Mr Grimwig

Brown's application page still says I am missing a letter, even though my professor sent it twice, forwarded to me both confirmation emails that they had gotten the letter, and even though I called the department and confirmed myself that they had indeed received the letter. The moral of the story: worry not if Brown's application tells you you've got problems. I liked the look of the Brown application, and it seemed streamlined and easy at first. But, in the long run, I've found it to be perhaps the most vague and frustrating application I filled out. It felt like I was sending my application materials into a black hole, with no peace of mind that it had been received.

This made me laugh, lolopixie! I'm nearby, geographically, and I can feel your pain. I went to the University of Richmond, a small, strong liberal arts school, well-ranked, and highly-regarded in the immediate area. I had a terrific experience in our English department; since the school was pretty small (usually about 12 to 14 students per class), I was able to get to know most of the English faculty very well and benefit from lots of interaction. I took multiple classes with several professors who later became my mentors. These professors came from top-notch Ph.D. programs (Yale, Hopkins, UVa, Harvard), and I don't believe my coursework would have been any more rigorous at one of the larger, more well known Virginia schools, or even an Ivy League school. Indeed, I often felt like I was more pressured because I could not hide in a sea of several hundred faces in a lecture hall. I had to bring my A-game to every class session. That said, I fear few people know about University of Richmond and will not recognize its quality immediately. I do hope adcomms understand that there are many great universities capable of giving students strong backgrounds and do not cling to too small a pool of "big name" places. Surely they will recognize that. I hope.... Goodness me, my confidence and common sense seem to have abandoned me ever since I submitted my apps!

I get the feeling one's undergraduate pedigree does not matter immensely. Perhaps if you were in a dead heat with another applicant---similar writing skills and interests, equally good "fit", scores, and GPA----and the only difference was your undergraduate institution (a little-known school vs. a top 50), then you might be hurt. Almost all the programs I've applied to had a Current Graduate Students list on their websites, complete with background info about their academic history. Of course there were plenty of students who had done their undergraduate degree at the Ivies, but there were plenty more who came from obscure places. I guess that is as good an indicator as any regarding a particular program's willingness to accept students from various strata of academia.

I think I feel as awful as you do. I am anxious, and I cannot seem to settle down to anything wholeheartedly. I have been moody with friends and family in the past two weeks because I am on edge and pre-occupied with worry over this process about 90% of my waking hours. My moodiness only makes me feel worse, because I do not like being a jerk to people. But I have tried to distract myself and stop thinking about the wait with no success. I think it's because most of my close friends and family are relatively stable right now; they know where they are going to be living next year, whereas I have no clue. If I just knew for certain I would have at least one option to choose from come March, I would be happy. But the appalling possibility that I may have no options and have to go through this same rodeo again next year makes me want to vomit. I did not feel any of this restless tension before I finished submitting applications. But the moment the control was out of my hands, I crumpled. I do not like wishing my life away, but boy do I hope these next couple of months go by quickly....

I made an agreement with myself that, upon submission of applications, I would not, under any circumstances, review my statements of purpose, or any other elements of my application documents. For we all know the Newtonian Law of Typos, that a million pre-submission proofreads cannot tease out the glaring errors that one post-submission proofread can. If I looked back now and found an error I would dwell on it for the next sixty or seventy days until I find out the admissions results. I don't want all of January and February to be consumed by a misspelled word or split infinitive or some other nonsense. I just couldn't take it. I'm assuming they are all 100% error-free. There's no use looking back now!

Good to hear I'm not the only one who feels my professors and LOR writers do not understand how competitive this process has become. Even some of my younger professors seem to think I will be accepted by at least two or three programs, without a doubt. It's frustrating to hear their easy-peasy stories about applying twenty years ago. One of my letter writers bragged about how she had mediocre undergraduate grades but eventually decided to do a Ph.D. and got in on her first try. She only applied to one school (a top ten program) and she got in, no problem. She said she wasn't really worried or anxious, either; she assumed she would get in. I just can't fathom such a relaxed process! It is ridiculous, when you think about it, that we can be strong students and apply to fifteen or more programs and not even realistically expect to get into one.

When I asked for advice on writing my SOPs, my undergrad professors urged me to include names of faculty members who seemed to be a good "fit" for my interests. I felt weird doing it, not only because I realized it could be taken negatively by an adcomm reader out of jealousy or dislike for a colleague or whatever, but because it seemed so fake on my part. I don't know these people; I have at best a glancing familiarity with their work, and most of my knowledge of them came from the sparse info on the programs' webpages. Still, my professors urged me to mention them, saying it would make me look more "like you know what you're talking about" and "serious" about my studies. Now I wish I had not mentioned specific names, except for a few instances where I was very familiar with the professor's work and could really argue my case about how the prof. had influenced my work, how we could work well together, etc. I found one such dream scholar at Oxford who would have been perfect for me (his latest book project meshes perfectly with my previous thesis and dissertation proposal ideas), and I crafted a strong Oxford SOP with one whole paragraph largely centered around his presence. At the last minute, I found out he is going to be on leave for the next two or three years and won't be taking on graduate students' projects. Alas! Had I missed that nugget of information, I would have severely damaged my SOP. It makes me wonder if I have messed up elsewhere. So having been through this process once now, I would advise fellow applicants or future applicants to be very careful about mentioning specific professors. It just relies on too many things to fall together perfectly in order for a specific faculty mention to work well, and it seems entirely too probable that mentioning a professor could hurt you.

Writing has always been my strongest skill since kindergarten. My writing was universally praised by my professors. It's what got me through college with good grades, and it's what made my professors urge me to pursue a Ph.D. I got a 4.5 on the writing section. Meanwhile, one of my friends has mediocre-to-poor writing skills. I tutored him in our campus writing center many times during our undergraduate years. He got a 5.0 in the writing section. Of course it is possible that he wrote a much better essay than I did on our test days. But, given past history and my familiarity with how he constructs analytical papers, I would be very surprised if he had. I think the GRE writing section is a ludicrously subjective exercise graded in a pseudo-objective way. I've simply heard of too many of my best writer friends getting 4.0s and 4.5s to believe these scores are good indicators of one's writing abilities. This is not to say that if you get a good score you're a bad writer, I hasten to add; It's just to say I think some really good writers have styles that don't impress the GRE. I would guess admissions committees realize this. I can't see them rejecting someone simply by glancing at an Analytical Writing score, especially since they will have writing samples from us in front of them, samples that we didn't rush off in 30 minutes sitting in a testing lab, with no chance of thoroughly revising (or properly thinking, even). They'll have our polished "best example" work in front of them, and I'd certainly hope they'd put more stock in that. Then again, maybe admissions committees do reject on the basis of a score. It's a funny old world.

I don't know what to tell you bespeckled. The first two reps I spoke with said that scores for the 12 November subject test will show up online tomorrow. Until then, they said any score report requested would be sent blank. (Rather defeats the purpose of a score report, eh?) They explicitly told me to wait until tomorrow, 23 December, to request score reports for the 12 November test. The third representative, however, told me my subject scores have indeed been sent to all my schools already, that they were sent out five days ago. And I just got into a long Google black hole about ETS criticism, how they are supposedly a "non-profit" but rake in about $900million per annum and have a CEO obsessed with expanding their test-taking markets to elementary and pre-schools now (because their revenues from SAT and GRE just aren't enough, it seems). This process is driving me insane.

This is what it says on the ETS webpage when ordering score reports, and I quote: "Score reports for a future scheduled test date will be mailed when scores for that test date are available" I brought this sentence to the attention of the representative I was speaking with. She tried to argue what the definition of "that" was in the sentence---I'm not kidding! It was absolutely insane. She kept putting me on hold to talk with her supervisor, and all they could offer was to send three of my score reports for free, but I would have to pick up the tab for the additional seven reports. I angrily got off the phone, tired of fighting with them. Then my phone rings again. The representative is back on the line apologizing, saying they were looking at the wrong "profile," and my subjects scores had indeed been sent to all my schools. Beg pardon? Now I am not sure what to do. Do I believe the representative that they actually sent my scores? I have looked on my applications for schools and all the departments say they received a Subject Test score report---but how can I be sure it's not a blank one? I've tried emailing and ringing up departments, but everyone seems to be off for the holidays already. I am wondering if the representative is trying to play with my head and sabotage me by telling me they sent the score reports when, in reality, they still haven't. I know that sounds paranoid, but these people are scary.

I guess I would recommend calling ETS, even though they are like drones. My representative was able to tell me that my scores had been sent to my schools, but they were sent blank. She literally told me they sent a score report that listed my name, test date, subject test name, and a blank field for the score and percentile. I am angry at myself for not having foreseen how moronic ETS would be about this, but it just SEEMED obvious to me that they would wait until the score was ready before sending the report. It never in a million years would have occurred to me that they would send a blank report. The representative on the phone made me feel like an idiot, saying "Well that's what you get for sending in score reports before there are scores to report." In other words, I am punished for being on top of things. I told her their system made it seem like the scores would automatically be sent to the schools I listed once they were available. She told me I was "irresponsible" to have assumed that. And still no call back from her supervisor who was supposed to talk with me about getting out of paying twice for score reports. I am boiling at ETS, but right now I am trying to keep calm long enough to get this sorted out. After this is done, I want to find some good muckraking journalists to help me prod ETS and expose this racket.

I just got off the phone with ETS. The representative told me I would have to pay $23 again for each of my twelve schools. Nothing doing, I told her; Let me speak to someone superior to you. She told me someone is to call me back, which I do not believe will happen. I am not sure what my next step will be. And F.Y.I. to my fellow November 12 test takers, the representative told me our scores should be available to view online as of tomorrow, 23 December.

WellSpring, I fear I am in the same boat. I ordered score reports back in October requesting they send both General and Subject. My subject scores were not out yet because I wasn't taking it until November 12, but I ASSUMED ETS would wait until both were scores ready before sending the report. This is absolute madness. How did you find out that the scores had been sent without the subject test scores? On my ETS page, I can't figure out if they've been sent or not, much less which ones they may have chosen to include. I'm in a swivet now because I'd thought I'd had everything settled with my applications, and now it appears I do not. And there is no way I am paying for more score reports. That is utter B*S*. I can't believe I've spent $23 a pop and now they haven't even sent the complete package.

I emailed departments about the late GRE submission issue. I took the subject test this November, so my reports won't be sent out until sometime next week at the earliest. The departments all told me they didn't care if the GRE scores were late, that they dealt with this all the time and usually had scores coming in throughout January. I also have the feeling that most departments understand professors frequently submit letters late. One program (I think it was NYU) even said they allowed a one-month grace period after the application deadline (which was Dec. 1) before they expected all letters, GRE scores, transcripts, etc. to be submitted.

Deadline is January 1 for the English Ph.D. at Brown.

This made me freak out today. I saw I was missing a letter at Brown, even though the recommender said he'd submitted it. I told him to send it to the email address Aubergine listed above because, since I've submitted my application, I can't find a way to send him another official email requesting the letter. Thank goodness for this thread!

Thanks indalomena and yank! Hearing your experiences and advice is quite helpful. It seems like the British programs have many positives to outweigh the negatives. I am extremely self-motivated and work best independently. My favorite part of my undergraduate experience was my year spent working on an independent research project and senior thesis. So I feel like I would fit into the structure of British programs nicely, and I would not mind pursuing teaching experience and attending conferences on my own.

I cannot imagine whittling down my statement to 500 words. It took me three weeks to find a way to go from 1,300 to a more manageable 1,088 words.

I noticed the same regarding vibrancy in particular fields of study. I'm going into modernisms, and all the UK programs I am considering seem to have a lot of faculty and students working in that area, not to mention Masters courses specifically directed at that period. I almost didn't apply to UK programs, but given my lack of confidence in the US ones, I am so happy I made the decision to apply for a number of them. I want to have some sort of option open next year, even if it means paying more money than I would have wished. I still hope I'll be offered some form of funding, though I doubt it. From what my professors say, British programs love nothing more than whisking Americans and Canadians into their programs and plucking dollars out of their wallets for pound conversion. But perhaps this is too cynical a view. I also realize that I can go for a one-year Masters program there and still apply to American Ph.D.s again next cycle if I don't want to stay in the UK. It's a win-win situation.

Thanks poeteer! I guess "bombing" is a little strong. It's just I applied to a number of tip-top programs (Harvard, Yale, UVa, Princeton) after being encouraged by my professors that I "definitely had it in me." So I fear a 580 is bombing it for the Ivies. My GRE scores have always been my weakness, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal....until I came onto these boards and heard tell of places like Harvard and Yale throwing out applications immediately if a GRE score is under their 97the percentile or whatever. I hope that's urban legend, but I tend to believe it... Had I known then what I know now, I would not have applied to these top places. I am very confident and pleased with everything else in my application except the GRE. Hopefully that one weakness at least won't keep me out of the mid-range programs I have applied to. And, as aforementioned, the UK programs I'm going for won't even see them. ("GRE? What the bloody hell is a GRE?")

Anyone else applying to Masters' or Ph.D. programs in the UK for fall 2012? Now that I'm done with my American applications, I'm in the middle of apps to Oxford, Cambridge, UC London, Edinburgh, Durham, and maybe a few others. I'm applying for Masters degrees there first (MPhil, Ms.T.) because, since I only have a BA, I can't apply directly to their Ph.D. programs. I think the Masters programs will be a great preparation for a doctoral research course in a British university. I like the looks of a lot of these programs, especially the independence their course structures provide, and their focus on historical contextual readings that put less emphasis on theory. I'm pretty excited about my prospects, especially since these UK applications do not require GRE scores (my only flaw!) . The UK English departments make clear what they look for in applicants; they're more straightforward than most of the department pages for American schools I've applied to. Still, I have some reservations about the UK programs. --> Funding is much more scarce. Sure, the tuitions are lower, but still it's a far cry from the tuition waivers + living stipend most US programs I'm applying to are promising. Also, unless it's Oxford or Cambridge, I get the impression from my professors that British humanities programs are poorly funded in general. Perhaps this is too much a blanket statement? I always thought places like Edinburgh, UCL, and St. Andrews had top funding as well. --> I've heard from my professors and mentors at my undergraduate university that a doctoral degree from a UK program can pose problems for someone seeking a job in American academia. It's not that the UK programs are thought to be less rigorous; rather, it's about the teaching experience. Since UK doctoral programs only take about three years to complete, there is virtually no time for teaching opportunities, and they do not encourage them. Hence, one may be a weaker candidate in the American job market that's already glutted with American Ph.D.s who do have teaching experience from their six-to seven-year programs. --> I'm not sure what faculty interaction is like compared to American programs. The websites at Oxford and Cambridge promise lots of faculty contact, but I've heard from students familiar with these programs that it's nothing compared with the interaction at American universities. Despite the negatives, if I can't get into a good American program, I'd welcome the opportunity to go to the UK. Indeed, all other issues aside, I would rather spend my graduate studies in Britain, just out of personal preference for the experience.

Well I bombed it. 580, 62nd percentile. I never could get above the 70th percentile on practice tests, so I shouldn't be surprised. Plus I ran out of time and had about fifty questions left blank. Very defeating because I spent four months studying for it (read all the Nortons, made tons of flash cards, used Princeton guide). Also defeating because my GRE scores are the only flaw on an otherwise glowing application. So it looks like I'll have a slim chance of an American Ph.D. acceptance this cycle. Thank goodness the UK programs I'm applying to do not care about my Achilles' Heel, the GRE. Congratulations to everyone who got good scores!