minnares

Hi ~ I've been lurking this season after getting railed 0-6 last season. But... I got in to Wisconsin this year! I'm thrilled. In response to the post above, I also received the email with the 16-page packet, and in today's mail, a BIG envelope (at last!) with the same information. The letter says we will get a schedule for the visiting days via email. I will be attending and am extremely excited. Congratulations to the others who were admitted! ~ minnares

Once again, all well said and diplomatically (gently) so. I'm grateful, intextrovert. And you're right that I made the choices I did for the intellectual challenge and the process rather than thinking there would be any award at the finish and certainly not every time (not just a fluke). And, in fairness, I did say "awards or no," so I think that it's interesting every focuses on the awards part of my mini-rant rather than the TA/RAship, publication, etc. part of the rant. When I mentioned skipping my kids' activities, I meant for things like TA and RA jobs, which also apparently do not matter much in this process except in the sense that I gained teaching experience and experience supporting larger research projects for myself and others. I've just got to focus on what I learned in each instance, how the work furthered my thinking or interest in my subject and then leave it to them to *glance* at my CV (hopefully). I've been keeping notes on all of your excellent input, so I hope to do this right and not shame myself twice . ~ m

Round 2 for me, as well. Writing a new SoP. Swapped out two of my referees. Retaking the general GRE to try to get my scores into the stratosphere (LOL! ). And I spent the last three weeks reviewing programs for fit. I'll be contacting DGSs and POIs in a few months. This is my game plan to patch all the holes in what I did wrong this time . I'll echo lily's kudos to you for the positive attitude. And also like lily, I'm hoping that the extra year will give the economy time to turn around. I've already had one DGS tell me that they couldn't fund students this year at their "usual level," but next year they are "hoping to increase the offerings." I took that as a great sign and am trying to soothe myself with it a bit. Also, maybe it'll give my family more time to be stable about the move, get the house prepped to sell, etc. I'm looking for positives here. If nothing else, it's giving me an opportunity to present myself to these (hopefully) future colleagues in a better light. I bought that SoP writing book several folks have recommended and hope to avoid all the kisses of death (KODs anyone?) I threw in there this year. Egad. ~ m

Thank you lily (and can I just say that you're consistently very kind and diplomatic on these boards). Well put. And yes, life's so far from fair, no surprise there. I'm looking at this process as a continuation of my ongoing learning experiences. I'm constantly trying to find a way to be softer with my approach and consider others and how they might respond. So this is another opportunity to try to think in those other shoes and see myself however a stranger might. Your point about the end game (icing) is likely very accurate (though it didn't do me a heap of good this year). We'll see how it goes as I try to approach the process with a humbled aspect next time . ~ m

Wow, thank you, fuzzy, intextrovert, and Jae B. Excellent advice and input all around. I will do it differently this time. Writing a new one from scratch. And intextrovert, I've had several people tell me this after reading my SoP, a professor I know at UCLA (in Psych, but on an adcomm), a recent PhD friend of mine, and two professors who know me. Of course, I didn't think to have any of these folks read for me in advance . Smart, right? Learning the hard way. Also, Duke has an excellent page on what they expect in the SoP, it specifically lists striking a balance between arrogance and accomplishment. Actually, the Duke page is the best one I've seen, though the DGS at University of Wisconsin also sent me a very informative .pdf that mentioned arrogance as a killer. And then there's a incredibly interesting link on this website to a Kiss of Death article about statements of purpose that also lists arrogance or sounding arrogant. Mini arrogant rant (be forewarned): It's so frustrating to me this notion of expecting folks (and I mean just about anyone who can hope to get into the schools on these boards) who are, in broad comparison, well-accomplished, awards or no, to act as though those accomplishments are "less than" or not worth caring about or omit mention of them in an attempt to get into a program. I would think that adcomms would care if someone's writing consistently won awards, every time they wrote a research paper. I would think that would give them a track record of success in writing that indicates a possibility of continuing in that vein in graduate school, especially if the awards were out of a broad sampling of thousands of other writers. Otherwise, why wouldn't we all shoot for good grades alone? Why put out the extra effort if not to distinguish ourselves? If all the TA/RAships, publications, awards, etc., don't matter, then why submit a CV at all or seek out those opportunities? I suppose Jae B's suggestions do cast this in a different light for me, and I'll be giving this further thought. I gave up a lot of time with my family (and I mean time away from my kids' band concerts, games, etc.) in order to go after those "extras," so finding out that they don't really matter makes me .End rant. Le sigh. Again, thank you, each of you for giving such sound advice. I'll do my best to put it into practice, and I love Jae B.'s suggestions about showing how these experiences have motivated me to each "next step." All great input. I'm grateful! ~ m

Yes, that helps. Thank you so much. I will contact the departments and ask. It'd be excellent if they didn't care to see that one miserable term worth of credits. One less thing to put a black mark on my apps. ~ m

This is wonderful! Thank you for sharing. (now I'm off to cringe if any of the things I did crop up in this article). ~ m

So here is my situation. I went to college for one term wwwaaaayyyy back in 1992, then got pregnant, then left college. I didn't get to go back until 2006, after which point I earned only As. However, the one term back in 1992 was wretched with morning sickness and family upheaval (mostly caused by me), and my GPA was 2.76. Given the different point values for courses and the difference between quarterly and semester, I am wondering how to integrate those 17 credits into my other 126 in order to be more honest or as honest as possible (and yes I've had people suggest I just not send that one transcript). The way I calculated it, that would bring my cumulative down to a 3.75. My UG institution, the one I did the other 126 credits at, just accepted the credits and then "wiped the slate," only counting my 126 at their institution toward my honors and cumulative there. Does anyone know of website that does this, calculates it out taking into consideration the differences in semester v. quarterly, etc.? Also, how would those of you who were successful this year or in years prior address this? I tried to touch on it briefly (and in less depth than above) in my SoP by saying I had to leave school after one semester due to an "unexpected life change." I'm not sure if I should even mention it, and I"m getting such conflicting information on how much personal/life detail to include. Appreciate any suggestion(s) or help offered. Thanks much. ~ m

Here's my major question about writing the SoP. If you have many awards and/or publications, do you bring that up in the SoP at all or just leave it in the CV. This year, I explained the work I'd done and told at the latter end of the paragraph that the work resulted in X, Y, or Z award. This apparently was deemed arrogance (kiss of death). Since I will be trying again next year, how does one strike the balance between arrogance and proper assertion of strengths? Or again, is it more appropriate to leave that sort of detail out of the SoP and only have it listed on the CV where the adcomm can hunt for it if they decide you interest them post-reading of the SoP? I appreciate the help, as always! ~ m

Hey all, since I'm going to have to reapply next year, I'm starting to hunt for information on programs. I really like the look of Northwestern (no idea why I didn't look at them before). Would any of you mind sharing information about the program, what you drew you to it, anything else you've learned or would care to share that maybe isn't available via the website? I'm in touch with the DGS and a professor already but would appreciate a peer-perspective. Thanks! ~ m