GlacierPoint

Popping back in to share that I have a fee waiver for Brandeis if someone is applying there and could use one. I didn't even ask for it nor I was planning on applying there. They just emailed me it which is why I feel comfortable with sharing it with someone in need.

@Indecisive Poet What sold me on the gap year was the fact that every professor that I talked to about taking a gap year all said they wished they had taken one.

Looks like the spreadsheet was wiped out - it only lists 15 English PhD programs and it's missing the other tabs.

From what I've read on program websites, English programs do not care about the quant score at all. The only thing you need to worry about is passing the minimum cutoff for the school. USC has it listed but someone reported getting in last cycle with a 137 Q. That is 3rd percentile. Total scores also come in play for university-wide fellowships too. And 159 V isn't a terrible score if the rest of your application is strong! I got a 159 too but I'm retaking due to taking a gap year and trying to make up for a low-ish cumulative GPA (for PhD applications) due to being a hot mess freshman/sophomore.

I've decided to take a gap year so I'll see you guys next year! Realized that I won't be able to take a year off if I get into a program. It's my last chance to do the Disney College Program too. DCP is something that I've always dreamed of doing ever since I found out about it. I know I will regret it if I don't do it and I don't like regrets. But I want to vent about the GRE a little first - I got scores that I would have been happy with earlier in the week (159 V/151 Q) but I took an ETS practice test a few days before my test and got 164 V (and 144 Q lol no idea how I got 151 on the real thing). I was so disappointed when I didn't break 160 even if I know I still did reasonably well. Will retake it next spring to try for 90th+ percentile for verbal and may work a little more on quant to see if I can get 320 total. I tend to not do well with standardized tests (SAT was not fun but somehow did a LOT better on ACT) so this was a really nice feeling. Retaking the Lit Gre in April to be a stronger applicant overall too. I was talking with my professor about the it and she said she's always wanted to retake the Lit GRE to see if she can get a perfect score now that she's a full professor. Joked about taking it with me next April ? Might still send one or two applications with the intent of deferring if I get in or asking nicely for feedback on how to improve my application for next year.

ETS just made me reschedule my general test today and tried to charge me a rescheduling fee. I told them where they could shove the fee charge when I was on the phone with them. They did not charge me the fee ☺️ Testing center is a bit trickier to get to but the date may be better for me so I'm not too fussed about it. But hoping I can find a ride because otherwise it's a $30 Uber to the center. The public transit option has too many risky bus connections for my comfort. I'm just charging everything to my CC at this point and pretending that I have enough in my bank account to cover it.

Associate provost came through for me! Woke up to a follow-up email from him in my inbox this morning saying that he talked with the director. The financial aid office secretary says they're writing the letter now but the director is leading training all day today and tomorrow so have to wait on her to sign it when she's free. She said they would scan it for me and email it to me as a pdf so I wouldn't need to do it myself which is nice. I am just so happy that the associate provost was the relevant admin to escalate the issue to - he's the best for yelling at people to get stuff done. The others, not so much. @jadeisokay - I didn't even bother getting a GRE fee waiver for that reason, unfortunately. That and ETS being vague as hell about how to send it in.

I deeply dislike my school's financial aid office. They're still giving me a hard time about writing a letter so I had to escalate it to the associate provost. He was outraged on my behalf and promised a follow up within 48 hours. I stopped by the office today and it was just terrible all round. Them going WELL I'VE NEVER HEARD OF SOMETHING LIKE THIS and acting huffy when I showed four different schools offering fee waivers in exchange for a letter from my school's financial aid office. Then they asked how I was planning on paying for graduate school when I couldn't even afford the application fees. "No, I'm applying to funded programs. They pay ME, I don't pay them. And if it wasn't a funded program, I'd take out loans NEXT YEAR." There was a really rude comment about how they couldn't know if it would be a financial hardship for me to pay application fees when they didn't know how much I had in my bank account. The office has my FAFSA report which lists my EFC! They looked at my income and taxes so they know I'm low-income. Trust FAFSA! Argrhghghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ?‍♀️ I am not going to be happy if I have to pay unnecessary fees because they decided to be little snots. I think they've wasted more time refusing to write a letter than they would have if they just wrote me a letter when I first asked.

USC's website says the unofficial scores are allowed which is nice because they require the subject test and have a deadline earlier than Dec 7. So that means that people can do the October subject test (like me!) and not be barred from applying for USC because ETS won't have the official scores ready in time. I'm tempted to check with my other programs to see who else is willing to do this so I can try save some money.

USC accepts unofficial GRE scores! Not sure which other schools do the same. My school's financial aid office is being weird with me about my request for a letter verifying that I receive need-based grants and the application fee would be a financial hardship. They first told me to email my school's grad admissions department with my FAFSA statement to get a fee waiver from them. I then pointed out that I said I needed it for other schools and copied & pasted a section about the letter requirements from a program that I'm applying for. That didn't work as they told me to contact the program for their fee waiver form. NO THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT AT ALL ?‍♀️ IT SAYS THAT I NEED A LETTER FROM MY FINANCIAL AID OFFICE TO SUBMIT WITH MY FORM TOO! Seriously, is it so hard to just write some generic letter saying that I receive need-based aid and that paying an application fee would be a financial hardship??? I sent my email early Monday morning and stopped by the office Thursday to check up on it when I didn't hear back from them. They said they were working on the letter and would let me know when it was ready. But hahahaha nope. But in happier news, I was meant to write a potential WS as part of my independent study assignment for a class that I'm TAing for but the professor said that one of my old papers would be a stronger WS than the topic we came up with so she's going to help me completely overhaul it, yay! I also asked the professor whose class I wrote that paper to be brutal when giving feedback. I just got it from her and oh my god, it looks like someone murdered it. She even put post-it notes on some pages because she filled up all of the available space. I guess I did ask for it but ouch...

How the hell am I meant to ascertain fit from a list of overly broad research interests on a faculty bio page that might not even be current? Major props to the programs whose faculty list recent publications & book projects on their bios though. Just wish everybody did that

I was looking through faculty pages to identify professors that I'd like to work with. One had a link to a YouTube video that looked like it would be relevant so I clicked it to see a professor at my current school in it. I've never taken a class with him but will next semester (was already planning on it before seeing the video!). We've interacted a couple of times so trying to work up my courage to email him to see if they keep in contact. The video was personalized for the professor who posted it on their faculty page and they're from different fields but their research interests overlap. Things like this makes me realize how small academia is and that I should try utilize my professors more to see if they've got contacts at the programs I'm looking at. And now I'm starting to feel like my school might not put me at a disadvantage compared to others at bigger schools!

I haven't started on my SOPs yet, oops. My plan is to write an outline then use that as a template so I don't have to mess with it too much to get it to work with length requirements. Hopefully it'll prevent me from sending the wrong SOP to the wrong school.

A professor just told me that I should call myself a late 19th century Americanist instead of a 20th century Americanist since I'm mainly interested in the writers around the turn of the century. 19th c is a better fit for my interests and reflects the kind of writing that I'm interested in but I'd feel like a sham classifying myself as one while applying. Just had to drop a program from my list that I was interested in after being warned against it by three different people so took the opportunity to do a cull of my list. Now I'm internally freaking out about going from 7 PhD programs + 2 MA programs to 4 PhD programs + 3 MA programs. But I haven't had the opportunity to search for 19th century American lit programs yet so that might give me some more to put on my list.

Good point about the confusing maximums - just checked that masters program again and it says 20-25 pages. I’ll probably shoot them an email to clarify. If they say one 20-25 page sample, I’ll probably inquire about the necessity of a seminar-style WS for a masters program that advertises itself as a stepping stone for PhD programs. I figure I don’t have anything to lose because if it’s a 20 min and 25 max, I’m not going to apply but it might make them reconsider their WS requirements. I think this really ticked me off because the two other MA programs on my list are a lot more reasonable about the WS length. One didn’t give a suggested length and the other one put a cap of 12 pages. Another program on my list wants 10-15 pages for MA applicants and 20-25 pages for PhD applicants.