S_C_789

That sounds similar to what I did last year! I'm enjoying cheering on people this year!

Today, I found myself extremely bored. As a result, I complied a list of when schools typically notify for first-round acceptances using data from the results page. After, I rearranged things in order by  when programs typically notify.

Michigan State-Dec 10? (Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures)
OSU-Jan 25
Wisconsin- Jan 28
Duke- Jan 29
WashU- Jan 31-Feb 2
Northwestern-Jan 31-Feb 2
Berkeley- Jan 31-Feb 2
Chicago- Feb 1/2
Minnesota-Feb 2
Vanderbilt - Feb 2/3
Texas- Feb 3/4
Indiana-Feb 3/4
Purdue-Feb 3-5
UCLA- Feb 4/5
Johns Hopkins- Feb 5
Davis-Feb 5/6
Penn State- Feb 5/6
Pittsburgh-Feb 5/6
Nebraska-Feb 5-7
NYU-Feb 6/7
Maryland-Feb 7-9
Rochester-Feb 8/9
Emory- Feb 8-9
Irvine-Feb 8-9
Illinois- Feb 9-12
Brown-Feb 10-12
LSU-Feb 11
Rice- Feb 12
Buffalo-Feb 12
Missouri- Feb 12-14
Delaware-Feb 12-14
Kansas-Feb 14
Carnegie Mellon- Feb 14/15
Alabama-Feb 14-16
Cornell- Feb 15/16
Miami University-Feb 15/16
Michigan-Feb 16
Connecticut-Feb 16
CUNY-Feb 16/17
Santa Barbara-Feb 17-19
Stanford- Feb 17-Feb 20
Princeton-Feb 17-20
UVA- Feb 19/20
Rutgers-Feb 19/20
Harvard- Feb 20-Feb 22
Columbia- Feb 20-22
Penn- Feb 20-22
Utah-Feb 22
Notre Dame-Feb 23
Yale- Feb 24/25
Washington-Feb 25
Syracuse-Feb 26
Chapel Hill-Feb 26/27
Oregon-Feb 27-28
Iowa-March 2-5
Florida State-March 4-7
Mississippi- March 5-7

I literally just came back on the forum to search for projected acceptance dates, haha. Thanks for feeding into my desire to lengthen the process on one hand, and shorten it on the other. I'll check out WashU! 

And so it begins...
I was wavering on whether to apply to a Jan 1 school and I'm sure part of me is doing it to delay the anxiety that comes with the waiting phase

Same... I keep wanting to get it over with but at the same time, as long as I keep working on apps, I don’t feel like I’m in the waiting phase yet..

Absolutely nothing to worry about. I've learned that professors procrastinate even more than we do, and adcomms, being professors themselves, don't hold that against their colleagues. One subtle way to remind them (if the deadline is coming too close for comfort) is just to write to them about anything. They'll get the hint. 
 
Yup - I noticed a fairly serious typo (as in, it significantly changed the content of the sentence) in my PS three schools in and had to email them corrected versions. If you think it's serious enough to warrant that, go for it - there's usually an email on the department website for this kind of stuff, if not an "document update" option in the portal itself. But again I've seen worse typos on well-established scholars' CVs so I doubt people will hold it against you, however confused they may be.

I'm not sure if it would be beneficial to mention waitlists from previous years. I think the admissions committee changes each year and each one will look for different things to fill in a cohort. I also think there are far more valuable things you can talk about in such a small word count.

Hi all
I hope everyone here is doing well with their graduate school applications. This is genuinely only the beginning. The process truly does not let up at all, and the fact that all of you are in this position of applying is already a tremendous achievement. Remember to rigorously self-care throughout this process and remember that you are human, too. I leaned on my support system to an almost immense degree during this process and I felt completely out of my depth when applying. I lost faith in myself more times I'd like to admit. The whole thing (applying + then writing the applications + decision letters) was an emotional rollercoaster, and I feel that's an understatement. If you ever feel lost please know that my DMs are open.
No matter where you're applying, no matter what stage you are in, know that in the words of Warelin, you are GREAT. Please, please, please remember that.
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Additionally, I just wanted to throw out some signals as far as upcoming conferences that people are either planning to go to or are shortly forthcoming! SAMLA is in a matter of a few weeks if anyone's planning on traveling to Atlanta. Feel free to talk to me if you're currently slated for SAMLA or are going to be in the local area in mid-November.
NeMLA 2020 is also happening and my abstract's been accepted. I'm also happy to talk if anyone's gonna be in Boston for NeMLA!

@WildeThing, @Bopie5 – this has been my perspective and it's one I've been reluctant to share on TGC because of how adamant people are that it's not worth going to get a PhD, period. My partner and I have talked a lot about this and my position has always been that I want to complete a PhD program regardless of what job awaits me on the other side. Having job security and stability for the next 6 years – not to mention being paid to do what I love for those 6 years – is more than I would get if I attempted to go into any other industry right now at age 25 with no experience in anything but academia (not to mention no real desire to do anything but academia). For this reason, and because I simply want to spend my time doing this and would regret not even trying, I plan to accept an offer no matter where I'm offered admission (if anywhere). It seemed easier to word my original post the way I did in order to facilitate a quick discussion about chances of a getting a TT job after attending a lower-ranked program. I'm curious about that because I wouldn't want to go into a program with unrealistic expectations, and there's a (small) possibility that I would wait and re-apply the next year to see if I can do better.

Definitely. I have been feeling woefully inadequate as I edit my writing samples and my statement of purpose.

Anyone else having those last minute waves of intense self-doubt? 

I want to throw out one alternative suggestion: I don't think it's strictly necessary to mention any names in your SOP. That's not to say you shouldn't due, I just wouldn't assume you need to (and I do know of people who have been successful without mentioning names).
I think there are some risks that are associated with naming names:
1) You might mention someone who is no longer there, is soon to be leaving, or is disengaged from the department despite technically being part of it.
2) You might misrepresent someone's work, which will probably count against you.
3) You might not mention someone who from the admissions committee's perspective (or that person's perspective) is an obvious fit. A petty professor might take this as a slight and judge your application more harshly accordingly.
4) You might mention two professors, but unbeknownst to you, those professors hate each other and refuse to serve on a committee together. 
 
There are variations on these, but you get the idea. Furthermore, if you articulate your research interests well enough, the admissions committee (which knows their department better than you do) is more than capable to seeing how you do (or do not) fit into the department. In that case, space spent naming names, is space you could have spent better articulating your project.
 
Again, I don't take any of this to be evidence that you shouldn't name names, but I wouldn't do it just for the sake of doing so, and I wouldn't assume you stand no chance of admission if you don't. There are often compelling reasons to name names, but that doesn't mean it's always necessary.

I've emailed an assistant professor at one of the programs I'm interested in and he told me he is very much willing and able to serve as a primary advisor on my dissertation committee. I plan to mention assistant professors in my statements. @onerepublic96 – associate professors are very much able to supervise as well and usually teach graduate courses as well.
The things I would be careful with are those sort of odd titles like "professor of the practice" or "teaching professor" which usually indicate that they don't supervise and/or teach graduate students. These people will usually be available for consultation when you're working on your dissertation, but won't be working with you in an official capacity and shouldn't be mentioned in your statements.

would love to know the answer to this as well... a lot of my POI are assistant profs & associate profs 

What thoughts/advice might anyone offer on listing assistant profs among POIs in my SOP? At my first-choice school, my primary POI is a full professor, but there are several assistant profs there who are also doing work I find very compelling. The instructions for this school's SOP specifically say to mention professors you want to work with. Should I bring up the assistant profs as well as the full prof who is my main POI, or is it better to focus on full, tenured profs? Or does it not make any difference? Would hugely appreciate any advice!

All I can say about publishing articles is that it's probably more important where you publish than just checking off a list. 
For conferences, I try to attend one per year, and to make it count. So I've done one conference presentation per year. They are probably more about networking than the actual presentation for most people. 
Choosing a dissertation committee is a complicated and crucial decision. So much is about learning what type of mentorship is most effective for you to be productive.  Note, this is different from what kind of mentorship you want or think you need.  Part of the early years of graduate school is figuring out how you best work and getting a sense of your POI's mentorship styles. But one thing is clear, and this is from my own experience as well as everyone I've known:  The single most important factor for choosing an advisor is whether that professor has an affective investiture in You, Your Project, and Your Career.  The other committee members probably should be a bit less hands on.  You don't want your committee fighting amongst themselves, leaving you to waste energy and labor managing THEM.  Choose a committee member who is good with structure and feedback as well, if possible.  
Two hypothetical scenarios: 
1. Big name professor who matches your research interests, but a bad advisor.    
2.  Smaller name professor who doesn't quite match your research interests, but shows interest in advising your dissertation if you slightly switch fields. 
Honestly, I'd say switch fields. I've seen this play out.  I know we think our research interests are sacred, but if you can't formulate a committee to move your project and career forward with your current interests, it might be worth switching them up. I've known many with star studded committees that never finished. 
 
 

I have a different take. I approached the statement with most of my paragraphs focusing on my interests and project proposal (which as far as I can tell is really just a test to see if you can articulate a project since no one expects you will focus on it). I dedicated half a paragraph to fit for each program. Admission committees will know if you match what they're looking for, and I don't think it's wrong to spend most of your statement focusing on yourself instead of arguing about fit. That's not to say that a greater emphasis on fit is a bad thing; I just don't think it's necessary. 

I don't think there really is a "too soon," provided that your letter writers are generally engaged and responsive.  My approach:  I emailed all my writers on October 1 and gave them a list of schools I'm applying to.  I told them I will have submitted every application by November 1.  I then listed deadlines for each school.  I said, "My goal is to give you the maximum amount of time to write and submit each letter; submitting each application by November 1 will give you at least a month to draft and submit a letter for each school."  Seriously, I did want to give them a ton of time both as a courtesy and so that they would have a longer time to think of synonyms for "genius" to use in their letters for me (ha).  (I'm personally not interested in submitting letter writer info and then walking away from the application; once I do that I might as well just attach my CV and WS and submit the while thing.)
I'm keeping track of the dates on which I enter each letter writer's info.  Around November 15, after I've submitted all my applications, I'll send each writer a simple checklist.  It'll just contain the name of each school, the date I submitted their name to each school (so they can cross-reference that date with the contents of their email inbox if they missed something), and the deadline for each application.
tl;dr:  I think you can assuage your concerns by keeping track of the dates on which you enter letter writers' info, then providing a checklist using those dates to your writers near the end of the application period.

Follow-up question I've been worrying over: how soon is TOO soon to enter in our letter writer info and thus send them the automated email? I'm trying to strike a balance between being proactive and starting things early and not breathing down my writers' throats. Plus, I'm worried that if the emails get sent now in October (for all of my December deadlines), they'll get buried in their inboxes... Advice on this? 

Programs will send an email to your letter writers with a link for them to upload the document once you input their contact information in the reference section of the application. This process can be done ahead of time, if you want to give your writers  plenty of time to upload the documents. Some programs will only send letter requests after you submit your application. 
I wouldn't limit your applications. One of my letter writers mentioned how unreasonable the process has become for faculty, but that's just the way it is these days. You can make it easier for them to keep track of the uploads by sending them a document with each institution name and deadline. 
A few tips: you will receive emails once letters are submitted, and you can look at each program portal to see which letters are still missing. It's helpful for your sanity to keep track of this information in a separate document. Also, give your letter writers plenty of notice--at least a few weeks. Some of them are writing multiple letters each cycle in addition to their already packed schedule. Occasional reminders may be necessary to get all of your letters on time, and I've read that there's an unspoken grace period for late letters for many (most?) programs. I tried to submit all of my applications about a week before the deadline, with many of my letter requests sent well in advance of this. Finally, ask if there's any way to make the process easier for them. 

Hello all, important question.
I have three letter writers for my recommendation letters this cycle, English PhD programs with deadlines this December, and I want to know what the process is like for them to submit the letters?
How do they submit them, and how much time does it take for them to do so? Do you send them a URL from a program's online application, and they upload the letter online?
I am wondering about this because, if I apply to 10-15 programs, I don't want it to be too much to ask for them to submit a letter to each program. Can somebody give me specifics on this process, based on when you yourself was going through the application cycle? Is it dumb to limit applications in order to appease a letter writer, or is it a quick process?
Thank you.

E. Natalie Rothman, Brokering Empire: Trans-Imperial Subjects between Venice and Istanbul (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012).
David A. Frick, Kith, Kin, and Neighbors : Communities and Confessions in Seventeenth-Century Wilno (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013).
Michael Dietler, Archaeologies of Colonialism: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010).
Geraldine Heng, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, 2018.
Roni Ellenblum, Crusader Castles and Modern Histories (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Gillian Lee Weiss, Captives and Corsairs: France and Slavery in the Early Modern Mediterranean (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011).
Joyce E. Chaplin, Subject Matter : Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500-1676 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001).
Martin Gravel, Distances, rencontres, communications: réaliser l’empire sous Charlemagne et Louis le Pieux, 2012.
Warren Brown et al., eds., Documentary Culture and the Laity in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Seems a pretty good list to be getting on with.

I always finished my SOPs with: Thank you for your time and consideration. I think actually my adviser suggested that, but I found it to be neat and respectful. Also I have seen essays which got people into very respectful places that were twice as long as allowed. Not that I am suggesting you should do anything like that but I think you can easily add a few words.

Hello everyone!
I just wanted to know if it is a good idea to thank the admissions committee on the SOP?
If yes, do you thank them for reading your SOP or for reviewing your application? How does it work?