Between Fields

Athenaze is an introductory and intermediate textbook (so some of the earlier chapters might be boring for you), but it does a good job of giving examples from Attic, Ionic, Homeric, and Koine (and even Doric for a little bit), so it might be helpful. Another strategy you could use would be to work back historically from the NT towards Classical Greek.

Ad hominem aside, it would be equally foolish for someone seeking a PhD in English (or anything) and for someone seeking an MFA to go into it without funding, or at least the possibility of being able to earn funding.

Unless you've published your writing (not just through ProQuest, mind you) a writing section shouldn't appear on your CV; you'd include your MA thesis title under the Education heading.

It's the start of my first finals week as a doctoral student and I suddenly find myself with the attention span of that dog from the movie Up.

This is what I've come to view as First-Semester Master's Student Syndrome. I probably had it when I was one. I saw it in the incoming cohort when I was a second year MA. I see it now in the MA students as a PhD. Basically, it boils down to you thinking that the undergrad diploma that you just got (or maybe distantly in the past got) make you an expert in the field in which you're coming to the university to get your advanced degree in, and/or going through the first few weeks of class has made you an expert of the material of the course. This isn't an accusation, just an observation of similar behavior. (Though, the fact that you're labeling your field a 'soft science' belies a self-positioning of superiority over not just your classmates but the field itself.) The point of a discussion isn't to prove you read the books or to demonstrate your mastery of the topic, rather it's a chance for you to learn from and with your peers. If people are saying things you thing are incorrect, why aren't you challenging them (tactfully, of course)? Lecture has its place. Discussion also has its place, though, and it's often unsettling for students in my discussion-based class when they realize that -they- have to be the source of knowledge, not just the professor.

8.5x11 will make everyone's life a lot easier--one of my previous jobs involved processing graduate application materials and international applications with non-US paper formats made the whole process a lot more complicated.

As an example, Missouri requires inspections on cars older than five years. In general, if you live in the Midwest, you're going to be driving a lot, unless you're in Chicago or another big city. Even in St. Louis and Kansas City, almost everyone drives because public transportation isn't as developed/accepted as it is on the coasts. But, yeah, it's state-dependent on the inspection part. Regarding the OP's question about insurance: It depends on who's providing your insurance, because each state's regulations are different in terms of how much coverage they need. In my case, Illinois doesn't require me to license the car, because I'm a student, but my insurance agent isn't licensed here so I have to get new insurance. It doesn't matter where your car is registered, but where it's 'garaged'.

The whole point of a deposit is to make it so that you've got a financial incentive not to switch schools at the last minute on them.

The majority of English PhD programs require proficiency in one or two modern or classical languages for research purposes, i.e. you have to demonstrate through an exam or through coursework that you know at least one or two languages besides English. Proficiency would mean you know your way around it well enough, 'comprehensive command' would likely mean high reading fluency. Being able to read scholarly work and/or literature in a second/third language is the goal.

I'm going to do it in two rounds, non-anonymous peer consultations (if I call it editing, all they do is edit) and then the final drafts will be swapped between my two sections for actual peer evaluation, which is why it needs to be anonymous (institutional regulations and FERPA). The grades their peers assign will stand, unless someone decides to appeal. I'm really excited about trying it out.

I appreciate the feedback! I did figure out how to strip a Word file of its metadata, but the PDF route could be the way to go. One of my colleagues suggested having them make throwaway Google accounts for this class, so they can use that platform without risking identifying themselves. I'm thinking, though, that paper might be the best solution, but I teach in classrooms with computers and so it seems silly for me to have them print things.

Next semester, I'm going to attempt a peer grading scheme that will involve trading papers between my two sections of English 101. This has been approved by the director of the writing program, as long as the work remains anonymous. The easiest way to do this would to be to take paper copies, use a black marker on the names, and then make photocopies for the group members, but this would be 50 assignment packets times 4 copies per unit, or almost 2000 pages per unit, which doesn't seem sustainable. If I have them give me files, I could distribute them on Dropbox, but they could still find the name in the metadata of the file. If I get files and then copy the text to Google Docs, it means probably a few hours of work to get things copied over and checked for formatting. This is probably the route I'll go, because the work at this stage counter-balances the limited actual grading I'll have to do, but it still sounds like a pain. If I let them make their own Google Docs, the username will be visible. Do any of you have a possible technological solution for anonymizing files/stripping their metadata, or publishing a Google Doc anonymously?

Your friend writing your essay is another kind of academic misconduct. So, you really were academically dishonest three times, but only see two times. That's an issue. Graduate school probably isn't for you.

A number of universities won't count a 'C' towards the program, but the terminate/dismiss/prohibit from getting an MA policy is often something like two classes worth of C or lower work. So, it's theoretically possible to get an F and get the degree still. (This of course varies from school to school, but it's the most common policy I've seen.)

To be frank, an F in a grad class is like rolling a natural 0 in Dungeons and Dragons--it's a critical failure, beyond simply passing the skill test that was the course, and it's going to have repercussions. I'm sure the OP knows this, though. I'm not sure that an F can be explained away in a personal statement, not thinking about rankings at all, when it comes to PhD programs. Undergrad is the time when you can make those sorts of mistakes and the MA is where you fix them. It'd take another year (or two years maybe) of solid A work to demonstrate upward trajectory from that grade. A B would mean you did all the stuff and it just didn't pan out for you. An F means you've failed somehow in studenting (as one of my professors puts it), and that's a definite red flag for a committee who's going to be deciding whether or not to invest in you for five years of funding and energy.

Most interdisciplinary studies program require some sort of individualized education plan and degree proposal before major coursework is begun. Even if you could design the major post-admission, it's doubtful that a US institution would accept all 90 credits of your previous coursework from an international institution. Figure you'll need 30-60 credits for the general education portion of a bachelor's degree, especially if you end up at a state school with governmental requirements, in addition to whatever you'd need to fill out for your major. It'd probably be easier to get a bachelor's degree in India and then try for master's programs here, which will probably have a lot less coursework involved.

Just like being white or male is a disadvantage with affirmative action, right? Please. I'll be honest: mentioning it did help my admissions decisions, partially because it helped explain some trouble I had in my first two years of undergrad (depression and other issues), but also because I'd been able to demonstrate an interest in working on LGBTQ issues professionally. For Geology, this second part might not be so important (are there gay rocks you'd want to study? ), but perhaps the first part could if you need it to. Re: hreaðemus' point: I'm not sure this is a universal conclusion, and seems highly field-dependent. columbia09, you could get in contact with the people who did Queer in STEM (http://www.queerstem.org) to see if they have any advice.

The person who would be answering your question, i.e. someone working in the graduate school admissions office, wouldn't have any impact on your admissions decision.

The only way to know for sure is to contact that program and ask.

The only way it would be an issue is if you had transferred the credit as part of your undergraduate degree, then some institutions might want those transcripts. I had to send copies of my dual credit transcripts for several of my PhD applications. Otherwise, they'd have no way to no, and if pressed you would just explain that it's dual credit you took in high school that you didn't end up transferring, because that's what it was.

Sometimes, as others have said, there are hard requirements for the language test that don't have a lot of wiggle room. This is especially true if you're seeking an assistantship, as a lot of states have laws that mandate minimums in English proficiency for employees in instructional capacities that the university simply can't override. It's possible that the department could give you an RA instead of a TA to help get around this, but some universities just won't play ball with that at all. Is there anyway you could retake and hope to earn that extra point? It'll make things easier for you in the long run. Public universities in general are harder for international students to get into, just because of the realities of international tuition costs and state funding models, so anything you can do to play by the book is going to be a great bonus for you.

I have a new 15" Macbook, and though it's heavier than 13" laptops for obvious reasons, it's still incredibly light and easy to carry around. It's not really any heavier than carrying around a few books with you. The added screen real estate is worth it, along with the performance increases you get with the larger model. As others have said before, even a 15" isn't big enough for everything you'll want to do. I have a Thunderbolt display I use with it at home, which gives you the benefit of a huge iMac-like display but the portability of a laptop. I've used my colleagues 11" and 13" Macbook Airs in class before and they're just too small for me, especially when you need to look at multiple documents at once. The 15" screen is especially nice in my office on campus, as I wouldn't want to keep an external monitor there and sometimes I need to show things to students who stop by.

We talked about this a little bit in another thread: Basically, it depends on the medium your reader is going to be presented with. Digital texts work better with sans-serif fonts, but print texts work better with serif fonts. The serifs make it easier to tell the difference between letters like 'l' and 'I', and in general make a text easier to read when it's really long. Even a Retina display doesn't have sufficient DPI to make serifs worth-while for digital documents. (And one of the links talked about in the other thread says that they can be difficult for people with visual impairments to understand.) I like Helvetica when I'm in a sans-serif mode and Palatino or Cambria when I'm in a serif mode. http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/quality/documents/StandardofAccessibility.pdf http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/03/serif-vs-sans-the-final-battle/

I'm a first-year PhD (I already have an MA), and I would estimate that I probably spend about 30 hours working on a given week. I skim most of the articles I'm assigned at to look for main ideas and concepts, and go back to read them again after class if I think I'll be using them in my research. We're, for instance, reading an epic per week in my literature class; I'd rather skim most of it and really focus on one area than read the whole thing thoroughly and go crazy. I also structure my courses that I'm teaching to limit the amount of grading I have to do during the semester. There are three points in the semester when I actually have papers from them, so that might jump it up to about a 40 hour week. This isn't counting the time I spend thinking about things for the program and various service/PD events I'm involved in. On average, I'd say I work a shorter week than other students in my program, but I don't feel any less successful (at least at this point).

In my experience, it's the exact opposite from what you're stating. The personal statement is the piece of your application that tells the committee not only why you want to get a PhD, but why you want to get it there. 4.0's with excellent GRE scores are a dime a dozen (especially in the humanities), and there's only so much a writing sample can tell a committee without an SoP explaining what that applicant's research trajectory might look like. I still get the grad director referring to things I said in my personal statement, half a semester into my program. surefire is right; connect the dots for the committee. Besides, if you start researching the faculty and figure out that there's not actually anyone there that you'd want to work with, maybe you'll realize you don't want to apply there after all. The SoP is as much a writing-to-think exercise as it is a platform to get you into grad school.