Jump to content

foppery

Members
  • Posts

    62
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by foppery

  1. Oh, I should mention that I didn't have anywhere to decline, because I applied only to Princeton this year. Long story.
  2. Just accepted an early modern spot at Princeton. (I know the "already attending" bit is confusing--Princeton accepted me last year, I went somewhere else and decided to reapply to Princeton, and they let me in again. Weirdness.)
  3. Oh, and callmelilyb is right: If you have an MA, you need a MUCH stronger sense of what you want to be doing in grad school. BAs can get away with a bit more uncertainty: my boyfriend, a grad student at a top-20 school, wrote his senior thesis on Samuel Beckett, but applied to do Renaissance lit and was accepted to three good PhD programs.
  4. I applied to six programs during my senior year of college, and got into three: Princeton, Cornell, and UNC. My sense is that if you've done well in college, it doesn't matter whether you have an MA. If your college record is less than stellar, getting an MA might help your chances; but if you have a good GPA and strong letters, why put yourself through more coursework, and possibly accrue more debts, before starting your PhD? In fact, I hear that some programs are biased against students with MAs. Echoing a previous poster: This does NOT mean that you should dash into a PhD program straight out of college. I had the arrogance to believe I could, but adjusting to grad school was a nightmare. I'd recommend taking one or two years off after college, which may even help your chances.
  5. Agreed. If it's an unfunded MA, you need to contact the program and ask them what exactly that letter means (tactfully, of course).
  6. I know of two major drawbacks: UK graduate programs are very unlikely to fund American students (which you already seem to know), and Americans with British doctorates find it difficult to get jobs in the US. The British doctoral system is different enough that many American departments feel reluctant to hire graduates of British programs. Alas, I don't know much more than that.
  7. Fair enough, but are strong recommendations and a polished writing sample worth $40,000? If money is no object, maybe. But very few people can afford to pay that much for a one-year master's degree. I, along with everyone else in the world, was admitted to the MAPH, and I received a frankly insulting email telling me that I should choose the MAPH because a Ph.D. program would offer me "no reasonable hope of a future." Because taking out $40,000 in loans for a terminal MA would promise me a brilliant future. Luckily, I had three Ph.D. acceptances, so I was never tempted to take Chicago up on an offer that seemed more like a slap in the face. I still respect the U of C and its English department, but the MAPH business left a bad taste in my mouth. Go if you can afford it, I suppose, but it seems like a bad idea otherwise.
  8. May I ask where you're applying for a PhD? I'd tend to agree with your professor; 710 is a great verbal score, and 570 is far from a humiliating math score, especially for an English candidate. If you feel like you can get a higher verbal score, perhaps you should retake the GRE, but I don't think that a 570 in math will harm your chances. (If anyone knows more information, please do contradict me; I'm working on my nebulous impressions of grad-school admissions.)
  9. Harvard's website more or less assures applicants that the math score makes no difference. My undergrad adviser (Princeton Ph.D.) told me that my math score would harm me only if I were in "the lowest two percent of the nation." My sense is that your math score does NOT have to be stellar for most schools to take you seriously; if it's average, or even a little below, that's probably fine. It just shouldn't be spectacularly bad. If it's good, it can't hurt, but if it's less than good, it won't be a problem (though that news about Northwestern surprises me; when the hell does an English Ph.D. candidate need math??) Then again, I actually did well on the math (no idea how; I was guessing at random), so I'm not sure whether my score helped me get in anywhere. I'd be very surprised if it did, though.
  10. As I've noted on another thread, there's not much you can do about your position on a wait list (and, frankly, you risk annoying departments if you pester them). Last year, I was waitlisted at Cornell; I meant to contact them and have my name taken off the list, as I'd had other offers, but I never got around to it. A month later, after no effort on my part, I was accepted. And I hadn't even been told that I was near the top of the list, as some of my friends were told by other schools. I guess you could call and ask how close you are to the top, but I don't think you can *influence* your position in any way.
  11. I'm at UNC now, and I can assure you that our DGA is a wonderful, understanding person, and that (as another commenter suggested) the fault almost certainly lies with the Graduate School. That said, it doesn't make much difference whose fault it is--I'm so sorry this happened.
  12. I'm sorry, but (as other posters have pointed out) this is NOT TRUE. The name of your school will NOT prejudice an admissions committee against you. Well-to-do, high-ranked schools are disproportionately represented in the best Ph.D. programs because they have money and time to devote to their undergrads, and they have professors who attended those very Ph.D. programs and know how to work the system. But if you have stellar application materials, there's absolutely no need to worry about the name of your school. I know countless grad students (and respected academics) with undergrad degrees from Nowheresville College. One of my former English professors, a Harvard Ph.D. who publishes regularly in the New York Review of Books, attended an obscure college in North Carolina. As for Cornell, a general bit of info: If you get on the waitlist, all is not lost. I was waitlisted last year, and was eventually accepted with no extra effort on my part, though I chose to go elsewhere. Good luck!
×
×
  • 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