Alea Iacta Est

[happygreengrass]

Oop, and I almost forgot, to the other anxious Buffalo applicants: I'm pretty sure that it's only university-wide fellowships that have a GRE cutoff of 1260 or something like that, and not the departmental stipend/TAship offer by the English department. The big ones (presidential scholarship, etc) are a rare catch anyways.

 

Disclaimer: I could be wrong, it could have changed, but I'm about 90% sure I'm right  .

[bluecheese]

I emailed about this 4 years ago when I was applying to MFA programs (and thinking about applying to Buffalo's poetics program). They basically told me that while the GRE requirement is for fellowships, they try to mostly admit people that they can nominate for fellowships (or have a potential of securing better funding for). So, I think it is slightly more than simply a cut off mark for fellowships. I suspect there is still a chance of being admitted if your application somehow stands out in some way... but having a score below the mark will likely severely limit your chances of being admitted. At least that was the impression I got from my quick email.

Edited January 25, 2013 by bluecheese

[Sursie]

My GREs are borderline, my undergrad GPA is mediocre, my MA GPA is baller, I reckon my LORs are good, I've got 3 conference presentations but 0 pubs, my writing sample is an ambitious mess (written last semester, concurrent with the application process), and my SOP is solid but flawed. C'est la vie. I didn't email profs during the app process, but I spent a lot of time researching programs for what I thought would be the right fit for me; we'll see if they agree!

Edited January 27, 2013 by Sursie