Alea Iacta Est

[sadthatthisdefinesmylife]

Now that, for the most part, this application non-sense is out of your hands, is there anything you regret about your application? Do you wish you'd included a more esoteric Marxist in your writing sample(the one where you defined "The Three Little Pigs" as a narrative created by a shadowy capitalist figure who seeks to control Ideological State Apparatuses in order to manipulate children into particpating in the brick industry)? Are you paranoid that your overuse of Northrop Frye in your statement of purpose makes you sound like an 80 year-old?Any advice you wish you'd taken more seriously? Are any of us any wiser for having gone through this process? Is anyone 100% happy with their appication?

Edited January 23, 2013 by sadthatthisdefinesmylife

[asleepawake]

Excuse me.... but where did you get my writing sample?

[sadthatthisdefinesmylife]

Excuse me.... but where did you get my writing sample?

 

I just assumed that's what we were all writing about. Either that, or an informitive text about how to fully explain the word without sounding like a creepy person. 

[asleepawake]

Obviously I was J/K

[Two Espressos]

Now that, for the most part, this application non-sense is out of your hands, is there anything you regret about your application?

 

Absolutely.  I wish my SOP and writing sample weren't shitty.  My GRE scores aren't terrible, so I'll pretend that they don't bother me.  Ditto for my GPA.

[DontHate]

I wish I weren't a total loser, and I didn't include all those booger-flavored scratch-and-sniff cards in all my apps. Also I wish I weren't so ugly!

[asleepawake]

I wish my SOP and writing sample weren't shitty.  

 

I'd put good money down that these things are not true.

[dazedandbemused]

I wish my SOP was a bit clearer in some places. I keep thinking of better ways to say what I said, even though most of those ways would have required a LOT more words. Also, I worry that I should have taken the GRE again, especially as I only recently saw the addendum on Buffalo's website about minimum scores for University fellowships.

[asleepawake]

Yeah, I'd like to go back and study more the GRE. Ok, not really, but I used to be really good at math. In high school, I used to score >95% on math testing/SAT/etc. But I took the GRE without studying and scored 50th-ish in quantitative, and I have no memory of formulas/how to graph/etc... A review would make a huge difference, but I had more important things to worry about. Some vocab review would have helped, too.

 

Ah, well. The only GRE I really studies for was the subject test, and let's just say... that did not help.

 

GRE Schmee R E.

Edited January 24, 2013 by asleepawake

[Two Espressos]

I wish my SOP was a bit clearer in some places. I keep thinking of better ways to say what I said, even though most of those ways would have required a LOT more words. Also, I worry that I should have taken the GRE again, especially as I only recently saw the addendum on Buffalo's website about minimum scores for University fellowships.

 

I freaked out a little bit when I read about the GRE threshold at Buffalo.  My total score puts me over that limit, but just barely.  Now I wonder if my GRE scores are too weak for fellowship nomination at more "elite" programs that expect higher numbers.  Probably...

 

I'd put good money down that these things are not true.

 

You're too kind.  Really though, my SOP and writing sample are pretty bad.  I don't think I was specific enough on the former, and I feel like the thesis of the latter, while somewhat interesting and provocative, could be torn to shreds rather easily.  I wrote the paper under really intense deadlines, so I'm somewhat proud of it, but I wish I had an extra week or two to polish it.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Two Espressos

[DontHate]

GRE Schmee R E.

 

Part of my writing sample explains where this expression comes from. The shm- prefix in yiddish means "old fart"

[asleepawake]

Part of my writing sample explains where this expression comes from. The shm- prefix in yiddish means "old fart"

 

 This is fascinating. 

[bluecheese]

Buffalo GRE worried me also. It worked out. 

[dazedandbemused]

Buffalo GRE worried me also. It worked out. 

 

Wait, are you accepted?

 

My total score isn't the part that worries me; it's the Analytical Writing that has me worried. I got a really dismal 4 and the cutoff is 4.5 or something.

[bluecheese]

I haven't been accepted yet. They have a minimum requirement for the V/Q score listed on their website (for fellowships)--I was worried about the requirement itself. I scored well above it, but before taking the test I was worried about meeting it.

[t1racyjacks]

I think I could've done better on the writing sample

[Swagato]

To be honest, I doubt the AW score on the GRE is a major factor in English/similar fields. Everyone knows that the GRE essay is highly formulaic and is not at all a measure of your academic writing capabilities. Adcoms have a 15+ paper in front of them that'll give a much better sense of that potential. 

 

I'm happy about my GRE (V800, Q680, AW4.5), but I wish I had encountered the two works that allowed me to drastically improve and change my writing sample before the Dec. 1 round. I'm confident that I put my best foot forward for roughly 9 out of my 13 applications--and I wish I could've said that for all 13. 

[sadthatthisdefinesmylife]

I kind of forced one of my professors to be a mentor while I was starting this whole process. One of the things that he said to me was "Doing these applications is going to take way more time than you think. Between researching programs, writing SOPs, cleaning up writing samples, and chasing down recs, it will be more like a part time job." I really didn't believe him. I thought it was just something that people said to make themselves sound like they've done more than they really have. Turns out, I was wrong. What he didn't mention was all how much time you spend thinking about it outside of the actual work. Blerg. 

 

His other advice was "don't apply to theory only programs," "only apply where you want to go", and "if you want a job at some point in your life, go to a top 20 school in your field." 

 

I guess the thing that I most regret about my apps is that I wish the SOP I submitted to my early deadline schools was as good as the one I submitted to the late deadline schools. Now that everything is in, I've actually had to force myself to stop going back and rereading my SOP and writing samples because it fills me with dread whenever I do it. 

 

The only other regret is that I wish I'd thought to use one of my rec's on my applications sooner. Throughout the whole process, I had my top three recommenders that I knew I was going to use. I chose them (all from my M.A.) because each of them represented a particular strength that I have (theory, writing, and analysis) and I knew they would talk about the contributions I could make to the field. I thought that they were also perfect because they didn't really ask me too many questions. It was more like "Sure, just send me the form." Right at the end of the process, I had this inspiration to contact one of my undergrad professors. She's not a real big name person, but she's pretty established, respected, and well known in her field. She's always been really supportive of me, but I was nervous to contact her because it had been a while.  I was also nervous because I knew that she would ask to see all of my application stuff. It was kind of late in the process and the idea of having someone tell me that all my applications needed work freaked me out. I didn't want to have to go back and work on my SOP and sample anymore. Eventually I just decided to do it. I send her all of my stuff. She gave me great advice and kind of reframed my whole idea of how I presented myself in my application. I'm really glad I reached out to her, it just sucks that I didn't think to contact her for all of the applications that were due in December. 

 

I also wish that I'd included a hot picture of myself in my application. 

[jrockford27]

I'd say my biggest regret was the grammatical mistake that went out in four of my ten personal statements.  My writing sample makes me nervous too.  It's basically two sections of my honors thesis, but I edited the first chapter for length, and I'm really afraid that I might have gutted it and made it awful in the process.  I mean, I reread it probably 15 times, but we often miss things when we're reading our own work.  It's definitely not the paper I submitted and got an A on...

Edited January 24, 2013 by jrockford27

[dazedandbemused]

To be honest, I doubt the AW score on the GRE is a major factor in English/similar fields. Everyone knows that the GRE essay is highly formulaic and is not at all a measure of your academic writing capabilities. Adcoms have a 15+ paper in front of them that'll give a much better sense of that potential. 

 

 I wasn't worried about it at first and I'm only worried now because being below the cutoff for university fellowships at Buffalo just seems like it would hurt my application as a whole. I don't think it's a problem because of what it may say about my abilities, though.

[slvitale]

Not counting my GRE Subject Test Scores.

[lolotte]

I don’t feel very confident about my writing sample. None of my past seminar papers really reflect my interests, so I decided to write something new. But as deadlines approached and it wasn’t coming together, I chose to use a presentation paper as my sample. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long enough, so I had to tack on parts of another paper, then write a new introduction and edit away to make it seem cohesive. The two papers were actually relevant to one another, and I had received positive feedback on both, but I’m not sure if the Franken-paper result of their synthesis is brilliance or madness (probably the latter).

[champagne]

I don’t feel very confident about my writing sample. None of my past seminar papers really reflect my interests, so I decided to write something new. But as deadlines approached and it wasn’t coming together, I chose to use a presentation paper as my sample. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long enough, so I had to tack on parts of another paper, then write a new introduction and edit away to make it seem cohesive. The two papers were actually relevant to one another, and I had received positive feedback on both, but I’m not sure if the Franken-paper result of their synthesis is brilliance or madness (probably the latter).

 

Why not both? I think Mary Shelley would certainly approve of the ambiguity.

[The Whistler]

Oh wow, I thought I was the only one who hated her writing sample, turns out there's more of us.

I submitted an excerpt from my M.A. thesis, which probably doesn't even come close to samples that people who were educated in the US submitted, as far as quality is concerned. Sure, I presented it, my professors checked it (before I graduated), I read it a few million times, but I have no idea how bad it is compared to stuff native speakers write at American universities.

 

Also, my GRE verbal is definitely not good enough. I work full time (about 10-12 hours a day), and there were some other (unfortunately, tragic) occurences last summer in my family, so I basically had a month to prepare for the test, and no money to retake it.

Plus, my quantitative section is abysmal.

 

The only part I don't hate about my application is the SoP. But I have no idea what to think of it either.

 

All things concerned, my application is a mess.

[happygreengrass]

Regrets:

 

2 errors (1 missing "s," one missing quotation mark) buried in my writing sample (which I found on the umpteenth read AFTER submission).

 

An occasional concern that I overemphasized my interest in speculative fiction and under-emphasized my ecocritical stance (I think this one may just be nitpicking)

 

A raging concern that the cleverly composed (but not autobiographical) narrative of my SoP is a little too clever, to the point of being grossly ambitious and wishy-washy about my love for the department.  (Honestly, sometimes it reads just fine, and other times it feels like it was written by Joan of Arc).

 

Pestering the office staff about my papers (three times, but they know me well and I was obsequiously nice...)

 

Ah!  This thread may not be happy space right now, lol.