sr0304

amen to that scambra! i have many friends who are blindly optimistic ("why are you stressing?of course you'll get in everywhere") when they really don't understand the process, the degree of commitment, the level of stress. most of my buds (and i love em!) equate grad school with undergrad, downplaying the fact that grad applications are far more competitive and spots in programs are few.
 
sigh. i must admit i feel a kinship with my fellow "crazies." we're really not crazy...just...passionate. haha

i hear that some professors resent being contacted while they make application decisions and it actually hurts their impression of you. truthfully, i wouldn't want to hear from any applicant out of the stack of 190 forms at this time. i would think, "Why now? Why not back in September before they applied to work with me? Clearly, he/she just wants me to remember his/her name." It's difficult to pull off a contact at this time and make it work in your benefit and i don't think it's worth the risk of a bad reception.

I would ask. You do not want to walk into a situation where you have no funding.

god the vainity in some people makes me wanna gag

I'm in the humanities.  I had coffee with two of my three recommenders, both of whom have sat on admissions committees, and I asked them "should I email professors in the programs I'm applying to?"  
 
Both of them told me, essentially, "don't do it unless you have a genuine question you want answered.  It doesn't really matter, though, unless you're obnoxious, it can't hurt you."  The way one of them said it (and he was a history prof, mind you) made it sound like it was a bit of a waste of time to do so, unless it was a really good question.
 
With that advice in mind, during the process, I've emailed one prof in applying to 10 schools, and it was the director of graduate studies about a legitimate question about which sub-program I should apply to.
 
Take that for what it's worth.  I've heard it's a bit different in the sciences.

i hear that some professors resent being contacted while they make application decisions and it actually hurts their impression of you. truthfully, i wouldn't want to hear from any applicant out of the stack of 190 forms at this time. i would think, "Why now? Why not back in September before they applied to work with me? Clearly, he/she just wants me to remember his/her name." It's difficult to pull off a contact at this time and make it work in your benefit and i don't think it's worth the risk of a bad reception.

i hear that some professors resent being contacted while they make application decisions and it actually hurts their impression of you. truthfully, i wouldn't want to hear from any applicant out of the stack of 190 forms at this time. i would think, "Why now? Why not back in September before they applied to work with me? Clearly, he/she just wants me to remember his/her name." It's difficult to pull off a contact at this time and make it work in your benefit and i don't think it's worth the risk of a bad reception.

amen to that scambra! i have many friends who are blindly optimistic ("why are you stressing?of course you'll get in everywhere") when they really don't understand the process, the degree of commitment, the level of stress. most of my buds (and i love em!) equate grad school with undergrad, downplaying the fact that grad applications are far more competitive and spots in programs are few.
 
sigh. i must admit i feel a kinship with my fellow "crazies." we're really not crazy...just...passionate. haha

this may be an awkward time and place to bring this up, but is this website even healthy? i am not an obsessive, anxious person, and here I am, clicking refresh, fantasizing about getting into my dream schools, looking into acceptances and rejections from programs I don't know anything about, comparing GRE scores to see where I stand...
 
what is happening to me?
because if i'm the only one, i need to check myself. and if i'm not the only one, it would be nice to hear from you and be assured that we all take the same dose of crazy pills during this process.
 
i mean, in all candor, part of me wants to post this in the forums to find out how well or poorly everyone else is doing. so shameful.

this may be an awkward time and place to bring this up, but is this website even healthy? i am not an obsessive, anxious person, and here I am, clicking refresh, fantasizing about getting into my dream schools, looking into acceptances and rejections from programs I don't know anything about, comparing GRE scores to see where I stand...
 
what is happening to me?
because if i'm the only one, i need to check myself. and if i'm not the only one, it would be nice to hear from you and be assured that we all take the same dose of crazy pills during this process.
 
i mean, in all candor, part of me wants to post this in the forums to find out how well or poorly everyone else is doing. so shameful.

god the vainity in some people makes me wanna gag

this may be an awkward time and place to bring this up, but is this website even healthy? i am not an obsessive, anxious person, and here I am, clicking refresh, fantasizing about getting into my dream schools, looking into acceptances and rejections from programs I don't know anything about, comparing GRE scores to see where I stand...
 
what is happening to me?
because if i'm the only one, i need to check myself. and if i'm not the only one, it would be nice to hear from you and be assured that we all take the same dose of crazy pills during this process.
 
i mean, in all candor, part of me wants to post this in the forums to find out how well or poorly everyone else is doing. so shameful.

i've never heard as "theory" referred to as a method. i think you're referring to rhetorical criticism? in which case, I suggest starting with Kenneth Burke. if you want to work with rhetorical theory (Classical Antiquity, continental philosophy, critical theory, etc), then you're method section would, I imagine, function primarily to argue for why your body of literature/various theoretical perspectives are compatible and relevant to the problem/issue/question you are exploring.