MIA

Hi all, I'm applying to UBC's English Phd program. It says on the website that the two copies of official transcript have to be received by them in sealed endorsed envelopes. Does that mean I get my previous college to send the transcripts directly to UBC, or do I get them to send them to me and just not open the envelope and put it inside my own envelope with the rest of my application? Also, am I meant to do something similar with the LORs? Do I get my profs to send them directly to UBC or do I have them post them to me, and if they're posted to me, should they be in sealed envelopes? I didn't like the idea of everything being sent in by all these various people and not having it all together in one envelope, in case something got lost. TIA

Thank you both for your kind and detailed replies :-) I did wonder if it would act like something of cut-off criteria for a place like Columbia, as I guess you need to have some when you have 700 apps to go through!

Hi all, I was thinking about applying to Columbia's PhD program, but I was just reading their website and I saw this about their language requirement: Successful applicants will usually have achieved a good reading ability in at least one language beyond English. We accept in our program any languages that students can show will be relevant for their scholarly work: examples are Continental languages in which much theoretical and scholarly discussion is carried on (French, German, Spanish), classical languages that English-language writers often cite (Greek, Hebrew, Latin), the other literary languages of the British Isles (Irish, Welsh), and languages of major colonial and post-colonial populations closely engaged with England or the U.S. (Arabic, Hindi, Vietnamese, Zulu). Any language may be offered, so long as it bears a clear relevance to the candidate's prospective work. So does that mean you need to be proficient at the time of application, rather than gaining proficiency while doing your PhD? I just don't want to waste my time applying if I'm immediately going to be cut for not having a second language yet.

Hi all, As my subject suggests, I was wondering if any of you know of Phd programs that don't require the GRE subject test. I already know Columbia, Northwestern, Duke and U of Washington don't. TIA