BunnyWantsaPhD

I'm so frustrated with the SOP. Everyone has conflicting advice. Some* say not to mention personal life stories at all, others say to add that in to make your story unique. Some say don't talk about anything that is on your CV, others say that you should elaborate and discuss what's on your CV because it is part of your academic "journey." I understand when you only have 300-500 word SOP, but when you have more than that what else would you talk about besides your research interests and fit with the program? How do you stand out? My other issue is with the schools that require an academic SOP AND a personal statement. For example, one school wants an academic statement "about your academic and research background, your career goals, and how our graduate program will help you meet your career and educational objectives." And a personal statement that describes the "personal background and life experiences, including social, cultural, familial, educational, or other opportunities or challenges, motivated your decision to pursue a graduate degree." So, if we're not really supposed to talk about our parents, class, race, gender etc and we've already talked about educational/work experiences in the academic SOP, then what the hell do we talk about in the personal statement? Any advice? *when I say "some," I mean anyone I've talked to--people on GradCafe, professors, etc.

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely take this all into consideration.

Haha, thx. Glad you enjoy my off topic comments.

I agree with everyone else that you shouldn't retake it. But, more importantly--mind, sharing how you scored a 170?! I'm currently studying right now and I'm a horrible test taker. Any advice would be great. (though, I have a feeling there's no secret to cracking this thing).

I definitely understand what you're saying. In a normal paper, I definitely wouldn't "dance around my point." The problem I was pointing out was that in a 37 page thesis chapter (that is already being cut down to fit WS requirements), it was hard to figure out if I should rearrange everything since the first few pages were introducing the chapter as a whole. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that you probably knew what I meant. Long story short, I'm taking your advice and revising the chapter so that I get to my point by the end of the first page. One thing I've realized throughout this process is that even though all of my recommendation writers said the chapter was fine (and I've had a few other profs look at it and they said the same thing too), I'm going to change the draft so that it fits *my* definition of what a WS should look like and should do. At the end of the day, I want to turn in something that I'm proud of and think represents my best work. I don't want to look back and think "I should have revised the first 3 pages so that the thesis came sooner, but since my recommendation writers said it was fine I didn't do it." I think that we just all need to listen to ourselves a bit more. After all, if we're qualified to be in academia we do know something, right? (sorry for being a little off topic).

I used the same paper last year for all of my programs; I just cut out certain parts of it and added footnotes to explain what was missing. Not sure if that was a bad idea or not, but oh well. I think I trimmed out some other aspects altogether. I'm always surprised when people say that they used different drafts for different applications. Not in terms of page length--if you have a 10 page paper (though I've never seen an application as for so short of a paper) and a different paper that is 20 pages and you like them both, then yeah, cut down on the revision time and just send different papers for different applications. What I'm surprised by is people saying that they send different things depending on what department they are applying to. I mean, if you say that you want to study Victorian Literature and Gender, shouldn't your paper deal with that topic? Or, put it another way, shouldn't your paper represent what you want to study and if it doesn't fit that department then you shouldn't be applying there?

Glad someone thinks it's good advice ; ) ...I definitely agree with the different types of writing samples required for the MA versus the PhD. Unfortunately, that means I feel so much more pressure to produce something awesome since I already have an MA. As far as page length goes, I think it's best to just use common sense (sorry, I don't mean that to sound insulting). If someone asks for 20 pages and you give them 30, you can bet that they aren't going to read the extra 10 and might be a bit frustrated/think that you didn't pay attention to the requirements. If you give them 18-22 they probably aren't going to care. At least that's my two cents.

One revision suggestion I was given was to really think about audience--I know this sounds ridiculously obvious, but bare with me. For some reason, when using the thesis chapter as my sample, I really only focused on editing/revising for page length. I totally forgot that the thesis was initially geared towards my thesis committee and thus some things were put in there specifically for a committee member who was unfamiliar with the time period. I wish I had thought to take these things out when sending it off to phd programs who would have been familiar with these aspects. It would have been another way to cut it down as well. So, go with the obvious---think about who is actually reading it (the PhD committee members). My apologies if this is a complete waste of your time. I just hadn't thought of it before (as far as taking things out that they would be familiar with that some of my committee members were not).

Sent my MA thesis chapter to a previous undergraduate professor (who is also a leading Victorian studies scholar) and he said it was a good example of my writing and that I should use it!! He of course gave me some revision suggestions, but they don't sound too bad compared to writing a whole new paper. Anyways, this doesn't really help anyone, but I just had to share my excitement, lol.

I can't think of any schools off the top of my head, but I'd double check a lot of the schools in the top 50 that you said you've already checked out. I'm personally looking into gender/19th century and finding that most programs say that they deal with gender theory, but it's always a focus on women/women's writing and doesn't really talk about masculinity. Also, as someone suggested before, research where the people you read work and go from there--you'll find that many of them fit into the high ranking schools; it's just an easier way to find them instead of searching primarily by school.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to use a chapter of my MA thesis. I think the chapter is okay (it's so hard to judge my own work) and my advisors like it and think I should use it. The problem that I have is that most of the literature review is in the introduction, so I think it looks like there isn't enough research throughout this chapter. Also, I take a few more pages than a normal paper to get at the thesis etc., but grad school application reviewers should be aware of the typical structure differences, right? I'm also working on 2 conferences papers that could possibly be adapted. I just want to take the easy way out and use a chapter from my thesis since it's already been worked on a billion times. Does anyone have any advice on this? If you're choosing to edit your thesis, how exactly are you editing it? (i.e. are you adding in more research, rearranging thesis paragraphs, etc?).

ooops--shoulda looked around better! Thanks!

I'm sure this question has been addressed in other places, but I thought I'd give it a place of its own to be discussed. I'm just curious about what people (who have already gone through the application process before and not been successful) are doing differently this time. Also, if anyone has done multiple rounds of applications and was finally successful, I'd love to hear your stories/get advice as well!

Right. Getting into a top tier program is my goal right now. At this point, I'm just trying to figure out how to go about doing that. I mean, I know everything that I'm supposed to do to get in (great writing sample, SOP, letters of rec, GRE scores, etc etc), but it's just hard to measure what "great" means when there are so many great candidates out there. Right now I'm focusing on narrowing my list of schools down by making sure I fit the program. It's getting harder to know what fit means the longer I look at the department webpages. I mean, there are a few schools that I think I obviously fit well with and then there are other schools that seem to have 2-3 people I could work with as well. How many perspective POI do you guys think we should have/mention in the SOP? I think my brain is just mush right now.

I know, you all are right. The situation is not good (to say the least). But, how do you know if you're going to be the one to get the tenure track job or not? Obviously none of us do. I definitely think if there was anything else I was interested in doing I would steer clear of the PhD in humanities track. Unfortunately, I don't want to do anything else. Guess I'll do the PhD and hope I'm one of the lucky ones... : /

So since I'm doing another round of applications this year, I'm currently applying for adjunct positions in the meantime. And, I gotta say, it's really depressing. Looks like most places (and I'm in the Midwest, btw) only pay around $2000-$2500 per class! I didn't know where else to post this so I thought I'd just talk about it here...is anyone else having similar issues? How are you all surviving? Also, how do you have enough time to actually work on the applications when you're spreading yourself thin teaching at different places. Help! Someone send me some happy thoughts to live on since apparently I won't be living off of money.

Sorry, I'm replying to your question, but I don't really have an answer to it! I will say this though: It seems like your interests have changed a bit--so much so that you seem a bit unclear on what your interests actually are now. I think you need to sit down and really think through what your area of study is and then try to find people who work in that area. Look at who publishes the articles/books you're reading and then figure out where they work. The other way to do things--which is really long and tedious as well--is to go through the top 50 programs and looks at their lists of faculty and see who you want to study with. Then, find what they publish, read it, and see if it fits your interests. This seems to be working out better for me this year... I did a round of applications last year that were pretty unsuccessful (I got into 1 PhD program, but decided it wasn't the place for me). When I was doing my search for places to apply, I basically looked at rankings and location (I only wanted to stay in one area of the country). This time, I'm focusing entirely on fit (and rankings, still). There are about 12 places I'm considering, and for about most of them, but 3 in particular, I feel so excited about applying and could go on and on and on about why I fit their program. I have no idea how well this is all going to go, but I just feel like I know more about what my interests are and more about the schools this time around. Last year I felt like I was in your position--i.e. "Let me just find schools that have Victorian stuff and I'll be fine" instead of what I'm doing now "let me find places that have professors who have a similar take on Victorian studies that I am really excited to work with" (the second one sounds better, eh?). Good luck! It's a long process, but you'll do fine as long as you're clear about what your interests are and why you want to go to said program. So, looks like you're in the researching phase!

Those are all good questions, but it just seems unlikely that many programs would be able to answer them. That might tell you a lot about a particular program and make you want to decide to go elsewhere, but I think drilling a director of graduate studies about those types of statistics isn't going to get you anywhere fast. I'm not saying that placement rates don't matter. I will say that fit, along with ranking of the program, is more important. (not trying to insinuate that you're arguing otherwise). FYI, I think I'm just getting cynical about this whole process...

A lot of times on the descriptions of the profs it'll list previous courses they've taught, so you can check it out that wayt too.

Honestly, I'm starting to feel like having a more diverse background makes you way more competitive. I mean, saying that you have a BA in English/Philosophy, took off a few years where you most likely grew/matured from traveling and having different jobs, and then did the MA in Education, taught for a few years, went back for your MFA and eventually want to get a Phd in something that somehow bridges the gaps between all of your interests, to me, sounds a lot better than "I have a BA in English where I loved victorian lit, then I got an MA which focused on Victorian lit., and now I want to get a Phd that focuses on Victorian lit." It just seems to me that having a diverse background, but still being able to show how your background has brought you to the point where you are ready to pursue your Phd sounds a lot better than someone who has had the same interests for a long time (and I say that as someone who has had the same interests for a long time). I think that people who have "non-traditional (?)" backgrounds tend to feel inadequate/fear looking like they are confused, and people who have "traditional" backgrounds tend to feel less unique. Maybe the grass is just greener on the other side and the important thing to do is to show that you fit with the programs you are applying to? Here's to hoping that's the case. Anyways, sorry, that didn't really answer your question about advice for applications. Just really me pondering...but, I guess my advice would be to figure out how your background all ties together and has led you to what you want to study for your phd (as far as what you should say in your SOP).

I believe this article has been posted before on gradcafe, but I thought I'd share it again here. Interesting perspective on placement rates. This article made me re-think caring about them and instead I focus on rank of the program and fit. http://chronicle.com/article/An-Open-Letter-From-a-Director/64882/

I'd suggest just calling the department--the secretaries are usually pretty helpful and they'll give you a better/quicker answer than anyone here probably would.

In case anyone is curious, 28 out of the top 50 programs (rankings according to the US News) DO NOT require the subject test. It might be 30 out of 50 but two of the websites I was trying to look at weren't working. I'm still in the process of deciding which programs to apply to, but I have a feeling that there's plenty to choose from that don't require the test. I'm not taking it as of this point--unless there's a school that I absolutely must go to. We'll see...

All good advice. Maybe I'll take a couple of practice tests and see how I fare on those... I've just never been good at standardized tests and always hated trivia games. I took one glance at a practice test a couple of months ago and just panicked and shut the book. I'll give it another shot. The most important thing to my applications this round (yes, I've applied before) is fit. So, if I find programs that have perfect fit and require the test, I'll make myself take it.

That's reassuring! I think that's the route I'll probably take...