WildeThing

If you can reduce your paper to 10 pages (perhaps placing it in context with a preface), I would do that. There is something to be said for respecting limits. Perhaps submitting 20 pages won’t lead to a straight rejection, but I don’t think committees would appreciate it either (could be interpreted as giving them extra work, as laziness, or worse, inability to write concisely or even an inability to judge the quality of your own work). That said, I would send your best work always.

I don’t know but I would respect all limits. Some places state their limits as word OR page limit, which would mean you were fine. However, if your word limit is over but page limit it is probably a margin/spacing issue. I would always look to stay in the lower side of limits since committees go through many applications and the longer it is the less likely it is actually read in full.

I thought the same thing and I have posts up here complaining about people’s optimism, but time does what times does.

Also, just a note for those who are new to the process. Getting shut-out sucks, and you will doubt everything about yourself as a candidate. But you survive and there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I say this from very recent experiences (fingers crossed it doesn't repeat though).

If you guys think this is stressful wait until late January when some schools (never yours) start notifying and results start popping like popcorn in the microwave.

I submitted single-spaced.

You will find arguments on both sides and it’s impossible to really know what is best. Standard practice is to name 2-3 faculty who you could work with, as 1 might be too few. In adding more you need to be careful because: a. SoPs have word limits and the more you try to fit in, the less you can properly discuss everything (or have to remoce other things to make room), b. If you talk about different interests it might come off as if you’re not really invested in your project or that you’re just trying to name-drop your way in, c. Faculty know their own work better than you do, anyone you mention you need to make sure you describe accurately or it could have an adverse effect, d. The more faculty you mention the more likely you are to mention someone who doesn’t connect with your project and so might reject it, or mention someone the reader doesn’t get along with. There are counterarguments to all of these and in some cases the opposite might be true. I have mentioned many faculty in one app and maybe just two in another, and there’s no way to know which way is better. That said, all my faculty have been related to my project (some due to methodology, others textual expertise, some both). I have found some faculty that would be great for some other things I’m interested in. E.g. I’m an African-Americanist but also really like 1940-1960 European theatre, so in some schools I saw scholars working on Beckett or Brecht and that was awesome but I didn’t include them because it has nothing to do with my main project. No maybe showing breadth is good but I have been encouraged to make myself easily classifiable, to make what scholar I want to be clear to the committee. So I didn’t mention those scholars, especially because I hardly had room to mention everything I wanted anyway (and common sense says that if you can make your SoP shorter rather than longer you should).

On Northwestern, I have received multiple emails from Nathan Mead about missing LoRs, so they are very much on top of things. If you have 2 they will proceed with the review process. On NYU, last year one of my writers did not submit by the deadline and I called them and they said not to worry, that she should send it as soon as possible but the portal doesn’t have a hard close (same thing with Berkeley btw). Edit: Hard close at the deadline, they might at a later date.

I highly doubt it, honestly. You can try but I doubt it will work.

I had a similar question as I took the GRE twice, scoring nearly 10 percentile points lower in the quant the second time but nearly 10 higher and more than 10 higher in the other two. I actually sent both to some schools at first because I didn’t know if my scores would be better or not, but since I only send my better verbals. I asked someone who helps with applications and they said that the ‘improvement’ narrative probably doesn’t come up. Ultimately, from my understanding GRE scores are more important than we’d like to think, but are certainly less important than everything else. I would send my best scores and keep my fingers crossed. Quant is certainly less important for English programs, but the degree to which it does matter, if it does indeed matter, will vary by school.

Cheers, Warelin!

I have officially submitted all my apps. Waiting on professors to submit their letters, first deadline up on Saturday. Fingers crossed. Good luck to everyone.

As other posts and even admissions site will tell you, GREs aren't everything. From my understanding they are mostly used to weed out candidates with very low scores. To what degree are GREs actually relevant is debatable, but they are certainly secondary to fit and ability (as represented by your SoP, LoRs, WS and grades). I personally got 161, 155 and 4.0 the first time I took the test. I retook it and got 165, 153, 4.5. I applied to about 17 of the top schools in English and Comp Lit and was rejected by every single one. I am not retaking it this time around because I don't think it's worth my time as it is unlikely I will improve my score and I think it's probably good enough to not be discarded out of hand. However, who knows. People have been accepted with worse scores and rejected with better ones. Whether YOU should retake will depend on how much time you have (and your general ability in exam situations), how confident you are in your other materials, and what schools you're applying to (without getting into questions of affordability). I don't think your scores make you a compelling candidate (in a vacuum), nor do I think they will make committees question you. Your other materials will be more relevant, IMO.

I would be shocked if they actually read writing samples except for when they reach the final choices. My understanding is that they read the first paragraph or two and then skim the rest and maybe read the conclusion. In my experience 15-20 is the norm, anything less I find restrictive and anything more is unnecessary. Note that some places, like NYU I believe, state something along the lines of "maximum 20-25", which on a first glance might look like 20 is a minimum but it is not.

I'd say go with the stronger letter. If you have a good relationship with this person you can bring up these concerns or discuss what sort of things you imagined he could include in his letter, to guide him towards establishing your critical theory background. That said, I don't know if that's necessary. Faculty will discuss YOU and know what programs you are applying to and what is or isn't relevant. While their background is important, they are talking about YOU. If your work with this professor was also in another field, then maybe it would be a tougher choice, but if you studied critical theory I think you should be fine.

I recommend to everyone to do a quick check of faculty pages before you submit anything. I was working on my online app for CUNY and realized that some faculty I had mentioned in my app were no longer listed (I last checked a month ago). Maybe some places don't update their faculty profiles periodically, but it's worth checking even if just to make sure that the people you mention are actually still there.

I found out about the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers through Gradcafe actually. They're an organization that supports you through the application process so long as your goal is to become a teacher (at any level). They emphasize diversity and they have waivers for applying to a consortium of schools (about 40) and work with you on selecting which schools and on your SoP. Applications for support for the next cycle will be due in March I think.

To be fair, I applied last year so most things were done and since I'm applying with the IRT, they make you do things in advance.

I am nearing the final push for this cycle. I have SoPs nearly ready for 13 schools: Columbia, NYU, CUNY, Rutgers, Penn, Boston College, UConn, George Washington, Emory, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Stanford. Need to polish my WS and personal statement and I’m pretty much done. Just wondering if I should apply to any additional schools if I have the time to get things sorted since a shut-out is the end of the line for me.

I think dropping out of an MA could bring up questions and with the way admissions work, you probably want to avoid questions. Especially if your plan is to start a different MA, rather than go straight into a PhD, it would be something you would have to explain. Even if your explanation is great, it's gonna take space away from other things you could be discussing . If you need a break maybe you could look into taking a semester off and coming back later? As for asking for LoRs, I think a professor could be annoyed by it. If you explain your situation and they are sympathetic and agree that a different program is the best thing, they might be agreeable to it, but that's a hard maybe and greatly depends on the professor. Ultimately you know what the best thing for your career and mental well-being is better than anyone, so it´s up to you to weigh the pros and cons.

Your professor is right in saying that there is a benefit to trying it now. You might get in, and at any rate it will give you experience and probably reduce some of the workload for he next cycle. The question for you is whether that is worth the time and effort dedication. Only you can answer that. Submitting apps takes time, you need to work on your materials and evaluate the schools. Are you able to do this now? More importantly, are you able to do it without sacrificing the quality of your work on the apps themselves and at your MA? Tl;dr: the prof has a point but your personal situation dictates what’s the best course of action.

I’ll go first, I’m currently narrowing down my list of schools to apply to. So if anyone has first-hand (or good second-hand) info on any of the below, I would love to chat with you about their programs (feel free to PM me or reply here). All the programs are for English Lit: Connecticut, Purdue, Davis, Stanford, NYU, CUNY, Columbia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, George Washington, Virginia, Chicago, Northwestern, Rice, Emory, Vanderbilt, Boston College, Brown, Rutgers, Penn For my part I can help anyone interested in UMBC.

So, every year thousands of us buckle down and research schools in depth. Then we get in, get rejected or some other variant, and move on, to be followed by the next group. In all of my research I’ve always felt like it’s the students who have the most insight into a school (current students, former students or nearly students). For instance, when researching a school I found a faculty who seemed like a perfect fit but in talking to a couple of grad students with similar interests I found out that they had had no contact with him, which signaled that I probably wouldn’t either. Sometimes you don’t even know what you know until someone can shed light on how a school works. So, as we love to help each other out, why not make a thread so people can come in and ask for general or specific info on a particular program, or several programs, and anyone with info can PM them if they wish? If people feel like it, they can even offer themselves for help with schools so newcomers know who to turn to, but maybe not everyone wants to put that out there.

I’m a 2018 cycle casualty. I applied to nearly 20 schools and came up empty. Trying to figure out where I went wrong but as we all know that’s not the easiest thing to do. I’m going to apply to fewer schools this time, around 12, some of which I’m gonna reapply but most will be new most likely. Luckily this time I got an IRT scholarship so I hope that will be the difference. I’m applying as an African Americanist with a focus on postbellum to WWII narrative and trauma. I have decided to not bother with the Subject test and am not retaking the GRE, so having already spent a year working on my sample and SoP, my main focus is researching schools and making sure I am picking them wisely. Still working on my list, currently have about 25-30 that I want to cut down (I’ll post them later in case anyone has any specifc advice). Good luck to everyone!

So, who is here?