rems

I'm revising a chapter of my MA thesis for my writing sample. I have one of rec writers helping me edit through the content in what I need to clarify, add, delete, etc. I haven't started the mechanics edit yet which is what I'm most afraid of... I'm typically not a strong writer mechanically (as I'm sure most of you can tell from my posts here which, as I read them over, are filled with errors all the time), so I am worried about this aspect. I second that it would be better to add to something than take away. Taking away usually doesn't end well! I'm glad you started this thread though -- I'm interested to see what other people are doing!

This is all great advice -- thanks everyone for responding! And that's what I was afraid of... I'm currently trying to find a "balance" between the two. It's hard to do though in, like, 500 words! This is exactly what I'm afraid of -- my SOP that specifically talks about what I want to do sounds too much like a topic proposal. It's a very difficult thing to figure out because I want them to know all the work I've done so far, and what I've already conceived. BUT I'm really afraid of coming as arrogant and like I have nothing to learn. It's so hard to balance the two! Here's another question while I have everyone here: I'm worried about taking the other route and seems too brief with what I discuss. How are people tackling this issue? I absolutely do not mean this to sound in anyway demeaning to anything, but in the SOP rough drafts where I've written about different course work I've done and different questions I've tackled, my reaction while reading them over is always "So what?" I'm worried that I'm coming as too "bland" or too "generic" or, really, I think the way to put it is sounding too much like everyone else. How are you guys going about this issue? How "specific" are you getting with your work, and when do you think it becomes too specific or too bland? That was a loaded set of questions -- sorry for that! But does anyone have any ideas about how to tackle these ideas?

Just how specific are people being their SOP's? I know there's already a lot of talk out there about this, but I was wondering if anyone wanted to share their thoughts on just what constitutes "too specific" to them, and how they're approaches this in with their SOP's? My question stems from this: I already have a pretty clear idea of what I would like to do my dissertation on, and I want to explain it in my SOP. But I'm really worried that it's just TOO specific. I already have a MA which makes me think I should be more specific than someone with only a BA. I've written two different SOP's with bulk body paragraphs: One talks in-depth about what I want to do on the next level, and one talks more about what I've already done and how this influences the multiple questions I want to answer. I think the first one is strong because it focuses on one thing, and demonstrates how much I already know about it, but I do worry it comes off as way too wordy. Like, the adcoms don't care step-by-step what I want to do on the next level. The second one I think is strong because it offers a wide array of interesting ideas, but I worry it comes off as too fleeting and not specific enough. Okay, so my question really is do we think it better to come off as very narrow-sighted with our future projects or do we think it's better to come off as broader and more open to ideas? Or does it matter? Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences with this issue?

That's what I figured, sigh. I've read on here before (can't remember where, forgive me) that people have called and asked the DGS directly if that would be alright, and the DGS has said that it's fine. OF COURSE this is not gospel, and I'll probably go with just paring down my sample rather than risking coming off as not being able to follow directions. I've also never had a teacher who limited page length like that, but I have had profs say their professors at other schools who had those types of limits. Apparently being able to follow directions is sometimes as important as being able to write the damn thing, who knew? Thanks for answering my questions! ABSOLUTELY.

YES YES AND YES (again). I actually spent about 15 minutes yesterday talking to my boyfriend about how I'm pretty sure that one of rec writers secretly has hated me for the past four years, and is going to write a bad rec for me. He told me that was the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard, but I'm still kinda convinced otherwise... AND my writing sample is a part of my MA thesis. I'm submitting the second chapter as my writing sample, so I'm going to write a 1 (MAYBE one and half) page abstract (that's better than the one submitted with my actual thesis, ek) that explains the overall work, and how that chapter fits into it. I'm also going to mention it briefly (like, half a sentence briefly) in my SOP that it's part of a larger thesis that is a cornerstone for my work, etc. etc. BUT I'm concerned that without the other two chapters, it won't make sense... WHAT OH WHAT if I've picked the WRONG chapter? What if chapter 3 is what would have gotten me in because that's my best work not stupid chapter 2? And just practically speaking, I'm not including a cover page or anything. Just abstract/brief intro to entire work and then that work with the end notes and works cited page attached. I think it totals around 21 pages (ek again) so I'm hoping that's okay. Here's a question: Does anyone have any experience/heard any stories about people submitting works that are one or two pages longer than what is requested? Is that, like, an automatic "throw away" since it shows I can't follow directions, or does it not really matter because that extra page was the Works Cited or something? Should I call, and ask before just sending it in like that? MY OH MY that is stressful. Long story VERY short, I'm also totally necrotic about ALL of these things. And many MANY more. Did I mention I took the GRE yesterday (for the 3rd time) and scored EXACTLY what I got the second time I took it? And I mean EXACT SAME FUCKING SCORE. Now there's a waste of $175.

I used Enda Duffy in my MA thesis, but I spelled his name "Edna." It wasn't until my defense that I got corrected by a prof who said, "You do know this is a guy right? It's Enda NOT Edna." Woops.

Haha! Sorry about that! I guess this prove we at least have good advice to share

I looked up all my professors CV's (they're usually online) and copied the sections I liked the best for the formatting and section headers. Also the wording seemed to differ between each one, so I kind of "grazed" from about 4 different CV's when it came to how I worded things. You'll see from multiple examples which styles you think work best for you. Good luck!

I second this. As someone who just isn't good at taking the GRE, I have to convince myself that I can apply anyway despite the fact that I know what two espressos said is true. I also already have a MA, so I'm hoping that I've "proved" I can succeed at the graduate level despite what the GRE says. I know there's already a thread dedicated to this, but I'm spending today (avoiding) studying for the test I'm taking in just under 2 weeks (for the third time). It's embarrassing! I feel as though my app is baller (that's the official adcom word for it, BTW), besides the fact that I can't do well on this stupid test for the life of me. I just don't have a good brain. Long story short, I don't think GRE should stop anyone from applying. If you were in the, say, 58% that might cause some alarm to your adcoms, but generally I'm hoping that other stuff makes up for it. If a GRE score keeps you out, you probably weren't going to get in anyway -- that's what I keep telling myself so I don't throw my apps in the trash after I take the test on the 25th.

There is no cut off for scores that are "good enough" for admissions. BUT, the word through the grapevine is that hitting top 15% is the cut off. You've missed it by 2%, so I would assume you're doing pretty good. I've also had people say that a lot of schools just make sure you can hit the top 25%, and they don't matter much after that. Depends on the program and your overall application. I've said it once before, but it bears repeating now: GRE scores can't get in you "in" but they can keep you "out." I would only be really worried about this if you were below the 70%. But, of course, this is not gospel. I scored in the 73% last year -- stupid ETS! -- and am hoping to bring it up to AT LEAST the 75% so I can hit the top 25 mark this year. I am scared of being kept out because of these scores, but they aren't keeping me from applying by any means.

Have we not picked up on the fact that queenbee69 is a troll, as two shots pointed out immediately? Instead of tearing each other apart in a community that is meant to support one another, why don't we all decide to stop posting here..? This tread is out of control, and it's turned into everyone flexing their English muscles to show how much we know about the field of English studies. Since we're already feeling self conscious and like we're not "worthy" during application season, it's easy to pour salt in those wounds like queenbee69 has done here. Queenbee69, if you are not a troll and simply trying to express a concern for your chosen field and life path, then I'm sorry you are encountering such discontent with your decisions in life. Please take some serious time to reflect if you want to carry on in your studies. Graduate school is a major decision not to be taken lightly, and if any one of us tries to deny for a minute that we also encounter doubt along the way we're lying to ourselves and this community. Queenbee69, if you are a troll, you have successfully Molotov-cocktail-ed this forum. Congratulations.

I think your opening does border on "too personal." You may focus on it a little too much -- perhaps taking some of the details out would help. It makes it seem like you're focusing on YOUR story and not your research interests. Stating that this is where you passion came from is completely fine and probably makes it stronger but focusing SO MUCH on it makes it seem like you're writing a personal narrative and not a statement of purpose. To be completely honest, your paragraph sounds angry which is not the tone you want to give off to an adcom. It could be argued that this even sounds like your pursuing your degree in order to prove your parents wrong rather than striving to understand what goes wrong in child psychology. Your story is very interesting, but focus more on how it influenced who you are TODAY instead of focusing on what your parents did to you in the PAST. I would even keep the opening line, but you don't need the specifics of your diagnosis. Focus more on who you are now rather than who you were then. One or two sentences explaining how your diagnosis influenced your career path is strong, but an entire paragraph about how you think your therapist was wrong doesn't have anything to do with your graduate studies... At least according to an adcom. But, of course, this isn't my field, and I'm not on an adcom. I don't mean to sound harsh, and I agree with JoeyBoy718 -- it's YOUR statement not mine. Write what YOU think will get you in and what you're passionate about. Best advice.

Well put, and I fully agree with you.

Well, that totally depends. The short answer, no, not really depending on what you want to do. Especially if you're not gearing up to enter a PhD program then, really, I don't think it matters all too much. I've only heard that it matters to PhD admissions because they want to see that you can handle a language requirement since it's required for most PhD's. If you're going into teaching or technical writing or just plain writing then I don't think it matters too much if you have an MA or an MS. In fact, the reason my school offers the MS is for the secondary education people who receive an MS because they spend their time student teaching and interning rather than learning languages. That program also takes 3 years and those people are hardcore students. Outside of the world of academics I have heard from multiple people that your actual degree (MA or MS) isn't much of a concern. So I think it depends on your end goal -- like most things in life Good luck either way!

I was in a similar boat last year -- I had a BS in English (not a BA) and had to take a language exam to get my MA. A lot of programs don't require languages, but you may receive a MS (Master of Science) instead. My school does this, and I've heard of others. I think the language part is typically a primary component of earning the Master of ARTS. I could be very wrong about this, but from my experience that's usually the way it goes. Buffalo doesn't have a language requirement, I think, so I second sebastiansteddy. I took the French exam last year, and it was much much MUCH easier than I thought it would be. Note, I had NO experience with French prior to this (none whatsoever) and just got a French dictionary and ordered a French grammar work book and taught myself. Am I anywhere near fluent in French? Oh god no, but I could translate a passage with a dictionary decently enough to get the language requirement. OF COURSE, this is going to vary from school to school and program to program, but I was reading message boards last year while going through the process, and others at different schools than mine said the same thing. Not as bad as it sounds. VERY stressful though when you're trying to do that AND finish your thesis AND teach AND find a job/apply for PhD, etc. And you'll prob end up VERY resentful towards those in your program who did a language as an undergrad and didn't have to add it to the pile. Sorry that was a rant. So to answer your question, I just wanted to say to double check what degree you'll be getting without the language requirement at each university. They may not require it initially, but you'll get a year in and they might say, "oh yah, without the language requirement you're getting a MS and not a MA" or something like. Good luck!

I agree with this. This opening is great -- clear, strong, CLEAN, interesting, demonstrates passion and just enough info to suggest you actually know what you're talking about. The first two sentences are a little generic, and don't really say a lot about you or what you want to do. I would start with the third sentence. All-in-all, this is a great intro paragraph.

I love this!!

You're awesome! I'll PM you. Thanks!

I have not been diagnosed as bipolar but I do have similar fears regarding my undergraduate. I have my reasons for my awful transcript, but all-in-all I'm scared shitless that adcoms will throw out my file instantly because of it. I came back in my final two years of school (5-year route), did awesome, got into graduate school (not a good one but I made the best of it), and at this point I feel as though I'm a highly competitive candidate for some great top 20 programs. BUT there's the looming blackhole of my first two and half years of undergraduate (dropped out for a semester) ready and waiting to get me knocked out of the competition without a second glance. Your scores are awesome (to echo asleepawake), and you seem to have a great profile going in. One of my profs had a horrible undergrad, dropped out, drank a lot, went crazy, came back, graduated, went to Notre Dame English PhD, tenured professors, Fulbright, etc. etc. She promotes this all the time, too, saying that it isn't your pedigree that matters in the end but what you can do with it. Kinda lame, sure, but at least a little inspiring for us on the not-so-glamorous end of higher academics. Hopefully, and this is only hopefully, some adcoms or profs on said adcoms will be looking for candidates who are interesting, and can produce interesting work. Your history gives you an interesting edge meaning that you probably think differently than most people which to some will be an advantage. To others, of course, this will be a huge disadvantage. It all comes down to who is sitting on what committee and what they're looking for. Maybe they're tired of continually admitting the "same" perfect score students. Maybe they only want perfect score students. You never know. So apply anyway. I'm sorry to hear that you're having to make up for something that is out of your control in the first place. That totally sucks, and I'm sorry to hear that you have to deal with it. To be frank, if bipolar disorder was an issue in accepting/hiring academics, the entire system would shut down. I'm not trying to sound blunt or to undermine what you're dealing with by any means, of course. Best of luck to you!

Thank you so much again for your advice! You have really gone above and beyond what I would expect! My focus is primarily on urban environments in literature, James Joyce, and Irish literature. I also study so-called "low-culture" in reference to popular culture and the evolution of the grotesque (think the The Walking Dead). So I've been looking for programs who have professors who work primarily in urban studies and/or Joyce. The programs I'm strongly considering at the moment are Wisconsin-Madison, Buffalo, Michigan Ann Arbor, Austin, and Chapel Hill. There's a prof at Brown who looks really promising, but I'm not betting the family farm on getting accepted there I think I might contact some current grad students at the programs I'm really interested in to ask about the culture of the department. I have a feeling that they might be able to answer questions about the "feel" of the department as a graduate student than a prof can. From my experience, different profs see aspects of the department in different ways so depending on which one you ask you'll get different answers. Thanks, again, for all your advice! You have been a huge help! DITTO. I read a post on here awhile ago about a student not getting into Buffalo because they were applying for poetics and sent a writing sample that had nothing to do with poetics. I might be mixing that up... I am referencing a post I read a while ago. That being said, you should most def send in a sample that coincides with your SOP. Sorry to hear about the library situation! You might still have access to online journals and archives if you're an alumni. At least, my school still grants access via the internet as long as you still have your log in -- I don't think they expire. Maybe that would be something to look into..?

Thank you all so much for your advice! I'm thinking about replying with the "thanks for your time and advice." I can't immediately think of any specific questions that would be not obvious at the moment anyway, and am having second-date jitters of coming off as stupid :/ You do have a good point, proflorax, that emailing doesn't really help your chances of getting into a program, but it is an important step in narrowing down your options... I think. Plus I wanted to list this professor in my SOP and have heard that that's a bad idea if you haven't contacted them first. And just FYI for anyone else reading this thread, I spoke with the graduate director of my program yesterday about the etiquette of these emails and he said the most important thing is to come off as professional. AKA -- don't "bother" them and don't wax poetic about your studies, interests, dog, etc. He did suggest contacting POI's AND whoever is in charge of graduate studies there. Apparently, they can answer more questions than a POI can and it's more of their "job" to answer those types of questions. I had thought of contacting some directors, but then chickened out and thought not to. However, now I think that might be a good idea too. My director also pointed out that you can tell a lot about the department based on the attitude of the graduate director. If s/he seems like a jerk (he sighted Princeton as a specific example -- sorry to any Princeton people who disagree with this!), then the rest of the program might follow suit. But that all depends on what you "kind" of program you're looking for. Thanks, again, everyone! Your advice is much appreciated!

Does anyone have any advice on the SECOND email you send a POI? Like, if they write back saying, "Hey, you should apply. You seem interested. I can answer any questions you have." Now what? Does one ask ALL the obnoxious questions s/he has in one go (kidding, I know I would at least be tactful about it), or is it more customary to just say "thanks" and leave it at that? Just wondering if anyone's been in this situation before, and how they went about it. Thanks!

I don't know but I've been told that international students who are not native English speakers are not held to the same GRE standards that native English speakers are. A fellow grad student of mine is Brazilian, and he came here to study James Joyce and to work with translation studies. He told me that he bombed the GRE verbal, but our grad director told him not to worry about it. Even though he had a degree from a Brazilian university in English literature, he was still not a native English speaker and that the adcoms considered this when faced with his low GRE score. That's just at the university I attend (or did attend, I graduated), and I don't want to speak for adcoms at other universities. But I wouldn't jump to the conclusion if I were you that you aren't going to get in because of your low GRE verbal. I would suggest trying at least one more time to bring it up a little but you're not going to be bring it up to the 90%... But I don't know how much that's going to hurt your chances. Once again, I'm not an expert and I don't mean to lead you in the wrong direction regarding this decision. I try to be optimistic about these things. Even if you don't have a shot at getting accepted at least you tried. When it's all over all it cost you was a few months of anxiety and $90 (more than that, I know, but I mean to apply to one school). Good luck!

Can I ask something without sounding horribly Republican... How "international" are you? Like are you an Irish student or from somewhere that definitely doesn't speak English as a first language? If you're the latter (I realize how horribly un-PC this is sounding -- DEF not trying to sound racially ignorant or something along those lines), then adcoms will consider this while applying. I've meet a few international MA students (my thesis adviser's claim to fame is translation studies so she gets a lot of international students and I work with them sometimes), and we've shared horror stories of passing the GRE. A few of them have stated that as long as you can pass the test for English (I can't believe I can't think of what's it's called right now -- again, please excuse my horrible ignorance) competency, then your GRE Verbal scores aren't as important. They're aware that you're not a native speaker and that these can be very difficult for international students. But, at the ivy level it might be a bit different. Berkeley isn't ivy but it's still f-ing Berkeley, so I'm not sure what their standards are. If you're a top-notch fit and applicant except for your GRE's, then I would still apply. But I would still retake the exam. Statistically, your score will go up a little and a little can only help your chances.

Yes! That would be perfect!