Stately Plump

I applied there last year. I edited down the writing sample I sent elsewhere. I had a 20ish page paper that I cut down to 12, mostly by cutting entire sections that weren't absolutely crucial to my argument. I wasn't accepted there, so maybe don't take my advice, ha.

Northwestern isn't really in a "big city"... Chicago, yes, but it's actually in Evanston, which a "suburb" of sorts, and it's about half an hour from Chicago (and closer to an hour in traffic). Brown is basically in the middle of Providence, and while Providence is a "smaller city," there are actually some really great restaurants etc., and it isn't that far from Boston (less than an hour). I can understand not wanting to live in New Jersey, but Rutgers is so enormous that it has a "city"-type feel to it. I definitely didn't feel like I was in the suburbs at Rutgers. Sorry, just trying to make things complicated for you

Most MFA programs will require you take some literature courses (and you can probably audit others, even if they aren't required), so you wouldn't be totally without the study of literature. For example, Brooklyn College MFAs take one literature course per semester, in addition to their craft classes/workshops. The other thing you could do is write creatively while attending an MA program. Though you won't have much time for it, I can assure you that Additionally, you will be doing plenty of writing in an MA program. It won't be "creative" writing, but I think you'll find that the professional scholarly essay is much more interested in craft, style, voice, and form than one might assume (or at least, much more than I assumed, as an undergrad). I find this experimentation with form to be very interesting and exciting. The main problem with a joint MA/MFA would be the concentration, i.e., whether the MA or the MFA would get more attention. This is an especially tricky issue when it comes time to write the thesis; is it a creative thesis? A scholarly thesis? They certainly wouldn't want you doing both at the expense of each other. MFA/PhD programs work because they are spaced out over the course of 5-7+ years.

Yes, look for some other threads. Also, the practice tests don't always correspond to the real test. My scores didn't match up at all.

Well, to be fair, SUNY Buffalo doesn't say, "GREs aren't important to us and we don't look at them." They say "While we do gauge grades and GREs...", i.e. (probably), "we use GREs to do an initial cut of sorts, but after that, the GRE really doesn't factor into the decision anymore." And actually, if you click that link provided in the OP's post, at the bottom of the page it says that you must score a 1270 on the old and 313 on the new (combined verbal/quant) to be eligible for additional fellowships from the CAS. Programs don't often accept students who won't be competitive for funding, particularly if the department itself cannot guarantee funding. The last thing SUNY wants to do is accept a bunch of students but then find out that none of those students qualify for funding. GRE panics are really frequent on these fora, which I think is why you see more of the "don't worry about GREs" type of advice. GREs are the one thing we as applicants have to gauge ourselves against other applicants; our writing samples and SOPs are so subjective, we have no way of knowing how they'll be received. GREs, on the other hand, are clear cut; I did this well or poorly compared to everyone else. They are easy to stress about because from the moment the test is done, we have an idea of how we match up with others. And ultimately, this sort of worrying does nothing. Take the GREs, do the best you can, retake them if you think you can do better, but after that, what's done is done. Focus on the rest of your application. There are plenty of people on here, myself included, who had faaaaaar from perfect GRE scores, but still got accepted. True, my GREs weren't terrible, and true, they were higher than the "average" scores of all test takers, but my guess is that mine were on the low end of people accepted to humanities PhD programs.

I had a section of my CV--actually, the last section of my CV--that mentioned my language skills. It was very brief, just an overview of my preparation. It's a fairly standard part of the CV. I wouldn't mention it in your statement of purpose unless language is a fundamental part of your application. If you are interested in Renaissance French, for example, I would make it clear that you are nearly fluent in French and translation won't be an issue. Otherwise, I wouldn't waste precious space in the SOP talking about something that is ultimately a very, very minor part of your application.

Your writing sample should be your best piece of academic writing. It should be related to your proposed area of interests; if it isn't, there should be a viable reason, and I would even mention why you chose said piece (but really, send a writing sample that is in your field). And yes, make changes. Revise, revise, revise. Rewrite entire sections, if they are weak. Rearrange paragraphs. Ask for multiple people to read and review it, incorporate their feedback, then have them do it again. I wrote my writing sample for my senior seminar in the spring, revised it several times over the summer and into the fall, and only finished revising with maybe two weeks left before I started submitting applications. By that estimate, I probably spent about 11 months working on my writing sample. A stellar writing sample will you get in even despite poor test scores, weak undergrad, and potentially even a shaky LOR.

I didn't use Interfolio. In fact, I had never even really heard of it, until after the process was complete. But I do know that my letter-writers wrote one letter that they uploaded to every school; they admitted this to me. The only exception to that was my advisor's letter to her alma mater. She added a paragraph to that letter about how I'd be a great fit there, but other than that, every letter was identical. I don't think adcomms are expecting personalized letters from recommenders. They are professors too; they understand the extraordinary demand on their time, whether through teaching, research, service committees, or writing letters for faculty/students. They wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) expect a personalized letter from every recommender.

Buck.

Yes, a CFP is just the method by which a conference obtains papers. When one organizes a conference, they send out a CFP to attract papers to their conference.

I would try to get mostly recs from your masters program, even if it is only one year. One year of thoughtful, productive, and intelligent work should be enough to impress your current professors (or at least convince them that you are qualified to go on and succeed). At the very least, this is the thought that will be running through the adcomms' heads. They will assume that if you have no letters from current profs, there is a reason for that. And even though you've only been there one year, they will wonder why you didn't make some really solid connections in that year. The problem (well, one of the problems, among many) with the application process it that it is so wildly competitive that, in the final analysis, adcomms will assume the worst of you. That is, once they get down to 30-40 students who look identical on paper and who are all overly qualified to attend (and who are even wanted by the adcomms), they have to find some way of sorting those 30-40 down to 15-20. At that point, they have to assume the worst of us. Bad grades? Here's a different student with perfect grades. Sketchy letters of rec? Here's a student with all stellar recs. Of course, it isn't always true that only the "absolutely perfect" students are the only ones who get in. Funky things can happen on adcomms. This can be good or bad for us. But I would try to eliminate, as much as you can, the possibility for them to have any doubt about your application.

I wouldn't apply to 30 schools. I would find 10-15 schools where you feel most confident in your assessment of how you well you "fit" (you won't be able to actually gauge your fit, but give it your best guess) and focus on submitting a solid application to those schools. My thinking is that if you apply to 30 programs, you will be so overwhelmed with application materials that you will end up submitting an application that is just okay. And "just okay" won't get you in anywhere.

I wouldn't point out your lack of theory. You will probably get more theory as a grad student anyway. Your writing sample shouldn't necessarily engage any theory re: Derrida or Gadamer, but adcomms will probably expect some engagement with other secondary sources, not just the primary texts with which you deal. Your writing sample should identify you as a student already beginning to confront the larger critical conversation regarding your areas of interest. Aside from displaying a level of academic maturity most adcomms are seeking, this will also evince your ability to situate your argument within current scholarly debates, which will be fundamental to your success as a graduate student and, more importantly, your success as a scholar.

Are you referring to NYU in particular, or all the schools on your list? Because all the schools you listed, and actually pretty much any top 50 PhD program in the country, is so competitive that it probably is "not worth it." Most of us applied (or will apply) to 10-15 schools, and the lucky ones will get into 1 or 2 programs. This isn't to scare you, but just to point out the harsh realities of graduate education in the humanities.

If you want to apply, apply. You never know what might happen. I certainly wouldn't not apply, just because of GRE scores.

I would put them on. Don't overemphasize them; just have a little section for them at the very end of the CV. Make sure your other accomplishments are more prominent, however, because you don't want to make it look like these are "fillers" that you are throwing in because you don't have anything else to put on.

You may already know this, but UMass Boston only has an MA in English (well, and an MFA). Just wanted to throw that out there... You list mostly PhD programs and one MA program, so I wanted to make sure that was intentional. Best of luck in your applications everyone!

Nearly all departments accept less than 10% of applicants; many are in the 5% or lower range. Food for thought: Harvard's undergrad acceptance rate last year--the lowest in the country--was about 6%, Princeton's undergrad rate 8%, Penn's undergrad rate 12%, and Cornell's undergrad rate 16%. If you were to conduct a straightforward comparison of acceptance rates alone, you would conclude that being accepted to a funded PhD program is *at least* as difficult as getting into an Ivy League undergrad, and in reality, probably more difficult. Trust me when I say: any student, from any background, with any scores/grades/undergrad institution/writing sample/SOP, who makes it into a funded PhD program, has beaten the odds.

Harvard: 10,000 applied; hazelbite accepted

Ha! I read this entire thread and, perhaps unsurprisingly, all I could see were sexual innuendoes. I think it's a very interesting topic. I would discuss these interests in my SOP, if I were you. One word of caution: don't be so specific that programs feel they would be unable to accommodate your interests. If your research interests are too specific, you might alienate yourself from the faculty in the programs to which you apply. Adcomms might say, "By golly, this applicant has some fascinating research interests, and we would love to host her in our program, but we really don't have the resources available to do so. She would be better served in X program; hopefully she applied there." ---> pornography sunglasses

Perhaps email the director of graduate studies at the program that requires the test? Explain your situation and see what they have to say, or see if they have any recommendations.

I like the idea of collaborating on article summaries. Reading articles can be incredibly time consuming and does not necessarily payoff, unlike seminar papers, which could potentially turn into publications. I would be more hesitant about collaborating on papers--unless part of the course instruction is to do so--because when I work on papers, I am thinking about how I might turn them into publications. But article summaries might be very helpful. I have a few class assignments that require this type of "teamwork."

Ha. I remember in Feb/March/April, when new applicants were waiting to hear back, these number were in the 2 and 3 hundreds. It is obvious that school has started.

A student in my cohort did his undergrad at Yale. In his discussion of the English department, he used words like "traditional," "canon," and "Harold Bloom." He was pretty intentional--and presumably accurate--in his description of the department generally; he talked about how Yale's prominence during the 70s and 80s has largely shaped the culture of the department today. His two favorite professors, who were both younger and perhaps "less traditional," are both no longer there. Without saying it, he suggested that the reason they are no longer there may be because they were less traditional. This might come off as cynical or critical; I mean it to be neither. If I had applied and gotten in there, I would assuredly have gone. I offer this information purely in an attempt to be helpful for you as you try to make some difficult decisions. Incidentally, my cohort-mate did not apply to Yale's graduate program.

I haven't been in that situation, but I wouldn't ask any obvious questions, especially if the answer might be found elsewhere. You don't want to come off as naive or unprofessional, which would be devastating to your chances of being accepted. The only questions I would ask at this point would be about specific research interests. I would probably be more inclined to just say "thanks" and leave it at that. But then again, I didn't contact POIs beforehand.