Feedback on tricky thing on app - anyone online now?

[CAPoliSciPhD]

Okay guys - so I'm filling out a ridiculous amount of applications (for me, anyway), and I still wonder if I'll get in to ANY of them..but that's besides the point at the moment...

The school I'd love to go to the most does not require a writing sample. They only say you can submit one if you want - with the usual warning - a good one will help and a bad one will hurt...

My issue is that I have a paper that would show that my interest in this field is a good match with this department, I even used someone from this department in my research. And many of the other people I've uses, they have all worked with. My problem is this -- I don't know if I want to submit this paper!

Should I or Shouldn't I?

If I got some stuff wrong that could REALLY hurt me. I don't THINK I did, but these people will know more than your average teddy bear...know what I mean? It's almost a little bit too intimidating to submit it, you know? Okay - am I just being dumb? I just REALLY don't want this to hurt me in anyway...

[miratrix]

How did your professor like it? If s/he thought it was a great paper, send it, if it was average maybe don't.

[CAPoliSciPhD]

I presented this paper at a small (read: no one's heard of it) conference, and I got an A on the paper. But that doesn't comfort me because I still wonder if the prof was a harsh enough critic...or even knew enough about the literature to judge whether or not I was interpreting right...the thing is, I've gotten As on all my papers (not being high and mighty, believe me, my ugpa is low!) but with that said I know all my papers were not of equal caliber...and the school I go to now is not so hot (read: unknown).

[Minnesotan]

Get more eyes on the paper. Hand copies out to strangers on the street corner, if you have to. You need more feedback.

[CAPoliSciPhD]

I guess I just assumed the sample was required, so I didn't get more eyes on it. Anyway, I'm about to hit submit on the app and I just decided to use the sample...don't know if it's the right thing to do - dear god I hope it doesn't hurt me! I just don't have time to get more eyes on it now. At the conference the discussant didn't say whether or not he thought it was good he did mention one small issue (with how I operationalized something) so I fixed that...in one sentence fix...hope that was okay!

I thought the anxiety from this process would come when I was waiting but it's hit me hardcore now...

[IronDuke]

My philosophy is that anything that can potentially help your application, that says more about you and gives more indication of your interests, is good to include. I think you made the right choice. This paper can't possibly be so bad as to actually hurt your application...and what kind of program is this that doesn't require a writing sample anyway?

[CAPoliSciPhD]

It's in poli sci and some schools don't require it because they can't possibly read all of them - for example, UCSD which is a top 10 program doesn't require one either. They ask other questions - for example, they want an abstract...

[rising_star]

My philosophy is that anything that can potentially help your application, that says more about you and gives more indication of your interests, is good to include. I think you made the right choice. This paper can't possibly be so bad as to actually hurt your application...and what kind of program is this that doesn't require a writing sample anyway?

Lots of fields don't require writing samples. In doing 13 applications (6 for MA, 7 for PhD in two separate cycles), I think I only had to submit writing samples to 3 programs.

[Minnesotan]

Lots of fields don't require writing samples. In doing 13 applications (6 for MA, 7 for PhD in two separate cycles), I think I only had to submit writing samples to 3 programs.

Spite!

I had 1-2 writing samples per application, both cycles.