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sounds promising! but is it ok (and most importantly, official?) to initiate a skype interview with POIs (if they feel like to) before the submission of online application?

Actually found Princeton's "Statement of Academic Purpose" instruction page quite useful as it's so concise and to the point. Yes I love every word from their website haha!

Hi all, I'm currently applying for Columbia's English and Comparative Literature PhD program, and it popped out something that I could not decide whether to click or not: This program participates in the Certificate offered by the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society (ICLS). If you would like to be considered for admission to both this program and the Certificate in ICLS, please select Yes... I found it interesting, but it is not within my plan. Anyone has any idea what this certificate is? Will it reduce my chance of admittance if I click yes (as it requires additional materials...) Thanks!

Hi! The other two are both my current professors, and they are professors of Scandinavian literature. One of them is in direct contact with me about my current MA thesis, but is not my supervisor, and the other only a professor who taught me two classes. So I guess asking the former professor who was my BA thesis supervisor is better? I don't know which skills they can address... but the other comparative literature professor was asking me to draft the letter for him lol...

Oh so glad that I happen to find it! Yep I will apply for a PhD program in Scandinavian as I am currently pursuing my MA in Ibsen Studies in UiO, and passed the Norwegian level 3 test (equivalent to B2 in CEFR). However apart from Berkeley, other schools require that I have my BA in Scandinavian languages and literatures, which I don't have. My BA was English studies... so may I know which program you enrolled, and whether you got a relevant BA for admission or not? Thanks a lot!

PS. the professor who supervised me for the thesis on narrative theory is a prof. in English and American literature in general...

Hi guys, anyone here who knows if it is more important to ask for professors who supervised you for a thesis on narrative theory, or a professor who is specialized in comparative literature but never supervised you doing any research (though you have taken the courses by that prof.) if I am to ask for the last of the three LOR for my application to a comparative literature PhD program with intended specialization in narrative theory? Thanks!!

Thanks again:) That made me delighted! One more question about the delivery of the GRE transcript: if I send the score to the department (chosen as one of the four immediate recipients after taking the exam) and it will arrive before my application online is finished (or even started), will my score report be taken seriously? or the secretary just sets aside this transcript from nowhere if s/he doesn't see my actual application info?

Hi again, yes I've checked, and found their average GRE scores for the admitted applicants are around 160-161 verbal.. so the goal of 158 seems still not enough. But is it so big a difference between 158 and 160?

Hi, I studied two months, used one month magoosh, and another month the GRE official guide. My goal score for verbal is 158 or above... but only got it one time for preparation test, and the other time I got it 155. So 154 is like my worst score...

Oh thanks for the advice! I already registered for another test in October, paper delivered. Hope it'll be better!

Thank you for your answer! Yes I will try another time in October^^

I took the GRE test yesterday and my verbal is only 154... feeling crestfallen...

Is my score of 154 verbal and 158 quantitive too low to apply for a comparative literature phd program? If I can still apply, is there any suggestions? Must I apply for 100+ ranking schools? Thanks