I applied for (removed at poster's request) this cycle. These are my stats: Currently enrolled in an M.A ________ (no grades yet, too early, the program is 1 year) Undergrad at _______ with a 3.6 GPA (3.77 in my major, English Lit and Fiction Writing) Studied 4 foreign languages (only 3 of which are going to be a part of my project) No publications in my field, but I did work for two years between undergrad and grad, writing for an SF bay newspaper and working as an editorial assistant at a magazine and a book publisher (I don't think this experience is at all relevant, but it is on my CV) My letters are from 3 full professors, one of whom is pretty famous, (the others are solidly respected in their field, but they work on premodern literature and I plan to do mostly 20th C with a dash of 16th C). 2 from Stanford and 1 from Columbia. They all know me pretty well, particularly the _______ prof. I think they will be very good letters. My statement of purpose is pretty strong, I think. It's about a creative topic that is growing in popularity, at the intersection of (removed at poster's request).
I applied to 7 extremely competitive programs (no safeties): 4 Ivies and _______ , _______ , and _______ . I've corresponded with professors at _______ , _______ (where one of the profs in the department I'm applying to is recommending me), _______ , _______ and _______ (of course, I'm here, they all know me at least in passing). My profs at _______ are extremely encouraging, but they say they can't guarantee anything, since every year is a crapshoot. I have 3 of 7 on the _______ adcom who are very enthusiastic about having me stay. The other 4 don't know me as well, so I have no idea what they will vote. I'm just worried that my writing sample is weak. I had to produce it in a hurry, it probably could have been better, I think there was a typo. And it's basically the most important part of the whole app :/
tl;dr: I'm super stressed because I just submitted my applications and now I have nothing to do but wait, can someone please make soothing humming noises in my ear? Thank you.
