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Watermelon Salsa! 3 c. seedless watermelon, finely chopped (keep some of the juice to combine with the salsa). 2 jalapenos, seeded and minced (if you like a spicier salsa, keep the seeds) 1/3 c. cilantro 1/4 lime juice (I used freshly squeezed limes, to taste) 1/4 c. minced red onion 1/4 tsp. salt, or more, to taste Combine all ingredients and voila. It tastes best when made in advance...I usually make it about 24 hours ahead of time!

You're really the only person who knows your situation and knows what you can tolerate. I would never, ever, ever encourage anyone to fake an apology and endure emotional/physical/verbal abuse in exchange for an education. Even though you are doing great in school now, abuse takes a major toll and the more you try and "cope" with it, the worse you will be emotionally. And if you're not able to function emotionally, your studies will eventually pay the price (even if they haven't yet). Not trying to sound judgmental, but if you are seriously thinking about faking an apology, I seriously hope you consider asking your parents to pay for some therapy, too. Abuse is called abuse for a reason and you are kidding yourself if you think that you will be able to continue on like nothing ever happened.

I should clarify that I received them by snail mail on the 1st. They are still not showing online.

I took the test July 19th and received my scores on August 1st

I wouldn't put much worry into a generalized statement. Even if it fits the bill for your school, there are still many, many other schools in the country! Sure you'll have to deal with sticky "politics" with any prosepctive employer, just like the rest of the population; however, it's more important that you let your work speak for itself. I'm sure you choose your particular school because it was the best fit for you and will help to really push you in the right direction with your studies. It would be worse for you to attend a school where the program is an obvious mis-match to your tastes. Also, I happen to attend a school in the Northeast and we have plenty of faculty from the south. Don't be discouraged!

Just to add: If your school offers the OED, use it! I love the OED...you can learn the root of the word and it's development over time. The OED helps me learn words better than just the dictionary.

Um. If you are talking about killing yourself as in you're waxing hyperbole and are not REALLY thinking of killing yourself: this is normal, but you should talk to someone (perhaps a trusted professor or friend) and find ways to alleviate some of the stress. If you are talking about REALLY killing yourself: this is not normal and you need to seek help immediately.

Your writing sample should be your strongest piece; it doesn't necessarily HAVE to be from a literature course. As for concentration, you don't have to have that picked out before grad school. Sometimes, it can actually be to your benefit to have an open mind because many people are rejected due to a narrow focus that cannot be accomodated. Having a general idea of what you want to do certainly helps, though! One thing I've found helpful is writing essays. The more writing and, therefore, research, I have to do for something, the better I can judge whether or not I like something, or whether I like something more than something else. Look up open calls for submission. Best case scenario is you get published and figure out what you want to do; worst-case, you gain writing experience. Also, you won't necessarily always be limited to just that specialization. My 18th century british lit professor teaches general 18th century british lit, poetry, rise of the novel, gothic lit, and the history of the english language. He's all over the place, but he finds a way to make everything work. Have you thought about maybe doing 18th century british lit with some women's studies? As always, excuse the poor writing form. I just get so lazy on forums.

Hi, I can definitely relate to your situation. At the end of my sophomore year, my mentally unstable sister threatened to kill herself and her daughter (I always knew my family was nuts!) and then two days later pulled her daughter out of school and disappeared. My grades suffered temporarily, but a detective found them three months later in another country, so I was able to quickly get myself back on track. I recently spoke at length with a number of professors who participate on my school's adcomm: Basically, if your grades were good before the incident and have improved since the incident, then this will reflect favorably for you and show the adcomm that this was an isolated problem. They will wonder about the temporary decline, though, so you definitely want to mention it in your SOP. Do talk about what happened and what you learned from the incident, but don't make it the primary focal point. You want to be able to demonstrate the incident as a slight hiccup in your history (after all, you won't be the firt person to have to explain yourself) without making it sound like it still controls your life. Use the rest of your SOP to highlight your achievements and qualifications for your intended grad program, and to discuss your future plans; make it move forward, not backwards. I hope this helps, and good luck!

Thanks everyone! While I realize the writing won't have as much weight as my writing sample, it was just frustrating to know that I didn't do well on any part of the test...and the fact that I couldn't even do well on the one area I excel in brought me down even more. BUT, whining and complaining won't help me, either. Today is a new day and I have the opportunity to turn this around, so I just need to re-center my focus.

Don't panic, I'm sure you'll do great! If you haven't already, though, definitely start working a little bit everyday on your vocabulary bc I hear that the new verbal is much more focused on context.

I'm just shy of $100K. Ugh. I keep telling myself it could be so much worse: http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2010/02/woman-owes-555k-in-student-loans/

Thanks for your response, and my apologies if I came off as whiney. These apps have me so stressed that I've pretty much thrown rationality out the window lately. It's just a number, it's just a number, it's just a number...a really important number, but just a number. Breathe, rinse, repeat, right?

If you took your GRE prior to today, you can expect the scores to be available after 14 days. I received the snail-mail scores faster. Hopefully you won't be as insulted by your analytical writing scores as I was. I'm not bitter.

13 days post-GRE epic fail (440v, 500q...test anxiety...ugh), I came home from work today to find the little white envelope containing my official scores, just sitting there on the counter, waiting for me. I didn't expect the V/Q scores to change, and have already come to accept that I have to retake, but I was dying to know how I did on analytical writing. "It can't be THAT bad," I told myself. In fact, I had no reason to believe that I would score anything less than a 6. Writing has always been my strongest area - particularly essay writing - and I left the exam feeling ecstatic that I was wrote a lot, gave myself about 5 minutes to proofread, and gave lots of detail and analysis. 3.5. 3.5. 3.5?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! This one "little" test is threatning my ability to even meet the minimum grad school requirements. It's hard to feel like grad-school material when I feel more like an embarrassment to my field. Sorry for being so negative, I'm just really stressed out about this and need to vent. I'm scheduled to re-take in November and just hope that I can pull myself together enough to do better. So disappointed.

I'm currently trying not to lose my mind! - Took the GRE, did so badly that my scores don't even meet the min. requirements for my desired schools (thanks, test anxiety!!!), so I have to re-take. - I've secured one LOR from the department chair of my school's English Department. I'm working on the 2nd and 3rd. I owe my 2nd one a paper and would feel guilty asking for a LOR before handing it in, but he's considered one of the top experts of 18th century British Lit and he's been ever so generous to allow me, a lowly undergrad, to take his courses at the MA level - I NEED his recommendation. The 3rd one is my honor's project advisor whom I've known since 2005, but sometimes I think she finds me annoying and verbose, which I am. I think I just need to ask her on a good day. - Working on my writing sample, which happens to be the paper I owe the above-referenced professor. This is probably why I can't seem to finish it. Too much pressure! - Now I'm focused on trying to contact faculty at desired schools to get my name out there and hope for even the slightest spark. I'm already having nightmares where I am rejected from every school in the country. Only 7-9 more months of this, right? PS, please excuse my typos and grammatical/punctuation errors. I'm tired.

This can be a little tricky, but I agree with runonsentence. Also, you might want to take necessary steps to ensure that the professor you are interested in working with will actually be around to work with you. This can be hard since unexpected circumstances may arise at any time, but you don't want to go on and on about Professor Jones' research, if Professor Jones is planning a lengthy sabbatical.

Thank you so much for sharing this! I have to re-take but wanted to find out what I'd be in for before picking a new date. Super helpful!

The more you know the person you're asking, the better the benefit to you. Anyone can get someone to say they did "good work" and scored well (after all, most people applying to grad school have received satisfactory grades), but the best candidates will be able to present LORs from people who really know their work and can attest to their abilities.

You should talk to a professor and see if they'd be willing to provide you with some suggestions for improving. Keep in mind, though, that there is no such thing as a perfect paper. In fact, some of the best papers are those that can be argued against. Personally, I never turned in a paper that I thought was shit. Surely, there must be something you like about your argument; otherwise, why did you write what you did to begin with?

The thing to remember about rejections is that you may have been rejected for reasons that extend beyond you and your application packet: low-funding, the professor you wanted to work with is going on sabbatical, etc. The point is that 1) you shouldn't be beating yourself up about having to reapply and 2) those who wrote your LOR will likely be happy to recommend you again. It might also help to shoot a note over to the professors you have an interest in working with, if you haven't done this before, just to get your name out there. Ask them about their research, funding, etc. One of my professors told me to approach my queries as though I've already been accepted and that I'm trying to figure out if I really want to attend there. So far, this has worked well for me (although I do feel weird trying to speak at a "professional" level with potential professors, knowing that I am no where near their level of expertise).

For those of you that are/were in relationships when applying to grad schools, did you find that your relationship limited your application pool? I've been with my S O for 4 1/2 years now and love him to bits and pieces, but he isn't exactly jumping for joy that I want to pursue a PhD. It took him a long time just to warm up to my decision to apply, but I told him this was non-negotiable in my book and I wasn't going to hold myself back for anyone. The issue now, though, centers around where I'll be applying; he's already told me that he's not moving away from our home in Los Angeles, which is understandable since he's a screenwriter and this really is the best place for him to be. Thankfully, there are a number of good schools here in CA that have great literature programs, so I don't feel so terrible about limiting my apps to one state, but I'm interested in hearing about how others have dealt with a similar situation.

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It can be a load of BS, sure, but PhD programs are highly competitive and there are many, many well-qualified candidates; it's just another way to drain the pool of applicants.