rainy_day

I would really recommend that the day of the exam you eat and drink as you normally would. Have a cup of coffee if you normally do each morning, but don't have 3 extra cups b/c you'll just feel jittery and likely crash midway through the 4+ hour test.

I know a lot of people who are serious about their applications, but less interested in social networking, so they don't come to grad cafe. There are also a lot more people reading these forums than commenting on them, so I think it's hard to gauge. Either way, I think we're a self selected group here, and therefor can't be considered a microcosm of applicants as a whole.

Hey all, I just took my test yesterday. I was such a panicky mess over it that I almost didn't go, but I rallied and got a 710-800 range for verbal! So have a bit of faith in yourself; that's my biggest advice. Some advice: for the verbal, it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with some science writing. A lot of the reading comp was a scientific-style text, and i imagine most verbal focused focus aren't as used to this writing style. I don't think memorizing words will be that helpful, but looking at roots, prefixes, etc and trying to breakdown the meaning of words will probably come in handy. The real trick is being able to use context to determine words and word meaning. This is what you already do every day! So pay attention to how you use those skills, and you'll do great on the day of. I really wish I had spent 30 mins reviewing some common, basic math concepts. Math is really not relevant for my programs, but if I had reviewed some basic stuff (formula for area of a triangle, the different types of averages) the whole math section would have been so much easier, and I think that would have made the test as a whole less exhausting, allowing me to be better focused in the verbal sections, where it really mattered.

Studying vocal words on their own will not do all that much to help you out, honestly. The test is designed to see if you can determine words in context. I think taking practice tests will be the most help, honestly, and spend time reading high level books or articles. I did purchase Princetons Verbal-specific book for the New GRE (so thats an option for you) but it wasn't that much more helpful than the general GRE book by Kaplan I had.

AW scores are not heavily weighted. Why would a program spend much time considering a score partially determined by a computer, when they have your writing sample, sop, and LORs in front of them? Congrats on your good scores; don't worry about the AW.

In my dept, as others have suggested, it's almost more of a formality than anything, and they want you to pick a language that is related to your research, but that doesn't mean it has to be the#1best fit. Spanish may be ideal,but that doesn't mean French is irrelevant for you.

I wouldn't regret the French just yet. To waht extent do you plan on working with theory? A lot of 20th century theory was originally written in French: Foucault, Derrida, Barthes, Bourdieu, Baudrillard, Cixous, Irigaray, Lourde, Lacan, etc.

Make your decision based on fit, fit, fit.

Having a paper trail might help you out here. Maybe after you discuss something with this advisor, it would be worthwhile to write an email saying something along the lines of "it was great to talk with you about X. I'm glad you liked my idea, Y." this might help remind your prof where his ideas are coming from and might give you some confidence in asserting "wait, Y was my idea." Good luck

I think if pi sic is a big part of your perspective, you definitely ahold include it in your sop, just make sure you connect it to rhet/comp successfully. (in my MA SOP I had a whole paragraph about a religion paper I'd written, for the same reasons you give.) As for the writing sample, I would definitely encourage you to spend your time revising the paper you already have.

I have lived in Boston for 8 years, and had Verizon the whole time, and it's always worked really great. That being said, if you wanted to switch from Verizon to, say, AT&T (the other big carier around here, I think) they have to let you keep your phone number. Hope this helps.

Oh, well now I'm even more jealous of you. I'm currently in an MA program that is pretty small and, as a result, has a pretty small course offering each semestser. I would be lying if I didn't say it was disappointing at times. But on the other hand: small makes it easier to build a close relationship with faculty and, as long as there are enough people doing research in areas that interest you, you can always take their classes. (I love my program, but ultimately the reason I'm not aplying here for a PhD is the lack of faculty interested in what I want to do, so the small course offerings can sometimes be a problem.)

I don't know a ton about aesthetics, but I feel like I'm seeing it everywhere in researching for programs. Doing a search for some theory minded places, and browsing faculty for interests in aesthetics might be an interesting project; then you could read some of their work. Scarry might be a nice summer read, too. I take issue with a lot of her arguments personally, but it's really short and very readable; it might be a good way to explore aesthetics in a more low-key way. And your interests in langauge definitely seem like they would go nicely with aesthetics. (Also, I'm of the opinion that if you have interests, you will find a way to put them together.) Bourideu's Language and Power might be really interesting to you, too, based on what you've mentioned here. It's a long book, and can feel rrepetitve, but I find the first two chapters fascinating. Good luck!

Honestly, the AW score for GRE's is unreliable at best, and from my understanding this is widely accepted. You're writing sample (if that's required for CS programs?), SOP, LORs, and GPA carry far greater weight (than the most arbitrary part of an arbitrary exam, imo). Carry on; do not fear! And congrats on your great scores in Verbal & Quant!

omg, you'd get to live in Paris? What are you waiting for? Okay, sorry, I recognize that I'm projecting my own obsession with Paris, but the program sounds great and it's a once-in-a-lieftime experience, as they say. Random stranger on the itnernet vote: Do it!

I would be warry of lumping cultural studies and postcolonial theory/critical race theory, etc together. Ven diagram style, there is lots of overlap, but the two operate in different spheres and can take place without the other. Yes, I'm being nit-picky, but better me than an adcomm, right? In my mind aesthetics is the sub-field to do best develop your ideas re: cannonicity. (Elaine Scarry's On Beauty comes to mind.) An independent study sounds like a really fantastic place to dig into these questions. In order to adequately address these issues, though, you can't ignore cultural studies, etc. without doing a disservice to your own work, as these locations are home to the strongest argument opposing your own. And if aesthetics ends up being your thing, there are lots of people out there interseted in this sub-field, with varying degrees of cultural studies mixed up in their theories. If you're considering philophy as a good home for your research interests (a field I admittedly know little about), I'd encourage you to take some upper level courses in the discipline, to see how they fit re: your interests. For a while I considered going to into religious studies, and having taken some upper level classes I had both acquired a mentor in the department and had a better sense of the discipline.

Your adviosr is definitely the best person to talk with in this sitaution. I would recommend making a tentative schedule first, based on the classes that you are most interested in, and then contact your advisor for, well, advice.

Well I'm terrible at the Analogy & Antonym sections, and so I decided my retake will be the new gre (my old scores are from pre-MA). You could try taking the new test (they have a pdf about it with sample questions, etc.) and see how you do comparatively! Personally, no amount of studying is going to improve my ability with antonym and anologies *that* much, and I do really well on the new types of questions. Math is largely irrelevant for me (English. Does it matter for Sociology?) and the new test gives you a calculator! Anyway, personally, I think I will do better on the new GRE with less studying, so I'm going for that. Also, it's only $80 if you take it in August or September, and I like the idea of giving ETS even less of my $$.

Everyone's advice here is really great. I'll add: 1. Give. Yourself. Time. With that time: 2. Really research programs and faculty fit. Read their work! Three sentences of a website bio are not enough for you to know if this is a good fit or to write a thoroughly personalized SOP. 3. Draft an SOP early enough to have your LORs look at it. Revise. Have it reviewed again. Etc. 4. Triple check that envelope before you send it off. It's embarassing when School A calls you because they have School B's application. (Theoretically speaking, of course.)

Reading the deatils of other people's application can drive you mad! Just keep working and revising your best piece of work, and try to trust in yourself. I think that if a student *has* been in graduate school, the expectations might be higher for that individual (I've read as much regarding GRE schools), so I think that schools factor in grad/undergrad experience when they look at an applicant. Either way, though I think one of the most important things about this application process is trying not to stress about the things you can't control.

If your weakness is antonyms/analogies, you actually might want to wait and retake it once the new test comes ot, as those two sections are (as far as I know) removed in the new GRE. Edited to add: Yes, those two sections are being removed. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17popquiz-t.html

If you want to get into media, publishing, etc. you can check out mediabistro.com and the websites of publishing companies.

I'm halfway though my MA and I have a question for the forum regarding LORs. Obviously, the majority of my letter writers will be profs from grad school, but I'm wondering if it is a good idea to have one letter from undergrad? I worked really closely with one prof in undergrad (I took lots of classes with her, and she was the reader for my honors thesis. Heck, we had dinner last week, and I'm dog sitting for her next week.) So I know she'll write a really excellent letter for me (she did for my MA applications) and I'm 99% set on asking her. But, is there some secret stigma associated with such a letter that I'm unaware of?

What thematic subfield(s) are you interested in? I might be able to make some recommendations. If you write about how you just want to focus on theory, it will sound the same as someone saying they just want to focus on literature, unfortuantely. What you are proposing is unconventional, so it'll be important to discuss your interests and objectives with a lot of nuance. (Which you probably already realize.) There is a certain amount of flexibility re: time/genre concentration in some places, but unfortunaetly the discipline is still structured according to these categories. I would recommend really looking at individual profs in your research of programs, and tailor your SOP to the handful of folks at any given program. (Warning: Don't go somewhere with only one good-looking person, because they might leave on you, and then you're screwed.)