competitive application?

[ishouldbeworking]

hi everyone,

i juuuuust joined this site. i ran into it today between classes while trying to ease my ever present anxiety about the app process. im procrastinating a lot of work right now, so i thought i would do something relevant instead of watching another episode of criminal minds-- i don't have many episodes left!!!

i'm hoping i can get feedback from y'all: do you think i have a competitive application? am i applying to programs that are too far out of my reach?? this haunts me constantly.... i want to apply to NYU, WashU, UIUC, IU-Bloomington perhaps UT Austin... and idk maybe more, but I haven't identified those yet. i'm looking at sociocultural anthro programs largely centered around food / tourism / national narratives, focusing on Latin America (Cuba, Peru) + american cultural imperialism.  so, in the simplest way that i can, here's the bulk of my app:

(note, i am NOT coming out of college with an Anthro BA but rather a Linguistics BA)

-3 minors in Anthro / Latin American/Caribb. studies /  Russian lang. and lit.

-have been a research assistant since sophomore year to many projects (all linguistics/phonetics)

-1 (semester long) internship in LING research (assistant)

-bilingual editor (unpaid) at online art platform for latinxs to share their work

-1 (year long) museum internship on campus. researching artifacts for gallery

-have received FLAS fellowship twice to study Quechua

-will have worked (remotely) at an important R&D company based in california

-1 really really really amazing letter of rec. 2 that are also great, but one more than the other.

-3.6 ~ 3.7 GPA

-waiting to hear back from a conference to present at a panel in south america (on food aka super relevant)

-GRE is next week. thinking i'll do really well on vocab/reading areas, not so much on math.... so like, idk so much about this. deff a weaker point?

aaaaand, well, i think that's all that's really relevant. some days i feel like i have an okay chance at some places, some days im absolutely sure everyone will reject me. lol. what do you think guys?

[jujubea]

Sounds like your ducks are in a row.

What's your next step?

[ishouldbeworking]

@jujubea yay thanks! im currently working out my statements of purpose. i have a small rough draft lying around somewhere on my computer, but it's not anything substantial. im hoping on getting this written out by nov 17 because i'll be out of the country for about a week. im also thinking about what i will submit as my writing sample. definitely will be polishing that up. i suspect it will be a sociolinguistics paper.

[ThousandsHardships]

I don't think you're reaching too far, but your statement of purpose counts more than you might think it does, and sometimes is the thing that makes it or breaks it for you. It sounds like you have an idea of what you want your focus to be, which is a great thing, but also make sure to research the programs you're applying to and look at the faculty's research, read some of their publications, etc. so you can talk about it a little in your statements of purpose, which should be catered specifically to each school you're applying to. Good luck, and have a professor look over your statements and provide feedback before you submit them. They should know what you want to focus on anyway if they are going to write you a decent letter of recommendation.

Edited November 1, 2016 by ThousandsHardships

[ishouldbeworking]

@ThousandsHardships thanks for your feedback! I agree, my statements of purpose have to be very high caliber. I'm very excited about writing them, and I hope that that good energy can translate into good writing. Everyone is telling me that I should have a prof look the statement(s) over before submitting, and although I concur, I almost feel like I'm asking for so much already? IDK. Maybe when my anxiety subsides, I can find a professional pair of eyes. Actually, I emailed someone on campus who posted about grad school app consultations. This is their focus of research and work, so I hope they will email me back soon so that they can take a look at it for a small fee. Anyway, thanks again!