Imogene

I did a quick search to see if this discussion had played out here before, but couldn't really find anything. Does anyone have any insights into the distinction between these focus areas/programs within Purdue's PhD programs? I'm pretty sure I know which area, on paper, I want to concentrate in, but I'm curious about what this means from faculty, experience, and admissions contexts. I have to identify a concentration in my application, so I wanted to see if anyone had any wisdom to share.

anyhoo, back to the thread. I had to contact some schools to clarify some things today, and there were a couple of things I found out that I thought might help other folks: Purdue: the graduate school site and online application say SOPs need to be 300-500 words, but I checked with the Grad English Admin who said that they have no limit --> so you can disregard that 500 word limit on the grad school site/online app. BU: if you're using Interfolio, don't use the email notification option for your LORs. In the BU application online, list your recommenders as submitting their recommendations via PAPER. Then go to the Interfolio site and use the "manual" delivery process, select the BU Grad Arts&Sci, electronic delivery. I hope that helps!

Wow a lot happened here today. Are you guys ok? But, on another note, if I can step out and be part of the assessment crew, I think a positive take away from this is that people clearly care about this forum. They care about what they get out of it, how it impacts their feelings -- and I think folks care about each other on here. But with that care comes other strong feelings -- like anger and defensiveness, especially when a threat to the "good stuff" is perceived. And when you build an online community, you have to expect that folks start acting like a community -- you can't expect community members to forget who individual posters are or what they have posted previously when they start new threads or post in different threads. These aren't just one-off "posts" -- these are discussions and even relationships. And I'm just talking about our online behaviour and community dynamics here -- I'm not even touching the online/off-line identities thing.

Yes. Speaking of which: I may have been hallucinating a bit, but I thought I saw something somewhere on BU's site *today* about a changed process (something about differentiating between MA/PhD and straight-to-PhD) earlier today, and this evening I went to go find it again to make sure I was following the new directions, but I can NOT find this anywhere now. Did anyone else see anything like this? I'm not going to sweat it if I can't find it online again and, anyway, I can't find anything special in the online application that indicates anything about options here to check, but I kinda feel like sites and schools are just f'ing with me now, and I want to know whether: 1) this is true or 2) I was probably hallucinating. kthanksbye (edited to change the a/b list above to numbers because the b was getting changed into emoticon)

i just have to say, I love how department websites are so very clear about their applications logistics and that there are never inconsistencies across the several different pages of a department's site, and that they are always nicely complemented and corroborated by the directions on the graduate school's site and various sets of application directions. This has made this process so very stress free.

i ran out of up votes, y'all, but wanted to say: hear, hear! nice work, everyone, and great idea @rems !

Purdue's SOP length is 300-500 words? The graduate school info says 300-500, the department page says nothing about word length. Has anyone already asked the English Dept about this? Thanks, and sorry for these "help, I'm clearly freaking out about things I should already know" posts!

PSA: As someone has already pointed out -- please, don't feed the trolls. It's for our own good. Or, perhaps put another way with this one: don't take the bait! (Come on people, you're smarter than engaging in this.)

I just saw (how did I miss this before -- was this recently updated??) that UConn doesn't want us to use Interfolio for letters of recommendation: "Please have recommendation letters submitted directly to the "ApplyYourself" on-line program through the Graduate School website. Please do not send recommendations by Interfolio." Has anyone using interfolio contacted the department to confirm/request to use Interfolio to deliver, or are you just going back and asking your LOR's to upload? Why does EVERY application have some sort of hitch right at the end??? UGH.

please someone make it stop

yes. i feel like calling all the schools that I've already submitted things to and double-checking everything. The one school that had its deadline on Monday is the school that makes it the hardest to verify that things were received, because they use paper AND they're one of those schools that splits up the application between the graduate school and the department. So I had to mail things to the department -- and I know I pushed it close to the deadline. I have my FedEx and USPS confirmations, but of course there's no way to check status online. So, a part of me wants to call the department to ask if they got everything, but I don't want to be THAT person.

happy dance! i can't wait to be there.

I just have to say that last year, I had already submitted all my applications by this time, and it was a matter of watching and waiting to confirm that all my external credentials had been received and my LORs uploaded their letters. This year, I actually feel way behind. I was working on my SOP and even WS right up until the last seconds with the 4 applications I've submitted over the last week, and I feel like I'm pushing right up to all of my deadlines. The difference is mainly from the shift to unofficial and uploaded credentials for almost all of my schools this year, and my using Interfolio to manage the LORs -- this has given me a (false?) sense that I can submit the online application closer to the deadline (because I don't have to wait for the slow paper trails and matching). But now I feel really behind! Ugh. Ok, still chugging through. 5 more applications to submit!

I have a couple of questions about this one: -- there's a section in the online application to upload the writing sample (supporting materials), and I'm uploading mine there. I assume that's all that's needed, but this sounds like you also/alternatively emailed the graduate school with your sample attached. Anyone else have any experience/insights on this one? -- for the TA/TO application for UMass, are you guys mailing the application form snail mail to the department? That supplemental materials section in the online app also would seem to allow additional departmental application forms, so I was thinking of uploading it there (it says at the top that it includes "departmental applications"). Anyone else already check on this? Thanks for adding these notes, HHEoS!

wow, HHEoS, that is a unusual situation. I think you should feel somewhat confident given your offers last year, though I have been told by both faculty and other applicants that previous offers/wait-lists don't necessarily mean those schools will offer admission again, but it should indicate that your credentials and interests have strong appeal for programs. Did you change anything for this time around? As in, did you work on your writing sample or significantly change your SOP? Are you applying to same/different programs this year? I got wait listed by two programs last year, but no admits. I wrote a completely new writing sample and took a new approach to my SOP. I'm applying to about 4 of the same programs as last year (including the 2 that wait-listed me), plus 5 new ones. Best of luck, y'all!

congrats, sebastiansteddy! you are ahead of me. planning on submitting a batch online this weekend. I had a minor freak-out today with a hitch in my Interfolio delivery of LORs, but I think it's resolved.

One of my schools has an early deadline AND requires some snail mail of materials, so I just mailed off packet and immediately started crying (ok, maybe not immediately -- I held it in until privacy of home) So exhausted, and it's only my first app! The next 30 days (I figure I'll be finalizing and checking app status over the next month for all the rest of my schools) are going to be torture, and that doesn't even count the torture that starts at the end of February when schools start notifying and the results board starts lighting up (metaphorically). Those of you for whom this is your first application season: best of luck! Those of you for whom this is your second+ time through: ugh, here we go again, and good luck!

um, yes. I'm getting to the point that not only does my SOP seem like an alien to me, but I'm beginning to feel like an alien to myself.

This is a great question, Hal -- does your current school (if you're currently enrolled somewhere) have any graduate programs in English? you might check with your department to see if there are exam or reading lists available. Or, search some programs you're interested in to see if they (or any of their faculty) have reading lists (or exam lists, for example) online. This is one from Northwestern for the PhD exams: http://www.english.northwestern.edu/graduate/grad%20documents/QE1%20Reading%20Lists.pdf Could be a good reference (have to scroll down to get to American Lit section)

All of you who are in your second+ application season -- how are you feeling? At first I thought I was going to be on cruise control because I felt like I had a head start on things and knew what to expect, but now I'm feeling even worse than I did last year. I've been trying to pinpoint why things feel so crazy, and I think it's actually because I know more about how things go that I feel worse: maybe I was blissfully ignorant last year? So, what I mean is that even though I might have been nervous and anxious about various aspects of the application season last year, now that I know how difficult things really are, and how delicate the process is (a sentence here in your SOP; a percentage point there in your GRE; other applicants with your same interest areas; make-up of the adcomm; current grad students already working in your area, etc.), I have less hope about it all. I have more of the "it's all futile" feeling than the "I'm nervous but really excited and hopeful" feeling this time around. Are you more or less hopeful than you were the last time(s) around? The same?

I'm resurrecting this thread to see if there are any volunteers still available (i.e. still active in this forum). I'd love it if there are any folks who were already accepted into PhD programs who'd be willing to read my current SOP draft. I've been going through stages of feeling good, terrible, great, hopeless about it. I've got some other readers locally, but I'd like some fresh, unbiased eyes on it. Anyone still around and willing to do some good Samaritan work?

I thought this example (from livejournal) was an interesting one for English PhD SOPs: http://grnpointer.livejournal.com/559.html I'm not suggesting this should be *the* example, but it does a good job of tracing the applicant's path of literary interests to his goals for graduate study, and how the school/faculty fits in that mapping. But, another reason I think this is a helpful example is that you can see how personal the SOP is -- there is no *formula* because everyone's interests and paths that led them there are different. An SOP should clearly, but interestingly, demonstrate the unique path he/she has traveled to get to this stage, and reveal the possible path(s) that lie(s) in front of him/her at the particular program.

I know! I saw this after I posted. I'm re-assessing applying there.

We're twinsies . I'm looking at Brown, Rutgers, and UVa as top programs for this interest area and in the east -- are they on your list? What do you love about Northwestern? And, I totally understand the "working on everything, therefore not getting anything done" situation.

This is exactly where I am, too! The basic meat of my SOP is done (and I'm happy with it), and it and my writing sample are in the hands of a past professor/colleague of mine, and waiting to hear some feedback. Meanwhile, my program list seems to still be growing, and I keep stumbling on new programs that have a faculty person or a style that becomes super compelling, and then I focus on gathering more information about those programs for a while. Also, the fact that I keep finding these new programs that I haven't considered before but suddenly seem to be "perfect" makes me nervous that there could be yet more programs out there that I should be considering -- and I don't want to overlook that "right" program. So I have a list of about 18 programs now, and I want to narrow down so that I can focus on SOPs for the final list. Also, I still want to fine tune my paper, but I feel kind of in a weird accordion-style limbo stage of the whole application process in which I feel like 85% of the heavy-lifting is done, but I don't think I'm ready to turn to that last 15% push of actually finalizing SOPs for each school and submitting applications. It's like I still want to gather information and sit on things for a bit so that I feel really good about the final programs I apply to. But the first deadline I see on my list is 12/15, which is super close, considering mail and professors (i.e. transcripts and LORs) really slow down/bottleneck starting Thanksgiving. So there's also this false sense of the calm before the storm right now!