2019 Applicants

[GlacierPoint]

ETS just made me reschedule my general test today and tried to charge me a rescheduling fee. I told them where they could shove the fee charge when I was on the phone with them. They did not charge me the fee ☺️

Testing center is a bit trickier to get to but the date may be better for me so I'm not too fussed about it. But hoping I can find a ride because otherwise it's a $30 Uber to the center. The public transit option has too many risky bus connections for my comfort.

I'm just charging everything to my CC at this point and pretending that I have enough in my bank account to cover it.

[pdh12]

oh man, hello fellow commiserators! I'm applying to Comp Lit PhDs, and saw a couple others in a similar boat on this thread. Ah! 

re: SOPs---out of curiosity, how detailed are y'all getting with your particular interests? I feel a tension between pigeon-holing my application too much vs. seeming too unfocused...not to mention every adcom is slightly different. 

also @comp lit applicants: are you submitting papers written in other languages? 

Good Luck!!!!

[FiguresIII]

I'm erring on the side of specificity and letting my general interests sort of filter through. Personally, I find it easier to write persuasively that way.

My advisors / grad school friends have also told me it's more of a formal exercise than a contract anyway. Professors expect that your interests and perhaps even your period will change. They want to be able to shape you. In the statement you just show that you have a sense of what a dissertation project and a potential contribution to the field could look like. It's also about showing general curiosity, an interesting intellectual trajectory, and the ability to present it all in a convincing, concise way. After all, you'll be writing statements like this for most of your academic career: for fellowships, grants, job applications, and so on. Again, take all this with a grain of salt, it's just what I've been told and what makes sense for me.

Although I do mention specific professors I'd like to work with, I'm less focused on that w/r/t where I'm applying. Professors may not turn out to be as great as you thought, or they might get poached or retire. I'm just looking for an intellectual community--a network of people--that does the kind of work I can see myself doing or benefiting from. That means I'm also looking at neighboring universities, publications/presses and the kind of work they publish, what grad students are doing, and the kinds of workshops / conferences/ talks that take place.

I'm not submitting a sample written in another language, just a paper in English on literature written in another language. Comp Lit people usually just write in English, right, especially in the US?

 

Edited November 21, 2018 by FiguresIII

[lyonel_]

3 hours ago, pdh12 said:

oh man, hello fellow commiserators! I'm applying to Comp Lit PhDs, and saw a couple others in a similar boat on this thread. Ah! 

re: SOPs---out of curiosity, how detailed are y'all getting with your particular interests? I feel a tension between pigeon-holing my application too much vs. seeming too unfocused...not to mention every adcom is slightly different. 

also @comp lit applicants: are you submitting papers written in other languages? 

Good Luck!!!!

Pretty detailed. I'm basically describing an outline of the project I wish to pursue. I'm applying to a few pretty interdisciplinary English programs so I think they'll like the detail. But from  what I understand, Comp. Lit. Programs are looking for a pretty strong sense of intellectual direction.

[northwestnative]

2019 applicant here! Finished my MA last year but didn't get off the waiting lists at either UVA or UTA. Reapplying there, plus Berkeley, Duke, Chicago, Stanford. I feel like I'm a competitive candidate, but I dunno what to do, exactly, to get past that waiting-list plateau-jump. Good luck to all here!

[Warelin]

36 minutes ago, northwestnative said:

2019 applicant here! Finished my MA last year but didn't get off the waiting lists at either UVA or UTA. Reapplying there, plus Berkeley, Duke, Chicago, Stanford. I feel like I'm a competitive candidate, but I dunno what to do, exactly, to get past that waiting-list plateau-jump. Good luck to all here!

I think the only thing you can do is apply to places where you think your work meshes well with the departments. Edit your writing sample and SOP but make sure you maintain your voice. And I think an important thing to remember is that their idea of fit might be different than yours. Even if you get rejected, it isn't a reflection of you or your work. It just means there were people who they believed were a better fit at the time.

On a side note: It depends on the school's waitlists. Some waitlists are ranked; some waitlists depend on the field. If I recall correctly, UVA has a long waitlist while moving up UTA's waitlist depends on whether the two individuals they accepted within your time period rejected. 

Good luck!

[WildeThing]

I have officially submitted all my apps. Waiting on professors to submit their letters, first deadline up on Saturday. Fingers crossed. Good luck to everyone.

[Warelin]

Congrats on submitting all your applications, @WildeThing!

[WildeThing]

3 minutes ago, Warelin said:

Congrats on submitting all your applications, @WildeThing!

Cheers, Warelin!

[GlacierPoint]

I've decided to take a gap year so I'll see you guys next year! Realized that I won't be able to take a year off if I get into a program. It's my last chance to do the Disney College Program too. DCP is something that I've always dreamed of doing ever since I found out about it. I know I will regret it if I don't do it and I don't like regrets. 

But I want to vent about the GRE a little first - I got scores that I would have been happy with earlier in the week (159 V/151 Q) but I took an ETS practice test a few days before my test and got 164 V (and 144 Q lol no idea how I got 151 on the real thing). I was so disappointed when I didn't break 160 even if I know I still did reasonably well. Will retake it next spring to try for 90th+ percentile for verbal and may work a little more on quant to see if I can get 320 total. I tend to not do well with standardized tests (SAT was not fun but somehow did a LOT better on ACT) so this was a really nice feeling.

Retaking the Lit Gre in April to be a stronger applicant overall too. I was talking with my professor about the it and she said she's always wanted to retake the Lit GRE to see if she can get a perfect score now that she's a full professor. Joked about taking it with me next April ? 

Might still send one or two applications with the intent of deferring if I get in or asking nicely for feedback on how to improve my application for next year.

[Indecisive Poet]

14 hours ago, GlacierPoint said:

I've decided to take a gap year so I'll see you guys next year! Realized that I won't be able to take a year off if I get into a program. It's my last chance to do the Disney College Program too. DCP is something that I've always dreamed of doing ever since I found out about it. I know I will regret it if I don't do it and I don't like regrets. 

But I want to vent about the GRE a little first - I got scores that I would have been happy with earlier in the week (159 V/151 Q) but I took an ETS practice test a few days before my test and got 164 V (and 144 Q lol no idea how I got 151 on the real thing). I was so disappointed when I didn't break 160 even if I know I still did reasonably well. Will retake it next spring to try for 90th+ percentile for verbal and may work a little more on quant to see if I can get 320 total. I tend to not do well with standardized tests (SAT was not fun but somehow did a LOT better on ACT) so this was a really nice feeling.

Retaking the Lit Gre in April to be a stronger applicant overall too. I was talking with my professor about the it and she said she's always wanted to retake the Lit GRE to see if she can get a perfect score now that she's a full professor. Joked about taking it with me next April ? 

Might still send one or two applications with the intent of deferring if I get in or asking nicely for feedback on how to improve my application for next year.

See you here next year for the 2020 cycle! One great thing about the extra time will be the chance to retake those tests if you can afford to. Fluke tests, harder questions than normal, etc happen to everyone and hopefully only once.

I took a gap year after undergrad and it was 100% the right decision. I'll be taking another after my MA program ends this summer and applying to PhD programs next fall... I'm still trying to prep mentally for applying to (and working) jobs and being out of university again (by far the worst parts of gap year) but I'm confident it's the right decision for submitting my strongest apps and that it will be as fruitful as the last.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Indecisive Poet

[GlacierPoint]

@Indecisive Poet What sold me on the gap year was the fact that every professor that I talked to about taking a gap year all said they wished they had taken one.

[Warelin]

18 hours ago, GlacierPoint said:

Will retake it next spring to try for 90th+ percentile for verbal and may work a little more on quant to see if I can get 320 total

For what it's worth, I think most colleges are satisfied with a score of 300-305 total.

 

18 hours ago, GlacierPoint said:

Realized that I won't be able to take a year off if I get into a program. It's my last chance to do the Disney College Program too. DCP is something that I've always dreamed of doing ever since I found out about it.

Good luck and have fun! I have a friend who started grad school in a different field, realized it wasn't for them, did DCP after they completed their first semester, and is now working part-time at Disney and part time at Universal Studio. She seems to be really happy about it and has met some really cool people.

[alexisnj]

Late to post but I just submitted my first two applications and naturally, I'm having post-submit jitters.

I'm graduating in May with a BA in English and a minor in Spanish. I have a 4.00 cum/major GPA, but my GRE scores are clearly lacking (161V/152Q/4.5W). My letters of rec are strong and come from professors that were alumni of strong institutions (Rutgers, Yale, etc). I presented a paper as a conference panelist in 2017 and I'm in the process of completing an undergraduate research thesis. If you're interested (?), my thesis discusses 9/11 as a multidimensional political and literary marker that allowed the U.S. empire to cultivate an ideological memory foregrounded in the particular highlighting of dominant voices and visuals while simultaneously silencing and inverting audible/optical components of the "other's" oppositional memory.

My research area is contemporary American literature and postcolonial theory with specific interests in U.S. ethnic literature, U.S. empire, and cultural productions in the post-9/11 moment. My line of research is pretty specific, but I've targeted faculty at all my institutions who would be equipped (and hopefully eager) to oversee my graduate project. I don't think my writing sample is fantastic, and honestly, it feels a little unfocused; but this is probably because I have only written it over the course of this semester and I haven't spent that much time refining it (it is the first ~17 pages of my undergraduate thesis). I'm confident in my SOP and have submitted a strong diversity/personal statement, I think.

The entire application process has consisted of me second-guessing my institution choices because it feels like i am definitely applying out of my range of capability. I don't feel confident in thinking of myself as a strong candidate, but my fingers are crossed!! Best of luck to everyone!!!!

[Matthew3957]

@alexisnj There's no point in second guessing really, and I know that probably doesn't help. It's like whenever you write any paper, send off anything for external review, etc. once its done you've done the best you can and its not worth worrying over anymore. I have spent the entire app period doing the same thing as you, but if you searched well for schools you searched well.

For what it's worth I just realized my SoP for the 5 schools I submitted applications to so far uses "macrobactieria" instead of "microbacteria" in my opening sentence. To be fair its English departments and the sentence still makes grammatical sense so it probably will be fine, but I had an existential crisis as one does, but from the other side of that I can say just stick with it. No reason to count yourself out until that email comes. Besides, far worse things happen everyday than having to apply in another year for graduate school.

Honestly, you are a good candidate. You have a good range of schools. Just trust yourself and do what you can. 

5 more to go for me.

[placeinspace]

Got word that my first letter of rec was submitted so I'm going to finish up my first few apps this weekend and submit! Crazy that 6+ months of work is finally coming to an end. Hardest part for me now is the personal history/diversity statement. I spent so much time on my SOP and worry this is going to come across as an afterthought. Good luck to everyone in the final push!

[Bopie5]

I'm submitting my first app this weekend...feeling similar stresses to you @alexisnj! I don't have publications or conference experience, so while I have a good GPA and GRE and a decent writing sample (I think...can barely tell anymore tbh!), I feel like I won't come off looking as qualified or experienced as other applicants, since I'm coming right out of undergrad...

[Warelin]

11 minutes ago, Bopie5 said:

I feel like I won't come off looking as qualified or experienced as other applicants, since I'm coming right out of undergrad

For what it's worth (and depending on how the school sorts application), it's likely that you'll be put into a pool of BA-only applicants. It's not expected that you have as much experience as a student with an MA. The Ba-only pool is often larger as they search for applicants that show the "greatest potential to acclimate". Students with an MA are ranked on a different scale because they've had more years to learn the field and obtain more experiences.

[Bopie5]

@Warelin Really!? I didn't know that! Wow, that's actually so comforting, haha. I feel like my application shows potential to acclimate, so fingers crossed!

[Warelin]

@Bopie5: I think the important thing to realize is that rejections can happen regardless. Fit matters a lot. Our understanding of fit often differs a lot from what the department's considers fit to be. (And the bigger the department, the harder it is to determine fit because more students will believe they're a great fit for that school.) It's just as important to remember that this is often like a lottery and nobody is guaranteed admission. The best way anyone can increase their chances is to show that they have a current awareness of the literary conversations that are happening today and how their research can contribute to that conversation and why that institution is the one that best serves their needs. Often, the "best ranked" universities are not the best at filling those holes. While you may not have publications (not even expected at the grad level-- very few do -- and some schools warn about publishing too early), there are other ways that you can showcase that you'll be actively involved in the profession. 

[Bopie5]

@Warelin So true! I've had a few Skype convos with current PhD students and recent grads and they've all stressed how many factors there are that I can't control, and how there really is a luck of the draw element (who's on the admissions committee, how many people also in my field who apply, if everyone wants the same faculty mentors, people from the same backgrounds, etc, etc). Just gotta be at peace knowing that it's my first round and I've done the best I can. There's a high likelihood it won't work out this time, but I can learn from my experiences and try again!

[Warelin]

@Bopie5: Exactly. The first round is always the hardest. Statistically speaking, I'm guessing most people don't get in their first time. I received a wait-list during my first round; which ultimately resulted in a rejection. During my second round, I applied to a few more colleges and received admission into 6 colleges. I ended up turning down a "better" ranked college for this one because I felt I could grow more here and I felt the opportunities offered here would be better and the location felt to me that it would also be a better fit. (During my first cycle, this school rejected me. During my last cycle, this school originally waitlisted me which then turned into an acceptance. I turned down a graduate fellowship that I was nominated for and won from the graduate school from the better-ranked university to attend here. Acceptances have an odd-way of working out because I thought I'd go elsewhere prior to making my final decision. The more I learned about different schools though, the easier the decision became and the more I realized what a hidden gem this school is. (As a side note, 3 of the schools I was accepted into were also the last 3 schools I added to my list after realizing they'd be a good fit.)

[Matthew3957]

On 11/29/2018 at 7:10 PM, Bopie5 said:

Just gotta be at peace knowing that it's my first round and I've done the best I can. There's a high likelihood it won't work out this time, but I can learn from my experiences and try again!

This!  Good luck. I am excited for February/March now to see where everyone ends up.

[brontebitch]

For those of you applying to NYU (English PhD) -- I've submitted my app, since the deadline is today, but one of my letter writers has yet to submit the letter. I'm also confused because it says on the website that if the application deadline falls on a holiday or Saturday/Sunday, the deadline is the next business day. Will she technically have until Monday to submit the letter? Also concerned because while some schools have a later deadline for letter writers (for example, SUNY Buffalo), it doesn't seem like that's the case at NYU. 

Either way I'll email her but I'm wondering if anyone is having similar concerns about the Saturday deadline in general for Dec. 1st deadlines. 

[Warelin]

49 minutes ago, natalielouise said:

Will she technically have until Monday to submit the letter? Also concerned because while some schools have a later deadline for letter writers (for example, SUNY Buffalo), it doesn't seem like that's the case at NYU.

Most schools are lenient on LOR regardless of whether they state so or not because they're aware that professors have a lot going on around this time. One of my letters ended up being submitted 2 weeks after the deadline and I was still accepted into that school. I think the important part is ensuring that they're received prior to when the admissions committee meet to make decisions. In most cases, this is likely to be January/February.