Shakespeares Sister

I find this excessively rude, especially to someone who just wants help.
And truly, with that level of repetitiveness in your own writing (I mean really, "did you write your writing sample?" ?), you will certainly make a competent social science writer.
But obviously, if you intend to critique someone's writing, you should at the very least exhibit a higher level of word choice. As a scholar in your writing, you want to show competence and mastery, not condescension and mockery.

I find this excessively rude, especially to someone who just wants help.
And truly, with that level of repetitiveness in your own writing (I mean really, "did you write your writing sample?" ?), you will certainly make a competent social science writer.
But obviously, if you intend to critique someone's writing, you should at the very least exhibit a higher level of word choice. As a scholar in your writing, you want to show competence and mastery, not condescension and mockery.

@riverbender @cassidyaxx @Dann Sorry for the delay in response here, but I'd be happy to swap materials with anyone. My WS is on its third or fourth round of revisions, but my SoP is still very much a jumbled/incoherent first draft (complete with many parentheticals saying things like "This isn't how I want to say this" or "I want to say [xyz] but don't know how to"). PM me if anyone wants to share drafts at any stage!

Good luck to the 2021 applicants!
It's too early to say about the impact of the Coronavirus. But applicants do have a lot of time to make the most impressive file if they start early.

+1
Never incur debt with this job market.
25 years ago, it would have been fine. There were jobs at the end of the tunnel.

I am. I had always envisioned teaching a class in person for my first semester of doctoral studies, but I may now be teaching it online...
I just remember that these are first-world problems. Most people do not continue their education to the doctoral level.

I would accept the offer and not wait for the next cycle, which may be the worst cycle in the history of English PhDs. We live in a time of great economic uncertainty, nonexistent job opportunities, and professors who will never retire. Programs are already limiting their incoming cohorts, meaning less spots, meaning less of a chance to get in. Next cycle could be much worse than this one.
Or that huge unemployment could mean that lots of students go to school and so some applicants adjunct in college instead of applying, which is what didn't happen this cycle because unemployment was so low. The low unemployment caused a huge spike in applicants this cycle because many adjuncts/non-TT didn't have jobs and decided for a PhD.

I 100% agree. The less work you do, the more time you will have to do research. With the job market, you need publications to get the jobs everyone wants.
A higher stipend also directly affects quality of life. Given the job market and how their are no jobs until the baby boomers are forced to give up their cushy admin roles bestowed to them for free because of time period and "right place right time" luck, I would choose quality of life over even ranking...
I would just go to the place you like the most and feel the most comfortable at and feel like you'd have the most fun. Since there are no jobs anyways.

+1
Never incur debt with this job market.
25 years ago, it would have been fine. There were jobs at the end of the tunnel.

+1
Never incur debt with this job market.
25 years ago, it would have been fine. There were jobs at the end of the tunnel.

Did you write your writing sample in bold font?

next week is a big one!

I'm still waiting to hear back from many schools.

The anxiety is killing me today! 

The wait is something else...

The wait is something else...

The wait is something else...

The wait is something else...

The wait is something else...

The wait is something else...