Although time to degree varies, the department provides six years of guaranteed funding for those entering with a BA and five years for those entering with an MA.  The summary below is meant as a general guideline for movement through the program.

Year One

Coursework providing introduction to the profession, grounding in critical theory, and progress towards completion of the historical distribution, seminar, and foreign language requirements; employment as RA, TA, or editorial assistant or support for a first-year fellowship; seeking general professional guidance from assigned faculty mentor and specific program guidance from the Director of Graduate Study who acts as advisor; attendance at all visiting and faculty lectures in the department.

Year Two

Coursework toward completion of the historical distribution and foreign language requirements; application for qualification for doctoral candidacy, and therefore first articulation of a field of inquiry and identification of field-appropriate faculty mentors; training for and teaching in the Rhetoric Program; participation in a UI or other graduate student conference such as Craft, Critique, Culture or the Jakobsen Conference; with faculty mentors, identification of written work appropriate for revision and submission for publication; attendance at all visiting and faculty lectures in the department.

Year Three

Completion of the seminar requirement; for MA-entering students, comprehensive exams in fall semester and prospectus meeting in spring; application for post-comps fellowship; training for and teaching in the General Education Literature Program; revised written work submitted to journals or collections for publication; submission of work for regional or national conferences; investigation of and application to summer institutes appropriate to chosen field; joining a departmental or interdisciplinary reading group appropriate to chosen interests; attendance at all visiting and faculty lectures in the department.

Year Four

For BA-entering students, comprehensive exams in fall semester and prospectus meeting in spring; application for post-comps fellowship; for MA-entering students, work on the dissertation, application for summer research and dissertation fellowships (internal and external funding); teaching in the General Education Literature Program; continued conference activity and submission of at least one revised essay for publication; leadership roles in, for example, the Gen Ed Lit Program, the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, the Craft, Critique, Culture (CCC) conference, the Association of Graduate Students in English (AGSE), or COGS (the TA/RA union); investigation of and application to summer institutes appropriate to chosen field; attendance at all visiting and faculty lectures; for MA-entering students, attendance at job placement and orientation events in the department including job talks by outside candidates for department positions.

Year Five

For BA-entering students, work on the dissertation, application for summer research and dissertation fellowships (internal and external funding); initial attendance at job placement training activities; MLA and other major conference attendance; pursuing publication in appropriate venues; attendance at job talks by candidates for departmental job; application to summer institutes appropriate to chosen field; leadership roles in, for example, AGSE, CCC, COGS. For MA-entering students, completion of the dissertation; full participation in placement training as they apply for jobs and postdocs; teaching in the General Education Literature Program or, for those with dissertation fellowships, full engagement in research and writing; late spring or early summer defense of the dissertation.

Year Six

Full participation in placement training as students apply for jobs and postdocs; dissertation-year fellowship or teaching in the General Education Literature Program or other more specialized programs as appropriate; late spring or early summer dissertation defense.