WendyWonderland Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Hi everybody, Thanks for taking time reading my post. I am trying to stay calm , but the waiting process is killing me more and more every day. Short background about me: Chinese applicant first time applying to a PHD program(comparative literature), have been working for 2 years in culture exchange management. Lived in Europe for 5 years, learned 5 languages, 7 years research, 2 publications. I did not do a lot of research when I applied because my job is very demanding and I did not have enough time. Well, I applied for a couple of schools and haven’t heard from them since. I think Stanford would reject me since I was not invited for campus visit. NYU does not seem fine either because I saw somebody posted to be accepted but I did not hear anything. I wrote to NYU and asked about my admission status but no answer. That is why I am asking for help here, inquiring if anybody know more information. My GPA is not very competitive if calculated as American counting, though my grades was Top 1 in class through the whole master program, it is only 3.5-3.8. My college has a reputation for being strict. Another thing that bothers me most now is that my GRE verbal is really low. Verbal 147, Q 161. AW 3.5/4. I spent all my spare time after work in math, because I suck in math. But my Toefl is 109 out of 120, which shows my English is actually pretty good. I don’t know how much this will hinder me. I also did not contact professors, as I said, I was really too busy working. I do not know how important it is to contact the faculty, I thought if a person meets the requirements, that would be enough(naive). As an international student, I really do not know so much about the schools in the States and would be thankful if anybody could give a hint. Now I am just trying to focus on working. But distraction is actually not working well. I think if NYU rejects me, I won’t have a good chance at others either because some of them have even a better ranking. Any shared information would be appreciated. I am trying to stay positive and good luck to everybody! Cheers, Wendy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldmangandhi Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 I think we should hear from them by the end of Feb. They seem to be reaching out to those admitted by phone. I think I've been rejected from there. It is a very competitive school to get into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 Oh, that's depressing:( So u re also a literature student? Thanks for replying! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstack51 Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Top 10 and top 20 schools often have 5-700 students applying for only about 10 or so spots, so it can be very competitive regardless of your qualifications. Most programs have about 150-200 people apply for 10 spots (sometimes less). When applying, it's good to apply to a broad range of schools to try to give yourself a good chance statistically of getting in. I'm also waiting to hear back from NYU. They seem to contact admitted people by phone, then those they're only admitting to the MA, and then rejections. My plan is to watch the results board. If no more acceptances come in by the end of today, that means they've notified everyone they wanted over the weekend (most likely). Most schools would prefer you didn't contact professors before applying, as far as I know, and even if you do contact them, it probably will not affect whether you get in or not. Your chances weren't hurt by not contacting anyone. Acceptance mostly has to do with how many other people you're competing with and how your research interests "fit" with the program. Both of these things are usually out of your control once you've constructed a good application. According to admissions committees, once they have narrowed it down to the top 50 students they want from the applicant pool, it's practically up to chance who gets picked. Those 50 are usually equally qualified. To put it in fewer words, it's very competitive to get into English programs in the US and the best chance you have to combat that is to apply to as many schools as financially possible with varying rankings (as long as you would be happy at those schools). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 Hey, thank you very much for your information! I think I might be rejected from NYU, since I wrote to the admission contact person and she did not reply. I think Stanford is in this matter better, they at least let you know and answer your mails. I also asked about the admission process by Harvard, they replied within hours and told me when decisions would be made. I think this year looks like a tragedy since I did not reply to a wide range. The thing is if I want to try again next year, I would like to know why they rejected me. Well, we paid for our application to be viewed so I would like to know where I could improve. But I know that it is not possible and they would send us the same "thank u but no thanks" emails. Maybe I should retake GRE. I was hoping that they would go easy on international students and consider Toefl scores and writing samples into consideration. Is that so or do they expect that we have multiple mothertounge? ( GRE verbal is really hard) But I think if so many students apply, it is easier for them to pick out the high scores at first round and then look at other factors. Well, it's a guess but I can imagine that they have to use some strategies to make the choice easier. How well a person fits into a program is really hard to tell. The funny thing is that all my Chinese friends and professors told me that it is crucial to contact faculty first to express interest, while my foreign friends hold another opinion. The confusing thing is on most the online application I did, they all have the question about if u contact a professor before and who was it. I am not sure why they asked that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstack51 Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Hey, thank you very much for your information! I think I might be rejected from NYU, since I wrote to the admission contact person and she did not reply. I think Stanford is in this matter better, they at least let you know and answer your mails. I also asked about the admission process by Harvard, they replied within hours and told me when decisions would be made. I think this year looks like a tragedy since I did not reply to a wide range. The thing is if I want to try again next year, I would like to know why they rejected me. Well, we paid for our application to be viewed so I would like to know where I could improve. But I know that it is not possible and they would send us the same "thank u but no thanks" emails. Maybe I should retake GRE. I was hoping that they would go easy on international students and consider Toefl scores and writing samples into consideration. Is that so or do they expect that we have multiple mothertounge? ( GRE verbal is really hard) But I think if so many students apply, it is easier for them to pick out the high scores at first round and then look at other factors. Well, it's a guess but I can imagine that they have to use some strategies to make the choice easier. How well a person fits into a program is really hard to tell. The funny thing is that all my Chinese friends and professors told me that it is crucial to contact faculty first to express interest, while my foreign friends hold another opinion. The confusing thing is on most the online application I did, they all have the question about if u contact a professor before and who was it. I am not sure why they asked that? All schools are different in terms of getting back to you--some will have enough people on the admissions committee (adcomm for short) that they can respond to questions, while others specifically ask that you do not contact them (NYU actually says in an e-mail not to contact them unless there was an issue). NYU's lack of response doesn't necessarily mean a rejection. They probably just don't have someone to answer all of the e-mails. Out of curiosity, what did Harvard say? I also applied there, though I'm not expecting to get in. GRE scores aren't a huge factor in admissions, depending on the school. I know Harvard tends to make their first round of cuts based on GRE scores, but there are schools who don't. Unfortunately, you are at somewhat of a disadvantage being from abroad. The way to know which schools care about GRE scores is usually by talking with your own school's adcomm and professional development faculty. I'm in an MA program, and some of the PhD students here had very low GRE scores. The most important factors are your writing sample (which should relate to your research interests and be a strong piece of writing), your personal statement (which should address your experience with your research interests, what work you've done, how your writing sample fits into that research, and how being at the school in question will advance your research), and your letters of recommendation (at least one sharing your research interests). If those three areas are strong, your scores don't necessarily make that much of a difference depending on the institution. Schools that get 500-700 applicants a year are more likely to weed students out by score, but that's not always the case. In terms of wondering why you got rejected, as I mentioned before, most of it has to do with statistics. You applied to a lot of schools that almost every student applying to PhD programs applies to. Based purely on numbers, that means you have a very small chance statistically of getting in, no matter how good your application might be. Other than that, it would help if you had contact with someone from the US who is either a grad student or a professor who could look at your writing sample and personal statement and give you feedback. Some people on this forum also have e-mailed schools that they got rejected from and got some good replies back, but sometimes schools also frown on that. Again, it depends on the institution. Retaking the GRE would also be a good start. There are study books that can help if you haven't looked at them yet--I personally prefer the Princeton Review. The same goes for the applications that ask you if you've been in contact with a professor. Some schools appreciate if you reach out to them, others don't. Most of the time, having talked to someone doesn't seem to change your chances of getting in. From what I understand, that field is mostly for people who maybe have been in consistent contact with the program for a while and are on good terms with a faculty member there. If you e-mailed someone once with a question and they answered, the person you e-mailed might not even remember you by the time adcomms begin meeting. I had a friend who e-mailed a professor at every school he was applying to--he applied to 10 schools and got accepted into 2 terminal MA programs, rejected from the rest. It didn't seem to make a difference if he had spoken to someone once or twice. MrBrooklyn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Ok, thank you very much, now I get a better picture! Harvard says that desicisions are made end February to early March. But I think if they cut the first round by GRE scores, I won't make it. My total score is 308+ 3.5, might be too low to get into second round. Retaking it seems awful because that means I have to study math again..... Well, I think I would stop to contact the schools and wait. Actually there are a lot of schools I would love to apply but missed the deadline like UCLA. I was extremely busy in October and November so I started in December which did not give me a good chance to apply to a wide range. I applied to 8 schools but considering the ranking I think I can forget this year and get prepared for the next. Thank you very much for sharing, which other schools did u apply to? I wish u good luck on the rest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstack51 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 On 2/10/2014 at 6:55 PM, WendyWonderland said: Ok, thank you very much, now I get a better picture! Harvard says that desicisions are made end February to early March. But I think if they cut the first round by GRE scores, I won't make it. My total score is 308+ 3.5, might be too low to get into second round. Retaking it seems awful because that means I have to study math again..... Well, I think I would stop to contact the schools and wait. Actually there are a lot of schools I would love to apply but missed the deadline like UCLA. I was extremely busy in October and November so I started in December which did not give me a good chance to apply to a wide range. I applied to 8 schools but considering the ranking I think I can forget this year and get prepared for the next. Thank you very much for sharing, which other schools did u apply to? I wish u good luck on the rest! You're welcome! I don't think you should count yourself out yet. The application process is super fickle, so you never know what might happen. It looks like NYU is notifying wait listed applicants. Unfortunately, it looks like I won't make the cut! I applied to 11 total- I already mentioned Harvard (thanks for the info!), but I also applied to University of Washington, WSU, UMass Amherst, UConn, CUNY, Fordham, Princeton (as another reach), WashU, and Boston College. I am suppose to hear back from a few of those this week. I am starting to get nervous - 3/11 rejected already! I'm afraid I didn't apply to enough of a broad range of schools. Where else have you applied? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viviandarkbloom Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I got a wait list email from NYU a couple of hours ago. Don't know if everyone was notified at the same time or not, but it wasn't particularly personalised, so I'm guessing that maybe they were. I don't know how many people were on the list, but they said it's short. They also said they'd received hundreds of applicants, so no doubt it was a total lottery. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstack51 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Congrats Vivian!! I wish you the best luck! It looks like the message they sent was similar to last year's. I hope someone declines for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Thank you for sharing! I also applied for Princeton. Heard nothing, u know anything about it? Also Columbia, Yale, Cornell and Syracuse. Syracuse is extremely nice and I love the program! The dean wrote every applicant am email to say thank u after they received the applications. But I heard it is also very competitive. I sent them 2 writing samples, one academic, one travel diary to show writing potential. As u see I have been focusing around NY, weird complex. I love UCLA, but I heard they also acquire subject test. I did not even know that literature subject test exist previously, this forum has helped a lot! I don't feel very well right now, guess I was too inexperienced this time. I should do more research about schools. Anyway good luck to u! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 I got a wait list email from NYU a couple of hours ago. Don't know if everyone was notified at the same time or not, but it wasn't particularly personalised, so I'm guessing that maybe they were. I don't know how many people were on the list, but they said it's short. They also said they'd received hundreds of applicants, so no doubt it was a total lottery. Hope that helps. Wow congratulation! Short list means a shot! I am really curious what kind of students are fit for the program. I read the instructions and spent the whole summer and autumn to learn French as my forth language. I also publicate 2 papers, but I heard non American publications does not count very much. My paper is written one in English and one in Chinese, but both published in Chinese literary journals. Writing sample fits my research interest and my PS merely introducing my background and reasons I was interested in the program. I hope that it's right. Well, my GRE sucks, that's the obvious reason I know. If I won't get in I would retake it. Good luck to u and thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viviandarkbloom Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Thanks, and best of luck to you both too. I'm afraid I'm just as in the dark as you are about what kind of students are considered a good 'fit' for the program, but I guess it has something to do with the sort of academic interests you talk about in the SOP, and how they match up with those of the faculty and the students who are already there. I don't have any languages or academic publications, so perhaps that stuff is less important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Thanks, and best of luck to you both too. I'm afraid I'm just as in the dark as you are about what kind of students are considered a good 'fit' for the program, but I guess it has something to do with the sort of academic interests you talk about in the SOP, and how they match up with those of the faculty and the students who are already there. I don't have any languages or academic publications, so perhaps that stuff is less important. Ok, thank you, that's good to know! Well, at least I know how to prepare for the next year then if this year sucks. I think I won't give up, since I have a job there is not much to lose. But I would like to be a student again because academid research is my long term career plan anyway. My interest ist cross culture studies and transnational identity studies. Any recommendations? Best luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmugarte Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Thanks, and best of luck to you both too. I'm afraid I'm just as in the dark as you are about what kind of students are considered a good 'fit' for the program, but I guess it has something to do with the sort of academic interests you talk about in the SOP, and how they match up with those of the faculty and the students who are already there. I don't have any languages or academic publications, so perhaps that stuff is less important. Vivian, were you wait listed for the English Program or the Com Lit Dept.? I know that NYU Comp Lit has been calling applicants who were admitted but I do not think they have sent anything out about the wait list yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viviandarkbloom Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I was wait-listed for English. I don't know anything about Comp Lit, but in the case of English they seem to have contacted people with offers by phone, then emailed people on the wait-list a couple of days later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmugarte Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I was wait-listed for English. I don't know anything about Comp Lit, but in the case of English they seem to have contacted people with offers by phone, then emailed people on the wait-list a couple of days later. Thanks. I guess I'll be hearing soon one way or another. Congrats to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 Thanks. I guess I'll be hearing soon one way or another. Congrats to you! I also applied to com. Lit. I hope they would tell us soon. vmugarte 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmugarte Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I also applied to com. Lit. I hope they would tell us soon. Agreed! Sometimes no news is good news, I know many schools have released rejections already. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmugarte Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I also applied to com. Lit. I hope they would tell us soon. If it helps, I just emailed the grad coordinator and she said we'd hear about final decisions in March. This can mean anything from rejection to internal wait list. It could also mean they haven't really handed out acceptances yet, wait and see =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 If it helps, I just emailed the grad coordinator and she said we'd hear about final decisions in March. This can mean anything from rejection to internal wait list. It could also mean they haven't really handed out acceptances yet, wait and see =) Oh, thank u! But this is weird according to the result board! Anyway, fingers crossed for both of us! I also emailed the coordinator but she never replied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 If it helps, I just emailed the grad coordinator and she said we'd hear about final decisions in March. This can mean anything from rejection to internal wait list. It could also mean they haven't really handed out acceptances yet, wait and see =) But thank u for sharing! Best luck for both of us! They should start mailing u know, the waiting is driving me nuts! All of my 8 schools are like that, have the bad feeling of being rejected everywhere...... What about u? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmugarte Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 But thank u for sharing! Best luck for both of us! They should start mailing u know, the waiting is driving me nuts! All of my 8 schools are like that, have the bad feeling of being rejected everywhere...... What about u? I wouldn't worry too much about the results board, my boyfriend who is a phd student mentioned that it could have been a masters student who got accepted earlier. It could also mean nothing. We just don't know. I applied a long time ago and was rejected off of the un contacted wait-list very late in the game. It was nerve wrecking and I am dying right now! Don't worry about rejection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyWonderland Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 I wouldn't worry too much about the results board, my boyfriend who is a phd student mentioned that it could have been a masters student who got accepted earlier. It could also mean nothing. We just don't know. I applied a long time ago and was rejected off of the un contacted wait-list very late in the game. It was nerve wrecking and I am dying right now! Don't worry about rejection! Ahhh , thanks, feel much better now! I am dying and I feel I am one step close to madhouse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmugarte Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 I'm with you! We can go tot he nut house together =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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