Minnesotan

I worked for five years as an editor, and my gf taught grammar to non-native speakers, so we go at it every once in a while about our mutual editing jobs. It's cute, in a highly nerdy sort of way. Anyhoo, your comma comment reminded me of an argument we had yesterday about the British/Canadian tendency to place unnecessary commas after prepositional phrases - she "allowed me to win," which is her clever way of saying I'm right, without ever letting those exact words escape her lips. Women! =) I know my Statement was clean and crisp, but I'm not sure if the content is what everyone wanted. We'll have to wait and see. I certainly worked hard enough on the things to satisfy my inner perfectionist.

I tell them I'm going to be a doctor of arguing, and they say, "No you're not!" I generally win with the trusty, "Yes I am - infinity!"

What a scam! I should have gone that route - save myself three years of research, I would!

I suppose the whole interview issue requires science adcoms to act early. If only they would interview humanities applicants - I would feel so much better about the process.

Another small victory in the never-ending war against bureaucracy!

Oh, are you going for an MFA? My mistake.

Bwahaha! That, my friend, would take more self-control than any mortal can muster.

Yeah. Me too, though I am not in Ed. My programs seem to all come in starting the first week of Feb.

There are a few of us writing/rhetoric geeks hanging around the forums, now. Luckily none of us have applied to overlapping programs, yet, so we can all like each other and root for one another's success. =) So, where did you apply, if you don't mind telling (don't ask me - I'm keeping my mouth shut until I get an acceptance)?

I was a little bit jealous of the science people, but understood, since they have a different system than I do. However, we've had a journalism, an education, and now an English admit post on the wall, and the latter really rubbed my ass raw! I want an early admit in the middle of January! heh Oh well. I guess I'd settle for knowing what kind of superstar gets an English PhD acceptance this damned early. Maybe it's a funky program, or something - who knows.

I went with a very straightforward, concise essay on my research experience, potential research area, program fit, and professional goals. This is what most of the people I polled advised me. From their comments, it seems the personal/anecdotal can help or hurt you depending on who is reading it, but the straightforward laying-out of relevant information could never hurt you - it just might not be as flashy. I hope they were right, because my statements from two years ago were horrid. I really took care to improve upon that portion of my application this time around.

It looks like the early acceptances are starting to trickle in. For those of us who are excited about getting our first acceptance or two, feel free to post in all caps, with a gajillion extra exclamation marks here (and only here, heh). After you get it out of your system, share with the rest of us what your stats are, your field of study, and what other programs you're hoping to get. Also, tell us what you thought your chances were. It's great to see the underdog have his day. (I haven't heard anything yet, but I thought by creating this thread I might turn my overwhelming jealousy into something more constructive. lol)

Congrats! When was the application deadline for that program?

Sorry to change speeds on the thread, but was that Rutgers PhD admit one of our regular contributors here? If so, congrats. Let us know your stats, field, where else you applied, etc. I'm jealous. I didn't apply to Rutgers, but I would love an extremely early acceptance, like that!

Mine just had surgery to take out a tumor. Hopefully he'll stick around for a few more years, now. He's certainly got his appetite back: MEOW! MEOW! MEOW! Hrmm... I'm debating whether to work on my thesis, or click refresh on the online application sites until my girlfriend gets here (uh, in 6 hours from now). I'm going friggin' nuts, but at least she taunts me mercilessly until I get off the damned computer and take my mind off of applications for a while. We'll see the worm turn when she has all of her apps in!

Ooh! I'm game for this one: -I keep avoiding telling people where I applied, for fear that I might jinx it. -When I'm talking about my own experience applying to grad schools two years ago, I always preface like an addict who is too ashamed to admit the problem is his own - "I have this friend who..." -I feel that if I don't check the "Rate My Chances" section at Applycorner every day, my ratings will go down, and that will have an inexplicable effect on the reality of the situation (with which Applycorner has decidedly nothing to do). -I have formulated a system of graduate school karma in my head, which makes it necessary to help people - even my direct competitors - on forums, or when having conversations in real life. This trait is extremely annoying, as some of these people might take my advice and beat me out of a program because of it.

Like my winning personality and rugged good looks? I included a headshot with my supplementary materials.

It merely records them for the FAA.

A middle-aged white lady, most often.

Mine was even more specific. It was about "dead white guys who did stuff." I put that inside quotation marks, because I was thinking about making it my thesis title. If only I could figure out where to place the mandatory colon.

I was warned against including too much biographical information in the SoP by a superstar in my field. Desiderata could vary quite a bit by program.

I compiled your posts into a sticky thread, at the top of the "Applications" forum.

*Originally posted by UndraftedFreeAgent In my first semester in an Econ PhD program, our director of graduate studies explained how they went through the process of choosing who to admit and claimed that it was quite standard throughout the social sciences. Their first run through, directly after the deadline, is spent removing woefully unqualified applicants. He said that roughly half of all applicants had multiple major problems in their profile (no/negative recommendations, GPA 2.5 or below, GRE scores below 400 in every catagory, and so on), not just one poor section. He said that this problem was even more pronounced at top schools, as every student has a "stretch" school and many of these overlap. As application fees have apparently dropped significantly over the years, mediocre students feel the extra application, as unlikely as an admit may be, is still worth it. He also told us that, unlike the pure sciences, social sciences get a lot of applicants who apply simply because they were afraid of going out into the real world or didn't know what else to do with their degrees. These were often less driven students with relatively poor credentials. This is all before the applications ever make it to the committee. Granted, I'm sure that none of the people on this forum will find themselves on the immediate drop pile (aside from myself, of course), but the point is that there really are many unqualified applicants out there. *** Once the initial round of cuts have been made, that's when the rest of the committee gets involved. This is the painstaking process of which most of you were thinking, where details start to matter. The director of graduate studies forwards the "reasonable" applications to the other committee members. All members of the committee get all applications. The job is then to go through and rank the top applications based on what the committee member is looking for in students. Ranking is generally limited to 3x the number of slots available. Each member has his or her own idea of the ideal student profile, so this is when the committee gets together to discuss applications. The first step is to compare the rankings. Naturally, any consensus on top students means an admit, while an agreed low ranking means a rejection. What happens next depends largely on the program in question. Some committees will go through and argue for/against certain applications until a set of compromise rankings is established. Others, particularly those with a strict pecking order, default to the opinions of the senior members of the committee. Usually 40-50% of the admits are on the consensus admit pile and the remaining 50-60% are chosen subjectively. Here is where "fit", unique parts of your profile, having worked with a professor/someone the professor knows, and things like that help. Your best shot is if someone picks up your file and is willing to fight for your admission. Otherwise, it's the crapshoot we've been talking about for months. I think he explained it told us because he never dreamed that any of us would leave and apply to another program. Not like it's any big secret that must be hidden at all costs, but the entire process seems like a black box mechanism to outsiders (meaning we throw in our apps, something mysterious happens, and then we get our result). **I will sticky this for a week. Let me know if you all want me to keep it up there longer.

That was very helpful, Free Agent. I should repost that comment, and "sticky" it.

Fair enough. Let me be the first to welcome you. Alwso let me clue you in on one thing - I'm always saying things with a glitter in my eyes. If it seems like I'm giving you hell, it's only because I tease everybody around here. We're all, like it or not, in this together. *sigh* =)