lolopixie

Gah!!! I hope so LOL

Look again Miami is the 2nd school listed, and is actually my top choice.

I didn't gain any weight during my MA program, but I was also working PT as a leasing agent where we didn't have any golf carts to take people on tours, so I did a lot of walking and going up and down stairs. I am working FT in an office environment now, but somehow have not gained any weight...I did change up my diet though to include more fruits and veggies. That might have done the trick

I always think of the movie ATL when someone uses new-new LOL. I feel I did the same thing last year. Mostly on reputation, not so much a concentration on fit. I am definitely going on fit this year, tailoring SOPs to the schools, and did a LOT more research on the programs. I also have a much cleaner writing sample and a higher GRE score, which I hope will be higher because I'm taking it again on December 5th and I'm in a class right now trying to improve my verbal score. I didn't know this is your 2nd time around too. I'm glad I'm not the only one!! Although I know I'm not because two of my friends are on their second round of applications too, and I think they made the same mistakes in last year's applications. WE WILL GET IN!!!! 2012 IS OUR YEAR!

I think we can all agree that it is what we love to do and we feel like we fit in the world of academia. This is my second time attempting the roller coaster, and I am SOOO ready to be out of line and on the actual ride! I just want to be in a program, tweaking on coffee, holed up in the back of the library doing what I love. Is it really so much to ask for? I did narrow my choices down to "realistic" schools of acceptance this year. I'm not applying to any of the ILs. Of course I am concerned about my chances of acceptance because of the total rejection last year. Life does go on after rejection, but it sucks. I think the dust finally cleared around July. I'm just not looking forward to the waiting at all. This board will be the death of us when acceptances start coming out. I just remember sitting here obsessively checking my email, phone, and this website toward the end of February through March. I died a little inside each time a school went up that I applied to and someone got their acceptance notification.

If you really want to reach out to them, do it. It is not too late in the semester where they would be overwhelmed just yet. I would recommend that, if you do decide to reach out to them, then you need to do it within the next week or two.

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Research_1 Best way to sum it up. You're probably looking at top 50ish programs to be considered R1. And here is the list from 2009 of the R1 schools http://math.la.asu.e.../ResearchI.html Here is the Carnegie website so you can do more research on your schools http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/lookup_listings/standard.php As everything is stating, R1 is a term from the old classification method, but you will be able to get the idea. I didn't know the terms had been changed...

"Tenured professors enjoy the strongest speech protections in society. It's time they started using them" - awesome closing. I try to take the optimistic/delusional/complete denial approach to academia...it will all be okay, I won't have put in all this work and never see a career from it. I don't indulge in negative articles or information about academia much because it can become very overwhelming when your passion can be your bankruptcy and failure in the future. I also think there are certain things that statistics cannot account for when crunching the numbers of how many people are placed upon graduation. Yes, I am aware that we are looking at somewhere from 50-60% shot at getting a job when we graduate, give or take, but what percentage of those who did not get jobs were not willing to move to another state? Considering that most people will be in their late twenties to mid thirties when graduating from a PhD program, how many people have dug roots in and don't want to move outside of a certain radius, if any? How many people don't even apply to jobs because they got fulbrights and are going to travel? How many decided they don't want to teach, but utilize their PhD for something else? (I'm fully aware this does not account for the vast majority). I saw a youtube video one time of a woman that "did everything right". Graduated from Columbia, published left and right, taught, presented...everything you are supposed to do, but she was complaining because she could not find a job. I understand the reality of it, but at the same time this woman stated that she could not move because her husband was a tenure-track professor and he wasn't willing to leave his position. She had a job pool of 7 schools, most top-tier in the ny/nyc/nj area. She had a valid point that she did everything right and still could not get a job, but she was not willing/did not have a husband willing to move somewhere they could both teach. We all know that the chances of walking out of a PhD program and becoming a professor at NYU or Columbia is an even slimmer shot than attending those programs for a PhD. Why would you limit yourself? Because you have roots in the area, I know. There are many personal sacrifices that come along with the pursuit of a career in academia. I have resinged to the fact that I will not have secure roots in an area until I'm about 33. The reality is you have to go where the jobs are in this field. You cannot expect the jobs to come to you. So yes, I do believe that the statistics of graduates obtaining positions are slightly skewed due to life factors. No, I do not think that it means that really 95% of graduates could get a job, if willing to move, not have babies, not take travel grants, what have you. This field is scary, yes, but in my eyes it is worth it. I cannot forsee myself being wheeled out of an office cubicle when I keel over - I can see myself being wheeled away from the podium. If that means that I have to be an optimistic in this one area of my overly pessimistic life, then so be it.

Okay, I think I have a finalized list...??? Ole Miss, Miami, LSU, Kansas, and Purdue. Another school may possibly make the cut, but I'm not 100% sure at this time.

That is an excellent tip, runon!

Is it wrong that I still haven't completely narrowed it down?? The definites are University of Miami, LSU, and Ole Miss. I'm still working on finding the best fits out of my remaining choices. I'm only applying to five this year, so I am really looking for those best fit programs that have great professors that I want to work with, and programs where i believe i would stand a chance at being accepted.

It is frustrating. I applied to Emory last year and got absolutely no help when I called about my GRE scores not posting. Grad office sent me to English department and English department sent me to Grad office...it was obnoxious. I'm pretty sure I wound up putting all schools I attended on their application last year, but it is kind of foggy. Calling would be best. The online app they were using was new last year, so maybe they have more answers this year.

That is correct. I took a semester off during undergrad to clear my mind and figure out my major and went to community college. Those courses transferred back to my school, but the grades did not (so it actually hurt me). You have to list your GPA for each school, so your undergrad that you graduated from was a 3.9. If the schools do not require grades from a school you didn't get a degree from, I would not list the first one since you didn't actually graduate. But you will need to list the community college and send that transcript because you received a degree from there.

I would recommend applying into a MA/PhD track course, or doing a MA then applying for a PhD program. The lack of formal training will more than likely be looked at negatively. Not saying that you are not capable, but most programs require certain number of English courses to have been taken for acceptance. If you do not have those going into a MA program, you may just be required to take a few additional courses. There were several people in my program that came in with a BA in Communications and English minor. I think they were required to take 2 additional courses to suppliment the lack of BA training. It would also be dependent on where you were wanting to apply (country, school ranking, etc.).

I wouldn't necessarily consider it a holy grail, just something I saw as a plain connection (or lack thereof) within the theory at play and no one is mentioning it. I didn't even realize that it was untouched until I started writing my thesis and there was nothing out there on the topic. In order to properly research it, I had to dive into the theory that was out there, explain that, and expose the gap. Note this was a thesis, not a dissertation (clearly), so it is not like I do not have more research and uncovering to do. Maybe I could phrase it like that with a little bit more specifics in the SOP, and worded much prettier lol.

I have about five million questions regarding the statement of purpose, but I won't throw them all out at one time. In regards to the portion of what I want to study, how in depth should I go into the information I know? For clarification, there is a big gap I've stumbled across and have not seen much study on it (confirmed by two professors that this is an area that is relatively untouched), and I want to develop and expand on this gap within my area as well as study the field and what is presented there already. I don't think in a SOP I should be writing an annotated bibliography, but it seems like every draft I come up with I am doing that. Suggestions? Pointers? Ideas?

I think that may be a good plan

Also, it will indicate select all that apply for reading comp questions that have the possibility of multiple answers.

Zwat - Do your transcripts indicate medical withdrawal? Or is there documentation you can get from the registrar's office of proof of medical withdrawal? Maybe you can send in the additional documentation so that you won't have to worry about talking about it in your SOP. Just a suggestion.

I was under the impression that you do not cite the translator in text, you cite the author. For example, Lacan's works are translated and when citing those in text I always cited Lacan not the translator. In my thesis the same translator translated several of the works. (Lacan, Ecrits 4) for the first and then (Ecrits 5) for subsequent. (Lacan, Feminine Sexuality 3) then subsequent (Feminine Sexuality 5) I never cited the translator in text, just on the works cited page. I would think it would go the same for your question, even though it is the same work just a different translation, clarification will be shown in your works cited. (Author, First text you are citing name 5-8) and then subsequent citations (First text you are citing name 8-9) (Author, Second text you are citing name 7-11) and then (Second text you are citing name 11-15) *using line numbers in place of page number for the poetry Did they appear in the same text/anthology that you are working out of? A footnote may prove useful for clarification that you are reviewing two different translations in text and if they are in seperate texts unless you are clarifying this within your work by comparing the two translations. I'm not exactly sure what you are writing about, so you may not need a footnote, but I always like those in sticky situations

Reached out to my profs for LORs today. I pretty much had them lined up since it is second round and they all just told me to email them when I was ready, but I actually felt like I was making more progress emailing them.

I think the survey ideas is good because you are probably going to be doing a broad survey of several areas. I know a lot of programs that simply title the lit crit course survey in literary criticism. Maybe you could toss out the survey part, since others are opposed to it, and just name it Literary Theory and Criticism?

Maybe if the publication was not in a peer reviewed journal? I don't know. I've never heard that a publication from a MA was a bad thing, and have also heard the same as timshel that being under consideration looks good too because it shows your ambition to publish.

Trust - I do not have a good vocab. Well, after studying for the GRE I do, but the words that you are prepping with really aren't there. I completely understand why you would, but I would focus more on practicing the actual questions in a timed environment to get used to the actual testing. You will see when you take the test. Don't get me wrong because the rare words are on the test, but there were about 4 on there from the 500 word list I was running off of for studying. It will benefit you to increase your vocab for so much more than just the GRE, so it is not pointless to learn the words.

It gave me a 100 pt range, so I'm not 100% how I did, but I definitely did better than the first. I still didn't hit my mark, so I'm retaking it in November. I'll be working on drills until then. I'm giving myself the rest of this week as a gre break. Had a little bit of a meltdown when I got the score. After my 24 hr recovery period, I realized I vastly improved since last time and I know exactly what to focus on for practice now. Run drill, forget about obscure vocabulary cramming!