indalomena

nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! I am probably in the same position then! I still don't have my subject test score -- I think it comes out tomorrow. Not excited about finding out. Thing is, I don't have the energy to fight them on this. I suppose that's how they make their money.

UNC = amazing! Which is why I'm so sad that I wrote an awful application Ran out of time, wrote a bad SOP... *sigh*

I'm working on doubling the SOP I sent to Northwestern!! AARGH. Yes, it's painful to look at the already-sent writing sample isn't it? *sigh* It's good but sad at the same time that I get so obsessed with particular programs as I apply to them: right now UNC looks just perfect for me, which makes me all the more annoyed that I'm screwing up this application STUPID APPLICATIONS.

mine too! I wonder if he's confused about deadlines. Talking of which, that's my grievance right this minute: the UNC deadlines. anyone else working on it?

YES! Good thread. I am annoyed that I assumed UNC had the same SOP requirement as Northwestern, and discovered yesterday that they actually want twice as much (my fault, not theirs, but still!) I am REALLY annoyed that application fees are so high, and that I have to do three applications and travel across the country (UK, yes, so it's much smaller!!) to a conference at huge expense, and all before payday! This whole business had better turn into a glittering PhD offer with a sweet stipend. *dream* That is so annoying about Kansas Timshel! I just assumed that it would be like that for all applications, so I was delighted when suddenly LORs were pouring in well before I'd even uploaded my transcripts. Hurrah for efficiency ... though very annoying when this does NOT turn out to be the case Good luck

So in this thread right now. I have a really excellent recommender whose letter is an extremely important part of my application and I'm getting worried... he's missed one deadline now and another is coming up really soon. Fortunately the one university has written to me to say that they'll just add the letter later and continue to review my application without it, but now I'm in a total panic situation. Not sure if I should try to get someone else (who doesn't know me as well but would probably get it done) or just sit it out. I have, of course, contacted this professor, but I've heard nothing. Nightmare :'( :'(

I put my images at the end too, thinking that it's better that they get left off than my glorious and lucid (well..) prose. There are certain things the universities are VERY clear about (no creative writing, for example), and including/not including bibliography/page count isn't one of them. So I'm not worrying too much ...

Thanks for the perspective. This helped me to realise that there are certain things I can do now that I couldn't do straight out of undergrad. If I ask myself what chapter best represents the progress I've made and the new things I've learned over the last year, it is the one with the manuscript work. That's the chapter I could never have written a year ago. I couldn't do much with it for Northwestern, but for my December 31 deadlines, I can cut it enough to add one of the shorter chapters, and show my range and a wider variety of skills. pinkrobot, I assumed exactly the same, because in all my work up to this point, the word count has been inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of bibliography and figure captions. *sigh* So confusing that things are done by pages and not word count for the US, too much ambiguity!

yay, cut it to 11 over. Really probably shouldn't be agonising so much about the little things But then, at this stage there's not much you can really do about the big things. It's all I've got to help me feel in control!!

Also, remember that the British PhD is SO MUCH shorter. So you'll land that sweet academic job a lot sooner. *fingers crossed*

tell me about it! The Northwestern SOP is TINY! It's killing me! I'm 39 words over at the moment, I wonder how strict they are...

thanks for the advice Thanks Sparky, and yes, I was going to mention -- I'm in early modern, and the fact that I've done manuscript work shows a lot about my research ability. Firstly, the fact of hunting down this particular manuscript, which hasn't been edited and hasn't been looked at in this context at all, was a challenge in itself, and shows I can navigate the labyrinthine bureaucracy of this particular library/collection. And then there's the fact that it's late sixteenth century and I wouldn't have been able to decipher it without my paleography classes. I also suspect that the grade I got on the thesis owed a lot to evidence of independent archival scholarship. I think it might be best to submit this chapter with either the introduction to the whole piece, or with another chapter (I've just noticed it's actually really short, only 10 pages, and the manuscripty one is 16..) Finally, do we know if pictures and bibliography count in the page count? Sure hope not...

Really struggling to choose what to send for my writing sample, and I'm wondering what criteria my fellow lit applicants used -- beyond the obvious. I have three papers to choose from, all chapters from my MA thesis, which all work as stand-alone papers and are basically ready to send as they are. I can't choose between them as far as quality is concerned, I'd say the whole thesis is my best work to date, and each chapter is an equal part of that. So, not sure what to prioritise. One of the chapters is more engaged with current scholarship than the others, showing more understanding of my field. One is more literary than the others -- that is, it focuses more on poetry and has much more in the way of critical analysis. And the other contains a lot of original and impressive manuscript research, but isn't focused on literary texts -- rather intellectual context. I don't have an instinct on this. I like them all for different reasons. My supervisor inclines towards the one with manuscript research, though acknowledges that there are fewer literary sources there. Any input welcome!

yeah, after today I think applications will feel much easier. Shame this one will probably be a little rough round the edges. (also my recommendations aren't all in yet... scary!)

Hello folks I've been through the British system to MA level, so perhaps I can offer some inside info. Funding is extremely scarce at the master's level. Most people just suck it up and pay (I worked for a year and saved before my MA) because you cannot get a British PhD without a master's degree, and PhD funding is not quite so impossible to get, though still very difficult. Be a bit cautious about Oxbridge MSt/MPhil degrees. I have not met a single person who had a positive intellectual experience on one of these courses. Of course there are huge compensations -- as an American coming to the UK for a year, you would have quite a magical time at Oxford or Cambridge, and meet some fascinating people (the people I know who did these courses loved Oxford/Cambridge, just hated the course/department). But the courses are often rather poorly run and master's students not treated extremely well. This is why I steered clear of Oxbridge for MSt/MPhil. But you need to think about what you want, and these universities certainly have a lot to offer in terms of resources, social life, eating every day in a Hogwarts-like hall ... It's VERY different at the PhD/DPhil level, because it's all about your supervisor (although, bear in mind that at Oxford you don't get to choose your supervisor...) If you have a good relationship with him/her, then you'd have a very positive experience. This is the case at any UK university, where there is no coursework towards the PhD. You're right to be concerned about employability after a UK PhD but please bear this in mind: you can circumvent the difficulties yourself by being extremely self-motivated. You won't have so much in the way of professional preparation so you really have to take the initiative yourself, which is wonderfully possible due to all that freedom you have. Make absolutely sure you keep track of calls for papers and get out there, go to conferences. You will get teaching experience if you push for it. I did a lot of "professional activity" on my MA but I was the only one who did -- it just didn't occur to many of my fellow students, even though they were very brilliant. I'd be happy to discuss this over PM if that helps anyone. And I hope I didn't give too negative an impression of Oxbridge/Britain in general -- the system is wonderful if you are well-prepared and self-motivated, with a clear idea of your research direction and the initiative to pursue it independently. It really is a case of getting out what you put in.

It just occurred to me that I haven't seen much mention of Northwestern on this forum. So, is anyone else getting into panic mode with the fast-approaching deadline? This is the earliest deadline for me, and consequently the most work, as I'll probably be using the same writing sample everywhere else I'm applying.

gah... desperate to know, totally bitter about the amount of $$$ I have dumped on ETS. Think I'll wait it out -- don't want to beat down my self-confidence so close to Northwestern's deadline!! Good luck those of you brave/rich enough to pick up the phone!!

this is all starting to feel impossible I have no time to work on my applications, working a 6-day week and exhausted in the evenings! but this is the month of deadlines and, inevitably, staying up all night to get it done. SOP is such a challenge. Who would have thought these things would be so challenging to articulate?

This SOP business is so confusing to me I am a British applicant, and all my UK applications require a full thesis proposal. Is it a bad idea to propose a thesis topic in the US applications? This business of intellectual strengths/reasons for pursuing graduate study seems very vague and general. And indeed, to do that within 500 words is a huge challenge. *sigh* cultural differences ... so confusing. hope it's going well for everyone, nonetheless

or UW-Madison? (I've been making spreadsheets of deadlines... ) OP, this is such an annoying situation, totally my worst nightmare as it's the part of the application that's out of your control. I'd also suggest trying to find someone else. Good luck!

well... but early modern is a problematic term as well. I took the November test and I thought it was fine, you October people were clearly quite unlucky! Though echoing what others have said, congratulations for a good set of scores!! I scored incredibly low in my practice tests and I have no idea why, as I thought they went really well! (Maybe I just can't count.) good luck to those still waiting.

thanks for the nice comments I just really hope this isn't going to be a serious problem in my applications. Thankfully I'd prefer to stay in the UK anyway, and obviously they don't look at GRE scores. But it would be nice to have options.

early modern science, music, cosmography, intellectual history, mathematics, poetry. They were polymaths, why can't I be one too? All this is bound up in a study of the imagination across the disciplines.

lots of you seem very nervous about certain applications -- why so pessimistic?! Are these places really, really impossible to get into? I genuinely don't know because I've come through the British system. Are the "elite" programs filled with intellectual demi-gods? My applications are all for very competitive places, I do recognise that... (Yale, Columbia, Chicago, Northwestern, Berkeley, couple of others undecided) -- but then I have a PhD spot secured in the UK, so I don't need backups and I'm not willing to relocate for anything that isn't superior to that place. Other pending UK applications are for a couple of the London colleges and Oxford. good luck everyone.

I'm a British student and the very idea of a multiple choice test in literature is completely and utterly alien to me. I have only ever been assessed in literature by essays. So perhaps someone in here can help me out -- really, what is the GRE actually for? I genuinely don't understand, especially as you can do well simply by memorising rather than reading critically. Also I'm upset that I will have to memorise plot details of novels I haven't read yet. Spoilers