Grades versus Writing Samples/CV

[ExponentialDecay]

20 hours ago, GradSchoolTruther said:

In all for people attending grad school, if they are prepared. "Chance me" and "what should my paper be about" threads highlight weaknesses of some potential graduate students who don't possess the basic skills needed to find these answers on their own.

You clearly haven't read my posts, I provide valuable help. I'm trying to push potential grad students to not rely on being spoon-fed.

I take it, "fuck off to Starbucks because you're an English major trolololol" is valuable help?

You know what grinds my gears? People who think they're ~~providing a service by shitting on posters on an anonymous forum. Like, shut up. You're not here to help anyone. You're here to rant and feed your ego. Any tough love "advice" you give you do because acting mean and superior makes you feel good about yourself. If you actually wanted to help, you'd use those skills that you're punching into OP right now to figure out that nobody gives a shit about what somebody with "truther" in their name thinks about them, and put a face to your advice by mentoring students in person, joining organisations, or otherwise getting off your ass and doing something in the real world, and you'd do it with compassion, because the first rule of helping someone is not hurting them. But noooo, it's easier to sit on the throne with your pants around your ankles and diddle angry messages into the internet, and if you close your eyes, you can even feel proud for doing it!

Edited April 22, 2016 by ExponentialDecay

[GradSchoolTruther]

My retort wasn't a dig at those pursuing s career in the humanities. It was a dig at the special snowflakes like yourself.

[fuzzylogician]

This is a friendly reminder not to feed the troll. 

[CarolineNC]

On 4/21/2016 at 3:07 PM, GradSchoolTruther said:

Sometimes, a dose of reality doesn't hurt.

You're not spouting reality here, though. You're just wrong. 

[jillcicle]

On 4/12/2016 at 7:39 AM, kaiphi said:

Hi there, I'm a junior in university looking into grad programs for literary criticism (eventually).

My GPA isn't fantastic—probably horrendous considering the schools I dream of going to—but I'm working on a senior honors thesis and I was chosen to be published in a forthcoming volume of lit criticism, which apparently doesn't happen very often for undergrads.

I've also published some literary criticism through The New Inquiry.

I'm not particularly wild about going to grad school right now but since I'm in the McNair Program and have shown interest in research in the past I want to at least be eligible in case, maybe 10 years from now, I decide to go into academia forreals.

So, how much do grades matter compared to writing samples? I've read that writing samples matter more but just wanted to be sure, I guess

YMMV, but what I found out was that my idea of a "good" GPA was higher than it needed to be. Full disclosure, I finished with a 3.86, so that might be a lot higher than you're talking about. (And I hope that doesn't sound braggy - I only had two years to muck it up during since I transferred from a CC.) Anyway, I was worried that I'd be competing exclusively with 3.9 and 4.0 students in the top programs, but my adviser told me that a 3.86 is actually quite good and she would consider anything over a 3.6 to be a mark in favor on an application.

I think outside of the writing sample/grade balance, that publication is going to go a long way in making up for whatever your GPA might be. There's also the question of if you have an upward trend in GPA to offset a lower number, or if you end up with great GRE scores. Basically I wouldn't write off your application ability based on any one factor unless it's below an actual cutoff.

[silenus_thescribe]

On 4/21/2016 at 2:07 PM, GradSchoolTruther said:

Sometimes, a dose of reality doesn't hurt.

 

 

Edited April 24, 2016 by silenus_thescribe

[kaiphi]

On 4/20/2016 at 8:12 AM, GradSchoolTruther said:

Exp, I'm sure you'll have a fine career at Starbucks or Barnes and Noble.

Good to know, Will McAvoy.