The Hoosier Oxonian

First app (Northwestern) now submitted! Now I've got to hurry up and get NYU's done and then I can breath for a couple of days until Michigan's is due!

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

OK, here's a new question. For schools that optionally let you list other places you're applying, is it better to do it or not? (Some, it seems, don't make it optional.) I can't figure out what the purpose of this is and whether it could potentially help or hurt one's chances to let a top school know you're applying to a lower-ranked one or vice versa. Thoughts?

I definitely took this to mean in every instance that they wanted to know the writer's relationship to me, so I always put "Professor" or "Senior Thesis Advisor", etc.

I'm applying to several programs that want the WS to be "no more than 20 pages". Can anyone who's been through this speak to how hard-and-fast this limit really is? (My WS, after some trimming, is down to 21 pages, which is slightly over the limit but doesn't seem like enough to justify cutting an entire section.) Will a 21-page WS likely cause my app to be thrown out, or is that close enough to get away with?

You are a life-saver - this was the difference between getting or not getting my SOP to fit within UMich's limit of two double-spaced pages!

Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences to share regarding whether it's preferable to submit one long piece as one's WS rather than two shorter ones? One of my programs specifies one only, but others don't specify. I'd been planning to submit my senior thesis, but in my requisite last-minute panic I'm questioning whether my thesis, which I'm just now completing, is really polished enough to submit or if two shorter and more polished pieces from previous coursework would be better. Anyone who's been through this process have any insights on whether one long piece is strongly preferable?

I'll be right there freaking out with you on December 15! (Except for evil Northwestern and NYU with their December 1 deadlines *shakes fist*)

What are others' thoughts on listing "Research Experience" on one's CV? What counts? I write in my SOP about my experiences with a variety of individualized research projects in undergrad, but they were all coursework-related, so I don't think they belong in their own section on my CV, as they're all reflected on my transcript. The only other thing I can think might count are a couple of relevant internships, but I have those listed under "Employment" and certainly don't want to list them twice. Will it look suspect if I just don't have a "Research Experience" section? Is that mandatory? Also curious how others have approached listing language proficiency and whether it's worth listing languages in which one has only elementary proficiency.

But of course!

As someone on the literature side, I feel unqualified to weigh in on a rhet/comp degree's usefulness, but I definitely want to second your remark about the possibility for a positive influence on students' lives. Having worked for several years as a writing tutor, I know rhet/comp is not for me, as I'm just not excited by writing pedagogy, etc., but I can strongly attest that my rhet/comp profs in undergrad have been some of the most formative positive influences on my college experience.

Thanks for this - I think you are right and have gone for the lecturer (who has already promptly and kindly replied to my request.)

Would love to hear some thoughts from others regarding securing the most suitable recommendations. I have four recommenders on tap, and some schools I'm applying to will allow four letters, while others only want three or even two. Of my four recommenders, one is my senior thesis advisor who just retired from a relatively distinguished career as an English prof and who directed my school's literature program for many years. My second recommender has been in the academy for 30-plus years, is a full professor and director of graduate studies, a noted translator of Eastern European poetry and former poet laureate of my home state, and has taught me at the graduate level as an undergrad. They'll both write me stellar letters that I hope will carry a fair amount of weight. What I'm less certain about is the best course to take for deciding which of my two remaining recommenders to ask to write for the schools that only accept three letters. Both are early-career academics in the UK (where I studied abroad for a year at Oxford.) One is in his third year as an associate professor at Oxford (but in Modern Languages, not English - he taught me Comp Lit.) I worked with him on an individual course we co-designed around some of my interests, so he knows me and my work quite well. However, despite agreeing to serve as a recommender, he's been rather tepid in his response to my emails, etc. (I know he's very busy) and for the two letters he's already submitted for me for programs with earlier deadlines, he waited until the last possible minute to turn them in, which makes me think they may have been written in haste. My other option also taught me at Oxford, where he was at the time a visiting lecturer (he does have a PhD.) He now holds a lecturer position (basically the UK equivalent of being an assistant prof) at another UK institution (not Oxbridge, but with a very respectable English dept.) He also worked with me on a (smaller) self-designed project, and his own research interests are somewhat similar to mine, so he's likewise familiar with my work and my interests. He's been very warm and helpful in my communications with him about serving as a recommender, and I suspect his letter might be more thoughtful than the Oxford prof's. All that long story being told, I'd like to know what others think: does the Oxford prof's more noteworthy academic position mean his letter would carry more weight than that of the lecturer? I should add that I'm confident the Oxford prof won't say anything bad about me - he gave me a first-class mark (Oxford equivalent of an A) and wrote favorably about my academic performance in my end-of-term report. Then again, the lecturer did the same. All this to say, I'm very torn about this and would value any advice!

Definitely also feeling the need to give some nice gifts to my recommenders. The two in the US I know just what to do for, but does anybody have suggestions for long-distance gifts? Two of my recommenders are in the UK (where I studied abroad for a year) and I'm not sure how to approach sending them something.

I've just discovered that one of my POIs for my top-choice school is on sabbatical this academic year. Should this impact whether I list him as a POI? I assume he'll be back when I'm actually starting the program (assuming I get in), but I also assume being on sabbatical means he probably won't have any involvement with the admissions process. Does this make naming him as a POI in my SOP potentially less useful?

I would love to know what the make-up of the current grad student body at UCLA is in terms of where they earned their BAs or MAs. I am earning my Bachelor's at a relatively unknown regional campus of a fairly respectable state university (my campus was ranked in the 220s by US News and World Report in their National Universities ranking, though the state school with which we're affiliated and that actually grants my degree is in the top 100.) I worry that my institution's lack of prestige will be a strike against me in the admissions process (though I've tried to offset it by doing a year of my undergrad as a visiting student at the University of Oxford.) I'd love to know if you're aware of any PhD candidates at UCLA or elsewhere who have been successful in getting through this process despite coming from unknown schools.

Just got my GRE scores back and did much worse than expected on AW with a score of 4. I scored 169 V and 147 Q (I know the Q is bad, but I'm told it doesn't matter much?) For context, I'm applying straight out of my undergrad, have a 4.0 GPA, and am planning to apply to top 20 programs. Thoughts on whether it is worth retaking the GRE to raise my AW score?

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!

I'm applying for a British Masters program and am trying to decide what does and doesn't belong on my CV. I don't have any scholarly or discipline-specific publications yet, but I have published a couple of pieces of short fiction (not in especially high-profile publications). Is it relevant to list this under "publications" when applying for a literature program? I'm not sure if this helps showcase that I'm a good writer or if it just looks like padding. Thoughts?

I'm in a similar situation to the OP, prepping PhD applications but also wanting to apply for UK MA programs. Can anyone who's gone the route of US undergrad, UK MA, US PhD speak to some of the ins and outs of that process? Specifically I'm hoping to do a Master's at either Oxford or Cambridge immediately out of undergrad (preferable Cambridge because I spent a year of my undergrad at Oxford and I'd like a little more variety!), though I will apply to a few other UK Master's as well. Assuming I get into a UK MA program for 2020-21, would it be realistic to apply for US PhDs for 2021-22? I realize the limitations regarding not necessarily having had enough time to get to know the profs in my MA program to get good references. However I've heard that adcoms mostly look at undergrad work anyway, so if I were applying for US PhDs while having just enrolled in a UK MA, would it look bad if I just had recommendations from undergrad? Would the fact that I'd be enrolled in a UK MA program strengthen my PhD application, or would it be totally negligible since I wouldn't have any grades yet? Would so appreciate anyone's thoughts who's been through this process!

So glad to have found this thread - thought I'd stop lurking and say hello! A bit about me: I'm heading into the fourth year of my BA (which seems to make me a bit of a minority as a PhD applicant?) I'm a Modernist, sort of, mostly interested in queerness across the first half of the twentieth century (predominantly in Britain and the US) and in the legacy of 20th-century liberal humanism in relation to contemporary turns in queer theory. I'm earning my undergrad at an enormous and not at all prestigious public school (a regional campus of a reasonably well-regarded state institution) and am, as far as I'm aware, the only student in my department who's applying for PhD programs. My profs have been very supportive, but I worry about lacking a sufficient support system for this process and missing out on things I really ought to know, so this site is a godsend! I also worry that my school's non-prestigious status will weigh heavily against me in applying to top 20 programs (though I did do a year of my undergrad as a visiting student at Oxford, which I'm hoping will counterbalance that a little bit.) Just took my first full GRE practice test today and scored 165V and 146Q, which a little worse than I was hoping (obviously the math score is absolutely abysmal and I've heard very mixed things about whether that matters.) Scored 740 on the practice version of the Subject Test, so I'm hoping that's a good omen, but hardly anyone seems to require it anymore... Anyway, greetings to all, and I would be enormously appreciative of any insights or advice from others who are currently undergoing or have recently undergone this process!