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Thanks for the input! I have been shunned away from the five paragraph essay as I'm sure most of you have. Sounds like I will just be very blunt with my writing and come up with as many arguments as I can in the allotted time and then not stress about it. I may try to shove in the colons and semicolons, as apparently these lift writing scores automatically (or at least that's what they teach us teachers-in-training in CA). Whew!

In the GRE section of The Grad Cafe I have seen a lot of anxiety surrounding the essay portion of this test. I figured that since I have made it through half of my MA I should have a skill set adequate enough to score high on this portion. However, someone posted that a 5.0 is in the 90th percentile and for some reason that makes me nervous. What resources have you used to prepare yourself, if any? Am I absolutely crazy for worrying about this section of the test? I keep trying to convince myself that I'm prepared since I got high marks on the WPE and a perfect score on the high school exit exam twice, given the math portion allegedly tests high school freshman standards (I had to retake it during my undergrad because my BA was in English Education), but I am forever anxious about everything.

I am infinitely jealous about The Globe. I was supposed to spend my birthday last summer watching Macbeth there as a groundling, but my aunt and uncle both fell sick and my focus went towards that instead. I think honestly the best thing about CSULB's MA English program is that we have two brilliant Early Modernists who are married to each other. I think that's fantastic. Hmm...Civil War lit and Shakespeare...I can't fathom how that would be anything less that fascinating! What did you focus your studies on a KC, if I might ask?

Oh and Wyatt's Torch, I agree that there are more EM professors that students. In my program (which I consider fairly large; I don't know all of the grad students) I'm the only Early Modernist. Everyone else is boring

Here! Even though I've started to incorporate American lit into my area of study, I consider myself an Early Modernist to the core I'm jealous of your MA: I really wanted to get mine from KC but it just didn't work out. Oh well, everything happens for a reason, right? But it won't stop me from being envious of you!

Yes. This is great advice. My problem is that I'm fairly certain that my professors will say yes just because they're absolutely nice people, but I haven't been as involved in my program as I should be. Don't get me wrong, I show up to class every day and participate. I just didn't make much use of office hours unless I really absolutely needed it. And I'm starting to regret that. Last year I worked 55+ hours a week so I spent any extra time sleeping. And the have been medical issues too, but I have only told 1 professor about that because her class was the only class that was effected by my treatment. So basically my outside life kept me from being 100% a grad student and I'm worried that will work against me. I'm glad you brought up the age thing because that's another concern of mine. I plowed straight through my BA in 4 years and will be finishing my MA in two, meaning that I'm in my very early 20s. I'm the youngest person in my program by a few years (most are in their late 20s and up) so I've had to fight to be taken seriously. I'm the only person in my program who wears business casual every freaking day and I don't mean to say that to speak ill of my classmates: its just because they don't have to worry about being taken seriously. I've simply adopted business casual as my way of silently jumping up and down and waving my hands to shout, "Hey! I'm here too!" without all the drama. I'm hoping that my professors see my age as a sign of ambition and maturity for my years instead of viewing me as inexperienced.

I just saw this. Oops! I can take classes P/F, and almost did so for my French class last semester. But my concern is less my GPA being effected as using that valuable time for something else. Not to sound too cocky, but I'm not sure how much more I could learn from that class anyway. I mean, one of the required texts was The Tempest...as a history course... I don't know. I just thought it would be interesting but now I'm thinking that sanity is much more interesting.

Hahaha we all have so much on our plates! It's simultaneously inspiring and gut wrenching, if you know what I mean. Queennight, don't worry I haven't asked any of my professors anything serious as far as recommending or advising. The thought of being rejected by a potential recommender makes me want to throw up. The department in my school is rather large so there has been only 2 professors who have instructed more than one of my classes in the 3 years I have been at this school. One of them happens to be my advisor too. Ugh.

I found the info on cfplist.com which is an incredible resource I'd like to pass along if anyone is interested:)

This is kind of off topic, but didn't you say you were near Toronto, Wyatt's Torch? I've been doing research on CFPs and I noticed there is a huge conference in Toronto next year with CFPs in about every discipline imaginable. Have you heard anything about it? I'm thinking about submitting a few abstracts.

Genius, Wyatt's Torch! I never would have thought to watch movie versions of books. I shall try that! I've been making lots of flash cards and reviewing sparknotes for a good amount of works. I'm refreshing myself on some poetry and a few major prose works. I don't think I'll be rereading any novels or plays, though. I might reopen that Norton Anthology of criticism but I've had nightmares about that book, so maybe not. Has anyone else used that book? The big white one? Ugh. I bought the Princeton Review prep book and it has some key terms and mythological figures which is incredibly helpful for this discipline in its own right. Honestly I feel like I'm just grasping in the dark for whatever points I can get to boost my score. The amount of stuff this test covers is absolutely overwhelming.

So after months of deliberation, I dropped a class for the fall semester. The class was an undergrad history class on Tudor-Stewart England that I was taking for funsies but then I realized that I have to take 2 GREs, edit my writing sample, write my SOPs, stay on my recommenders' cases about the letters, fill out all of the applications, and I'm taking two second year grad level classes in which I fully expect to get As. I'm trying to focus more time on submitting papers for conferences and publication this semester too. There might also be a chance that I'll be working 40+ hours during the semester. Oh, and then there's sleep. And I'm supposed to be running my first full marathon in October (ha ha!). My boyfriend and friends might like some attention too... Is anyone else freaking out like me? Holy crap, there's so much to do. Let me hear about your crazy schedules! It feels better to let it out!

Thanks for all of the feedback! That my paper doesn't even touch the idea of transatlanticism is something I've been struggling with as well. I don't see how I can add that in to my paper at all and keep the integrity of my argument. I'm going to meet with my advisor the first week of school because I'm THAT anxious about the whole process. My advisor only knows the basic premise of my paper but had warned me that the thesis seems fairly obvious. I like to disagree, as during my review of literature for this paper I read nearly every work of criticism on The Tempest for the last 20 years or so, some even further back. Yes, I am crazy. I feel more confident about my paper because the professor whose class it was originally for was that notoriously difficult professor that every university seems to have. And he gave me an A. I'm more concerned about my writing style though. My style seems to be pretty simplistic usually, but I've been advised to make sure that my papers read like prose to maintain interest through the entirety of the argument. I have never been a creative writer so this is something that I struggle with.

I'm still bouncing between a paper I did on the construction of a patriarchal society on the island in The Tempest and one I did on sexual politics in Reformation theater. I might stick with the former, as I spent way too long on that paper. It's the only paper I've written that I'm actually very proud of and shows the caliber of work I can produce. All of my other term papers have been finished with a time strain due to unforeseen circumstances that always seem to pop up near the end of the term. Funny how that happens, isn't it? I consider The Tempest paper to be my love child and I've presented it as well, which means I have versions of the paper that are 19 and 11 pages. My only concern for this paper is that I wrote it during my first semester of grad study and I do feel that I've grown a bit. While the general topic is pretty obvious, the paper received positive feedback and was met with curious questions at the conference where it was presented. I'm taking a Shakespeare seminar this semester so maybe I will start my term paper early and just use that if I'm happy with it.

Can we revive this thread? It's so interesting! I tend to work better at night. I'm not sure why, but my internal clock refuses to do anything productive before like 7pm. Having noticed this, I like to take more night classes and I usually stay at the library until I'm kicked out. Is anyone attending a school where the library is 24 hours? I'm eternally jealous.

Thanks for all of the feedback! I guess since I'm finishing up my MA and have gotten here without/despite any "help" from those who are supposed to help has made me a bit of a bootstrapper. I'd rather figure it out myself than get misguided information. I guess reaching out to a few students wouldn't hurt though.

Yeah, I basically do. I mean I thought I was doing a thesis for my MA, but my advisor suggested I use my idea for my dissertation instead since it's such a huge project. I fully expect it to change during research though.

Hi Amy! I'm currently on the mobile version so I can't quote and whatnot:/ but I agree: the way programs were structured in England pretty much turned me off. And they're so expensive! I might still apply to Oxford as a reach program since one of my favorite scholars is an instructor at one of the colleges there. But the chances of me getting into Oxford to begin with, and then being admitted to her college are basically nonexistent. And from what I understand, it's basically impossible to get funding for Oxford unless you're lucky enough to be a Fullbright which is another story completely....ugh. And student visas? Don't even get me started!

Also I'm curious, for those who have contacted students at programs of interest, what exactly are you asking them? I might be naive, but I don't exactly understand how current grad students can be of any help.

Hi everyone! I might as well introduce myself. I'm Jessica. I'm going in to my second and final year of my MA at CSU Long Beach. I'll be applying to PhD programs for fall 2015. I focus on transatlantic gender theory in the 17th-18th centuries. What I thought I wanted to do changed drastically when I came up with my dissertation that includes American lit when I considered myself strictly an Early Modernist. So instead of applying to schools in England, I decided to apply for programs in America exclusively. Also my SO was given a promotion which means he cannot move across country with me as we previously planned. I am now applying to more programs in the Southern California area while still giving myself the option of schools on the east coast.

I had to pass a language requirement for my MA program and there were a few ways in which the requirement could be met. I decided to take Old English (which is really freaking cool btw) and French. Anyone know offhand if any PhD programs would be willing to waive one of the language requirements, considering I already met one for my MA? I didn't consider this as a possibility until I came across this thread, so I'm just curious if anyone has had any experience with a similar situation.

I'm not sure I can help much, but I am currently getting my MA from CSU Long Beach. My decision to attend this program was due to lack of planning and because the admissions process is incredibly easy. I'm convinced that they admit anyone who applies with a qualifying GPA. Seriously. No letters of rec, no GREs. Just an application and a SOP. If anything, apply as a back up school of sorts, although I LOVE our program and think my professors are absolutely brilliant. Best of luck to you!

This summer I have been just worrying about applications. This includes researching hundreds of programs, trying to read anthologies to study for the subject test, crying tears of frustration from feeling inadequate, throwing my dissertation proposal at some of my current professors to get (surprisingly positive) feedback and suggestions, sleeping a lot as a procrastination technique, and making an obscene amount of flash cards. Also, I think I am the reason why the Starbucks down the street from my apartment is still open for business. I somehow managed to make it to Hawaii for a week, move in to a new apartment, attempted to run a half marathon, and worked. This summer has been a whirlwind and as a result, I have no idea when the first day of school is. I should probably figure that out.

Oh my goodness this thread is giving me anxiety and relief at the same time, if that's possible. I have been absolutely freaking out about the subject test which somehow in my messed up brain equates to zero studying. I'm glad to hear that some of you are also a bit anxious! I thought about visiting my test center beforehand, but I thought I was just being neurotic. Glad to know I'm not crazy! Where have you guys been taking practice tests? I have one in the back of my ETS book, but I want to save that for when I'm a bit more confident (a.k.a. once I have read most of my Norton Anthologies cover to cover...not really, but kind of really...). However I'm worried that I'll absolutely bomb that practice test and have a break down. If anyone has a resource for another practice test I'd greatly appreciate it!

I'm having this same problem! I haven't taken a math class in 5 years and even then it was some basic "Math for Teachers" class. I keep getting all of the practice questions wrong, even though I think I'm following the right strategies. I just came across this website. It seems pretty helpful upon first glance, but I haven't thoroughly looked through it yet so use your own discretion (and let me know what you think!) http://www.wtamu.edu/academic/anns/mps/math/mathlab/gre/