presidentialpudding

I’m not in history (I’m in Spanish) but my undergrad was in history and Spanish and I have professional experience in teaching rhetoric at college level so I thought I’d throw my two cents in. I agree with what the others have said, I honestly don’t think your opening paragraph is as strong as you may think it is. Think about your audience - it won’t just be the professors you’ve spoken with and the first paragraph is key in setting the tone of how they view the rest of the statement. It should have a hook, yes, but it doesn’t need to be a whole paragraph. You need to be concise and precise with language. The example statement from Berkeley which is often used as a holy grail statement does this most of the time, however, there are a couple of paragraphs in there which add very little to the general narrative even there. This first paragraph just feels like an attempt to mimick a more artistic style but it’s lacking any real substance. You also seem to struggle to take any constructive criticism from other members in the forum. Think about what a PhD entails - you will be critiqued on all of your writing and scholarly output continually and this will make you better. The feedback people have given you (including me) is to try and help. Just my $0.02, I am not trying to cause any issues.

That’s a nice mix! I applied for Georgetown, UIUC, UIC, UC Davis, U Arizona and U Miami so no overlaps with you unfortunately. I applied for linguistics track.

Thanks for the info - that’s interesting! I’m not stressing yet because it’s still very early days. The grad secretary at one of my programs emailed me today to say that they will only be making decisions early February so that gives me a timetable for one program. Where have you applied to out of interest?

Hey everyone! Hope your applications went well! Now it’s just time for waiting ? I’ve submitted 6 PhD apps - UIUC is one of them so your comment @senorbrightside is interesting. I’d noticed the entry a few weeks back. I’m also international - do you know if they tend to make international offers earlier? There doesn’t seem to be a clear pattern when I search results. I’m assuming I won’t hear anything back from the others until late January/February as well.

UIUC is on my list. I'm also looking at Georgetown, U Arizona, Miami, UC Davis and UIC. I actually got my MA from UIUC years ago so I know the department well and it would definitely be one of my top choices. That's a tricky one about interests - I've been watching a YT series by a professor called Casey Fiesler on applications and she talks about this a bit. Our interests need to be specific but not specific (how helpful) because if they're too specific then we could scare off professors who we might have identified as potential advisors. I spoke about this through Zoom with a DGS and he agreed with her saying it's better to not be too specific in your interests because it creates a certain impression.

I’m also applying to Spanish PhD programs - on the linguistics side. Whilst I think it’s useful to be realistic about the chances of admission, I don’t think it’s helpful to be overly pessimistic. I’ve zoomed with professors and DGS from 3 of the schools I am planning on applying to and none of them have indicated major concern over the impact of the pandemic. They have all said, however, to really make sure that your interests fit the department well. I think that’s going to be more important than ever if there’s increased competition/fewer places.

Hi there! I’m not in French but a similar subject (linguistics) and one thing in this really stood out to me; making your decision based on which college’s funding package has the least teaching. You will, without a doubt, be more competitive for search committees in 5 years’ time with more teaching experience not less. I would strongly encourage you not to base any decisions on this. Research is naturally important in academia but building up a teaching portfolio and philosophy is also important and trying to avoid teaching isn’t going to help. Also, you likely will have to apply for non-tenure track positions as well as tenure-track (due to the state of the job market) at the end of the PhD which will have a stronger teaching focus than research focus. Ive known colleagues on my course who pursued fellowships religiously (4 out of 5 years of their PhD was on fellowships). They couldn’t get jobs because of lack of teaching experience. They’re now building up that experience in high schools (shudder) before they reapply in a couple of years. I hope this hasn’t come off as preachy but I just wanted to give you my $0.02 and hopefully it will make you decision-making easier. I have a friend at Brown and they love it!

Hello, I am planning on re-appying to a PhD program which I was previously accepted onto. I ended up deferring my place for medical reasons and was unable to take the place for the same medical reasons. I am now able to re-apply for the program and they are allowing me to complete an abridged application (no letters of recommendation, no external application information) since I have already completed this information previously - I also did my MA at the same institution. They have asked for an updated statement of purpose, resume and writing sample. It's been several years since the original application. My feeling is that I am likely to be accepted again onto the program but I don't want to get my hopes up. Has anyone else ever heard of a similar scenario and the outcome? Or similarly, how would you view completing this application and the likelihood of being accepted onto the program? Thanks.