Dr. Old Bill

Oh, I was totally joking. The reason I said it is because I use sort of a "hybrid MLA" in my WS. Most things are consistently in MLA format, but as mentioned, footnotes are generally a no-no in MLA. I don't want to fathom a universe in which I would get instantly rejected because of this deliberate violation of format. That would be particularly ironic, though, given that I added the footnotes to help adcomm members who might not be familiar with certain details that I can't really cover directly in the context of the paper. Truly, I'm very happy with my WS. It has my personal stamp of approval (which can be hard to come by), but has also been seen and given the thumbs-up by enough professors, writers, and other academics (including you!) that the only thing my admission-neuroses can concern itself with is formatting considerations.

Thanks for making me self-conscious about my WS yet again, Unraed.

It's usually the case that notes / references / appendices etc. don't count against the page requirement. But it's not always the case. One DGS I contacted mentioned that they wanted no more than fifteen pages total, and pointed out how many papers they have to read etc. I'm guessing a lot of adcomms would have a five-page requirement if they thought they could determine enough about the candidate from such a small size...

There aren't really stylistic conventions in general, but I kept mine mostly MLA format, but included footnotes. About ten or so. I simply thought it was necessary to clarify a few things this way for adcomm readers who may not have an intimate knowledge of Shakespeare's sonnets. That said, none exceeded three sentences or so, so I'm not sure how much this helps.

Seriously! With maybe one exception, I think that I'd be happy to go anywhere I applied. It's going to be difficult to resist the temptation to shout "Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes!" to the first (if I am to get more than one...) acceptance call I receive. But at heart, I do want to see the process through and be able to weigh all my options...if there are options, of course.

Yes, beyond the usual caveat of "I'll gladly take any acceptance from anywhere, anytime" etc., I must admit that I'm hoping I get one early as well. There are three places I've applied to that have, in recent history, responded by the end of January. If I get one of those, I'll be beyond elated, though I must admit that all three are places I'd have a strong desire to go to if I got accepted everywhere, so there's that too.

Nah.

It looks like many phone you to tell you you've been accepted. Others email, and still others expect you to check their application site. Rejections are usually done by the latter two methods, I think, as well as snail mail, and often come after the acceptances (but some programs do them all in bulk). So...it varies. I'm sure that most of us will have big moves involved after acceptance, though an overseas move is obviously a bit of a different beast. My big concern is that my wife will need to find a job in her field wherever we wind up, or else we'll have to live apart for some / most / all of the time. Not a nice prospect, of course. She has a relatively narrow field, though should be able to find something eventually in most city environments. As a result, places like Cornell and Penn State are a little lower on my hope-to-get-into list, though they still have excellent programs that I'd be delighted to be accepted into, of course. It's just the relatively rural setting of each will make for a less-than-ideal personal situation. I have to say though...for all my anxiety / concern etc. about not getting in somewhere, I also have a lot of excitement at the prospect of going somewhere else for a few years. No matter what happens, we'll be moving away from this ugly little place in northeast / central Virginia. I just hope it's somewhere in Connecticut. Or New Jersey. Or Nashville. Or Boston or...

I think I'll be on GC regularly throughout the process. I'm not sure if this will help my anxiety level or seriously hurt it, but GC is part of my daily routine, and frankly, I have a vested interest in where everyone gets in! I don't know any of you personally, but I've sort of gotten to know many of you, so...I'm interested!

Yeah, I was going to mention that your proclivity toward travel sounds more like a line or two for your SOP, rather than lines in your C.V. Dr. Karen aside, a C.V. is a fairly sterile document. It's sort of a "just the facts" listing of what you've done in relation to your field. But your travel could be interesting to adcomms, so if you can squeeze a line or two about that into your SOP, it probably wouldn't be a bad thing.

It happens to all of us! Honestly, I have moments of abject despair at the prospect of not getting in somewhere. Usually I'm happy, confident, and optimistic, but boy are there bleak moments... By the way, the professor I mentioned yesterday (not the emeritus) did indeed upload his letters, finally. I had emailed, and I fear he might be a bit annoyed at that, but the letters are in, so...yay!

Yes. My thoughts exactly. I'm already regretting my decision to not include the year and a bit I worked at Shakespeare Theatre Company. The work I was doing wasn't really relevant, but it would have demonstrated my history with / enjoyment of early modern stuff at least. Editorial work should be a shoo-in for an academic English C.V.

Hmm. Seems to work for me -- both the application portion and the "check your application" portion.

Thanks, fancypants! The first one (the emeritus) doesn't have a secretary per se, but I've gone ahead and emailed the secretary at the college to see if she can check in with him regardless. As for the other one, since the application deadline is in four days, I sent him another email. I was very polite, of course... The worst thing possible would be for me to annoy him to the point that he simply doesn't do it. Fortunately, most of my bases are covered by my primary letter-writers, but there's at least one institution that is contingent upon a not-yet-uploaded letter... Grr. All of these professors have had four months of lead time, by the way. They're wonderful people, but I see that, just like most students, some like to leave things to the last minute as well! (I've made a personal vow with myself to never do that!)

Yup -- SUNY Buffalo got my GRE ($27), but I didn't wind up applying there. Good program, but just not for me. I'm a little nervous about two separate recommender issues. One of my letter-writers uploaded all of his letters a few weeks ago, but had issues with one of the upload sites, and it didn't go through. He's an old emeritus and doesn't get online very often. He acknowledged that he would come back to the campus to do it...but after a couple of emails to him, it just hasn't happened. And the deadline is in four days. Another of my recommenders has just four letters to upload (in some cases I used different recommenders for different programs for various reasons). I've had a few emails with him, and he assures me he'll do it...but again, it's mere days before the deadline. I'm trying to be patient, and don't want to annoy someone into not doing it, but yeah. Frustrating.

I must admit: I'm a little excited that Northwestern's Ph.D. application window is now closed. Even though there's little chance that the application committee will even glance at the apps before the new year, it's still a great feeling that my application is now ready for judgment...

If it's any consolation, that happened to me several times. Not so much with typos, but just things I had a last-minute desire to reword, or decided to punctuate differently. On one of them, I think I did it four times.

Ah! It's so true! At the beginning of the semester, I actually make a master syllabus -- I take all of my syllabi and create a spreadsheet full of assignment dates and due dates for everything. I print it out and cross stuff off as the semester rolls along. I find it really helpful for organization...and also for my peace of mind, simply from the ability to cross things off. (There's a "Fort - da!" quality to this, I know). This time I actually created a separate index card for all the stuff I need to do in the next couple of weeks. There are ten items on it...but I was able to cross off four, which is very gratifying. This might go some way toward explaining why I submitted all of my applications so early.

Happy to help! So my stress level is pretty high, though due more to finishing up my current semester than anything. Taking five English courses seemed like a good idea at the time... But I've got four papers out of the way over the past week, and just have two more (albeit ginormous ones) to worry about...plus three final exams. But still, I feel better about things, now that I've finished those papers. As much as I enjoy writing (and I really do), seeing so many on your "to-do" list is daunting. I don't know how I would have managed juggling applications with all of it. I don't say that to rub it in to those who do have to do it...but I would have been in a world of trouble, I think. Of course the flip-side is that I've had a long time to second-guess everything on my irrevocably submitted applications... Good luck to everyone! Some schools start reporting in a mere two months! Whoa.

This is pretty much my approach as well. I mention in my SOP a research seminar I took on Shakespeare's sonnets which had a major influence on the direction I wanted to go with graduate studies etc. Lo and behold, my WS is all about three of Shakespeare's sonnets. I don't mention the WS specifically, but the two obviously work together intuitively. All told, I think (and have read / heard here and elsewhere) that it's a slight no-no to go on at length about your WS in your SOP. A sentence might be alright, but I can't imagine a scenario in which the adcomm members who read your SOP don't read your WS (unless, of course, there's something in your SOP that instantly disqualifies you). I do think you should mention the honor your WS is receiving though...just don't get into the content unless it's en passant. Just my two cents. The blind leading the blind, and all that. (<-- smirking blind emoji)

Seriously, this is the reaction I expect every time an adcomm sees that I want to study sonnet history:

Ha! This just gave me a good belly laugh. In fact, I think it's sig-worthy. Congratulations, 1Q84, you have joined Unraed in my Hall of Sig.

A bit better than me on BOTH fronts, so...let's hope so! (To the "good enough" part...not the "Columbia rolling their eyes" part!)

Ah! That's exactly what I used as a guide this past summer.

Sure, I think that's all relevant and valid. I'm glad you started this thread, by the way, as a lot of people forget that most programs require a C.V. as a part of the application. It's hard to say how significantly a C.V. is weighed, given that most of the pertinent information can be found elsewhere in your application, but it is usually a requirement, and a thread like this is helpful for those having to start one from scratch.