JustChill

I would advise against mentioning how long and hard you studied for the exam if your scores were really low, because that could backfire and make them think that you're just incapable of absorbing information or that you lack proper study habits. If someone says that they studied for hundreds of hour for an exam but still performed poorly, that makes me think that the person may have other problems besides for the usual personal life distractions. You also might want to consult some of your professors who know you well.

I'm applying to Stanford and Princeton, but not Chicago because they don't have an imperialist. Also, Fitzpatrick is widely rumored to be retiring within the next two years, so I don't want to be stuck without an advisor or an advisor from a different field. Illinois has the largest Russian library in the States, and the third largest out of American universities overall, so it's definitely on my list. I'd have to say that my contacts with Dr. Crews from Stanford have been a bit more positive than with Dr. Kotkin, but we'll see what happens in March.

haha, that's right, I went to KU. No, I'm actually not applying to Indiana, even though I spent the last summer in Bloomington at their SWSEEL program for Russian. Seemed like a nice college town and the school was pretty good.

I got 720 on the verbal and 5.5 on the writing, which I guess is decent considering that I'm not a native English speaker. My undergrad school is top-50 public, which has a fairly well known Russian studies department (one of the few Title VI-funded research centers), but it's definitely not an "elite" university.

I was wondering who else on here is applying to Russian History programs? I'm going for late Imperial/Soviet history with an emphasis on politics and culture. My application is pretty solid overall, with the exception of a low GRE quantitative score (500) and a 3.7 overall GPA. But I was born in Eastern Europe and lived there til I was 13. I am fluent in Russian, have some knowledge of a little-used Eastern European language, and some French. As an undergrad I double-majored in History and Russian and East European Studies, and received departmental honors in both majors. I have received a Fulbright-Hays grant to study abroad in Moscow, and an Undergraduate Research Award for my History Honors thesis (which I will be presenting at a regional conference this weekend). One of my LORs is going to come from a well known editor of a major Russian studies journal, but the other two from mediocre professors (relatively speaking). My SoP is pretty polished by now, but I feel like my writing sample is fairly choppy because I pulled out a couple of sections from my thesis for it. I'm applying to the usual suspects, so nothing new there. I've had particularly positive contacts with professors from Penn, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and brief pleasantries with the rest. I'd appreciate any suggestions/comments/ideas.