The Graduate Program

Survival Skills for Graduate Students

It is not easy to survive, let alone excel, as a graduate student. Money is short and time commitments run long. Students can be torn between commitment to their teaching of undergraduates and commitment to their coursework and independent scholarship and creative work. It takes a lot of dedication--and a lot of time--to complete an MA thesis or a PhD dissertation. This section of the handbook offers a short primer on the graduate program and its staff. In most cases you will want to consult the excellent grad student guidebook offered through the EGSA web site for accurate and detailed information regarding graduate student life.

Arriving on Campus

You've accepted our offer of financial aid and have a summer ahead of you to arrange for a move to Columbia, Missouri. What do you do next? The English Department has a number of faculty and staff members who can offer you advice and help facilitate your getting settled in. The two most important contacts are the Graduate Studies Secretary and the Director of Graduate Studies, both of whom you have probably worked with in the months leading up to your acceptance into the program. You will also want to confer with your EGSA mentor, an advanced graduate student who has volunteered to guide you through aspects of the program. (Your EGSA mentor will contact you in the late spring or early summer to introduce him or herself and offer assistance.) For those of you on teaching or research assistantships, the department's Financial Officer will be a crucial contact.

Orientation

There is a mandatory orientation in the second or third week of August. The Graduate Studies Secretary will send a schedule to incoming students early in the summer. On the Monday of Orientation Week, the Program for Excellence in Teaching sponsors a required session for students who will be teaching at the University of Missouri for the first time. On the Tuesday of Orientation Week, the Graduate School offers an informative set of sessions providing an introduction to its procedures and to the resources available on campus for graduate students. The Composition Program sponsors a set of mandatory orientation sessions during the week for teachers new to our composition program. And different orientations are held for MA, MA/PhD, and PhD students on the Thursday and Friday of that week. It all culminates with a reception at the house of the Director of Graduate Studies on the Friday night of Orientation Week.

Signing Up for Courses

With the exception of first year students in the MA/PhD program, incoming graduate students should sign up for 3 courses, or 9 hours. Students new to our graduate program (both MA and PhD) must add the one-hour 8005 class (Introduction to Graduate Study) for a total of 10 hours. MA/PhD students should take 12 hours of courses and English 8005 in both the Fall and Winter semesters.

Registration via the web or phone begins in early June and runs through July. You will need the PIN number that the Admissions Office sent to you upon your acceptance to the university. The Registrar's office handles registration. Please contact Victoria Thorp (ThorpV@missouri.edu) with questions.

Read the course descriptions on the department web site. MA students are advised by the Director of Graduate Studies about the choice of courses and the fulfilling of the course distribution requirements. PhD students are advised by the DGS until they form their PhD committees. Remember that 7000 as well as 8000 courses count for graduate credit. The Director of Graduate Studies will be available throughout the summer for advising both in person and by email.

Course Selection for Incoming MA Students
Keep in mind the MA requirements for your particular specialty (Creative Writing, Literature, Folklore, etc.) and the need to distribute courses among time periods and British and American literature. MA students take English 8010, Theory and Practice of Composition, in the second semester of their first year.

Students will need permission from the Director of Creative Writing to take English 8510, Advanced Writing of Fiction, or English 8530, Advanced Writing of Poetry, or 8520, Advanced Writing of Nonfiction Prose. First semester PhDs automatically receive permission for English 8010, Theory and Practice of College Composition. Once permission is granted, you will need a consent card (or a consent number by email) from Victoria Thorp.

Course Selection for Incoming PhD Students
PhD students who are teaching English 1000 should take English 8010 in the first semester. (See the English 8010 Policy in the Academic Policies portion of the departmental website.) At some point in your program, you will also have to take a Linguistics course if you have not had a course elsewhere (English 7200, 7600, 7610, 8600) that a Linguistics professor certifies as equivalent. A final requirement is a course in literary theory and criticism (English 8070, 8050) if you have not had a graduate course elsewhere that the Director of Graduate Studies certifies as equivalent.

You will need permission from the Director of Creative Writing to take English 8510, Advanced Writing of Fiction, or English 8530, Advanced Writing of Poetry, or 8520, Advanced Writing of Nonfiction Prose. First semester PhDs automatically receive permission for English 8010, Theory and Practice of College Composition. Once permission is granted, you will need a consent card (or a consent number by email) from Victoria Thorp.

People to Contact Initially

Director of Graduate Studies
Professor Andrew Hoberek is currently the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). The DGS is the faculty member, usually appointed for a term of three years, who chairs meetings of the Graduate Studies Committee and serves as a liaison between the English Department and the University of Missouri's Graduate School. For your first year in the program - or until you settle on an MA thesis or PhD adviser - the DGS serves as your academic adviser, and can help you with choosing courses, thinking through your program of study, and any other matter of academic or administrative concern. Dr. Hoberek's phone number is 573-882-8086, and his email address is hobereka@missouri.edu. Dr. Hoberek holds regular office hours during the term, or you can schedule an appointment with him.

Graduate Studies Secretary
Victoria Thorp is the Graduate Studies Secretary. Victoria handles a number of things of crucial importance to you, including registration for graduate courses when permission of the instructor is required, book orders for the classes you teach, and general advice on how to do things. She is knowledgeable and experienced, and she will be of help to you throughout your career. Her office is Tate 107A, in the complex of offices on the first floor of Tate Hall. Her phone number is 573-882-4676, and her email address is ThorpV@missouri.edu.

Financial Officer
The Financial Officer, Dottie Long, handles the budget for the department and processes the payment of graduate students who are teaching or research assistants. She recommends that incoming students contact her as soon as possible upon deciding to attend Mizzou. The standard first payment for the year occurs at the end of September which will be, for many of you, a long time to wait to get paid. If you are able to get your documentation in order by the beginning of the summer, you may be able to be paid a half paycheck at the end of August. This will require a face-to-face meeting at which you produce proof of your legal right to work in the United States, including such documentation as a driver's license, passport, or social security card. In addition, she will have to take a photocopy of your original social security card for department records. Please do contact her as soon as possible to arrange for paying you and to answer other financial questions you might have about studying in the department. Her phone number is 573-882-6918, and her email address is LongD@missouri.edu.

Administrative Structure

Once you are on campus, you will have to negotiate a sometimes perplexing array of staff members, faculty members, and administration. What follows is a very short description of the place of the English Department in the university, along with a description of department members you might encounter. The English Department at Missouri - as at many universities - is one of the largest departments in the humanities sector of the College of Arts and Science. (Note that Mizzou's college is "Arts and Science" rather than the more usual "Arts and Sciences.") The Dean of Arts and Science is the main administrative officer for A&S. The Graduate School, however, is a separate administrative unit and has oversight over all graduate programs at the university. You will have used the Graduate School's web site to put through your online admission form to the university, and their academic advisers and financial aid offers will be important contacts for you in your years on campus.

The Chair of the English Department - usually elected by the faculty and appointed by the Dean of Arts and Science - is Professor Patricia Okker. Dr. Okker is assisted by Sharon Black, a department mainstay who keeps things sane around Tate Hall. Students will often work closely with the other main faculty administrators in the department: the Associate Chair, Nancy West; the Director of Composition, Dana Kinnison (Interim); the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Matthew Gordon; and the Director of Creative Writing, Scott Cairns.

The best advice any of us can give is: when in doubt, don't hesitate to ask! And the best places to start would be Victoria Thorp and the DGS.

The Job Market

In some senses, all work in the program should work towards your eventual entering--and success with--the academic job market. Students who have almost finished with their dissertation should sign up for the two-hour Job Placement Workshop offered by the department. The Job Placement Workshop will help students prepare their cover letters, dissertation outlines, Curriculum Vitae (CV), scholarly writing samples, and their interviewing skills: all of the crucial components of any job application. Students in English 8005 will have begun working on their CVs from their first year in the program. During years of coursework and writing the dissertations, students are encouraged to submit their best writing to scholarly journals for possible publication. In addition, presenting work at academic conferences can help hone it and help students make valuable professional contacts. These issues are all covered in the Introduction to Graduate Studies, but students should take the opportunity to consult with the DGS and their advisers as they begin to build professional credentials.

address: 107 Tate Hall, Columbia, MO 65211-1500
phone: 573.882.6421 | fax: 573.882.5785 | department email: umcenglish@missouri.edu

website email: englishweb@missouri.edu
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