Gooop

Thanks for the responses. Looking back on everything, I did just sort of hash together applications, and I kind of did choose schools based on ranking and location. In my defense, I didn't have a whole lot of time to do this, because I was still in classes while I was doing a lot of this. I plan on doing a lot more research this time around and talk to professors and people on the adcoms. I suppose I was just very discouraged by the rejections and I started looking for reasons for it. It is encouraging to know, though, that my UG Institution won't matter as much as I thought it did. @pizzatime: Bluntness is appreciated. Thanks for the advice. I plan on using my "year off" wisely.

Well, first of all, here are my vital statistics: Institution: Illinois State University Major/Minor: English Studies / Japanese GPA: 3.4 Cum, 3.7 Major, 3.7 Cum (Last two years) GRE: 630V, 640Q, 5.5 Writing Concentration: Lit/Crit theory, Creative non-fiction (especially short stories and personal essays) Research: Did some research on an unpublished Hemingway short story that will be credited in an article that my professor will publish From everyone I talked to before, it seemed like I had a decent shot at getting into a good Master's program, but eight rejections later, I started doing more research, and the more I found out, the more abysmal my chances seemed at getting into the school I wanted. Now I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to improve my chances. I got rejected from NYU, Columbia, UChicago, UPenn, UIowa, WashU, Boston U. Some of the new schools I've picked for the next try that I thought were a bit more reasonable are Penn State, Sarah Lawrence, Pitt, U Washington, Miami Ohio, Oregon, Mizzou. Do I stand a chance at any of these schools? Should I be looking at lower-ranked schools? What can I do to improve my chances? I plan on taking the GRE again and trying to do some more research, but what else? Is my GPA really going to hurt me, especially coming from a smaller state university? Can I take classes over after graduating to improve it? So many worries, and I have no idea what to do. I have the low GPA/small UGrad institution blues, for sure. Any advice would be very much appreciated!