1Q84

The Princeton Review says that the markers won't really take the time to penalise you for a few spelling mistakes in the AWA.. as long as the rest of your writing is fine.

You mean, of course, me speaking my mind in a polite and non-aggressive manner, right? Yeah, I'll try and put a stop to that. Good one! I'm not taking it personally so much as finding it annoying that the same message can at once be cast down but when said to and by others, be supported. All in the same thread. If people disagree with me, fine. But I would expect that when someone else expresses the same opinion that it would be similarly put down. Anyway, I was more bemused than anything. I'm not sitting here gnashing my teeth over it... moving along indeed, confusedgradadmit!

I looked over what I said again. I took the same strongly-worded tone as michigan girl yet the only thing I can see is that I pointed out said colour-blindness in Dal Phder's comments, who seems to be part of the "well-liked" clique. Again, not what you say or how you say it, it seems, merely who you say it to. I guess I shouldn't be surprised; I've encountered this in ever forum that I've been to. Somehow I just thought grad students would be more, I don't know... mature?

How does one find if a school is a feeder school? As in statistically all MA grads go on to PhDs? So far I've only found one funded MA program in California (for international students, that is).

Accountability to whatever equity/anti-discrimination policies most decent universities should have in place? I'm not dumb enough to think that they'd come out and say so but I think if people were to hold them accountable (a systematic change) instead of just saying "adcomms will be adcomms"...

I heartily agree with all of this, especially because it's what I was saying earlier in the thread. Judging by all the up votes for michigan girl and down votes for me, I'm guessing that means I just said it to the wrong people... people who you're not supposed to disagree with? Good to know there's cliques on this forum too.

But there's still an appeals process and stuff, no? I don't think it's completely shrouded in secrecy... there has to be some tiny bit of accountability for their decisions. Or am I just being naive?

Is anyone here applying for a Masters? Anyone? I don't see anyone applying to a CSU school... does that mean less competition? No competition? MA Program: CSU: LA (I reallllllllllly want to work with Prof. McManus!) CSU: Long Beach CSU: Northridge Loyola Marymount University PhD Program: UC: Santa Cruz UC: Irvine UC: Santa Barbara University of Southern California Interests: Renaissance Lit (Spenser, Milton), Classics (epic poetry, Virgil) all through the lens of Gender Studies Obviously I won't get into those PhD programs but it's kind of a test for myself... and never too early to start studying for the Lit Subject GRE, right?

They couldn't possibly discriminate against you based on having a family, could they?

Oh right, definitely. I was just referring to it in passing (1 sentence to address my low GPA). Also, I keep wanting to right "the xyz of your department is..." and such but is saying your too informal? It just seems to awkward and circumlocutory to say "and the department at X University is..."

I'm wondering about this too. A lot of websites say "essay format is acceptable". But what about stuff like GRE, GPA, etc.? I was hoping we could use abbreviations because we all know about word counts and all :/

That's pretty low. I don't know if verbal factors hugely into initial selection in your program but a score that low can certainly take you out of the running when it comes down to the wire or for certain types of funding. If you have the time and money, do it.

It will vary. But some "top schools" that I have emailed with the same question said that the first hurdle you have to pass is a 1375 combined score (Q and V) that the graduate school requires before you even get to your specific departmental requirements. So according to the ETS concordance tables, your 167 V would be a 710 old score. That means that your Q would have to be at least a 665 (or about a 164 new score) in order to qualify for those schools.

It doesn't really matter. The AWA section is testing your technique over the content, in the end. Of course, you can't just spout off nonsense but the fact that you've been practicing a lot of old sample essay questions should mean that you're now quite adept at knowing how to grab a topic that you may or may not know much about and being able to wrestle that information coherently and intelligently into paragraphs. That's all you really need.

Thank you so much for the feedback! Needless to say, I've been viciously editing it since this thread and it's quite different from what I posted here. But I'm sure there's still way more cutting that needs to be done... so thank you for your help ETA: And yes I have been rethinking the PhD thing for now. The funding problem is just getting to me...

There's always overseas, guys... .that's my backup plan. They literally throw money at you until you tell them to stop in Hong Kong and Japan.

If you're really aiming high, I'd try to up those V and Q scores... I mean I know they say everything is more important than GRE scores but when it comes down the wire and they have someone who have the same stats as you but with 160+ scores... it could work against you, especially the Verbal, if you're talking about Humanities programs.

OK two threads now with the same typo- I need to say something: it's rigorously!

Hello! I know this thread is pretty specific... I hope that's okay. I heard from OSAP that they disburse $213 a week to students who are studying outside Canada. Is it worth getting? It seems like it might be good to cover some incidental costs and not so burdensome as to be completely overwhelming to repay by the end of the year. Not too bad for interest-free money, right? Any current Ontario grad students studying abroad have experience with this? Yea/nay?

I read this with some curiosity. Is being an endurance athlete part of your program? No snark, genuinely asking. Because if not, then I can understand why you would have difficult trying to live on a stipend that is probably designed for non-endurance athlete students. The question that you ask becomes more interesting then when you think about priorities. Again, location aside, $1300 a month sounds really not that bad. I'm assuming of course that your school has adjusted for cost of living... it just sounds, from this one post, that you're loading on a lot of costs that aren't a guarantee to be compatible with graduate school living... I'm having a really hard time coming to terms with doing an unfunded MA as an international student. I'm not even sure if it's possible without being super independently wealthy.

Always, always just ask the Grad Secretary.

I'll echo rems here, don't feel ignorant at all... you actually did the smart thing by making a thread and asking all your questions at once! I panicked and tried to do all my apps by myself and had a lot of highs and lows, finding out information half way through and being really, really disappointed or really excited by the news. As a fellow MA applicant to English Lit programs, what I can recommend is research as much as possible. For the first half of your app ordeal, it's going to be information gathering. It's never too early to start!

Indeed, they may have even thought that they were doing you a kind service! And as for smiling and thanking them, I agree 100%. I've gotten some very rude replies from professors and when I sincerely apologised for what they perceived was an egregious error, they became immediately much nicer afterwards. I guess professors, like the rest of us, have things that make their eyebrows twitch too.

From what I've observed, the AWA section can be really important for programs that are really heavy with writing (creative writing, literature) but some of the same programs barely even look at it. I think all in all, the verbal will always be worth more and it'd be rare for the AWA to compensate. If I were you, I'd just retake it!

If you have the time and money, why not? It's doubtful you'd shoot below 83rd percentile on the retake... right?