miratrix

I definitely read 3. as "the chances of getting laid," and thought, "how do you evaluate that?" Location is a hard one - I applied to one school in a very hot climate, and that's actually one of the major issues that makes me hesitant about it despite an amazing program. We'll see what the options are, I guess. Also, I kind of envy the idea of comparing apples to apples. If I get in to a good number of places, I'm going to be comparing apples to oranges to bananas to broccoli!

I would probably just say I had "already chosen to pursue another opportunity." No need to go into any detail.

If a school doesn't notify you about this at all, are you safe?

I'm a little confused, have you been admitted to your top choice yet? If so, you don't need to spend the money on the visit elsewhere, but if not, it's worth $300 to help your chances to go at all, isn't it?

We should do a poll to see how many people on this forum got that letter...then we could see who goes there and hang out next year

My SOPs were around 1000 words when there wasn't a required length. About two pages, double spaced. Also, regarding well-known LOR writers - you never know. My recommenders do interesting research and teach at a good SLAC, but are not Big Names in Big Research AFAIK...well, I found out after applying that the graduate director at one of the top schools I applied to knows one of them, and the Big Name in Big Research at another school I applied to advised another one on a thesis. My fingers are crossed that one of these coincidences is actually *helpful.*

It was only okay until "SEE YOU IN THE FALL!" That was great.

In terms of schools I applied to, I''d like to stay on the east coast, especially due to region-specific research interests...but in terms of where I'd most like to go, Denmark or England actually have pretty amazing programs. Unfortunately, I'm not independently wealthy, nor am I brilliant enough for a Fulbright, so the US it is.

Congrats! You will definitely be going somewhere next year That thought actually makes it harder for me to get through the workday, because despite my best efforts I get slightly excited about checking my email and the mail when I get home, even though I know there will probably be nothing, and then I'm disappointed.

Yeah, I just got home from work to a "we're missing a recommendation letter, please get it to us as quickly as possible" email for a school with a 1/15 deadline...of course, it's after business hours on a Friday night, so "as quickly as possible" will not be that quickly. I'll email the office back and ask how my professor can submit online, and hopefully it will be taken care of by Tuesday...it's just annoying, this is the second time I've had to ask my professor to do this and I have a lot of faith that she DID send in the paper form on time. Transcripts are worse though, especially if you have to deal with university bureaucracy. Good luck :/

I think the issues with the academic job market are way larger than this recession. So I'm not optimistic.

Wow, that's quick. I'm still getting "your application has been received" and "you are missing a letter of recommendation" type emails from programs with December and January due dates.

How did you DO that?! I moved to Boston and had to live off savings for two months until I found enough work to support myself, I could never have done it with $200! If you move in with friends or an SO and don't pay rent, or move with a job offer in hand, that would change things, though. This is kind of what my backup plan is, though: stay here working for peanuts and eating Ramen, and do night courses at one of the local schools. I actually really liked this backup plan until I started seeing financial cuts start in my industry - I'm the lowest on the employee food chain and it's already affecting me personally, which is making me nervous enough that grad school is starting to look like more stable employment. You know it's sad when you're saying THAT.

I think they're more likely to end up competing for a few applicants than spreading around the acceptances...nice thought though

I had these experiences - the studying, the scores, and the two verbal sections. I feel a little bad about my verbal score, but hope that my writing sample (and three foreign languages on my transcript) will make up for it.

Related question: I'm working on the two-part statement for the school that asks for "at least 1200 words" for one part. I've painstakingly added to my original 700, but only made it to 1100 words. Is it horrible if I'm 100 words short of the minimum? Will they even notice? I'm thinking it's okay, but I'm nervous.... [Edit]

I'm actually not feeling negative about the admissions process...I'm feeling negative about what happens AFTER grad school. I'm sure everyone, especially in the humanities and social sciences, has heard how hard it is to work in academia, and I'm pretty nervous about whether government or industry jobs will look positively on a graduate degree. The idea of going through several more years of school and finding myself less employable than I was with just a BA really terrifies me.

Pretty much! Only instead of 5, i was 11. (I wanted to be a swimming instructor when I was 5 - didn't realize that was a weekend job for high schoolers rather than a career, and I absolutely idolized my swimming teacher.) I kept an open mind until my senior year in college when I'd narrowed it down. I'd like the chance to do more awesome obsessive research, and there's not much you can do in archaeology without a graduate degree. If I fail horribly, I will try to reinvent myself as a marketer or something, but it'd be nice to succeed....

I think this is kind of hilarious! Less for the reasons your dad did, and more because it just must have taken him so much *trouble.*

Wow, your advisor sounds pretty awful, at least as far as advising goes...I hope it works out better for you this year!

Yeah, I'd say just send it in. Or cut it down as much as you can, so it fits on a page. Also, "not less than 200," wow...an MA program I'm applying to has a two-part statement, one at "not more than 300 words" and one at "not less than 1200."

I'm pretty sure this site is not representative, if that helps - I don't know in what ways it's skewed, but it's a small (and weird) enough pool that it HAS to be! This poll does add evidence to my suspicion that the verbal and quantitative sections are not actually the same difficulty, though....

Also, the vast majority of the results posted in my field are from really big name research schools (Ivy leagues, Michigan, UChicago, etc.). That surprised me. Do people who post here just not apply for ones that aren't top 10-20?

Of the seven programs I applied to, I only found 3 on the 2008 results list. One apparently sent out all its acceptances and rejections to arrive February 22-23, one accepts via email between March 1 and 20 (!), and one accepts via email in late February/early March. With a total of seven data points, this doesn't mean much, but it looks like I may have a long wait.... Searching through all of those took me five or ten minutes. I can only imagine how long the original breakdown took!

I'm sure the money's good enough to make it worth going out in all weather. Alternately, you get the kind of clientele who will be desperate to find YOU no matter the weather. My climate from hell is kind of the opposite (at least as far as snow), I don't care about crack dealers but I do NOT want to live somewhere that's 100 degrees between April and October. Of COURSE, in my very narrow subfield with only a smattering of schools, one of the best is in such a climate. I applied, but I'm a bit nervous about how to take that into account if accepted. It's a problem I'd like to have.