The University of North Carolina - Charlotte

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
It seems that students who spend the most time at this university (i.e.,B.A. to M.A.) are the least happy about their experiences at UNCC. Students who come to UNCC from out of state and enroll in the English graduate program just can't understand it when in-state students feel like they're getting p*ssed on (e.g. not getting the kudos from the department, getting passed over for assistantships, among other things). You have no idea how demoralizing it is to in-state graduate students when an out-of-state student receives a sizable fellowship, teaches for one year, then gets married and pregnant and never teaches again.

Anyone who spends even a smidgen of time being involved with the UNCC English graduate program sees the favoritism accorded to the thankless lackeys who spend little time in class, who turn in papers late (if at all, I wonder), and who spend most of their time brown nosing the faculty, but gripe and complain about how difficult life is when one must attend a school that is SO beneath them. These are the same people who get the recognition and the references to get college teaching jobs.

One prof put it bluntly: "If you attended CMS, that's one strike against you. If you attended CMS and got your BA from UNCC, that's two strikes against you. If you attended CMS, got your BA from UNCC and enter the English graduate program, expect to be ignored.You are just background for the out-of staters."

He was right, but he forgot something: Don't expect any meaningful letters of recommendation to get into a postgraduate program elsewhere.

I cannot recommend UNCC's English program to anyone, despite the fact that it is host to a few really good professors. They cannot even begin to make spending six or more years of one's life at UNCC seem like a profitable use of time.

To the faculty I say this: Shame on you. Shame on every d*mned one of you.