Fall 2015 Applicants

[WendyWonderland]

My plan is somewhat similar Wendy! I am applying to 2 more programs. If nothing works out, I am going to take a mini vacation and then come back and find a job. Will definitely re take my GRE, take the subject test and work on my writing. I have already shortlisted universities for next year but I am sure that will change over time.

Yeah, I don't think I would apply to the universities I applied this year, it's a waste of money. I would like to be more realistic. I already have a job, but I spent every penny on application, I have a minus on my credit card if I continue to apply to MAs. What makes me quite angry is a lot of schools require evaluation for international degrees, it's very expensive! Oh, I did not take the subject test, not sure if I will ever take it, it sounds like a lot of work and I have a job..... How important is it?

[Eternal Optimist]

I will be re applying to some universities that I applied to this year because they have either put me on wait list or offered me unfunded offers. Only one university I am applying to requires evaluation of transcripts. I agree, it's quite expensive both evaluation and the whole application process. That's why I want to find a job and save up for next year.

As for subject test, it depends. There are several good programs that do not rrequire it. Taking a subject test is gonna be quite time consuming. I am only planning on taking it because there are 3 or 4 schools on my list that absolutely require subject test. Ideally, I would have liked to invest that time in polishing my writing. So, if there are schools that you absolutely want to apply to that require subject test, take it. If not, don't. I am doing it because I don't want that nagging feeling in my head that I could have taken one more test to increase my odds.

[francheese]

I'm so happy this thread exists.  I was accepted to one school but wait listed for funding.  I think I made every graduate school application mistake.  Including poor GRE prep and starting too late.... 

 

I'm planning on taking the next year to revamp my application and try to find work in the field (I currently sell furniture).  Does anyone have any advice on interships/jobs to look for to better my application?  

 

My idea is to apply for a TESOL certificate and work in that field for a while.  

[girlbat]

Well... here we go again. The past year, I only applied for a couple spots, and I made many mistakes. Trying to build up steam for this round, and I am joining this group EARLY so that I work hard over the summer. Let's do this.

[PianoPlayer]

I'm a newbie applying for the Fall 2015. I'm not an English undergrad so it's a relief that a new thread has been started. Hope all of us can do well this time.

Edited May 1, 2014 by PianoPlayer

[TeaOverCoffee]

So quick question for those who have applied before, will a 3.5 GPA get you cut during the weeding out process? Will they simply look at a 3.5 and put them in the rejection pile immediately without looking at other materials? They meaning, top tier/middle tier universities.

[hj2012]

So quick question for those who have applied before, will a 3.5 GPA get you cut during the weeding out process? Will they simply look at a 3.5 and put them in the rejection pile immediately without looking at other materials? They meaning, top tier/middle tier universities.

I don't think a 3.5 is so low that you would immediately get cut, unless your English major GPA was quite low as well. But at my top ten undergrad school, it would be difficult for you to gain entry without having a near-perfect verbal GRE score to make up for it. I understand this varies greatly depending on the school, though.

[girlbat]

So quick question for those who have applied before, will a 3.5 GPA get you cut during the weeding out process? Will they simply look at a 3.5 and put them in the rejection pile immediately without looking at other materials? They meaning, top tier/middle tier universities.

 

I would agree with hj2012. It really depends upon WHERE you are applying. It may be an issue in a top 10. But honestly, the whole thing is about how you fit in with the faculty and philosophy of the department. You could have a 4.0 and perfect GRE, but if no one there is interested in your research topics, then you are a no-go.

[Fiz]

Ive heard 3.5 is the "bare minimum," that if you have anything below that then it is exceedingly difficult to make it, even at mid and lower-tier programs. Im willing to bet that top 10's are sticklers for higher gpa's. A person at Standford told me the average applicant gpa is 3.8. But of course, that shit aint written in stone, and there are exceptions to everything. Case in point, moi! Supposedly, the average gre subject exam score of students admitted into my program is the 70th percentile. I scored in the 18th percentile, and not only did I get in, I got a pretty bad ass fellowship as well. Don't let miniscule numbers hold you back. Youre more than that.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Fiz

[TeaOverCoffee]

So for the GPA, which semesters do they count? Is the fall semester of your senior year the last semester they look at for your GPA?

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

So for the GPA, which semesters do they count? Is the fall semester of your senior year the last semester they look at for your GPA?

Well... that depends.

If you're applying a year after BA/BS/BFA then they'd examine the whole package.

If you're applying years after your BA and you've since gone back and enrolled in a few courses. I imagine those recent courses would carry more weight.

 

If you're applying to a program with a late November deadline they're only gonna see your previous winter/spring/summer.

---

GPA is one piece of an entire package.

[Abdiel]

Hey everyone. It's interesting to finally be posting after lurking the last year. I'm going to be a senior this fall. I'm pretty excited/terrified that I'll be applying to grad schools next semester. I'm also concerned about my GPA. My overall GPA is around a 3.5, and my major GPA is around a 3.6 due to some bad grades for a couple semesters. I think this semesters grades will bring it up, though. I have all my grades now but one (and of course it's the one class that I wasn't already sure of my grade). 

[Dr. Old Bill]

Hi folks,

 

Yep, I too have been lurking for awhile, but the time has come to join the ranks of the 2015 Ph.D. hopefuls. I took the GRE a couple of weeks ago (very early, I know -- wanted to have time to brush up and retake over the summer if need be), and got 162 V, 148 Q, and 4.5 on the writing. The latter score annoys me quite a bit, and I wish I could see what I did wrong...but alas. In any event, since I'll be applying to a lot of top schools, I think I need to retake the GRE. I've got a 3.93 GPA as a rising senior at College of William & Mary (undergraduate English major), but I have one aspect going against me a bit: my age. I'm in my mid-30s, even though, as just mentioned, I'm an undergrad.

 

Anyhow, I'm glad this community exists, and I'm sure I'll be an active member for the next year or so. I've already read a ton of helpful advice, and I have little doubt that I'll be learning a great deal more in the coming months...

 

Shaun

Edited June 3, 2014 by Wyatt's Torch

[repentwalpurgis]

I'm reapplying, I think. I was happy with my results, and deferred from a couple schools. I will either attend one of those in 2015, or another that I've reapplied to (and been accepted to, heh). I got a good job and I'm building up my savings. This time around I feel like I could say that I know a thing or two. And damn, will those rec letters be easier to come by...

Edited June 6, 2014 by repentwalpurgis

[bhr]

I'm going to keep posting this to encourage people: Don't worry about grades, as they are one of the last things that will keep you out of grad school. If you had a rough start to college, there isn't a program in the world that will rule you out for that. The people reading your applications are human too, and understand this stuff.

 

Coming out of a small state school, with a 2.4 GPA at the time I applied, I got mostly or fully funded offers at 4/5 programs I applied to. I explained my grades in my SoP, had great letters, and had all that "other" stuff they look for. If you are worried about your grades, make yourself a better candidate. Attend a conference. Submit a proposal to a magazine. Volunteer as an assistant on a scholarly mag. Just go out and "do" the stuff you are looking to study.

[Eternal Optimist]

^That's one amazing advice!!!

[Kaitipoola]

I know people haven't posted here for a while, but...any MFA applicants in the house? I couldn't find a thread for MFA people and tried to start one, but was directed here. Would be happy with any exchange of advice/ideas/mutual anxiety. I'm pretty new here, as this is my first round, and would love to hear from people who are tucking in to applications a second time. Here's the gist of what I posted in the attempted MFA thread:

I'm an English (Creative Writing Emphasis) BA graduate who plans on applying to around 11 or 12 programs. All of them are fully funded or have a strong chance at full funding, as I won't be able to attend a graduate program if I have to pay tuition. I plan on applying to the following MFA programs: Brown, Cornell, Vanderbilt, U Washington in St. Louis, Syracuse, U.T Austin (Michener), U Florida, U Wyoming, U Michigan, U Virginia. The MA English programs (which offer an emphasis in Creative Writing) that I'm considering are U Maine and U Missouri.

I have a strong academic record but realize that the MFA programs base their choice almost entirely on the writing sample. Since most of the creative writing I did for my BA was in the short-forms genre (and the novel excerpt I was planning on submitting is unacceptable because it falls into the "magical realism" category), I'm currently in the process of writing a story for my sample. Writing with so much at stake is stressful, to say the least, and my procrastination is all the more problematic because I leave the country to teach English abroad at the end of August. Yes, that's right - I'm going to be applying to English graduate programs while out of the country. Specifically in a country that doesn't speak much English. Or have dependable WiFi access. Am I insane? Yeah.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone has questions/curiosity about other to-be-applicant's experiences so far, but I know that I do. I'm eager to hear where everyone else is in the process - do you have your letters of recommendation assembled, writing sample written, program choices solidified?

Good luck to everyone!

-Poola

[Dr. Old Bill]

Welcome, Poola!

 

On another member's advice, I've been giving some thought to Cornell's joint MFA/Ph.D. program. It looks like a great option, though is obviously even more exclusive than the standard Ph.D. program, accepting only one or two candidates per year. But that is an option for you -- they want two LORs from creative writing professors, and two from lit professors.

 

Out of curiosity, what are you planning on doing with your MFA once you've finished the program? It looks like you're already comfortable with teaching (in another country no less -- kudos!), and you clearly feel comfortable with creative writing already. There are a great many reasons to get an MFA...I'm just wondering about yours.

 

Personally, I've had a ton of formal poetry published over the last eight years or so, with some in some fairly high-end journals...but I've been encouraged to avoid the MFA path, due to its limitation to a very narrow niche. Fortunately I enjoy research and literary study as well as academic and creative writing, so it's not a heart-wrenching decision to focus on a Ph.D. instead of an MFA. But if you know something I don't...

 

As to where I am in the process, I have my letter writers selected (none of the letters are written though), I have one of the two writing samples I'll be using partially written (I'm assembling it from two prior essays plus fleshing it out with more substance), and the other will be written as part of an independent study I'm undertaking this fall. At this point, my program choices aren't firmly solidified, but as you can see from the signature line I assembled this morning, I've whittled it down to sixteen or so, with a few "definites" and a few "probables" mixed in. I'm still doing research and reaching out to various professors and grad students at different grad schools, but I feel I'm making good progress with narrowing it down to a dozen (or baker's dozen) potential places to apply. I've taken the GRE general once and scored "well," but will be retaking it next month in the hopes of getting an even better score. And as soon as ETS opens up the GRE subject test for registration, I'll be doing that too...hopefully in September. As mentioned in a couple of other threads, I'm doing some of the reading in preparation for that now.

 

Good to virtually meet you, and I look forward to interacting with you more over the next crazy nine months or so. I suspect they'll go by a lot faster than most of us expect...

 

Shaun

[Kaitipoola]

Wow, I just wrote an insanely long response, and it got deleted. Here I go again - I will probably be more to the point this time around, so don't please confuse my exasperation with technology for terseness!

Question 1, about life after the MFA: I hope to do some work that interweaves my passion for environmental/animal advocacy with my love of writing. Ideally, I would join/start a publication that used literary art to further social and environmental undertakings. Long story short, I went into my BA thinking I was going into Environmental Law, that idea died quickly, and I fell further in love with English (which has always been a part of my life, having an English teacher for a mother.) No cemented career choice, however, which may be in some part due to the fact that I'm quite young. Also, I'm in the midst of writing a novel - which, alas, is too "genre" for me to send in as a fiction sample - and will probably continue writing such nonsense ad infinitum.

It's true that I have become quite comfortable with teaching over the years, which I can probably thank my mom for to some degree: aside from helping her out from time to time, I've been tutoring in college writing centers for the past 4 years, and also have done fellowships and residencies in teaching while at university. As for the Ph.D, given my young age, my reluctance to choose teaching as an all-out career, and the fact that I've never lived anywhere near the grad schools that are financially eligible for me to apply...6-7 years seems like a LONG time. 2-3 years seems like a much better time commitment for me, and I figure, hey, if a school is willing to pay for me to teach a subject I love and become a better writer, then there's no better way to spend this chapter of my life.

You, on the other hand, are clearly comfortable with committing to a Ph.D. *Tips hat.* Given your impressive history of publications, it sounds like Cornell's MFA/Ph.D program could be perfect for you! It's true that Cornell is almost freakishly selective; I'm throwing my hat at the MFA program, same with Brown, but less in an expectant way and more in a 'Hey, I once applied to Cornell for graduate school' kind of way. However, SOMEONE has to get in, and why not us? (While I'm sure there are reasons people other than us may get accepted, my idea is that, if a few people weren't brave enough to apply, there would be no program.)

For the MA, the writing sample I'm using is an except from my Honors senior thesis, which was an analysis of the supernatural, Christianity and the feminist spirit in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Would love to hear what you're writing about, and what you're reading for the subject test.

Re. the GRE, I also did 'well' in the verbal and writing sections - at least I think I did (what's the grad school range for 'doing well?) - but scored abysmally in the math. Several of the schools I'm applying to ask for GRE scores. Do you think an extremely low math score will factor in acceptance to an English program? God, I hope not.

It's a pleasure to "meet" you, as well, Wyatt's Torch! I'm sure you're right about how quickly the application period will fly by...I'm planning on applying the first day that each application is open so that I can focus on surviving in a foreign country, and September seems to approach at break-neck speed!

Cheers,

Poola

[Kaitipoola]

Thanks for the warm welcome, by the way! I wrote that in my first response, but it didn't make it into the second.

-Poola

[Dr. Old Bill]

Ah, your path seems to make perfect sense then! From what I've read about SoP, you might want to seriously consider mentioning both your interest in environmental / animal advocacy as well as your current teaching plans abroad. Those are "standout" sort of items. Just remember to tailor your writing sample in that direction.

 

As for the GRE issue, you don't need to worry much at all about your math score. I got a 148 / 33rd percentile, but everything I've read has indicated that it's not a big deal to do fairly poorly. The verbal, however, should be quite high. I think a "good" score would be 160-165, with a "great" score being 166-170. That's subjective, of course, and a 155 or even lower might not be the death of an application. But personally, I'm opting to give the GRE another shot, despite having a "good" verbal score. Harvard lists the general average for their successful applicants as being a 166 verbal. So if I retake the GRE and get a 164 or higher, I'll feel a lot more confident, even though a 162 might not be too low to bother applying.

 

Part of me wishes I could go the MFA route -- and I think it's ideal for what you're planning to do -- but for me personally, it's just not as practical. Then again, according to a great many experts (and a great many more not-quite-experts), getting a Ph.D. in English is the antithesis of practicality as well. But hey, someone's got to carry the torch, right?

[Kaitipoola]

Phew! That bit about the math section is reassuring - thank you. Since you consider a Ph.D to be more practical for your own future plans, does that mean that you intend to enter into academia as a profession? Have you thought about what your area of specialization/study will be? 

 

Definite agreement with the torch comment (noticed the irony there) and flying in the face of pragmatism. Who needs bread and water, anyway? We've got us some literature. 

[Dr. Old Bill]

Phew! That bit about the math section is reassuring - thank you. Since you consider a Ph.D to be more practical for your own future plans, does that mean that you intend to enter into academia as a profession? Have you thought about what your area of specialization/study will be? 

 

Definite agreement with the torch comment (noticed the irony there) and flying in the face of pragmatism. Who needs bread and water, anyway? We've got us some literature. 

 

Yes, I personally plan on entering into academia. I enjoy research and writing, and would be content with those as the bulk of my duties for the next quarter century or more...but I can't deny that I'm looking very forward to teaching as well. I've been a tutor in a college writing lab, and have given enough interactive class presentations to know that it's something I'll be good at. And even though it might sound very odd, I simply enjoy adjudicating, evaluating, and most of all, helping others develop their innate talents. I've always been someone who tries to encourage others to succeed. Again, research is still something I value very highly and enjoy, but I think in the balance between research and teaching, the latter holds slightly more interest for me in the long run (which only means that I won't care much about finding tenure only at R1 institutions). My specialization is probably going to be on poetry and poetics. I'm a little sad that that means I'll have to largely avoid the realm of fiction, much of which I love, but my strengths tend toward the poetry side, and I've also heard some encouraging news about trends in that field. Having said that, there are a few programs I'll apply to for which I'll focus my specialization on late 19th - mid 20th century transatlantic literature.

 

These are all "June" plans though. By the time applications start going out in the fall, I might be singing a whole different tune!

[bhr]

First, let me make sure that you understand that I mean no offense by what I'm writing here. While this is a pretty friendly community, and one I am grateful for as it got me through the stress of the application season, I'm not sure that we, as a group, are going to be much help for a creative writer. Almost everyone in this particular forum is either Lit/English/CompRhet, at least as far as I can tell, so our experiences with MFA programs only extend as far as knowing people who applied, for the most part.

 

That said, there is a forum on this very site dedicated to Creative Writing. http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/80-literary/ It's under The Arts, subset Literary, and is where you will probably find the best advice for what you are looking for.

[Kaitipoola]

bhr,

Thanks for the heads-up! Duly noted. I'll just head over there now and see what I can find.

-Poola