2020 Applicants

[onerepublic96]

18 hours ago, snorkles said:

I'm fairly certain that everyone is interviewed. At least, everyone admitted last year was interviewed. 

Ahh that’s equally reassuring and scary! 

[grace2137]

1 hour ago, onerepublic96 said:

Does anyone feel like their research interests have shifted since beginning the application process? Or perhaps not shifted, but been refined/clarified a bit? I’m trying to finish up my last three applications for January and I’m realising that one of the schools is actually a pretty poor fit, even though according to my notes I initially had some POIs picked out. 

Seriously debating if I should go ahead and apply anyway, since my profs have all sent in recommendations... but on the other hand, it’s $120...

I’m in a very similar position with one of my Jan deadline schools!! in part because my research interests have become more solidified and also because one of the faculty members I was interested in working with moved to another program. I’m also torn between apprehension about the app fee but being hung up on the fact that profs already submitted recs.

I also felt like one of my Dec schools was a stretch for fit for similar reasons when I was writing the SOP, but I already had a few waiver so I decided to give it a whirl.

[politics 'n prose]

1 hour ago, onerepublic96 said:

Seriously debating if I should go ahead and apply anyway, since my profs have all sent in recommendations... but on the other hand, it’s $120...

Oof, $120 is criminally expensive. If you’d still be excited to go to this school if it were the only one you got in to, and if you’d already budgeted for the app fee, then I suppose you have nothing to lose...but fit is definitely among the most important considerations, and if you’re pretty sure at this stage that your research interests wouldn’t be as well-supported at this school than at some of the others you’ve already applied to, I think there’s a strong argument to be made for crossing it off your list. 

If it were me, I think I’d probably just go ahead and apply at this point unless you absolutely can’t find a single professor, grad student, or recently-taught course that sparks some amount of intellectual excitement for you. But it’s definitely a tough call!

Edited December 23, 2019 by politics 'n prose

[onerepublic96]

2 hours ago, grace2137 said:

I also felt like one of my Dec schools was a stretch for fit for similar reasons when I was writing the SOP, but I already had a few waiver so I decided to give it a whirl.

 

2 hours ago, politics 'n prose said:

If it were me, I think I’d probably just go ahead and apply at this point unless you absolutely can’t find a single professor, grad student, or recently-taught course that sparks some amount of intellectual excitement for you. But it’s definitely a tough call!

Yeah, it’s a weird situation. Anyway, I guess I’ll take another sober look through through the faculty profiles and my own SOP and decide what to do. 

And also, $120?? I mean, I understand grad school apps aren’t cheap but this is the most expensive that I’ve encountered! 

[karamazov]

So, the university I attended for the first two years of my bachelor's degree merged with another university near the end of my time there. The transcript from the university I'm currently attending lists that institution's old name above my credits from that school instead of the new, post-merger name. Since my transcript from that first school comes with the new name, I've used the new name everywhere. I'm just now realizing that my current institution's use of the old name above those transfer credits on my transcript might cause some confusion for the adcomms... I've referred to the school by its current name in every other piece of my application, so I'm hoping they can figure it out, but I really probably should have explained the merger somewhere in my application. Well, now I get to worry not only about the quality of my SoP and WS, but also about whether or not the committee will throw out my application before even reading those documents because they think I'm missing a transcript or something... Awesome. 

[aussiekoala]

Hello everyone! I never thought I could find a forum like this where I could suffer the pain of waiting for decisions with other people! 

I've submitted most of my applications with a couple still due in January. I just wanted to ask if anyone could clarify what independent research might include for universities? Also, if anyone knows the percentage or approximation of how many international students might be admitted to US programs. The percentage seems quite low which has weakened my hope in actually getting accepted anywhere. 

[coffeelyf]

@NinaM From what I know, independent research normally includes undergrad honors thesis/MA thesis. You may also have other types of research projects for which you were the primary researcher and formulated your own questions, etc., but that is often hard to come by at the undergrad level.

I'm also an international applicant (Southeast Asia), non-native English speaker - I did my BA in the US (small liberal arts college), after which I came back home to take a gap year and apply to grad programs in the US. I did get into 2 PhD programs with full funding, and 2 MA programs, one with full funding and the other with partial funding, and I ended up choosing the MA (with full funding) because I didn't feel totally ready to commit to a PhD. Now I'm applying again from home and we'll see if I made the right choice ?In my experience, the odds are low for literally everybody, and an international background, with native-level skills in languages other than English, would even be something that helps you stand out. My MA program had several international people who didn't even do undergrad in the US, and they got in and did well anyway. My MA advisor was also an international student coming into his PhD. I'm very very anxious too but I think as long as you put your all into the applications and applied to a good mix of schools for you, your odds are not lower than anyone else's. 

[Warelin]

21 hours ago, grace2137 said:

I’m in a very similar position with one of my Jan deadline schools!! in part because my research interests have become more solidified and also because one of the faculty members I was interested in working with moved to another program. I’m also torn between apprehension about the app fee but being hung up on the fact that profs already submitted recs.

Professors understand that interests change and wouldn't hold it against you if you decided against a school. The application process is ultimately about your future and interests. Professors also won't know if you decided to not apply to a school unless they're on the committee for that school. Those records are kept confidential.  I think applying to schools which you feel are your preferred schools is the most important thing you can do. Your preferences might change again during grad school; schools know that. If you think there are schools with a better fit that fit your interests, apply to those instead.  Is it possible to submit an application to the university where the professor you were interested in moved to? Does that school interest you?

[aussiekoala]

1 hour ago, coffeelyf said:

@NinaM From what I know, independent research normally includes undergrad honors thesis/MA thesis. You may also have other types of research projects for which you were the primary researcher and formulated your own questions, etc., but that is often hard to come by at the undergrad level.

I'm also an international applicant (Southeast Asia), non-native English speaker - I did my BA in the US (small liberal arts college), after which I came back home to take a gap year and apply to grad programs in the US. I did get into 2 PhD programs with full funding, and 2 MA programs, one with full funding and the other with partial funding, and I ended up choosing the MA (with full funding) because I didn't feel totally ready to commit to a PhD. Now I'm applying again from home and we'll see if I made the right choice ?In my experience, the odds are low for literally everybody, and an international background, with native-level skills in languages other than English, would even be something that helps you stand out. My MA program had several international people who didn't even do undergrad in the US, and they got in and did well anyway. My MA advisor was also an international student coming into his PhD. I'm very very anxious too but I think as long as you put your all into the applications and applied to a good mix of schools for you, your odds are not lower than anyone else's. 

Thank you so much, you're the first person I've talked to who's actually been through the process. I did both my BS and am currently finishing my MA in Lebanon and have never been to the States, so the application process has been a bit of whirlwind. All my professors are either American, British or Australian so couldn't give me approximations of the likelihood colleges might admit students who are non-Native English speakers or if there might be any bans for students from the Middle East. Good luck to you though, hopefully we'll both hear some good news.

[WildeThing]

14 hours ago, NinaM said:

Hello everyone! I never thought I could find a forum like this where I could suffer the pain of waiting for decisions with other people! 

I've submitted most of my applications with a couple still due in January. I just wanted to ask if anyone could clarify what independent research might include for universities? Also, if anyone knows the percentage or approximation of how many international students might be admitted to US programs. The percentage seems quite low which has weakened my hope in actually getting accepted anywhere. 

I was also an international applicant. My cohort is made up of 10 and 2 of us are internationals. There are some others in the program, but we’re definitely in a minority, and I think that is true for most programs. I don’t think being an international student makes it harder in and of itself, but it’s certainly a matter of swimming upstream since you need to demonstrate fluency, the GREs are harder, your university and letter writers are probably lesser known, and you don’t possess the cultural capital that makes you aware of certain “ins” and stylistic forms, etc. It’s definitely possible but percentages aren’t going to tell you much and there aren’t any for English programs as a whole.

[aussiekoala]

9 hours ago, WildeThing said:

I was also an international applicant. My cohort is made up of 10 and 2 of us are internationals. There are some others in the program, but we’re definitely in a minority, and I think that is true for most programs. I don’t think being an international student makes it harder in and of itself, but it’s certainly a matter of swimming upstream since you need to demonstrate fluency, the GREs are harder, your university and letter writers are probably lesser known, and you don’t possess the cultural capital that makes you aware of certain “ins” and stylistic forms, etc. It’s definitely possible but percentages aren’t going to tell you much and there aren’t any for English programs as a whole.

That is quite hopeful to hear. I've already done everything I can anyway, all any of us can do is wait and see, I suppose.

[Wimsey]

In the Rutgers application, did anyone upload a personal statement as a supporting document, even though the initial application already had an area to copy and paste the statement? I copied my finished statement into the first part of the app, but I'm thinking of uploading it as a supporting doc as well, since the drop-down list of possible supporting docs includes the personal statement.

[aussiekoala]

So my anxiety has reached a new level where I just emailed the profesoor I'd like to work with at one of the more prestigious universities I've applied to just to introduce myself... Should I consider this an implied rejection? :p

[Narrative Nancy]

20 hours ago, Wimsey said:

In the Rutgers application, did anyone upload a personal statement as a supporting document, even though the initial application already had an area to copy and paste the statement? I copied my finished statement into the first part of the app, but I'm thinking of uploading it as a supporting doc as well, since the drop-down list of possible supporting docs includes the personal statement.

I also uploaded the SoP as a supporting document, I figured it couldn't hurt. I submitted my app a while back and my status page has the receipt of the personal statement along with all the other supporting documents, and I am not sure it would be there otherwise - so I'd just go ahead and upload. 

[Wimsey]

3 hours ago, Narrative Nancy said:

I also uploaded the SoP as a supporting document, I figured it couldn't hurt. I submitted my app a while back and my status page has the receipt of the personal statement along with all the other supporting documents, and I am not sure it would be there otherwise - so I'd just go ahead and upload. 

Thanks for the response. I'm going to upload it.

[The Hoosier Oxonian]

On 12/25/2019 at 3:56 PM, Wimsey said:

In the Rutgers application, did anyone upload a personal statement as a supporting document, even though the initial application already had an area to copy and paste the statement? I copied my finished statement into the first part of the app, but I'm thinking of uploading it as a supporting doc as well, since the drop-down list of possible supporting docs includes the personal statement.

My understanding of the application was that the personal statement to be uploaded should be a different statement than the statement of purpose in the application itself. Several schools require both a personal statement and a statement of purpose - I thought Rutgers was one of them. Now I'm questioning whether I've misunderstood and need to upload another copy of my SOP instead of the separate personal statement I've uploaded. How did others understand this?

[WildeThing]

9 hours ago, NinaM said:

So my anxiety has reached a new level where I just emailed the profesoor I'd like to work with at one of the more prestigious universities I've applied to just to introduce myself... Should I consider this an implied rejection? :p

It’s definitely not an implied rejection (the person might not have a say right now even if they wanted to, who knows who’s on the committee), but I don’t think there’s much to be gained from contacting faculty AFTER the deadline. This is because I mostly think that you should only reach out if you can articulate a specific question, but there is no consensus on this and many people prefer to reach out. That said, though this depends on the individual, my experience with emailing profs at prestigious universities is that you never hear back, at least I didn’t when I reached out to 3 people at Cornell and Yale my first time around (interestingly, two people at Oxford did reply, though I imagine the culture is quite different since PhDs in the UK apply with a project in mind so I assume some contact is expected).

[grace2137]

On 12/24/2019 at 11:08 AM, Warelin said:

Professors understand that interests change and wouldn't hold it against you if you decided against a school. The application process is ultimately about your future and interests. Professors also won't know if you decided to not apply to a school unless they're on the committee for that school. Those records are kept confidential.  I think applying to schools which you feel are your preferred schools is the most important thing you can do. Your preferences might change again during grad school; schools know that. If you think there are schools with a better fit that fit your interests, apply to those instead.  Is it possible to submit an application to the university where the professor you were interested in moved to? Does that school interest you?

The prof moved to another program already on my list! So that was convenient. I’m combing back through the faculty pages for this school to see if I could still make a reasonable case for fit, but you’re right - I wouldn’t want to go to the school if it can’t actually support my interests and at that rate I would be better off saving my money.

on a somewhat related note- how might a POI being on leave this school year (2019-20) affect things? Presumably one could still work with them after they return, but would adcoms not want to take students interested in working w them without being able to confer with them etc?

[Warelin]

5 minutes ago, grace2137 said:

on a somewhat related note- how might a POI being on leave this school year (2019-20) affect things? Presumably one could still work with them after they return, but would adcoms not want to take students interested in working w them without being able to confer with them etc?

I don't think a POI being on leave this school year would make any difference. In Literature, you're admitted to the department rather than to work as a member of a certain faculty's lab. As such, the admissions committee makes decisions on behalf of the department. Most members of the department will not be on the admissions committee. In most cases, you wouldn't select who you're interested in serving on your committee until after the second semester of your second year. As such, I wouldn't worry about it as long as they've recently as the faculty member has taught grad-level courses. There are some faculty members which often have never taught at the grad-school level and might not be available to serve as your dissertation chair.

[theatergeek]

14 minutes ago, grace2137 said:

The prof moved to another program already on my list! So that was convenient. I’m combing back through the faculty pages for this school to see if I could still make a reasonable case for fit, but you’re right - I wouldn’t want to go to the school if it can’t actually support my interests and at that rate I would be better off saving my money.

on a somewhat related note- how might a POI being on leave this school year (2019-20) affect things? Presumably one could still work with them after they return, but would adcoms not want to take students interested in working w them without being able to confer with them etc?

One of my POIs is on leave this semester, but she told me not to worry about it. However, she stated that she wouldn't be able to speak up for me during admissions meetings, so she suggested other POIs whose interests matched mine.  

[merry night wanderer]

Thoughts on MA SoPs versus Ph.D ones? I feel like it's a little presumptuous to put my proposed research project in the MA SoP - am I wrong? 

[Brown_Bear]

(Update): I have 3 deadlines left. All early January. One letter writer still needs to do these.

What should I do? Email them tomorrow? What do I say?

[Wimsey]

41 minutes ago, HPurple said:

(Update): I have 3 deadlines left. All early January. One letter writer still needs to do these.

What should I do? Email them tomorrow? What do I say?

I would definitely go ahead and email them. I've done so multiple times with my letter writers, with a message along the lines of "as a quick reminder, the recommendation for X is due on the 2nd." I've also tried to be more subtle by giving an update on my progress and being sure to mention the school(s) that they haven't completed. I tend to be fairly informal with my letter writers, so YMMV. But I don't think we should have any qualms about sending them straightforward reminders.

Edited December 30, 2019 by Wimsey

[grace2137]

question.. would a program email you if they were missing a rec letter and the deadline passed? for one of my schools, I had a recommender send their letter via hard copy because of issues uploading, but obviously in this case there is not an automated response/updated status in the portal when the letter is submitted/received like it does when you submit electronically.

 I had emailed back and forth w the grad coordinator letting them know the letter would come this way, and my professor told me they sent it - so I'm mostly being paranoid, but would I actually have any way of knowing if something went wrong and the letter never was received by admissions...?

[Warelin]

46 minutes ago, grace2137 said:

question.. would a program email you if they were missing a rec letter and the deadline passed?

Unfortunately, this depends on the program and may depend on policies set by either the program or the Graduate School. There are several that I'm aware of that would e-mail you about missing materials. Others only update via their portal and won't notify if materials are missing. I imagine most would be happy to answer any questions if you're concerned about missing materials though. Additional delays may or may not occur if it has to be processed by the Graduate School prior to being forwarded to the department or Admissions Committee.