What Are My Chances?

[DontHate]

I applied for (removed at poster's request) this cycle. These are my stats:

• Currently enrolled in an M.A ________ (no grades yet, too early, the program is 1 year)
  
• Undergrad at _______ with a 3.6 GPA (3.77 in my major, English Lit and Fiction Writing)
  
• Studied 4 foreign languages (only 3 of which are going to be a part of my project)
  
• No publications in my field, but I did work for two years between undergrad and grad, writing for an SF bay newspaper and working as an editorial assistant at a magazine and a book publisher (I don't think this experience is at all relevant, but it is on my CV)
  
• My letters are from 3 full professors, one of whom is pretty famous, (the others are solidly respected in their field, but they work on premodern literature and I plan to do mostly 20th C with a dash of 16th C). 2 from Stanford and 1 from Columbia. They all know me pretty well, particularly the _______ prof. I think they will be very good letters.
  
• My statement of purpose is pretty strong, I think. It's about a creative topic that is growing in popularity, at the intersection of (removed at poster's request).
  

I applied to 7 extremely competitive programs (no safeties): 4 Ivies and _______ , _______ , and _______ . I've corresponded with professors at _______ , _______ (where one of the profs in the department I'm applying to is recommending me), _______ , _______ and _______ (of course, I'm here, they all know me at least in passing). My profs at _______ are extremely encouraging, but they say they can't guarantee anything, since every year is a crapshoot. I have 3 of 7 on the _______ adcom who are very enthusiastic about having me stay. The other 4 don't know me as well, so I have no idea what they will vote. I'm just worried that my writing sample is weak. I had to produce it in a hurry, it probably could have been better, I think there was a typo. And it's basically the most important part of the whole app :/

tl;dr: I'm super stressed because I just submitted my applications and now I have nothing to do but wait, can someone please make soothing humming noises in my ear? Thank you.

[DontHate]

somebody please...

[damequixote]

I read your post on the lit&comp board as well--their advice to you was good. The truth is, there just isn't any way to know. If you had extremely bad GRE scores that might get you cut out of the applicant pool before serious consideration or interests that are antithetical to the programs you applied to, we could tell you your chances aren't great--though still not impossible. For people like you, really qualified applicants, there just isn't any way to know.

We're all stressed and hoping that our chances are good, so welcome to the club! You might also want to check out the "Before you ask, 'What are my chances?'" Forum, here:

Edited December 5, 2012 by damequixote

[DontHate]

My GRE was 169 Verbal. I don't think the math score counts for anything. But it was a 157.