How do I choose which grad school to apply to?

Jennifer McMahon: Obviously, various factors come into play when selecting graduate schools to which to apply. These include: quality and availability of desired degree programs, university ranking, location, availability of financial aid, likelihood of acceptance. All of these items should be considered, but individuals may rank some higher than others depending upon their personal situations.

Teresa Rothrock: This is a tough decision. After casual research and talking to everyone who would give me ten minutes, I had it narrowed down to 2, both of which worked around the working professional: (1) a comp/rhet program in Pennsylvania that required summer attendance and reading and writing during the academic year and (2) an English Education program in Oklahoma. Though my heart roots in comp/rhet, my decision was finally made on the future—if I were to leave ECU, I would still want to teach pedagogy courses, as well as comp and language courses, and at most universities, especially the bigger ones, the pedagogy courses were in the education departments. Ultimately, the English Education program won out, and I worked hard to keep my focus (or secondary area of study) in comp/rhet.

Steve Benton: The advice I followed when I was considering where to apply to Ph.D. programs was to find a current scholar I liked, find out where he or she was teaching, and apply to that school. The scholar I was interested in working with was then at the University of Chicago, a very difficult graduate school to get in. I ended up getting accepted into a one-year master’s degree program there that was run by the scholar I hoped to work with. After a semester at the University of Chicago, I applied to and was accepted by a number of Ph.D. programs, including the one at the U of C.

Josh Grasso: #1: Think about where you want to be geographically and in proximity to family/friends. You will be very busy and isolated for 2 years (MA) and even more for the Ph.D., so you want to be happy and comfortable if possible. Find a place that won't add stress to your life and you can adjust to relatively easily.

#2: Look at the program carefully. Is there someone you would like to study with in the faculty? Even if you don't know any names, look at what they teach and what they write books/articles on, or even what they teach. Make sure the program fits you. If you are interested in 19th century British literature, don't go to a school that never offers classes in it, or has no faculty members who specialize in it. Find a place you would benefit from.

#3: Make sure they offer Teaching/Graduate assistantships with competitive stipends (from my experience, most average from between $9-$15K). See what the teaching load is compared to the class load. Usually it's something like teach 2/take 2 a semester, or teach 1 take 2, etc. Make sure it's something you can live with. Also, be wary of accepting an offer from a program that does not offer you a TA or does not have it's own graduate program (some programs make graduate students take classes with undergraduates, but simply do more work--that's okay if you really need to be at this school, but you will miss out on a crucial graduate experience--taking classes with other graduate students, having the teacher devote time solely to you and your concerns, etc).