on my graduate career that an academic PhD in English was something I had no interest in doing. A PhD in Creative Writing? Yes, would love that.

I know private school employment is less pay than most public high schools, and that there's service requirement expectations just as there would be for a TT position at the university level. But I'd be fine with that - love it, even, especially if I could get back into coaching.

Most appealing, I think, is that prep schools really focus on developing and fostering a sense of community and involvement, and require its faculty to be a part of that. So it wouldn't just be me doing office hours, teaching classes, and going home. And it's an easy trap to fall into. There are some people here who have been adjuncting for 20-25 years. I don't want that to happen to me. If I do that, I will consider myself as having failed in life.

The biggest problem? Teacher me never would have had the opportunity to instruct student me. Going to private school was never an option or possibility for me as a kid, nor did I have any interest in it. In fact, ironically enough, I won a small scholarship in high school by writing an essay championing public education over private at the secondary level.

But then another part of me realizes that I have no interest in teaching at a public high school, especially with the way the system has been destroyed, and even though I'd be at a private school, I'd have ample opportunity to help make my students far more ready for college than most of the ones I see are when they first walk on to campus.

Just me thinking aloud here.

[Young Drachma]

National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), NAIS Career Center|Find Your Career Here (http://careers.nais.org/jobs/)

Job board for the national association of independent schools. It's a good resource as the school year nears next year to look for things.

I'd strongly suggest considering using that and sites like Indeed to find work you'd find suitable. At this point, you're going to find yourself increasingly competing with people who have work experience AND the degree you have.

You need some formal experience outside adjuncting to really make yourself marketable. I think going to private HS route is smart because they're likely to hire you, you don't need to be certified and your college teaching experience will make you attractive.

But you need to sort of find a gig that works, because the PhD route makes sense somewhat, but with more and more people finding a harder time getting work with their doctorates, you're going to need to be creative or strategic to use it or else you'll be overeducated, underemployed and limited in the relationships outside of higher ed that you can use.

Just .02. Good luck on the GRE.

[Barkeep49]

I started teaching at an independent school intending to stay 1 or 2 years before getting back into public. 7 years later I'm thrilled to be where I am. I have been having increasing pangs about teaching the elite but lots of good can be done in these schools. Having conducted job searches for the school, I can also tell you with just your current qualifications (even with no PhD) you would likely get a phone interview at my very good (half step below elite) school. The PhD and college teaching would garner you a ton of interviews.

Added bonus of independent schools vs college? You can find one whose profile makes you happy. Want a school that focuses on academics? No problem. Want a school thats progressive? Plenty of options. Want a school oriented around service? There are those. Want a boys (or girls) school? Sure. Want the all encompassing bordering school experience? You can have it. Take your pick of rural, suburban, or urban location.

If/when you decide to do this PM if you'd like to talk further.

[Izulde]

Thanks, guys. :) I did find a very interesting spring semester sabbatical replacement opening which would give me formal experience teaching in an independent high school while I wait to hear from the PhD programs I apply to, so I'll definitely apply to that and see how it goes.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'll add another item to the list of "things to consider about the private/indy school" route.

They definitely seem to often have a bent toward hiring certain types of teachers. Be those similarities age or experience or background or even simply universities/types of universities. Look at the faculty makeup of the school when you're applying or considering applying. The hiring process is often more personal than human-resources driven, see what you can glean from the information that's often part of public bios for the staff.

[Izulde]

I'll add another item to the list of "things to consider about the private/indy school" route.

They definitely seem to often have a bent toward hiring certain types of teachers. Be those similarities age or experience or background or even simply universities/types of universities. Look at the faculty makeup of the school when you're applying or considering applying. The hiring process is often more personal than human-resources driven, see what you can glean from the information that's often part of public bios for the staff.

Good tip, thanks. I'll keep that in mind. And an update forthcoming.

[Izulde]

GRE Week is upon us. Thursday afternoon is the scheduled test time. Despite all the horror stories I've heard about the Revised GRE, my impression is that the Verbal sections appear easier now, as they got rid of the need to memorize esoteric vocabulary in the analogies and focused on the more pragmatic qualities of sentence equivalence.

The Quantitative section remains as brutal as ever, however, and I'm going in to it thoroughly expecting I'll get my tail kicked on it. Not that it matters overly much - the Verbal and Writing portions are what's important.

Nor is the GRE that critical for PhD in Creative Writing programs. Much as is the case with the MFA, the bulk of weight falls on the creative and critical manuscripts.

I also applied for a promising sabbatical position at an independent high school for this spring, but I haven't heard back yet, which leads me to believe that's out, and I'll be back at UNLV for one final semester. Not a bad thing if that happens - I'm spared moving hassles and my health insurance, which kicks in December 1st, will have continuity then.

The three PhD programs I'll be applying to, in order of ranking:

2. Florida State
I know someone in the PhD program right now, as well as a few alumni from Florida State in English and Creative Writing. They've all spoken glowingly of their experiences and the faculty there. I've gotten used to this warm weather thing, and though I hated the South after Arkansas, Florida to me has always been distinct from the rest of the region in ways that I actually enjoy the state.

8. Cincinnati
Really, Izulde? The Midwest you wanted so much to stay out of permanently? Well... yes. Four year program and all PhD in Creative Writing students are guaranteed to teach creative writing at some point during the degree. There's also a 1-1 teaching load, which is a huge draw for me, having done the 2/2 teaching load, and in the midst of 4/4. Plus, I really like the vision of the campus administration and the direction the university is going. Rather reminds me of UNLV in a lot of ways, which has drawn praise for how the administration is positioning and growing the university.

15. SUNY-Albany
I've always wanted to live somewhere out East for a while, ever since I was in high school. Like Florida State, I know someone in the PhD program here and they love it. It's also someone whose opinions about this sort of thing I highly respect, and whose creative writing and critical analysis are on the same wavelength as mine. Plus, Albany seems like an awesome city to live in for a few years from everything I've read.

Obviously, this will all be dependent on both getting into programs and, most importantly, getting funding. Why only three? Most of the PhD in Creative Writing programs are in the Midwest, and Cincinnati's is the only one that appealed to me enough to go back there. A lot of the non-Midwest programs require both the GRE General and the GRE Subject test, and I had absolutely no interest in putting in the time and expense for two exams, particularly given my likely post-degree career.

Either way, come next fall, I will no longer be in Las Vegas. If I don't get into a PhD program with funding, I'll be at an independent high school, and am already working on applying with two of the major agencies and preparing for the hiring season that starts in earnest in December.

Like I told my mom the other day, no matter what happens, I'm fine with it. If I get into a program with funding, awesome. If I don't, it simply wasn't meant to be, and while I'll be disappointed, I'll have the fun prospect of living somewhere else and getting started on a new career.

But I'm done with Las Vegas. There have been great things about living here, and terrible things. Long-term, the terrible things outweigh the great things, but I won't go into further detail than that. Suffice it to say that for me personally, I can't stay in this city much longer.

[sterlingice]

I think I missed this earlier- what's the midwestern school objection?

SI

[DaddyTorgo]

Albany?

Yikes.

[Izulde]

sterlingice: I grew up in the Midwest and hated it. The only city in the region I've lived in that I loved was my final undergrad alma mater of La Crosse, WI. The Twin Cities was actually pretty cool, now that I think about it, but overall, I put the Midwest and most of the South on par with each other, which is why I hated Fayetteville, AR - to me it combined the unappealing aspects of both regions.

DaddyTorgo: I take it you hate Albany? :D Any particulars as to why?

[Jon]

If you don't mind me asking, what do you think you're likely post degree career will be?

[Izulde]

If you don't mind me asking, what do you think you're likely post degree career will be?

Teaching English/creative writing and (hopefully) coaching at an independent day high school. Boarding school is too alien a concept for me, and goes against my philosophy that students should live with their immediate family until going to college, and I want more control over my curriculum than public high schools offer.

Tenure track jobs in academia are shrinking, and unless your PhD comes from an Ivy League school, or a select few highly ranked schools outside of that, you're likely to end up in the pits of adjunct hell, where, if you're lucky, you end up with a 4/4 teaching load of introductory courses (read: Freshman composition and maybe World Lit) for $24k and health insurance. If you're not, you can end up with something like a 5/5 teaching load for $20k and no access to benefits. You're also very limited geographically in terms of TT jobs, which I also hate.

Long-term what I see happening is that adjuncts will continue their growing grassroots efforts at mobilization and activism until conditions improve, but the harsh reality is that, particularly for humanities PhDs, you're part of an adjunct mill, which is why, in conversations I've had with people, more and more of them are quietly pushing their students to consider options outside academia.

[DaddyTorgo]

sterlingice: I grew up in the Midwest and hated it. The only city in the region I've lived in that I loved was my final undergrad alma mater of La Crosse, WI. The Twin Cities was actually pretty cool, now that I think about it, but overall, I put the Midwest and most of the South on par with each other, which is why I hated Fayetteville, AR - to me it combined the unappealing aspects of both regions.

DaddyTorgo: I take it you hate Albany? :D Any particulars as to why?

I wouldn't say hate. I've only been there once, and it was only for a really brief time, but it didn't strike me as the kind of place where I'd want to spend multiple years - didn't seem like there was a lot going on there. Certainly not when compared to say Las Vegas, or even Boston.

[Cap Ologist]

if you're lucky, you end up with a 4/4 teaching load of introductory courses (read: Freshman composition and maybe World Lit) for $24k and health insurance. If you're not, you can end up with something like a 5/5 teaching load for $20k and no access to benefits. You're also very limited geographically in terms of TT jobs, which I also hate.


What do you mean by 4/4 and 5/5?

[Izulde]

What do you mean by 4/4 and 5/5?

4/4 = Teaching 4 sections a semester/Teaching 4 sections a semester

5/5 = Same thing, but 5 sections a semester

Hence, it's quite easy to see the appeal of Cincinnati's 1/1 load, or teaching one course a semester. :D

[Izulde]

Took the GRE today. Obviously the Analytic score has yet to be determined. While I won't list my scores here, I will say I scored significantly above the recommended Verbal score/percentile for both Cincinnati and Florida State as published on their English department websites. I presume SUNY-Albany is in that category as well, but I couldn't find any specific information.

Obviously it's a very minor part of the application, particularly for a PhD that culminates in a creative dissertation, but it's still nice to know that my scores won't hurt my chances (pending, of course, what the Analytic score is).

[Izulde]

So I didn't apply to any of the schools or the programs. Despite the intermittent urge to go forth with a PhD, last semester and this one have taught me that I have no real interest in teaching long-term (if you'll pardon the pun).

Last semester devolved into a series of nightly panic attacks, as I struggled to find the motivation and energy to keep teaching, and had a rough time transitioning from two sections plus my own schoolwork to a full-time four section load (at poverty-level adjunct wages, of course!). I was isolated to the point where my life consisted of get up in the afternoon, walk to school, teach, walk back home, and spend all night/morning shut-in, going through a grading grind. Every.single.day. was like that. I can't even remember if I saw anyone outside of my students last semester other than maybe once in Las Vegas. I did, however, go to San Diego for a weekend and had a trip to Orlando with the BFF, which were the only two things that kept me from going completely breaking down. In fact, the two nights I slept on the couch in San Diego and the nights in Orlando were the only times all semester that I didn't go into massive panic attacks.

Needless to say, my end-semester evals, while not terrible, were the worst I'd ever had at that particular school.

Fast forward to this January. As most of you already know, I was without income for a few months and job-hunting, weighing all of my options. If I'd had the money on hand, I would have left for San Diego then and not looked back, the cost and job hunt be damned. As it was, I seriously considered moving back to Wisconsin to help my parents out (my mom's on the liver transplant list and has been for months now - probably getting close to a year), but resolved to try and hang on.

In that job hunt, I had that behavioral interview with the company I would have LOVED working for in a really awesome job, and it would have meant double my adjunct salary. I thought I did well with the interview but they went another direction.

In sheer desperation, I even tried applying to a retail store, but I knew I didn't get that when the description said "Be prepared for an interview when you bring your resume", and the sales girl said "Are you from the company?" and the guy who was the store manager said "I'll take this and give it to my hiring guy" and I thought to myself, "...Why the hell would you say on the job description to be ready for interview and then blow me off like that?" So yeah. Clear I wasn't getting it, which was fine.

Put out more interviews, and then I get contacted to take on classes at a community college due to a unfortunate set of circumstances. I accepted, of course, thinking a new location would give me a fresh start and a new burst of enthusiasm. It helped even more that I was highly recommended by the Composition Director at the place I adjuncted at in the fall despite my mediocre ratings.

Long story short, the difference between the semesters has been dramatic. Although the pay is less, I have a lot more freedom in terms of my curriculum and I get the sense that the department really likes me. Do I still have panic attacks at night? Yeah, with some regularity, but it's not every.damn.night. like before, so I suspect a lot of the ones in the fall were due to stress at the old adjunct position.

That said I don't have the passion for teaching that I should. There are moments that I enjoy it, and I'm damned good at it, but it's draining. Remember how I said I was dusting off my manuscript and revising one or two stories earlier? Said revision attempts got nowhere. Teaching and dealing with student writing on a full-time basis has completely destroyed my writing mojo, reducing me to angry, expletive-laden FM dynasties and the now and again DDS sim league article - and even there the writing has gotten paint by numbers rather than anything creative.

I *have* applied to a graduate program, but I'm still waiting to hear whether or not I got in, and if an assistantship is waiting for me if I did get in. If the answer to both is yes, it will be a radically different career path than anything else I've considered before, which is precisely what I need to snap out of this mental, emotional, and social rut I'm in, I think.

I'm still far too reclusive, but seeing one of my fraternity brothers and BYU 14 and his wife when they came into town a few days apart was a wonderful tonic, and it's impressed on me even more that I need to move somewhere where I actually have good friends.

Otherwise I see myself falling into complacency and before I know it, another 15-20 years has gone by and I've gone from mid-30s with still a spark of hope for a future worth having to an early 50 something who has seen life completely pass him by, with an end game too awful to contemplate.

[Izulde]

So as those of you on Facebook that I'm friends with know, I applied to an East private school's graduate program in HR and while accepted, kept getting dicked around on the assistantship, so I declined the acceptance. It would have been a horrible decision financially and timing wise to go, especially since my interest in the field was only lukewarm anyway.

Since that time I've been applying to pretty much every entry-level public relations job I can find. Got an interview with an agency here in town (I really would rather agency than corporate - I crave the variety), but that's not looking the best prospect right now, as they're taking a very slow pace with it. As in, they won't even decide who to bring back for a second interview until the end of this month.

It's rather frustrating because I remember in 2007, when I was doing my capstone for my English degree, they said that public relations firms really wanted English majors for our writing skills and our well-honed sense of empathy, cultural understanding, and reading and research skills. Fast forward 7 years later, and all the jobs are asking for Public Relations, Communications, Marketing, or Business degrees. Hard to believe things have changed that quickly. And I have an Associate's in Marketing at least.

The other obnoxious thing is that almost all of the entry-level jobs want previous internship or full-time experience. I've heard the old joke about that aggravating Catch-22 in the job market, but I never realized until my stint in January and my efforts now just how true it is.

While I could probably go back to adjuncting in the fall at one or both of my previous schools if I had to, I really want to avoid that if at all possible. It'd just be continuing this cycle of misery and poverty, and I feel like I'm reaching that point in my life (I'll be 35 this month) where if I don't make a change now, I'll be trapped in this prison of unhappiness, no money, no friends, no relationships (romantic or otherwise), no anything for the rest of my life.

But I keep trying, and I keep plugging away.

[Izulde]

Funny that virtually a year to the day of my last post, I can finally report great news for starting to break away from the wage slavery of adjuncting. I applied to a full-time position at one of the colleges I teach at, but didn't even make it to the interview round. I wasn't too broken up about it, to be honest - A 5/5 teaching load, plus committee and office hour requirements for a decent pay meant an incredible time overload for a monetary level that wasn't really worth it.

I again hit up public relations jobs, only this time I concentrated on internships, which appear to be a necessary requirement for having a realistic shot at a job (interview last year with an agency notwithstanding - and I didn't make the second interview round).

This time I landed an (unpaid) internship with an entertainment company here in town. I start at 10 am, and because it's a small employee roster with a public relations segment that is that, in the words of the CEO "fly by the seat of our pants" at the moment, I have a big opportunity to make a meaningful impact and create something. They're also looking to strengthen their Internet presence beyond its current profile, and are bringing in a couple more people to help beef that up, and want me as part of the team on that project.

I'm being thrown in the deep end as it were - one of my first tasks will be working on one of their national campaigns, which I'm doing research on now. In addition to the usual things like press releases, they want me to devise and implement public relations strategies and campaigns.

It's thrilling, and I feel like I'm finally in a place where I can flex my creative muscle, and as I said, play a pretty key role in the company's operations (as opposed to a larger arena where I'd be a grunt, and might not get as much out of it in terms of accomplishments when going to interview for actual paying jobs).

But it's also damned scary. Still, this is looking like a huge opportunity, and the first break I've been searching for.

[Young Drachma]

I'm glad you're landing okay and are doing meaningful work. Don't be scared by it, though. Just do what you do and it'll work itself out or at least, if you're gonna doubt yourself, do it at home and with your friends...not with your coworkers. Be willing to learn, but don't hesitate to contribute and show them what you're made of.

It's at least advice I wish I'd gotten during those times. Good luck.

[Izulde]

I'm glad you're landing okay and are doing meaningful work. Don't be scared by it, though. Just do what you do and it'll work itself out or at least, if you're gonna doubt yourself, do it at home and with your friends...not with your coworkers. Be willing to learn, but don't hesitate to contribute and show them what you're made of.

It's at least advice I wish I'd gotten during those times. Good luck.

Thanks :) It's good advice to keep in mind. As it turned out, my first day had some major wow moments.

By the end of the day, I was put in charge of two nationwide press releases, had talked to a very heavy hitter in the standup comedy world, and identified opportunities for my company's social media profile and visibility.

Perhaps best of all, at the end of the workday, my boss said, "You know, you remind me of my friend who went to Princeton for undergrad and Oxford for grad school." (Cue my heart breaking as those two schools are the most loved, and I still regret not applying to the former). "He also did Creative Writing for his masters, and now he's making a living as a writer for a lot of publications. And the funny thing is, even though it's journalism, he writes absolutely beautiful pieces, where his creative writing background comes through. You can become that."

Boss further went on to remark, "Public relations is about two things: the quality of the story, and the relationships. You already have the writing down. It's just a matter of building those relationships, and we'll work on getting you those while you're here, for when you're ready to move on."

One last thing - a little thrill of pleasure shot through me when the boss was talking to the heavy hitter and said, "Yeah, Izulde is our new PR guy, and I want you to talk to him about a press release that we're making national."

[muns]

"Yeah, Izulde is our new PR guy, and I want you to talk to him about a press release that we're making national."

That's freaking awesome! Glad its working out for you

[Young Drachma]

+1

Keep up the good work.

[Izulde]

Thanks, guys. :) We added a second PR intern today, though their specialty is social media, and that will be their primary area of focus. I imagine we'll collaborate together on some projects, though.

[Izulde]

So over the last two months, I've been killing it in the internship, particularly with the press releases. I also put together a PR campaign strategy proposal (in 40 minutes, after one of our PR interns who had that as their final assignment did a horrendous job and left us scrambling), that in combination with the press release I wrote for that client, landed us a major account.

Called every PR firm in town. Only one or two hiring, and I couldn't get so much as an interview. Called other leads the boss came up with... nothing.

And then today happened. I was officially promoted to Director of Public Relations for the firm, and will be responsible for establishing and growing the PR division. I still need to adjunct for now, but it's another big step forward to completing my exit from academia.

[muns]

Awesome stuff right there. Keep doing big things boss

[Izulde]

Awesome stuff right there. Keep doing big things boss

Thanks. :) Things have blown up the last couple weeks. I've landed two clients on TV, am working on building something big with another one, gotten the company's foot in the door with a potentially key relationship, and, after today's interview with the first TV client aired, another potential client called my boss and said that's what they want. This is a potentially huge client who could be the PR division's first monthly retainer. Meeting set for Saturday afternoon.

[Young Drachma]

Excellent news. I'm glad things are going well for you and evolving there!

[Izulde]

Excellent news. I'm glad things are going well for you and evolving there!

Thanks. :) Full steam ahead, too. Latest client I've not only gotten on two TV appearances, but for one of them, they want the client as a special guest host for the entire hour of the show. I'm still floored, and humbled, that this stuff is actually happening.

[muns]

Thanks. :) Full steam ahead, too. Latest client I've not only gotten on two TV appearances, but for one of them, they want the client as a special guest host for the entire hour of the show. I'm still floored, and humbled, that this stuff is actually happening.

You have paid your dues. It's about damn time for you!

[JAG]

So over the last two months, I've been killing it in the internship, particularly with the press releases. I also put together a PR campaign strategy proposal (in 40 minutes, after one of our PR interns who had that as their final assignment did a horrendous job and left us scrambling), that in combination with the press release I wrote for that client, landed us a major account.

Called every PR firm in town. Only one or two hiring, and I couldn't get so much as an interview. Called other leads the boss came up with... nothing.

And then today happened. I was officially promoted to Director of Public Relations for the firm, and will be responsible for establishing and growing the PR division. I still need to adjunct for now, but it's another big step forward to completing my exit from academia.

That's an impressive title bump. Congrats, happy things are going well for you, seems like you may have found something you excel at and enjoy, that's a great combo.

[Izulde]

Thanks, guys. :) It's going to be one hell of a semester, though - teaching 4 sections Tues/Thur (the max credits allowed for an adjunct), and then Mon/Wed/Fri (and possibly Saturday and some Sundays too) doing the PR job.

The gameplan is for me to eventually be poached by a PR firm for a full-time gig at great salary and benefits, even though I'd hate to leave my current position, and the company would hate to lose me.

Retainer client keeps pushing the meeting back, but we'll see what happens with it.

First TV interview didn't have the results expected. A lot of eyeballs, but no conversion - but a couple of things happened during the interview that caused it to not have the conversion rate we expected. Tomorrow's interview for a different event should go much better, I hope.

Things have been quite busy. I often don't get home until 6 pm or later, and it's going to be another late one tomorrow. Not only the interview, but a focus group meeting for another thing we have planned with another client whose status alone should generate big hits as we expand what we're doing with them. Case in point: The focus group had 40 slots. Within an hour of the private event being set up on Facebook, 31 of the slots were gone.

I'm also now in charge of handling our internship applications and the initial intern interviews, as the boss doesn't have time, and we really need to increase our team. Thought we landed a great prospect, but he told me this afternoon he'd accepted another position elsewhere. Tough pill, but we'll carry on.

I have to say, it's been enlightening being on the other side of the table. So many people do not know how to write effective resumes and/or cover letters.

[Izulde]

Big things may be ahead for the company over the next year. We've brought in someone who has access to some considerable venture capitalists, and while we're not yet at the point of approaching them, we're planning a major office move by March, and are working on expanding our staff to take the business in a new, higher-level direction.

I'm also considering applying to a Masters program in Los Angeles for next fall, because while I've been doing well learning as I go in the trenches, I feel like getting a theoretical groundwork will make me that much more effective, and I'll get a chance to possibly strengthen our LA presence - something we've been wanting to do anyway. It's also a program with a concentration that deals specifically with the industry I'm working in right now, which is another important factor.

Whether this all pans out remains to be seen, obviously. But rather than shift to an agency now, as was my original plan back in the summer, I want to ride this wave and see where it goes. I mean shit, I'm one of the top people in the company right now, and if I jump ship now (if I could even get anything), while I would experience an immediate jump in financial security that would allow me to quit teaching after this semester, my earning potential would be capped off for the foreseeable future, and I'd have a far slower progression up the ladder - I mean, going from intern to Director in 2 months isn't something that can be topped, and realistically, I'd be looking at an associate position with an agency - starting off at the bottom. It'd be sacrificing long-term potential for short-term security, and in my mid-late 30s, even I'm still working poor, that's still young enough to where I don't need to make that tradeoff yet.

Besides, staying here longer will only add to my experience and accomplishments, putting me in a much stronger position if I ever do face a scenario where I need to leave.

[Izulde]

Necroing this to update.

Long story short, I stayed adjuncting the last two years. I left in May of 2016 due to lack of payment, and the company essentially disintegrated due to a whole host of factors I won't get into publicly. I made the right choice to leap when I did.

At some point in the last few years, I had an opportunity for a private sector PR/writing job that I declined because it was literally two days before the semester started, and I didn't think it'd be right to put the school and students in a bind. I also was on top for a private sector writing job until someone just a bit more experienced came in at the last second and beat me. Made it deep into a creative writing job with a mobile game developer based overseas, but got beat out by someone with mobile game development experience (don't know my placement there, but I was definitely on the final shortlist).

Fast forward to last May, and I continued job hunting, as I had every summer without success. Got offered an AP English position in China, but the language of the contract was far different from what they told me, and it would have been a potentially bad situation, based on how the contract was worded. So I didn't go.

I also finished second for a private school in Utah. Would have been a fantastic job at a great school, with a supportive administration that actually trusts its faculty, but a local person won out.

August arrives, and my name isn't showing up on any of the sections on campus. A week before the semester starts, and I'm still not listed. I contacted the school to find out what's going on. No response. So I was contract non-renewed without notification. While I wasn't totally surprised at not being renewed (long-standing deep philosophical divide over courses and textbooks), the fact they didn't even have the courtesy to inform me, or even respond to my request for confirmation/clarification, is something that will stick with me for a very long time.

So it was like extended summer. Kept applying to both teaching and private sector jobs (writing and PR). Silence abounded. Unemployment ran out in February, and I was at the point where I had maybe three months tops before I was either out on the street or forced to move back in with my parents.

I started a freelance writing business last fall, shortly after I got hit with the non-renewal. I have a small stable of loyal, repeat clients, but the money's not near enough to sustain me long-term - nor am I particularly interested in growing it to full-time. I'm one of those people who actually likes working for others.

Finally got a hit on a private sector writing job. Phenomenal company. Screening interview went very well. They requested a tryout assignment and actually paid me for it! That's literally the first time I've ever had a potential employer pay for a tryout assignment. I absolutely nailed that, too, and have an interview on Monday with one of the managing partners. My sense is that this is a rolling applications position (otherwise it'd get awfully expensive paying for all these tryouts), and if I impress during that interview, I'll finally get the win.

I've been prepping for it like mad all week, and will this weekend as well. They're one of the top companies in their sector, and their philosophy/ideology meshes perfectly with mine. The job also checks off pretty much all the boxes I'm looking for.

So we'll see what happens.