Keri

Yahoo congrats!!! Congrats to you too!!! Hoping for good news!!!

It's such a struggle! Half of mine closed on October 1st, but the other half closed on September 15th. I found those out last week! So I think on the others we have to just keep checking and wait. I distracted myself (as best I could) but staying very busy... studying for a Korean test, beginning to learn Japanese, etc. I wish you the best of luck!!

How is everyone doing? Today is a Korean holiday kind of like Korean thanksgiving so happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I got some great news today - I've been recommended to the graduate school for acceptance to BGSU! They are my number one choice. Once I receive the actual acceptance email, I will be accepting! I'm ecstatic!!

Nice Dogfish! Do you care to share your scores?

Thanks for setting everything up @klader! I PMed you my work / business e-mail. In other news: I spoke with the enrollment adviser at ASU last night and she told me that I'm in review, so be on the lookout and check my status everyday... should find out in a week or two... eep! She told me it's a competitive program with a class size of about 20 students but also said being in review this early may be a good sign. Let's hope so! I keep flip flopping on what program I want and am now thinking ASU and BGSU are my top 2. These next few weeks may be the death of me...

I think that's a great idea! Does anyone want to start a group? Or we could do a gmail messaging group if that's easier for anyone else.

How is everyone doing after this fine weekend? Any progress? SOPs written, e-mails sent, schools checked out?

I know! I was shocked myself that it came so fast. I keep checking the e-mail to see if I'm dreaming.

Happy news here today folks! Woke up to an acceptance e-mail from one of my schools! I'm shocked they got back to me so quickly, my second letter of recommendation just got sent yesterday, but I must have been "under review" until it came in. It's my #2 program so I'm really stoked!!! I'm not sure if I should e-mail the adviser and let her know I'm waiting on the others or not, she sent me an e-mail about scheduling everything and acceptance (but nothing about funding... so I also want to ask about that.)

I requested by e-mail for my last professor I needed (other two bosses in person and via message) and I've kept in contact through Facebook as we are FB friends. Shoot an e-mail, ask how they are, politely ask if they remember you and your work enough to write a strong LOR. Good luck!

I think @lit_nerd has to add them since he started the chat! I've tried everything and I have no option to add others. Sorry @klader, @punctilious and @a_sort_of_fractious_angel! I'll keep looking.

Everyone says there is "no required number" but have you looked at the average scores of who they accept? That's what they are looking for. If you think it will be okay and you can get it, I wouldn't retake, but if it's that bad and you think can do better, I would.

Hi everyone! Hope you're all having a great weekend! I applied to all of my schools today! I can't believe it! Now I just have to wait for my recommenders to send in their letters and wait around until I hear some (hopefully good) news!

Hi everyone! Hope you are all doing alright. I've been working on last drafts of my SOPs. I've decided to apply this Sunday to all of my programs (as I am aiming for Spring 2018) and now I'm stressed! I think I'll feel great on Sunday though when it's all done. I've ordered and sent all my transcripts so now it's just time to apply! I need some advice on my third LOR. I asked one of my old Korean professors in mid-May and he said, of course! He remembers who I am and knows my work closely, because we were very close during my studies and still keep in touch regularly on Facebook and e-mail. However, he didn't tell me he was writing a thesis, so when I touched base at the beginning of June after getting my GRE scores, he let me know he was busy with that until mid-June and also told me he was going home to Canada on June 21st and hadn't written my LOR yet. To make a long story short, he was on vacation in LA (and didn't tell me again eep!) and just came back to Canada yesterday. I messaged him two days ago letting him know I was applying on Sunday and he said he would get it done, no problem. I guess my question is, should I e-mail him again and let him know when I apply on Sunday? Or leave it for a week or so after to ask if he had sent it yet as the schools will contact his e-mail personally? I feel like I've already bugged him enough about it, but it's obviously very important.

No, that is a really good score. I wouldn't retake. Hi @punctilious's husband and welcome! His stats seem really great. I hope he kicks the GRE's butt! If he does, I think he'll have a great shot at all the Ivy schools on his list. Just gotta make sure the SOP and the LORs are shining and amazing. Those are honestly the most important part.

It took a lot of digging but I found a couple that really interest me, but it worries me because they're three different disciplines based on the school. I have interest in all and all will help my future, so I'm okay with it, just worried I'm not focused on one discipline. These are all completely online (I had low residency ones on my list, but had to nix them.) I am on the fence about the PhD, I plan for now to get the English Master's and I want to get another Master's in a couple years in Health Sciences or Health Studies after I find a new job for a couple years. I want to be a translator or an editor at a Korean company of some kind, bonus points if it's in the healthcare field. Then I would move back to America (currently live in Korea with my husband) and think about the PhD based on location. Are you thinking of doing the PhD track? What do you ultimately want to do? You can PM me too if you'd like! ^^

I am! I'm only applying to five MA programs mainly because I'm an online only student and also because I feel I am not ready for PhD level work. You're not alone!

Your LOR should be someone who can write a very strong letter detailing your traits, work ethic and why you'd be a great fit to the PhD program. So if you feel the director can do that for you, I personally would ask.

The graders don't really care about your political leanings, they are only looking to grade on your argument. My test had a question about effective leaders, and I criticized current US politics, as well as talked about Korean and Romanian events of the past year. I ran out of time so it wasn't the best essay, but I got a 4.5 in the end which is decent. Whatever you feel can be backed up with a good argument will work. Good luck!

Hi there. I also speak Korean as a second language, it was my major at undergrad and I currently live in South Korea teaching English. After undergrad, here's the things that helped me get (almost) fluent myself: 1) watching TV, especially the news, documentaries or exposes. I struggle with high level business or news words (that come from the Chinese Hanja) so watching these helps a lot. 2) Finding people to talk with. I found one in my husband (and he doesn't speak English so a bonus for me!) but friends, co-workers, internet pals, etc. Always be practicing and using your language. I've joined forums, left comments on articles, etc. so that I am using the language and reading others comments and going back and forth. I'm in Kakao groups that only use Korean, etc. 3) Listen to podcasts, radio broadcasts, etc. I don't do this much, but I definitely should. I read books instead in the Korean language and that helps! 4) Get Advanced Level TOPIK books and study. I took the TOPIK and I'm level 4, but I feel I'm better than that (my writing is awful) so I'm going to take it again - and in the mean time, study study study. 5) Learn Hanja. It sucks, but it has helped A LOT. I'm still very, very, VERY basic but understanding where the words come from is amazing to me and using them together to create new words is great. It sparked my interest in linguistics and translating! 6) Speaking of translating: do it! Anything. Your own writing. News articles. Do it for yourself, not others. You'll learn plenty of words that way. Especially if it relates to what you want to do, it will help tremendously. Also, don't be afraid to ask for clarification of words you don't know. Don't be afraid to speak up for yourself! If you want to shoot me a message and talk in Korean, I'm totally down! If not, I wish you luck with everything. Korean is difficult, but I love it so much. It's a beautiful, poetic language and I'm glad I started learning it.

@lit_nerd remember it's still summer and they might not get back to you right away if you do email! I sent a few emails out and haven't heard back because they are probably out of the office. I am going to send a few more here at the beginning of July.

Oh cowgirlsdontcry, I would love to hear about it all! Can you please message me? I was worried about being an far away online student, but that statistic is great to hear!

Whoo! When are you going to take it?

If you want to get into top tier schools like Columbia, Penn, BU, etc, I would retake it and shoot it for 160+, especially in Q for the sciences. Their average scores are usually 160-165.

I did this. I've been out of school for five years and didn't have any of my old papers to share or fix, so I wrote a completely new one on a topic that interests me but is still similar enough to my future MA program goals. Writing it and doing all the research wasn't the difficult part, the editing was! I've edited it a couple times now, and gotten feedback from multiple people (a professional editor, a graduated English master's student, and a future law student.) It was a bit stressful though so I would suggest you try an old paper first before going this route. I don't think your WOP and research interests have to align perfectly, but as fuzzy said, it should be in the same discipline. Good luck!