Timshel

2 out of the 3 of my LORs have sent in their letters for both of my Dec. 1st deadlines, but one of the schools allows an additional fourth letter, and that one hasn't been submitted yet, either. I am trying to get done as quickly as possible because I teach during the week, so once Monday hits, it's going to be really hard for me to get anything done.

I have 2 December 1st deadlines, and I have no tricks. I have been working my ass off, well, as much as I can, the last few days to work on my SOPs and Writing Sample. I am not done with either one. Boo.

Ugh on Kansas wanting two samples. I believe my other one will be a chapter from my thesis, which is a whole other thing I need to worry about later. I am going to be on vacation for two weeks, from the 16 to the 30th, and of course Kansas is due at the end of December, so that is something else I will need to work on in these next two weeks. Boo.

My theoretical texts also span different decades. However, because I do psychoanalysis, most of my theorists are actual psychologists and then a few who apply that to literature in particular. Ehh.... I don't know if that's good or bad.

Well, here is the thing about listing people. In some of the disciplines, like the sciences, you HAVE to list people because of funding to take on students, so their criteria is different. However, we all fill out the same application, so some of the things on the applications, like listing potential advisors, do not apply to us in English, which is why they tell you to go by what the department's webpage says.

I guess I'm just concerned with not having enough sources because I know people who were turned down and when asked why they didn't get in, they were specifically told that their writing sample did not utilize seminal texts in their field or it didn't contain the most relevant or current scholarship on the topic, so I am spending a LOT of time going through sources to make sure I have the best.

I am actually more worried that I am writing more than they expected. I will probably end up with 20+ sources, and I just wasn't sure if this is the norm. I would never "pad." It's just that I received my Master's a few years ago, and ever since I wrote my thesis, I have a habit of finding the need to find EVERY source imaginable on the topic, and these writing samples are supposed to look more like seminar papers, which is hard for me to remember at this point. I'm just trying to get an idea of what others are doing, that's all.

Okay, this may sound like a weird or random question, but I'm just wondering, how many sources do your writing samples have? I am working on expanding a conference paper I presented last year, and I'm wondering if I have too many sources or perhaps not enough. I know the samples should be like seminar papers, but I never did this much research on a seminar paper, so I'm wondering if I am overdoing it. I am so stuck in my own head these days I just need a little perspective. How many sources do your writing samples have?

Well, I'm too embarrassed to admit how low, but I can tell you that it's low enough to hurt me. I do not plan on sending those scores at all, but I just wanted to make sure it was okay to leave that space blank on the application.

When I was narrowing down programs, I told myself that I would not apply anywhere that had a website that was hard to understand or didn't provide sufficient information. For me, it felt like their website was an indication of how smoothly things would go when I went there.

Obviously my December 1st apps will be last minute, but I have some not due until the middle of January, so I am thinking that having such an early deadline will make my other apps get turned in early......I hope.

Riverside's deadline is the 10th.

Also, OP, you may still want to consider contacting another professor since it's just one letter they need. One of my schools ended up allowing a fourth letter and I contacted a fourth perspective LOR a week ago and told him I would need it by December 1st, and if he couldn't do it, I would understand, and he said no problem. So, I think it might be worth a shot if your original LOR can't come through.

Are you kidding? Pretty much every professor is unorganized. I teach English at a university, and it is impossible NOT to be disorganized and perpetually behind, but I would NEVER back out of writing a letter of recommendation if I promised I would give one. You push yourself and make exceptions for students you support because you don't want to go back on your word and you don't want to screw over a student.

Ouch. That is incredibly douchey. I would be hesitant to want him to write ANY of your letters after that because it doesn't seem like he is excited or supportive of your PhD endeavors. And, how do you know he won't do this again?

Yeah, I knew I could just send the general scores, but I wasn't sure what i should do for the box on the application. I guess I should just leave it blank, right?

Thanks. 8 out of the 10 schools specifically say they do not require the subject test, and my score was embarrassingly bad, so I really don't want to give them my score if I don't have to.

So, most of the schools I am applying to do not require the subject scores. And, as I predicted, I did terrible, and I do not want the schools who don't require it to see my score. So, since they don't require it, on the application, I can just leave that part blank, right? When I requested what scores I want sent, it allowed me to choose just general, so I know they won't be sent the scores, so it's okay to not put the score on the application, too, right?

LOL. Well, I am applying to Penn State, and my area is trauma studies, so I could make a connection there, too, but I wouldn't dare. I say do it at your own risk.

As I've said in many threads, there are conflicting thoughts on whether or not to list people's names for various reasons. See the other threads for a more in-depth explanation of that topic. However, I have been advised by someone on an Adcomm to NEVER give names, but I know some people who did and got in places, so I think it just depends on the school and who is on the adcomm. I think the whole thing is a crap shoot.

All of my LOR have advised me to contact professors, but I haven't. Although I had questions, I didn't see them as relevant to the application, and I didn't want to run the risk of looking stupid. And, I do have one anecdotal evidence of knowing someone who should not have gotten in to a really hard school to get into because he did not meet the qualifications by any means but he got in due to a correspondence he had with someone on the adcomm.

A couple of my programs said no more than 3, and any that didn't explicitly state I contacted to ask and several of them told me that they would only read three, even though their website didn't say that. I would double check with the individual programs.

Okay, this is a total logistics question, but if you reapply to the same schools, do you have to resend them materials like transcripts? Just wondering (and preparing for the worst).