tellyn

To add an extra two cents, in my English student community here (East Asia), NWU is especially notorious for its reluctance to accept international students to their English PhD program, along with a few other "conservative" or "protectionistic" schools. Students from my country have been enthusiastically accepted to similarly ranked institutions (or higher), but somehow no one seems to be making it to NWU, Boston College, etc. in the past decade or so--and of course now, due to the low success rate, fewer students take the shot in the first place. All in all, I do not think that data from NWU can be treated as a reflection of the general case.

One of the big factors contributing to the smaller number of internationals in English PhD programs within the U.S., I would tentatively assume, is the fact that, in the wide World, there exists a gap between "native or near-native speakers of English" and "non-native speakers of English (or non-speakers)", and the former group forms a far larger percentage of the U.S. population than of the non-U.S. international population (in which non-U.S. but English-speaking countries are a minority). And members of the former group, of course, are more inclined to be interested in making a living out of, and also to excel at, English as a discipline (which differs innately from other fields in which the use of English would be just a tool in the education process.) So I'd say international students applying for English PhDs are both less common in the first place and indeed "weaker" on average, hence a bigger domestic applicant pool and more domestic acceptances. Forgive me if I sometimes state the obvious; this was me trying to take your question as seriously as possible.

Any non-Americas internationals out there? I'm going to have to start the long distance thing between US East Coast and Asia, then later France. The sheer distance shuts out any "moving together" possibilities, making the situation simpler (albeit painful). Immense fail expected but still, fingers crossed: Amor vincit omnia.

I believe 2-3 Columbia acceptances were posted on the results board a few days earlier than the rejections.

Hi, I'm new to this thread but just wanted to drop a note about NYU: if you're not a US resident, don't take those "implied rejections" too seriously just yet! I thought I was out of the game, too, but I got a "good news" email a few hours ago asking me to call the DGS at my leisure. I've seen that NYU gives out their acceptances over the phone, not by email, and I guess they were late in getting to the internationals (of which I am one) in that respect. Congratulations to everyone with good news, and sincerely hope those in limbo get more good news by the end of the week. Cheers!

Hi all, Is it okay to send Subject scores in alongside my General scores to schools that "don't require" them if I want to? Has anyone been advised against it, or received negative feedback for doing so? I've done a routine search but found posts only from back around 2011, and I know attitudes toward the English Lit subject test have been changing (understandably toward "superfluous"), so I wanted to ask again. Most of the programs to which I'm applying say the Subject test is recommended/optional, but a few say it's not required. I've checked, and thankfully none specifically say "don't send it in!" (like U of Chicago happens to do). I've actually sent most of my scores already, checking both General and Subject boxes without thinking too much about it (doesn't cost extra!). And getting attacks of paranoia in hindsight. My scores are on the good side (90+ percentile) so I'm not worried about the score itself reflecting negatively on my application, but what if it's TMI and annoys the heck out of admissions? Thanks in advance, and hope everyone is doing okay at this stressful, last-minute hour...