Top Rhet/Comp Schools?
A military colleague asked me today for advice about doctoral programs in composition and rhetoric. This colleague has a M.A. in English and several years of experience teaching and administrating writing courses, and is thinking about taking early retirement from the military and wondering where to go and what factors to consider. Of course it depends what areas you’re interested in, I said, and noted that it’s generally not a good idea to pursue a PhD without full funding from the institution (ideally with a 1/1 load for the TAship and the opportunity to teach and design a variety of courses) and health insurance, and it’s awfully nice (from my experience) to have a TA union, and so on. But programs themselves? Well, there are published and online guides, I know, but my colleague got me thinking, and so I’m curious as to what the proverbial word on the street might be:
What, in your opinion, are the ten best PhD programs in rhetoric and composition?
Of course, the criteria themselves for ‘best’ are open to debate, and again, it depends on what one’s scholarly interests are. I’d certainly expect to see Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UT Austin, Michigan State, Carnegie Mellon, and Syracuse at or near the top of a lot of lists, and I’ve got strong feelings about the excellence of other programs as well — Pitt for its unique and compelling cultural studies approach, and UMass and UNH for their deep (and evolving) historical investment in the process approach — so I’ll ask: what do you think? What would your top 10 be, and what would you say their particular areas of excellence are?
Where do you admire?
January 5th, 2007 at 12:19 am
I think I would view a Top 10 list as a very early, very tentative starting point, even though your candidates seem like the right ones (for my money, Syracuse would top the list). Criteria that seemed minor at first — location, personality of fellow grads, looseness of the working environment — have ended up meaning more to me as I’ve progressed. In the end, all of it matters, but what the individual student negotiates after arriving is just as important as what they find out before they make a decision. A scholar can flourish in a relatively unknown program as long as they have some idea of what they want to do, the basics are there and the environment is supportive.
I guess I’d say the decision process really is a *process*… it’s worth spending a long time on. It’s important to find people who know programs — and more importantly, who know the state of each program now. I put together a spreadsheet with all sorts of info, but I also spent a lot of time talking to a prof in my MA program (Bill Condon) who helped me cross several programs off my list. Campus visits refined the list. The process led me directly to UNH, which ended up really working for me.
That being said, I don’t know if UNH is “top 10,” due to our current faculty situation. I’d probably feel a little lost as an incoming student in 07-08. But our strengths are definitely second-language writing and all of the broader literacy issues surrounding composition studies. And we’re getting much stronger in research methods.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Oh yeah, and Paul Matsuda’s advice is pretty good.
http://logos.unh.edu/blog/2006/10/choosing-phd-program.html
January 5th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Interesting question. I suspect there might be at least one school west of the Rockies, even if Bill didn’t suggest it (Texas doesn’t count as west of the Rockies). Since I can’t think of any schools to name, though, I’ll just suggest that finding a good fit for the personal part of one’s life is as important as finding the right sort of academic fit. We see folks on Tech Rhet getting jobs and they come from all sorts of schools. I’d say a good school is one that gets you a job, assuming that’s your goal. So, UMass qualifies, as does Ball St. and many others. Maybe the question to ask is where are the folks who are getting jobs they want to keep getting schooled?
January 5th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Mike, I totally agree, and I really should have expanded my “and so on” with all the smart stuff you say. Collegiality, mentoring, flexibility, and all those other intangibles contributed as much to my current (n00b) professional happiness as any sort of institutional reputation or status — but I think that’s sort of what I’m asking, too: beyond that institutional rep or status, what institutions with their intangibles — as Bradley asks — make people happiest with the jobs they get?
January 5th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
I wanted to participate in this thread, but as the grad director of a program, I’m conscious of how my contribution could be taken up. So in addition to those already listed, and without really offering my top 10, I’d add Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to the conversation.
A further piece of advice, for folks in the region, would be to take advantage of CCCC proximity. Grad students and faculty are often more than happy to spend 15 minutes pitching their programs–the right approach over a day or two at C’s could tell a lot about our field’s programs. Even a scan of the conference program for panels that are doing the kinds of work that a body is interested in doing, and tracing back to those folks’ grad programs, might be a useful way to proceed if costs are prohibitive.
cgb
January 6th, 2007 at 11:01 am
University of Louisville’s a good one too.
Seems like there are clearly tiers, and Ohio State, Penn State, and Purdue are first-tier all the way. If you say there are five or six programs in each tier, then U of Texas and a couple of others would be first-tier too.
People appear to agree on (in no particular order):
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
U of Texas
Syracuse
Michigan State
This is for rhetoric and composition, mind. For tech comm, you’ve got U of Minnesota, Michigan Tech, Iowa State, and University of Washington.
February 17th, 2007 at 12:02 am
I have heard a lot of good things about RPI. What is your opinion of Rensselaer?
March 1st, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Is it more important that the program be ranked outside of the Rhet/Comp field (in the “oh-so-important,” yet totally biased U.S. News & World Report), or that the program has prominence within the field of Rhet/Comp? With teaching jobs as slim as they are, would a program like UT give you more cache in the job market after graduation than a program like OSU?
May 21st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Hi There -
I am a graduate student in my final semester studying Cultural Rhetoric at Arizona State University. I am tentatively researching PhD programs and I am a total novice. I would like to continue studying Cultural Rhetorical studies. In your opinion(s) what is the best way to asses the quality of a program and what it has to offer. How does one determine top quality rhetorical programs? I agree with Mike in his reference to the looseness of a program. I would like to pursue studies in a school that allows me a large spanse of oppurtunity to experiment and approach ideas from differing perspectives.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thank you.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 am
Mary, there’s a good discussion about this on WPA-L that you should be able to search the listserv archives for. (And WPA-L, if you’re not already on it, is easy to find via Google, and worth paying attention to — and you may see messages from people at programs you’re interested in, who can give you feedback.) Mike’s link to Paul Matsuda is very much worth following, as well — which, of course, you know, since he’s one of your faculty. And that’s probably the best solution for you: ask your faculty members! They know the field extremely well, they know your interests, and they’re there to help and mentor you, which includes answering exactly the type of question you’re asking here.
Beyond that, all the advice above is very worthwhile — and to belatedly answer Lynn’s question, stature within rhet/comp matters more than the general U.S. News rankings, but again, “fit” and satisfaction trump both those.