Dr. Old Bill

Not naive. I started a thread a month or so ago about contacting current grad students. Basically, I asked questions like program environment (i.e., competitive, cooperative etc.), quality of certain professors, their "fit" for given fields of interest, and various things like that. Basically, every program is different, even though most program information pages are roughly the same. Current graduate students can shed light on some of the intangibles, and making contacts before you get admitted can potentially help you after you get admitted. If I wind up getting admitted to the programs for which I contacted grad students, you can bet that the first people I'll contact will be those same students. And if I'm in a situation where I have more than one admission offer, having those contacts could wind up swaying me one way or another. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that it may not help your application, but it might help your decision about a certain program, and can potentially create some good advanced contacts without having any risk at all. By the way, I should also mention that the SO aspect can be tough. I've actually followed my wife on a few moves (immigrated from Canada to be with her in D.C., then moved to Norfolk when she got a better job there, then once again when she shifted back to D.C.), but she has been 100% supportive of my schooling, and has told me that she'll do her best to go wherever I go this time, so long as she can find a job in her field. As a result, there's a chance that we'll have to be apart some of the time, but that's nothing new for us -- we were apart for most of the early part of our relationship, but we always knew it was strong enough to get through the separations. And the same will be true this time as well. So you and your SO can definitely make the distance work, if need be!

I wouldn't say I'm anxious about it, per se, but other than reading as many books on the "recommended reading list" as possible (there's another thread here on that if you need it), I haven't done much studying yet. I will say, however, that both Hapax Legomena and Vade Mecum are great sites that have summaries, synopses, flash cards, and other helpful information (thanks to LyonessRampant for pointing those out in prior threads). And as mentioned elsewhere, Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE is supposed to be extremely helpful as well. I have a copy less than a foot away from me right now, and have had for about a month, yet haven't once cracked the cover, let alone the GRE. But I'm sure I'll be blown away by its erudition when I do. Hope that helps!

Welcome! And I'm so sorry to hear you were stuck in that validation glut. Being in limbo for three days was killing me (which probably tells you how much I've been leaning on Grad Cafe these days), and I can't imagine waiting for weeks just to get the luxury of posting! That experience mirrors my own quite a bit. I, too, am what they call a "non-traditional" student, which is undergrad code for "old," and also transferred from a community college to a good undergraduate school. So we're definitely in the same boat in that regard! I agree, however, that it's generally looked upon in a far more favorable light if you get your Ph.D. from a different institution than your B.A. In theory, it demonstrates a wider variety of learning options and different approaches etc. It also shows the ability to adapt and thrive in a different location. It's probably overstated, and thought of as being more significant than it actually is, but c'est la vie. Okay, stop. Stop right there. Just...stop. You got a 170 score on the verbal. Very few people -- English majors or otherwise -- get a 170 score on the verbal. It's 99th percentile. Probably 99.9 or more (if I could find a way to put the little bar over the 9s after the decimal, I would). You literally cannot do better than that. Your quantitative, as the folks above said, doesn't really matter much, except for funding issues at a few (and it's really not all that many) schools. Usually state schools. SUNY Buffalo, for example, wants a combined score of 313, but I've come across at least one thread on Grad Cafe that mentioned that someone had under 313 combined but still got into SUNY Buffalo and received full funding. So even that can be finessed. But it's all a moot point, because literally NO ONE will consider a combined 323 to be in any way a low score. Personally, I've got a combined 310 and I'm still sleeping well at night, because I frankly suck at math, and better yet, very few English departments care. Honestly, there are many past threads here that talk about how little the Q score matters except for in those few programs where it is considered for funding reasons alone. You would definitely be wasting your time and money retaking the GRE general. I don't think that's even opinion at this point -- it's more like a fact, with the scores you have. And one final point on that front if you're still on the fence is that if you wind up taking it again and get, say a 164 on the verbal and a 158 on the quantitative, you can't partition the scores out so that adcomms will see the V170 and the Q158. But again, it truly doesn't matter. The application is taken as a complete package, and many adcomms just view GRE scores as a checklist item, unless you've got one that is uncommonly low. And believe me, that is most certainly NOT the case for you! And once again...welcome to the forum!

I suspect, though can't claim to know definitively, that some programs will waive it if you can demonstrate proficiency in some way. For instance, if you have a short essay in Old English, you could probably have your eventual advisor or the DGS have someone in the department read it and say "Oh yeah, she knows her gryffuld from her groyfeld" (I don't know Old English, so I'm improvising). I didn't jot the names of the institutions down, but I have definitely seen more than one program say something along the lines of "will consider previous coursework" in the fulfillment of the foreign language requirement. And the worst case scenario, in most programs, is that you'd have to take a translation exam, which you would probably do quite well at, given that most let you use a dictionary anyhow. So yes, at this point I would say that you would only need to worry about learning ONE more language, and for some programs, you won't even need to do that.

Oh! In that case, I would definitely suggest you take it as soon as possible, for two reasons. First of all, many people consider it to be a test that you can't really study for, and I agree with that to some degree. Case in point: the first time I took it, I did very little preparation. I did a couple of practice quizzes, and that was it. I did pretty well (over 160 on the verbal), but figured I'd give it another shot a couple of months later, because I had this burning desire to give ETS more money. (Okay, not really...I just figured I could get into the mid-to-high 160s on the verbal and 5+ on the analytical writing). The second time I took it, I studied a lot. I spent a lot of time memorizing key vocabulary words I didn't already know, and I took at least four complete practice tests, and wound up scoring in the high 160s on a couple of them. But come test day, I had a bad start to the morning (my alarm didn't go off, despite being correctly set, and I had to race out the door in a state of discombobulation...), and I simply didn't have my mojo, for the lack of a better term. I scored worse than the first time, and it was truly a waste of money, considering that I had "good" to "quite good" GRE scores from the first time around, and that GRE isn't a huge factor in the application process. But that is indeed the second reason why you should take it sooner rather than later: if you DO happen to bomb it (I'd say a verbal under 155 would be the English major's verson of "bombing" it), then you have time to retake it, and you won't have to send those first scores to anyone. They can be a little secret between you and ETS. So considering that studying (for some) may only have a moderate impact on your scores, and that the earlier you take the GRE, the more wiggle room you have for retaking it if need be, you might as well go tomorrow. Or the next day. Or as soon as you can get an appointment. Just my two cents, of course. YMMV and all that.

So clearly the answer to "How you spent your summer" for many of you is "in unbearable agony." Damn. Really sorry for all of you. I get headaches quite frequently, but never full-on migraines. If it's any consolation (it's not), just think of it as your brilliance trying to escape.

While my perspective on learning languages has changed a bit in the last few years (i.e., I have far less of an issue with it if it's an applied language that you will be actively using), and while I completely appreciate and understand the graduate school desire for their students to have two foreign languages, for some people learning a language is just as difficult as learning calculus or advanced algebra. I made it through four semesters of Spanish with all As, and can probably claim to have a reading knowledge of the language, but part of me can't help but think that I was lucky to get those As, and I probably relied on Spanish dictionaries a bit too much when I was writing my papers. My point is that languages come more easily to some people than they do to others. I'm certainly not dreading learning another language or two, but I can't claim to be looking forward to it either, even though those languages will be applied this time around.

Personally, I'd be inclined to take it. Try to study as much as you can before the late September date. The reason I say this is because ETS can be notoriously slow about sending the scores out (and remember that they're sent via snail mail), and there's not a lot of wiggle room if something goes awry. But that's the ideal, of course. In most cases taking the test in late October shouldn't be an issue, and for some folks it's the only feasible date. The other consideration is that there are threads peppered throughout GC that talk about students bombing the GRE lit test (I seem to recall one girl saying she was in the 18th percentile) and getting into top tier institutions regardless. In other words, it IS an important and necessary part of your application (for some places), but it is, after all, just part. If you blow the adcomms away with a fantastic WS and SOP, even if you have lackluster GRE scores, you've still got a solid shot at getting accepted, from what I understand.

Well, for what it's worth, I'll be sending Yale my main WS, which will end up at around 16-18 pages (i.e., more than 10-15!). It may sound a tad arrogant (I hope not), but I think my writing style is quite readable. I use "big words," of course, but I think it's important to remember that no matter how dry the material may be, there's no need to make how one writes about the material dry as well. My point being that the person at Yale I referenced above simply indicated that they get a ton of papers, all of which must be at least partially read through, and that is the reason for the page count. I suspect that they'd be happy to read engaging essays that are a bit longer. Of course, we're all English folks here, so pretty much everyone can probably make the same justification, so...take these thoughts with a grain of salt!

Actually, I think part of the reason might be that the validation system was broken! A few days ago, I tried to change my email, which required a validation email sent to my OTHER email address. Well, that email never came through, and I've been locked out of Grad Cafe for the last three days. Finally this morning I tried it and voila! A validation email was sent, and I'm no longer in GC limbo... (So if anyone tried PMing me over that time, it probably didn't go through...) Incidentally, while I was but a shade traversing purgatory, able to watch the world but not participate, I noticed that there was a backlog of hundreds of new registrants, all in the "validating" stage as well. May those poor souls find their way to the tangible world once again. P.S.: Queennight: my wife and I LOVE Hannibal! We haven't seen Season 2 yet, because we usually binge-watch things instead of watching them live, so...no spoilers, anyone!

Sounds great, Unraed! Although yowza on the page count for NYU. That's ridiculously short, and doesn't really make a lot of sense -- the page count is longer than for most undergraduate papers, yet shorter than for most seminar / conference / graduate papers. Perhaps their tacit desire is that many students will write a fresh paper for their own edification... Yale's requirements are surprisingly short as well, being between 10 and 15 pages. I contacted them about wiggle room on the page count, since mine might wind up a little longer with the appendix and works cited pages, and was told rather plainly that "the point is not so much to count as to remember that your readers have a great many other pages to read!" I can't really argue with that. So I simply replied with a "thank you" and said that every page would be a joy to read. Unraed: PM me when you've got yours done. I was hoping to have a strong draft of mine done today, but it'll probably be Monday or Tuesday, as I'm out of town for the next three days.

Last year there was a great thread about what various applicants were doing for their Writing Samples. Given how quiet Grad Cafe has been over the last while, I figure it might be interesting to talk about our plans in that regard (current acceptees can feel free to chime in, of course!) I'm currently finishing up a paper that examines the structural anomalies of three of Shakespeare's sonnets, and proposes that those anomalies were more likely intentional than erroneous. I took a great seminar course last year wherein students were allowed to write their papers on any of Shakespeare's sonnets from any perspective. I wrote papers on two of the "misfits" (99 has fifteen lines, 126 consists of six heroic couplets, and 145 is in iambic tetrameter, rather than pentameter), and am in the process of writing on the third and assembling a single cohesive paper on the topic. It's going to check in at around fifteen to seventeen pages, though includes an appendix and a works cited section that will probably spill over on to two pages. My Statements of Purpose discuss my interest in "historical prosody" or the "history of the lyric," with a particular focus on the evolution of sonnet form. I think (hope!) that the SOP and WS work well together, in light of my graduate interests. It's a bit harder to work out a WS that is truly transhistorical, which is part of why I am grounding it (and my SOP) in the early modern era, even though my interests are a bit broader than that (despite my love of all things Shakespeare). I'll be working on a 20-page paper this fall on the subject of contextualizing Edwin Arlington Robinson (an American poet from the late 19th to early 20th century), but I have recently decided to focus all of my applications on historical prosody, rather than hedging my bets on later eras. Having said that, I'm hoping that if and when I'm accepted, I'll have the opportunity to do more formalized study on both angles. So what are the rest of you working on in that regard? I should also mention that I would be happy to do a WS exchange by the end of this month if anyone is interested (after that I'll be uber busy until the new year, alas, and may not have the time to do a good job of it).

I noticed today that Professor Maxwell at Washington University in St. Louis is the DGS of the English program, has joint appointment with African and Afro-American Studies, and also happens to be white. So if nothing else, it shows that your proposed career path is not unheard of, at least. -------- By the way folks, the equivalent Grad Cafe thread for last year was already up to 32 pages by this date! Does this mean that there are fewer applicants this year, or is everyone just really really quiet?

I literally LOL'ed at that. In fact, I'm going to add it to my signature!

Wow. This sentence so accurately reflects my current state of mind right now, it's not even funny...especially the mix of "nervous anticpation and little-kid excitement" part. It's so weird, isn't it? Applications are a huge slog, but knowing that in seven months there's a good chance that you'll be preparing to move to a new city to spend five or more years getting paid to work on the material dearest to your heart... It's hard not to get kinda giddy, isn't it?

Thanks to the both of you. I just sent an email to someone at Irvine directly to see if she can give me the inside scoop.

So I came across here discussing a major funding cut to UC Irvine a few years back, and some generally alarming posts about the school in general. Its poetry and poetics department is sort of on my radar, due mostly to Virginia Jackson. Does anyone -- current student or otherwise -- have any information on what's been going on in that regard for the past three years?

ETS: making life difficult for grad applicants since 1947.™

Now now! Not "several!" That makes me sound like a remedial dunce! Just twice, and I'm not going to talk about the second attempt... (I try to avoid emojis, by the way, but they seem appropriate here...) Anyhow, on to your question. I wouldn't worry about it. They state that they are sticklers, and the staff does indeed seem a little aloof (at least they did at the location I went to), but the first time I took the test, I had to remind them that I'm a non-citizen (I'm Canadian and a permanent resident here), and needed to be proactive about taking out my Green Card and showing it to them. The guidelines on the ETS site make a big deal about this, but the staff didn't even think to ask. In your case, I don't think the middle name will be a concern. It would be more of a concern if it were the other way around: if your IDs didn't show your middle name, but your admission ticket did. But since some people don't use their middle name, even on official documents, I don't think it will be a problem. Having said that, it can't hurt to give them a call. As annoying as it is, I suspect they won't surreptitiously charge you for updating your file (though it's ETS, so you never know...)*, and it would take you from being 95% unconcerned to 100%. *I half expected to see a coin-operated water fountain, a pay-by-the-hour locker fee, and a pencil rental surcharge at the testing center...

Welcome, Felibus! That sounds like a busy summer, to be sure. And I don't think you're really all that far behind the curve when it comes to your application preparations. If previous years of Grad Cafe threads are any indication, most folks start ramping up in October. And you'll probably find that the finalization of your schools list is never really finalized...at least that's my experience so far. Duke had been on my "for sure!" list for awhile, but now I'm not even planning on applying there (yet who knows -- that could change again!). Two months ago I wouldn't have even considered Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, but now they're my top choices (not just because they're no-brainer top-tier schools, but because they really are great fits for my proposed course of study...) Inducting yourself into learning a vital language for your area of interest is probably one of the best things you could have done this summer, and that's going to make for a great line or two on your SOP. Congrats!

Thanks Felibus. I just gave it a try, but to no avail. I called them on Thursday, and they basically said "give it another week then call us back again." I'm obviously a tad concerned, given the importance of this test...but I'll just have to be vigilant about contacting them. Good luck to you in this as well!

That's awesome, Proflorax! Yes, I forgot to mention that I spent some time binge watching Netflix as well (rewatching the cult classic Battlestar Galactica). It's funny that you mention ASL -- I was thinking of mentioning that possibility on a recent GC thread! A lot of folks forget about it, but it's certainly valid. I used to take notes for a deaf girl in one of my classes...mainly because her "signer" just couldn't keep up with the prof! It's easy to underestimate the importance of sign language. By the way, I lived in SoCal for half a year back in 2001 and loved it. I would move back in a heartbeat. I also spent some time in the Bay Area. My wife hasn't been to California, and has no particular desire to relocate there (though she will if need be), but part of me is secretly hoping I get accepted into Stanford or Berkeley so that I can move back. I'm really more of a West Coast kinda guy anyhow.

It's August now, and I'm guessing that Grad Cafe will start to bustle as application season is upon us (Yale's window opens August 15th, with most others opening up in September). So I figure it might be fun to talk about what we've all been doing this summer -- working? Internship? Vacation abroad? Lounging around and playing Xbox? Feel free to share! Personally, I took a summer course to help fill out the credits I'll need to complete my BA in the spring. I also had a couple of mini vacations -- one with my wife and in-laws to Charleston, SC, and another to NYC to see Kenneth Branagh in Macbeth. I had planned on getting an internship, but didn't make it a priority this past spring, meaning I've had a fair amount of time on my hands this summer. However, other than having a periodic case of the summer doldrums, I've mostly put the extra time to good use in researching various institutions and programs, as well as writing drafts of my SOP (which, thanks to the peer reviewing of a few other wonderful GC members, is pretty much complete). I also took the GRE general a couple of times, and have been doing a great deal of reading to fill in some of the gaps I have in terms of literature (with a view to the GRE subject test next month). So all in all, it has been moderately productive, though not overly invigorating. How about you?

Quite simply, there aren't any. Nothing comprehensive, at least. I basically started with the U.S. News rankings (even though they're not a great representation), and went through school-by-school to see their faculty interests, the thrust of each program, what graduate students are working on, courses offered, and all the other pertinent aspects. In other words, it's a lot of personal research, which is where places like Grad Cafe come in (i.e. if you start a thread about a specific interest, you'll be sure to get a few responses about possible programs).