Jump to content

bgt28

Members
  • Posts

    247
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Everything posted by bgt28

  1. BU suspends admissions to humanities, other Ph.D. programs
  2. Needless to say, I'm already losing my absolute mind. It's atrocious how anxiety makes time slow down as opposed to speeding it up lol.
  3. @Kiamia Ditto on Yale Combined WGSS, but I'm doing it with AfAm Studies. Best of luck to us both, as that is for sure a dream program!
  4. Thank you for the opportunity. Happy to help. Good luck to us all!
  5. I would say the consensus mirrors the advice you've come upon thus far. I think it's ok to cite specific texts that are relevant to your research interests in the body of the SOP by name, but it's not customary to include a formal bibliography, nor is it a requirement to include in-text citations. The general assumption is that quotes are superfluous in the context of an SOP because you can safely assume that Admissions Committees are intimately familiar with whatever text you may be moved to pull from. Ultimately, the SOP requires you to be specific in terms of the broad strokes, like your academic and research interests, why you're applying to the program(s) you've chosen, faculty whose work resonates and who are able to support your journey to the end of your degree, and how you intend on actively participating in/contributing to any given university community. You can get away with leaving citations out because the SOP is your opportunity to use your own voice to be clear and specific, rather than quotations.
  6. How's everyone feeling as we move into November?
  7. I'm with you.
  8. @John Watson Thank you for your kind words and for your detailed input. I sincerely appreciate it! Best of luck to us all.
  9. Yessir. Moving on to other things and excited to have everything particularly recommendations done and out of mind.
  10. @Wordy Tart Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies/African American Studies here. Wbu?
  11. I'm in the thick of the waiting game
  12. @John Watson thank you for your response! At this point stamina is perilously low, so I may just move forward with this cycle lol
  13. My advice is to take it and submit scores only if you score high enough that it adds to your application, particularly when it comes to the verbal and writing sections of the GRE. If not, I'd say your time would be better spent focusing on statements of purpose, personal narratives, and writing samples.
  14. I just took the GRE today and got the above-mentioned unofficial score. I feel good about my performance on the essay as well. However, I was wondering what folks think about the value of retaking it to get a higher quant score? I'm going for a PhD in American Literature at some pretty selective schools and want to present a solid profile, especially as someone who has been out of school for almost 10 years. Thanks!
  15. @thea I am interested in African American literature and intellectual life in the incipient era of our nation, from roughly the 1760s to the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868. Specifically, I am interested in tracing the many ways in which figurations of race, gender, and sexuality played into ideas of national belonging and how those figurations continue to reverberate in our present understanding of “Americanness”. They are for sure competitive, but my motto is reach for the stars; I might not get there, but I won't know until I try, and I may get lucky and land somewhere high up there. I've already gone through one cycle where I got rejected from all the PhD programs I applied to, so I'm trying to learn from past mistakes and the bitter disappointment and keep trying until I get in.
  16. I'm curious: what do people make of the fact that so many people say it is a HORRIBLE idea to pursue a PhD if you don't have an ultra-specific topic of interest in mind, or equally specific career goals for the degree? What's the issue with using the degree to explore established interests? Or is the reticence more related to having a weaker statement of purpose?
  17. Thank you @thea! I'm shooting my shot and trying for the following programs: Johns Hopkins English George Washington English American Studies Harvard African American Studies Yale Combined PHD, African American Studies + Gender and Sexuality Studies Brown English American Studies Modern Culture and Media Africana Studies Stanford English Modern Thought and Literature Berkeley African American Studies English God be with me! I do need to come up with one to two additional tiers since these all sound like "reach" schools.
  18. Is anybody out there? Can you hear me? lol
  19. Hi Everyone. I just wanted to add a note to see if others are in the same situation as I am. I got my MA in 2017 and left school to work and live my life for a bit. I've reached a level of stability that makes it a good time for me to revisit my intellectual goals and resume my journey towards a PhD. Hoping to apply to some programs this coming fall and to matriculate in the fall of 2025. Cheers, happy to be back, and best of luck to all.
  20. Alright guys, I guess I failed miserably with that last post. My goal was of course not to sound like I'm seeping with naïveté, but rather with a genuine desire to move beyond these discussions until at least one year in. I'm not sure about anybody else's position, but I'm tired of reading about rankings and the job market and I've not even started grad school yet.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use