Glanton

How the hell do I edit my own original post? I've been trying to figure it out for ten minutes.

That's fantastic way of putting it into perspective, thank you kindly!

I don't think there's any reason to hesitate. I've been in touch with the Graduate Chair at my new prospective department about funding questions, among other things, and she's been extremely magnanimous and helpful. Not like they're gonna be all "OH-HO A LITTLE OVEREAGER, ARE WE? WE HEREBY RESCIND YOUR ACCEPTANCE, IMPUDENT WHELP"

Thanks for the replies, friends. I realize now that I came off as a total entitled asshole in that initial post, and an entitled asshole is right at the top of the list of things I never wanted to be. I worked my _ass_ off during my undergrad--averaged 40 hours a week on top of a full time class schedule, then was able to cut down to part time work in my senior year due to some scholarships. I still ended up in pretty substantial (~30K) debt. After finishing at Ohio U, my lady and I pulled up stakes and moved to NYC, where we both got great jobs--this was months before the collapse in '08.

Hey all, I got a way early acceptance call from my best fit (though least prestigious) possible program on March 1! I was totally caught off guard, partially due to the fact that I hadn't expected to hear anything for several weeks, and partially because I'd almost forgotten about the applications--I'm a busy man. So anyway, they offered me a full ride, as it were, plus a halfway decent stipend--or what seemed like a halfway decent stipend while I was on the phone. The more I think about it, the more I'm wondering if I'll be able to live on it. I currently live in Brooklyn and make 20K m

I'm polishing my SOP and finishing everything up. My earliest deadlines are Dec. 15, and I'm planning on having everything submitted by Dec. 1. Cutting it close, but hopefully they won't hold that against me.

Man, that's rough. I'm lucky to have a variety of papers around 10pgs in length to choose from, and one of my programs actually wants a writing sample of 20+ pgs, so I'm excerpting my honors thesis for that. It seems to me that you could certainly effectively cut a 14 pg paper down to 10 with judicious edits, especially if it's acknowledged in the application that you've done so.

Morning, all. I'm in the midst of throwing myself into composing my SOPs, the earliest of which are due Dec. 15. I knew at the outset of the process that this would be the least enjoyable aspect of it, and managed to put it off until after the GRE (740 verbal--woot!). We've all heard the tired cliche: "This is the hardest thing you'll ever have to write." I'm not finding it to be that, exactly, but I am finding it incredibly frustrating to approach simply because of all of the (sometimes self-)contradictory advice out there for writers. I've read threads here, articles all over the web, talked