I'm an undergrad student at a top tier university who'll be applying to English grad schools this fall. I just officially received my GRE scores today (and immediately started plowing through forums in an attempt to comfort myself). Do you think my application will be strong enough to get into any of the universities I'm aiming for? I'm planning on applying to a large range, but...
GRE general:
Verbal - 710 (98th percentile)
Quant - 760 (84th percentile)
AW - 5 (84th percentile)
My overall GPA is a bit weak since my second major (completely unrelated to my primary) wasn't kind to me: 3.53
English major GPA: over 3.8
I'm working on an Honors project which involve two large thesis papers, so I think (hopefully) my writing sample will be strong and can counteract the AW score. I also have an ongoing collaborative publication project with a professor at our school.
I'll be taking the Literature subject exam in October, but I'm not expecting the score to be great. I took a practice test without prior studying and earned a 530. However, I only have one month where I can really buckle down and start memorizing.
My language skills are thus: fluent in Chinese (because I have a minor in it) - however, that doesn't really fulfill requirements since it's not one of the classic or romantic languages. I have 4 years of French and a year of Latin from high school, but I don't think that counts here...
I'm applying to: UPenn, Cornell, Chicago, Brown, UTAustin, NYU, Northwestern, Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), Carnegie Mellon, Brandeis, Boston U, Notre Dame, URochester, A&M, and maybe other backups
Am I dreaming? Or is there a chance for me to get into NYU, etc.?