andromache

I have no backup plan and it's honestly terrifying.

I reminded her several times via email that she hadn't yet gotten to that one (after submitting Brown and Irvine late) and she never got it in. I'm assuming the required number was 3, wasn't it? So no, I did not, which is so frustrating.

Applied to both of these--my late rec letter writer didn't even submit her letter to UChicago, for whatever reason, which is unfortunate because I think it's the school I have the best FIT with. Such a disappointment.

I also applied to Irvine. Unfortunately one of my rec letter writers was two weeks in submitting my LOR so I'm wondering how that /could/ impact my admission. Not that I had a huge shot anyway?

Implied rejection from two schools out of 13. And of another two of those 13 schools, my professor submitted LOR late, which probably significantly hurts my chances at those universities, too. Honestly I'd like to get into ONE place. I know I belong in academia and that I would succeed there, even at a prestigious institution even though I haven't had the opportunities at an expensive, prestigious undergrad like many others have.

More Northwestern acceptances up. Looks like a rejection for me. I was hoping not to deal with all this over the weekend.

If Vanderbilt is spreading things out over a few days, waiting over the weekend for Monday to come is going to be stressful.

I applied to Vanderbilt and haven't heard back

Finishing two of my final applications to submit tonight. Also still freaking out over the fact that one of my recommenders submitted a few of her letters an entire month late, despite my attempts to stay in touch with her, send her kind reminder emails, etc. I'm terrified it will wreck my already slim chances.

Question: when applying for PhD programs at universities that also offer an MA, is it always appropriate to add in your statement of purpose that you'd like to be considered for the MA if they don't want you for the PhD? Or is this something that you should only do if the program's website specifically instructs you to?

Is anyone applying to UC Irvine? Their personal history statement doesn't seem to have a character or word limit, and I'm wondering what sort of length is appropriate for their personal history statement.

Well, this is kind of depressing.

Off the top of my head, I know that UChicago does not require (or even want) your GRE Subject test score for Literature. As far as if your verbal score is good enough, I'm not speaking from any of my own experience here, just what I've read from other people, sites, etc--but you probably want your verbal to be in the 90%+ for a top ten school. Like I said, this probably isn't /for sure/ but just has been the impression I've gotten from my own research.

I have a similar question in regards to these personal history/diversity statements--do you all think it's okay to bring up my bisexuality in these, and then tie it to my interest in Gender and Sexuality Studies within the Literature field? I was thinking something along the lines of furthering the study of bisexuality in literature, as it's something that has been largely ignored in the history of literary studies (characters usually being interpreted as secretly gay or entirely straight, for example). Or is tying my personal info to my academic interests in such a way frowned upon?

Any literature applicants want to swap SoPs with me? I've just about finished drafting mine for University of Chicago (have no idea how to end it though...) and could use some feedback!

I'm applying to grad school for the first time--applying to 16 programs, a mix of MA and PhD programs. I can't help but think I'm so out of my depth though. My B.A. is from a public university in Pennsylvania, and definitely not a top-tier one, although I feel like I got as much out of my undergrad education as I could, and learned a ton from the faculty there. I have a high GPA, strong GRE scores, and a few other excellent qualities, but part of me thinks I might be automatically disqualified from universities that I'd really like to go to, like University of Chicago and NYU. It's just very stressful wondering if I'm aiming too high and that all this effort I'm putting in is for nothing.

I was looking into applying for programs last year (ended up not, but) and the page limits were more in the range of 15-25 pages. This year, many more are 10-15 pages, and Carnegie Mellon's PhD program has a maximum of 10 pages.

Including several images plus the works cited page, my writing sample is currently 28 pages long. What is the typical expectation for things like images and the works cited when trying to fit page limits? If a page limit is ten pages, is it alright to submit 12 pages, allowing for things like images and the works cited page? In addition, what would the proper format be for omitting parts of the paper in order to make it shorter? A brief summary of a cut section in italics, maybe?