Quickmick

This really resonated with me (as did most of @unræds post). I had written an SOP with two possible research approaches in it (separated by about 50 years), and a POI and a top institution told me to pick one even though they liked them both...they said that reviewers know that your approach will change, and even your topic will change, what they want to see is that you can craft a well thought out question that is framed in a way that fits with the department generally and your POIs more specifically.

Just curious, did they mention the main (or any) of the factors that kept you out? If they mentioned a soft spot in your materials--or where others were stronger--you might want to take the time in your SOP to describe what you have done in the past year to fill in the gaps.

Just curious, did they mention the main (or any) of the factors that kept you out? If they mentioned a soft spot in your materials--or where others were stronger--you might want to take the time in your SOP to describe what you have done in the past year to fill in the gaps.

Just thinking that I don't know if I agree with the "they want the app fee" argument. Columbia, for example, has an endowment of 9.5 Billion, even if they get 12000 applicants at 85 per that adds about to about 1 million--just doesn't seem that significant. I wonder if more applicants = more rejections which increases their apparent selectivity.
Who knows, maybe they just don't want to deal with people begging for an extension and an automated email is simple to set up. Also, regarding the 'early consideration' idea...they want the best people they can find in their applicant pool...it would not be in their best interest to start making decisions until they had seen the whole pool, though they could probably begin to weed out the obviously poor applications.

I did cross post this in History...
December 1st fast approaching,
     and all through the nation
Hopeful applicants
     face much consternation.
 
POIs have been mailed,
     LORs have been written,
With dreams of great funding
     these minds have been smitten.
 
T's crossed and i's dotted,
     spell check is complete
For a chance at a PhD,
    unemployed on the street.
 
Happy holidays and good luck everyone!

December 1st fast approaching,
     and all through the nation
Hopeful applicants
     face much consternation.
 
POIs have been mailed,
     LORs have been written,
With dreams of great funding
     these minds have been smitten.
 
T's crossed and i's dotted,
     spell check is complete
For a chance at a PhD,
    unemployed on the street.
 
Happy holidays and good luck everyone!
    
 
 
 

I did cross post this in History...
December 1st fast approaching,
     and all through the nation
Hopeful applicants
     face much consternation.
 
POIs have been mailed,
     LORs have been written,
With dreams of great funding
     these minds have been smitten.
 
T's crossed and i's dotted,
     spell check is complete
For a chance at a PhD,
    unemployed on the street.
 
Happy holidays and good luck everyone!

I tend to agree with @ExponentialDecay . If you have exhausted the possibilities from your MA work maybe think back to your UG experience and try to come up with one prof who really stands out/influenced you? Just might be a way to expand your sphere of possibilities. Good Luck!

I did not have a bibliography, but did mention a bit about the scholarship regarding my research. It went something like
While Yogi Bear explores blah blah from the perspective of blah, and WilmaFlintstone brings dabbadabba do into the discussion, I hope to take an approach closer to Professor Plum's "Hotdiggity" where yadda yadda ya..
I was a little conflicted about this. For one, if the adcomm doesn't like/respect the people I mention that could be a problem. Also, if I omit some giant in the field from the list they might scratch their heads about that too. In any case, I did include it, thinking that showing some familiarity with the current body of knowledge and how my piece might fit into the narrative outweighs the possible negatives. I took this approach for 6/8 of my SOPs.
 

Just curious, why not just apply to both, then if you get in to both, figure it out?

@rojano first of all, try to relax a little bit. If I wanted to meet someone, I didn't ask in the first email, but waited to see how my message was received. After that, if it looked like it was worth a trip, then I asked. What I did was have 3 dates that I knew worked for me...something like any Friday afternoon the rest of the month (or whatever) with the option of giving me dates if none of that worked. That way--if it suited them--the could just say Friday the blahblah. Seemed to make the planning easier without a lot of back and fourth regarding dates.
If you are currently in Canada, and want to get the most for your travel dollar, you might see if there is a conference you can attend that will be attended by some of your POIs. I attended one in March and got to meet and talk with some interesting people. You could attend AHA, but it falls after deadlines--but might still be before adcomms have things finalized, though it might be a little late in my estimation. In any case there is time to get things done so don't fret and good luck.

While I don't know the ins and outs of private sector labs. if by research you mean anything funded by an R1--and you want to be a shot caller--you will probably need the PhD, but you can feel out the options as you proceed through your MS....

My MS is funded. The first semester was TA w/o tuition covered, but after that I moved to RA which covers tuition fees and stipend. At my school I am probably in the minority, though, as I am attached to a research institute. A lot of it depends on who you work under, and if they have grants/funding/projects that need and can support you.

Well, here we go I sent 5 apps out today. I know there is no advantage to sending them ahead of the deadline, but by sending them out I make sure I am thinking about what is on my plate ahead of the spring defense of my MS thesis.

I was chatting with a POI today and got an angle on fit that, while probably obvious to many of you, was insightful to me. It is often talked about here that "fit" is a very big component of the admission process. I had been thinking in terms of "fit" with my POI and with the department in terms of if they had the resources to support my niche. The POI pointed out that while they will support my application, there was a fair chance that when the DGS sees it they would say, "Is this a good fit for us?" Even if a faculty member green lights an application, if the DGS feels that an applicant will also be admitted to a similarly ranked school with a better general fit (to the aspect of a subject) they may reject solely on the basis of the conjecture that an applicant will get in to the other school, so will decline anyway.
I just wanted to point out that if you are looking at a school in a particular range of rankings it might be wise to look at similarly ranked schools to see if--even they don't have a specific POI you really like--they generally have  robust program in your area. It would not be fun at all to get denied on the basis of an assumption that you will attend another school--even if that assumption was made regarding a place you hadn't considered/didn't apply to. This particular POI said their opinion would be to let these types of applicants in and if they don't come so be it, but that is not how all the players involved see it.
This may be common knowledge to most of you but some of it made me think a bit...so I hope it helps!

It might help to look at who authored a couple of your favorite papers. You can then see where (if) they teach. Also, if you look to the bibliography you will probably get a sense of who they are reading and those people might be possible candidates. I don't know enough about your field to offer and advice on if you are being specific enough, but I hope the last bit helps.
QM.

I am from the "keep the SOP focused on strengths" school of thought and would not mention it. You have limited space to give information about yourself and they already have the gre scores. So give them something interesting to think about in the SOP.

I was chatting with a POI today and got an angle on fit that, while probably obvious to many of you, was insightful to me. It is often talked about here that "fit" is a very big component of the admission process. I had been thinking in terms of "fit" with my POI and with the department in terms of if they had the resources to support my niche. The POI pointed out that while they will support my application, there was a fair chance that when the DGS sees it they would say, "Is this a good fit for us?" Even if a faculty member green lights an application, if the DGS feels that an applicant will also be admitted to a similarly ranked school with a better general fit (to the aspect of a subject) they may reject solely on the basis of the conjecture that an applicant will get in to the other school, so will decline anyway.
I just wanted to point out that if you are looking at a school in a particular range of rankings it might be wise to look at similarly ranked schools to see if--even they don't have a specific POI you really like--they generally have  robust program in your area. It would not be fun at all to get denied on the basis of an assumption that you will attend another school--even if that assumption was made regarding a place you hadn't considered/didn't apply to. This particular POI said their opinion would be to let these types of applicants in and if they don't come so be it, but that is not how all the players involved see it.
This may be common knowledge to most of you but some of it made me think a bit...so I hope it helps!

This is a very interesting discussion. In my SOPs current form I don't mention my professional aspirations beyond my intention to stay in academia. I did, however, just get an email from a POI who specifically asked me if I saw myself being a researcher who also teaches or the other way around. It is in my best interest to be honest, as part of the fit is to obtain the best training for what I want to do, but my answer was a bit non-committal. I suggested that the nature of academic job market is such that I will probably have to be flexible and that working at an R1 might not preclude one from caring about teaching. As mentioned above, Cornell is concerned with teaching skill, and is also an R1. Halfway though my MS I have been paid for both, and they both have pros and cons. I suppose, as with most things, I wont be able to have my cake and eat it too. In any case, I tend to leave more options open rather than fewer when describing my intentions generally and found it interesting to be asked this pointedly.

It might help to look at who authored a couple of your favorite papers. You can then see where (if) they teach. Also, if you look to the bibliography you will probably get a sense of who they are reading and those people might be possible candidates. I don't know enough about your field to offer and advice on if you are being specific enough, but I hope the last bit helps.
QM.

Ive been through the process (law school apps and MS apps) and am currently 1/2 way through an MS program. Going through the process was stressful and I did check for status updates often . So, I am not very far removed from the process and have been gearing up for another application cycle. I went to a conference in the spring to meet some POIs and one TT prof gave me some interesting advice. He said, "Remember, all you do is lick the stamp," meaning that I really have no control over the process. I protested that I can write my SOP/writing sample!" He maintained that the amount of chaos, and other variables beyond my control, going on during the admission process have far more impact on the outcome than anything I can do.
I would hope that this time around there is less stress, less checking for updates, but I am doubtful. At the end of the day, all I can do is put forth my best effort and let the chips fall where they may. If I know I have done all I can, what else is there? I would only suggest that as the weeks slog on without any notification, resist the temptation to reach out to schools for updates unless communication is warranted.
Not much help, I'm afraid, but rest assured you are not alone and this is a great place to get feedback.
Good luck,
QM

Field work collecting data for my MS thesis for much of it, then off to Belize in August for two weeks to do some scientific diving off of Turneffe Atoll.

I, too, am gearing up for a trip through the meat grinder. Environmental History (20th century Latin America). I will apply to around 8 History programs and 2 in other disciplines. School list pretty nailed down, POIs have been contacted, writing sample in good shape and the tailored SOPs are 1/2 done. I hope to have all the apps out in Sep so I can just drill down and finish my thesis for my MS. The app part isn't too bad, just all the infernal waiting! Thanks to everyone who started last fall (and before) and still hang around to help.
Hope everyone is having a great summer.
QM
 
 

I have a wife and a two year old, so time management is particularly important. I use two things. One is similar to @Focus' suggestion which I used in the professional world. There they called it timeblocking--which is basically planning your day--the trick is that there are no allowed interruptions. For example if 2-4 is blocked for reading and the phone rings--no answering it.. calls get returned at 5-6 (or whatever). This seems to help out as my blocked time doesn't get broken up by a bunch of small breaks.
The other thing I have found effective is to plan tomorrow today. Last thing I do before I leave my desk is to look at what I want to get done tomorrow and have a plan for it today. If I don't, I will fiddle around, check the news, eat a burrito, and next thing I know it is 10 o'clock.
If putting down the phone is difficult, I think some people have looked at the effects of setting the screen to black and white and the decrease in phone use is noticeable (who wants to look at black and white, right?).
Simple things, but they have worked pretty well.

I would be prepared to explain why I applied to that department/program, the research I have done and would like to do, and what theories/methods inform that research.