DONE. Ugh. Anyone else done?

[darjeelingtea16]

Much like many of you, I've been working on this crap for months. Actually, over a year if you include my disastrous round of apps last year. Anyway, I had sent my SOP to be read by peers, profs, etc. My CV was as good as it was going to be. I didn't know what to add to my writing sample anymore. So yesterday and today, I began the process of submitting my applications, and now they're done.

I've been coping by playing video games and nursing a stiff neck. Now for the agonizing wait to hear news.

Anyone else finished, or close to done?

[bdon19]

Holy crap. Good for you. I'm not even close. Once I get a final paper done, then I'll be on my way. But until tomorrow at 5 pm, there's no chance. It's been nearly impossible trying to do my normal coursework and work on this stuff. Thankfully, at the very least, my independent study this term was designed to help me along. But still. I have a ton of stuff left to do.

[Timshel]

I, too, am not even close. I am still working on my SOP and writing sample. In fact, I just started the first two applications today. I'm jealous....

[TripWillis]

I'm submitting early next week through Thanksgiving. Still refining a few of the targeted sections in my SoPs. I'll be glad to have this over with...

[MichaelK]

Congrats to the OP. I've got a few video games that I've been holding like a carrot until I'm done with this stuff.

As for me, I've still got to do:

1. Edit writing samples (I'm working on two of them...start in tomorrow)

2. Write fit paragraphs

3. Submit

I can see the end. But I'm worried about this sample stuff. I've left it till the end primarily because I can't stand looking back at old essays like this. Now that it's the last minute, so to speak, it's time to dig in.

[cquin]

Jesus, no. Not at all. Nope. Some of my MA programs have deadlines as late as February and I know I will be obsessively revising my SOP until the very last day.

[lolopixie]

I was done this time last year, but I am not even close now. My focuse so far has been on my SOP and studying to retake the GRE Dec 5th. I've barely touched my writing sample - only one round of edits and bulking up the citations and such since it is an excerpt from my thesis. Still have a lot to do with that. I have completed filling out the actual applications, woot, but that is because I needed to see where I could request LORs online without submitting the app yet. My applications are due b/t Dec 31st and Jan 25th. I hope to have everything done before Christmas. If not, I have 10 days off at Christmas and will be holed up in my apartment and making dashes to the post office to overnight applications out.

[perrykm2]

Wow, good work.

What game? Skyrim, MV3? They are seriously slowing down my progress.

[darjeelingtea16]

Holy crap. Good for you. I'm not even close. Once I get a final paper done, then I'll be on my way. But until tomorrow at 5 pm, there's no chance. It's been nearly impossible trying to do my normal coursework and work on this stuff. Thankfully, at the very least, my independent study this term was designed to help me along. But still. I have a ton of stuff left to do.

I was fortunate with the writing sample. It's a chapter from my MA thesis that my professors seemed to really like so I didn't have to tweak it too much. Well, ok, honestly, everything needs tweaking, but I figured it'd be fine. Hopefully. :/

I, too, am not even close. I am still working on my SOP and writing sample. In fact, I just started the first two applications today. I'm jealous....

You'll get there! I've been working on this for over a year now. My suggestion would be to find profs/colleagues to read your SOP. I know everyone recommends that but seriously, it makes the process go by much, much faster.

I'm submitting early next week through Thanksgiving. Still refining a few of the targeted sections in my SoPs. I'll be glad to have this over with...

It feels both awesome and awful to have them done. My number one choice this year is Notre Dame, and I agonized over submitting it. Took me two hours of obsessively checking and rechecking all of my information and writing and hovering over the submit button...

Congrats to the OP. I've got a few video games that I've been holding like a carrot until I'm done with this stuff.

As for me, I've still got to do:

1. Edit writing samples (I'm working on two of them...start in tomorrow)

2. Write fit paragraphs

3. Submit

I can see the end. But I'm worried about this sample stuff. I've left it till the end primarily because I can't stand looking back at old essays like this. Now that it's the last minute, so to speak, it's time to dig in.

Ugh, it's always hard to let a piece of writing go without thinking what else you could've done with it to make it better. Pre-submission, I talked to a few of the departments I've just applied to (yay past tense!) and they very kindly urged me to just submit and let go. Easier said than done.

As for the video games, yeah Assassin's Creed: Revelations came out this past Tuesday, and technically that was my personal deadline, partly due to the game release (Ah, don't judge me haha), partly due to the reasons I mentioned in my first post, and partly due to a friend coming to visit for a couple weeks.

Jesus, no. Not at all. Nope. Some of my MA programs have deadlines as late as February and I know I will be obsessively revising my SOP until the very last day.

Judging by my experiences last year submitting on the deadline and what I've found out this year, it seems like it'd be best to try really hard to at least get in your apps 1-2 weeks before the actual deadline. Something about getting more attention in some departments...

I was done this time last year, but I am not even close now. My focuse so far has been on my SOP and studying to retake the GRE Dec 5th. I've barely touched my writing sample - only one round of edits and bulking up the citations and such since it is an excerpt from my thesis. Still have a lot to do with that. I have completed filling out the actual applications, woot, but that is because I needed to see where I could request LORs online without submitting the app yet. My applications are due b/t Dec 31st and Jan 25th. I hope to have everything done before Christmas. If not, I have 10 days off at Christmas and will be holed up in my apartment and making dashes to the post office to overnight applications out.

For what it's worth, the revised GRE seems much less difficult. I took the old GRE twice, and scored abysmally. I took the revised GRE in Sept, and got 90% on the verbal. So here's hoping you get awesome scores! That godawful SOP took me the longest to finish. I kept revising it and moving things around and adding things and taking things away and I'm not 100% satisfied with it--don't think I ever will be--but I think I'm pleased enough with it.

SPEAKING OF SOPs, I recently contacted a department and was told something about personal anecdotes in SoPs. I don't know if it'll be helpful to anyone, but I was told that many unsuccessful SoPs focused way too much on the personal anecdotes and not enough on the actual research they want to do. Only include a personal anecdote if it's relevant, and interweave it with the reasons why you want to do the research you want to do. It was suggested that the linking of your personal anecdote to your research should be clearly outlined in the first paragraph of your SoP. Also, even if the school has no page length requirements for the SoP, keep it to 2 pages, single spaced. Again, don't know if any of that is helpful, but just passing it on.

[darjeelingtea16]

Wow, good work.

What game? Skyrim, MV3? They are seriously slowing down my progress.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is slowly starting to take control of my life haha

One of my students' husbands was one of the developers of Skyrim, so she gave me a code to get it for free. I haven't even looked at it yet because I cannot get sucked into another game right now.

[bdon19]

SPEAKING OF SOPs, I recently contacted a department and was told something about personal anecdotes in SoPs. I don't know if it'll be helpful to anyone, but I was told that many unsuccessful SoPs focused way too much on the personal anecdotes and not enough on the actual research they want to do. Only include a personal anecdote if it's relevant, and interweave it with the reasons why you want to do the research you want to do. It was suggested that the linking of your personal anecdote to your research should be clearly outlined in the first paragraph of your SoP. Also, even if the school has no page length requirements for the SoP, keep it to 2 pages, single spaced. Again, don't know if any of that is helpful, but just passing it on.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I realize that personal anecdotes just don't seem relevant in most cases in the SOP. And, fwiw, a friend recently sent me two SOPs from last year, one successful and one "semi-successful" (she got into the MAPH at Chicago). The "semi-successful" one started out with, frankly, a horrendous personal anecdote--one I might actually call a "kiss of death" type story. It was super generic and cheesy (involving rain beating down on library windows), and I can see how it would have immediately shouted "red flag" at the adcomm people who were reading it. On the other hand, her successful SOP was a lot less focused as I had expected it to be. It was very scattered and didn't really show off her skills as an applicant. Which gives me hope that, if she got into a top-25 program, I might stand a chance as well.

Also, I second the advice to show your SOP to a prof or two. I'm going out for lunch with two of my letter writers on Monday to go over my SOP and writing sample. While I haven't gotten a ton of concrete advice from them as of yet, even just the pressure of setting a deadline for myself (I have to have a draft that I'm not ashamed to show to them) is really helpful.

We can do it, guys! I'm actually sort of excited (as well as terrified) for February/March to roll around, so we can (hopefully) all congratulate each other on our awesome acceptances!

[Grunty DaGnome]

Congrats. I'm not even done with one.

[cquin]

SPEAKING OF SOPs, I recently contacted a department and was told something about personal anecdotes in SoPs. I don't know if it'll be helpful to anyone, but I was told that many unsuccessful SoPs focused way too much on the personal anecdotes and not enough on the actual research they want to do. Only include a personal anecdote if it's relevant, and interweave it with the reasons why you want to do the research you want to do. It was suggested that the linking of your personal anecdote to your research should be clearly outlined in the first paragraph of your SoP. Also, even if the school has no page length requirements for the SoP, keep it to 2 pages, single spaced. Again, don't know if any of that is helpful, but just passing it on.

This is helpful, thanks! I've been agonizing over length (what the hell does "a BRIEF statement" mean??) and this gave me a little bit of perspective.

[user_name]

i sent in OSU earlier this week and will send everything due in december by the end of the day. i still don't feel like my SOP and writing sample are perfect, but fuck it, every time i look over it i change little things and it doesn't get anywhere.

ever since i've started apps i've felt like i've been stagnating and i just want to get them over with.

[lolopixie]

I'm finally happy with my SOPs - well I'm not done with Kansas' yet, but all of the other ones are done. I'm going to be working on the writing sample this weekend. I feel like progress is being made finally.

ever since i've started apps i've felt like i've been stagnating and i just want to get them over with.

I've had this same thought. One of my friends and I discussed how there is such a mountain to conquer with applications that even when you spend a full weekend working and making a lot of progress, it doesn't even seem to make a dent. I'm ready to have these in the ground, but not to obsess over decisioning time. Makes my anxiety flare just thinking about it ::shudders::

[darjeelingtea16]

i sent in OSU earlier this week and will send everything due in december by the end of the day. i still don't feel like my SOP and writing sample are perfect, but fuck it, every time i look over it i change little things and it doesn't get anywhere.

ever since i've started apps i've felt like i've been stagnating and i just want to get them over with.

I know what you mean by stagnating. That's part of the reason I finally just decided, screw this. I'm going to turn them in now.

One of my friends and I discussed how there is such a mountain to conquer with applications that even when you spend a full weekend working and making a lot of progress, it doesn't even seem to make a dent. I'm ready to have these in the ground, but not to obsess over decisioning time. Makes my anxiety flare just thinking about it ::shudders::

Ugh, my anxiety must've been building and building because I am seriously ill now. Kinda a bit too coincidental that I've come down with something right after turning all this stuff in.

[TripWillis]

I just submitted 8 applications. I have two more to do this weekend that I'm not ready for yet and a couple of hard copy things I need to mail.

Oy. I feel very tense. Need a drink. And some turkey.

[TripWillis]

Oh, and by the way, I never ever want to look at my Writing Sample/SoPs again... sooooo many months of frantic editing. Seriously, I have been drafting SoPs since July. I think I ended up doing close to 15 drafts of the master SoP and I still don't like it that much.

Writing Sample is actually not terrible... the 15 page version is better in some ways than the 20 page one, worse in other ways. I feel like I had less time to set up my critical framework and I had to shove out some of the lit review (I also sneakily footnoted some of it). Then again, I managed to destroy almost every single one of my needless modifiers in the 15 page version.

I'm thinking of submitting the 20 page one for publication. I've worked on it so hard, it might as well do something besides (probably) get rejected.

[ecritdansleau]

I am among the "and miles to go before I sleep" group. For this reason, my biggest fear now is typos in my SOP or writing sample.

I very much admire the others' ability to send things in before the deadline--I think there's something to say about the confidence that it entails. A professor at my undergrad mentioned how he used to turn in seminar papers around spring break (a month and a half in advance) because he always knew exactly what he wanted to write. Let's just say he turned out very successful. *sigh*

[Timshel]

Obviously my December 1st apps will be last minute, but I have some not due until the middle of January, so I am thinking that having such an early deadline will make my other apps get turned in early......I hope.

[darjeelingtea16]

I am among the "and miles to go before I sleep" group. For this reason, my biggest fear now is typos in my SOP or writing sample.

I very much admire the others' ability to send things in before the deadline--I think there's something to say about the confidence that it entails. A professor at my undergrad mentioned how he used to turn in seminar papers around spring break (a month and a half in advance) because he always knew exactly what he wanted to write. Let's just say he turned out very successful. *sigh*

I'm half and half about whether turning things in early shows confidence. At least in my case, I swing wildly from thinking that it'll show that I'm serious and have my shit in order, to thinking that it'll backfire on me if something about my application isn't good enough (as in, I should've taken the extra time to fix such and such thing)...

[yank in the M20]

I'm officially done looking at my writing sample and SOPs. Will have a glance over Virginia's since I had to do two, which meant converting a 12 page conference paper into a six page something or other so that I could keep my stronger sample nearly intact, though not sure that the six page piece even makes sense now. And I'm mailing off most of my writing samples tomorrow and splitting my actual online submissions between the next three weekends. Like many people here, my LORs are going to be the last in. I'm going to wait until the Monday before my first deadline, a Friday, to email them with a polite reminder. This is my second round and they were much quicker about it last year--I think they're sick of having to do these letters for me and I don't blame them, but I just want to say 'get on with it!' so I don't have to worry. I definitely identify with the poster saying s/he can't get motivated when the deadline is so near. I think I've just been tinkering the last two weeks or so anyway, the apps are the best they're going to get given my limited time left and so I just need to let them go.

I don't think turning things in early or last minute says anything about your ability as a scholar. I know both great and awful students that have done both--it's more of a personality thing, I think. You only have to worry if you're like this guy I did my MA with who waited until a few hours before submission to get his MA dissertation bound, something they recommend giving a few days for. He finally got in line and realized he'd never get it done by deadline so he was calling me asking me to check online into other places he might do so and was thinking about driving into a town a few hours away to get it done. He's a lucky bastard, always, and ended up having someone near the front of the line approach him and offer to take his stuff to be bound for him, not telling anyone else in line that it wasn't his own. Only problem--his last name was misspelled on the binding. Oops!

[darjeelingtea16]

I'm officially done looking at my writing sample and SOPs. Will have a glance over Virginia's since I had to do two, which meant converting a 12 page conference paper into a six page something or other so that I could keep my stronger sample nearly intact, though not sure that the six page piece even makes sense now. And I'm mailing off most of my writing samples tomorrow and splitting my actual online submissions between the next three weekends. Like many people here, my LORs are going to be the last in. I'm going to wait until the Monday before my first deadline, a Friday, to email them with a polite reminder. This is my second round and they were much quicker about it last year--I think they're sick of having to do these letters for me and I don't blame them, but I just want to say 'get on with it!' so I don't have to worry. I definitely identify with the poster saying s/he can't get motivated when the deadline is so near. I think I've just been tinkering the last two weeks or so anyway, the apps are the best they're going to get given my limited time left and so I just need to let them go.

I don't think turning things in early or last minute says anything about your ability as a scholar. I know both great and awful students that have done both--it's more of a personality thing, I think. You only have to worry if you're like this guy I did my MA with who waited until a few hours before submission to get his MA dissertation bound, something they recommend giving a few days for. He finally got in line and realized he'd never get it done by deadline so he was calling me asking me to check online into other places he might do so and was thinking about driving into a town a few hours away to get it done. He's a lucky bastard, always, and ended up having someone near the front of the line approach him and offer to take his stuff to be bound for him, not telling anyone else in line that it wasn't his own. Only problem--his last name was misspelled on the binding. Oops!

Yeah, it's definitely good to just let it go, especially if you just keep nitpicking at it. It's really hard to do so, of course, but it also feels pretty good to be done.

I know someone like that as well! He ended up handing in his MA thesis about 2 minutes before it was due. So lucky, but holy crap I was stressing out for him!

[yank in the M20]

That's how it was for this guy! Everyone in the work space was stressed out for him and he was really calm. He only finally went to get it bound when one of the PhD students offered to stand in line for him--I think that's when he really realized it might be a problem.

[darjeelingtea16]

I am now at the point where I've mapped out around when I should hear news, based on what the results search pages say. Oh God.