Fall 2014 applicants??

[champagne]

Kind of. I haven't worn closed-toe shoes more than 5 times a year since I moved to the South...

 

I had this exact same thought when I posted that. To clarify, I was speaking more towards the traditional Yeoman-farmer stereotype people seem to have about the South.

[MissHavishslam]

Kind of. I haven't worn closed-toe shoes more than 5 times a year since I moved to the South...

I had this exact same thought when I posted that. To clarify, I was speaking more towards the traditional Yeoman-farmer stereotype people seem to have about the South.

 

Hahahaha. As much as I love the snow, I must say that I do miss being able to wear flip flops 350 days out of the year. This is why I am actually pulling for California to work out for me! I know that when I find the right program I will love it--no matter where it is. I'm not letting it stop me from applying!

[toasterazzi]

Hahahaha. As much as I love the snow, I must say that I do miss being able to wear flip flops 350 days out of the year. This is why I am actually pulling for California to work out for me! I know that when I find the right program I will love it--no matter where it is. I'm not letting it stop me from applying!

See, growing up in the Midwest, I'm accustomed to incredibly unpredictable weather. I'm tired of not knowing whether it's going to snow or rain or be sunny or do all of those things in one day lol. When I was in LA and San Diego last weekend, it was so much easier. And I got to wear my flip flops and shorts in March, which made me indescribably happy lol. I'm also one of those people who is really displeased by the gray of winter, so I definitely need to get somewhere sunnier.

[MissHavishslam]

See, growing up in the Midwest, I'm accustomed to incredibly unpredictable weather. I'm tired of not knowing whether it's going to snow or rain or be sunny or do all of those things in one day lol. When I was in LA and San Diego last weekend, it was so much easier. And I got to wear my flip flops and shorts in March, which made me indescribably happy lol. I'm also one of those people who is really displeased by the gray of winter, so I definitely need to get somewhere sunnier.

 

After six years, I am getting a little tried of the dreary snow then 60 degrees then snow cycle of Pittsburgh. I just submitted a paper to the PAMLA conference in San Diego for November, so I'll be super excited if I get to escape for sun!

[midnight]

I took the old one and the revised. The revised verbal is MUCH easier but you should still learn quite a bit of vocab. Kaplan has good set of 500 words. I'm retaking it again this summer because I didn't get as high a score as I would like but my score did improve 20% from the old test. They also got rid of the "the better you do the harder the questions get" tactic which helped a lot.

 

Yes, I firmly believe that the new GRE verbal is easier and more intuitive, especially for humanities majors. Context helps immensely, and most of the vocab words aren't arcane. In fact, I don't remember any words that completely stumped me, and I can't say the same thing for the old GRE. From the new test, I do remember words like "fealty," "purview," and "amorphous," which are all familiar or at least guessable.

 

Between the old GRE and the revised, my score improved from the 89th percentile to the 93rd. I missed only one question related to vocabulary on the new test; the rest of my incorrect questions were in the reading comprehension category (long science passages on the GRE are the bane of my existence).

 

tl;dr: If you took the old GRE and didn't do so well, I heartily recommend the new GRE.

 

ETA: For the new GRE, it's important to remember that the test allots only 30 minutes for the Issue task (as opposed to the 45 on the old), and you do not get to pick your topic. I found the new AW format to be more stressful and trickier after taking the old test, and my score dropped; although I don't think an AW score is an essential part of the English lit application, I still recommend some timed writing practice before the test to boost your confidence. It's terrible to start the test off feeling like you've bombed the AW.

Edited March 18, 2013 by midnight streetlight

[toasterazzi]

After six years, I am getting a little tried of the dreary snow then 60 degrees then snow cycle of Pittsburgh. I just submitted a paper to the PAMLA conference in San Diego for November, so I'll be super excited if I get to escape for sun!

That's awesome! I'm probably going to be sending some stuff in for conferences here in the near future. Here's hoping that a. I do good enough work for someone accept be and b. I get accepted some place that's awesome to visit .

[Fishbucket]

So yeah I'm joining this bandwagon. Gonna apply again. I don't know where yet, but I will figure it out. Sigh sigh sigh.

[Lycidas]

Might as well check myself in to this thread. I'll be a senior undergraduate this fall, and I plan on applying to only two schools. After posting on gradcafe for a little while (and lurking much longer than that) I've realized that many, many people tend to do better after getting a first round of applications under their belt. I hadn't originally planned on applying at all this year, and waiting instead until next year to do a full round of applications, but after seeing this phenomenon occur over and over again, I decided it'd be a good idea to do a mini-round of applications my senior year. I kept it to only my top-2 programs in order to avoid excess stress, since I will also be finalizing my thesis, working, and taking classes at the same time. I view this fall as a way to test the waters a bit; I have no high hopes of getting into either school on my first attempt. Next year I will expand my list greatly and include masters programs as well.

 

In the meantime I've been reading like mad in preparation for the subject test and studying for the general test as well. Awesome recommendations in here from everyone about GRE studying, thanks for that. I also downloaded reading lists here and here that I have been working on. The latter one is particularly recommended to all subject test takers; it's been very helpful for me thus far. 

[Taco Superior]

So yeah I'm joining this bandwagon. Gonna apply again. I don't know where yet, but I will figure it out. Sigh sigh sigh.

 

No CUNY?

 

Might as well check myself in to this thread. I'll be a senior undergraduate this fall, and I plan on applying to only two schools. After posting on gradcafe for a little while (and lurking much longer than that) I've realized that many, many people tend to do better after getting a first round of applications under their belt. I hadn't originally planned on applying at all this year, and waiting instead until next year to do a full round of applications, but after seeing this phenomenon occur over and over again, I decided it'd be a good idea to do a mini-round of applications my senior year. I kept it to only my top-2 programs in order to avoid excess stress, since I will also be finalizing my thesis, working, and taking classes at the same time. I view this fall as a way to test the waters a bit; I have no high hopes of getting into either school on my first attempt. Next year I will expand my list greatly and include masters programs as well.

 

In the meantime I've been reading like mad in preparation for the subject test and studying for the general test as well. Awesome recommendations in here from everyone about GRE studying, thanks for that. I also downloaded reading lists here and here that I have been working on. The latter one is particularly recommended to all subject test takers; it's been very helpful for me thus far. 

 

I'll add two recommendations about the GRE general test verbal section for anyone interested (my 170 qualifies me I guess):

 

1) I took MOST of kaplan/princeton review's advice but NOT their advice to write everything down and double/triple check answers--there's just not enough time. If you're overly cautious you won't finish or you'll have to rush at the end.

 

2) Skip past the LONG (but not the short) reading comprehension sections and come back to them at the end. These are the toughest and will eat up your time.

[Fishbucket]

I haven't heard any decision from CUNY post-interview, so I'm just predicting doom. It seems pretty late for good news.

[Taco Superior]

Hm. Stranger things have happened. But I agree it's more energizing to start planning for the next time than to just... wait. I was second on the waitlist at Davis one year which seemed pretty hopeful and then on april 15 they told me they ended up not taking anyone off the waitlist. Not fun. I started writing a new sample paper that day.

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

Might as well check myself in to this thread. I'll be a senior undergraduate this fall, and I plan on applying to only two schools. After posting on gradcafe for a little while (and lurking much longer than that) I've realized that many, many people tend to do better after getting a first round of applications under their belt. I hadn't originally planned on applying at all this year, and waiting instead until next year to do a full round of applications, but after seeing this phenomenon occur over and over again, I decided it'd be a good idea to do a mini-round of applications my senior year. I kept it to only my top-2 programs in order to avoid excess stress, since I will also be finalizing my thesis, working, and taking classes at the same time. I view this fall as a way to test the waters a bit; I have no high hopes of getting into either school on my first attempt. Next year I will expand my list greatly and include masters programs as well.

 

In the meantime I've been reading like mad in preparation for the subject test and studying for the general test as well. Awesome recommendations in here from everyone about GRE studying, thanks for that. I also downloaded reading lists here and here that I have been working on. The latter one is particularly recommended to all subject test takers; it's been very helpful for me thus far. 

I really like your idea of doing a mini-round and I think it'll be very helpful for you and very enjoyable as well. I'm just wondering about the GRE subject test, is it required by your two top choice schools, or you're just gonna take it in case you need it for other schools? After seeing the reading lists that you posted I knew that there's no way I can finish all of this in a few months. That's why I've been eliminating schools that requires the subject test. Although, i really like the idea that studying for the test will expand my knowledge of literature A LOT. So, I might give it a try, nothing to lose.  

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

I haven't heard any decision from CUNY post-interview, so I'm just predicting doom. It seems pretty late for good news.

Since you were waitlisted at some places this year, you're half-way there. Good luck.

[Lycidas]

I really like your idea of doing a mini-round and I think it'll be very helpful for you and very enjoyable as well. I'm just wondering about the GRE subject test, is it required by your two top choice schools, or you're just gonna take it in case you need it for other schools? After seeing the reading lists that you posted I knew that there's no way I can finish all of this in a few months. That's why I've been eliminating schools that requires the subject test. Although, i really like the idea that studying for the test will expand my knowledge of literature A LOT. So, I might give it a try, nothing to lose.  

 

Berkeley requires the subject test, as far as I know. And part of me (the masochistic part) just wants to take it to see how well, or poorly, I can do. There's absolutely no way I can read everything on those lists either, although I've been lucky enough to already read a sizeable chunk of it (unfortunately that means I'm woefully unread in non-canonical works. Posters here are constantly discussing works I haven't even heard of, much less read). There are other ways to study for the lit GRE that are much more streamlined and effective than trying to read everything off of those lists. 

 

I agree with your last sentence. Provided you can afford the test fee, there really is nothing to lose in taking it. The worst case scenario is you do terribly, and then go right back to preparing for graduate school and applying. The number of people who have gotten into graduate school with low subject test scores is huge. 

[champagne]

Posters here are constantly discussing works I haven't even heard of, much less read

 

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BOOKZ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[wreckofthehope]

For GRE vocab revision, I just used magoosh ( not sure if anyone already mentioned it as haven't read through this whole thread, but yeah).

[toasterazzi]

I really like your idea of doing a mini-round and I think it'll be very helpful for you and very enjoyable as well. I'm just wondering about the GRE subject test, is it required by your two top choice schools, or you're just gonna take it in case you need it for other schools? After seeing the reading lists that you posted I knew that there's no way I can finish all of this in a few months. That's why I've been eliminating schools that requires the subject test. Although, i really like the idea that studying for the test will expand my knowledge of literature A LOT. So, I might give it a try, nothing to lose.  

I feel you on this. I'm probably not going to take the subject test, mostly because the school's I've really been looking at don't require it AND I'm poor .Though if a school that I really fell in love with required it, I suppose I'd suck it up and take it. If it's anything like the Praxis Lit. test, then I would probably do ok on it overall. But I don't especially want the additional stress lol.

[MissHavishslam]

 That's why I've been eliminating schools that requires the subject test. Although, i really like the idea that studying for the test will expand my knowledge of literature A LOT. So, I might give it a try, nothing to lose.  

I feel you on this. I'm probably not going to take the subject test, mostly because the school's I've really been looking at don't require it AND I'm poor .Though if a school that I really fell in love with required it, I suppose I'd suck it up and take it. If it's anything like the Praxis Lit. test, then I would probably do ok on it overall. But I don't especially want the additional stress lol.

 

Originally, I was in the same boat as both of you. I was avoiding schools that required it (because I did so poorly) and was not even going to retake the general test because I did "okay." However, after talking to people on here and really really thinking about it, I've decided to retake both. I figure that I DO NOT want to be doing this application again, so I need to have the best application that I can. I know I can do much better on both tests if I actually take the time to study and just calm the hell down. Plus, UCLA and UC Davis are top choices of mine and they both require it.

[NowMoreSerious]

Might as well check myself in to this thread. I'll be a senior undergraduate this fall, and I plan on applying to only two schools. After posting on gradcafe for a little while (and lurking much longer than that) I've realized that many, many people tend to do better after getting a first round of applications under their belt. I hadn't originally planned on applying at all this year, and waiting instead until next year to do a full round of applications, but after seeing this phenomenon occur over and over again, I decided it'd be a good idea to do a mini-round of applications my senior year. I kept it to only my top-2 programs in order to avoid excess stress, since I will also be finalizing my thesis, working, and taking classes at the same time. I view this fall as a way to test the waters a bit; I have no high hopes of getting into either school on my first attempt. Next year I will expand my list greatly and include masters programs as well.

 

In the meantime I've been reading like mad in preparation for the subject test and studying for the general test as well. Awesome recommendations in here from everyone about GRE studying, thanks for that. I also downloaded reading lists here and here that I have been working on. The latter one is particularly recommended to all subject test takers; it's been very helpful for me thus far. 

I would suggest that you apply to more than 2 schools. It will not be that much extra work beyond all the work you are going to surely do to prepare your SOP and WS (and getting those rec letters) as it is.

Here's part of my reasoning. If you get into either Berkeley or Oxford, congrats, you can ride off into the sunset. But if you don't get into either, I don't think you've really learned anything about your materials since those two schools are super elite and selective, meaning there's sometimes more randomness to it. I'd apply to like at least 4, and spread them among the tiers so that you have a better barometer of where you are at no matter what happens that application season.

[toasterazzi]

@MissH-I am somewhat interested in UCLA, though not strongly at this point. Eh I might still give it a try, but ugh...money...Good thing I already have a summer job lined up I suppose lol.

Edited March 18, 2013 by reluctantmidwesterner

[MissHavishslam]

I would suggest that you apply to more than 2 schools. It will not be that much extra work beyond all the work you are going to surely do to prepare your SOP and WS (and getting those rec letters) as it is.

Here's part of my reasoning. If you get into either Berkeley or Oxford, congrats, you can ride off into the sunset. But if you don't get into either, I don't think you've really learned anything about your materials since those two schools are super elite and selective, meaning there's sometimes more randomness to it. I'd apply to like at least 4, and spread them among the tiers so that you have a better barometer of where you are at no matter what happens that application season.

 

I agree with NowMoreSerious. I understand your reasoning but you really won't be able to gauge where you stand in the application process with only two schools (top schools at that). Also, another piece of advice that I always tell people is to go for your MA first. Not that it is a bad thing if you don't but it will allow you to explore what you want to do in grad school more as well as give you a better feel for a program (and the stresses of grad school itself) without a 6-7 year commitment. For example, one of my friends is going to a top school for her field but absolutely hates it. She's only in a MA program but she's already considered dropping out. Not only is her advisor unavailable, but she isn't a part of a supportive program and their course offerings are all religious based (not what the website stated). Just my two cents.

 

@MissH-I am somewhat interested in UCLA, though not strongly at this point. Eh I might still give it a try, but ugh...money...Good thing I already have a summer job lined up I suppose lol.

 

I LOVE UCLA. They have a great eco department that focuses on race and postcolonial lit. I would chew off my own arm to get accepted (and I wish I were kidding).

[toasterazzi]

I feel like chewing your arm off might be a bad life choice as an English student  . 

[Datatape]

Depends.  Could be a great way to get in somewhere that specializes in trauma studies.

[MissHavishslam]

Hm...I think that I just found the personal hook for my SoP.

[ComeBackZinc]

Don't underestimate the cost of the application fees, transcript requests, GRE scores, and assorted, guys. I understand the logic of applying to a ton of schools, but I think that it has to be sensibly balanced with recognizing that this process can cost in the thousands of dollars.