Fall 2017 Applicants

[JKL]

The GRE requirement is an odd thing. I guess it's not enough that you've finished or nearly finished your BA and perhaps have an Honors thesis and/or publication under your belt. No, you have to solve this problem: If Johnny is riding his bike without a helmet at 9 miles per hour with wind resistance at 10 knots, how many joules of energy does the Sun produce when Susan eats an apple while standing on one foot?

[poliscar]

The GRE is just a way for schools to filter out the poors. 

I'm only half-joking, really. Once you consider the cost of the test(s), the extra cost of sending scores, the money spent on prep material, etc it's pretty obscene. That and the inherent class (and racial) biases in standardized testing.

[Warelin]

The GRE is bias but it also helps to compare institutions a bit. Harvard may or may not be harder than another college's honor program. The GRE may help someone who attended a  school which may not be as known for sending students into graduate school. Overall though, it's a horrible predictor of how well a student will do during their first year of graduate school. Studies have shown that it tends to underpredict the abilities of women over the age of 25 and minority students.

At this point, I'm confused on why people in the humanities have to deal with the math section and viceversa.

[othersamantha]

1 hour ago, Warelin said:

The GRE is bias but it also helps to compare institutions a bit. Harvard may or may not be harder than another college's honor program. The GRE may help someone who attended a  school which may not be as known for sending students into graduate school. Overall though, it's a horrible predictor of how well a student will do during their first year of graduate school. Studies have shown that it tends to underpredict the abilities of women over the age of 25 and minority students.

At this point, I'm confused on why people in the humanities have to deal with the math section and viceversa.

THE MATH SECTION. The worst. I scored in the 30s (percentile), and am more or less certain that no one will care.

Edited November 29, 2016 by othersamantha

[Warelin]

13 minutes ago, othersamantha said:

THE MATH SECTION. The worst. I scored in the 30s (percentile), and am more or less certain that no one will care.

Some institutions do care though for fellowship purposes.  Buffalo requires:
"For applicants to the PhD Program only: Please note that in order to be eligible for nomination for additional fellowship support from the College of Arts and Sciences (that may accompany admission), you need to achieve an Analytic score of 4.5 or higher AND a combined score on the Verbal & Quantitative sections of the GRE of 1270, or 313 under the new GRE scoring system."

 

[waitinwishin]

What do you guys think about a 600 on the GRE Lit? I was initially alright with that result, but as time has gone on I'm worried that 68th percentile won't be enough for some of these top schools. JHU is my top choice right now, followed by Duke. I know that SOPs and writing samples are generally more important, but I did go to a prestigious undergrad and a top ranked masters program and I'm worried my scores don't reflect that...

[LouPlease]

1 minute ago, waitinwishin said:

What do you guys think about a 600 on the GRE Lit? I was initially alright with that result, but as time has gone on I'm worried that 68th percentile won't be enough for some of these top schools. JHU is my top choice right now, followed by Duke. I know that SOPs and writing samples are generally more important, but I did go to a prestigious undergrad and a top ranked masters program and I'm worried my scores don't reflect that...

I think a 600 is pretty darn good, personally.  If it makes you feel any better, I did worse and am applying to both of those schools! I thought about addressing my low score in the statement but decided that would just draw attention to it.  Also Duke does not require the subject test.  Also, also there's nothing you can do about it now so don't sweat it!  *I'm in full, "it's in the universe's hands" mode* 

[waitinwishin]

That's right, I completely spaced that Duke won't even see that! Thanks for your reply! I thought about addressing mine as well, but in the end there's no special reason I didn't do as well as I wanted to other than *the test was really hard* 

[Caien]

6 hours ago, othersamantha said:

Thanks! So in other words, do you think it would be okay to submit an excerpt with perhaps a one page addendum to add context, even if not specifically prompted to do that in the application?

That seems to be the norm, but bear in mind that we here are all applicants just like you! The only way to be sure is send a quick email to the grad admissions office at the department in question. I'd recommend doing that, if only to give yourself peace of mind.

[Caien]

Anyone else get an email from Columbia to 'encourage you to complete your application as soon as possible as our applicant pool is quite competitive'?

Ament I right in thinking they don't look at any apps until after the deadline? This is making me nervous, the deadline is the 15th and I had been planning on working on my sop for another week or so 

[Yanaka]

Wuhu, your question makes me nervous too, now!

I'm sending in my applications for UCLA and Berkeley tonight, brrrr

[silenus_thescribe]

4 hours ago, Caien said:

Anyone else get an email from Columbia to 'encourage you to complete your application as soon as possible as our applicant pool is quite competitive'?

Ament I right in thinking they don't look at any apps until after the deadline? This is making me nervous, the deadline is the 15th and I had been planning on working on my sop for another week or so 

That's really weird. This seems to suggest that they pick out favorites before the 15 December deadline, which makes the deadline disingenuous. I can't think of another reason why a school would urge applications decently before the deadline is up.  

[whodathunk]

4 hours ago, silenus_thescribe said:

That's really weird. This seems to suggest that they pick out favorites before the 15 December deadline, which makes the deadline disingenuous. I can't think of another reason why a school would urge applications decently before the deadline is up.  

I got this too! I found it disquieting but ultimately ignored it bc 1. I don't have time to panic about it 2. I don't see why in their right mind a "submit now!!!" email would make people suddenly ready to submit if they're not 3. It seemed to come from the general GSAS rather than the English department? And if they're saying the whole graduate program cycle is competitive--I mean, duh--I'm less worried.

Would love to hear others' thoughts though, this is odd!

[unræd]

11 hours ago, Caien said:

Anyone else get an email from Columbia to 'encourage you to complete your application as soon as possible as our applicant pool is quite competitive'?

Ament I right in thinking they don't look at any apps until after the deadline? This is making me nervous, the deadline is the 15th and I had been planning on working on my sop for another week or so 

Have you already paid the application fee?

If not, my guess is that it's just an attempt on their part to make sure that people who start an application finish one -- no, they don't start considering applications until after the deadline, but it's in their financial interest to make sure that every app begun is an app paid for.

[dagnabbit]

11 minutes ago, unræd said:

Have you already paid the application fee?

If not, my guess is that it's just an attempt on their part to make sure that people who start an application finish one -- no, they don't start considering applications until after the deadline, but it's in their financial interest to make sure that every app begun is an app paid for.

I'm popping in from the political science board to say that I think unræd is right - don't worry about the e-mail, they're just trying to make sure they get your app fee. I'm applying to Columbia this cycle, and I got the same e-mail, so it's certainly not related to any particular admissions committee. Still, you would think that schools would know better than to send this kind of stuff to hyper-stressed applicants during finals/app crunch time.

[eyeshadow]

@Caien I got similar one too, from Columbia, applying for the English dpt. I also got similar email from the University of Chicago. I reckoned it's just an automatic email so I ignored it. 

[Glasperlenspieler]

I've gotten emails from a number of universities encouraging me to finish my application. I think they just want to make sure they get their application fee.

[bhr]

12 hours ago, silenus_thescribe said:

That's really weird. This seems to suggest that they pick out favorites before the 15 December deadline, which makes the deadline disingenuous. I can't think of another reason why a school would urge applications decently before the deadline is up.  

This is a really stupid reaction. There is nothing disingenuous about an application deadline just because they start looking at applications early. Some of these programs have hundreds of applicants to read through, and try to respond within 30-45 days. They start reviewing materials as they come in in a lot of cases, but don't make decisions until after reviewing all the ones that meet the deadline. That's what "full consideration" means.

For what it's worth, a lot of those early reviews are just for completeness.

[Yanaka]

I don't think any reaction is stupid, but I'm new here  

So whatever the reason, it doesn't mean it's an "early consideration", right?

Edited December 1, 2016 by Yanaka

[Quickmick]

Just thinking that I don't know if I agree with the "they want the app fee" argument. Columbia, for example, has an endowment of 9.5 Billion, even if they get 12000 applicants at 85 per that adds about to about 1 million--just doesn't seem that significant. I wonder if more applicants = more rejections which increases their apparent selectivity.

Who knows, maybe they just don't want to deal with people begging for an extension and an automated email is simple to set up. Also, regarding the 'early consideration' idea...they want the best people they can find in their applicant pool...it would not be in their best interest to start making decisions until they had seen the whole pool, though they could probably begin to weed out the obviously poor applications.

[AnimeChic101!]

15 hours ago, silenus_thescribe said:

That's really weird. This seems to suggest that they pick out favorites before the 15 December deadline, which makes the deadline disingenuous. I can't think of another reason why a school would urge applications decently before the deadline is up.  

I'm applying there and I did not receive this email. 

[Yanaka]

Neither did I. Maybe they send that to people who have opened their application early on? 

[Caien]

Hmm, this is all a bit mysterious. I know its not unusual for schools to send out deadline reminder emails, it was the wording of this one the struck me as odd, as it seemed to imply that the sooner you submitted the app the better chance you would have. And the fact that not everyone got one is also a bit random.

Anyway, I was emailing them to clarify another issue on the application form, so I just asked. Will report back when they do.

[Yanaka]

Thanks Caien!

[Caien]

Three word reply from Columbia to my asking if I was right in thinking it does not matter how early before the deadline we submit our application:

'You are correct.'

So that's fairly clear.