Minnesotan

Yeah. Last time, I didn't get my final acceptance letter until June (Canadian school). I'm still waiting on a decision from Melbourne. It's only been two years, now. I'm betting they'll accept me into their MFA program about the time I finish my PhD.

Yeah. This is one of the few times in life, where I would be willing to just skip over about 5 months. I would have my thesis done and defended, and I would know where I'm going to be nextyear (and at least three years after that). Oh, the waiting!

Raw numbers don't mean as much as they should. I had a 4.0 undergrad, 98th %ile on the GRE verbal, and glowing refs two years ago, but I screwed up my statements (they were written hastily because I was studying out of country and had to get them sent out), and got the boot from more than half of the programs to which I applied. So, be satisfied if you took the time to put together a complete package, even if any one characteristic isn't overwhelmingly impressive.

Niiice. I plan to do a little of that myself this evening. After my research is done, of course. =)

Oh, okay. U-dub's a pretty good school in the humanities, but yeah, not Yale by any means.

Aiming low, I see. lol I might see you at one of those fine institutions. Then again, I also shuffled in a couple of middle of the road schools, for safety's sake. I could only stomach six applications this time around. I think I burned out during the MA app process, two years ago. It seems some programs wait until the truly neurotic members of the community have either exposed themselves as the freakshows that they are by calling the department every day beginning January 1st, or have up and offed themselves out of desperation. It's academic Darwinism at its finest.

8% isn't bad. Some of the apps I put in have a 1-2% chance (not accounting for my obvious talent, wisdom, and rugged good looks, of course). lol I say, what point is there in dreaming if you're going to dream small!

If, by UW, you mean UW-Madison, I'm not sure how you can call a public ivy a "backup." The Grad Center @ CUNY is pretty picky, as well, in most programs. I dunno. Maybe you meant UWM, or the U-dub.

Yeah. I sent my last suppmat packet last week (well, walked it over - it's the same uni as my MA work), and my last fellowship app on Wednesday. Huzzah! Orwell was a genius. I often feel like Winston Smith, especially now that I'm in the Socialist Republic of Canuckistan, where big brother is always watching, to make sure your views conform to the Marxist norm. As for improving your chances by picking obscure, marginalized authors, who are only valuable because of their race or gender, not their writing ability, do you even have to ask?

I also find that binge drinking helps alleviate the stress of grad school applications.

I never took Ethics when studying philosophy, but I know there are rare cases when murder is justified. Can anyone clear this one up for me? If one particular committee member is making life far more difficult than it needs to be, what's wrong with a little homocide? You know - not a lot. Just one committee member. lol

I thought I would make a pre-emptive strike against the Philistines who would place history in the social sciences. This year, we are decidedly in the humanities, heathens! Anyhoo, who else is applying, and to where, and in what field, and I really have to add another "and" to manage a perfectly balanced polysyndeton. (Nevermind me - applications on the brain.)

Anyone who has a decent History of Rhetoric field/sub-field, or something even marginally related (rhet, comp, hist. of crit. theory, etc.), got an app from me. I'm working in ancient hist./hellenistic philosophy right now, but my undergrad majors were writing/history. I realize English might not have been the path of least resistance, but at least I don't have to learn six languages to study it (three of which are dead). And I really like the lack of political hoops when dealing with people who have been dead for 2000 years. =) What about you? Dead white poets of yore, or living black handicapped feminist playwrights of the 21st C.?

Me too (re: going nuts). It doesn't get any easier the second time around, and PhD apps mean so much more than MA apps. Anyhoo, I'm applying to both English and History programs. Why confine the torture to just one discipline, when you can stress out over two?

Well, if you took a thesis option instead of a coursework option, I feel your pain. I had to take a couple of weeks off from my research to get everything organized and out the door! I still say they should work it like the NFL draft. You put all your credentials in one central file, and the top colleges take turns drafting their favorite students. =) And, yes, I'm happy to return and not see my forums filled with "Jessica Simpson A55rape" video links. lol

Most of the major Midwestern land grant universities are international-friendly. Think Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State, etc. Regardless of location, the bigger the school is, the more likely it is that they can squeeze out the extra cash for international students (so, the University of California system is probably a good place to look, as well).

I thought 300 was the baseline score for the verbal section of the GRE. How do you get less than zero questions right?

It should pick up, again, pretty soon. I know I'm just finishing up the last application this week, so everybody else should start freaking out in the next month or so. I can't believe how much more organized the process is the second time around. It still sucks - don't get me wrong - but at least I knew what I was doing.

By the way, don't spam the forums. I already deleted this cut and paste job on another thread I moderate.

Ain't that the truth! When the apps alone are between $50 (yeah, right!) and $100 (that's more like it), you know you're in for some deep hurting. I didn't send out 15 this time, but I certainly sent out enough to need a second mortgage to pay for it all. Unfortunately, the real winners in this process are the people who figured out that supply for transcripts and generalized test scores will never diminish, no matter how much you decide to charge for a single @#$%ing piece of paper to be sent via first class mail. The bastards!

What? In case being exploited by my graduate institution wasn't enough? lol

First things: anything less than a 700 on the GRE verbal is going to look very bad, when applying to top programs in the humanities. English is notoriously competitive, with the big dogs admitting in the area of 1-2% of applicants. I know the Iowa Writer's Workshop's rate was under 2% when I applied, two years ago. They didn't provide any details about breakdown by field, but I would assume it's pretty evenly distributed. Either way, that's an MFA program (probably the top MFA program, 'tis true, but my point is valid); I would assume PhD programs have even more room to discriminate. My advice would be to vary your targets when applying. Find the places where you have profs. whose research interests fit your own, and don't just apply to the best schools.

History is likely as much of a nightmare as English (one of the more competitive disciplines within the humanities). I would be especially wary of applying to fields of study that require fewer languages. U.S. history is flooded with applications from people who wanted to do something else, but realized they would have to waste every summer for the next seven years attending intensive language courses. Some of my buds in poli sci say it's not that bad, if you have excellent credentials and are willing to settle for a mediocre program. Isn't that always the way? lol

Berkeley might require a criminal record to apply, in fact. heh Between my MA and PhD apps, I've never seen anything asking about your past misdeedsin the real world. As long as you don't blacken the walls of the ivory tower, I think you're alright.

Good work, but something funky is going on with my permissions. For some reason, it won't let me (a moderator of all things) read some of the forums.