Ludwig von Dracula

You have so many good things going for you and you're worrying over one exam?! Seriously, if you look at various GRE forums/posts, MOST people don't have a 4.0 and posters. There are people who have below average GPA, little research, and can only hope the GRE can salvage their application just a little bit. For you, the rest of your application seems practically "perfect" (on paper at least). It's perfectly normal to be anxious, but I think that you're focusing on the negative aspect way too much. You haven't even TAKEN the GRE yet. Additionally, if you're THIS stressed over the GRE, you should reconsider whether you can handle the stress of grad school. I kind of felt the same way as you before, the rest of my application is so good I wanted to keep it that way- as if there's no room for failure. But you just need to calm the hell down! You need to actually sit down, identify what it is that you're bad at, then attack it from there. EVERYONE told me to just take the exam, and just take practice exams to "see where I stand". But I told them no, I refused to take practice tests if I feel like I'm still "learning". For several months, they thought I was gonna give up- even people who had never even SEEN the GRE was telling me to take a practice exam. Well screw them, I studied my butt off and took a total of 3 practice exams and went in and nailed it. The moral of that story is that if you're still learning (say, vocabs or angles or probability laws) then your current score is not your true score. Just simply taking practice exams isn't going to do much if you don't have the basics memorized. As for verbal, I spent maybe a total of 3 hours of practice exams on that part. I spent several months on math. I came out just fine. Verbal is seriously a vocabulary test. If you're doing that badly, you're either a non-native speaker, don't know how to read, or simply don't know vocabs. I'm going to assume it's the later. For quant, if you're getting questions consistently wrong, go back and make sure you know how to do that problem- even if it means memorizing the answer. This may sound stupid, since you obviously won't see the same problems on the exam, but knowing how to answer that TYPE of question is what matters. When you go back to check your answers, ask yourself, "what concept can I take away from this?".

Lastly, the more you hype up the exam, the worse you will do. So you're lowering your own chances by being so anxious. I didn't do this for the GRE, but one thing that helped me get the anxiety of finals of my undergrad was print out my goal, and phrases and pin them all over the room. I literally wrote (in huge font), "I'm studying because I want to reach my goal of graduating with honors" or "2 more exams then I'm done". They were everywhere in my room, and they got me through the 3 hell week of finals. If you find yourself feeling anxious, just stop, watch tv. Print out inspirational words, read them until you're convinced. Unless you get very lucky, you won't do very well with your current state of mind. It really depends on how badly you want to get to your goal. Right now, the biggest impediment is yourself. If you're as motivated as you sound in your post, you'll find a way to get past your anxiety.

Way to be a troll, dude. Take your snark elsewhere - GradCafe is a place for respect. Georgetownhopeful, your GRE scores are fine (but I think you know that).

GRE is going to hurt you. I'd advise you to retake it.

Thanks, Bhikaari. (And a very logically-argued post, I might add )

For those of us in the humanities, particularly those living in, shall we say, environments that are not so fond of "big government," it's quite easy to feel assailed by all the op-eds and other opinion pieces about how money is being wasted on worthless research (read: anything that doesn't cure a disease, increase technological productivity, etc.). Not to mention the constant conversations with people who aren't necessarily hostile, but just can't figure out why somebody would devote their professional career to some obscuro topic like the music of Swedish immigrants to North Dakota or whatever. I think these experiences help feed our inferiority complex. The general public seems to have more of a reverential attitude toward the sciences (even if they don't understand them), due to the obvious, measurable results I guess. But I'm glad that you feel like we in the humanities aren't all off simply arguing over minutiae or trying to measure the number of angels that can fit on the head of a pin.

Of course in an ideal world there wouldn't be this huge divide. I've always been fascinated by cosmology, evolution, neuroscience, theoretical physics...and I think that the humanities have interesting things to offer scientists too. But the language is so specialized that interdisciplinarity is just freakin' impossible past certain broad generalities, at least in my experience. That's why I'm reading Carl Sagan and Daniel Levitin instead of science journals. I could go on a lot longer about all of this, but I think I've already started blathering.

Interesting observation. I don't want to say anything too polemical, but I think that this just goes to show that the humanities are far from dead, and perhaps may be more necessary than ever to counteract some of the risks of scientific and technological advancement (head without heart and all that stuff).

I'm not interested in starting a flamewar, so please take this as the personal opinion of a humanities student very aware of his own bias and fallibility

I'm not trying to sound rude, but everyone is posting here with "what are my chances threads" in the midst of a time where most of us who have applied are waiting to see if our applications were good enough to garner interviews, let alone acceptances. In 30-45 days we'll know what was good enough to get in where. Until that time everyone is in the same boat and simply does not know.

Well, now if they reject you, you have grounds for a lawsuit.

So I guess that's a good thing?

Apply to Canadian schools then.

I love this thread as much as I do graduate school. I'm sure I will be harassed for saying this, but I think the life of a full-time graduate student is much easier than working a real job. I will substantiate my life before graduate school and what I love about it currently. I was pretty normal, I went to college right out of high school and graduated in 4 years. Then I went on to get my Master's in International Affairs, full-time student, straight out of undergrad. Next, I joined Teach for America, while completing my 2 year commitment, I was also working on my Master's in Teaching and my state credentials. That' was pretty difficult, considering I worked at an extended day school, with students in school from 7:30-5. I taught for 2 more years, and then I began my PhD program full-time (my first year of PhD I was a part-time student, while teaching full-time). Of all my grown-up experience, post-college, my time in the Master's in International Affairs and my PhD studies have been the easiest. That's not to say I don't work hard, but my lifestyle and the organization of my life is much easier.

I love having control of my time! It's nice that I can make time to run or see a movie. This perk was reaffirmed when I did a fellowship last summer for my state's higher education department. I was in an office (with no window) 40 hours a week! Yuck. Shackled to the desk. Boo.

I love the opportunities for collaboration and exchange of ideas. My advisor and I are teaching a class together, I am the instructor for an undergraduate course in teaching writing and she is the professor for a similar graduate level course. We are teaching them together as a single class, with AMAZING projects. So much fun. I work with friends and share ideas. It's been especially rewarding because my program as quite a few Native American students who are brilliant, but a couple are non-native speakers. Helping a friend with their paper (grammar and mechanics) is so rewarding and creates a great sense of community.

I love reading from 9am to 11pm and truly enjoying what I am reading about.

I love riding my bike to campus, and taking my part to reduce my carbon footprint.

I love teaching my amazing undergrads, who are future teachers and will further impact the schools in our community.

Those are just a few of the things I love about graduate school. I am so thankful that I have a supportive husband who was okay with me halving my income in order to be a full-time student again. Having the time to truly think and process big ideas is not something everyone has the opportunity to do.

Good heavens...I taught high school for two years (with excellent mentors, so hardly on my own), and some days I would literally cry before leaving for work because I was so nervous. A different kind of stress than waiting for results, but don't knock it.

Nytusse, you have my sympathies.

Well, I think what you are experiencing is not as stressful as waiting for application results...

But I hope you can get assigned soon.

And which school are you in?

None of us sit on admissions committees and can really know, but if I had to imagine what I would say I think that "hard working" is good but "masochist" is bad. Yes, a lot of hard work is required in grad school, but as you say there is an increased risk of burning out. Not to mention that being too enthusiastic is not always such a good thing. It's hard to believe that anyone can sustain that level of enthusiasm for a full 5 years without having anything else in their lives. Overworking is the sure way to burn out, really, and I don't think that as such, it's anything to stress out in your application. Grad school is a marathon, not a sprint.

Beside all that, I can't see how you would mention any of those masochistic "anecdotes" in your sop in an endearing way. I wouldn't say they are particularly "cute" stories; they would be weird and stand out around what should otherwise be a professional document. So, the fact that you did more than you were required to do should be noticed by looking at your transcript, or it could be mentioned by LOR writers, and it should be seen as a good thing. But I wouldn't suggest addressing it directly in any way.

Piet Hein says it's good in a situation like this to toss a coin.

A PSYCHOLOGICAL TIP
Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No -- not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping.

please change this to: 'that one gave me a chuck norrissle'. you should be aware that Chuck Norris doesn't like his name being truncated!

Just a thought, OP...your signature links to your Facebook page, and your Facebook page has your GradCafe username on it. Admissions committee members could very easily match this thread and your real-life identity. If you are unsure about disclosing voluntarily, you certainly don't want them to be able to match your post here to your application without you even knowing.

Can't believe we don't have a thread dedicated to Chuck Norris!! No wonder life is boring as hell during the waiting period! (Why? Cuz Chuck Norris ain't here to keep us company, y'all!!)

Anyhoo, the obvious question to ponder about, while I/we are stuck in this limbo, is, how would Chuck Norris go through the application and admission process?

1. Chuck Norris doesn't fill out the application forms. He stares at them till they finish up and pay after themselves.
2. Personal statement of Chuck Norris: "Me".
3. Chuck Norris never accepts offers made by any schools because he is tired of being the only smart dawg on campus.
5. If Chuck Norris doesn't get accepted, he simply calls up the admission office and says "No".
6. Chuck Norris got rejected at all schools he applied to. But the adcomms haven't gathered the courage to break the news to him.
7. While on a campus visit, the graduate student who was supposed to pick Chuck Norris up from the airport didn't show up. Enraged, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the whole city and dropped it far away in the ocean. People say that's how the Liliput came to be.
8. There are no PoIs for Chuck Norris. There is only CNoI for the POIs.
9. When asked what his career goals are, Chuck Norris answered "To be Chuck Norris".
10. Chuck Norris didn't get into any Eco/Evo program because no professors was willing to buy the idea that the mass extinction of dinosaurs was due to chuck norrisaurus and no meteor.
11. Chuck Norris was instantly hired by the math program because he could divide by zero.
12. Chuck Norris doesn't wait during the whole application process. He goes back to the future and gets his degree.
13. Chuck Norris was let go from the immunology program. Not because he caught the diseases, but because he crushed them with his bare hands after catching them.
14. Chuck Norris once possessed satan. To investigate how, the religion program was created.
15. When applying for physical fitness programs, Chuck Norris was asked how many push ups he could do. He answered "All of them".
16. Chuck Norris was invited for recruiting weekend because, well, Chuck Norris needed to recruit workers.
17. Chuck Norris was once called to the Dean's office because the Dean was in trouble.
18. There is no 'Middle Name' form field in the applications given to Chuck Norris to fill out. Because the schools are smart enough to know that nothing should come between Chuck Norris.
19. Chuck Norris doesn't contact PoIs. He pokes them in facebook.
20. PoIs don't poke back Chuck Norris on facebook. Who in their right mind would finger Chuck Norris?

Hi Samuel,

I'm not sure that this board is the best place to be asking such questions. It's a pretty secular place (not to say that you aren't entitled to your religious beliefs; just be aware that many/most here will not share them and some may take offense depending on how you phrase things).

You MIGHT have some luck if you post in the "Religion" subforum under Humanities, as the people frequenting that area have experience with M.Div./MTS and the various other theological degrees; they might be able to direct you to specific seminaries.

You might also consider Peace and Reconciliation studies which is a growing field. A number of Mennonite universities (in particular) specialize in such programs, and I'm sure there are others out there. I'm not sure how well secular schools would respond to somebody with your highly Evangelical purpose, although your focus on interfaith understanding is obviously an incredibly important angle. I would encourage you to look for a forum dedicated to Christian higher education, as it would likely be more helpful than this one, although I don't know of any off the top of my head.

My plan B is to go to Amsterdam and become a street dancer. I will be living in one of those shaky boats on the water as I won't be able to afford much else.

Seriously, no plan B. It is only Plan A!

Geez, totally. Maybe 3% of people in the world have some clue what ethnomusicology is. Most in this category ask me if I can play the sitar (nope). The people I study are actually right here in North America, and they don't have any "weird" musical instruments. "So why study them?" Aargh. "What are you going to do with an ethnomusicology degree?" Don't remind me.

For the majority, I usually say it's like musical anthropology, or studying what people actually do with music, or how music intersects with culture, that sort of thing. Or I just tell people that I'm in music if I don't feel like watching eyes glaze over...

Hi Samuel,

I'm not sure that this board is the best place to be asking such questions. It's a pretty secular place (not to say that you aren't entitled to your religious beliefs; just be aware that many/most here will not share them and some may take offense depending on how you phrase things).

You MIGHT have some luck if you post in the "Religion" subforum under Humanities, as the people frequenting that area have experience with M.Div./MTS and the various other theological degrees; they might be able to direct you to specific seminaries.

You might also consider Peace and Reconciliation studies which is a growing field. A number of Mennonite universities (in particular) specialize in such programs, and I'm sure there are others out there. I'm not sure how well secular schools would respond to somebody with your highly Evangelical purpose, although your focus on interfaith understanding is obviously an incredibly important angle. I would encourage you to look for a forum dedicated to Christian higher education, as it would likely be more helpful than this one, although I don't know of any off the top of my head.

Hi Samuel,

I'm not sure that this board is the best place to be asking such questions. It's a pretty secular place (not to say that you aren't entitled to your religious beliefs; just be aware that many/most here will not share them and some may take offense depending on how you phrase things).

You MIGHT have some luck if you post in the "Religion" subforum under Humanities, as the people frequenting that area have experience with M.Div./MTS and the various other theological degrees; they might be able to direct you to specific seminaries.

You might also consider Peace and Reconciliation studies which is a growing field. A number of Mennonite universities (in particular) specialize in such programs, and I'm sure there are others out there. I'm not sure how well secular schools would respond to somebody with your highly Evangelical purpose, although your focus on interfaith understanding is obviously an incredibly important angle. I would encourage you to look for a forum dedicated to Christian higher education, as it would likely be more helpful than this one, although I don't know of any off the top of my head.

Not at all. You touched upon the unique situation Ivy grads find themselves on the job market. Just because they went to a university with a more known name ("better", as you wrote, is the wrong word here) does not mean they will do better on the job market. From what I understand, the Ivy league does a good job preparing their graduate students for research careers (TT jobs at Research universities). The reality is that almost none of us will get a job at an R1, if we get TT jobs all.

When you apply for a job, the search committee is going to look at a few different things. Yes, they will look at the quality of your research, but teaching experience is also very very important, and you generally don't get the best training for a teaching career at an Ivy. At my public state university, I am getting a lot of direct teaching experience. My department allows advanced PhD students to design and teach their own courses over the summer, and even as an MA student I am given a lot of responsibility in the classroom. I've looked at Ivy funding packages, and they just don't have the support for teaching that a lot of other universities do.

Search committees at teaching colleges or less "prestigious" universities might also pass over an Ivy candidate because of the belief that the Ivy hire might jump ship to "move up" to a better department if given the opportunity.

You are approaching this from entirely the wrong direction. Before you even think about specific universities, you need to come up with a research interest. Once you have a research interest, you need to think about specific scholars whose research interests you and you would like to work with. You probably won't make it very far if you think you want or need to go to Harvard or Yale but don't have any reason to actually go there.

HI
I AM NEW ONE HERE
THANKS

University of Big Shots: Prof. Applicants R. Hilarious squints at waddle's transcript. "Teh Suck ... State University at ... Nowhere? Pshaw! He thinks that's a real school? Hawhawhawhawhaw! Teeheeheehee! Oh man, that's the best laugh I've had in days."

Leading Science Institution: Placing katerific's oh-so-awesome application in the 'admit' pile, Prof. Y-Do I. Bother picks up waddle's, expecting something just as amazing. Flips quickly through it, and thinks, "SON. I AM DISAPPOINT." This one goes on the pile marked 'document disposal'.

Nobel Factory University: After reading through waddle's statement, Prof. I. M. Amazing gets up to grab a beer to wash out the bad aftertaste. She feels just a modicum of pity for the hapless chap who had the audacity to actually submit such a non-amazing application.

University of Badass Research: Before sitting down, Prof. Reject N. Repeat decides to automatically reject every third application that comes his way, and only review the rest. This will save him time, allowing for him to pack a few extra rounds of foosball into his busy schedule (his defense has gotten a bit rusty over the holiday break). After disposing of 1/3 of the applications on his desk, he picks up the first remaining application. It's waddle's. Midway through reading it, Prof. Repeat starts screams, "WHATISTHISIDON'TEVEN!", tears the application into shreds, and out of anger, shreds all the other applications, too. Thereafter, he calmly gets up and walk towards the break room, planning to pwn some n00bs (grad students).

Lotsa Money University: Prof. Should B. Retired sits down and starts working through his inbox. "Oh hey, an applicant. I guess we'll accept her." Then goes on to accept every other applicant, thinking it'd be fun to see how many clueless new grad students he could pack into an office before they figured out what had happened. Heck, maybe he could strike up a collaboration with the psychology faculty and get the experiment published too. And apply for a grant. Of course, the money would go toward getting a sedan chair. With all that extra grad student labor, he wouldn't even need a car! (Oooh, this is an interesting train of thought!) Heheheheh ... zzzzzz.

I would put down more scenarios, but alas, I ran out of applications.

P.S. To the other applicants at UBR: Oops, sorry, guys.

What program are you applying for?
Ph.D. Ethnomusicology

Why grad school and what's your journey?
I really enjoyed my undergraduate academic music classes--even more than the practical ones. I worked as a high school teacher for a few years but found that while I enjoyed the teaching and relationships, I hated the classroom management part. Teaching at a higher level seemed to make sense, and it helped that I have always loved to read, study, and learn. And I also had an interesting and unique topic for fieldwork research given my experience working with members of a very distinctive religious minority.

What challenges does your field present and what hurdles do you need to overcome?
Well, a humanities Ph.D. is always a risk. I need to work on my language skills too, as I am still far from fluent in anything other than English (a few years of grade-school French don't count for much). If I get into an American school, we'll have to figure out a way for my wife to work, and on a personal level, when it makes sense to start having kids. Not to mention the difficulty of some of the material.

What skills are you working on?
German big time (exam in less than a month), and developing/increasing my theoretical fluency so I can hope one day to explain (meaningfully) some of the intricacies of poststructuralism.

How are you keeping motivation and what perspective have you gained from the process?
It helps that I am busy with my thesis right now and that I'm still finding my topic very interesting. That'll keep the admissions stuff from becoming a full-time obsession for about two months. Also, I am extremely glad that I did my M.A. degree. I think that I'm in a far better place for the Ph.D. programs that I'm applying to than I was when I applied initially (to some of these same programs) two years ago. I have far better writing samples to draw from and my statement of purpose is focused and informed. Hope it's good enough!