cowgirlsdontcry

It's not that far from the ultimate party town of NOLA, an easy drive for a great weekend.

I'm sure I will see you there, as I will be an entering PhD student. The house I leased is on 13th St, near 16th Ave (about 10 blocks from the stadium). I found it through the list-serv for the English Dept. I posted that I was looking and a graduating MFA student contacted me, as well as sending my info along to his landlord. So I have a nice house in the historic district close to the school, which means I no longer have those 45 minute drives to campus.

All good ideas. I did an MA after BA as I don't believe I was ready for PhD. It greatly improved my chances, because I have a couple of major conferences and was able to see that I could write a good thesis. I was accepted at a school that requires a master's.

He was allowed in on a contingent basis, to make sure he could keep up a 3.0 GPA.

I guess the link broke when I copied it. Paste this into search on the top right and it will come up: Admitted as Undeclared/Non-Classified Student

Yes, the admission letter that comes from the grad school after the offer letter from the department. One was based on my overall GPA and degrees being conferred, and the one I actually accepted, was based on official transcripts showing degrees conferred. Because they had seen my grades, which were high, I never thought about it twice. Every university is different. You definitely need to speak with someone about this. BTW, look at this post. It's about a conditional admission. <img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1280028528720225&ev=PageView&noscript=1" /> Follow 1 Advice Needed: Admitted as Undeclared/Non-Classified Student

I received offer letters from each department, then a formal letter of acceptance from the dean of the grad schools. One formal letter stated it was conditional on my overall GPA and receipt of degrees and the other said in order to remain registered and to finalize admissions, they must receive official transcripts that showed my BA/MA degrees being conferred within six weeks of semester beginning. That sounds pretty official to me and as soon as I graduated with MA and it was on my record, I forwarded official transcripts showing degrees conferred. You need to be talking to someone now, because all hope is not gone. Don't wait!

I chose a chapter of my MA thesis, because it's where my interest and research continue to lie. I specifically chose an author who has written a number of books, to write about for my MA thesis to carry over to a dissertation. I selected one theme that appears to run through all of his texts and had at it. There are any number of "gimmicky" things that people do, in order to try to get into a PhD program, although my own approach was just to be the best that I could be. What if one of those gimmicky things worked and it wasn't really your area of interest? Do you then see yourself changing course? Your WS will be better if it's something you are passionate about--more so than if you simply did it to try to gain a foot up. Just my own opinion.

I took a grant writing class last year. There are state grants your professor/mentor can apply for, but it will need to come from him/her as a faculty member. There are also various private grants, but they are almost always very specific in what they will fund. Try the federal sites, like FDA, etc. You don't say what kind of grant you are looking for, but having looked at hundreds of grants last year, I know they are very specific. Try typing word strings like "grants for ..." and see what pops up. On most state school campuses there are employees who deal with grants exclusively and if you find a really good one, you may be able to get some help in writing it. Grants are complicated to write and need a special touch to get the funding. I took the class because I wanted to understand the intricacies of getting additional funding while working on my PhD. Professors are looking for funding, as well, because they want things for their departments. One of the professors at my MA school wrote and received a grant for the purchase of iPads and related electronic equipment for every faculty member in the English Department.

Great posts! I would like say my little piece. While I was an undergrad and master's student, I saw new professors come into the department, hired for a specific area and while they never stopped teaching that area, as they gathered steam in their career they began to branch out into teaching sub areas that were of interest to them. The field is so open, even within certain time frames or periods, that it's possible to have quite a bit of diversity. My primary area is 20th-21st century American, but I also really get into Southern Lit, earlier American writers because of my research, and yes, even late 19th century early 20th century British authors (just because I like them). I agree with the others--do what you love. Your work will shine because of it.

Talk to your professors--some of them may have really good ideas about expanding. This summer is not too soon because you will be busy in the fall and expanding a paper that you felt was complete at the time is more taxing than you can imagine. We humanities people are very possessive over our papers, but get over it. Save a copy and start with other things you know. READ, READ, READ outside books, sources to get a better handle on your topic. If you have a primary book source, read it again. You may gain new insight. You will want to ask several professors (probably those you get LORs from) to read your WS and your SOP and make suggestions. . There's a lot you can do to make it the best it can be. Fifteen pages isn't that much to shoot for if you have ten.

I had read Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi a couple of years ago for a class. In it she writes about the murder of Emmett Till and the fear that blacks experienced as a result of that murder. There is a new book about his murder out this year titled The Blood of Emmett Till. I already have it. Just read Me Before You and its sequel After You. So a little of a variety of things where I'm at. It's summer and probably the last one I will get to slough off.

Humanities require longer papers. Because you're coming from another field into history, I would guess they will really want to see your writing skills. I looked at the History department for my PhD school and this is what their website has about writing samples. You should check each school's program. "There are no minimum or maximum page requirement for writing samples. However, a strong writing sample will showcase your skills as a potential graduate student in History and should therefore reflect your experience working with both primary sources and secondary scholarship. Typical writing samples range between 15 and 30 pages." The SOPs I saw on my applications went from a minimum of 500 words to a maximum of 800 words. Less than two pages, single-spaced. Hantoo is correct about Humanities caring more about verbal scores than quantitative.

Have you looked at any programs yet, and what they want in the way of a WS or if they have GRE requirements? English programs usually give a 5-page range in paper size--something like 15-20 pages. My MA thesis adviser said most of her papers in PhD classes were in the 25 page length requirement. Several of the chapters in my thesis were that length, so I know I can write them. You need to take a paper that you like and start revising and working on it after you look at program requirements for papers. Talk to your professors--some of them may have really good ideas about expanding. This summer is not too soon because you will be busy in the fall and expanding a paper that you felt was complete at the time is more taxing than you can imagine. We humanities people are very possessive over our papers, but get over it. Save a copy and start with other things you know. READ, READ, READ outside books, sources to get a better handle on your topic. If you have a primary book source, read it again. You may gain new insight. Good luck!

You must make significant changes in what you present to committees if it's the second time around. I don't know what documents you are asked to provide in art history, but be sure that your CV shows definite improvement, such as the curatorial jobs and any conferences you may have presented at or publications that are in the works. Your SOP probably needs to reflect what research interests you would like to pursue. Even though all of that may change, committees want to know you are focused and what you bring to the table. They also want to see some inkling of what you hope to gain by getting a PhD in their particular program. Doing all of this while working is exhaustive and overwhelming. Even if you were a fulltime student during your master's, you may have been working as a GA/TA/RA, so the same thing applies. Did you do any significant work for a professor regarding research, etc.? That can go on your CV. You need more than great grades/GRE. Do your professors from school know you well? You need outstanding LORs. You need to show committees you have the goods and that's why they should choose you over 200+ others applying for admission to the same program.

ThousandsHard is correct in that the language requirement is not required up front and can be acquired as you have time. I believe in my program it must be done by the time I take comps, but that's two years. I met my requirements by having an undergrad minor in foreign languages. For the field of literature, there is a good bit of research and essays in French, Spanish and German, so it's a good idea to at least have French so one can figure out if an essay is useful or not.

Not only is every university different, every program is different. On departmental websites, look under PhD section, where you will their requirements, as to how many languages, level of fluency needed and qualifications for passing that requirement. For instance, the program I'm entering did require two languages, but this past year changed to one. The ways I can meet the requirement, are by being a native speaker of a language other than English, having taken 4 semesters (through intermediate level) of a single language and making no less than a B (with my last semester having been within the last 5 years), or by taking a translation test of about 1-2 paragraphs (a dictionary is the only help you get) in a 2- hour period. These requirements are only for English Ph.D. at the university I will be entering this fall. Every program/university requirement is different.

It's now after June 3, so I hope you are pleasantly surprised with your GRE scores. Looking at applicants and acceptances will give you an idea of what programs are looking for in the way of scores. You should simply make sure that you have the best LORs, WS and SOP that you can provide. It's still a crap shoot. Even with everything as perfect as you can make it, the unknown is still the reviewing committee and what they have decided they are looking for in a particular year. I ended up about 50/50 in my season with 2 admits, 2 waitlists and 5 rejections. I had a considerably higher GPA and GRE scores than any of the minimum scores requested by programs and also had multiple professors go over my WS & SOP. If your GRE scores are not what you expect, you have time to retake the test before applications are due. I used Magoosh and I believe over the course of the 6 months I practiced with it, my practice tests grew from a 156 to a 160 in Verbals and I scored a 163V on the actual GRE, so it is very good in upping your scores. English departments don't pay much attention to math scores, and my math score was certainly nothing to write home about. Good luck this upcoming season.

Perhaps I'm not looking at this in the same way you are, but if the passage mentions two reasons, and one of the answers uses the word several, then that answer would be incorrect. I think that answer (c) is asking if you can define several. Look at the question again: Which of the following does the passage suggest about pioneer women cyclists? They saw cycling as a means to promote the advancement of women. They argued that cycling would encourage women to get involved in a variety of noble causes. They provided several reasons for a cross section of the female population to use the bicycle. While the question uses the word 'suggest,' it's really asking which one statement is true. In option 'c' the statement would be true if it had stated 'couple,' which means two. Instead, it uses 'several' which defined means more than two but not many. The passage listed two reasons. Option 'C' is incorrect. You will find the GRE is interested in more than just the correct answer. It tests your ability to reason in fine detail at times, by throwing in the odd challenge of a definition.

I just received an MA in English. I had funding through an assistantship, but no waiver of tuition. My school funds all GAs through the grad school, not the department, so the funding is never apparent nor advertised. Once accepted into a program one must apply for an assistantship. As an undergrad at the university, I had always seen student workers in the departments, but then had a friend who was a GA. I asked her about it, so knew when I applied for MA that some funding was available. Although I am beginning a PhD in English this fall, I do wish that I had thought of the double major of English/History when I was a new undergrad. I could have gained an MA at the same time I was getting one in English. The two disciplines work so well together, especially with my focus in 20th century literature.

If it's a regular state university that has normal in person classes, how do programs know that it's all or partially online? Your degree certainly doesn't show that. In my case, I would say I like in person classes better, but even my in person classes had skype or Web Ex going for those students who lived far away. I probably got more personal attention from professors than I would have at a large state university. I think there may be some prejudice towards online programs and I would not enroll in one of the online universities, but as far as learning, I had no problem. Online classes are very different in state universities. I served as a GA/TA for two professors in the department and it was great. My GRE didn't suffer as I scored a 93% in verbal. Math was much lower, but I didn't spend the time prepping for math, as my adviser had told me English depts don't care about math much and my score was still high enough that I easily met and surpassed the quals for every school I applied to. There were four GAs in the English Dept (the sum total of those who lived nearby). Three of us made Ph.D. applications. All three of us were accepted at large state universities. I don't find any bias there. You should check out some state programs that can be done online. Talk to them. They will know if their students have successfully applied and been admitted to Ph.D. programs. They will also tell you the drawbacks to an online program. The real test would come if you attended an online university. You will find bias in top 20 universities, and large private universities. You won't find it in state universities. A state university is your best bet for online classes.

That's why you have to take classes and teach. My contract is a yearly contract but I take classes and work 9 months, for which I'm paid. My tuition waiver does not include summers. At my friend's program, they get tuition waived during the summer also. So I guess every program is different. One other thought. When you begin working, you won't get long vacations unless you are an academic. The longest amount of vacation time I ever received when starting a new position was 3 weeks. That's not much in the grand scheme of things.

My M.A. program in English was a combination in person/online. However, I lived in the area and worked as a funded GA on campus during the two years I was in the program. As a result, the professors tried to do one discussion period per week for those of us working as GAs. My M.A. school is a smaller tier one state school in South Region and the English M.A. is rated in the top 10 Nationally in online programs. Our online program has students who live all over the world. We had 20 graduate this semester with an English MA. I believe 6 of us were in attendance at Graduation. I have been admitted to a Ph.D. program beginning this fall so will be moving soon. Don't plan on trying to get into a top 20 Ph.D. program, but if you have all the other pieces needed for a Ph.D. app, I don't know why you would not succeed. I don't know anything about SNHU--except they always have ads for adjunct instructors in higher ed (I was perusing the site before I got any offers for Plan B). Many state universities have online master's programs. It's convenient for those who have fulltime jobs or live in primarily rural states like Louisiana (where I live). Most of the schools also do not charge out-of-state fees for online courses. The University of Louisiana at Monroe has an online history M.A. This is not my school, but isn't that far away from me and was the first school I thought of as I knew my school does not have an MA in history (MS in Homeland Security instead). Good luck in your search.

I'm sorry you are having such an issue. Are you able to graduate--my M.A. program requires a minimum B in all classes? I'm an English M.A. and just wrote a thesis this semester before graduating. Did you talk to your thesis advisor about this and whether you could take another semester and fix it? Do you know the issues with your thesis? Is it superficial, such as the writing, or core to the whole topic and your ideas? Thesis work is difficult. It requires maintaining a close connection with your advisor, with them reading chapters as they are written. If you're neither an academic writer nor a creative writer, it becomes more difficult to put the whole thing together, but with work and perhaps some suggestions, you could get it together. If it's a matter of concept and theory being undeveloped, your advisor may be able to make suggestions. You didn't fail your thesis, so I'm gathering there was no plagiarism. Again, I'm so sorry.

It's interesting to know Juillet, how it differs between the various disciplines. I hope others post as it would be great for incoming students to be able to what others have done to get to a program.