celph

You can hope they like you so much they don't even feel the need to interview you :-) Oops, I thought I had seen it on the Princeton website. http://www.princeton.edu/gradschool/admission/applicants/applying/application/ But it says "by March 15". Never mind me...

But Princeton said they release all decisions on March 15th.

Nope, nothing. I already contacted them and asked. Lets see...

I got my first result in last night and it was a yes from UGA. Waiting for 7 more results...

"Forums". "Fora" is pretentious.

LOL frankdux. You geek Seriously, your referees will hate you. 3 of mine gave up after 6 LORs. I had 6 referees for a total of 3x8 = 24 LORS -> 4 LORS per referee on average. I also wanted to say, baboons and drug abuse. Good stuff. I have a problem, I self-medicate with alcohol and drugs because I have a panic disorder (that's an excuse, I really do it because I know no other way). Weirdest thing I've seen was giant turtles crawling on my ceiling. But seeing baboons would be really weird. And I just noticed this is from 2008... Whoaaaaa...

I applied to 5 so far and will apply to 2 more. Heard nothing back yet.

Thanks for the replies!

HikingKate, Thanks, that's good stuff!

Seems that way.

Nobody? PM me!

So, I've been applying. Just finishing my undergrad studies. Was wondering if anybody could PM me a SOP or WS that got them in grad school. If you already had an MA and was applying for PhD, that's OK too. I need something to compare my own work against. I have no idea how good or bad my work is. My professors say it's great but I feel like it's ridiculously bad.

Works for me. I liked it. Interesting.

Thank you for your replies. I'm sure it seems misguided, but there are certain special circumstances under which I'm applying to certain universities. It's very complicated, and I can't and don't want to explain, but I can assure you it makes sense from my POV. I think I've gotten my answers. PS: I realize you're thinking that a-hole could possibly "steal" the place of somebody who actually KNOWS about and *genuinely* wants to go to *that* school. I would probably think the same. It's not really like that, though.

I've done that. However, here's the thing. There's schools I've applied for where I know every little thing about their professors work, and I've read like most of their publications and followed their research closely over the past couple years. Then there's others where I just know there's professors who do this and professors who do that. Well, there's a big difference between the two.

So I have submitted my first application. Accordingly, I wrote my first SOP. I'm thinking about adjusting it to fit other schools I'll apply to. As in, change names, change some facts, etc etc but keep the rest. Here's the thing. I've applied to 10 universities. Some of them are top-tier, others are pretty unknown. The unknown ones, I am not familiar with the professors' work there. Is it OK to admit that? Or would that be a no-no? I mean, I have my reasons for picking those schools, but frankly they're not good reasons. I mean, there's a school I chose just because I like the area and also they offer nice funding packages. So yeah. What you reckon? Hit me with some ideas.

Thank you, Strangefox. Sorry I covertly bragged about it, but these times are difficult I'm currently worried about one of my LOR writers, in fact the most important one. I visited his office today and he said "I was just writing your LOR!". I said OK. He still hasn't submitted it. Why can't you just complete the form and put me out of my misery? Why postpone it until the last minute? ARGH.

Are 1200 words too much? edit: for a department that doesn't specify how long the SOP should be.

Thank you all for your replies. The stuff you wrote for your student, Medievalmaniac, were impressive, were the kind of things I was wishing my professor had written for me. Obviously I may not deserve such high praise. But I think I do, so... My one professor wrote that I match or exceed in potential all the students he's had in his long career. So that was good. But some of my letters just seemed "typical", I don't know. I'm just not sure "He's an excellent student" is enough when I wanna get in an ivy league. Of course LOR's are not everything etc etc, but I want every part of my application to be strong. Really strong. And my SOP is pretty damn strong. So is my GRE (740 verbal and English isn't my native language). And I like to think my writing sample is strong, it's very ambitious and my approach is a double-edged sword, they'll either love it or hate it. What I'm trying to say is I'm worried about my LORs, and I'm hoping that "he's a true exception" and stuff like that don't sound like cheesy lines everybody uses in their LORs, whether the person they're talking about is a true exception or not. Anyhow... Good luck to everybody.

Hi So I'm applying to various universities. I have LORs. They seem good. But how good are they? I'm worried that some professors might write good stuff about their students either way. Like, I got to read one of my LORs and it was like "He's impressed me, he's very knowledgeable, he did great in class, received a perfect score which almost never happens, he's great to work with, he'll adapt to your school quickly and he's fun to have around", which are all great things to say about somebody, but I'm wondering if maybe they all sound a bit too... typical..? Like, yeah, heard that shit a thousand times about all kinds of students. So what you reckon? Is a letter such as the one i Described above useless?

Apparently what they're looking for in your essay is simple, coherent, concise writing, but writers that are generally considered "talented" or "creative" tend to embellish or complicate their texts more than needed (resulting in low scores). A bit stupid if you ask me, this whole thing, but that's just the way it is and we have to deal with it.

Yes, he's old. Just mentioned him as a case in point. From what I've read so far, I'd tell you to look for a department that a) is a classics department has some kind of ancient history program c) is strong in late antiquity PS: It's too bad there's only so few classicists on this forum.

If you're interested in Christianity alone, then you belong in a religious studies department. If you're interested in late antiquity in general and look at religious texts from a philological point of view (that is, you're not only interested in what they have to say as religious texts per se), then perhaps a classics department is the right one for you. However, if you decide to go to a classics department, be prepared to work with texts from all antiquity, even if it's a department that specializes in late antiquity. The name of Peter Brown comes to mind. He is considered a historian, and he's done work almost exclusively on Late Antiquity and religious matters. But then again, you wouldn't call him an expert on religious studies. Early Christianity is studied within the context of late antiquity. It definitely is of interest when you study the history or archaeology (let alone literature) of the Principate (or later). In courses on byzantine literature/history/archaeology, Christianity has an even more prominent role. I think it's clear that this is a decision you have to make based on how wide you think the range of your interests is.

"You haven't responded yet... Is [whatever your name is] gonna have to choke a bitch?"

Hi, So, I'm getting cold feet. The plan so far has been to get a PhD in classics. I'm pretty sure that I could become a v. successful classics professor. But I've been going crazy lately, wondering whether this is the right path for me. I will be graduating from a history department with a major in classics. Now, many classics departments websites, in their pages on graduate placement etc. contend that "many of our graduates go on to have successful careers in law or medicine". Like this for example; just googled it: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/clas ... s/careers/ And my question is, how do you do that? Is there any way to get an MA in law after a BA in history? Or a PhD in law after a BA in history and an MA in classics? Why would a law department offer admission for a PhD to a history student rather than an actual law student? Thanks