I am an international student. I am new to the forum and I need some help. I am going to apply for a phd program in Literaure, so my questions are:
1. I did my undergrad in my country; and I am doing my masters in the us. my undergrad gpa is 3.2; grad gpa: 4.00 (school is a tier-3 university). I have strong letters, SoP, writing sample; but I havent taken GRE yet, so I am really afraid of it. assume I will get a low score, do I have chance to be admitted by any program in the us as an internaional?
2. I cannot find any back up schools which guarantees funding. Funding is utmost important for me. can you suggest any back up schools?
3. many friends discourage me applying ivy schools since I am not a graduate of a top ranked school. do you thing it does matter which school you are graduated from?
4. I consider schools like Cornell, Brandeis, NYU, UPitt, UMich, WUSTL, and Northeastern for now. any suggestions, advice?