Timshel

I don't know......I feel like relevant extracurriculars could be advantageous depending on what else is on the CV.

Actually, in my department, when someone got that email, they were told that there funding was pulled at that they would no longer be a TA. I hope that isn't the case for you.

But I will say that as a student, I am very passionate about what I do and what I read (not to say that those who are quiet are not as passionate), so there is NO WAY I could sit through a class without saying anything. That just isn't who I am. I'm like one of those people who will burst if they don't give their two cents. That's why I enjoy the field so much. I love to discuss, analyze, and debate interpretations and texts.

I am a firm believer that if you aren't engaging, you aren't learning. With that said, no one likes a know-it-all. You can be helpful without being condescending. I think it's more important to just point out what could make it stronger rather than telling them what they did wrong. That has worked for me as both a student and a teacher.

Now I am totally paranoid. My GRE scores are not stellar, and I am planning on retaking it, but I am just so scared that if I don't do well on this retake, I might as well forget it. If you don't mind, could I ask what your scores were? Specifically the verbal? If you don't want to put it out here on the board, could you PM me? I just feel like I could gauge what a deal breaker is. I would really appreciate it.

If you don't mind me asking, why is this your second round? Did you not get any acceptances? Do you think it had to do with your GREs? How many places did you apply?

So, I am not happy with the verbal scores I received with the old version (I took it twice 3 years apart and only increased my score by 10 points), so I am going to retake the GRE next month in hopes of doing better on the verbal. I am, of course, studying, but I was wondering if the theory is true that people are doing better in the verbal of the new version than they did in the old version. Is there anyone who took the old version and the new version, and if so, which version did you do better in?

Slaughterhouse-Five is amazing. I am trying to finish Haruki Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicle before the new semester starts and I'm reading nothing but student essays.

Yeah. They are at Cornell and Emory, which are the two schools I said were top 25, or overseas, for the most part. So I am definitely applying to Cornell and Emory, but those are both REALLY hard to get into.

See, I'm having the exact opposite problem. Most of the top 25 schools are very traditional, and what I do is not. My interests are psychoanalysis, specifically trauma studies, and ethnic lit, specifically latino/a. It's hard to find ANY schools that have professors that do trauma studies, let alone alone in the top 25. So far, my short list only has 2 in the top 25, but most are at least around top 50.

Most of the schools have a list of the current grad students with their email addresses.

I kind of feel like those who get into Top 25 programs, though, are going to be a little less-willing to take a job at a lesser known, non-prestigious, small state school is BFE America. Idk. That's just how it seems to me. I just don't want to put all my eggs in one basket and only shoot for top schools. I am going to apply across the board of ranked schools, focusing on schools that actually do what I do, which is actually harder to find (trauma studies).

Very good point. Some of the schools that I am looking at that are ranked below 50 seem to put an emphasis on placement and have things like you listed in place.

As I said before, some of the professors at my university went to un-ranked or lesser known schools. I would say less than half of them were from top 25 schools, and they have all told me that it matters more what you do while you're there. You should publish, present, etc., and that will help more.

WUSTL is actually a very prestigious program. That is surprising to me.

I would agree that if you want to teach at an R1 school, you will probably have to attend an R1 school, but thankfully, I'm not interested in working at an R1 school. I would love to just teach at a state school and make livable money.

I wondered about contacting current students, so I'm glad you mentioned that. There is one instructor in particular that I am considering contacting because her publications are EXACTLY the type of stuff I am looking to do, so I would love to work with her, but she is one of those professors that is primarily in a different department but also teaches a few classes in the English department, so I want to make sure that she would be able to be on my committee, because if not, I wouldn't want to mention it in the SOP, and I may not even apply there at all, beings she is the biggest selling point of that school.

I don't know. I currently go to a state school with some amazing instructors at the size of school I would love to teach at (around 12,000 undergrad), and while some of them got their PhDs at places like WUSTL, some of them got them at schools that aren't even ranked, like Ball State and Duquesne. I've been told that it doesn't ALWAYS matter WHERE you go, it's WHAT you do while you're there.

I had that same identification. William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens are VERY different, but I know what you mean. There were SO many names and pieces I haven't even HEARD of, and I have my Master's. There also seems to be a LOT of poetry, which is also stuff I don't know much about. I went to a school that allowed you to do a personalized track that catered to your interests, and mine are contemporary american, so if you gave me a test on just American lit since 1865, I could easily get 100 percent!

Well, the earliest lit I have read (this is including undergrad and master's) is American Romantics. So, yeah. I'm definitely at a deficit.

I took the advice of a previous poster and took a practice subject test with absolutely NO studying to get an idea of where I'm at and how much studying I would have to do, and I was pleasantly surprised that I got a 530. While this isn't an amazing score, it's not that bad since I have never taken a British lit class in my life. Getting the 530 made me feel confident that I could do enough studying to get a score in the 600s that would make me feel comfortable sending it.

I have a few comments. First, I think it could be good to apply to a mix of schools that are good for your field AND some schools that have specific people working on similar topics. Also, I know that in the sciences it is common to contact professors and possible people to work with, but is it really that common in English? And if so, what do you actually say? I'm not sure if this is something I should be doing or not.

I'm interested in what people tell you because I, too, am taking the test again, and while everyone says not to worry about the math, I'm still wondering if I should go over it a little bit because both times I've taken it before (once last month and once 3 years ago), I only got a 450, which is embarrassing. I don't know if I should care about that, though.

I'm not sure, but I do know that Cornell's website specifically states "Three letters of recommendation from those persons who best know you and your work are required. Submitting additional letters will not enhance your application." Also, all of the professors I am asking to write me letters of recommendation are older, and a little off the grid, so I highly doubt they even know what Interfolio is. I don't think I'll bring it up unless they do.

Oh, I mean, I was only speaking from my own experience of when my students ask me to write them letters, but I just teach undergrad students as an adjunct faculty at a university, so usually my letters are either to get a job, or a position in some group, or to get into the Honors program, or to get into a different school they want transfer to, or a program that is hard to get into, like our nursing program, so I was just saying that I know that when I try to write those, I try to note specifically the place or thing they are applying for to help them instead of just giving them something generic, but I have NO idea how the PhD thing goes, what kind of letters my recommenders will/should send, which is why I'm constantly on here because I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm always looking for advice.