Strong Flat White

N. Katherine Hayles, Arthur Kroker, Brian Massumi, Walter Benn Michaels.

Write a novel?

What is book hiding?

Thanks! Kind of weird to take nagging as a compliment, but indeed that's how I take it.

I know that people are trying to help. I have some hotheaded tendencies and you can consider me chilled. I don't mean to offend, if you can believe it. Thanks - again - to everyone's input here. It is really very appreciated.

glasspagodas reminds you of the luck factor too...a good addition, probably...and I can't exactly speak from any position of authority since I've never been admitted, but I still feel like this is pretty helpful. Sorry to beat a dead horse, but everything from some nuanced phraseology to the macro approach to discerning patterns within SoPs to trying to relate SoPs to WSs is useful information. I see my early drafts of each of these documents, now, and I see how they can be improved based on this thread alone. That very tough-to-strike balance between having direction and being flexible in the way a department wants you to be flexible is now what I'm striving toward...explicitly... Now for a totally unrelated thing - how long do people suggest studying for the subject test? I'm thinking of the April '15 test and was going to start probably around November-ish on Norton anthologies. Too soon? Too late? I realize this is going to vary hugely between individuals, but from your own perspectives of course is what I'm asking. That would be 5 months-ish. Time better spent on WS/SoP? Or time well spent?

I completely agree. #1: that first post was helpful, and I thought I said as much. #2: I can totally see how I was rude. My bad. My apology to Jazzy for my rudeness. Jazzy, I am sorry. I tried to explain it, I thought it was fair, but I'll happily concede the rudeness. And I'm still happy and thankful for the follow-up, and I still think it was productive to work through some clarification. In my rude world, this is all good stuff. Go team.

Anyway... Yes, it does help, thank you. It seems to be the difference between how broad or narrow interest would align between you and faculty. I guess my confusion probably centered on your use of 2-3 faculty on the broad side of things vs. what I would guess to be only 1 faculty on the narrow side of things, and I mistook 2-3 for a so-called "small" number, when in fact it now seems as though the even smaller number of, say, 1 seems (to you, unless I'm reading you poorly) to be more conducive to some hypothetical perfect fit. Which is not intuitive to me. Which is why I asked. I think I'd have been more inclined to find a larger number on the broad side of things rather than a single narrow alignment in the first place, but in any case that seems to be part of what this thread is bearing out. Perhaps it is just a semantic over-reading of "perfection" that I got hung up on. Still, I think it's productive to work through this. The thread, after all, is called "perspectives," and even when "fit" gets talked about explicitly, "2-3" is much more specific than the "half dozen or so" that I would have imagined to have to find within a given department (again, for broad interest overlap, not "narrow" or "exact"). And when this can be articulated, things begin to make more sense, and future applicants like me get a better picture of what to expect. I do appreciate the clarification. If nothing else, I bet just about everyone can agree that fit = the trickiest part of the whole application. I get the sense that I wear out my welcome posting about fit, bemoaning the impossibility of it all, but I find it completely opaque. I'm just letting you know. By drafting any given piece a million times and with a million pairs of eyes, you can really fine-tune a piece of writing or a statement of purpose. But no amount of drafting will clue anyone in to the inner workings of a given department.

I've found it incredibly helpful already, most specifically because of what people have shared about altering/revising SoPs and WSs. I shall be considering these things throughout my own drafting processes.

Not so much a dig at you as an accolade directed at Academicat...but yes, I had you in mind and sorry if it came off as a dig. Of course you've gotta do what you've gotta do and posting to an online forum probably isn't the highest on anyone's priority list. I can be patient and I totally look forward to your reply. I just thought it was interesting how the dynamic of this thread was shaping up very recently here, what w/ Academicat basically being off-the-charts forthcoming. I have no problem pointing these things out. There it is, right there on my computer screen. But no, nothing personal whatsoever, just an observation of one poster's coolness in relation to what is established, here. Fair is fair, credit where it is due and so forth.

Well this certainly got interesting in a hurry! Let's be fair to Academicat, who took the time to write a hell of a post and then followed up with explanation when asked (unlike others)...and who said the cover letter was partly the result of being pissed about a year of rejections and who was told that most applications do include them. It strikes me that this has to do with the particular people/departments that got specifically contacted for advice. On top of all that, Academicat is admitted to 4 programs. I for one don't sneeze at that. If, when it's my turn, I have a choice of 4 programs, I will do some unmentionable mode of celebration, it will be epic. And hell, if you get shut out one year and you get 4 acceptances the next time around, and one of your main differences is this tangible and identifiable, and we're asking, and Academicat is will to share, then I guess the neighborly thing here would be to continue seeking clarification: Academicat, you mention taking a calculated risk with your writing sample...do you think the cover letter was another calculated risk? Would you have drafted and submitted a cover letter if you were pissed but did not get information that most applications contain them? If decorum by and large deems a cover letter irrelevant to other departments' application protocols do you still recommend it based on your current success, or do you think your applications were to an unusual set of departments in this regard? In short, what do you make of this mess we have on our hands? Please help to un-confuse me and possibly others.

How have I never in my life heard of submitting a cover letter along with my other materials?! Why is everything enshrouded in secrecy and mystery?! Way to go Semenza and proseminar, thanks for not ever mentioning these things! Thanks, Academicat. I'll have to get on that.

So this is easily shaping up to be my favorite thread since it's so helpful...Academicat, when you say that last year's application didn't have a cover letter, are you saying that you wrote cover letters for all applications this year whether or not the program officially listed it as a required application piece? And if so, how did you include it? Did you just put it on the front of a WS or did you find a way to upload it separately, send it in hardcopy, what? Finally, can you say more about it generically - length, etc.? I imagine a cover letter to be a page-ish, right? The reason I ask so many questions about the cover letter is because I've been focusing so much attention on SoP and WS. Didn't realize I should be drafting an altogether different document, but if it works, I'm definitely on board. Thanks in advance.

(And more reason that you shouldn't beat yourself up about not being able to determine fit in the first place-- there's just so much you can't know.)

I very much appreciate this thread. Jazzy, when you write, "The thing about my field of interest is that even in the best of circumstances, a department is really only going to have 2-3 people who fall broadly in that area, so it’s more important to find a department with great people who are doing great work than the absolute perfect fit," then presumably you make a distinction between "the absolute perfect fit" and "a department with (2-3) great people who are doing great work" "broadly in [your] area." I can think of a few reasons for the distinction but I'm curious about your take since, after all, there is another perspective from which 2-3 people doing great work in your area, broadly, is how some people are defining "the absolute perfect fit." Or another way to ask, I guess, is, what do you specifically have in mind when you didn't stress about an absolute perfect fit? I take note and keep in mind that you didn't dwell on this, and in fact I've posted a bit where the OP has also posted and am coming to my own conclusions about fit - namely, I also won't stress, either. But I am curious and still learning, so hit me w/ it.