johndiligent
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Posts posted by johndiligent
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Wow, thats one early deadline. What university and semester? My earliest deadline is Dec 10.
It's for the University of Alberta. The deadline is December 1, but I'm trying to have them all in a month early. Plus I have 5 apps due in January so I'm trying to get ahead of that.
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I mailed everything for my first deadline today. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Part of me can't believe that this process is actually solidifying into reality.
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You're probably the best judge of your papers, and you seem to greatly prefer Option 2. Go with that.
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I sent a CV to every school I applied to, whether they asked or not. Given that when I was applying to PhD programs my CV was only a page, I doubt it really annoyed anyone.
That said, I never sent a writing sample, except for the one program (out of 7) that required it. Don't think it hurt me. Just make sure the SOP is well-written.
My CV's 6 pages (archaeological excavations really fill it up), but I'd prefer to send it with every application. I'll make the token move of asking every time, but I really can't see them saying, "No, we absolutely don't want to see your CV."
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I did my Honours in Classics, but I'm making a disciplinary (paradigm?) shift to Religious Studies for my graduate work.
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Awesome advice, guys, thanks.
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I have done my research on this subject but I have two CV questions. Well, one CV question and one that relates to its use. I have perused a number of CV examples and most lead off with educational and teaching experience before going into other subject areas. I used to teach computer classes to children for 3 years but I would hardly say it's relevant to my current Grad school interests. I have a bachelors of course, but also 20 units of Graduate work in my field that I completed with mostly A's, although I did not finish because of funding and family factors. SO...should I lead out with those or stick them after work experience, which is fairly extensive both in and out of my current field of interest? Also will the teaching (and other related aspects like job mentoring) make it more likely that I would be open for a teaching assistant ship?
Secondly...at last weeks job fair I was encouraged to contact this recruiter about setting up a visit to the college and meet professors/current students. He gave me his contact info and told me to reference this conversation. I'm now 99% sure I'm going to take him up on this offer. Would it be appropriate to attach the CV to email correspondence. What about the other two programs which an email at this point would be closer to a cold-call?
You should lead out with the strongest stuff, though depending on your field, I wouldn't lead with the work experience, since that will make your CV too much like a resume (there's a PhD comics joke about transforming a CV into resume, simply by moving all of the related work experience to the top of the document, instead of at the bottom). Instead, I'd start with your Education, but just don't dwell on it if you feel it's unrelated to your goals or unimpressive. You can put your grad school stuff on there, just put that you were a Non-Matriculating Student.
I don't think there's any issue with using your CV as a document to introduce yourself and your background. In fact, I think that's pretty standard.
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One of my schools does not require a writing sample. In fact, the only requirements are the online application, the application fee, the SOP, transcripts, letters of recommendation, and a CV (no GRE scores since it's a Canadian school). Would you send a writing sample anyway or should I just be content with the SOP?
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I feel like 2 MA + 1 BA is the way to go. I think that anything else will look like you weren't able to make solid relationships with your grad faculty or you're trying to hide something.
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Hey butterfingers!
Like somebody said above, it's really a sticky wicket to mention any type of mental health issue on the SOP, because for some reason a lot of academics have never quite got to the point where they understand depression as what it is: a disease, and instead they see it as someone making excuses. That said, if the adcomm is going to review your materials and not understand why your grad GPA was so low (and from what I understand it is low for a grad GPA), explanations are key. The safest way to do it is to have one of your LOR writers address it quickly, to say that while you struggled with clinical depression during grad school, there's no question of your abilities. That way you can reserve your SOP for positive stuff alone.
If that's not possible or if you feel it's insufficient, then don't belabour the point, and just briefly explain why it won't happen again.
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Hey, I'll confess, in case anyone's curious...
Age: 24
Sex: Female (I know it's not what you'd assume from my screen name, but for my internet names, I usually just pick the name of a random famous person, and then pun on it badly. Like PeterCrushing for Peter Cushing, or JohnDiligent (instead of John Dillinger), or KatharineHeartburn. It's not really meant to be funny, just easy for me to remember.
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
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Seconded. They usually waive the requirement to do TOEFL if you have studied at an institution (at the college/university level) where the primary language of instruction was English. Since you went to college in the U.S., you're fine.
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There are two rules of thumb at play here:
One is that you should always go for the strongest letter possible. If the Chair of the Department or another faculty member with name recognition barely knew you and is not likely to write a letter that states anything more than "So-and-so was a student here and is apparently applying for grad school" then it is always better to get a letter from the lecturer who knew you well and can positively and persuasively speak to your likelihood for success in graduate school.
The second rule of thumb, however, is that you should never ask someone to be a referee if they have not completed the programme for which you are applying. That is, if you are applying for MA programmes, it's fine to ask a PhD candidate. But if you're applying for a PhD, you should not ask someone who doesn't have one yet. The basic logic is that those people can't rightly be authorities on your ability to succeed at that level if they themselves have yet to complete it.
You'll need to war these two ideas against each other.
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I have a friend in that situation, and what she did is move to the city where she's doing her one-year MA at the beginning of the summer, before her September start date. She started meeting up with her advisor once a week about her MA thesis research, so by the time the fall rolled around and her programme officially began, she already knew her advisor and a few of the other professors very well, and they were more than happy to write LOR's to support her PhD application.
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Ziz, If you were accepted into Oxford, I wouldn't worry too much.
I agree with this. You have the best stats an applicant could wish for. None of your schools are traditional "safeties", but I'd be 95% sure you'll get accepted somewhere, if not to several of the places on your list.
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Calm down.
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Yes, include a CV. It's time to start building your life that way.
1. The sad part about high school stuff is that no matter how wonderful it was, even if you had an accolade from the Queen herself, at best it seems like you're padding if you include it and I think it may just draw attention to the lack of achievements in college.
2. I do think that the mountain climbing says a lot about you as a person, but I would definitely question how you could incorporate it. Will there be interviews for the programmes? You could definitely use it to help frame one of your answers.
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Thanks for all your help!
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I just used regular letter sized envelopes for the stamped, address envelopes I sent them, mostly because (here in Canada, at least) postage on a larger envelope is more variable in cost, and I didn't want any of the envelopes to get nailed for insufficient postage. I debated about it since I didn't want the LOR's to have to be folded, but then I just decided that it was easier, more cost effective, and more convenient to go with small envelopes, and the materials will likely get photocopied for all of the Ad Comm members anyway.
For the larger envelope that I sent the materials in, I went with an oversized envelope, guesstimating about 14 X 12 inches.
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So I've been reviewing plenty of the guides to writing an SOP, and many of them have suggested writing about overcoming adversity, especially if it explains some less than stellar aspects of your academic record. My problem is that I do have a story of that nature, but I consider it to be too complicated to frame in an SOP.
Basically, at the beginning of my third year of university, I was beaten up and raped by another student at the university. The previous two years, I had a 4.0 GPA but I received all W's for that year since I had sustained a serious brain injury from the incident and had to go through all of the trial nonsense once I was better. I left that university after the incident and transfered to a new university, where I did well (3.7 GPA), but attempted suicide at the end of that year, as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder (since I had suppressed memories of the event, and the flashbacks resulted in inability to sleep for a long time.) The post-traumatic stress disorder got worse before it got better, and I ended up doing pretty badly the second year I was there (2.6 GPA), while I concentrated on extensive counselling and had a reduced course load. I was going to drop out but my counsellor told me to stick with it, since part of the healing process for me was realising that progress is necessarily gradual, and to stop expecting perfection from myself (since that's what led to the suicide attempt). The next year, my final year of university, I was finally back in tip top shape, and got a 3.8 again, received several awards, all while holding three part-time jobs.
All of that is really frigging complicated, and it's hard to explain how an incident that happened so long ago affected my life for so long. I figure relating the story in my SOP will just turn it into a pity party, when I have research ideas that are more exciting/pertinent to talk about. I was thinking of including an addendum that explains the inconsistency of my grades, and points out the solid aspects of my academic background (like a 3.95 GPA in the discipline) and how I've grown from overcoming the incident and its aftermath. But, should it be in the SOP? If I put it in an addendum, will the addendum be read or simply thrown away?
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I ultimately went from 21 to 9.
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I've got 21 on my list right now, though I am going to wittle that down. I'm starting to contact professors/schools, and I'm sure I'll strike some off the list as I find out more about potential advisors, or look more closely at admissions requirements. I'm hoping to get it down to 15, which might be a bit excessive, but I have legitimate reasons to fear not getting in!
Already Freaking Out?
in Waiting it Out
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I'm pretty sure I'll have taken up smoking sometime in March.
Really, I just hope I get in SOMEWHERE. I don't want to have to go through this godawful process ever again (at least until PhD apps). That's really the sum total of my anxiety: that I won't get in anywhere at all. I could handle being rejected by 8 schools, as long as it's not all 9.