[Not a good sign?]

Just my recently acquired experience:

I was invited today for an interview scheduled Feb 3-4, approx. a week and a half. Also, the email was very specific about the number of people invited and that number includes about 4 more than the number I've been told by the DGS that they intend to accept. So, it appears that they've built in the waitlist buffer into the event.

[Liberals in the Academy]

I'm not in a position to source so forgive any mangling I do. But is there not a body of work about the correlation between the "big five" personality traits -- concietiousness, risk-taking, etc. -- and political affiliation? I can't be making that up; I've read it somewhere.

I think that it could be as simple as that the nature of modern academia is more attractive to a personality type that is more likely to be attracted to progressive political and social ideas. I'm thinking, right now, of openess to new experiences.

If, for a VERY broad example, a person who is very high on concietiousness respects rules and order over new ideas and experiences tends to be politically conservative and academia, as a career, is a good fit for people who question the status quo then it would figure that more liberal-leaning folks end up in academia. I bet we'd find the opposite in b-schools.

[Vacillation]

I am in a somewhat similar predicament but I do NOT vacillate. I sold my condo, quit a job in something that for my background could be considered a "good job" and moved back to my UG school to do this. My family thinks I'm crazy. I come from a cultural group for which a stable, salaried position with benefits is the brass ring. Leaving that for something that doesn't guarantee a job is considered insane, and I understand why they feel that way. In fact, I spent so much of my life hanging onto those "good jobs", in large part, because I'd internalized their fear.

But I was miserable. That misery can be seen in my waistline and my mental health. It was not until I embraced the risk and potential reward of this move that I regained my sense of joie de vivre.

I'll be drinking with the profs, too, I suppose. But there are worse things than being older, wiser and behind your age group. Namely not killing myself when the millionth person at my place of work expresses disdain at my reading material -- philosophy! -- or condescends to me because I don't keep up with pop culture as well as I do advancements in public policy.

If it doesn't happen this year I will consider it a huge loss...and I"ll try again.

[Rate your Students SOP]

I had a weird mixture of these problems. Almost 2/3 of my sentences had "I" as the subject, and more than one person found it distracting. On the other hand, I spent nearly 400 words talking about "contributing to the academic dialogue" and some such nonsense, but it didn't make the final cut. In the end, I tried to show, not tell and I think it came out all right.

I did mention high school. But instead of saying what I've always wanted to do, I talked about how completely opposite my understanding of the subject matter was. I buffed it up with some fancy, region-specific terms to show my theoretical knowledge of the area. The final product got postive nods, but we'll have to wait and see what the adcom thinks. My SoP is the strongest part of my application, so if I don't get in, I'll know it wasn't what they wanted to hear.

Yes, I did not mean that the pronoun is the devilish detail but the focus on how graduate school will impact the applicant and not how the applicant will impact the grad school and its mission. It's not therapy. If someone is paying you there is usually an understanding that you should impact them, not vice-versa.

But, again, let's see how far I get with my own little SOP first.

[Rate your Students SOP]

I don't know that it did favorfire, but thanks for trying. I have actually calmed down a bit since I posted. This professor is in the humanities, so it might not apply to me. I actually distinctly remember speaking to at least a half dozen mathematicians and an economist who had no clue what they wanted to do in grad school but got in anyway. Ugh. This is the least fun game ever!

My mentor is in econ and he's always amazed at the differences in how the disciplines approach this. In econ, he says, there's no expectation you know enough to make a coherent argument about what you want to do. They just want to see that you know how to think about their kinds of problems. For humanities and social sciences the expectation is that you are more specific because the areas are so broad and those programs take much longer for people to complete. They want reassurances that you will follow-through and finish and specificity makes them feel better about that.

And not directed at you:

I think the issue with the "since I was a kid" thing is that with a 1000 or so word limit if you have to go that far back to find something interesting or related to the field of inquiry that its a bad sign. Also, its an easy way to narrow the field. At this point every book, blog, community and resource on grad school admonishes you not to use it, so I think adcomms think if they don't know that then...

And Ivy:

found this interesting...I was just called for an interview on Wednesday and they emailed me a document outlining what sorts of questions would be asked and what kinds of information they were looking for in the interview--and it specifically mentioned that they wanted specific examples and that they *didn't* want people who were just there to "do anything" or be research lapdogs. They don't care if you love the grad school life or not--they care what you're going to achieve and accomplish while you're in it, not whether or not you enjoy it. Sure, they want people who are interested in research and solving problems, but *what* problems do you want to solve? Aren't there one or two key issues above the rest that tug at your heartstrings that you want to spend those long hours working on? That's what I would talk about in a SOP; that's the specifics they're looking for, not names of professors but actual, concrete areas of research that you're passionate about.

Just my $0.02.

Basically. Also look at that language. It's all about "I, I, I" and "me, me, me". I love to research. I love this life. I will be forever happy doing this.

The goal, I think, is to at least pretend you want to do something for someone else. No one is as ever interested in you as you are. It's just not interesting. It may be hogwash but I think in academia the premise is that you want to live this life to impact others, even if its just to impact a small group of people. Getting away from the "I" is something to think about.

[Does it ever happen?]

gee thanks, guys.

[Classmate FORGED letters of rec... What do I do?]

Sadly, I think the poster above is right. If this girl has the mettle to be successful in grad school she'll do it. If she forged those letters because she doesn't, she'll find out soon enough.

I really don't see the need to say anything one way or the other. You're not her instructor, you're not her adviser, and you're not her competition. It's really sad that someone can achieve what this girl has without finding a single person to support her application, but I don't think you're doing yourself, or anyone else for that matter, any favors by wasting your time ratting this girl out. If she doesn't have what it takes to get through grad school, she won't. Her personality clearly hasn't gotten in her way thus far. If her writing sample or personal statement were plagiarized I think the situation would be different. The fact that she feels she's the only one capable of supporting her application (which means she doesn't have much faith in either her instructors or herself) puts a different bent on the whole situation. Technically, she's not stealing anyone's work. She's putting words in someone's mouth, on her own behalf.

At the end of the day, the whole thing is just really sad. I can't imagine what it would be like to go your entire undergrad career without getting to know even one instructor well enough to ask for a letter. Can you imagine what her internal life must be like... :|

I wonder if you would feel differntly if it was your name, reputation and career this girl essentially stole by forging your signature? It's not just immoral, I am pretty sure its illegal.

[Classmate FORGED letters of rec... What do I do?]

Do what you would do if you found out you were being secretly taped for a Dateline "What Would YOU Do Special." If you would be ashamed of keeping quiet then, by all means, relieve yourself of the burden. While I understand everyone has different worldviews I am dismayed at the idea of not becoming involved when someone is doing something potentially criminal or dangerous. The whole "don't snitch" schema in popular culture is...not good, IMO. What happens to a civilized society if no one every gets involved in the world around them?

[Why Now??]

I got them, too. Renesslear went WAAAAYYY overboard. I think they cast a wide net based on your interests.

[What applications look like]

Awesome. I live for this kind of minutiae. The email thing is very interesting. It makes me want to go back and check all of my emails for clarity and verbiage!

[AH!!!!!]

To both of you guys: could you get a fourth professor to write you a letter? Don't even ask the schools for permission if you're worried that one of your original 3 won't submit theirs. Add them electronically if you can; if not, you can either contact the DGS and ask if your writer can email the letter directly to them (usually departments are very helpful and will allow you to do that); or simply have your writers write a paper letter and mail it to the department. Either way, don't just give up because of one unreliable LOR!

@digits: Don't worry about making your other writer look dumb. Leave the original writer as one of your 3 writers, and schools will know that she was supposed to write you a letter. That way it's clear who the "dumb" one is.

I did something similar. I asked four people knowing I'd only need three. The fourth person was weak and I knew it but better to have a complete app than not, I figured. For the fourth I gave him a list of all the schools and asked him to provide the copies to me -- to make it easy on him, I said. Then I just kept them in the event that I needed one quickly. Fortunately, my folks have been BEYOND responsive. In fact I'm going to add a gift to the thank you cards I've already sent. However, there is, I think, definitely a lesson to be learned from everyone's horrible situations.

[Useful/funny link about what to put in SOP]

I'm with any website with "absinthe" in its tagline.

[Anyone else dealing with silence]

I couldn't help but laugh! I love me some Oprah!

Coyabean for everyone.

[Role call!]

Oh my goodness...can I come out hiding now? Awesome.

I'm applying to a science writing program, which basically means I will be doing the reading/textual research in areas of science, rather than being in a lab and producing any exciting new research myself, and then making that information accessible and palatable to an audience of non-scientists. The program encourages biographical research of key scientists and innovators, and also (my favorite) looking at the cultural importance and impact of science and technology. I'm hoping to look at hearing loss in young adults, with all the biological, technological, and sociological goodies you can think of to go with that (8 years of marching band means I know LOTS of twenty-two-year-olds with the hearing of people four times their age. It's sad). So, my program is like a hard science-soft science-MFA burrito. (You know, unless I don't get in. Then I guess I'm back to being a boring old literature student.)

That sounds incredible. Never heard of it but I can so tremendous opportunity with that degree. One of the problems life sciences' have, I think, is effectively communicating what they do and how it matters for popular audiences. Cool.

[Anyone else dealing with silence]

It's true that those who are clearly qualified and are the best fits, as well as those who have no chance in hell, get notified first to get things rolling. The reason the best candidates get notified early is so that those schools can snag them before some other school comes along with a better funding offer. You'd be surprised at how many people accept the first offer they get and don't bother waiting for the other decisions to come in.

I've seriously considered doing this. I want to be able to award the first school to welcome me.

I'd do it in my best Oprah voice: "You get a coyabean!"

[SOP Intro]

How does this sound?

I did not always plan to pursue a career in social work. I received a Bachelor’s degree in dual majors, psychology and sociology, with the intent of working in the field of forensic psychology. However, during my junior year, a volunteer experience renewed my interest in working with urban youth. This inclination was strengthened as I continued to work with disadvantaged students over the next several years and was recently cemented by a school site visit needed for a research project conducted by my work

I would strongly suggest editing out the first sentence, maybe even the first two. Why have your first impression be one that communicates, if only subconciously, something negative? And it really doesn't add anything. My suggestion:

During my junior year a volunteer experience (where? with whom? doing what? that's the interesting stuff) refocused my studies in sociology and psychology (not reallly all that different from social work are they? so no need, IMO, to make them seem like negatives) on my long-standing interest in working with urban youth. My X amount of years/semesters working with disadvantaged students at XYZ, Inc. clarified my interests by providing experience in ABC. Further, a recent school site visit I conducted tiative for a research project that examines 123 honed my research interest in ABC.

[Role call!]

I confess one of my ultimate dreams would probably be this:

http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/current_students/ad_hoc_degrees.php

Harvard awards "ad hoc" degrees outside of any one department. In other words, you can do a doctorate in "The Various That I Like Because They're Cool"! I designed an independent major as an undergraduate, so that's just the sort of thing that I *love*. (Of course, first you have to get into Harvard, and then you have to get accepted into that program, but still...it looks awesome.)

That does, indeed, look awesome. I'm like you. If I could I would get a PhD in Everything.

Really, knowing to me is too big for disciplines. I want a little econ, a little cognitive theory, a little public policy, urban studies, education, and sociology and religion and history.

[Annoying Application Quirks]

The folklorist in me loves this thread, for giving a discursive community of disempowered subjects the opportunity to rehearse counternarratives in which we, who are in the process of being scrutinized, get to scrutinize the scrutinizers. We are the subaltern! And we know crappy coding when we see it.

T-shirt. This. On it. Please.

[Anyone else dealing with silence]

One of the things to remember about these kinds of communities is that they are overwhelmingly populated by super-vigilant, highly qualified seekers. Basically the kinds of people who would get responses from schools. So it can skew your version of reality. If your only exposure to grad school was this board you would think having a 1300 on the GRE and a 3.8 with three conference presentations out of UG is normal yet the statistical averages suggest otherwise.

Most people, I'd wager, have not heard anything from a school and do not expect to. I would venture it is more odd to hear something than not, actually. Think of all the many applicants, particularly this year, and the very few people in a position to communicate with them.

[Recession Increases Interest in Law, Grad School]

It happens during every economic downturn. I am really just banking on career fit at this point. It goes without saying here, of course, but grad apps are a chore. They are so much of a chore that unless you are hyper-focused on the career path and grad school as the means then it seems to me you are less likely to put together as convincing of an application. Sure, there will be high achieving superstars who perhaps would have gone into business and consulting and all of those other euphemisms they create to fast track connected, ivy leaguers but they were never really my competition anyway. They are in a different circle than I am. I am competing against the same hard tackle folks who probably would have always faced this crossroad of middle class crappy job or advanced education. And I can only hope I'm a half step ahead of and better prepared than those folks.

Or, this will be the year that the average GRE/GPA will be 1400/3.987 at every graduate school in the country and I will be a loser and I'll be escorted out of this comm.

Who knows? I do know, however, that this is what I want to do no matter the economic environment. I'm hoping that commitment shows in my apps.

[the air's getting thick...]

I think its that season. Plus, you'd have to go to some of the law school boards to put this in context. This is NOTHING like those. Nothing. I mean a predisposed person could slit their wrists after some time on some of them, and that's not hyperbole.

I think this is just stress and all of the measuring ourselves and such.

[Some admissions committee insights]

Do you suppose they add them together and then do the cut off, or look at the verbal and quant separately and then do it? Because I think it would eliminate a lot of potential talent just to add the two numbers together and take the whole score together without seeing if one is really high or not.

i've heard of both scenarios. for some schools 1200 seems to be the magic number, regardless of how it is weighted while some highly selective english depts, for example, are looking for a certain percentile in verbal and will disregard the quant.

[Nightmares]

I keep having this one dream over and over, where I'm waiting tables, and I have like 20 of them, and they're all mad. But instead of talking to me about their food or whatever, they keep asking questions about my thesis and my application materials. Usually at least one person throws food at me, and another person boos. It's a terrible dream...I told my advisor about it and she giggled..yes...giggled. Then tried to make a straight face and told me to try relaxation techniques....

I think it's a little too late for deep breathing exercises.

Ok, see, no nightmares (yet?) but I am definitely paranoid. I think EVERYONE is laughing at me -- advisors, mentors, friends, adcomms.

[Let's get ahead of ourselves!]

@melusine:

Are you kidding me? I'm pretty much exchanging my life for an office! LOL I'm so not ashamed of it, either.

One of my mentors has an office that would make you sign up for an online PhD in ESP if it guaranteed one like it. It's a corner space in the second level of a modern theater conservatory. It's large enough for a desk, bookshelves AND a table and chairs for guests. And the windows curve around and are almost floor to ceiling. And she always has tea and just the book you need. It's like...like...nerd girl porn. I love it so.

[SOP Wordles!]

That made me laugh so much!

Why?