cowgirlsdontcry

Windows came out with its first stable platform meant for the Net in 1995. Word wasn't very stable before that (neither was Windows--I had a standalone computer in the office with Windows and a very early version of Word) and a majority of companies used WordPerfect, which was the big wordprocessing program that was used almost unilaterally across the US until then. Many companies had servers and limited networks that had capabilities of emailing intra-company. I worked as the assistant to General Counsel at one of the top 4 oil companies in the world in the early 90s and it had a network that was supposed to be company-wide, but many departments had their own servers and networks for security reasons (i.e. the law department that General Counsel was over). When Windows 95 and Office 95 were launched (I was back in a private law firm in Denver by that time), many state and county departments went in that direction almost immediately. State universities followed within a year. Law firms were slower to respond, keeping their WordPerfect. My firm went to Word in late '95. Outside of some quick training in Windows/Word, I was the Go To person who trained everyone in the firm. I developed the templates the firm used and ways to use the auto numbering system that has not always worked well in Word. Now, although I have Word 2016 Pro, I simply have it set for MLA, although I do have a template for Chicago, which English publishes in, since all I do is write critical literary essays. My experiences with Word evolved within the world of law firms, from mid-size firms of 50 attorneys to world-wide firms with 1,000+ attorneys. No one is more paranoid about security than lawyers and most of them still use it every day to send documents back and forth between firms to make red-line comments. I have also seen red-lined docs come from clients with their comments. You are completely correct in what you say about security, but I worked in the field until six years ago, and I know what I saw happening every day.

I'm in the English department and receive a stipend, insurance and waiver of tuition. The stipend is low, but not as low as Chai Tea's is. I have other independent income, but most of the GAs are in roommate situations. Most assistantships are 1/2 time (which is as much as the department will allow) = 20 hours per week. I teach a 2/2 schedule and hold office hours on campus. My MA campus was different in that the 20 hours had to be spent completely on campus. Anything lower than the 20 hours is quarter time and the benefits are reduced accordingly.

I don't know how you think it's easier to read or more professional, as all that a PDF does is create a "picture" of the Word doc. As far as formatting goes, I have used Word since it's inception and formatting does not change because of use on an older machine and/or software. As a matter of course, Word docs in the most current version won't even open in older versions of Word. Universities (even in poor states) have the most current software available to faculty and staff (usually in the form of Office 365, which is also available to their students). If a university has the version of Adobe that allows for extensive editing of PDFs, they will have the most current version of Word. I think that many students are using Google Docs instead of Word and that may create a problem with the application software that universities use. I know it creates issues with Turnitin for both my students and me at times. Having said all of that, I converted my docs to PDFs for submission with applications during my season, unless the program asked for it in Word.

Tuition waivers are already taxable over $5,250 per year. I just looked it up. However, currently any tuition reduction you receive for graduate education is qualified, and therefore tax free, if both of the following requirements are met. It is provided by an eligible educational institution. You are a graduate student who performs teaching or research activities for the educational institution. You must include in income any other tuition reductions for graduate education that you receive. Please see IRS PUB 970 for more. What I read about the new tax bill online is that Steven Bloom said "institutions wouldn't be able to waive tuition costs without imposing new taxable income on grad students." This is all speculation about a proposed bill at this point. We shouldn't get tied up in knots yet. These things always get changed and the proposed changes to higher ed are impossible, because universities depend on the cheap labor of GTAs. I will worry about this when and if it happens. Too many variables to factor in.

Sometimes the apps will designate what they want and sometimes they will simply leave it open to either. Why do you consider a PDF more professional? I like it because the PDF is more fixed. Word docs can be changed.

Only scores are posted and that is what is sent. TakeruK is correct in that percentiles change from year-to-year. I took the GRE once as an undergrad before getting my MA and every year my percentile changes slightly (up or down depending on the scores deleted and added to the composite).

1. Some depts. have their own number, but most want scores sent to grad school; 2. In your account at ETS, you can see where your scores were sent; 3. Everything goes together; since it takes about a week for your AW score to show up, they will send shortly after that. If there is a problem and school can't find your GRE scores, ETS will tell you what batch your scores were sent in and you can give that to the grad school. 4. The employees will enter your scores, unless you were asked as part of your application. In that case, they will check.

I don't believe UMass is a safe school for any field. I attended there for a year as an undergrad in the National Exchange Student program and found the professors very similar to my home school. There were a lot of students in the exchange that year. Some went home early because of the difficulties they faced. Only a couple of us finished even a semester and we were offered the opportunity to stay for the spring semester. Cannot say what their sociology program is like, but their English grad program is hard for outsiders to crack from what I understand. It's a great school to attend.

I don't believe you are being realistic about stipends. Humanities departments are notorious about low stipends. At my particular university, English and History are tied for lowest stipend on campus. I agree with the other posters here. On my campus, all TAs/RAs work a half-time position of 20 hours per week. I looked at the compensation and TA/RG/RAs History at the U of MN. MN requires a half-time commitment, and as most universities do, requires a commitment to the university with regard to outside employment. I did not find compensation listed, but didn't look extensively. What you are talking about _kita is possible only if a student is registered as a non-degree student. At some point, NYC would have to apply and be accepted into the PhD program in order to accomplish all the things a PhD student must accomplish before they can graduate.

Most of the programs I applied to during my season of applications required a WS of 15-20 pages. I did not "count" the Works Cited pages as part of the essay unless it was specified as you show in your post. As I was working on my MA at the time of my applications to PhD programs, most of my seminar papers were in the 15-20 page range, with some professors asking for 20-25 pages. These page counts were essay pages alone. My concerns were the same as yours. I called the departments that simply had a page number for WS and asked. If you email, you may or may not get an answer because it is an especially busy time. You don't want to shirk on your Works Cited for obvious reasons.

So did you decide to not apply to PhD programs?

Most campuses have a center where you can sign up for counseling. It is amazing (not in a good way) how overwhelmed these centers are with students who need help. I'm only in my first semester of a PhD, but my department strongly emphasizes taking two academic classes per semester and no more, as we also have a 2/2 teaching load. It will take slightly longer to finish the classes, but I don't feel the stress strongly either. This is a far cry from my MA program, where I had to be on campus for 20 hours per week as a TA, and take 9 academic hours a semester to keep my contract in force. The last semester of my MA, I took 6 hours thesis, worked 20 hours and had to take one academic class to keep contract in place. I thought I was losing my mind. I am a non-traditional student and had a career for 20 years as a paralegal prior to going back to school. Because law is fast-paced and has a high burnout rate, grad school (MA and now PhD) is not quite as stressful for me as for some others. I do have stress, but have learned to manage it better than most, because of that career as a paralegal.

I only used Magoosh and was faithful working with it (at least on the verbal side). I raised my score from the first practice test from mid-150s to an actual GRE score in verbal of 163. As you know, the math is algebra and finite math. It pays to learn the formulas for the finite problems. I had only used a TI-84 in class and never learned the formulas, whereas I knew the algebraic formulas. Therefore, my math scores were rather deficient. I feel that, if I had practiced with the math, to the extent I practiced with the verbal, I would have had a much better score. English departments are going to be verbal heavy and I had only so much time, so chose to focus on the verbal.

I actually bought this guy's general handbook before I start completing applications last year. Don't waste your money--it's $15, and won't tell you anything you don't already know, if you have been preparing for this application season. I could write a better handbook for English PhD applicants. In the article, he does make a few applicable comments that I certainly did do on my own. The statement in the quote about the visit is interesting. I don't know about other fields, but in English there can actually be answers in FAQs that discourage applicants from visiting the campus. I never contacted a POI prior to applying because in English, we don't work in labs--we are TAs; however, I did look at the faculty of every program before applying, to determine whether it fit my needs to be a 20th century Americanist. That just says there are things we, as applicants, do not know. Sorry to ramble on.

Oh Wow! I was off on that. Thanks. I was thinking University of Texas.

You go Girl!

There were only 4 English MA students on campus. The rest were far away and online. Three out of the four of us applied to PhD programs and we received enormous support and assistance from the department's professors. I might add all three of us were accepted into PhD programs.

nywnorb states he is interested in statistical ethnographical studies, at least from what I can tell. That would imply a need for a statistical basis, which his Q score doesn't support, even though his grades in statistics were above his other math grades. I'm just saying that his Q score is low enough that, based on the both the Magoosh humanities and social science charts, it is the one to be concerned about. I didn't ever say he shouldn't apply, but I think that many opinions given on this site are way more optimistic about chances of getting admitted to top programs, which then leads applicants being even more upset, if they are rejected by programs than they should be. I was in the pool last year and to say some of the people appeared very distraught about not being admitted to their top choices is putting it mildly. The odds of getting admitted to top programs is very slim even with superior GPAs/GREs, which is why selection of programs must be a very close fit, in order to be admitted. There are also unknown variables that cannot be measured. My SOP and WS were vetted by 3 full professors, as well as my 3 recommenders (associate professors) who looked at them through several drafts. I had excellent specimens, not because of my superior ability, but because I had superior people making comments, which I followed. Having said all of that, the reasons why I said what I did about mine become more apparent. I only applied to programs that were good fits and I still was not admitted, which leads to the unknown variables that could possibly affect admission. I believe that it is very interesting to note that while I was not admitted to any T25 program outside the South, I was admitted to the one T25 program in the South I applied to. However, their funding was not as good as the large flagship university I eventually chose to accept. Programs are all different, but very similar in their requirements and actions within humanities and social sciences.

If you look at the humanities chart I posted by Magoosh, you can see that nywnorb's verbals are right in the middle of all of the top 10 humanities and social science programs ranking each by field. Since he also states he is looking at the social sciences, I am posting those scores below. I would be more concerned about his Q scores because they are either on the edge of the average or lower than the average top 50 in either field, especially because he is seeking to emphasize ethnography. I had GPAs of UG-3.85 and G-4.0 with scores like his, with SOP and WS vetted by three full professors (also my recommenders), and every T25 English dept. I applied to rejected me, which leaves to me to think that my Q score, the fact that I went to a Southern UG/G school, or my age (non-traditional) were contributing factors. Magoosh Social Sciences: https://magoosh.com/gre/2013/gre-scores-for-social-science-programs/

What is the exact field you want to apply to? Ethnography falls into a combination of history, anthropology and other doesn't it. Below is a link (copy & paste into browser) that shows Magoosh research indicating what top humanities programs' GRE scores are and it's rumored that humanities usually care less about Q than V. But look for yourself. https://magoosh.com/gre/2013/gre-scores-for-arts-and-humanities-programs/

I think that it's a good score. That's what mine was and I was accepted by a program of my choice. It's the 93rd percentile. Copy the following link into your browser because my links never seem to work. Magoosh shows a breakdown of scores at various ranked schools. The top 10 schools in Foreign Languages/Literature had scores from 161-166. Your score of 163 is right in the middle. I would not take it over for a couple of points when you are definitely within the parameters. You don't have time to study for any kind of increase other than 2-3 points max and, as you point out, it's an expensive test. https://magoosh.com/gre/2013/gre-scores-for-arts-and-humanities-programs/ Here is a chart that Magoosh prepared regarding whether to retake the GRE. Copy into browser. http://2aih25gkk2pi65s8wfa8kzvi-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/gre/files/2013/12/Retaking-the-GRE.pdf

If the department will tell him who is on the committee. When I was applying I never had much luck with getting those names (I wanted to know if my interests were in-line with any of them). Most of the time the departments never even answered my query. I ended up reading some of the Americanists' publications to figure it out for myself.

I'm from central Louisiana and made the drive to NSU almost every day for six years through my MA, so understand how a 100 mile drive, in addition to having a little one is just too much. Hate that drive over the basin. I always ended up going 190 into BR, but that's way out of the way for you.

I am white and attended undergrad and MA at a smallish tier one-regional university in Louisiana. The diversity at that school was about the same as the population of the state was (55:45). I did a year-long exchange at a large flagship university in the northeast and was surprised when I saw no diversity at the university. When I looked at demographics, there was a diversity rate of under 10%. The towns surrounding the university were all white with even less diversity. So I can only imagine how you feel. Having said all of that, it sounds like you have a great relationship with your advisor and the program is very good. Those are difficult to replace. There are always things you are going to have to deal with and may not be able to have such a good work environment in a top program. I'm in an English PhD program where the MFA students act as though they are all that (NOT). Wherever we are, there are going to be things we don't like. Get some counselling to help and keep working.

I applied to present at the Hemingway Society's Biennial Conference in Paris next summer, and was accepted. I know there are hundreds presenting at that conference as it lasts 7 days. My attitude about conferences is not to worry what the odds are. If my abstract fits exactly into what their CFP is looking for, I will usually get accepted. If not, then I won't. It's good practice to simply apply. You get better and better at writing abstracts and improving on your bio and it's always a pleasant surprise to get accepted at a prestigious conference that improves my CV. I get to go to Paris (where I have never been) with my university paying for a good portion of the cost. I try to go to at least two conferences a year.