davidipse

Princeton Review has a useful prep book that also includes a practice test. The book lays out the simple but practical concept of evaluating what to read by "points-per-page." E.g. Keats Odes, taken together, are as likely to turn up on the test as is, say, Joyce's Ulysses, which means the points-to-page ratio of the odes is something around 1:10 where Joyce's p-to-p is 1:1000!!! So it makes much more sense to save time you would spend on works like Ulysses for works like the Odes. http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Literature-English-Graduate-Preparation/dp/0375429719/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403375498&sr=8-1&keywords=princeton+review+gre+literature I took 2 practice tests and the GRE itself, and all 3 had a question about Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." I also remember that most of the Chaucer questions were from the General Prologue. 2 had questions about Pope's Rape of the Lock. I also think they all refered to one or other of TS Eliot's famous critical ideas: his idea of the "objective correlative" and the theses laid out in "Tradition and the Individual Talent." Good luck!

I don't think Columbia would add that much more shine to your resume if you already have a B.A. (wild guess) from Berkeley

JHU changed to 29K this year (was waitlisted)

Sorry for the spam. Using phone. Anyway: Your scores are in the ballpark. I had 4.0 writing score and got into multiple top 10s. Where are you doing your undergrad? You can pm me this if you don't want to disclose here 8@

Spam

http://www.pw.org/files/topfifty_secured.pdf That will help with figuring out program sizes.

I got an extension until midnight. Just call and ask. I also plan to call the school I'm waitlisted at a bit before the business day's over, hoping they've finalized the class.

Some of the schools I declined asked where I was going. One DGS specifically mentioned that they use the list of their rival departments (disossiated from the names of the students that went there) for when they're proding the graduate division for more funding.

So, I was (as you might remember) in a similiar pickle recently. I asked around a lot and most professors and grad students seemed to agree that only one year of teaching might put you at a serious disatvantage on the job market. But Princeton would let you teach more if you wanted (and I think they even pay you extra for any teaching you do in addition to what's required).

Hi Zabka. You might want to check this out: I'm positive about prefering the waitlist school, though I'd be happy and content at the other one too. And yes, I've already let go of my other offers, and now it's all a Beckettian wait-land.

Thanks proflorax. I was thinking of calling, but email seems better. It'd be less awkward to take no over the email!

Another option, similiar to your hotel one but likely cheaper, would be to sublet a room for a month or longer. That way, you'd have a month to look for housing.

Dear ones, Thanks, in advance, for your answers. I have X admit vs Y waitlist; I prefer Y, for personal (not academic) reasons. I know a lot of people will be making last minute decisions, so a place might open up at Y right after the April 15 deadline. The two options I can think of are the following, and I'd appreciate hearing people's thoughts on which is preferable, esp. people who have been in similiar situations: 1) Call X now and ask them for an extension of the decision deadline until, say, April 16. 2) If I don't hear back from Y until April 15, accept X's offer at the last minute. Then if Y comes through, ask X for a release. Both programs are funded, if that makes a difference to the legality of retraction. What's the least incendiary way to go about doing this!?

Good to know this (thank you). Did your advisor say what kind of risk? I assume they wouldn't rescind your admission; maybe it would sour the relationship a little, but the bitterness would probably be forgotten by August, and in any case you'd have 5 years to change their mind about you, if you do accept.

Thanks, and I agree with this, and would indeed deserve a harsh reprimand if I were asking for an extension just because I need one more day to make up my mind. But that's not the case. I'm waitlisted at School X. An extra day would mean that if a place opens up in School X in the last minute, I wouldn't have already accepted an offer at School Y. Which is the lesser evil: 1) to ask X for an extension, or 2) to accept X's offer but then, if Y's waitlist comes through, ask X for a release?