darcyt

One of my letter writers was an ABD grad student and it worked out fine for me applying to funded MA programs. I did well in her class and knew that my other recommendations from tenured professors were strong, so I felt comfortable asking her. For a few reasons, I didn't have as many options for people to ask for letters, so if you do it might be better to go with all tenured professors if possible.

Received an email that I was waitlisted for funding at Temple. If anyone received a funding offer and knows they won't be accepting it, would very much appreciate you letting them know!

If it were me, I would definitely reply that you are interested in the program and politely ask to be kept up to date of any movement in your favor. I was waitlisted at a program last year and they were very upfront with my position on it.

I applied to one MA program last year (mostly due to timing/ location restraints) but am applying to both MA and PhD programs this year since I didn't get funding. I recently retook the GRE and got 161 verbal (158 first time around), and though I'm definitely happy with it I can't help worrying that being below 90th % will keep me out of some programs. 161 would be 88th so I feel a little silly worrying about such a little difference but its such a frustrating part of this process!

Not entirely sure but for what its worth, I've seen people say this about Penn State but not about University of Pennsylvania.

I most likely will be. Don't know if I'll actually be attending as it doesn't look like I have much chance of getting funding based on my number on the waitlist, but I live 20 minutes away so I figure I may as well.

Congrats to everyone who has been accepted and received funding. I was accepted but didn't receive an email today so really unsure of what to make of that/ if I should email Dr. Hicks. I've also lived in and around Philadelphia my entire life so happy to answer any questions anyone considering the area has that would be relevant to that.

Hi all, hope this kind of post is not too annoying, I was hoping to get some feedback into my chances of applying to a funded MA program at Villanova. I currently have a 3.7 GPA, with about the same in my major (English) at 3.68. I haven't received my grades for this semester yet but I'm expecting one B+ in an English course and A's and one A- in my other English and elective courses, so I will likely end with around a 3.7 still. I think that I will be able to get relatively strong letters of recommendations and I feel confident that I will have a strong writing sample to submit, but I'm worrying that my major GPA may be too low. I understand that things like this are difficult to predict, but I just wanted to check with others who have more experience about my chances of obtaining a funded position. Based on the programs website, it seems that there a couple faculty members in the field I'd be interested in studying more, and I've read that that can help too. Really appreciate any help and insight anybody can offer! If anyone here has done the MA program at Villanova and wouldn't mind chatting a bit about it also, please let me know! thanks