Fall 2014 applicants??

[ComeBackZinc]

I could never have afforded to apply to 12 schools, much less 15. I applied to 4, personally. But to each her/his own.

[toasterazzi]

Yeah unless I win the lottery, I can't see how I could apply to more than 10 (and even that's pushing the wallet) and pay for the tests and pay my bills. I do plan to apply for any available fee waivers, but even then, it'll still be a lot of money for me.

[wreckofthehope]

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.

 

They're fairly likely to get into Oxford, any UK school accepts a much, much larger percentage of applicants than US schools do. For reference Oxford accepts around 45% of PhD applicants; the hard part is getting funding, which you almost certainly will not get for an MSt. 

 

That said, I'd want to apply more widely too - increasing the likelihood that you will have multiple offers to choose from is usually a good idea, it might meant the difference between paying for a degree out of pocket or being paid to earn the qualification.

 

Edited to add: I just checked the Ox stats - 57% acceptance rate for English DPhil, 37% for English Master's degrees.

Edited March 19, 2013 by wreckofthehope

[cbttcher]

First, sorry about that.

 

Second, welcome to the party! Have you thought about what you plan to change for the next round?

Thank you!

Almost everything. My SOP and writing sample sucked because it was all too rushed and my GRE scores, both general and subject, really weren't that great. So, in April I'm going to start looking for universities because I'm definitely going to apply to more than five schools this round; I'll start working on my SOPs and WS; and I'm going to prepare to retake the GRE.

[midnight]

They're fairly likely to get into Oxford, any UK school accepts a much, much larger percentage of applicants than US schools do. For reference Oxford accepts around 45% of PhD applicants; the hard part is getting funding, which you almost certainly will not get for an MSt. 

 

But that's a biggie.

[wreckofthehope]

But that's a biggie.

Sure, but it seems pointless to apply to Oxford if funding is an issue since you are so unlikely to get it (especially if you are an international applicant).

[bluecheese]

I saved up over the summer, got an editing job that paid a decent sum, somehow managed to win a writing award for $700, and put a sizable chunk on a credit card that I'm almost done paying off.

 

It's totally doable, and totally worth it--when the dust settled, I received 4 offers with stipends over 20k a year.

 

I don't understand why I was down voted above; there are serious advantages to applying as widely as possible.

[midnight]

Sure, but it seems pointless to apply to Oxford if funding is an issue since you are so unlikely to get it (especially if you are an international applicant).

 

True.

 

Honestly I had no clue that they accepted so many US applicants.

[Two Espressos]

This thread has veered off into different territory, but my take on the GRE: its difficulty is vastly overrated, generally speaking.  I don't think it's even necessary for humanistically minded people to study for the verbal or analytic writing portions.  I would, however, familiarize yourself with the question types and format of the exam. That's very important.

 

For what it's worth, I did well on the verbal and analytic portions.  Not stratospheric, but respectable.

[toasterazzi]

The money situation for me isn't likely to change for me. I already have a job, which I'll likely be working full time in the summer. Between a car payment, rent, and all the other regular bills, I'll already be stretched pretty thin. And that doesn't even include the whole paying for a wedding thing that's gonna be going down over the course of the next year. I definitely believe in applying to more than just a few schools to better your chances, but I can't see myself applying to say 25 schools because while there might be long term benefits, that would really negatively impact my life in the short term.

 

Thank you!

Almost everything. My SOP and writing sample sucked because it was all too rushed and my GRE scores, both general and subject, really weren't that great. So, in April I'm going to start looking for universities because I'm definitely going to apply to more than five schools this round; I'll start working on my SOPs and WS; and I'm going to prepare to retake the GRE.

 

Sounds like a good plan 

[MissHavishslam]

Thank you!

Almost everything. My SOP and writing sample sucked because it was all too rushed and my GRE scores, both general and subject, really weren't that great. So, in April I'm going to start looking for universities because I'm definitely going to apply to more than five schools this round; I'll start working on my SOPs and WS; and I'm going to prepare to retake the GRE.

 

That is a good plan of action! I also second your welcome to the party! Good Luck!

 

This thread has veered off into different territory, but my take on the GRE: its difficulty is vastly overrated, generally speaking.  I don't think it's even necessary for humanistically minded people to study for the verbal or analytic writing portions.  I would, however, familiarize yourself with the question types and format of the exam. That's very important.

 

For what it's worth, I did well on the verbal and analytic portions.  Not stratospheric, but respectable.

 

In some respects, I agree with you. I do believe that when it comes to prepping for the GRE it all comes down to your test taking skills. I've known many people who did not study a bit and did great on the test; however, for some of us (like myself), who are horrible test takers (even worse with standardized tests) some preparation is in order. I did not study the first time I took it and received horrible verbal scores. While we shouldn't stress the test, we should know our own test taking/studying capabilities. 

[toasterazzi]

I would be much less stressed if there was no math involved. I know I'm capable of doing most of the math if I study a bit, but it takes me a long time to work through mathematical problems. I'm fairly certain I'll run out of time on that section.

[midnight]

This thread has veered off into different territory, but my take on the GRE: its difficulty is vastly overrated, generally speaking.  I don't think it's even necessary for humanistically minded people to study for the verbal or analytic writing portions.  I would, however, familiarize yourself with the question types and format of the exam. That's very important.

 

For what it's worth, I did well on the verbal and analytic portions.  Not stratospheric, but respectable.

 

Definitely familiarize yourself with the format! It's good to get a feel for everything, especially the questions that require multiple answers.

 

I agree that if you're in the humanities, you likely don't need to cram vocab definitions or anything like that. However, I still think it might be beneficial to do some timed AW practice after checking out the samples and randomly picking prompts from the complete GRE list; it certainly can't hurt.

[MissHavishslam]

I would be much less stressed if there was no math involved. I know I'm capable of doing most of the math if I study a bit, but it takes me a long time to work through mathematical problems. I'm fairly certain I'll run out of time on that section

 

Honestly, the math section is something that I wouldn't even bother putting time into studying. I mean look over basic formulas you may have forgotten but most programs don't even look at the quantitative section scores and they freely admit it on their sites. All that has a (small) point are your verbal and analytic scores. Def don't even worry about the math--the committee knows it's not what we do.

[kayrabbit]

This thread has veered off into different territory, but my take on the GRE: its difficulty is vastly overrated, generally speaking.  I don't think it's even necessary for humanistically minded people to study for the verbal or analytic writing portions.  I would, however, familiarize yourself with the question types and format of the exam. That's very important.

 

For what it's worth, I did well on the verbal and analytic portions.  Not stratospheric, but respectable.

I agree. I didn't study for the GRE general. The GRE lit was a different story, but on the general, I received very high scores in the verbal and writing sections without any study other than thinking a little bit about how I might approach the essays the night before (which didn't help at all because my issue topic was completely out of left field). I scored pretty well on the math section, but I agree with MissHavishslam that the math section really doesn't matter. If you can earn a college degree, you can probably perform well enough on the math section to get by. I also think that how you scored on the SAT (unless maybe if you have taken a long break at some point in your education and have scores that are more than 10 years old) is probably a good indication of how you'll do on the GRE. I found the tests incredibly similar and I think my percentages in each section of the GRE were almost identical to those on my SAT.

 

Edit: I think SAT scores are a good indication of how you might do on the GRE without much studying. You could perhaps use that as a base to determine how much effort you may need to put into studying.

Edited March 19, 2013 by kayrabbit

[toasterazzi]

Honestly, the math section is something that I wouldn't even bother putting time into studying. I mean look over basic formulas you may have forgotten but most programs don't even look at the quantitative section scores and they freely admit it on their sites. All that has a (small) point are your verbal and analytic scores. Def don't even worry about the math--the committee knows it's not what we do.

 

Yeah I probably won't do too much prep, but it's going still going to bug me I'm sure hehe. I signed up for the Kaplan thing where they send you a question to your email each day, and I've been doing fairly well with most of it. Incidentally, I seem to be better at the reading comp than the choose the right word thing, which seems weird to be based on what I've heard about the reading comp, but I'll roll with it .

[ComeBackZinc]

As somebody who enjoys math and statistics, let me say, for prospective English PhDs, fuck the math.

[practical cat]

Honestly, the math section is something that I wouldn't even bother putting time into studying. I mean look over basic formulas you may have forgotten but most programs don't even look at the quantitative section scores and they freely admit it on their sites. All that has a (small) point are your verbal and analytic scores. Def don't even worry about the math--the committee knows it's not what we do.

This is not entirely good advice. Departments don't (necessarily) care, but if you do very poorly on the math, you can be a tough sell to the graduate school because they are looking for good numbers all around. This could mean: 1. That you're cut right off the bat by a cut-off that they don't publicize, 2. That the department is going to have to put up more of a fight (some schools give departments a limited amount of "waivers" to use for numbers-based issues) and it's tough to be in that position because you have to be outstanding to be the one they fight for, or 3. Absolutely nothing. But I wouldn't bet my applications on #3.

Try. Don't let reviewing geometry get the best of your application season but this is, as noted, a very expensive/stressful/competitive process and you don't want to end up next spring feeling like you phoned something in. I mean, you are GOING to feel like your application could be better (because it can be, our writing can always be better) but.

[toasterazzi]

As somebody who enjoys math and statistics, let me say, for prospective English PhDs, fuck the math.

 

Yes.

[MissHavishslam]

Yeah I probably won't do too much prep, but it's going still going to bug me I'm sure hehe. I signed up for the Kaplan thing where they send you a question to your email each day, and I've been doing fairly well with most of it. Incidentally, I seem to be better at the reading comp than the choose the right word thing, which seems weird to be based on what I've heard about the reading comp, but I'll roll with it .

 

I did a lot better on the reading comp too! Something about the pick the "best" word (even though they could all work) to fill in the blank always throws me off. I have decent vocab as any of us do with an English degree but geesh, some of those words...

[toasterazzi]

Try. Don't let reviewing geometry get the best of your application season

 

Incidentally, geometry is the one level of high school math that I was actually good at. It made so much more sense to me than everything else.

 

I did a lot better on the reading comp too! Something about the pick the "best" word (even though they could all work) to fill in the blank always throws me off. I have decent vocab as any of us do with an English degree but geesh, some of those words...

 

Exactly. Most of the time, if I get it wrong, it's because I got one of the right words and one wrong word. I never get both wrong. It's so annoying lol.

[ProfLorax]

My perspective:

 

Definitely review the AW section. When I first saw an AW prompt, I was completely stumped. I just really couldn't figure out what it was asking for. I did some review, read some samples, and scored 5.5 on the writing. 

 

Also, gotta agree with girl who wears glasses. Try with the math. I took the GRE twice within five weeks of each other. I didn't study or try on the math the first time, and I got in the fourth percentile. That just can't look good. So, when I redid the test, I basically just reviewed the math section of the Princeton Review GRE prep book. I didn't do that well on the math test the second time, but 50% is much better looking than 4%. But here's the real kicker: without any more studying for the verbal section, my verbal score also increased by 13%. I think because my brain was engaged the entire time, I was in problem-solving mode for the entirety of the test. 

[kayrabbit]

My perspective:

 

Definitely review the AW section. When I first saw an AW prompt, I was completely stumped. I just really couldn't figure out what it was asking for. I did some review, read some samples, and scored 5.5 on the writing. 

 

Also, gotta agree with girl who wears glasses. Try with the math. I took the GRE twice within five weeks of each other. I didn't study or try on the math the first time, and I got in the fourth percentile. That just can't look good. So, when I redid the test, I basically just reviewed the math section of the Princeton Review GRE prep book. I didn't do that well on the math test the second time, but 50% is much better looking than 4%. But here's the real kicker: without any more studying for the verbal section, my verbal score also increased by 13%. I think because my brain was engaged the entire time, I was in problem-solving mode for the entirety of the test. 

OK, I take my suggestion back. Definitely study the math enough that you can at least land somewhere around the 40ish or higher percentile. Math is my least favorite subject, but I think I'm underestimating the effects of taking it throughout high school through calculus and tutoring a high school student in algebra and geometry during my sophomore year of college. That made a huge difference for me, I'm sure, because the material was much fresher than it otherwise would have been, and teaching something is the best way to fully comprehend it. I was in the 74th percentile and figured there was no need to really do better than 40-50 if you're applying to an English program. But girl who wears glasses makes a good point about overall numbers. I definitely wanted everything to be as high as it could be, for any good it might be able to do me.

Edited March 19, 2013 by kayrabbit

[Taco Superior]

As for the math: these are not fun facts, but they are facts.

 

1) some schools fund based on COMBINED GRE scores. Right on Buffalo's website it says, "if you don't score X combined (I think it's 313), you're not qualified for certain funding."

 

2) I was told specifically by a POI that my math score was a primary reason why the DGS at a particular UC wanted me on the waitlist instead of admitted outright. Granted, I didn't even answer the questions on the math section, but probably a score in the 4th percentile (as mentioned above) would've evoked the same response.

[ComeBackZinc]

But here's another fact, so that you don't get discouraged: GRE math is easy. Like, high school easy. So easy that, on the old test at least, some 12% of the people who took it got a perfect score.

 

I get the point about graduate schools and eligibility for funding, so try not to bomb it completely. But I have full faith that most anyone who graduated from high school can pull off a 500. And unless you're going into SLS or applied linguistics or similar (and usually even then), 99% of adcomms really could not care less. Take it, invest your effort while you're taking it, but don't stress about the math.