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rsework only to stall at the dissertation stage admitting a phd student also represents a significant investment of resources in terms of stipend money and advising and mentorship the return graduate programs want from that investment is that you will finish and get a good job thereby boosting their completion and placement numbers and conferring additional prestige those who make admissions decisions for graduate programs are looking for evidence that you will do this which isn t always easy to tell from your grades and gre scores your personal statement is the document where you make the argument for why you will be a good investment demonstrating that you understand what advanced academic work in your field entails and that you have at least a general plan for getting through it that you have thought about your areas of interest and are able to describe the shape that your future research might take that you have done research on this specific program and understand how their specific strengths fit your goals that you have some idea of what you want to do with your degree even though that may be a decade in the future brainstorming start writing early your personal statement will likely go through many drafts before you are ready to submit it if a school asks you to answer specific questions be sure to do that it s crucial to show that you re individualizing your application for each school and that you have thought seriously about their questions and even with a specific set of questions you still must work to make your answers meaningful and unique ask yourself the following sets of questions as you brainstorm the field why do you want to be a _____ don t think about why other people may choose this profession why do you want that as your profession what are the benefits and drawbacks of the profession how and when did you learn about the field was it through a class reading work experience or a professor is that story important to your story what have you learned about it that has further stimulated your interest what particular path in the field interests you now what are your career goals the program why do you want to get into this program don t talk about economics programs in general but harvard s economics program or stanford s economics program maybe there s a particular professor with whom you want to work maybe the school offers excellent research opportunities or teaching experience to graduate students if you re not sure do more research about the school or talk with a professor or student yourself what s special unique distinctive and or impressive about you and your story are there details about your life that can help the committee understand you or that will make you stand out from other applicants have you had to overcome any unusual obstacles or hardships i e economic familial physical admissions committees are interested in unique personal narratives and evidence of having overcome adversity what personal skills or characteristics do you possess that would make you successful in the field how can you show admissions committees that you have those why might you be a stronger candidate for graduate school and or more successful in the field than other applicants what are the most important reasons the admissions committee should be interested in you does your academic record have gaps or discrepancies you need to explain i e excellent grades but poor gre what makes a poor personal statement isn t specific or unique relies on clichés i have always wanted to be an economist or i have always dreamed of attending harvard doesn t indicate that you ve researched the institution doesn t indicate your past work that serves as evidence of your potential as a student rambles or includes irrelevant information general tips tell a story show what you want to say through concrete experience rather than i have an adventurous spirit tell us about the service trip you went on with a group of strangers to india find an angle most people have normal stories so a focus that makes yours interesting be focused if the application asks you to answer specific questions answer them if there are no specific questions still maintain focus choose important qualities characteristics and write only about those be specific do not make claims you cannot back up with experience avoid clichés be coherent the way you write indicates the kind of person you are someone who writes clearly is likely a sensible person interpret material for your readers don t repeat the material in your application instead explain how those experiences relate to the program for which you re applying don t be afraid to be personal as long as it s appropriate tell what you know about the field or profession share what you ve already learned refer to experience work research classes conversations you ve had with people who work in the field books you ve read seminars you ve attended and then show why you re well suited to the profession research the school if the school s location provides a major geographical or cultural change consider writing about that if there is a word limit stay within it more including samples here personal statement workshop handout leave a comment why english and rhet comp graduate students should consider career choices abroad october 31 2013 job market the college graduate school experience travel uncategorized academia advice efl esl ewca faculty graduate school graduate students iwca job market job search mla research russia teaching tesol travel wac writing center writing pedagogy writing program ashley squires if you d told me a year ago that i d be able to walk here from my apartment i d have done something november starts tomorrow which means that job hunting season for new and expectant phds is about to really get going and i am having bad acid flashbacks of weekends spend queuing up interfolio dossiers and hoping i remembered to change the receiver s address on each cover letter i am hoping to stay put in my current job for a good while and not only because i m hoping to avoid crying in restaurants for a few years but because i can honestly say that i am enjoying my job really really enjoying it and even though it wasn t plan a and even though i wound up here through a bizarre series of coincidences and chance encounters i couldn t be more grateful that i ended up here rather than at one of the other places that offered me interviews but didn t offer me jobs now i certainly can t say that my experience is typical but it s enough for me to recommend that english and rhet comp students and all fields really facing increasingly dire prospects on the us market look at an international career as a viable option some reasons travel duh some of my current satisfaction has to do with location and the thrill of travel i made a pact with my spouse when i began my job search that and this is the exact wording we would not die in waco i m not going to go into all the reasons why but you can guess some of them cut to three years later and i am at interviewing for a position for a university in waco and i interviewed for two more jobs that were in places very much like waco but with different weather for many no doubt waco is a brighter prospect than moscow where the sun currently comes up around 8 45 am but a couple of weeks ago we walked from our 600 square foot apartment to red square on a chilly day in the rain and i was overwhelmed with disbelief that this is my actual life different isn t always better but when you ve felt yourself grow stale in a place going somewhere completely different feels like a rebirth you aren t better but just by virtue of changing your life so radically you lose a lot of bad habits and pick up a few new ones you find yourself challenged and engaged in ways that are completely unexpected and you learn a little bit about surrender working conditions speaking in more practical terms the set of conditions under which i m working are quite a bit better than what i could have expected in the us though this isn t a tenure track position it s a renewable contract with an institution that was willing to make a pretty considerable investment in getting me over here i am getting paid at near the top end of what assistant profs make in my field in the us i have a research budget i got to design and teach my own literature elective my first semester here i teach a 1 1 load alongside my writing center admin responsibilities my students are ivy league caliber and turn their assignments in on time and have forever ruined me for teaching in the us i have health insurance i could go on building something new i teach at an institution that is only two decades old in an english department that is only a few years old for some i think this would in and of itself be anxiety producing and there are drawbacks the building i work in is decrepit though that s largely because the school invested in world class faculty on the front end rather than facilities the former rector had to you know flee the country under the threat of political persecution but we have a new rector who seems extremely qualified and energized about where the institution will go next in short the people who work here seem to think that they are involved in doing something extremely important and urgent for their students their research field and their country and despite the specialization of the school the english department is part of that and that to me at least is so much more exciting than slotting into a long established literature or writing program at a centuries old universities where the possibility of making a genuine difference means working against entrenched interests and traditions this writing center is only two years old and is the first of its kind in russia the us model writing center is rapidly becoming a very attractive import for many european asian and middle eastern universities not only does this mean that there are jobs out there but that international multi lingual writing centers and writing programs are becoming a new frontier for research international colleagues which brings me of course to the fact that the american academic universe is pretty much hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world and particularly in the areas of rhetoric and composition studies there is a lot of interesting work that could be done if there were more exchange of ideas internationally there s always some noise about the need to do so but very little of it actually happens in practice and then of course there is just the stimulation of having colleagues from all over the world just down the hall i work with people from belarus palestine turkey and italy as well as americans who have made their entire careers abroad and i m interacting with these people in a place where americanness isn t neither the default nor the goal where we are all foreigners marketability for the reasons discussed earlier americans with english and rhet comp degrees are extremely marketable on the international market especially if they can bring some esl efl experience together with expertise in a content field the tesol jobs site and the international writing centers association website are good places to look for openings be aware however that in addition to talking about your research and teaching you will need to be able to articulate both in your cover letter and in your interview why you want to work abroad and why you want to work in that country specifically the turnover rate among expat employees is high because people get homesick or have a change in family circumstances or whatever and schools who pay for moving costs invest a considerable amount in their faculty up front so you need to be able to argue for why you are a good investment i was warned before taking this job that working abroad could hurt my marketability if i want to return to the us i have heard anecdotal reports that this is true but the person i replaced had two job offers in the us so take that for what it s worth caveats working abroad is not for you if you are seeking the traditional middle class american experience with children extended family in easy reach and steady reliable employment granted for many of us this simply isn t an option we can count on but the truth is that going abroad means being uprooted many times potentially and it means going long periods without seeing your parents or siblings or old friends if you go abroad you need to wrap your head around the fact that this isn t study abroad t his is going to be your life and if you have doubts it s best to grapple with them early on you shun hassles i mean i don t know anyone who likes being inconvenienced but moving internationally is a giant effing hassle in every possible way i have had to deal with more paperwork than it took to sell our house and most of it in a language i don t read well shipping a few boxes of personal items and research materials has been an undertaking so grueling and expensive that i question whether it was worth it probably not and airports man airports the takeaway here is that it s not going to be a glorious experience for everyone or 100 of the time but it s a career path that is very seriously worth considering as an alternative to stringing together adjunct work taking a 9 5 office job teaching a 4 4 lectureship with no opportunities for research or career advancement or even gasp a tenure track job in quite a few cases leave a comment the best money i ve spent in before russia soggy september edition september 25 2013 russia uncategorized moscow russia stuff i like survival guide ashley squires for the benefit of anyone planning to come here for business and or funtimes insulated waterproof north face jacket with hood according to the moscow times this is the rainiest september in moscow since they started keeping records and during the day the temperatures are in the 40s and 50s many russians maintain the same standards in outerwear that they do in footwear so if you need to aim for utility it s good to have something that looks pretty decent as well single regret i should have gotten a dark color rubber wellington boots from l l bean drainage on the streets is poor so it s helpful to be able to splash through puddles without caring ok that s an understatement it s ridiculously fun the hems of my work pants are grateful i keep my heels in my office i m glad i sprung for the insulated liners but unfortunately they are in germany with the rest of the belongings i shipped the oxford russian english dictionary app at 19 99 this is expensive for an app but it s a searchable bi lingual dictionary in your pocket that also has lists of case endings and verb conjugations it s a no brainer the moscow metro app it s free it s also the best metro system app i ve ever seen turbo scan app russia asstons of paperwork this app uses my phone s camera to scan everything to pdf it does multi page ...
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