Fall 2015 Applicants

[Appppplication]

I would think the Derridean would be at an advantage either way, assuming it is a good paper.

 

First because writing on Derrida is extremely difficult and not many people attempt to write about him nor do it well enough to use as a writing sample. Second, deconstruction, in my opinion, is actually very political and historical even if not addressed directly in the paper at hand. And third, Derrida is not necessarily super trendy right now so interest in him may be viewed as more serious than interest in trendy topic X. This could be refreshing to adcoms and make up for any lower GRE scores. Perhaps that applicant would be seen as outside of the box and more serious in their endeavors since they want to study things other than "hot topics".

 

In terms of the other side of this argument that you suggest, I would really hope that adcoms would not read a paper with wider eyes over GRE scores. That would simply be unethical since there is no evidence that stronger scores have any connection to ability to write a strong paper. I also highly doubt that they would think they "missed something" in a paper, especially over GRE scores, since they, after all, are the professionals in this situation, not us. 

 

That being said, I didn't write about Derrida (although I like his work and struggle over it a lot), and my GREs are pretty good.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Appppplication

[quena]

I would think the Derridean would be at an advantage either way, assuming it is a good paper.

 

First because writing on Derrida is extremely difficult and not many people attempt to write about him nor do it well enough to use as a writing sample. Second, deconstruction, in my opinion, is actually very political and historical even if not addressed directly in the paper at hand. And third, Derrida is not necessarily super trendy right now so interest in him may be viewed as more serious than interest in trendy topic X. This could be refreshing to adcoms and make up for any lower GRE scores. Perhaps that applicant would be seen as outside of the box and more serious in their endeavors since they want to study things other than "hot topics".

 

 

THANK YOU!! This means a lot for a half-Derridean who handed in a writing sample over which she struggled for a few months, aka me 

[snyegurachka]

I would also contribute to a doc for future applicants, but there are so many criteria to take into order that may or may not change over the years. I am also horrified that I won't get in anywhere, and this makes me think that we should include the same kind of documentation of rejections as well. Right now I am feeling like I have a much better shot at "sexy" interdisciplinary programs like Rhetoric at Berkeley and MTL and Stanford than I do at some of the less competitive programs I applied to—of course I need to wait and see how things go, but the type of writing sample and project I chose are probably less intriguing to more traditional forms of scholarship produced in places like the University of Chicago.

 

On that note, I am going to try to list some criteria that have been discussed in this thread/results board already as well as advice I received from my advisors along the way.  

 

Previous degrees: 

 

B.A.: where did you attend? Was it a college or university? What was your GPA? Did you graduate with honors/awards? Did you transfer schools during that time? 

 

M.A.: did you pursue/receive an M.A., M.F.A., or professional degree? Where? Was it at an institution that also offers a phd track? What was your GPA? How many years was the program? Did you receive any special scholarships, fellowships, teaching positions, etc? Are your thesis advisors well known/regarded? 

 

How many years did you spend out of either program before applying? Are you applying outside of your previous discipline(s)?

 

 

GRE:

 

What were your scores? Percentiles for your year? Did you take the subject test?

 

 

Connections:

 

Did you reach out to faculty, a POI before/during the application process? Do you have any connections to faculty, students, administrators, etc, at the university? Do any of your letter writers have professional and/or social relationships with faculty in the programs to which you are applying? Did they attend/teach/postdoc at the school?

 

 

 

Personal background:

 

What is your gender? Age? Race/ethnicity? Socioeconomic background? What are the highest levels of education that your mother and/or father received? Are you an international applicant? If so, are you applying with funding from a program in your country of origin?

 

 

Your work/ SoP:

What are your topics of focus? How specific was the project you laid out in your statement? How "disciplined" was this project? Did you name any professors in your statement, and if so, how many? Were they "star" professors (i.e. Judith Butler, Frederick Jameson, Sianne Ngai)? How long was the statement? How did you begin it (quote, anecdote, "i am applying to...", etc)? Did you incorporate quotations/citations/references to scholars in the field in which you hope to be studying? 

 

 

Writing sample:

What kind of writing sample did you choose? Was it related to the topics you discussed in your statement? How long was it? How would you describe the style of the writing (traditional, experimental, very specialized/specific to your sub-discipline)? How did you begin the writing sample? Did you include a lengthy footnote within the first four pages situating this paper within discourses surrounding the same topic in your discipline? Would you/could you include an abstract for others to view (I understand if some want to avoid this for reasons of anonymity)? Has this paper been/will it be published? Is it part of your B.A. or M.A. thesis?

 

 

CV:

Presentations (where and what)? Publications (where and what)? Teaching experience? Fellowships? Research experience? Work/jobs related to your academic pursuits?

 

 

Letters of recommendation?

How well-known are your letter writers (in and outside the field)? How well do they know you/how are you connected to them? Were they from undergrad, MA, or a mix? 

 

 

 

 

oof. enough for now.

[Katla]

Haven't really got much to say except that I think this is a great idea!

 

I would also contribute to a doc for future applicants, but there are so many criteria to take into order that may or may not change over the years. I am also horrified that I won't get in anywhere, and this makes me think that we should include the same kind of documentation of rejections as well.

 

I think this is very true, rejections are as important to painting a picture of admission boards' decisions...

[InHacSpeVivo]

Haven't really got much to say except that I think this is a great idea!

 

 

I think this is very true, rejections are as important to painting a picture of admission boards' decisions...

 

Ditto.

[thepriorwalter]

Here's the insane spreadsheet I came up with, incorporating as many suggestions as possible. It would definitely give us a lot to pore over. 

 

(I haven't filled it out yet because it feels the opposite of anonymous! But I will be first if it stagnates for a little while, just to take the pressure off.) 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LpH5dOHh39c2UyyCJbviQRvXCXvy__QPZjs4bG9ZDp0/edit#gid=0

[snyegurachka]

Here's the insane spreadsheet I came up with, incorporating as many suggestions as possible. It would definitely give us a lot to pore over. 

 

(I haven't filled it out yet because it feels the opposite of anonymous! But I will be first if it stagnates for a little while, just to take the pressure off.) 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LpH5dOHh39c2UyyCJbviQRvXCXvy__QPZjs4bG9ZDp0/edit#gid=0

 

 

"...was it Judith Butler?"

[thepriorwalter]

"...was it Judith Butler?"

 

Just stealing your shorthand for "did you mention specific, lesser-known prof in your area or did you mention the prof that 3/4 of other applicants also want to work with in this department?"! 

[hreaðemus]

OMG that's amazing! Thank you, thepriorwalter!!

[zanmato4794]

Very nice spreadsheet. I don't want to overburden it, but maybe add foreign language preparation? Too much?

[echo449]

Eh; unfortunately, I'm going to withhold my information for the time being after thinking it over. If anyone wants to discuss my information (in light of my posted acceptance or references to my area in my post history), I would be happy to do so over PM. 

 

(edited post)

Edited January 26, 2015 by echo449

[1Q84]

Agreed. I'm waiting until I get word back.

[thepriorwalter]

Yeah, absolutely. And so few schools have notified at present that it makes the people who fill it out now seem much more exposed, in a way. This is for voluntary participation only, when/if a person feels comfortable doing it, filling in as much or as little as one is comfortable with. No obligations. Just intended as a way to get a slightly better read on some soft qualifications. 

 

I just would've liked to tell Fall 2013 me that if I never get the nerve up to email a POI, it's not going to mean the end of the world. 

[echo449]

Yeah, absolutely. And so few schools have notified at present that it makes the people who fill it out now seem much more exposed, in a way. This is for voluntary participation only, when/if a person feels comfortable doing it, filling in as much or as little as one is comfortable with. No obligations. Just intended as a way to get a slightly better read on some soft qualifications. 

 

I just would've liked to tell Fall 2013 me that if I never get the nerve up to email a POI, it's not going to mean the end of the world. 

Understandably! Of course, I never wanted to impart any kind of negative connotation to it. For my own part, I'm fascinated by my nervous reaction to this, since I have made it a point personally to keep things like my twitter account public and under my legal name during this process. For whatever reason, this makes me more anxious! Which I guess is an interesting bit in itself--my relationship to my stats and application. 

Edited January 26, 2015 by echo449

[BLeonard]

Reading through this thread, I'm actually pretty happy I took the time to read through all the professors' pages on the department's website. It allowed me to strike that balance between well-known, superstar professors (David Blight, Henry Louis Gates) and ones who are lesser-known, but who I would be excited to work with. The only thing I worry about is that my work is in those subject areas -- but I was told my writing sample should try and grapple with the work of a faculty member, something I felt I wasn't able to do. Has anyone heard this as well?

[echo449]

I think that would be very difficult to accomplish if yr list is as large as yours or mine. Plus, just the sheer stress of doing something like that would be burdensome, imo. For instance, when you begin to quote faculty like that, you have to worry about whether or not you are construing their project in the way that is adequate to their own conception of it, a difficult line to balance in a writing sample w/out critiquing them too harshly or accepting them too easily. 

[BLeonard]

Yeah, that was the conclusion I ultimately reached, which is why I tried to make up for it with the statement of purpose. 

[kurayamino]

Thanks for the google doc thepriorwalter! I look forward to seeing what people post.

[InHacSpeVivo]

Here's the insane spreadsheet I came up with, incorporating as many suggestions as possible. It would definitely give us a lot to pore over. 

 

(I haven't filled it out yet because it feels the opposite of anonymous! But I will be first if it stagnates for a little while, just to take the pressure off.) 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LpH5dOHh39c2UyyCJbviQRvXCXvy__QPZjs4bG9ZDp0/edit#gid=0

This is going to be a fantastic resource when results start flooding in. Thanks so much, thepriorwalter!

Again, not to overburden, but is it worth adding a rejection column? Or maybe as a separate spreadsheet?

[snyegurachka]

Reading through this thread, I'm actually pretty happy I took the time to read through all the professors' pages on the department's website. It allowed me to strike that balance between well-known, superstar professors (David Blight, Henry Louis Gates) and ones who are lesser-known, but who I would be excited to work with. The only thing I worry about is that my work is in those subject areas -- but I was told my writing sample should try and grapple with the work of a faculty member, something I felt I wasn't able to do. Has anyone heard this as well?

 

I heard that this can be helpful, but the advice I got mainly was 1. If professors in the department you are applying are relevant to topics discussed in your writing sample, you need to at least reference them in a footnote. And 2. try not to mention too many professors from the institution in one writing sample or your statement because you may come off as pandering AND you don't know what the social/professional relationship between those two professors might be. 

[hypervodka]

Speaking of Gates, I just learned that one of my family friends (known her for 15+ years) is apparently very good friends with him. Calls him Skip. He's her son's godfather! I missed an opportunity there...

[thepriorwalter]

This is going to be a fantastic resource when results start flooding in. Thanks so much, thepriorwalter!

Again, not to overburden, but is it worth adding a rejection column? Or maybe as a separate spreadsheet?

 

Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I can rename it. We can insert it after the school name and people can say whether it was an acceptance or a rejection. I think this might help to see some of the randomness of the process? I suspect the difference between acceptances and rejections will be pretty invisible to us. Good call! 

[1Q84]

Reading through this thread, I'm actually pretty happy I took the time to read through all the professors' pages on the department's website. It allowed me to strike that balance between well-known, superstar professors (David Blight, Henry Louis Gates) and ones who are lesser-known, but who I would be excited to work with. The only thing I worry about is that my work is in those subject areas -- but I was told my writing sample should try and grapple with the work of a faculty member, something I felt I wasn't able to do. Has anyone heard this as well?

 

I'm not sure I understand this advice. Does this mean you have to create a different WS for each department to which you apply? Or does it mean you have to have a "section" in your WS that includes each faculty member of each university to which you apply? Either way, unless the essay organically grew out of your research interest in one faculty member's work, it would be pretty tricky to do without coming off as forced.

 

I heard that this can be helpful, but the advice I got mainly was 1. If professors in the department you are applying are relevant to topics discussed in your writing sample, you need to at least reference them in a footnote. And 2. try not to mention too many professors from the institution in one writing sample or your statement because you may come off as pandering AND you don't know what the social/professional relationship between those two professors might be. 

 

Same here. I was tempted to footnote a professor in a department I was applying to, especially after he mentioned one of his books to me in an email, but it would have been entirely synthetic and not as relevant to my WS as it should have been in order to be included. 

 

I'm skeptical of this advice! But someone sell me on it... because it sounds like I'm missing something.

[kurayamino]

I heard that this can be helpful, but the advice I got mainly was 1. If professors in the department you are applying are relevant to topics discussed in your writing sample, you need to at least reference them in a footnote. And 2. try not to mention too many professors from the institution in one writing sample or your statement because you may come off as pandering

AND you don't know what the social/professional relationship between those two professors might be. 

 

 

Same here. I was tempted to footnote a professor in a department I was applying to, especially after he mentioned one of his books to me in an email, but it would have been entirely synthetic and not as relevant to my WS as it should have been in order to be included. 

 

I referenced only one person in my WS that works at a school I applied to as most people who work in my area of study are in non-US schools or schools I had no interest in because there was only that one faculty member I wanted to work with.

I think I handled this with my SOP by talking about the work that influenced my research and how Professor X that I want to work with at Y school wrote Z book that was really important in developing my ideas, etc. etc. Having to do this type of thing in my writing sample would have made the process of writing it as tedious and dreadful as the SOP was for me.

[BLeonard]

And of course -- even though I had professors look over my statement of purpose and they didn't mention it -- now that I know you're not supposed to mention too many, I worry that I did mention too many/came off as pandering. I think I mentioned between 3 and 5 -- but I feel like as an Americanist, I have two very different interests that I might pursue at the graduate level. Ugh. 

 

I think I was able to split the difference in some cases, like at Yale, in that there were schools with professors whose work was influential on me that I was able to talk about in that regard. 

Edited January 26, 2015 by BLeonard