AdornoGray

I am! German PhD! How's everyone doing?

My top school did that - my POI emailed me and told me that I should apply for a fellowship that I missed, but said in the email "we haven't made any final decisions yet, but we were impressed with your profile and thought you'd be a good fit for the fellowship." I went ahead and applied to the fellowship, let them know I applied, and waited. I was admitted, got extra funding, but ultimately didn't get the other fellowship. But I was admitted and to me, that's what really mattered. Just my experience, if that helps.

SK: Yes, it is early. According to the results page, it looks like some of the notifications go in waves. If you weren't in the first wave, you might be in the second. We still have quite a bit to go!

Hey fredfredfred, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it was you who got into U of I. Congratulations! Great school (and if I remember correctly you're from Champaign) a good college town. Have you had any word from your other two yet?

It sure sounds genuine to me. There are so many programs that don't even take the time to have a personalized response to application (or even respond!). I would tend to believe them if they said "great asset" - that's not a phrase you hear often. Could you email a POI there or even ask to have a quick Skype conversation to ask a question about the MA coursework? This might give you another chance to gauge their genuineness.

The Duke system is probably slow. And cumbersome to use. Like you, I don't see any updates on there. I think I will wait and see if the faculty reach out directly. The automated email was from UNC. As for funding: I've heard different things from students. The Duke website says 5 years full, the shared website doesn't mention much. It will probably come within the next few weeks. Congrats!

Actually I got another automated email this morning from Carolina-Duke. Right after I posted that.

I'm feeling antsy. But you're right - it is still early. I got an email from Duke-UNC, saying good things about my application but nothing official yet, so we'll see. What's your top pick?

I applied to German PhD programs in the United States. Clearly, getting into one of these programs with great funding would be ideal. However, if that doesn't occur, I am considering applying to the Master's program at a school in Canada. They do not receive students with a BA directly into the PhD. I want to apply so that I simply have more options. I was misinformed last year that the school in question did not have a German program - after I looked into the matter myself last week, I see that they do and that it's doing some interesting work. It's my fault that I didn't corroborate the information I got. They typically have between 3-5 applicants a year. I'm done applying to all the PhD programs. The Canadian program's application is due Jan. 31st. The website seems to highly suggest contact with faculty. Would it be ridiculous if I just now reached out to a POI?

I had a friend who was in grad school and got married and she had a lot of help in the process. Also, she's basically superwoman (one of those people who don't need to sleep and run marathons for fun). But it was a lot. She also planned her honeymoon for a little later (she got married in the fall too). Many people wait to go on their honeymoon until a more convenient time. I personally would recommend that. You can coast on the fun of the wedding for a while (and have a mini-honeymoon at home) and then go someplace awesome over break. That way it feels like two honeymoons. Weddings are as much work as you make them. It's possible that you could get most of your planning done long before you enter school. My personal advice (my wedding was on the cheap but took some energy) is to accept any and all offers for help. Good luck with planning and congratulations on your engagement!

I received an email this morning from a POI at one of my top programs. In it he asked for my third recommender to submit his LOR through the official system (my recommender emailed it directly to the department administrator because of a miscommunication). I assume it was used in the application review in that manner. In his email, the POI wrote: I just wanted to assure you that you are still eligible for admission to our program. As a matter of fact, the admissions committee met last week, and we were very impressed with your application materials. As soon as we receive the outstanding materials from you (a third recommendation letter), we will be able to submit your file so that it goes through the official channels of consideration. But I just wanted to reach out to you to let you know that you are still very much eligible for the program, and we just have to get this document processed before we can give you an official response. Later in the email the POI offers his personal help with getting the letter in or other options for a letter. Does this mean that I'm likely accepted or that they are just trying to follow protocol with applications so they can notify me that I'm not a fit? Anyone else experience something like this?

When you say "went into two pages" do you mean double spaced? My programs haven't given me word limits just page limits. Right now I'm not at the page limit, but I'm wondering since I didn't double space if I would be over.

My writing sample comes from my undergraduate research honors project. While it was not published in any peer-reviewed journal, it was published online in my undergraduate school's digital commons (part of Bepress' Digital Commons). Every month my paper gets hundreds of views and downloads. This seems significant, but I'm not sure how to cite it. I wanted to know if I should list this paper and it's presence on the digital commons on my CV. What are your thoughts? Note: I put this here because I didn't know what other forum to post on.

Thanks AVFlinsch and MathCat. I've asked my other major professors to talk about the skills I have gotten in their major that are universal in grad research. You guys put my mind to rest.

I went to a small liberal arts college where my double major was a bit lopsided. My intended area of study (German) had only 1 full-time professor at the time I was there. That professor is writing a LOR. My other two LORs are coming from my other major - an academic advisor and another close professor. Is it ok that I don't have three from German? Any experience with this?

I took the GRE and did ok. My verbal score was strong and my quantitative score was average. However, I really did not do as well as I wanted for the essay. I got a 4.5. I usually do well on essays - I just froze on test day. I am applying to German programs. How much do adcomms take essay scores into consideration? Should I retake the GRE to improve that score?

Starting this thread back up in case others have joined since SK first posted. Any other applicants for the German PhD out there?

Hey GermanGrad12! I'd love to read the write-ups you have about graduate admissions in the humanities. Can you explain what you mean about entering with a master's making the odds slimmer?

Hi SK! I too am applying to PhD programs this fall, but I'll be focusing on Literature. I don't know much about the three schools you mentioned but I'll keep an eye out for information. I know University of Wisconsin Madison has some good linguistic programs and Minnesota did in the past. Maybe you could check those two out.