latenight

just re-took the GRE general last week. i studied verbal for 2 days beforehand - the entire powerprep thing plus a little vocab review - and briefly looked over my math notes, and my scores went up pretty surprisingly: verbal: from 680 to 720 quant: from 670 to 770 (wtf?? i'm a literature student) i chalk it up to familiarity with the test, and not being stressed out day-of. i think the programs i'm applying to probably will, too.

Yeah, I've already cut some long footnotes and reduced block quotes ... it's kind of a satisfying process. I did add a little note on the end (in the space that was left on the 15th page) to explain it was a modified version of my senior thesis. I think for the bibliography I'll cut it down to one page of my most important sources and those quoted in the sample, then call it "selected bibliography" or something like that. It is painful, but there is always one more thing you can chop out.

I'd like to hear people's opinions on this... Do writing sample page limits include bibliography? I'm submitting a shortened version of my senior thesis as my writing sample. If I submit the whole bibliography, it'll add 5 more pages onto the document. But I don't think it would be possible to cut down the bibliography to, say, one page, and I don't like the idea of not submitting any bibliography at all. Thoughts?

I'm in the same situation, trying to cut down my statement of purpose. (And my writing sample, for that matter.) I've been following the general rule: if it's on my CV, I don't explain it in my SOP. That helped a lot when I was cutting down. For the schools that have a 500 page word limit (arrrr!!) I just re-wrote the statement completely, which definitely worked - my thoughts were clearer and I was able to condense a lot better. The writing sample, on the other hand, is a lot trickier.

i know how you feel, achowa. i've been contemplating retaking, but am hesitating for several reasons. a) i won't be able to retake before nov. 25, so about 4 schools (deadlines early december) won't receive my second scores. i'm dreading doing the writing and quant parts again - i'm not sure i could repeat the results i'm pretty satisfied with. c) i'm not entirely sure my score will go up, since d) i don't know what else to do to improve. maybe studying latin and greek roots? let me know if you have any other ideas.

i had a similar experience, academiccricket. after studying for about three months (mostly with princeton review's book), and expecting a verbal score around 740, i dropped to 650 on the test day, whereas my quant score remained the same as during practice. i guess it's harder to anticipate vocab - i felt like that was what caught me a little off guard during the test, even though i had studied crazy words like subfusc and abulia.

anyone applying to phd programs in comp lit? just curious as to what schools people are looking at for what specialties. i'm in kind of a french/gender studies/deconstruction track, looking at columbia, NYU, UCLA, emory, duke (gasp, 4% acceptance rate in 2008), WUSTL, Cornell, and usc... i'd love to hear what other people are doing - laura

US News and World Report ranks their top 10 Literary Criticism and Theory programs as: 1 Duke University Durham, NC 2 Cornell University Ithaca, NY 3 Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Baltimore, MD 4 University of California--Berkeley (Cali) Berkeley, CA 5 Columbia University New York, NY 6 University of Chicago Chicago, IL 7 Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) St. Louis, MO 8 Yale University New Haven, CT 9 New York University (NYU) New York, NY 10 Stanford University Stanford, CA and their top English programs here: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... egl/search good luck!

thanks, rising_star and NewVolunteer, for your advice. i do have a senior thesis complete (last year) and am currently working on coursework and my masters dissertation, which i predict won't be ready to use as a writing sample. i most likely will pull from my senior thesis in many of my applications, but the issue of editing seems tricky here. is it a good idea to modify a chapter to include some introductory and concluding remarks to guide the reader, even though that might mean changing the chapter a good deal? is "editing" merely brushing up style and grammar, or is it fair game to add sources and analysis as well, where needed? additionally, how do people feel about translating writing samples? i've been thinking of translating some of my papers (or senior thesis chapter) from french to english or vice versa in some of my applications (to comparative literature or french studies programs). any thoughts on this?

in all the literature i've been reading about applying to phd programs, i have come across little to no advice on writing samples - where to find one (senior thesis vs. term paper), how/to what extent to edit one, etc. any ideas?

hello, writing from way outside of denver where i'm all alone in the mountains to face the beginning of the application process. i'm applying to comparative literature and french programs, and i've got a query: where can i get advice on writing samples? all the programs i'm looking at require them, i've heard they're super serious, and i'd like to hear about how to pick 'em, how much and how to edit them. i haven't published any articles, but i wrote a senior thesis that i could pull from, as well as papers in the past year that i've been doing a masters in france. which brings me to another question: should i be applying this year (while i'm writing my dissertation and earning my masters), or should i wait another year until i have my MA and a dissertation to offer as a writing sample? my initial thinking was to apply this year, in case i don't get in, and then have another year to try again, instead of potentially having two years to fill up while applying. any thoughts?