[Sending All Scores]

They won't know that both sets of scores are yours, unless you've used the same email address as the first time to create your account.

I had this same problem, and had to call the ETS and ask them to merge my accounts. I recommend doing this before you retake, so that your free reports have both sets of scores.

[Thesis Director Necessary?]

Your instinct is right, I think, that an adcom will notice you haven't asked your thesis director to write for you. (I was in a similar position after undergrad, and asked another professor to write instead; while I'm absolutely confident I made the right decision, especially since the director was hesitant to write, I did have a question about the decision when I visited one of my schools.)

However, you should absolutely get letters from the professors who know you best, and will have the easiest time speaking to your strengths. The fact that your other professors know you and can speak better to you as a person and scholar will shine through in the letters they write you (I've been in the position of having the problem of someone who didn't know me so well get sloppy with a LoR, thank goodness I had a backup), which should clear it up with your adcoms as to why they wrote for you.

[About those predoctoral fellowships]

Rereading your post myself, I'm not sure whether I'd say you sound cynical, or just overwhelmed by the process at the moment. Certainly, I'd agree with stillthisappeal, and I wouldn't recommend putting all your eggs and hopes of funding in the Javits and Ford Fellowship baskets.

The bullet points from my original post are probably some of the reasons your professors told you to try to apply for everything you can. A fellowship would be a great career asset. But if you're too overwhelmed with the application process, don't let the fellowship applications detract from your putting in a good quality PhD application packet.

[Off Campus Jobs and Grad School]

It will definitely depend on the program. In terms of my own experience, I only know of one master's student on the lit/creative writing/rhet&comp side at my program who has entered into our degree program part-time. (The professional writing and editing certificate people are a different story, just about all of them are working and going to school part time....)

Most seminars in my program are offered during the day; my classmate who works full-time is very restricted in terms of her course offerings she can take because she can only take 4pm seminars, and she has to arrange half-day vacation days to meet a few of our programs requirements. She's had a much harder time developing camaraderie with the rest of us (who take more classes together and talk shop about teaching in our shared office and the halls) and she misses out on the very valuable experience, IMHO, of teaching.

In short, it seems that my program is an example of a program that isn't so part-time friendly. While it'd be possible to do your degree part-time at a program like mine, it'd make life a bit harder. If you do decide to take the job and pursue your degree part-time, I'd recommend carefully researching programs so that you don't run into these sorts of issues when heading back into the classroom.

Also: is a PhD, and teaching, your ultimate goal? If so, I'd more strongly recommend finding an M.A. program that will give you some teaching experience (if possible, I know these are competitive), even if it is harder financially at first. Especially because it is sometimes harder to get a TAship at the PhD level if you haven't had one at the M.A. level; I know that competition for teaching assistantships was fierce when I did my applications this past year. And the experience of teaching itself has been invaluable in terms of shaping my research interests and letting me practice teaching, which I hope to make my future career.

[About those predoctoral fellowships]

Off the top of my head, I can think of a number of reasons it'd be useful to come in to a program with a fellowship:

• Putting it on your CV for the job market, as you mentioned. Don't underestimate the importance of this; the job market is shit, especially for lit. Having a high-profile fellowship on your CV would be a tremendous asset.
• Bargaining with schools that have accepted you (OR getting more acceptances by updating schools that you still haven't heard from that you got the fellowship. It would turn heads and probably help you win over another adcom or two).
• Having time away from teaching to do your own research. One of the biggest hurdles in time-to-degree is teaching load; having a fellowship is a fantastic way to find more time for your own research. (Keep in mind: I say this as someone who is very serious about pedagogy and lists it as one of her primary research interests. No matter how much you love it or how applicable it is to your scholarly identity, it can slow down your degree progress.)

Keep in mind that you will still be waiting to hear from a number of schools by March 1st. In my own experience last application season, I'd only heard from 2/10 schools by March 1st. It wouldn't be a weird/strange thing at all to contact schools that have waitlisted you (or simply have not contacted you yet) to inform them that you'd just won a prestigious fellowship. It's not just about the money, it's also the fact that you've demonstrated that you have the chops to win such an award.

[Professional Organizations and Graduate School]

If you have it in your budget, when you go on the job market it looks good on your CV to say you've been a long-standing member of professional organizations, as it shows a commitment to the field. It can also help you to keep up with current conversations in your field—nothing like having a journal delivered directly to your door to make you actually read it. (One of my orgs also distributes newsletters.)

[Procrastination--how do you overcome it?]

Two other programs that help me during end-of-term paper writing: MacFreedom and Anti-Social. (Despite the name, I believe the former is actually compatible with both Windows and Mac; the latter only works for Macs.)

Freedom blocks all of the internet for a specified amount of time; Anti-Social only blocks entertainment-y sites + any sites that you specify, and has an option to block email or not block email. In order to "cheat" and get around the block before time is up, you have to restart your computer—that really helps me to stick through the block! I hate restarting.

[For those moving for programs this fall, any tips?]

Do you happen to know how large/heavy the boxes in question were? I know the weight limit is 70 lbs and I've heard that it's best to stay under 40 so I'm sticking to 35 max. Do you think this will protect me? Your story scares me, because I know it's very hard to get USPS to replace things without receipts, and I have some rare old books...I think I just may sneak those into my luggage. I'll also create the inventory as you suggested, so I can figure out which of the more replaceable books need to be replaced if it comes to that.

I don't know the actual quantified weight, but since I lifted them myself and transported them to the post office after he'd left, I know they were damn heavy!

It's probably safe to assume they were over 40 lbs or close to it. (For illustration, a few of the books he lost were Norton Anthologies.)

[Formal Email]

Also, even if you're going to forgo titles but want the email to be formal, you should at the very least use the full name of the person you're addressing. ("Dear Albert Smith,")

[Length of SOP]

My DGS advised us as master's students to write about 1.5, maybe 1.75 at the most. Two pages is too long, he thinks, and one page too short.

[Quantitative Woes]

I wouldn't worry so much about the discrepancy; most academics are well aware of how capricious a measure the GRE can be. You've done well on the quantitative once, and that's good enough; note also that because you're going into the humanities, your adcoms aren't going to give two hoots about your quant skills (apart from ensuring you make university minimum requirements). They're going to be much more concerned with your verbal and analytic writing scores. (And even beyond that, the GRE is not as important a part of your application package as your SoP, letters of rec, and writing sample.)

Although your schools will want for you to send them a score report from the ETS (which will report all of your GRE general scores, both good and bad), just about all of the applications I filled out last year only asked me to report one set of scores on the application (leaving me to choose the best scores I wished on the form).

I'd imagine that most adcoms will either take your best scores or, at worst, average them together. They're surely not going to take your worst scores.

[How do YOU organize copied (paper) journal articles?]

I too can't read articles carefully enough on a screen. Especially heavy theory—I need a paper copy I can feel at my fingertips, and I mark the crap out of them—both underlining and marginalia. I seldom take additional notes (apart from my seminar discussion notes on class readings), so I at least only have the articles themselves to organize.

I print all my articles double-sided so that they take up less space, and then I three-hole punch them and put them in binders. Because I'm still in coursework, the binders are right now organized by seminar; as time marches onward, I'm sure I'll re-organize and go alphabetical. I can't stand the thought of moving a heavy filing cabinet from apartment to apartment, but hanging folders in a cabinet is sounding really appealing. (Especially when some of my readings are scans from books provided by an instructor and the nature of the margins means that three-hole punches will cut off some of the text.)

[Qualities to Look for in Potential Advisor?]

I agree that assistant profs don't have to be something you avoid. One of the assistant profs I've worked with here is incredibly generous, recognized in the field, knowledgeable, and well remembers how shitty it was to be a grad student. He also has more time than most other seasoned profs, something that might be important to consider as well.

[Grade History Question]

Thanks for the advice. Is it a bad decision to simply not inform the school that I am applying to about the grade history?

If by that you mean, "Is it bad not to send in my transcript from School A and pretend I never attended there?" the answer is yes. You should never hide this kind of information on an application: not only is it unethical, but if and when an adcom discovers that you withheld this information from your application, they'll revoke any offers of admission they may have extended.

If you're asking, "Should I just not mention it in the SoP?" then it's up to you: opinion will be divided on this, I'm willing to bet. Personally I'd probably do a drive-by mention in a sentence somewhere..."Although I had trouble finding direction at University A right out of high school, you can see from my transcripts at and recommendation letters from School B that I'm motivated to study Computer Science." But you can also choose not to mention it as well, if that makes you more comfortable; the SoP should, after all, be a positive document that reflects on your potential.

[Job Dilemma]

If it were me, I'd be a nervous wreck the entire time I worked there, knowing I had to drop the bomb of leaving mid-August. I also think you should reply to her request for a second interview by saying you'd have to leave in August but are still very much interested if they can work something out.

[Youtube]

Having yourself "out there" does realistically (as you say you realize) have the potential to backfire. It could be fine, too, but sometimes it's hard to judge that for yourself (as countless tales of viral YouTube videos have taught us over the years).

Bottom line: it all depends on the nature of your posts. If you're posting about your personal life, ranting about students or faculty, or expressing some opinions you'd hesitate to voice at a cocktail party at a conference, then I would recommend that you tread carefully. Or at least, that's what I would do. I've long ago stopped posting extremely silly things or things that meet the above criteria on the internet myself, in the hopes of building a professional online identity.

But, if you're engaging with subject matter in your field or objectively talking about graduate life or academia, then perhaps you're fine. There's a great post by ProfHacker on the importance of building an online professional identity while in graduate school, in preparation for the job market. I personally have a Twitter, Google profile, research blog, and other items around the web linked to my real name that I keep public and professional. Doing so has already proved useful: Twitter alone has already enabled me to meet a number of contacts at a recent conference.

[How do you deal with spiders and insects?]

I trap them in a cup and wait for my partner to come over to my apartment and let them outside for me. And then the feminist inside me cries.

I also live in Ohio, and in an area with a large roach population at that, and I think the one I trapped in my bedroom last spring was a wolf spider. I nearly died [figuratively].

[A Question about Theory/Criticism]

Just remember this mantra: research interests/project ideas are seldom too specific. When in doubt, try to pare down.

[Nothing to put on C.V.?]

I've seen some applicants put "conferences attended" on a CV before, if they haven't yet broken into presenting and publishing. If you have time this summer or early fall, you could try to attend a conference near you to get a feel for what conferences are like and show that you're proactive about getting a sense of current conversations in the field.

I'm not sure if anyone else has covered this with you over PM, but you can also spin some of your music pubs/experience under "related experience" or the like. After all, your music experience shows that you're capable of getting yourself published and know what kind of work that entails.

Last, if you have any English-related projects under development, or more informal projects than publications (e.g., a research blog, a digital portfolio, a manuscript in progress, etc.) it's also appropriate to list these on a CV.

[Grade History Question]

If you and another candidate are neck-and-neck, it could perhaps matter. My gut feeling is that it's not going to make or break your application, especially if you address it (briefly!) in your SOP. You don't want to dwell on it, but the SOP is your chance to explain these sorts of situations to an adcomm.

Your second degree program shows that you've become a more serious student, and it's in a field related to your applications (while the first is not). The GPA and transcript at your first institution isn't going to look great, but I don't think it's going to mean you have no chance at getting into grad school. My $.02.

[What went wrong with my applications? (Comparative, Chinese politics)]

I highly suggest you ask the DGS at some of the schools you applied to for feedback on your application. Adcoms are usually happy to tell you what you can do to strengthen your application, and will be able to give you the specific reasons they found your packet weaker than that of other applicants.

One reason I highly suggest you do this is because the single-most important factor for getting into a good graduate program is fit with the institution you applied to. We won't be able to advise you about how well your application packet demonstrated fit with the institutions you applied to, but the adcoms at those insitutions will be able to do so.

[Checking and re-checking references in my article...]

OP: When I worked as a production editor for a large academic publisher, we did have our copyeditors check (and edit) references on journal articles. But there's a wide disparity in the quality/competence of copyeditors, and it becomes a huge headache at proofs for everyone involved (including yourself) if there's a ton of missing information in your citations. Plus, every change you request at proofs has the potential to go awry when the typesetter goes to implement the change. It's best to send the cleanest copy you can to a publisher, despite the presence of copyediting.

[Being proactive]

This is a big question, but I'll take a stab at it. In a word: yes.

From what I understand from my tutors at my undergrad study abroad program in Oxford, if you want to teach in the U.S., you'd best help your career by getting your PhD in the states, where teaching assistantships are more common. (By a different logic, you should really only consider attending a PhD program later on down the road if you're able to get some kind of funding for it, whether it be a TAship, RAship, or fellowship. Paying for a PhD would be extremely unadvisable, especially if you're not going into a high-paying industry with a strong job market.)

If you're looking to better understand academia and what the job market is like, you might consider perusing a publication like The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed. Granted, I don't know how much of the information in those periodicals applies to European universities, but those sites will give you an idea of what's currently going on in the academy, what the job market looks like, and have lots of advice columns and blogs.

Yes, you will need to network, and you'll need to better understand what it takes to get to the job market and make it in academia. When you start your master's degree, I suggest you work on presenting a paper at (at least) one conference, or at least attending one, in your first year. Also, attend any events/seminars on professionalization at your university (or sometimes conferences host these sorts of sessions as well).

Basically, get used to "plugging into" your field and the academy in general. I develop lists of professionalization goals for myself, and the list is always growing. Hopefully this gives you a few ideas for getting started.

[MacBook Pro]

Microcenter is the shit.

Related advice from a less-intense computer geek: with the most recent Macbooks/MBPs, it is really easy to upgrade the hardrive yourself. If you upgrade your own hardrive instead of asking Apple to do it, you will save the $150-200 markup by just buying your own HD from Microcenter. (It doesn't have to have the Apple logo on it to work well.)

I bought a MBP last February, and plan to upgrade my HD capacity in about 2 years, instead of asking Apple to upgrade for me.

[Name Dropping in SOP]

My DGS advised all of us master's students not to name-drop because you have no idea of the politics at play at the schools where you're applying. (In his words: "Suppose you’ve found faculty you would liketo work with: what if they’re not around anymore, or one of them got drunk andfell into my Christmas tree? It’s so easy to get the tone wrong. You are onsafer ground, if you want, to indicate that you know what is the strength orfocus of a program. (“I am applying to your program because I want to do thecreative dissertation but also work with the Institute on Riverboat Gambling….)")

Having had this slightly back-fire on me during my master's round of applications, I'm inclined to agree with him. I think it's much safer to talk about the kind of research being done that interests you, or to take lyonessrampant's tack.