Minnesotan

Moved to Humanities>Classics

Moved to Humanities>History

500 words (or two pages) was standard for my apps in the humanities. You really have to focus on what's important to the program with such a short essay.

That's odd. 12-pt Times with 1" margins normally ends up around 250 words/page. If they said four 2x-spaced pages, I would say you're good. However, if you can easily identify anything to cut, then it is likely not that important, and should be dropped. To give you an idea of what my process was like, my first draft was around five pages. After many, many edits and some advice from profs., I ended up with about 1.5 pages of text for my SoP, formatted as stated above. Most of my schools asked for "no more than two pages" for the statement. One school did not specify, even after an email bugging them, so I stuck with the same format. I was never pleased with what I had, but it turned out alright. I guess I can't complain. Of all the things I would have liked to have been more confident about, however, this is the item.

Someone will wonder why the LoRs aren't on letterhead, anyway. I'll give even money she gets caught. Anyone in?

I've found a helpful tool for those of you who are worried about what will happen to your 3.97 at a state school when transferring to an ivy: http://www.zingerbug.com/Comments/glitter_graphics/settle_down_starburst2.gif Seriously, I would worry more about your SoP and LoRs at this point. Your GPA cant be changed, and you should be aiming for fit, not prestige.

Adcoms are generally made up of old folks: they'll appreciate your effort to double-space. =) As a rule, I try to use 12-point Times New Roman, 2x spaced, for all of my official applications, article subs, etc. (unless otherwise specified). It seems to be the standard among most academics, these days. I'm sure nobody will track you down if you don't do things like me, but my way of looking at it is this: why distract people with odd or unprofessional looking fonts, spacings, or other formatting silliness? I would rather they paid attention to the content of my piece.

You're in the humanities -- your SoP and LoRs are the most important items in your app package. Without reading those, nobody can make an intelligent comment about your application. We can comment on specific questions about your GPA and GRE, but these things do not an application make (at least, not on their own).

Yes. I wrote a different SoP for each school to which I applied. I got offers. I accepted the one I liked best. I'm happy. I'll echo what Rising said: your backup school is someone else's first choice. I honestly don't believe there is such a thing as a "safety" or "backup" school these days, if there ever was. Not everyone wants to go to the same school. Moreover, the gap in educational effectiveness between a top 10 versus a top 100 school is nearly non-existent. Burn your copy of U.S. News and start hunting for schools that make sense for you, regardless of rank. You'll be much happier at Southeastern Mississippi Baptist State Women's College, if that's where your research and personality fits, than you'd ever be at Oxford, if you just like the name. We should put a sign on the door around here, with my mantra that rank means shit. Find your best fit. Find someone you want to work with. Find a department that studies the same topics that make you happy. Find a place that will fund you, give you proper advising, and provide you with some teaching experience. And, my god, once you find that place, tailor every aspect of your application to getting into that university, and that university alone -- don't just recycle your SoP from the last school to which you applied (with a recycled SoP)!

The question I would ask is whether you want non-PoMos to read that paragraph. Now, it might be true that rhetoricians (like me) have an especially sensitive nose for B.S., but it seems the jargon machine has kicked into high gear in this snippet o' statement. Why alienate people who aren't specialists in the willfully obfuscatory lingo of post-modernity studies? If I was on an adcom and saw the word "emplotment" in an SoP, I would jump from my chair to run gleefully through the hallways, waving the paper in the air, screaming "viva la revolucion!" Before the fit hits the shan, I assure you that I am only trying to be helpful (and somewhat humorous). Anyway, I offer this serious bit of advice: speak as clearly and succinctly as possible in your SoP. You need not dumb things down -- NASCAR fans don't sit on adcoms -- but you need to cut out as much of the dross as possible, and most people consider $0.05 words, PC'isms, and marketing catch-phrases to be lazy writing. In fact, the part where you talk about "cultural otherness" made me want to murder bunnies. =)

Remember, folks: earning a PhD is a marathon, not a race. If you feel overwhelmed, take fewer classes. If you need some support, try to make some friends (outside of your department, if you have to). If you feel too young, go get drunk and play some video games with the undergrads (you do not teach or supervise in any way) on the weekend. If you feel too old, remember that the young pups are intimidated by your greater life experiences. Self-doubt is a useless feeling that springs up over and over again in grad school. Everyone thinks they're not good, smart, young, old, motivated, thin, or pretty enough to earn a PhD. Well, frankly, none of that shit matters once you've been accepted to your program. The admissions committee's sole purpose was to make sure you were good enough to get in. All you have to do is prove them right.

I would feel obligated to do something similar -- go see the dept. head or dean. It is just as unethical to allow things like this to happen as it is to make them happen. Laziness or fear of reprisal does not excuse a complete lack of morality. It would be like if I caught one of my students plagiarizing and said, "Well, it's not my job to ruin their careers." It is my job to report flagrant violations of academic honesty, no matter what my position in academia.

Perhaps, since you are soliciting on an anonymous internet forum, you should make your survey methods transparent. What sort of questions will you be asking? How will you use the data collected? Is the gift card valid on baked goods, too, or just coffee? These are the important questions to answer! =)

Agreed. You have to put a lot of time into these apps, and you can't rubber-stamp them. Each one has to be a pitch to that specific department, demonstrating how you are the perfect fit for that school, and that school alone. This takes time, time you might not have when you're writing a thesis.

I would add something a little weightier to my retort. Try "bloody devil," or even "rascalish knave" to liven things up.

This is one of those rare cases where I'm going to have to disagree with Rising. If you start work early enough, and get lots of sets of eyes on your application, you can manage ~15 applications. You have to have plenty of time and money on your hands, and you should make sure that you would want to attend all of the schools, even if it was only your "backup" school that accepted you. I was really worried when I did my PhD applications, since all of my rejects came very early, and almost all of my acceptances came very late. It was nerve wracking, to say the least! I was kicking myself that I hadn't put together more applications. It all worked out in the end for me, since I'm at a program I absolutely love, but I would err toward putting in too many rather than too few, if I had to fill out applications again. Now I just need to find a job or post-doc in a few years. =)

Nobody seems to give a hoot about it in my field, which is Rhetoric, of all things.

It's all a matter of opinion. The top program in the nation is the one that gets you the best education and provides the best support for you, not some other jerkoff. Think about the environment you'd like to work in, the topic you want to study, and the people with whom you'd like to learn. U.S. News knows nothing about what I need out of grad school - only I do.

Agreed. I earned an extra $6,000 for this year because I aced the GRE. It certainly did not get me accepted, but it got me some much-needed funding, which allowed me to pick a program I otherwise might have passed over (and so far love). Study. You'll be in grad school soon. Get used to it. =)

Good enough that they won't admit people who cannot choose the correct form of there, their, and they're. =) Seriously, though, I think your post displays an unhealthy obsession with rankings. What you should be looking for are the other traits you listed (atmosphere, etc.), as well as thinking seriously about your fit with the program and the school in general. Where can you stand to live for 4-8 years of your life? I know when I was applying, I did not apply to anywhere warmer than Pennsylvania, because I am realistic about my ability to withstand heat (I am, as you could guess from my name, from the Northland). In what direction is the department moving? Are they removing their Elizabethan drama emphasis to be replaced with post-feminist American lit.? With whom would you like to work? Is there a professor or two whose research interests closely match your own? Rankings are overrated.

I'm beginning to wonder why people bother applying there. You're probably the sixth or seventh person who mentioned to me that their BU application got mishandled at least once. Granted, I speak to people in many different programs, but most of my regular contact comes from the humanities (English and History).

In regard to defining the scope and method of your research, I would repeat what advice has been given to me in the past: do your best. What my advisors were telling me is that these applications are done so far ahead of time that most reasonable scholarship committees will understand that research projects often change trajectory mid-flight, for very good reasons (i.e. "this cell did not react the way I had figured it would, so the new project is to find out why"). Now, I'm not saying you should be vague, but do some research and ask your advisors to look over your proposals. Come up with something thorough and well thought out, but know that academics have the right to alter their own research, provided you are not breaking the rules the funding source sets down.

I agree with Cornell. There are some rare situations where academic in-breeding is understandable. However, it very well could raise a red flag during the job hunt. Not only that, but there is the (idealistic, I know) concern about how far your academic and individual horizons can expand when you've only studied at one institution. On a personal level, I would strongly suggest moving on. For the professional question, you're on your own - I really only know what I've heard on the grape vine (and that is: "'no incest, please,' says the hiring committee").

Attaching unsolicited self-promoting materials also seems a tad uncouth. Doing that is much like what the people who do not look at faces - only name badges - at national conferences, and introduce themselves with their university or title attached do. E.g. "Hi. I'm John Q. Pompous, Dean of Arts at Pretentious U."

My PhD program starts mid-August, so I would hope they would let you know soon. Then again, my MA program didn't start until end-September, so who knows.