Application Strategies and a Friendly Look at the Competition this year

[ladystardust]

Just a heads up, this'll be a long one!

 

This is my first (and hopefully last) year of applying to grad school, and like everyone else, I'm bouncing off the walls trying to get through the last few weeks. I've been looking through the board and seeing how people have applied to like 16 programs, and It makes me feel like my choice to apply to only five schools was a bad one. in short, I am afraid that I am so inexperienced in this process that I might have made some fatal errors, so I wanted to open a thread to talk about qualifications and application strategies, in hopes I can get a better idea of where i stand and help others maybe do the same. I've noticed there isn't a whole lot of talk about individual credentials around here, so I hope I'm not out of line starting a thread like this. I just thought it would be nice to get a look at the competition as well as everyone's strategies for applying, and get opinions and more full pictures to match up with the acceptance/rejection statistics on the other part of the site when the time comes.

 

About me:

I earned my BA in English with an emphasis in Literature from New Mexico State University, a university that doesn't even usually rank on any lists. I've got a 3.9 overall GPA and a 4.0 in English Literature, and graduated with distinction in honors. I scored in the 93rd percentile on my general GRE, and I wrote an honors thesis my senior year as an undergrad. I won many awards and scholarships for my essays from the English department, and I studied Jane Austen abroad at Oxford for six weeks one summer, in addition to placing as a finalist in the national Atlas Shrugged contest. I also worked at my university's newspaper for 1 year and my university arts and sciences library (as an aid) for 4 years. I have no publications, no teaching experience, and no foreign language (not since high school). I have studied for at least one semester in several other fields, including nursing, accounting, biology, and other sciences and actually have lab research experience in psychology, as well as a BA in Psychology. I am interested in 19th Century British Literature (Romanticism, Gothicism, Victorianism), Modernism, as well as Feminism/Gender Studies. Oh, also, if it matters, I am female and half hispanic.

 

My Application Strategies:

     I originally had a list of 9 schools I wanted to apply to, but tapered the number down as I discovered that I would not have either the time or resources to complete applications in the way I wanted to for that many schools. In the end, I applied to Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Arizona, and University of New Mexico.

     I personalized my Personal Statement for each university. The first half was all the same-- opening with a story from nursing school and a (I hope) deep, bittersweet quip about how understanding people is more rewarding for me than saving them, and go on to talk about my career goals, how my wide experience in other disciplines has made me sure of my course, my love of literature, my strengths and weaknesses, and my experience writing my honors thesis. The second half varied with each school. I tried to show I knew about the school, understood what it meant to move to the area from the place i currently live, and tried to show as well, by picking and discussing a single POI (except for UPenn and UNM) that I knew what I wanted out of their program, as well as how my interests meshed with their research areas.

     For my Writing Sample, I extracted a 16 page piece of my honors thesis on Christabel by Coleridge and totally reworked and expanded on it. by the time it was done, I had a 24 page writing sample. And this is where I tried to be really different, and why i had to cut down on the number of schools I applied to. My idea was to choose one POI from each University, discuss them in my personal statement, and also integrate a journal article of theirs into my writing sample. This, as you can imagine, was no easy task, and in order to achieve seamless integration of their ideas into my essay, in two months, I was only able to complete this for my Brown application and my WashU application-- though, most successfully for my Brown application. I chose a paper by Ellen Rooney from Brown and a paper by Guinn Batten from WashU. In case you're wondering, no, I did not write several versions of my paper, which might have been smarter but somehow struck me as dishonest. I started with Batten's paper, and rewrote my essay using that, then did the entire process again for Rooney's paper. I did not research a POI for UPenn, and so talked about aspects of the program I liked, after looking through the graduate handbook. I did the same for UNM. For U of A, I identified Hogle as a person of interest, but could not integrate his work into my already weighty paper due not only to time constraints but also length limits. I have also heard numerous things about identifying POIs in your application. I decided to do it so that I could integrate their work into my writing sample-- which, admittedly, is also risky. What if they don't like how I used their ideas? I knew identifying only one could be a problem, but at the same time, I felt like identifying more than one could appear wishy-washy and insincere. My hope was that, particularly at Brown (my first choice), if Rooney couldn't take me on, others wouldn't mind doing so since (it is my understanding) she is primarily a feminist. Thus, my hope was that someone that was primarily a literature scholar would still want to take me on even if they weren't my first choice simply because my first choice was (largely) from a different discipline-- ah, Brown (and WashU) and their multidisciplinary professors! One of the things I really love! (this is not to say I don't truly want to work with her. I went over at least 3 of her papers in depth. Her work is amazing!)

 

I did not submit any of my applications until at least a week before they were due. Some I submitted on the day they were due (could not stop obsessively proof reading!). I've heard that some grad programs actually start reviewing applications as soon as the systems open. I hope that is a myth!  

 

I hope others want to share this stuff and I'm not the only one! I'm very interested to know about how others are qualified and what their strategies and thoughts on the process were. If you have any comments on my qualifications or application process, even if its "Oh no! you did that?" I'd like to hear that too, while I'm still in a positive receptive mood, before the inevitable rejections start trickling in, so that I can start getting strategies together for next year if I don't get in this go around. I mean, I think the first thing everyone thinks when they're rejected is, "What did I do wrong?". It would offer at least some comfort if I could answer that question for myself if need be.

[despejado]

I am also a half-hispanic female with a 3.9 and 4.0 respectively, and graduating with honors at a huge state school. Just thought I would point this out. Hello, twin!

 

Also, I'm one of those that applied to sixteen schools, and I still don't feel confident. It's just a matter of what adcomm looks at and loves you, so hopefully one of your five will do that. Sounds like they have no reason not to, to me. I don't have as many awards as you probably do, or publications, but I won a competitive research internship here at Texas A&M and will have finished my thesis by the end of this year. Here's hoping things go well for us both.

Edited February 6, 2014 by despejado

[shortstack51]

Ladystardust, your app sounds much more thought out and put together than mine!

This is an interesting thread.

I got a BA from a small Catholic school with no graduate program to speak of. Graduated with a 3.95 cum Summa cum laude and a 4.0 in my major (English) with an Honors minor and a Philosophy minor. I won the Gold Metal in the English department on graduating, won a writing prize, and had presented at a conference. I applied to 6 programs out of undergrad, 5 of them top ranking combined programs (a huge mistake), and I was rejected from all 5. I was accepted for an unfunded MA at a top 50 school with no combined program but a separate PhD program. I took the opportunity and am graduating in May. I am graduating with a 3.899 (oh the pain of that missing .001). Experience-wise, I have had a lot of experience as both a TA and a tutor.

I am also interested in Romanticism and I have a secondary interest in Queer Theory.

My application strategy was to apply to as many top 50 programs as possible. I followed instructions from my school's adcomm (who are very good at advising students), which instructed I mention POI and how the "fit" at the school would be as a segue into my writing sample. I did not get anything professionally designed, but perhaps I should have. I used a 20 page seminar paper from a critical theory course that discussed Romanticism and subjectivity as my writing sample. I edited portions out for the two or three schools that had a 15 page maximum length.

In my SOP, I mimicked successful SOPs schools had put online as examples. I picked 2-3 faculty members so as not to box myself in, researched their work, and found overlapping research and theoretical interests. I then discussed how my own work would benefit from interacting with them.

My general verbal score was only 89th percentile, but I scored a 650 on the subject test, which I am decently pleased about.

We did not apply to any of the same schools, so good luck to you! It's good to know we aren't direct competitors!

I hope we can all learn from each other's experiences.

[despejado]

My Stats:

 

4.0 MA GPA, GRE: 168V 158Q 5.5AW, 16 conference presentations (well-respected national and international conferences), 4 scholarly publications, 4+ years teaching English/Composition (2+ at university and 2 high school), 11 fellowships and awards, and involved in 9 on- and off-campus service organizations. I’m also currently the Assistant Director of Composition at my University and serve on several academic committees. My area of emphasis is Film and Cultural Studies. I wrote a 35+ page thesis as an undergraduate and am currently finishing my 110+ page thesis. 

 

I’ve been researching PhD programs for six years, so I don’t really know how to go about discussing “strategy.” The crappy news for me is that I seem to have a unique fit area that might fall outside the bounds of many PhD programs. We’ll see. 

 

This is insanely impressive and also the reason I feel completely under-qualified/chronically depressed these days. 

[Kamisha]

This is insanely impressive and also the reason I feel completely under-qualified/chronically depressed these days. 

 

Don’t be impressed or feel under-qualified: I have 1 official injection and 5 other implied rejections. I’m working with zero acceptances here. So, yeah. Just remember that your qualifications are equally impressive and you are likely a far better “fit” for most programs.

 

To put this in perspective, one of my colleagues was just accepted to a PhD program. She has a 3.6 MA GPA, zero publications, and one conference presentations. 

 

Do you see what I’m saying? It’s not even about the numbers; it’s about whether the program thinks you work for them. 

[despejado]

Don’t be impressed or feel under-qualified: I have 1 official injection and 5 other implied rejections. I’m working with zero acceptances here. So, yeah. Just remember that your qualifications are equally impressive and you are likely a far better “fit” for most programs.

 

To put this in perspective, one of my colleagues was just accepted to a PhD program. She has a 3.6 MA GPA, zero publications, and one conference presentations. 

 

Do you see what I’m saying? It’s not even about the numbers; it’s about whether the program thinks you work for them. 

 

 I definitely do see what you're saying, but I also feel like I'm working with some disadvantages that may take me out of play. I failed an English class (I was 15 years old and in high school/dual-enrolled at a community college. Surely this can't be held against me on a personal level, but in academia, you know the ball-game). So despite having a beautifully clean GPA and decent GRE scores, as well as having won a competitive internship and graduating with honors, I am worried that there is just no getting past that portion of my application, despite the urging of my trusted professors to apply away. I don't know how founded these concerns are. Regardless, I am not confident. However, I know that I am a good fit for some program out there, and that if someone would be willing to take a chance on me, I would be able to prove my worth. I'm hoping my writing sample and SoP convey this. I'm sorry, I realize this isn't what this post is about, but I hope this does give people some insight as to the diversity of situations in the application process. 

Edited February 6, 2014 by despejado

[sanfram]

Just wanna shout out my fellow mixed-race, applyin-to-grad-school-in-the-Humanities Latinos! 

 

To be honest, most of y'all seem to have had much more successful undergrad careers than I had. I took some time off and just worked in a restaurant after getting my BA, then got funded to do my MA at huge state school. Next, I taught abroad for a while and now I've applied to six schools and been accepted to one PhD program I'm really excited about. In short, I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. Yer stats sound pretty good, and I've got some options having accomplished much less early on in school. Plus, going straight into a grad program isn't the only way to do it.  

[Tweedledumb]

This just killed any and all self confidence I had left lol but it sounds like you'll all be fine

[cheeks]

In case it makes any of you feel better:

 

No publications

No conferences

Attended unranked commuter state school

Also floated around a couple comm. colleges

Only teaching experience is some scattered tutoring sessions

 

I graduated from the Honors program w/ a 3.9 and I won a writing award and I got 97th percentile on my verbal, but none of this is very notable, especially compared to some of you.

 

And I got an interview with Duke Lit and accepted to UW-Milwaukee! Honestly I think it's primarily because the stuff I wrote about in my sample and SOP is hot right now and made an impression on someone on the committees. So keep yr heads up. I spent four years fretting about things I couldn't control (my UG's lack of prestige) and in the end it didn't matter.

 

Best o' luck.

[Ozymandias Melancholia]

Huh. I've never noticed the amount of aspiring Romanticists proliferating these boards until now. Neat!

[FoolofaTook]

despejado-I realise this might be a stupid question,but being an international firt-time applicant I'm a little lost about some of the terms.What do you mean by an implied rejection?

I've applied to eight schools,and had my first decision letter yesterday which was a rejection.I'd rather have a realistic appraisal of what the next letter might contain,I think.

[despejado]

despejado-I realise this might be a stupid question,but being an international firt-time applicant I'm a little lost about some of the terms.What do you mean by an implied rejection?

I've applied to eight schools,and had my first decision letter yesterday which was a rejection.I'd rather have a realistic appraisal of what the next letter might contain,I think.

 

No that's totally okay! I just mean that other people have been accepted (about a week ago now) into a program I applied to, and I haven't heard back, so I'm assuming I've been rejected. Does this make sense?

[Katia_chan]

...I mean this as a very friendly suggestion, because I get the point of this thread, but...

 

Perhaps everyone should consider writing up their responses for here, but not posting them until after decisions are made?

 

It's just... there is so much insecurity flying around from every angle right now, I don't think comparing stats is the greatest idea until everybody knows how the chips fell.

 

This is a great idea, comparing notes and all.  But from what I've seen so far, it's mostly making people scared.

 

Feel totally free to ignore me--it's just a random thought.

[Kermit]

This is really cool. I hope everyone gets in! And I'm sure you all will because from what I've heard the departments are looking into so many factors It comes down to whether someone can supervise you and how you fit the departments needs.

 

I'll contribute a bit of my own background.

I have a BSc in Physics from a well known Canadian institution. I ended up acquiring so many lit credits that my minor was able to change into a major so in one extra semester I fulfilled all the requirements and added on a BA at the last minute in Lit. My overall GPA was 3.26 but I had a 4.0 in my lit courses.

 

I took some time off to work on writing and starting publishing poetry in Canadian and American journals. This got me into a creative writing program at SFU and helped me create a manuscript. During this I did my own academic work on the side and applied to an English grad conference. At it I gave a talk and it impressed some professors who would encourage me outside the school since I couldn't afford two educations. They ended up writing my MA recommendation letters. (I was working full time since I was 17 supporting myself). I got to be the "Academic" for the Vancouver poetry conference and work with professors on research even thought I wasn't enrolled and published 10-15 more pieces.

 

I got into a Canadian school for a MA in English and Creative writing. I did all my classes on theory and digital humanities which is hopefully my phd focus. During this I presented at 2 national level conferences and 1 international conference at UMD college park. I ended up finishing my thesis (creative research project on Internet poetry) and my course work in less than 4 semesters and was one of the top students in my department with a 4.05 GPA with a A+ in a phd level course.  I TA-ed 3 times.

 

I have an article under consideration at an international journal and am currently doing research for professors and will be 2nd or 3rd author on a series of papers out this summer. I'm also an editor at a lit journal in Canada and publish essays within the magazine.

 

I talked with the professors from the schools as well as having my profs contact the ones who were friends. 1 at UC Boulder wrote an internal recommendation letter for me (ATLAS program), 2 at Stanford agreed to vouch for me and offered a fellowship IF accepted (MTL program), 1 at UMD wrote a secondary letter for me and 1 at UCSB is interested in working with me. I tried to include this info in my SOP.

 

I made my SOP all about my project and goals. I outlined clearly step by step details and how the school could provide assistance. Further I listed specific classes and profs that would help. I usually only put in 1 paragraph of my background near the end and included a secondary CV and website of my work. I'm also a finalist for the sshrc phd scholarship.

 

I'm also a student with disabilities so I'm hoping that works in my favour.

 

That's my academic career in a nutshell (help I'm stuck!) Point is I have a crazy different background that most people but I'm hoping it will make me more interesting.

[rhetoricus aesalon]

Hmm ... I see lots of numbers but very little talk about research. Not sure this is the right angle here. 

[Kamisha]

Hmm ... I see lots of numbers but very little talk about research. Not sure this is the right angle here. 

 

I don’t talk about my research because I don’t want people to capitalize on my ideas. It’s not that I don’t trust all of you...you just can never be too careful

 

In all seriousness, I was told by several faculty members not to reveal too much about your research interest areas on the internet. 

Edited February 6, 2014 by Kamisha

[FoolofaTook]

No that's totally okay! I just mean that other people have been accepted (about a week ago now) into a program I applied to, and I haven't heard back, so I'm assuming I've been rejected. Does this make sense?

That does,thanks. It so happens that I've applied to UCSD as well, and haven't heard back. I'd have loved to go there,but I guess I should prepare myself for a rejection.

On a separate note,I really do see where Katia_chan is coming from. For everyone that's getting frazzled about the perfect or near-perfect GPAs and presentations and publications(which are all great achievements,of course),there's probably something in your application which will make you stand out. It might just be one stray phrase by one recommemder recognising your originality or initiative,and you're probably unaware that it's there and that it's being backed up by your SOP or writing sample. It's easier to notice where you're falling short when you're on tenterhooks like this,but don't give in to the dark side!

(Of course,I'm one of those insufferable people unable to practice what she preaches,but ah well )

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

I've got the lowest stats here - yay me!

I've applied to less than 6 places - yay me!

My sample is sophomoric, my SOP is naive, and most of my LORs arrived late.  Triple yay!

Am I nervous? Certainly. But I know why I'm doing it. I've got a very clear sense of self and... ya know what? Perhaps that's worth something.
 

We shall see
  

[Fiz]

This is insanely impressive and also the reason I feel completely under-qualified/chronically depressed these days.

You shouldn't feel that way at all. With no disrespect to the writer of that post, all that stuff can at times work antithetically and come off as a negative. Grad schools want students to be "their product," as I've been told so many times before. If a candidate comes in with all that, then the slate isn't really as clean as departments would like it to be. Furthermore, I've also been told by a number of individuals on ad comms that impressive resumes and stats will only mean the candidate is judged harsher and ad comms will be less forgiving. So you have a shot at many, many schools. Hell, Harvard, I believe, doesn't accept anyone with a Masters, so that is food for thought.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Fiz3583

[shortstack51]

You shouldn't feel that way at all. With no disrespect to the writer of that post, all that stuff can at times work antithetically and come off as a negative. Grad schools want students to be "their product," as I've been told so many times before. If a candidate comes in with all that, then the slate isn't really as clean as departments would like it to be. Furthermore, I've also been told by a number of individuals on ad comms that impressive resumes and stats will only mean the candidate is judged harsher and ad comms will be less forgiving. So you have a shot at many, many schools. Hell, Harvard, I believe, doesn't accept anyone with a Masters, so that is food for thought.

Agreed- except the point about Harvard. People from my program with MAs have gotten in in the past and I was encouraged to apply.

But yes, there is a reason you'll see past rejections with people saying they've been published 4 times and they don't understand why the've been rejected. Schools are more interested in cultivating potential and developing their "brand." Admissions has much more to do with concentration/what the department wants to develop their program into for the year than stats.

[jazzyd]

Schools want applicants who can produce good work, period. Or rather, applicants who show potential to produce good work in the future. These expectations may or may not be proportionate to the amount of lines an applicant has on their CV. I do not think a school would pass up a Master's student with conference presentations or published articles who has good ideas and is producing good things in favor of someone fresh out of undergrad who doesn't show much promise, all just because the latter is in fact "fresh". And if they do, well, it says a lot about that school that they think they cannot have a positive influence on someone who's already got good things going on. What do they do with new faculty then?

 

On the other hand, I don't see why a school would look over a brilliant, but perhaps clumsier applicant with a short CV in favor of someone who may have a Master's, but aren't producing anything the department can work with (which is not to say it's not good, but it doesn't fit).

 

Or maybe I've let my own department's thoughts (or what I perceive to be their thoughts) cloud my mind enough to state these as generalities. I just know that my own cohort is a complete mixed bag; some people have their Master's, some don't. Some have peer reviewed articles under their belt, most don't. 

[andromache]

I graduated last May with a BA in English (concentrations in both Literary Studies and Writing Studies), and minors in History and Women's Studies. 168 verbal and 156 quantitative GRE scores, 630 on the Literature subject test. I graduated with a 4.0 in my major, and also participated in my university's Honors College. I was both the English Department's and the Women's Studies Department's valedictorian.

 

I was president of our English Club for two years, and re-started our department's Book Club as a freshman. I also earned a place on the English Department Recruitment committee with several faculty members, aimed at recruiting new majors and minors in English. I have volunteer experience at a domestic violence shelter, and at two animal sanctuaries. In addition, I worked a terrible food service job all through college, which probably doesn't count for anything--but I feel like it should??? Working through college and attaining academic accomplishment should probably demonstrate something important about work ethic, ability to succeed, etc. But, it probably won't matter to academic committees, ha. (I'm only noting this because there were a ton of people I knew who did not have to have jobs while they took classes.

 

One summer I studied abroad in a very competitive program at Cambridge in the UK, and earned a tuition scholarship from the program to do so.

 

As a senior I did an honors thesis (which are rarely allowed for funding reasons, etc) on the portrayal of post-9/11 conservative hypermasculinity in the Fables comic book series, and its negative implications for the comic book industry. I used this as my writing sample, cutting sections of the paper and some images when necessary due to page count.

 

And that's about it? No conferences or publications or anything like that.

 

Also, my focus in pursuing my MA/PhD is to study gender and sexuality in contemporary literature and popular culture, especially in online literature and media, and particularly the work and the portrayal of gender and sexual minorities in these mediums.

[ProfLorax]

Schools want applicants who can produce good work, period. 

This. Absolutely, 100% this. 

 

Also, my focus in pursuing my MA/PhD is to study gender and sexuality in contemporary literature and popular culture, especially in online literature and media, and particularly the work and the portrayal of gender and sexual minorities in these mediums.

You're cool. I wish you had applied to Maryland! I do some work with feminist discourses in online spaces. In a few months, I will be presenting a paper on resistant hashtags in U.S. queer and feminist digital spaces. You should PM me when you're in a program and settled-- we could put together a panel or co-write a paper in the future! YAY CONNECTIONS! 

[jazzyd]

This. Absolutely, 100% this. 

 

You're cool. I wish you had applied to Maryland! I do some work with feminist discourses in online spaces. In a few months, I will be presenting a paper on resistant hashtags in U.S. queer and feminist digital spaces. You should PM me when you're in a program and settled-- we could put together a panel or co-write a paper in the future! YAY CONNECTIONS! 

Will you be including #solidarityisforwhitewomen in your discussion by any chance? 'Cause you totally should.

[ProfLorax]

Will you be including #solidarityisforwhitewomen in your discussion by any chance? 'Cause you totally should.

That is 100% what my paper is on! I make some references to #NotYourAsianSideKick and #feministselflies as well. Gah, I love Twitter.