wintergirl

Timshel, I called on Monday and talked to the dept secretary. She confirmed that they're due on the 20th--I'm assuming at 5pm (EST). She said the same thing the emails said, that the extension was due to some problems with GRE scores reporting. I'm going to try to submit mine on Saturday because I'll be traveling on the 20th (and I just want to get it done).

Thought I'd bring this right to the source! I'm a second year MA student applying to English PhD programs--hoping to pick your collective brain about writing that "teaching statement" required by a couple of my programs. I've got one semester teaching freshman comp under my belt and another semester as a TA in a lit survey class (plus some high school teaching). Can y'all suggest any tips/tricks for writing these? What do adcomms want to see? Is there a guide somewhere that you used in your own apps? Thanks for any help you can offer. : )

I'm including a brief note about my undergrad transcript (a semester of Ws) but am only including that note on online applications where they have a spot that says "please explain weird issues, etc." I wish they all had that! ETA: Nevermind re: writing sample cuts. Worked it out.

Yes, thank you! I meant cut down to 2pp, since mine's 3.5 right now. Grrrrrr. (The b.s. personal statement still stands though. Maybe I'll just split my "real" SOP straight in half and tell them to put it together like a puzzle...)

Sorry to hear about everyone's LOR troubles. Here's my gripe o' the day: I hate that there are already lots of people hearing back about their apps in the results board, including getting acceptances to schools I want to go to. Of course they're all science PhD apps ... but STILL. Why must we lit people wait so long?? /haven't even submitted half of my applications yet, so ridiculous complaint is ridiculous

Here! I've been grading papers for the last 24 hours, so I've yet to slay the 500 word monster. So later tonight/tomorrow I'll be cutting down my 1000-word SOP and coming up with some b.s. personal statement that's radically different from the 400-word piece of shit I turned in for Michigan's AmStud app (Dec. 1st). KILL ME NOW.

Agreed about seems too good to be true. So I called to confirm ... of course BEFORE I saw the contact email at the bottom of the message. Thankfully I didn't give them my name.

I'll be working on a teaching statement for Oregon tomorrow so, a la Arnold, I'll be back. When's yours due, and...and..and.. ?

My biggest frustration with the process so far--besides the exorbitant cost and the freaking GRE subject test and all the permutations of SOPs and WSs required--has been with the rest of my life's refusal to take a back seat while I focus only on these apps. It's all I can thinking about so I resent the intrusions of school, work, teaching, family, paying bills, etc etc etc. I wonder how my brain's going to react in January when the last 6-9 months of work are gone in a poof. I bet my head will feel lopsided when half of it's suddenly empty...

I was just coming on the board to ask if anyone else got this email! It doesn't identify the school, just references a department of English and a university. Since I have four applications due that day, I was wondering wtf was going on. So thanks, Timshel! I just handed in a 18pg pedagogy paper and have ten thousand student papers to grade for tomorrow. Now I can cross at least one of those four schools off my list!! ETA: Duh, just noticed the contact email at the bottom of the message...

I was thankful that at least Berkeley phrased their Diversity Statement in such a way that allowed for a response to pedagogical* and research interests/goals as well as personal challenges. Due to time constraints (down-to-the-wire online submission), I had to forgo the diversity statement for UCLA, but their statement seemed more straightforward "tell us why you deserve the Costa-Robles Scholarship" or whatever it was that I didn't feel qualified for in the first place. *ETA: meant to add that I'm currently writing a paper--due tomorrow!--about teaching race on a predominantly white campus. Oi vey. Utah. COME TO MAMA, DIVERSITY.

I put American Studies for various reasons--like I don't like being pigeonholed by the periods in American lit. Helloooo! They influence each other and therefore are equally important. I hope to submit mine tomorrow. Have three additional ones due on Thursday. UGH. At least afterwards I'll be 3/4 the way done ... mistakes and all.

This. Three of my top 5 choices all had apps due on Dec. 1st or 5th, including my dream school. And I know I had 3-4 small typos/edits in my writing sample that I wish I'd noticed in the mad rush to get them done--especially the 4 apps due on the 1st. Oh, well. At least all these later apps are benefiting from hindsight. :|

Don't worry, Timshel. I have a total of FOUR applications all on the same Apply Web account. When you log in as yourself, no matter the school, it should pull up a main page showing what applications you have cooking. For me, I have one already submitted, so the rest are "hidden" and I just have to click on another link on that main page to get there. Cross this one off your stress list!! : )

Ditto. My WS for at least two schools would be over length if they count images (all at the end of the paper) and works cited pages. And I submitted those applications ten days ago.

!!! From Tumblr (http://robintheshrew.tumblr.com/post/14035414319)

With all this chatter about Brown, I just want to verify that their deadline is Jan. 1st (date listed on their website). Even though Brown's still just on my "maybe" list, y'all are starting to freak me out! : )

This is ridiculously preemptive since I still have applications to finish (some due the 15th, the rest at the end of the month), but I'm already anxious about what happens next. I know that in the general board threads for applications, people are talking about interviews, etc. Does that happen for Lit programs as well? If so, when? These next few months are going to be hellish, aren't they. :|

Wait. I DID write an SOP for Berkeley. Why exactly do I look like a fool? FWIW, I didn't mention Butler at all, since she's not one of my POIs.

I don't really have a Plan B yet, but thankfully I got an encouraging email from DeVry University today that indicated they'd definitely accept me. Problems solved!

So, what you're saying is that I'm not going to get in anywhere? Cue sad Charlie Brown music.

Without any guidelines on length for this or for the SOP (please tell me if I missed that somewhere!!!), mine are both about 1100 words. Meh. Writing sample's calling...

500 words?!?! Yow.

So cool: http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_Mysterious-paper-sculptures/blog/4991767/126249.html These are magical. They make me feel like a kid again and remind why I want to get a PhD in literature... LONG LIVE THE BOOK.

This is my predictor: http://web.ics.purdu...n/eightball.cgi 100% accurate.