Freaking out, what are my chances?

[mushpuddle]

Ok, I just found this board tonight and now I'm panicking. I'm seeing people on here getting rejected from every school they apply to, and it like ruined my day. I have a resume that's really strong in some points and horribly weak in others. Can you guys just, I don't know, be honest and tell me what my chances are? I go to a top 50 uni, big research school, and my cum GPA is 3.70, history upper-level GPA 3.73. I've had three internships, I've put on an exhibit, working on hosting a formal panel, member of Phi Alpha Theta (now the secretary) for two years, research trip with my school out of state. Extensive work archiving and doing oral history/conducting my own interviews. I'm writing an honors thesis right now, already did my senior thesis last year. I have 4 letters of rec; department heads, reputed professors, etc. I'm sure whatever I'll churn up for my SoP will be decent, too. HOWEVER, my writing sample is a little weak (redoing it now, kind of meh argument that I'm tweaking) and my GRE math... lol. I did ok on the verbal, got a 630 and taking again in two days with hopes of high 600/low 700, but I got a 440 in the math. Standardized tests TERRIFY me and I'm bad at math as it is sooooo yeah.

Schools I'm applying to:

WashU

Carnegie Mellon

UPitt

UC Boulder

UI Chicago

Temple

Emory

UFlorida

UT Austin

I realize that some of these are stretches... but yeah. What do you guys think?

[TMP]

As you could see, it's a crapshoot admissions process. But some of us are getting it to our heads that it's all about the FIT. FIT. FIT. I'm honestly applying only to ONE top 10 program because the other one I was planning on had my would-be advisor not taking students for next year. Everyone else is between 10-30 because they're better fit for my needs. You have to be specific enough in your research interests to find departments that will mesh with you. Professors have been emphasizing that they look at SOP, writing sample, and LORs above everything else. GREs are more for getting extra funding from the Graduate School to get you to come.

I've seen it happen to people I know. I know one friend who applied to these schools and I was considering some of them as well. Once I researched those schools and spoke with the professors, I realized why she didn't get in- her research interests didn't match with the department's strengths. But those she did get in- it worked for the departments. I have another person who's all about gender and she applied to wrong places IMHO. One 5th year PhD student I know got in everywhere, literally, because she was specific in her focus that she targeted schools that meshed with it. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. And people do get in the second round because they realized that they applied to wrong departments that didn't fit with their interests and much more likely to re-write their SOP to clarify why this or that school fits with their needs, while everything else pretty much stays the same.

Also, there are more and more excellent historians down the ranking list that outside of top 10 down to say, 30-40, it doesn't matter. Departments are reputable and have better job placements than before and they do graduate people. It's a bit of a trickle down effect, if you will. So just apply widely and find departments that have strengths that are in your area. But don't go crazy and apply to more than 10 schools.

[purplepepper]

Yep. It's all about the SOP and the recs and the fit, and unfortunately something you can't control, the timing (whether a potential advisor even has the clout in the adcom that particular year to fight for students). i.e. last year your advisor had 2 incoming students so this year he probably can't accept any. This really is something you can't know unless he tells you, which he might not, so really a lot of luck comes into play

everything else is fine!

[StrangeLight]

tickle is completely right. the fit matters more than anything. i got into 3 of 9 schools because of fit. in at least 4 of the 6 that rejected me, i spent a lot of time trying to convince my potential advisor why my project could fit with their interests. if it's not obvious to them and to you off the bat, odds are you won't get in there. even if they're willing to work on that project, chances are another student will apply in the same year and their interests will gel more with the faculty and they'll get the spot over you. depending upon what you study, you may find that only 4 or 5 schools can even begin to serve your interests, and then you panic a bit and apply to more places. that's what i did and it turned into a waste of money, and i ended up at one of my top 2 choices anyway (the top 2 constantly switching places depending upon my mood).

another thing that's really, really important that i don't see in your profile is language. what languages do you have, and what is your level of fluency in each? you should, ideally, enter grad school with reading knowledge of at least one foreign language and have started on a second. some people will apply with 2 or 3 completely fluent languages under their belt, and others will apply while still needing to do some work on their primary language. you can get into places without the best language profile, but in general a real lack of language proficiency will just give adcoms an excuse to cut you early.

and if you have some questions about pitt or cmu, feel free to ask and i may be able to offer some answers.

[mushpuddle]

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far, I'm feeling a little better about my scores

Strangelight,

I actually forgot to mention that I'm completing my third semester of German. I did it in high school as well, and I'm going to take a fourth semester in the spring (I think) so I'm DECENT there, nothing to write home about but I've definitely had training at the college-level, and I've only gotten A's and B+'s in the courses so that's nice at least. About Pitt/CMU - I want to live in Pittsburgh so bad, for a number of reasons, and the universities are perfect fits for me. I don't want to get my hopes to high about being there though. How difficult is it to get into Pitt?

[kahlan_amnell]

As others have said, fit is really important.

No one can really predict admissions results because fit is such a big factor, and there are so many other factors involved.

Good luck. If you are worried, consider applying to some MA programs in addition to Ph.D. programs.

[StrangeLight]

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far, I'm feeling a little better about my scores

Strangelight,

I actually forgot to mention that I'm completing my third semester of German. I did it in high school as well, and I'm going to take a fourth semester in the spring (I think) so I'm DECENT there, nothing to write home about but I've definitely had training at the college-level, and I've only gotten A's and B+'s in the courses so that's nice at least. About Pitt/CMU - I want to live in Pittsburgh so bad, for a number of reasons, and the universities are perfect fits for me. I don't want to get my hopes to high about being there though. How difficult is it to get into Pitt?

i don't really know how hard it is to get in here. again, it's fit. when i applied to grad schools, my cumulative GPA was 3.7, my major GPA was 4.0, i wrote an honours thesis that i used for my writing sample, i worked for one really well-known professor as his research assistant, my GRE was 650V (95%) 690Q (70%) 5.5 AWA (88%), i had 2.5 years of spanish (5 semesters) and 1 year of french (2 semesters). all three of my LORs came from people who are not only respected in their fields, but also known at pitt specifically. two of the three are actually very good friends with a few of the professors at pitt, and no doubt knowing my recommenders personally as well as professionally helped. you can compare numbers to mine, i guess, but you can get in with lower numbers or get rejected with higher ones depending upon how well you fit with your advisor and with the department overall.

i still don't know what your interests are. pitt's strengths are in atlantic history and latin american history. there are certainly grad students here working on europe, particularly on hungary and romania, but i'm not sure pitt has the same reputation for europe as it does for the other two fields.

the cohort's great. the students are helpful and inclusive, bright and interesting. it's a good group of people. the professors that i've had contact with so far are easily accessible, quite friendly, and yet hold very high expectations, which i think is what you want out of your profs. for what i do, i couldn't ask for a better group of people to work with. there's a lot of "top of their field" talent in pitt's faculty.

i also applied for and got into CMU last year. same profile as above, though the personal relationships between my reference writers and the CMU faculty wasn't as close. i "fit" a little better with their african diaspora strength there, though i would've been working with john soluri, who does bananas in honduras. john's fantastic, as is prof fields (african history). haven't had much contact with anyone at CMU outside of that, though i know they are known mostly for african american/african diaspora and working class/labour history. again, you can get in there without doing either of these fields, but when it comes time to find work at the end of grad school, it would be in your best interest to come from a school that is known for your particular field.

[misterpat]

On 10/14/2009 at 10:31 PM, mushpuddle55 said:

Ok, I just found this board tonight and now I'm panicking. I'm seeing people on here getting rejected from every school they apply to, and it like ruined my day. I have a resume that's really strong in some points and horribly weak in others. Can you guys just, I don't know, be honest and tell me what my chances are? I go to a top 50 uni, big research school, and my cum GPA is 3.70, history upper-level GPA 3.73. I've had three internships, I've put on an exhibit, working on hosting a formal panel, member of Phi Alpha Theta (now the secretary) for two years, research trip with my school out of state. Extensive work archiving and doing oral history/conducting my own interviews. I'm writing an honors thesis right now, already did my senior thesis last year. I have 4 letters of rec; department heads, reputed professors, etc. I'm sure whatever I'll churn up for my SoP will be decent, too. HOWEVER, my writing sample is a little weak (redoing it now, kind of meh argument that I'm tweaking) and my GRE math... lol. I did ok on the verbal, got a 630 and taking again in two days with hopes of high 600/low 700, but I got a 440 in the math. Standardized tests TERRIFY me and I'm bad at math as it is sooooo yeah.

Schools I'm applying to:

WashU

Carnegie Mellon

UPitt

UC Boulder

UI Chicago

Temple

Emory

UFlorida

UT Austin

I realize that some of these are stretches... but yeah. What do you guys think?

About the only thing anyone can tell you with any degree of certainty is that your math score is awful. History admissions is a crapshoot. Your (currently unwritten) statement and (supposedly sub-par) writing sample are going to be more important than any of the other stuff you have listed.

What you SHOULD be freaking out about is your statement. It's harder to write than you seem to think ("Whatever I churn out...").

All good departments you have listed. Nothing absolutely insane though, like Columbia (I swear they get 400+ applicants), Yale or Princeton, so comfort yourself with that.

[TMP]

About the only thing anyone can tell you with any degree of certainty is that your math score is awful. History admissions is a crapshoot. Your (currently unwritten) statement and (supposedly sub-par) writing sample are going to be more important than any of the other stuff you have listed.

What you SHOULD be freaking out about is your statement. It's harder to write than you seem to think ("Whatever I churn out...").

All good departments you have listed. Nothing absolutely insane though, like Columbia (I swear they get 400+ applicants), Yale or Princeton, so comfort yourself with that.

Actually- good point. I applied with a long paper but not a thesis as my thesis was still a mess. But I thought my long paper was decent. But OH NO, I was told that they didn't find it compelling or well-written and they'd prefer to see HONORS level thesis. Damn. At that time, I was actually polishing up a chapter for my honors thesis so I said, "Fine, switch me for MA application and if you want me to submit a new SOP and perhaps a new writing sample, I'll do it." They said, "Please do." So I did.

Got in my MA programs without question despite being extraordinarily late. I'm freaking out over my MA thesis now because A) my advisor wants me to keep writing and Thus, I'm wondering if we're going to have time to polish up a chapter for writing sample in time for the first deadline...

[mushpuddle]

retook GRE;

740 verbal

510 quant

whatever ,the math still sucks but I'm not really worried AS much anymore.

[misterpat]

retook GRE;

740 verbal

510 quant

whatever ,the math still sucks but I'm not really worried AS much anymore.

Congratulations. That really is a top notch Verbal score. And don't let the people on this site worry you too much. Most components of your application are totally under your control.

[virmundi]

One more suggestion -- reach for the stars! Apply to the top programs in the field if there are any scholars there with interests matching yours, and if you can afford to do so. Your "fit" with a particular scholar really will be more important than whether or not you are Mr./Mrs. Perfect Scholar 2009.

Make sure that your writing sample and statement of purpose are stellar, and do what you can (granting that there isn't much time left before deadlines) to make sure that you have a grasp of the languages that are required in your field. In particular, if you do not currently have significant skills in your required languages -- an ability to read secondary literature at the very least -- you'll want to spend a few sentences emphasizing in your statement of purpose that you are aware of this fact and that you have a delineated plan of action in place to remedy this very very quickly. I have been told by my advisor, as well as scholars at other schools in my particular field, that typically, they are not interested in "Oh, I learned to read and speak Italian using Rosetta Stone" (using Italian as an example of course) -- they'll want to see time spent in Italy itself, or course work, or some other tangible evidence that you actually read and speak the language.

Finally -- best of luck to you!