Hi I'm new to the forum but am glad I found it because I've been reading a lot of topics that have sort of helped me through the horrendous process of applying to all of these programs!
I have already applied to UPenn (PhD, Spanish), 2 programs at UDelaware (MA Spanish/French, MA Art History), and NYU (MA Spanish, NYU in Madrid), and will be applying (safety schools) to West Chester University (MA Spanish), and SLU in Madrid (MA Spanish) as backups (82%-100% acceptance rates on Petersens)
My CV/numbers look something like this:
*Undergrad Degree date: May 08, Age: 21
*GPA from Small/Medium Sized Private College: 3.83 overall, 4.0 majors (Double Major in History and Spanish, Minor in French)
*4 Months spent abroad at the University of Sevilla, Spain with very high scores (foreign grading system), while living with a host family
*GRE: v: 490, q: 580, a: 6.0
*3 publications in scholarly journal put out by my school's History Department on topics I plan to study
*2 award-winning conference papers also on topics I plan to research in Grad School
*Extracurricular: Phi Sigma Pi (National Honors Fraternity), Phi Alpha Theta (National History Honor Society), Alpha Chi (National Honor Society, only top 10% of senior class are considered for this)
*Work Experience: Bilingual Baby-sitter for French Family (Will be travelling to France with them this summer), Language Lab Tutor (Spanish, French, and Arabic) at my School, Intern at UPenn's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
*Excellent Writing samples and Personal Statements (had advisor review them), and several of the writing samples were the ones selected to be published/the ones I presented in those aforermentioned conferences, great recommendations from well-known professors(partially due to the fact that they know me so well and I've had several classes with all of them, some also teach at other schools like Hopkins as adjuncts, all are very well respected in their fields as well), and I also have a recommendation from the Internship leader at the Penn Museum who said I was the best intern they've had.
Overall I think I have a decent package, however I know for a fact that my GRE scores are less than favorable. I'm still baffled by how I scored so much higher on the quant. than the verbal - considering my weak ability in math, though I'm hoping that the analytical score (96th percentile), might help them to realize that I prob just was nervous or something - as my GPA and GRE don't correspond really at all. I'm really nervous because this is my first time appyling to graduate school and it just seems like there is so much out of my hands!
Penn and NYU are my longest reaches I think, however since I have experience with Penn already and have the recommendation from one of their own, I feel like I still might stand a chance (On Petersen's they have 97 applicants to my program, of which 27% were accepted, based presumably on last year's numbers).
I really want to go to UDelaware or UPenn, since I am from the Philadelphia/Wilmington,DE area, but also because I've discussed my research plans with professors (who were very enthusiastic about my research plans and experience in Medieval/Early Modern topics [the area I wish to concentrate in]) from the program and they have excellent funding packages. I would really appreciate any feedback that anyone would be willing to provide me about my chances, how my app package looks,etc., thanks!
oh and also: I applied to the UDel program in Art History just to keep my options open, as aside from my extensive work in Romance Languages and the histories of those cultures I have also done a lot of research and related work (UPenn Museum) in the field of Art History - the program is very selective but I had excellent writing samples to send in. (sorry for such an exhaustive post!)
