rems

OMG that is AWESOME.

One of my profs got her MA in the UK and she said that there were a lot of issues with "interpreting" her transcript to the point that they went and found an English guy to read it. She claims this extra attention is what got her in, so it might work to your advantage.

I would agree with this. My hesitation towards calling grad school the "life of the mind" comes from the assumption that we're all sitting around sipping wine with awesome mustaches, wearing excellent top hats, and having amazing conversations with like-minded people about the progression of blahblahblah. That's not exactly it. There's definitely mustaches, but less charm.

I don't think in the initial cuts an A- or B would do much, but it might affect (effect?) your chances when it's down to 12 applications for 10 spots. They have to start weeding people out, and if someone has a perfect 4.0 vs. a 3.8 they might use that as a reason to cut someone. I say this as someone without a 4.0 from graduate school, but it could affect you in that regard. About half of my profs in grad school gave A's because you were in graduate school -- as along as you checked off all the boxes you were supposed to complete almost everyone got an A. But, the other half of profs were a lot tougher to please, and required not only that you check the boxes but produce, if not original, than damn good work. I think the OP might also be asking what comes of those who get A-'s and B's once IN a PhD program. To that end, I'm not sure. My MA is not from a very well known or top notch school or whatever, and the people I know here who got anything less than an A usually got it because they earned less than a B but the profs were being nice. The kids who got B's typically didn't stick around too much. I think a lone A- or, god forbid, a B here or there might not matter much, esp if you're taking a particularly hard prof. Also, once your in grad school, you do A LOT more than take course work and sometimes your course work suffers as a result. I had two profs just let me not turn in an assignment because I was out of the country at a conference. Under the radar, of course, but they both held the notion that it was more important for me to go to conferences than worry about a reading response or two. I think this varies by prof obviously, but once you're in a program, if you're teaching, takes 3 courses, working on conferences, a pub or two, in 2 student groups, leading a discussion group, on a search committee, and maybe working on your second language requirement or setting up for comps, if you scrap by with a generous A-, no one will care. This probably also applies when it comes to apps as well.

Tip of the hat, sir.

I rescind what I said earlier about getting a B. I think this discussion may come down to the "picture" your grades present. If you have done great things, but have lowly A- or even the dreaded B, I think your overall "portrait" as a student is still strong. I think this, then, varies from person to person and what your "overall" package represents. And I think the hard sciences and humanities differ a lot in this regard. Most humanities grades are determined by course work culminating in a dissertation, publication, presentation or two by the time of graduation. My dad has a MA in immunology or something else super science-y, and explaining to him how I was getting a MA WITHOUT doing an experiment was like trying to explain to your dog why it's raining. He would not accept the fact that I was earning a higher degree without doing, what he considered to be, quotequote, "research." I was like, "Dad, we do research, we just don't have petri dishes involved." "So you read books?" "Yes. We read lots of books." "But how do you quantify results?" "We kinda make up the results and then back it up with what other people say." "I don't get it." "Le sigh."

If I can be frank, grad school is hard and frustrating. Oh, and you're totally poor for, like, ever. BUT, I get really tired of people saying stuff like this over and over again. I think a lot of these types of complaints about graduate school come from people bitter about graduate school. I have lot of intelligent, successful friends out there that when I mention my Ph.D.'s apps seem to get weird, and their response typically falls along the lines of, "I could have gone to grad school, but I decided I wanted to make money." And then they laugh harder than what's appropriate. I'm not a psychology major, but I'm going to analysis these people: I think a lot of people want to go to grad school and are drawn to the allure of the glamour of the so-called "life of the mind" but don't go for varying reasons. Then, they sit at their desk jobs and say, "I could have gone to grad school -- I'm smart and, gosh darn it, people like me!" And then they decide not to go anyway, again. So when they run into people like us (neurotic grad students), they are suddenly reminded that they could have gone and didn't and they get kinda snarky about it. Ever ask someone why they didn't apply? You might as well punch their dog. It's annoying. Yes, I'm applying for graduate school. Yes, I know how little money I'll make. Yes, I know that I'll probably get a divorce. Yes, I know I'll work 120 hrs+ a week for little pay off. Yes, I realize that my only job is on par with a grading monkey. Yes, I know that the "life of the mind" doesn't actually exist. Yes, I know grad school isn't the place for validation. Yes, I know that I have a <1% chance of being the next Derrida. Yes, (I'll say it again), I know there's no money in it. YES YES YES to all of this. People of the grad cafe: Do not be deterred, my friends. You'll end up regretting your life no matter path you choose -- there's no "right" answer. So pick one, and talk it out with your therapist later.

I got one A- in graduate school. I don't think it causes too much alarm as long as you only have one or two. I took, like, 36 something graduate credit hours and managed out of all that to get ONE A-. The adcom won't know this, but everyone in the class got an A-. That particular prof is a notoriously tough grader, and I even debated not taking her class for that very reason. BUT, I didn't have a lot of "diversity" in my courses, and I wanted it to look like could read literature written before the 1900's -- backfired. Long story short, my overall grade was a 91.2. She has anything under a 91.89 as an A-. This also varies from school to school and prof to prof. So the adcom won't know, first, what the prof was like, second, how the overall class was structured, and, third, the nature of that prof's grading. So, one or two A-'s and I think you're okay. Any B's though, well, you're fucked. And I would say, this is only my opinion, that anymore than 3-4 A-'s would raise alarms. 5+ would be a death rattle.

So does anyone else on here keep seeing their email read (1), and then anxiously clicks on it to find out someone liked their pin on pinterest? This has been the story of my day.

I did exactly this. My first 3 programs required 20 pp writing samples whereas my last three required 25 pp writing samples. My sample is from my MA thesis anyway, so the first three got a chapter, the second three got a combination of two chapters will a lot of the "examples" cut off focused on theory. The second batch is FARFAR superior to the first one. Le sigh. I think I was warming up with the first one, so by the time I got to the second one I was way into editing. Here's something to consider for everyone out there who currently is in school while applying: I commend you greatly. I think the reason I was able to edit as much as I was was because I was out of school and kinda missed editing so I put a lot into it. I can't imagine writing end of the semester papers right now while editing a writing sample. Tip of the proverbial hat to you all. And who is it that has a baby on here? bfat? You are a god among men.

That's excellent! I was reading through this just now, and having a panic attack for you!! I just kept thinking, OMG she HAS to post that they let her submit them late... Everything will be okay. Best of luck to you with this situation! I am SO sorry that happened. Many virtual hugs. I have never had a problem with this. In fact, I emailed my profs after I submitted their names saying, "Hey, I just submitted to [blank]. Just FYI you should be receiving the letter form any time now..." That's why one of my profs stopped by my office on campus and told me to "take a pill." I even saw him in the hallway the other day, and he said, "Wait, should I be sitting at home right now awaiting rec letter alerts?" And I was like, "Very funny. I know, I'm totally annoying." Then we both laughed and I have him a gift card, so it's not rude as long as you bribe them with coffee.

My CV has my thesis adviser's name on it, but I did that because a lot of the examples I looked at for CV's listed the chair's name. It wasn't for any other reason. So I assume it might be common practice to as much.

Ditto. And yes, recs do matter. A lot of them are generic (format/outline that prof just inserts your name into and maybe one specific paper you wrote), but if they are awesome, they help a whole fucking lot. Also, if you come from very small programs (like I do), and your profs know you quite well, that can be a big advantage over people coming from big programs where you're just a name to them who got an A in their Romance course. So maybe that can be a comeback from the aforementioned "fucked"-ness of coming form no-name programs..? No? Here's to hoping.

Well, yeah. I more meant that when you assess your own application, you can't assess what everyone else has so it's a big blind spot. I was trying to be funny

You guys are all crazy. That shit is delicious.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm pizza rolls. Dip them in ranch dressing. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

This is an interesting thread, and one that gets repeated on here all the time, in that we have no idea what group we fall into. I mean, nobody thinks they have a 0% chance or else they wouldn't even bother applying. All of us on here are constantly complimenting each other for being able to accomplish things that we consider to be "bad" aspects of our applications. I, for example, have horrible GRE scores, so whenever I see someone with great scores, I'm instantly like, "Well I'm fucked -- I knew it." But maybe I'm not... We never know. Perhaps my scores are high enough to make it past a first cut and then they won't matter anymore. Maybe I don't qualify for funding for some state schools bc of those scores, and so I get cut for that. Who knows? Also there are people on here who look great on paper: 4.4, head of this, head of that, student of the year, 169 GRE scores, 90% on the subject test scores, good letters of rec. But can't for the life of them write a decent SOP, so they make the first cut, maybe the second, and then get beat out by five students with better SOP's. It's a craps shoot. And no, we don't have a 2% of getting in bc we don't know what everyone else looks like. It's kinda like Foosball: you don't actually have to be good at it, you just have to be better than the other guy. Hmmm, I feel like I needed to say that to myself. Very therapeutic!

I agree. I was debating mentioning the "cultural implications" of It's Always Sunny in my SOP. Also, the gender stereotypes of How I Met Your Mother (seriously, though, that show has gone down hill, quick).

Datatape, that was beautiful.

OMG I'M DONE. And I just submitted to Stanford, so, JUST WHO DO I THINK I AM? That's all folks -- see you in a few months. HAHAHA Who am I kidding? I'll still be here.

I'm not a huge Whedon fan either -- I like his stuff a lot, but I'm not headoverheels for it. It's not that firefly is bad, it's just Buffy and Dollhouse are better. I do love me some Nathan Fillion tho. To all of this, awesome! I wish I'd read more at this point, so I can comment further on this, but in the meantime, you're making me want to start the second one right now...

NOT A NERD. I mean that as an insult.

I think I read the original -- it was an old copy I just happened to find at the Goodwill used bookstore. I was literally about to buy a copy of it at Barnes and Noble, and then I went to the used bookstore first and, well, that it was. I loved it. I can't wait to start the second one. I mentioned it at the dept xmas party, and some grad students (I can say that with disdain since I'm an adjunct now) started going on and on about how much they hated the series, esp. books two and three which I had heard were the best. I begged them not to spoil anything, but I'm really excited to see what everyone is talking about (nerdalert). My boyfriend just read The Wind Through the Key Hole -- he's a big SK fan -- and he said it was pretty good, but also suggested to read them in publishing order. I've read a lot of SK in my day, but this has been the one series that I just haven't gotten around to. I've read The Stand last summer which is another reason that I wanted to start this series. I'm currently straddling Dark Tower with Song of Fire and Ice series. I kinda wish I had chosen just one, but I decided to read The Gunslinger before I started book 2 for Martin's series. (nerdalertx2). And Dollhouse is great -- I actually watched Dollhouse before I watched Buffy (I was a late convert). But you do have to get through the first few eps tho. And it speaks a lot to feminism and women in modern culture regarding the body as comodity, etc. etc. I won't get into. Just watch it. FIrefly is pretty good too, but probably my least fav. I haven't watched Angel yet, but it's in my Netflix queue.

I would take it one further and say that they don't want people who are unmotivated as well as they don't want students who scream "I really like books, I like being able to drink during the day, I like the unconventional lifestyle, I really like books (did I mention that?), I'm afraid of real life, I can't figure out what else I do, wait let me rephrase that to I LOVE books, I'm used to getting straight A's and can't live in a world where I'm not continuously being praised for being smart, Shakespeare speaks to me, did I mention I like books?" I think a SOP that demonstrate anything even close to that would be a kiss of death for an applicant. That's another reason why I think the "fit" paragraph is important because it shows you want more than to go to Harvard for the prestige and wine. Let me preemptively state that I don't think anyone on this forum does this nor do am I trying to ridicule anyone for what they chose to put in their SOP. I just think that these are the traits that adcoms don't want to see present in a SOP.

I agree.