Fall 2014 applicants??

[pelicano]

Does anyone know if England offers the GRE subject test in English? I was on the website and they don't list it as having a test center. 

Yes. The only test centre is in Canterbury,oddly. There are one or two dates a year ( I don't know if that is normal elsewhere).

[Horb]

OMG. Thank you. If I reapply, I have to retake it. And yeah, generally it is in September, October, or April. I'm kinda angry that they don't list in on the GRE website. 

[Kamisha]

OMG. Thank you. If I reapply, I have to retake it. And yeah, generally it is in September, October, or April. I'm kinda angry that they don't list in on the GRE website. 

 

This is great info. I have to retake it, as well, if I end up going to England and having to reapply. That test is a nightmare. 

[Horb]

No matter what I do, I doubt I'll ever do well on the Subject test...guess I'll be doing that this summer. 

Edited March 13, 2014 by Horb

[mkumar]

Having gone to a liberal arts school that doesn't teach full survey courses, I had to buy all 6 volumes of the NAEL to prepare. It took months, was awful, and in the end I did...okay. The best advice I got in preparing was to pay close attention to the section headings and author introductions in the anthology; they pack a lot of useful information in a very short space.

[shortstack51]

Online adjunct? Work in the writing center? That situation is crappy. I’m sorry

Thanks for the sympathy! You are too kind. And I will see what I can drum up. I'm sure there has to be something I can do.

RE : GRE subject test, I used the Princeton Review guide supplemented by Norton. I only spent one full day studying and got a pretty good score. Granted, I'm also finishing an MA, which gave me a boost (had to take all the time period requirements), but I really mostly focused on what it said. It seemed to help me. I took it once before MA and got in the 75th percentile using PR and then I took it after my MA and got in the 82nd.

If you don't do anglo-saxon/medieval/middle English, brush up on piers plowman, beowulf, and Canterbury tales and how to read middle English. The list of terms in PR are also good for scoring easy points on the test. Also, their included practice test is way harder than the real thing, which helped especially because they included explanations for the answers. I also personally skipped a lot of the author identification questions unless I could narrow my answers to two comfortably.

Hope that helps?

Edit: also, the test is more about identifying a major "feature" of an author or text rather than really having to know it. I had never read Tamburlaine before, didn't study it much, but got a question right because I associated it with a particular word that I then spotted on the test. Making flash cards of suggested authors/texts from PR and then picking an easily identifiable feature to test yourself on might be helpful.

Edited March 13, 2014 by shortstack51

[despejado]

Who is that Villanova acceptance?! Let's be friends!

[Kamisha]

I hate the term “Writer’s Block,” but am definitely struggling to get my thesis on paper. What do you guys do when you are having a hard time finding the right words and ideas? 

[crazyhappy]

Kamisha, I just start typing.  I don't worry about it being exactly what I want to say or it being well worded.  After I get a page or so of this down, I form a brief outline, and then I go back and start shaping what I've written.  Good luck!  I hate it when I have trouble crafting what I want to say.

[engphiledu]

Writer's Block sucks, but a comp teacher of mine taught me a good little trick. It goes along with what crazyhappy said, but it works in increments. You can change the time increments depending on what type of writing you're doing or how often you've done it, but my professor told me that starting out with a 5 min on, 2 min off approach is a good way to start (especially if you're going through some really terrible Writer's Block). 
Set a timer for 5 minutes to start. Take that five minutes to brainstorm, make an outline, draw pictures, whatever you can think to write down. Take two minutes to look it over and do no more writing. Then, take five minutes and just write. Don't worry about grammar, don't focus on how you're phrasing things, write the same sentence six different ways if you need to, but don't stop writing for that five minutes. Take two minutes off, read back through what you wrote or refer back to your notes, but don't change anything. 
I churned out twenty pages in just a few hours doing this once. I only kept about ten pages, once I went back and edited, but it was much better than the blank screen. At this point, I had increased the increment to ten minutes on, five minutes off. Although I was working on the first draft of a novel, I have also used this same technique for research papers or different types of essays. For research papers, I generally take the five minutes to go back through research notes (so you might need to increase the off-time for writing just a bit, but not enough that you spend too much time in your research). 

Just an idea! It's saved my skin a few times!

[SleepyOldMan]

I would agree.  

 

In my experience, if the words don't flow, it almost always means that I haven't yet fully figured out or conceptualized what I want to say.  But, at the same time, more time spent just thinking or outlining isn't likely to help.  

 

So I just begin to write, knowing that major revisions will be necessary.  At some point in the process of writing I usually find that I have written myself into a problem that reveals the specific unclarity of my ideas, ie. something that I thought I had fully thought through, but in fact had not.  Once I see what the problem is, it's a lot easier to focus on that and try to figure it out.  When I have, the words flow again, but it usually then pretty much means rewriting from scratch.

[DyslexicBibliophile]

Who is that Villanova acceptance?! Let's be friends!

 

 

I sincerely wish I could claim it, but I still haven't heard anything. How long did your application say "under review" before you received your decision? It's been about a week and I still haven't heard a peep!

 

Also - because I was only partially lurking the last week, I somehow missed your acceptance - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!   (and sorry I'm so late to the party!)

[despejado]

I sincerely wish I could claim it, but I still haven't heard anything. How long did your application say "under review" before you received your decision? It's been about a week and I still haven't heard a peep!

 

Also - because I was only partially lurking the last week, I somehow missed your acceptance - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!   (and sorry I'm so late to the party!)

 

I sincerely wish it was you as well! It only said "Under Review" for a couple of days (it was a nine-day turnaround from submission to notification. Talk about timely). I am crossing all of my appendages in hopes that you and I will be cohorts next year   I definitely wouldn't worry about the amount of time it's taking.. I think there are only two other acceptances up other than mine, and I know they take more students than that.

 

Thank you so much! I really, really appreciate that

[shortstack51]

Just so everyone knows, I ran into someone who went to a school in Washington who said that the environment at UW was very competitive when last he knew (about 3-4 years ago). I'm not putting this in the UW thread so I don't put the person who's from the program on the spot, but this person had friends who couldn't get their work done because other students would intentionally check out the books the friends needed just for the purpose of sabotage. They also described the relationship between faculty as "very competitive" and as leaking onto the grad students. Just a heads up.

[Kamisha]

Just so everyone knows, I ran into someone who went to a school in Washington who said that the environment at UW was very competitive when last he knew (about 3-4 years ago). I'm not putting this in the UW thread so I don't put the person who's from the program on the spot, but this person had friends who couldn't get their work done because other students would intentionally check out the books the friends needed just for the purpose of sabotage. They also described the relationship between faculty as "very competitive" and as leaking onto the grad students. Just a heads up.

 

And I thought my program could be bad sometimes. That’s really, really sad. I’ve heard of a few departments that are like that. In my mind, PhD programs should be a place where you form long-term friendships with like-minded individuals. It’s unfortunate when the pressures of academia turn kind and talented people into the worst versions of themselves. 

[andrewcycs]

Hey all,

I been so busy with finals and haven't been on, but I got into the Rochester MA with 50% tuition. I'm quite excited. Thought I would share the news.

Any other Rochester people??

[despejado]

Hey all,

I been so busy with finals and haven't been on, but I got into the Rochester MA with 50% tuition. I'm quite excited. Thought I would share the news.

Any other Rochester people??

AHHHH FINALLY! Your good karma and innate intelligence have paid off for you, as I knew they would

CONGRATULATIONS!

Edited March 15, 2014 by despejado

[styrofoam]

Hey all,

I been so busy with finals and haven't been on, but I got into the Rochester MA with 50% tuition. I'm quite excited. Thought I would share the news.

Any other Rochester people??

 

Congrats, andrewcycs!

 

I just got accepted with the same offer 

 

Yay for Rochester!

[DyslexicBibliophile]

Hey all,

I been so busy with finals and haven't been on, but I got into the Rochester MA with 50% tuition. I'm quite excited. Thought I would share the news.

Any other Rochester people??

 

I also got in with a 50% tuition waiver! I'm so glad that neither one of us had to throw the other under a bus . . . that would have been rather unseemly!

 

And just because I haven't outright said it yet - super big congratulations on the acceptance!

[DyslexicBibliophile]

Congrats, andrewcycs!

 

I just got accepted with the same offer 

 

Yay for Rochester!

 

 

Styrofoam - Congratulations to you as well!!

[andrewcycs]

Yay dyslexic! I'm glad our luck wishes came to fruition and we aren't forced to kill one another out of jealousy.

And yay for you too Styro. Are you guys thinking about accepting the offer?? Will we be future classmates??

[andrewcycs]

And Despejado, you are my gradcafe soul mate. I thought you should know. Haha. Thanks for being awesome.

[shortstack51]

Hey all,

I been so busy with finals and haven't been on, but I got into the Rochester MA with 50% tuition. I'm quite excited. Thought I would share the news.

Any other Rochester people??

Congrats!! My friend did his BA at Rochester and loved it

[despejado]

And Despejado, you are my gradcafe soul mate. I thought you should know. Haha. Thanks for being awesome.

Upvotes into oblivion. Thank you for being equally awesome.

[DyslexicBibliophile]

Yay dyslexic! I'm glad our luck wishes came to fruition and we aren't forced to kill one another out of jealousy.

And yay for you too Styro. Are you guys thinking about accepting the offer?? Will we be future classmates??

 

I'm conflicted. I really want to accept no questions asked, but the realist in me is stopping that from happening just yet. I promised myself I wouldn't go into any more debt for graduate school & I need to see if I get into my other schools/see what their funding is like before I make a final decision. I also need more financial information from Rochester – I’m a McNair Scholar, and I have heard rumors they have special funding opportunities for McNair students, but I don’t know how true/exaggerated those rumors are. It would be a no brainer with better funding!