surlefil

Thanks! I'm willing to take the train, but I'm considering staying there once a week if I take a course that starts very early in the morning.

Hi! I have a question. I will not live close to campus, so I am considering the possibility of paying for a room to stay maybe one or two nights a week. I would only need a bed and maybe some space to store some things. Maybe there are rooms in family houses or something. Do you think it would be possible to find something like that?

Thanks a lot for your input! I will consider the ones you mention. The only con of those is that they are more expensive, but we’ll see.

Hi! Could anyone recommend cell phone carriers that have good coverage in Princeton? T-mobile seems like the cheapest option, but I read in a forum that -- at least 5 years ago -- the coverage wasn't really great. Is this still like that? Thanks!

nikolas.asteri, on 03 Jun 2015 - 12:42 PM, said: Talking about cell companies, which one would you recommend? I'll be living in Morningside Heights and I read in a forum (the posts where from 2009, though) T-mobile didn't cover that neighborhood so well, but it is the cheapest service. What do you think?

You should check what is the score the programs you want to apply to ask for, and you could eventually email someone in the departments that require a high score to ask if that score would harm your chances. If I were you, I would maybe retake it and only study for the speaking section, but I would do that as long as I made sure that the most important parts of my application (writing sample and sop) are solid before devoting time and effort to retake the TOEFL.

Has your friend looked at Religious Studies programs?

I am an international student. I would say you should study to get the best score you can, just because you will discover programs that ask for high scores, especially in the speaking section, and you don't want that stupid exam to limit your options. For example, PennState asks for a ridiculously high score, and they say you shouldn't apply there if you don't have it. You should especially study for the speaking section, because it is the most stupidly difficult and the most important to be eligible as a TA. Having said that, the TOEFL is not really important in your overall application, with a score of at least 100 and a good speaking score (27 or 28 would be ideal) you're all set.

I asked people who had applied to read their statement and after reading some sops you get the idea. It is very personal, so you should work on finding some kind of conceptual web to guide the whole statement. This thread is very good: I would be glad to read your statement if you need help. I read several statements before writing mine, and I applied with my boyfriend and two friends, so I worked not only in my own statement but also in theirs. I would add the Johns Hopkins program in Humanities to the programs listed above, which are great. I was in a similar situation (albeit different, as I am probably more interested in theory than you are), because I am an international student who studied philosophy and wanted to do aesthetics with an interdisciplinary approach, so it wasn't so clear which programs were right for me. My main advice would be to look at many different programs, because you never know where you will find what you are looking for, you might find unusually interdisciplinary English programs or Comp. Lit. programs that are the opposite of what you are seeking. *edited to correct typo

I agree with many of the things you say, but I don’t believe there are any general suggestions that can be useful to everyone as regards the admission process. Everything depends on just too many factors one cannot even guess, as you said, and applicants can come from extremely diverse backgrounds. Maybe in the context of a certain application a writing sample on your AOI determines whether you will be admitted or not, and in other applications the fact that your AOI is reflected in your writing sample doesn’t matter so much, depending on your SOP, your CV, your overall profile, etc. I think the whole application one presents has to be coherent and organic. So maybe you present a writing sample on ethics and what you want to do is metaphysics, so you could explain in your SOP, for example, how your knowledge in ethical subjects has led you to be interested in metaphysics, and why. It’s just an example. If your best paper is not on your AOI and you think that could make your intellectual profile look strange, maybe you can mention something in the SOP to explain, or maybe you can present a second writing sample (maybe shorter) on your AOI, which can reflect other skills you might have and may make your application more coherent to someone who doesn’t know you. I just believe every application should be considered in itself before thinking about general statements on how applications should be in general.

Thanks!

Great! Thank you so much. $1800 would be absolutely ideal, but I wonder if it is possible to get something decent with that price. I would like to live (if it’s possible) near Penn Station... We'll see.

Hi! I'll be moving to New York in September, and will need to live in Manhattan because of the combination of PhD acceptances my fiancé and I received. I've read almost this whole thread and found very useful information, thank you! I saw many of you mentioned Craigslist, but I've heard it may not be safe to rent an apartment that has been posted there. Are there any particular things I should look at before considering a Craigslist apartment? It would be great to avoid the broker's fee but I certainly don't want to be scammed!

I don't know for sure, but I think your situation would be more of a problem if you were intending to apply to Classical Studies programs. As Infinite Zest says, I would start studying right away, and I would also try to show some skills in Greek in your writing sample (maybe translating some passages or discussing syntactic problems in the texts you work on).

I would consider, though, that it might not be a good option to accept the offer if you really don’t like the program and already know you will transfer after a year. See this: