help me choose a school?

[hamlet]

I am an international student. I am new to the forum and I need some help. I am going to apply for a phd program in Literaure, so my questions are:

1. I did my undergrad in my country; and I am doing my masters in the us. my undergrad gpa is 3.2; grad gpa: 4.00 (school is a tier-3 university). I have strong letters, SoP, writing sample; but I havent taken GRE yet, so I am really afraid of it. assume I will get a low score, do I have chance to be admitted by any program in the us as an internaional?

2. I cannot find any back up schools which guarantees funding. Funding is utmost important for me. can you suggest any back up schools?

3. many friends discourage me applying ivy schools since I am not a graduate of a top ranked school. do you thing it does matter which school you are graduated from?

[fromeurope]

I think this is an interesting subject. Considering the scarcity of viable information for Americans as to the inner workings of this process, it seems quite impossible to say much, if anything, about "internationals".

Although, since you're getting an American MA, the situation should be different for you.

Logic would dictate that non-native anglophones would have a hard time competing for these spots. I remember seeing at Columbia's page that they listed separate, lower, requirements for internationals for the GRE. But would assume that you would have to compensate for this by a brilliantly insightful writing sample - why would they otherwise take you over someone who have native proficiency in English, the tool of the trade?

On the other hand, you're bound to have at least one language other than English, which one would assume to be at near native proficiency if you're even considering this, that you are intimately familiar with, so to speak. That might be something you could leverage.