fortsibut

Worries: I didn't find the right balance in my SoP of talking about my own work vs. POIs work, also that I was too vague or too specific on what I want to study moving forward (crazy as that sounds). That my writing sample wasn't polished enough. That I didn't reach out to all the POIs beforehand. That the A- on my MA thesis will tank everything. That I'll get stuck working in retail hell forever. That I'll never get into my dream school, even though I want it so badly that I can taste it. Excitement: My application overall is a lot better than last cycle. I'm working towards getting an actual publication right now and working on a secondary project that's new and interesting even though it's hard to find the time between work and other activities. I still have a sliver of hope that I'll get in, and a way to fill some of next year if I don't.

I applied to 4 but only because I missed the deadline for one because stupid and wasn't sure about three others. If everything had played out like I had hoped, it would have been eight. Thirteen seems high from my perspective but maybe that's just a history thing; I had trouble finding a ton of schools that had POIs that I felt were really good matches for my research interests. I guess it's probably an individual thing-if you found 13 programs that were good fits for you than that's great!

Good luck! I've been wondering the same thing myself. I finished my MA up in February and it took me nearly nine months to find a job in my geographical area (for a long list of reasons) and it's retail hell. Really hoping these applications work out, and if not I think I've got one more application season in me before I opt to move on which would be really tough. Can't justify staying in limbo for years on end doing this though.

Just put in Cornell's app, so only Boston left. Gotta chop 7 pages off my writing sample for that. Still not happy with my SoP; I feel like I never get the balance of writing about my own work versus writing about the school/POI's I want to work with right. /grumble EDIT: So not sure how this happened, but apparently Boston U's deadline was Dec 15th instead of Jan 15th like it was last year and like I had written down. Well now I feel a bit stupid and annoyed with myself.

That's awesome! Best of luck getting in. ? Cornell is indeed my top choice, so we'll see how everything plays out. @Ragu: thanks for the reassurance!

That's great to hear; glad I'm not the only one! Now we just have to wait for two months to find out whether we made the cut. ?

Did you single or double space your SoP for Cornell? @Nicator feel free to respond as well! They ask for two pages with no indication one way or the other and while Google advised me that the general rule of thumb is double spaced, Cornell's English MFA (yes, very different program but same school and I couldn't find anything closer after a quick search) specifically asks for single space. Last year I sent in a single spaced SoP and didn't make the cut, but I was a less qualified candidate in many ways at that point so I'm not sure that played a huge part. My SoP is currently right around 900 words, which is ballpark for other programs to which I applied. https://gradschool.cornell.edu/admissions/prepare/statements-of-purpose/ seems to be pretty open-ended, so maybe it doesn't matter? Thoughts? EDIT: Also elx, what is your field, out of curiosity?

I'm worried about what I'm going to do if I don't get in anywhere this application cycle. This year I finished up my MA and spoke at a (small) conference so I had a couple of things for my letter writers to tack onto what they wrote last year, but this year I don't have any real plans or options to make myself a more attractive candidate. I guess I could try to get an article published based on my MA thesis, but that's quite a long shot. Part of me wonders what the point would even be in dropping hundreds of dollars more in the coming fall for a similar chance at getting into the same programs. I know admissions is a crap shoot and you could get lucky and get in the next year just because they'd need, say (in my case) an Africanist, but those aren't great odds. One step at a time though, I guess. This application cycle isn't over yet!

Hey, a fellow Cornell applicant; hopefully I'll see you in the fall! ? I'm still polishing my writing sample and SOP. Did you contact POIs at Cornell prior to applying? ----- Two applications to go, and the struggle is real to finish them. I really hate the fact that programs have such widely varying writing sample lengths. Most of them are 50 pages or so and I've been able to include the bulk of the important bits of my MA thesis, but cutting down to 20 for Columbia was brutal (the application didn't specifically offer the option to send a longer sample and flag what you wanted them to read) and Boston U has a 40 page limit so that'll involve some more editing too. Work's been crazy lately and Columbia was a pretty last minute decision so that was probably a wasted $110 given how mangled the final 20 page writing sample edit was, but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, right? RIGHT?? /sigh

Fantastic advice, as is ashiepoo and gsc's. Thanks for the encouragement as well, everyone. Like I said in my earlier post, it's not that I'm terrified that I'll get rejected based on one mistake, it's frustration about that mistake still existing after a number of editing passes over the document. Tips like "do one kind of editing at a time" and "read a printed copy backwards" will be a big help going forward. Four applications to go!

Was editing my current SoP for one other other schools to which I'm applying and found a typo in the one I've already submitted to one of my top schools. I'M DOOOOOOMED! /le sigh I know at the end of the day it's probably not going to break my application but I spent a lot of time on that stupid statement and it's frustrating.

My recommenders have been on point thus far, but I did get an email today from one of my schools stating that they were missing my GRE scores and writing sample and told me I had a few more days to get them in before my app would be tossed. I specifically remember uploading the writing sample but maybe I somehow uploaded a duplicate copy of one of the other documents since I was rushed and turned it in at the 11th hour or something. The admissions rep I talked to last week said they still had my scores on file from last year so I wrote back about that and uploaded the missing writing sample. TL;DR: Some schools seem to be lenient about missing materials to a certain point, but I'd avoid pushing it if at all possible. What sucks is that the LORs are the one piece really out of your control.

Thanks for the responses to my questions! @historygeek and @urbanhistorynerd, I worry about my stats too (did well on the GRE verbal section with a 167 but flubbed the AW a bit with a 4.5 and botched the quant with like a 150) but I'm honestly more worried about the personal statement, particularly if it's as important as urban was told! I have a month to keep polishing it for a couple of programs, but I have two apps due tomorrow.

Quick question that I didn't think really warranted its own thread. I'm reworking my CV and adding a "relevant courses" section based on a few other grad student CVs I've seen. The problem is that since those CVs are all current PhD students, all the coursework they list is graduate level. I got my bachelor's and M.A. from the same school, and I'm not sure whether it's acceptable to list upper-division undergrad classes as well as grad classes on a CV when applying to a doctoral program if you have an M.A. My school was somewhat limited in terms of graduate courses in my area/field (Africa and gender/religion) so I'd like to show that I have a foundation of that kind of coursework, at least. (I have all the theory/methodological coursework covered in my grad classes) Any thoughts? I'm sure I'm overthinking this, but considering how stiff the competition is in getting in I'd rather not risk anything that might make me look bad. EDIT: Also I'm assuming the page limit for writing samples is just the primary content and it doesn't matter if footnotes/work cited/appendices go over?

Friday so I could go on a sangria-fueled bender over the weekend. It'd really suck getting rejected on a Monday and then have to go to work all week and deal with the feels.

Thanks, PM sent! Had a Q&A session with a helpful Cornell student last year as well, so now I just need to hunt down Michigan State and Boston U students.

Anyone from the UW-Madison or Michigan State programs around and willing to answer some PMs about their programs? I have, uh....virtual sangria to share?

I declare January to be "Make and try every kind of sangria" month!

Man, the struggle is real with my SOP and last minute writing sample changes. Still need to write a few emails to profs for schools where apps aren't due until January, and thinking about adding another school to the list. Can't wait til a few weeks from now when everything is turned in and I can finally relax and wait for my rejections to roll in!

Round 2, fight! I'm doing a real application cycle this year, as opposed to last year where I had a really rough writing sample due to not having finished my MA thesis so I just went with a single free application to one of my top schools. This year I'm probably looking at 7-8 applications, 5-6 in the US and 2 in the EU. Did well on the verbal part of the GRE last year and mediocre on the math so I'm not gonna retake it this fall since most programs aren't going to care about the math bit. List of schools in my sig isn't final; I need to check and see what movement there has been in potential POIs over this past year (I found out that Nancy Rose Hunt moved from UM to Florida so that dropped Michigan down my list, for example) before I finalize.

Received my Cornell decision in the form of an email that began with "Dear Applicant" and ended by wishing me "success in continuing your studies at another university." I'm sure the disappointment played a part in this, but that didn't sit well with me. Really, you couldn't have used software to at least plug in a name before sending me a form letter? Even the spam emails I got from universities asking me to apply to their culinary/business/etc. programs after I took the GRE managed to handle that. I recognize that I'm probably being oversensitive, but I'm still annoyed. In any case, I'll be taking a vacation from these boards for a month or two while I hunt for a job and let my disappointment die down and then I'll be back to prepare for the next (and probably my last, regardless of how it goes) cycle. Gonna apply to 6-8 schools this time around, which I would have done the first time if I hadn't been in such a time crunch. Thanks to all of you for your info and encouragement over the past few months, and congrats to all of you who got into fantastic programs!

Congrats! I'm so happy for you!

Thanks to you as well! Hopefully we'll all end up at our dream schools at the end of this process, but man, what a stressful ride it is!

Thanks for the encouragement! Been a rough week; I successfully defended my MA thesis but it was a rough defense process so I'm really hoping Cornell comes through for me. =)

Well, looks from the results board like Cornell POIs have been doing interviews with students they're interested in. Not a good sign for me.