newcircuitry

I can let you know from experience that if something is missing from your Cornell app, they will let you know. They hadn't received a copy of my official transcript from my undergrad and asked me to send it again (my school sent out sealed official transcripts itself directly to other institutions). Cornell was also really accommodating and allowed me to send an unofficial transcript so that my application could be processed more quickly. Also, don't take whatever "tetchyness" you experienced as representative of the program -- the whole department is eminently laid-back and understanding. Good luck to all of you!

The only "good" specialization is the one you are extremely passionate about. It's kind of a silly question, because what you should know before applying is that in graduate school (and presumably for the rest of your life after graduate school), you will eat/sleep/breathe your specialization. Of course, there are opportunities to diverge, but the core of your learning and research will be the period/genre/authors you focus on in graduate school. Don't choose something based on someone else's opinion-- choose it based on how much you love a particular topic. In terms of picking a specialization, anything else is a very, very distant second in terms of importance. In fact, the only reason to apply to graduate school, in my opinion, is to immerse yourself to (nearly) the point of exhaustion in a specialization. Are you willing to do this with every one of those proposed fields? There are certainly broader ways to define a specialization (gender studies or theory in general can take literature from many periods) but they are nonetheless rigorously connected to basic passion for a particular discourse. Knowing what you love, what you are willing to allow overtake your professional career, will also help you in your applications.

A cursory glance at it confirms that it is better than their old website. Their old website was fully embarrassing, in my opinion.

Honestly, for someone like you (top-tier undergrad, high GPA, presumably strong recommendations), the GRE should not matter very much at all. My advisors explained that the test is really only considered when the remainder of the application does not sufficiently indicate a person's level of academic development. The idea is to not do poorly enough to draw attention. "Poorly," I imagine, would be something under 650 on the Verbal and under 620 or so on the Lit test (some top-tier schools, like Columbia, don't even want to see the Lit. test score, so you can imagine that other schools weigh it quite lightly). It's probable that you can bomb the GRE Math and have no issues-- but then again, the idea is to not have any blemishes at all on your application, so at least shoot for not embarrassing yourself. My GRE scores were by no means stellar (lower than any you've reported-- save for Math, which I inexplicably aced), but I had what I imagine were very strong recs and a solid writing sample. I also didn't publish anything as an undergrad (Stanford). But I(naively, admittedly) only applied to top-10 schools and was fairly successful. Focus on the aspects of your application that are actually representative of you and your strengths, and view the GRE as a formality.

I've sort of given up on on-campus housing. I'm looking at Novarr-Mackesey properties and they seem really nice. I've found some relatively good deals on two-bedroom apartments (the one-bedroom apartments they have left are prohibitively expensive, in my opinion). If you're interested in going in on an apartment in the downtown area, message me and we can talk about details.

I'm a first-year transitioning directly from undergrad on the west coast. As such, I think I'll want to stay in university housing the first year. Any opinions on Hasbrouck housing in terms of location/costs/convenience? (Most people I've spoken to recommend it above Maplewood.) Ease of transition is a really high priority for me; I figure I can survey the area during the year to find better housing off campus starting the second year. Anyone else planning on doing this? Any idea of what parking around Hasbrouck is like?

Having recently attained what I consider success in the admissions cycle, I think what I would emphasize amidst all of this great advice you're getting is not stuff like your scores (what compelled me to respond is really that our numbers are unsettlingly similar! In any places we differ, you actually performed better than I did. To think our roles could so easily have been reversed if numbers mattered so much...). Admittedly, I went to a high-ranked undergraduate program, my field is Renaissance, and my adviser is, as professors go, fairly well-known in the field. Yet I think the success of my application was a concept one of my advisers directed me toward: coherence. The overall package of my application presented as much of my intellectual development as possible, and emphasized my particular strengths. This centered on my writing sample. I was not confident, at first, in my writing sample and personal statement, but I expended so much sweat on them that I honestly believe they pushed me through the gates of some great programs. Here's my suggestion: Theory, or at least a knowing nod to theory, is pretty important. Knowing (and also being able to close-read with a sense of historical purpose) non-canonical literature also helped me (though this may be less significant for studies in Modern). My writing sample was a chapter of my honors thesis, but I opened it with a survey of the theoretical techniques and touchstones I utilize throughout my thesis (such as speech-act theory, languages and political thought, etc.). I also noted the most important figures in my theoretical development right in my personal statement, a sentence or so each. This formed discernible links between my personal statement and my writing sample. In my statement, I was also sure to list 2-3 (sometimes 4) professors at each school. One Renaissance, at least, but also at least one (in whatever field) whose theoretical approach I could relate with. The next step is to demonstrate to the people writing your recommendations how you've developed this broad-scope theoretical approach. Impress them with your reading of certain theorists, ask them for opinions on which theorists and what literature you should consider. Also ask them for which faculty members you should include in your statement. This is all stuff, I think, they'll remember to put in your recs, as well. Honestly, you have everything you need to get into a top-20 school (I only applied to those, too). The "coherence" approach worked for me, and I think it turned out a pretty good application. Very best of luck.