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Scraggle18

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Everything posted by Scraggle18

  1. Thanks for the congats. :) Yes yes, I'm definitely saying yes! I am very excited. I'm visiting the campus in April! Hurray! :)
  2. I had some great news today! I was admitted to U of Rochester's PhD program!!! Fully funded!!! Hurray!!! Best of luck to all of you waiting to hear. Don't lose hope!! :):):)
  3. When I call for feedback I just call the front desk. They either (1) transfer me to the right person to ask (which is awesome), who then reads me what my file says, or they (2) give me the right person's email address, and tell me to email them, or they (3) tell me to go away. The only schools that were lame and said, "oh, we don't do that. bye" were Berkeley and Michigan. I got GREAT feedback from Emory, Columbia, and Duke. I'm waiting for a bunch of people to email me back. :) The Masters programs with late deadlines that are coming up include: (these are schools that I also am okay with moving to) SUNY Cortland in upstate New York (half hour north of Ithaca), Sacramento State, Wake Forest(?), Northwestern, St. Bonaventure U (upsate New York), and University College Cork, which is in Cork, Ireland (where I studied abroad). It was tiresome - I basically just browsed Masters websites and when I found a program with a deadline that hasn't passed yet, I wrote that name down...unless it was somewhere I just refuse to go to because of location. Heh. I was not systematic at all - I'm sure there are more out there. :) Pray for me, for U of Rochester. Its my last hope, along maybe with U of Illinois. I called all my remaining schools today, and these two sound the most promising. UC Davis said that they already sent out acceptances, and now are figuring out who to put on their "pending" list. (I'm going to post this before I accidentally delete it. My keyboard has been being weird and suddenly highlighting all the text, causing me to delete everything, gahhh!)
  4. Also, for those who (like me) have not gotten any acceptances yet and are feeling bewildered, you can try calling the schools you were rejected from and asking for feedback on your application. I did this with the first few rejections I got, and it helped to have an idea of what they thought of me - they were very positive about reapplying next year, with a fresh writing sample. That might be what I have to do! In the meantime, I do hope to get into a Masters program of some sort - there are MA programs in English with deadlines that have not passed yet. (Only a few, but hey, its better than nothing!) Hope this helps! I feel the pain too, and it definitely is a downer - but we have to get back up and keep trying. For me, it sounds like my writing sample was too specific about critiquing one single author's model, and too law article-like. Now that I reread it from a fresh perspective, I can see what they are saying. I need to make it more like literary criticism and less like a law review article, heh! Getting a Masters will help give me the background to write a more literary writing sample, I think. Chin up, everybody!
  5. Me? No! I've seen like, two acceptance phone calls on two very different dates on the various grad results sites. It looks like thay are calling people they accept as they accept them, in a trickle - one at a time? I don't really know, though. I am still waiting to hear from Brown, UPenn, UC Davis, U of Rochester, U of Illinois, and Harvard. I am hoping and praying to get in to U of Rochester! Oh, and with Columbia - remember that you can now apply to their Masters in English for no extra fee. The due date for that is April 15th. :)
  6. I applied to 14 schools, and have been rejected by 6 of them. I am still waiting to hear from the other 8 schools. Insanity! Angst! Despair! I am hoping and praying for Davis, Illiniois, and Rochester!! I'd be over the moon with joy, if I got into any of them. I'm especially hoping for Rochester, because its close to my parents. Best of luck to all of us! *hugs*
  7. That website - The Grad Cafe - is poison. What I mean is, I looked at their "results" page, where people post (anonymously) the date they received notice, what it said (accept/reject/waitlist), what school, what program, etc. Many of the schools I applied to have sent out acceptance emails....and I haven't heard from them....so I got completely freaked out, assuming I have been rejected by all of those schools. I panicked and emailed my friends who have gone through this process, asking about that website and whether it freaked them out too. So, they didn't look at the site, and they advise against consulting such sites because they will make us CRAZY. I agree...I am trying very hard not to look. My friend Karen told me that sometimes they send acceptance letters out first to those that applied early, and are still working on the more recent (closer-to-the-deadline people like me) applications/acceptances. That made me feel better. Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts. :) I think during this tough time of waiting, we all need to stay busy and do activities outside as much as possible. (away from the computer.) This is very hard for me to do, because I am so attached to my computer. But breaking away and reading outside, going for long walks, riding bikes, going skiing, etc is helping me stay calm and enjoy life. I hope this helps!! :):):) *hugs everyone*
  8. I haven't heard anything yet!! But I'm definitely starting to obsess too. I've been working on FAFSA - we have to figure out our 2006 tax stuff to fill out FAFSA, so I'm thinking about that as busy work to do in the meantime, to keep me from dwelling on what schools might accept me, etc. :):):) My friend Peter went through this process last year (applied to PhD English programs) and said he didn't hear anything until *late* March. He didn't apply to as many schools as me, but still - LATE March?? Gahh. I swear most of the schools said mid-March...didn't they?? *succumbs to obsessing*
  9. Thanks! Yes, I applied to Davis! I know Professors Alessa Johns and Joanne Feit Diehl. There are so many Davis profs that share my interests in literature and women's rights, and literature and progressive legal movements. :) Who was your favorite professor?
  10. Oh, and dmdonig -- some schools don't require the GRE Lit! Duke, Columbia, and Emory are schools that don't....did you apply there?
  11. Who knows what will happen to us. My 700 on the verbal turned out to be in the 97th percentile. That is the only good score I have to offer! My analytical writing score was 5.5, but that was only 87th percentile...and my GRE Lit and math scores were abysmal. We will just have to see what happens. I really hope that I get admitted somewhere. I applied to 14 schools. The schools are: Duke, Cornell, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, U of Michigan, U of Illinois, U of Pennsylvania, Emory, Brown, Columbia, U of Rochester, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. I really have no idea how these schools will react to my application. It is very strong, except for the GRE Lit score and the weird, patchy GRE general score of 97th percentile in verbal and 28th percentile in math. (that was a long story, lets just say I didn't answer most of the math questions...) It would be extremely petty for schools like Harvard to winnow me out immediately just because of my patchy GRE scores, but its possible that they will. Or, they could use it as a tie-breaker and eliminate me further along at the end of their comparing and choosing. I'm trying not to get my hopes up. *covers face* I just hope one of my alma maters allows me through their doors.... I wish someone who went through this process already could pop in and tell us all that its going to be okay in the end!
  12. I do feel a bit better, knowing I'm not the only one out there that was disappointed. It does seem like schools don't obsess over this score, thankfully! I guess we will find out by where we get in... I took the regular GRE finally, and freaked out and almost cancelled my score. I begrudgingly kept it, and was so surprised when I got a 700 on the verbal! It felt like every question was horrid...I'm just thankful that I have a decent regular GRE score, to make up for feeling bad about the GRE Lit. I also don't really know what my GPA is - technically I have a 3.6 at my BA granting university, Duke -- but I took courses from other places (a semester of study abroad English courses, and others too) whose grades didn't get factored into the Duke GPA...they were just "TR" on my transcript. So, the transcripts from those other schools show that I got many A's that aren't factored into my Duke GPA. So, what do schools want to know, when they ask for cumulative undergraduate GPA? One that includes the letter grades from ALL schools? I just filled out Berkeley's application on the 11th, and it was fairly maddening. (I'm doing them all at the last minute because I'm NUTS and JUST finished my final, final, final draft of my writing sample) I hope all of our hard work actually pays off, and we get into some schools! *hopes intently*
  13. Congrats on your score, Bookgov! Thats really good! I did horribly. I was in the 60's, percentile-wise, and not above 600. (though almost) For me, I just hope that schools pay more attention to the fact that I've been in law school for 3 years and working in the field of law for 1 year...so, my head was out of literature for a long time. I studied, though!! And I usually do well on these tests!!! Humph. I was pretty disappointed. :( I would have taken it again if I had known my score with enough time to schedule the December exam. I did talk to a friend at Emory who told me that people at Emory had scores similar to mine, and they won't pay *that* much attention to a lower score, if the rest of the application is fabulous. (which I *hope* they think mine is!! Hope, hope, hope!!) The other thing to remember is that some schools do not require the subject test -- Duke, Columbia, etc. That makes me feel better about the whole thing. :)
  14. Yikes! I would definitely call ETS. Did they actually return your money? If they did not actually give you any money back, I would assume you're still on for December, and the weird email was a mistake. If they did return your money, I'd be more worried...either way, definitely call ETS and ask. Did you register online? Best of luck with everything!!
  15. Well, I was surprised about the lack of questions about Old and Middle English texts -- including The Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte D'Arthur, etc. I expected more questions about these works! Maybe there will be more on the December exam, who knows?? There were more questions about theory and theorists than I expected. Several questions were either about Jacques Derrida or had him in the answer choices, so I'd brush up on him. There was a question about Edward Said and Orientalism. There were also a few questions about some "mirror" theory, that I had never heard of! I think it would be wise to look over the contemporary theories and theorists. I was rusty on them. Hmmm...there was a series of questions regarding James Baldwin and his criticism of Richard Wright's Native Son, which the Princeton Review book helped me remember and get right on the test. There was also Allen Ginsburg's Howl, which was fun to read. There was a LOT of John Donne on the test, I think. Does that help? There were, of course, things on the exam that I didn't recognize! I am terrible with questions about Shakespeare or the Bible....and there were those questions, which I am pretty sure I left blank. Heh. Let me know if I can help more! The pattern of the questions was what I expected, based on the available practice exams. Some of the passages were long, but they had 6-7 questions after them, which made it usually worth reading the passage and stabbing at those questions....Beware of the long, unrecognizable passages that have only a few questions after them - those are good to skip and go back to at the end. :) Hope this helps!! Best of luck to all. :):):)
  16. Wow, thanks for your detailed response! It helps a lot. You're absolutely right, I need to show them what makes me "unique" and memorable within this women-centered area. Its so tempting to paint myself as a "law and literature" scholar, but I have been reading articles in this area, and I know that I don't fit there. (they are obsessed with how to improve the law, using literature as a tool, and I think it doesn't focus on literature enough for me!) I need to somehow bring in my legal background, without making myself seem like a "law and literature" person.... Thanks for the input! :):):) Best of luck with applications!! Especially Cornell - it sounds like they would be a great fit for you. I need to look at those professor matchups, to see about my fit in the schools I like. :):):)
  17. Hello! Now that the GRE Lit is over, we have to buckle down and finish up all the writing for our applications. (Or, in my case, really start writing my personal statement / statement of purpose....) :eek: How is it going? At the moment, I'm puzzling over how specific our statement of purpose should be, in terms of the vision we articulate for our areas of interest in graduate school. Is it enough to say something like: I am interested in women writers and their representation of women's experiences. My background in feminist jurisprudence and legal history leads me to want to examine women writers and their works against the backdrop of their political and social climates, asking how their work relates to social changes occurring during that time. I envision myself tracing the trajectory of women's writing across many time periods, from Aphra Behn to George Eliot, to Eavan Boland and Deborah Pope. I will likely make a comparative study of imagey between literary works written by women, expanding on the ideas articulated by ____(insert literary critic here)____. Would that sound too specific? Too general? What, exactly, are they looking to hear us say about our prospective area of specialization?
  18. Hi, everyone! I survived the test, but it definitely was draining. At first, I felt horrible about it because of the questions that I didn't know the answer to- but then I thought about all the ones I *did* know, and felt better. I didn't practice pacing enough...so I didn't finish all the questions - but I did do the "several pass" method and answered all the ones I knew the answers for. I did leave a chuck of them blank -- mostly only the ones that I had no clue about. I think Princeton Review wants us to guess and answer every question, because they consider there to be a 'guessing bonus' (in that we will get some of those wild guess ones correct, outweighing the guessing penalty from the quarter points lost by the ones we got wrong), but I just went ahead on my own instincts and left the "I have no clue" ones blank. We'll have to see how that turns out, when I get my score! I feel that I did decently enough to apply with my score, knowing that the other parts of the application do matter more. Now I've got a ton to do...I still have to take the regular GRE (quickly) and get all the other parts of my applications ready. The deadlines are approaching! Is anyone else going nuts besides me? HEHE, I bet we all are, to some extent. I'm a notorious procrastinator, but I do seem to pull off feeling good about my end products.
  19. Does anyone know whether publication in university-based magazines and/or literary journals "counts" as publication worth listing? Please let me know! I've agonized over this question for a long time. What are you all doing with essays or poems/stories that were published in your undergraduate journals? Do you list them? Is this a terribly naive question? *trembles* vainamoinen, I'm getting super nervous too. I haven't worked on my SOP or writing sample, yet. And I haven't taken the regular GRE. Heh. So you seem very ready and ahead, compared to me!! :):):)
  20. Here I am, again. The discussion about emailing professors is really interesting: I do think its a case-by-case decision people have to make. Sometimes I read a prof's work and background and go rummaging in their articles, and become SO EXCITED because I feel like they are a kindred spirit. Those are the ones I, personally, tend to email. (usually in the middle of the night, sounding slightly derranged.) For this Ph.D. application process I want to try to do that sort of thing in a less spur-of-the-moment-at-five-in-the-morning way, just to make sure I don't gush anything too insane at the prof! heh. So, I've been looking over the essays I wrote during undergrad, to see if there are any potential writing sample beginning points, and to brew in my head some ideas for my SOP. I'm realizing that my area of interest is poetry written by women, and poetry / literature that is connected to social or political change. American women poets, and the Beat Movement are two areas I get really excited about. Theoretcially speaking, I'm a lush for feminist theory, critical race theory, and queer theory. I'm a little worried though, and need to do more research about the LITERARY theory side of these theoretical frameworks. I know these theories as LEGAL theories. How are they different when applied to literature? How DO you apply them to literature? Does anyone have a favorite book to start me on the process of understanding these theoretical frameworks in the context of literature? In law, when we talk about the various strands of feminist theory we discuss people like Catherine MacKinnon, Carol Gilligan, Andrea Dworkin, and others I'm not remembering at the moment. Who are the literary feminist theory star players? About the admissions process: I am terrified too. I went through this with law school, and it definitely is true that you just never know what is going to happen. I was rejected / waitlisted by many lower ranked law schools, but somehow also managed to get a good scholarship at Cornell. Law school is so numbers-based, you could at least *vaguely* predict what range of schools you might get into -- this is so much more left up to fate. How the admissions committees react to our SOPs, references, writing samples, etc will make a huge difference -- and how much emphasis they decide to give our scores, too. I'm going to apply to probably ten schools. Its insane, but it helps increase the chances of getting something good! Isn't it maddening? OH AND I HAVE A QUESTION -- Does anyone know whether publication in student-run magazines "counts" as anything worthwhile? In undergrad I had poems and papers published in lots of different campus magazines. (some of which seemed to be more selective than others) I was also published in a law school magazine, and was a member of its editorial board. Should these things be on my resume? Do campus publications "count" as real publications? Thanks for listening to my post. Best of luck to everybody!!!! :)
  21. Hello everybody!! I'm applying this year, too. Hurray! I just glanced at this forum after it was quiet for so long, and am thrilled to see it picking up again. Good luck to all!!
  22. Thanks again for your thoughts, they help a TON!! :) I think I would like to write a paper specifically for my applications too. Its good to know that writing a "law and literature" paper will put me in that subfield, such that I will want to be able to show a match-up with a professor at the school I'm applying to. I need to investigate what the contours of that area really are, because its possible that my true interests are in another area! Here is another question -- I've been fretting a bit about how my law degree will be received. This may sound silly, but I'm nervous they might be suspicious of my commitment to the program, or maybe they will think I am lazy for not sticking with the law. Or that I'm wishy-washy. Or shallow. These are probably irrational fears, and I feel silly admitting them. But I do wonder if they will see law school as an indicator of poor judgment, or something. :( I know its possible that they will look at my law degree and think it means I'm hard working, capable of graduate work, etc. And I know the rest of my application is far more important than this degree that keeps tapping me on the shoulder, saying, "what do you want to do with me? why do I exist?" I feel like if I integrate my legal knowledge into my SOP I will somehow justify the fact that I went to law school, and make sense of my overall "path." But what if I actually want to leave law behind and pursue literature without using that knowledge? I will always be able to use the skills I learned in law school, and perhaps I can make my path seem smooth by emphasizing how useful those analytical / persuasive / research / editing skills can be in a PhD program -- and then not necessarily have to paint myself as a "law and literature" person. Hmm... Did you address your business degree in your application, at all? Thanks SO MUCH for helping me think about this! You've been really inspiring to me. :D
  23. Wow, thank you, that advice helped already! I've been fretting about studying for the GRE and GRE English Lit, but there was the bubble of thought at the back of my mind that I need to also focus on the writing sample and matching my interests with the school's professors' interests. Your advice definitely helps me turn to those things. I'm a little worried about the writing sample because the ones I have are from (gulp) years ago, in undergrad. I want to articulate my interests as being cross-disciplinary, making use of some of the analytical knowledge I gained in law school...and my essays from undergrad don't talk about this stuff. I wrote plenty of essays in law school about issues that are intertwined with literary topics though. Does anyone write a new piece, specifically for admissions purposes? That might be my best bet. Thanks so much for replying! I'm sure I will have more questions. Brown is such a fabulous school, its on the top of my list from the research I have done so far!! Yeay Brown!!!! :):):) I'll post again soon!! :):):)
  24. I feel the same way! I am 25 and definitely ready to start on the Ph.D. path, toward my real dream of becoming a scholar and professor. Hurray for choosing Brown! That is one of my favorite schools, and I would be thrilled to live in Providence. You can also take courses from the fabulous Rhode Island School of Deisgn as a Brown student, I think!! I think its really important to stay as well-rounded as possible during graduate programs, for sanity and enjoyment purposes. :):D:)
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