charliemarlow

Hi, everyone: I am currently a senior studying English at a big public university in the south, and I am interested in applying for Phd programs in Victorian Literature. Naturally, my goal is to get an offer from a top-tier institution, so I'm trying to figure out the best combination of when to apply + what more I need to do to make my application as powerful as possible. So, my questions for you folks: 1. Does it make the most sense to apply the fall prior to graduation from undergrad or the fall following graduation from undergrad? 2. Have any of you gone directly from BA to PhD? If so, would you have done anything differently? 3. For those of us who are planning to applying to PhD programs directly from undergrad, what qualities/what accomplishments/stats do you think can make us as competitive as possible? I am planning on applying to at least 8 programs, and I know I'll be thankful to get accepted to any of them. That being said, I want to maximize my chances of getting into the best program possible. I've been conscientious about this goal for the past two years, so I've made sure to present a paper at a conference, win a research award, take graduate level English courses, keep my English GPA at a 4.0, etc.. I want to try to get published in an undergrad journal, but I doubt that will happen before the upcoming fall's application deadlines. That's one of those things that could influence my applying this fall or next if it would really benefit by PhD applications? Thanks so much in advance for your help! This community is truly a bunch of rockstars. I hope this thread can help some others in this situation, too.