Timshel

I'm not sure who is arguing......I was just asking for advice because I have no idea what I'm doing.

What I meant by "tailoring" is at least mentioning the school in particular at the beginning of the letter. ie " I think Jane Doe would be an excellent candidate for X University, especially because of their blah blah blah" and then the rest is generic, or the same thing for every letter. That is what I do for my students. I just change a few words here or there to reflect the place specifically.

I guess I'm just curious if it is understood that schools will accept the lit scores after december 1st if everything else is turned in, or if I should contact the places individually.

I'm curious how big the range has been for people. I've seen some as big as 100 points, which is a huge difference in the old version.

I'm a little worried about that because shouldn't each letter be catered, even just a little, to each school? I know that when I write letters for my students, I always try to have a couple of things that I change in it so it looks catered to that specific location.

I'm just torn because I'm nervous November is too late for December 1st deadlines but I'm also nervous I won't be ready for it yet in October.

Perdue

Yeah, my interests are psychoanalysis and trauma studies in contemporary ethnic lit. They have several people who do that. However, I don't want to apply if funding isn't really there because I have to have funding.

So, as I'm narrowing down my list, I have realized that a lot of the professors at George Washington University are doing research in the areas that I am interested, and the schools seems like it would be a good fit. However, I have seen very little talk of that school here on the boards, and what I did read was that they were having issues with funding a few years ago, so I was just wondering what, if anything, anyone knows about their current PhD program. I don't want to apply if it's going to be a waste of time.

Okay, so it looks like everyone is planning on the subject test in October, which makes me feel like I shouldn't chance it and wait until November to take it. Also, I've narrowed down my schools to 12, but I'm afraid that might be too many money wise and to ask for letters of recommendation. I know it's better to apply to more to give yourself options, but I don't want to overwhelm anyone or my bank account.

Yeah, when I took it over the summer, I learned about 150 words, and I think one of them came up. This time, I bought the Princeton essential GRE vocab flashcards, and there are 500 words, and my goal is to memorize as many as I can from them, plus I bought some work books. The last time I took the GRE I got a 560 verbal and I need a minimum of 600 for my programs, so I feel like if I can just do a little bit better than before, I'm golden. I'm still super nervous though because now it's a new format.

I am the same way. I am interested in contemporary ethnic lit and trauma studies, so the lit test doesn't really apply to me. Also, MOST of the schools I am applying to say they don't require it, but I don't want to be at a deficit, either, if people I am up against did take it and they did well.

How much did you study for the verbal part of the GRE? You said very few of the words you studied showed up, which makes me nervous. I didn't do as well as I wanted to on the verbal, so I have been trying to learn more words, and I am scared that learning all of these words are not going to help me bring my score up.

You took the revised GRE? Any advice? I took the old version last month because I thought I would do better, but I didn't do well at all so I am going to try my chances again with the new version.

So, of course, I will be applying this fall for next year. While I have been studying for the GREs and narrowing down my school choices, other than that, I don't have much done. I have been thinking about my SOP, LORs, and the Writing Sample, but I haven't DONE anything about those yet. Am I totally behind? I'm curious to hear what other people who are applying this season are doing or have done so far.

My first year teaching, I made all assignments due through blackboard because I thought it would be easier to grade electronically. However, I started to feel like maybe it was more cumbersome, so this year I had everyone turn everything in hard copy, and I graded SO much quicker! Now I only use Blackboard for my online classes. However, I do still make them submit them electronically as well so I can scan them for plagiarism if I need to.

All the conferences I have gone to have been on my own dime, but I've always made a little mini vaca out of it, and I've never regretted it.

So now that I have finally admitted to myself that I am going to have to take the subject test, I can't decide if I should take it in October or November. I get a little nervous about the November deadline because some of the schools I am applying to have a December 1st deadline, but the October one makes me feel like I don't have enough time to study because I have a LOT of studying to do, and I plan on retaking the GRE in September, which I am trying to study for, first. Advice, thoughts? What are others doing?

Wait, so you're saying I can open their document that they uploaded, make comments on it, but then not have to reupload it as a new document?

Definitely! Go for it!

Yeah, I'm in English Lit and my husband is in History. It's nice because some of our stuff overlaps, but we're separate enough.

I am REALLY nervous about taking this subject test. I'm wondering if I should make flashcards of the info on Vade Mecum or what. Does anyone have tips, especially if you weren't as familiar with a LOT of the info on that website?

Oh, I completely agree that there are definitely advantages to someone outside of academia, but it's just been my experience that some of my friends partners don't realize that we do more work than the 12 hours we spend literally teaching, or that grading is actually HELLISH work, or that academic and intellectual pursuit is worthwhile even if "only a handful of people are going to read it." Also, it's extremely nice to have the same vacation schedules because I know that a friend of mine who is engaged to a lawyer hates that she has so much time off for Christmas and summer but they can't do a lot of vacationing together because he doesn't get that much time off.

Wait, so I'm a little confused about the scores they gave you at the end. For example, did it say you scored between 140-160, or did it use the old scoring like you scored around a 650-690? Also, is the analytical similar to the old version?