EloiseL

Yes, you and the previous poster are right: I misjudged Duke. I only judged it by its classics department, which appears to be quite modest in size. Since I am not american, I do not know the american universities very much... All I knew is that my (american) professors adviced me to apply there. Many of my friends scoffed and laughed at me when I told them that I believed that Duke was a 'safety school' and that I was quite upset at having been refused! :p They said the very same thing as you did: Duke isn't anybody's safety school. My bad! Well, I sure hope that any of the department to which I have applied will want me. The stress is killing me!

oh darn I meant 116/120. Sorry!

Why is 26 so important? Would your previous scores not have done? Is 26 the threshold for some programme? I have scored a 26 on the speaking section too, but I never thought that it was so important... By the way, you really paid $200 per attempt, 8 times? And I was feeling weird for having done my GRE twice (Q.670, V.740, AWA5)!

Note: sorry, I meant 116/120! I did not prepare at all for this test. I was quite tired as it was during my end-of-semester rush (exams, papers to hand in, etc). I had studied for my Ancient Greek exam during 5 hours that day... So, I arrived to the test centre exhausted and unprepared. There were numerous problems at the centre (they would not accept my ID cards, since they did not figure on their "acceptable american ID card" list. I'm in Canada, we do not have State ID nor national ID here, I do not drive, so I do not own a driving license, I have never needed yet to have a passport made, so I do not own one, but my medicare card is a perfectly valid ID card, and the closest thing we Canadian have to a national ID card!). When I was finaly let in, I was almost crying. Still, I've gotten 116 out of 120. I received a perfect score in every section beside speaking. What baffles me is that, whilst I think my English is good, it is still far from perfect. I cannot compose in English as easily as in French and I feel that my knowledge of the English grammar leaves a lot to be desired. Surprisingly, I even scored higher than my boyfriend, who has been studying philosophy in English universities for 5 years or so (this angers him quite a lot!). He was not as tired nor as nervous as I was and his English is definitely better than mine. There's not way to tell it's not his mother tongue. So, this test is not very hard if you read a lot, have taken some classes in English and practice every so often. I do not think that there is much to do to prepare. One simply need to be good all over. Beside, the test is made so you do not have time to prepare yourself: you must answer fast and well. This is especially true of the speaking section.

Hello, I am quite worried since I just received a rejection letter from Duke... I was not expecting to receive news from graduate school so soon, though it is true that Duke's limit date for application was December the 15th. I am applying for graduate studies in Classics in various places: Toronto, Western, Fordham, NYU, Michigan and Notre Dame. I had picked many “safety school” (Duke, Fordham, Western, Notre Dame). Since I just got rejected from one of them, I’m very worried. Perhaps some people here can tell me if I should seriously worry about my chances of being accepted somewhere (anywhere will do, really)? About me: I come from a French Canadian university (U of Montreal). My mother tongue is French. GRE Math: 670, Verbal: 740, Analytical Writing: 5 TOEFL 116/120, perfect scores everywhere beside speaking GPA 3.6 (as figuring on my transcript). My marks have remained very constant over the years, though it is true that I have gotten some Bs in seminar-level classes. This can be easily explained by noting that these classes are mostly populated by graduate students - I was graded like them, whilst I was not as experienced as them. I certainly hope my professors mentioned that in their reference letters... I won a scholarship from my university and arrived 4th in the national (Canadian) Latin sight translation competition two years ago. My written sample has been corrected by one of my professor and read by three of them, who said it will do nicely. It’s on a technicality in Roman Law, though I would rather work on the manuscript tradition and Latin philology. My professors said it would not matter, as long as the paper is good... I hope they're right. I’m a bit unsure about my statement of purpose, as I am not a very good salesperson (though my friends say it’s fine, for what it’s worth).