As I said in a post last week (thanks for the helpful responses!), I am applying for a bunch of assistantship positions. All of the positions have department-specific application forms with questions about why I want the position, relevant skills, etc. Each also requests a resume. Some of them ask for a cover letter, but most don't. For the ones that don't, do you think I should send one? I know in general cover letters are a definite, but I'm worried it will be a bit redundant since my answers on the application clearly address most of the stuff that usually goes in a cover letter (motivations for applying, transferrable skills, etc.). Suggestions?

Thank you so much! 

Would it be beneficial to call up certain organizations to get information about any internship opportunities that they might offer? I'm interested in looking into finding something relating to psychology and the mental health field. Also, I'm interested in anything out-of-state, particularly around the Charleston, SC region. I have been to the websites and I haven't found much. Would this be a reasonable option? Do you guys have any other tips that might be of help for internship-hunting?

At the end of the month, I am attending an open house at the university I have been accepted to. My field and program is Computer Science, PhD. We have six faculty one-on-one sessions scheduled where we select which professors we would like to have a one-on-one with. So far, I plan to ask about their research and what topics courses they will be teaching. So, I wanted to get some ideas for questions to ask. Should I (attempt to) read one (or maybe two) of each professor's research papers?

Any advice is welcome!

Thanks :)

I just opened a rejection letter from one University... But it's for the Clinical Psych PhD? I don't get it. I have no desire to do Clinical. My entire application was for the Social Psychology PhD.

The application wasn't even in until 15 Jan and I get a letter dated 3 Feb rejecting me from the wrong program?

I called the Grad Admissions Coordinator and left a very confused voicemail. I just don't know what else to do...

I mean, the Clinical aps were due 01 Dec... It must've gotten in those right? It would've been without any LORs or an SOP or a CV or or or or or or...

I honestly don't see a Grad Admission Board going through applications and making a decision in the time period of 15 Dec (when the Experimental aps were due, mine was in the day of) until 03 Feb. That's insane.

I hope it's a mistake, but seriously... just added to my day. I'm seriously sitting here going nuts... Why the hell would I apply to a clinical program when a lot of my Statement of Purpose is about how I realized I wasn't a good fit for clinical? I mean seriously??? Me as a clinician is laughable.

Is this normal?!

Hey everyone!
Are there any websites that exist out there where applicants list when they heard back from the schools they applied to and what their decision was? I remember reading a post about this a while ago but can't find it!
Thanks!
~Karrie

I was wondering if anyone had any info on the masters program at University College Falmouth for TV Production. I am trying to figure out which school would be better for me. I actually got into Bristol University and I know they have a higher reputation, but for Television Production Falmouth seems better. Any info on either school would be helpful. I haven't really been able to find too many reviews online. I am American btw.

Hello all,

I have recently finished all my applications to paleoanthropology programs and am glad to be finished! I will not go to grad school without financial assistance of some sort (TA, RA, etc) from the school...do I have to fill out FAFSA for anyone's (the grad college, the depts..) purposes other than my own?

I do not want to take out anymore loans (too many from undergrad) and have enough in savings to live off of in addition to financial support from the uni.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, is it a requirement to fill out FAFSA to get a TA position?

Thanks for your help and good luck to everyone waiting to hear back!

Hi,

I got into a grad program of my dreams but I'm losing my mind cause I dont know how i'm goign to pay for everything. I know FAFSA covers 20,500 per year. tuition and stuff would end up to be under 20,500 a year. but i need to pay up for living expenses as well. I figured out I'd need at least 6,000 more to survive.  I know graduate private student loans only cover tuition. I can't get a job because the program is full-time.

Do you guys know of a loan i can apply for that would cover student living expenses and such?

Thank you so much

Hey there, applyingtograd! Gunlord here, y'all may remember me for asking a few admissions-related questions and stuff a few months ago. I just wanted to tell all of you that I just got an email back from Yale's department of history, and they said I was admitted! I'm still waiting for their physical letter, of course, and at this point everything is touch and go, but still I'm very very happy about this. However, I have to give credit where credit is due, and you folks really deserve a lot of it! This was my first time applying to grad school and I was really stumbling around in the dark, so to speak, and if it wasn't for your guidance and how patient you folks were answering my questions, I probably would have futzed up my applications and not been able to get in at all! Thank you so much! I never would have been able to get so far without you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Hi!

I am currently applying to MA programs in History. As an undergraduate, I double-majored in History and Political Science (my schools has a joint degree option). I'm not sure how to address this in my SOP, whether or not it can help or hurt me that I was not straight history. Also, as an undergraduate, I won a few scholarships and had some publications, but they were in Political Science. Would I still be able to use these as achievements and evidence of preparation for graduate work in History? The disciplines are very closely related...would I be able to use this argument to my advantage?

I guess I'm asking if having this double major will hurt me.

Thanks so much!

Its almost 4am. I am a nervous wreck over GRE. I've studied more so this past month than the last 6 months originally intended. I dint realize this site existed but its reassuring to know Im not the only person having some kind of meltdown.

I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology this past May. I have spent this past year researching Master Programs in Counseling  which vary by departments mainly in Education or Psychology. I'm interested in Community Counseling with a preparation in LPC, so if anyones in the program your advice, concerns, and complaints are welcomed.

I cant believe a year has already gone by! Deadlines are approaching, fast! I've just started on my SoP, letter of recommendations, and lastly taking my GRE next week. Eeek. Almost all the schools require an overall gre score of 1000 - 1100. Which Im sure is easy for alot of you, but sadly, according to my practice tests I'm barely at the tipping point. Its humiliating... I dont want to bomb the score and just ruin my chances altogether. I refuse to continue working at retail, not that theres anything wrong with it, but I want to do more, thats another story which is basically alot of people's story as well.

I have 3.6 GPA, interned at the Mayors Office last summer, no research experience, volunteer work this coming february, and i want to say i have stellar recommendations if my professors arent being lazy. I can confidently make a gre score of 800 which feels embarrasingly low.

So, opinions? Am I kidding myself here? Any advice would be really helpful!  

i've been invited to visit a school. i have not yet been admitted, but the school is flying me out from spain and putting me--and other students--up in a nice hotel. and i've been flooded with emails from professors saying they were impressed by my application, etc. how many of those invited will be accepted? do i have a good chance of getting in? or, to put it better, what would i have to do to screw this up?

i am in a spanish program if that helps. i would hate to go, have fun, fall in love with the place, and then be waitlisted or denied admission.

Question:

Does anyone know how English Literature PhD admissions feel about receiving writing samples written on works in translation?

Thanks for any help!

Okay, I know this question is strange. I'm applying to a handful of programs for Fall 2010, and I'm filling out the top of the reference forms to give to my recommenders. Most ask for my name, what I'm applying for, whether I want it to be open/closed, etc. I don't want to put my social security number on the forms. I usually never put it on things I mail, if I can help it (or things that will pass through other people's hands, unless it's at a government/hospital, etc). Can I just leave it off?

Does anyone have any insight on how to write a letter of recommendation? I'm sure most of us have had one written for us, but I've been asked to write one, and I'm not sure where to begin.
For a little background:
One of my professors is applying for a teaching award (she's been nominated by the department). The application requires three letters from students. I have been her student for about a year and a half, and I've been working as her research assistant for a few months.
Any thoughts on what I should say? I think I should include the classes that I've taken with her, etc, but beyond that I'm at a bit of a loss.
I feel very strongly that she should receive the award, since she is the one who inspired me to go for my PhD in the subject. I'm just not sure how to tactfully convey that without sounding mushy.

Thanks!!!

I've searched a bit throughout this community and unless I'm completely missing this topic, I need your advice.

I'm graduating undergrad this May and have applied to MA/MS programs in Publishing Management.  I've been accepted so far to one, so I'm not worried about that, but rather my question refers to a slightly more distant goal.

I want to eventually get a PhD in Creative Writing.  I was surfing through some programs and all mention that an MA in English is highly beneficial.  My MA/MS will not be in that discipline, however my undergraduate work is. 

So the question is: How drastically are my chances diminished when applying for a PhD program in Creative Writing if my masters degree is not in English?  Is it worth it then to even apply?

One PhD program I'm thinking about applying to indicates that students in the program must past a "reading knowledge" exam in 2 different languages. Does anyone know if you're allowed to use a dictionary while taking the exam? I'm just kind of confused as to how someone is supposed to learn and master 2 different languages in a period of a couple of years as a PhD student.

Has anyone been contacted by an admissions office that wants to forward your application to another department within the same school? Any advice on what to do?

( more in here )

 I was accepted to a master's program about a week and a half ago (much earlier than I expected to hear back) and am now working on applications for assistantships at the school. It's looking like I might apply for 4 or 5 different ones... one is based in the program I was accepted to and the others are for various offices across campus. I feel highly qualified/well-matched for three of them. I just want to know - applying for 5 very different assistantships isn't going to look excessive, is it? Also, are interviews usually conducted for these positions, or does it vary? If I am offered an assistantship (fingers crossed!), how much time can I expect to have to accept/reject? I'm getting kind of concerned because I was accepted to this program so quickly, and don't even have my applications in to my other two schools in yet (doing that this week)... my anxious brain keeps conjuring up possible scenarios where this program presses me for an answer before I even know if I'm accepted to the other two programs, never mind receiving any financial assistance through them... ack! I really just know very little about how this whole assistantship/fellowship shindig works. Help?

Thank you!

So first off, thank you again for the very helpful comments on last nights post, especially given the timing of that post in regards to a bunch of apps due in today.

So expanding off of it for those who read it...are any of you sitting around waiting for decisions (especially those of us applying to humanities) and possibly spending far too much time reading The Chronicle and its forums starting to seriously question their career choice? And for those of you that have started their grad programs already and had doubts during your waiting time, did seeing a big "YES PLEASE COME TO OUR SCHOOL" put you back on the original path? Just curious. Good luck again to those waiting to see those wonderful words "application complete".

EDIT

So to add some fuel to my fire, I just read a new article that said one of the programs I applied to is on the chopping block at its university. That's the second one that might not exist or at least look very different this fall and both these programs are top 50.

Hello, I have a question for you all --- you might be able to answer this...

How would you state on your CV that you've been mentioned in a newsletter or newspaper or some sort of electronic or print letter that you have won this scholarship/award or something? And is it necessary at all to put this in the CV? Or there's no need at all?

For instance, my graduate school's newsletter mentioned the recent awards that I won and some other things that I have accomplished (like an internship etc etc) so I was wondering if this is something I should put on my CV under the subtitle of "Honorable Mentions? or something similar?

Or it's probably not worthy at all? But what if the NY Times wrote something I accomplished related to my field of expertise? Or even a book?

Does this make sense? I was thinking about this for a while.

Thanks in advance.

I realize this was a thread on Gradcafe but it might be interesting to ask here as well.

At what age will you be starting your PhD/MA? There seemed to be a lot of debate over at gradcafe about maturity level and how that factors into the experience. I'm curious about what everyone here has to say.

If accepted, which at this point is doubtful, I will be 22.

So as I'm sitting here until March waiting for decisions and spenidng WAY too much time on the Chronicle forums I've been contemplating all these new career paths (I'm currently waiting to hear back from history PhD programs). For post undergrad education, it was a tossup between a masters in history leading into law school....or PhD programs with the idea that I'd teach (I chose #2 obviously).

I tend to spend one or two weekends a month in a state or national park camping and really enjoyed the recent Ken Burns doc and this has sparked a fancy in finding a place to study the history of American conservation. so my question is....does anybody know of any programs offering masters in conservation/environmental history? Or rather, schools with a faculty member in this area that are granting masters degrees. I've found a  few and I'm finding more but I thought I'd toss it out there. Appreciate any help and good luck to all those with 2/1 deadlines!

hi! does anyone have pointers for "informal' campus visits? particularly for language programs? I have an interview coming up and am not sure what to expect.

thanks!

Someone could probably make this post every year, but from reading some things here, and from reading forum messages, blog posts, and status upgrades at The Grad Cafe, it seems a lot of people are already freaking out because they haven't heard anything. To which I say, relax! Tomorrow is the first day of February. It is entirely common for responses not to go out until mid-to-late March, and even later than that is fairly common. It is far, far too early for people to feel like something must be wrong. Also, if you're inclined to, don't assume that there is some definite message to be taken from whether you are informed early or late. Some programs send out rejections first; some send out acceptances first, some send them out together, many send them out in a confused jumble that has no rhyme or reason to it. Yes, if there is a particular program that you are interested in that you know for a fact has sent out many acceptances, that might be cause for concern. But it does happen that some acceptances are sent out much later than others, and anyway, does anyone really know for certain how many of a given program's acceptance letters have been sent out? Relax.

I don't want to appear uncaring; this is a very stressful time that we all have to deal with at one point or another. But I'm of the opinion that once you send out applications, you need to give up as much stress as you can, because you now can't change them. And even if there is a time when it is appropriate to freak out about not having heard yet, that time most certainly does not come now, before we've even hit February. Relax!

So I submitted my application last night...

And PANIC!

You can't check up on the application supplements until the app itself is submitted, and apparently NOTHING has come in!!!

I took the GRE on January 5th - pushing it, admittedly - but the report date says January 13th! What does that mean - they were sent out on the 13th? They still should have gotten to my school by now, especially considering that I'm gotten them. But the school didn't even get my December 26th scores...at least, according to the application page. Says "not received test scores" or close to that.

Also, GRRRRR. It says they've received my unofficial transcript...but it was OFFICIAL, at least according to my school. I requested that an official transcript be sent to Grad School, and I have no idea why they think it's unofficial.

And one of my professors still hasn't submitted his letter of rec.

The application is due on Monday.

Am I screwed?

at times i think this is good, then i want to scrap the whole thing. i've been working on this all week and i'm pulling my hair out. i dont know what to do.
and now im worried that im too late for apps. i talked to a director of english on monday and she said that as long as i got my app in withiin the next "couple of weeks" it should be fine for spring quarter. but then it says mid january on the admissions site. so after looking at this livejournal, i have officially freaked myself out.

does anyone think they could read this personal statement and let me know where it sucks. the prompt is to write about objectives and plans for the future... :)


( help please? )

So I randomly had this big realization on monday that I couldn't not do anything anymore, and by that I mean that i hate working two dead end jobs because I am bored. I graduated last May from Loyola University Chicago and I couldnt decide about grad school. Well last week I did and I've been working like crazy to finish my application for the spring semester to DePaul university. It is due by next week. I hope I didn't screw up too bad by waiting. or doing it randomly. fingers crossed!

Okay, I just realized I made a very, very stupid mistake with one of my schools.

This school wanted an unofficial transcript sent to the department and an official sent to the graduate school. For the last week or so the online status checker has said they're missing transcripts, but all the rest of my schools that I told my undergrad institution to send transcripts to did say they received them, so I assumed that the online system hadn't been updated.

Gave it a week, checked today, still says they're missing my transcripts. I went back and reread the correspondence I received from this school a little more closely, and I realized that on the website it didn't say what the address for the graduate school was, so I used the one on the graduate school's website to send transcripts to, but this email has a different address of where they want transcripts sent. It also says that all materials must be received by the deadline that has already passed to be considered in the pool of applicants.

I did include a sealed copy of my official transcripts in my supplemental materials to the department rather than an unofficial copy, but I'm sure that's not enough. Is it worth contacting them about, or am I just screwed at this point?


Thanks

Has anyone applied to Simmons' Library Science program? If so, how long did it take for the "pending confirmation" status to go away and just become confirmed? It's been a few days for me...Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking these boards for a while and have to say what an amazing community it is!

I've just recently received an email notifying me to come down for a PhD interview in English Lit., and I was curious as to what kind of experiences any of you (or your friends) have had with the process? What kind of questions do you think I should expect and prepare for? How long does the interview usually run?  How specific are the questions (i.e. will they be theoretical? or specific historical/area questions?) It's a weekend event and any help would be much appreciated!

I've scoured a few website, but it's all very general.  I've been largely incapable of finding anything that relates specifically to an English/Literature/Cultural Studies interview process!

Thanks again!

Hi, guys!

No longer am I panicking about the quality of my essay - I think it's acceptable - but still the deadline coming up in a few days. Will you lovely people take a look at my second draft? MA in English, Film Studies.

( Thanks a million! )

One of the schools I am applying to refers to it as a "Letter of Intent" most of the time, but occasionally also calls it a "Statement of Purpose." Googling the difference between the two didn't get me much. Mostly I'm wondering whether "Letter of Intent" means I should write it in letter format, complete with address and "to" line, or if it's still just an essay like any other SoP. Anyone know the answer?

I am writing my thank you letters to my LOR writers. Two of them have MFAs (and no phDs) and do not actually carry the title of Professor, though they teach at my undergrad university. How should I address them? Just by their full names? To me that feels too casual. But saying "Professor X" isn't accurate either.

Thanks.

Hi guys - so, I just came across this website today where a English prof gives advice to prospective applicants to grad programs

http://www.pitt.edu/~mikewest/advice.html#which

Now, he says in there something I've never heard before: that those looking to go on to the English PhD should not get their MA from programs which only grant the MA because such programs are so inferior. I'm posting the paragraph below so you can see his reasoning. As for me - I'll come right out and say it - I'm applying to and had hoped to get into Villanova's English MA program - which is just such a program (they do not offer the PhD). I'd heard their Masters programs have very good reputations, and the department says they've sent a lot of their MA students to some top PhD programs. What do you guys think? I know this guy's a professor, but it sounds sort of hokey. His own program (Pitt) itself sounds a bit unusual - I've never heard of programs where the majority of their PhD students are students from their own MA program. Sigh, this process sucks. I'd love your thoughts: I've pasted in his paragraph below:

"There are over one hundred programs granting a doctoral degree in English and scads more that like Rutgers/Camden offer only an M.A, so the first question you face is whether to apply to programs offering only the M.A. Unless there is some compelling reason like location, applying to terminal M.A. programs if your ultimate ambition is a Ph.D. is probably unwise. Why? Graduate programs limited to an M.A. are often so limited because neither the local faculty nor the local library resources are deemed capable of supporting quality doctoral work. And even M.A. programs in pretty good institutions like Georgetown, Clark University, or VPI may leave their degree holders at a disadvantage when it comes to applying elsewhere for admission to doctoral programs, for most doctoral programs have an understandable tendency to protect their own M.A's in the application process. This means that the bar is set much higher for M.A. holders applying from outside than from inside. At Pitt the disparity has sometimes been grotesque, so it has been extraordinarily difficult for students applying from outside to gain admission to our doctoral program (which is now limited to ten fully funded students per year) since so many of the places were taken by our own M.A.'s, who in their prior years here were able to acquire faculty patrons. Indeed, many outside M.A.'s recently accepted feel pressured by funding rules essentially to retake their M.A. credits here. Terminating a so-so M.A. student who is favored by a couple of faculty and wishes to proceed to the Ph.D. once enrolled in an M.A./Ph.D. program is an awkward, painful and often highly politicized process, and many graduate departments like ours do not handle it very well. For many reasons (some of them humane and quite defensible) a foot in the door is hard to dislodge, and the result is that M.A.'s applying to doctoral programs from outside may be at a striking disadvantage."

A recent post at Grad Cafe mentioned the potential effect of the current employment and economic situation and how it might affect graduate admissions this year particularly, and I was curious what folks here thought. I would agree that it could explain an increase in the number of applicants though not necessarily the quality, but who knows until the season is over? I think it is safe to say that the majority of people who frequent this and similar sites are committed to their respective disciplines and extremely serious about graduate study. So what do you all think? I'd like to believe that if you're truly good enough to get into X school/program, you'll get in this or any year, but I have to wonder if this year is different.

(Fair warning: I know that this is pure conjecture and mental masturbation. Just a point for discussion during this interminable waiting period!)

Guys, I am clueless about the FAFSA and other funding. Some questions:

-I've learned the FAFSA is in fact fairly short if you do it online. But by comparing the online form to the PDF version, I've found the questions are different. The PDF seems to mandate that I answer questions about my parents, while the online form gave me the option not to (which I took, since I'm a bazillion times poorer than them and I'm no longer their dependent)--can anyone make sense of this?

-My mom stumbled across the College Board's scholarship search online and asked me if I planned to fill out a profile on it. It looks like it costs money to do so and I haven't heard of anyone using this site since I was applying to college six years ago. If I'm applying to MA and PhD programs in the humanities, should I be further investigating this?

Thanks, all. Your help is always incredible.

HI-

I am applying to a Library and Information Science program. I have a very rough draft of my SOP and need some help deciding what kinds of things to add or change.  Any suggestions or advice will be very appreciated!


Thank you.  vkmoore.livejournal.com/

ok, so here's a problem for the more mathematically astute folks out there. i am trying to come up with a percent chance for getting into grad school. i have applied to 4 schools. lets call them ivy league (IL), awesome public school 1(APS1), aweseome public school 2(APS2), and local private school(LP). here are my (self decided) likelihoods of getting into each::

IL:: .05
APS1:: .20
APS2:: .20
LP:: .25

now, here's the two problems i have. first, i don't know how to combine these three individual percentages into one overall likelihood of getting in somewhere. my intuition is that i start with the highest percentage (LP, 25%), and then i add the other percentages somehow. . . the second problem is that these three percentages are related, in that i am competing with the same overall group (potential english grad students), and in the case of APS1 & APS2, very much the same group (potential grad students interested in theory who want to study at large public programs in the northeast).

so, i have unnecessarily complicated the issue. any ideas on where to go from here, so i can tell people what chance i think i have in getting in?

EDIT:: this is all for fun, how i constructively use my mind during my non-stimulating dayjob. i love the fantasy football league idea!

Once upon a time, I had a job I loved... a nice apartment...furniture...I took regular scuba diving vacations...my bank account had money in it...I went to nightclubs, took Ecstasy and danced on tables til dawn with glamorous people...and I gave it up to live with 5 roommates, take out $25,000 in loans, and slave for egocentric asshole professors. Why people? Why? And WHYYYY am I going back for more? I could be living in Dhaka right now with five servants, drinking cocktails with the US ambassador by my swimming pool...WHYYYYYYYYY?

Does that mean the applicant can submit the application anytime on Feb.1?  Or does that mean it has to be in the office by Feb.1 when the office staff gets there in the morning, or in other words, Jan.31?
 
I'm having a big debate about this here and would like your answers to end the dispute. Thanks in advance.

I've turned in 3 applications thus far (haven't heard from anyone yet... grrr) and have 2 more to go. My dilemma is that I just had some awesome updates to my CV:
1. A new research assistanceship
2. A fellowship to do this research
3. Acceptance to present my research at a psychological association's annual conference

Well, not to mention the end of the semester grades and a grant proposal for my research.

Wow it be bad taste to send a letter or an email to make these updates to my CV for the three applications?

If it makes a difference, they were due December 01, Jan 01, and Jan 15.

Okay, maybe some of you have had this experience before... I sent out my rec letters and transcripts to my top choice on jan 19th in the early afternoon. I paid for it to be certified so that I could know when it was delivered (ensuring that it got there). Anyway, assuming that the mail went out the following day, the 20th, I was hoping it would have gotten there by Sat at the latest as I paid for 3-day delivery. Now, here's my serious dillemma. It's now the 26th, and it has NOT arrived. Certified mail does not mean a signature is required, so I honestly don't know what's going on. These letters have to be in that office by the 1st of Feb. and I'm losing it. I've been the post office already inquiring and the man told me "oh, don't worry... it'll get there!" And I looked back and said "easy for you to say. your graduate admission doesn't ride on that being there".

So now what do I do? I didn't insure it because I honestly didn't think I needed to. But now, I'm losing it. I don't think I can get two new official transcripts as well as two more original rec letters all to the school's office in time.

What do i do at this point!?!?! (btw, I have the certified mail receipt showing that it was mailed out on the 19th to the said destination)...

 I had the perfect professor lined up to ask for an LOR for later in the year; I got an A in the class, I went to office hours frequently and he taught a topic I might be exploring in graduate school. He strongly encouraged me to apply to grad school. . .

but he was just 'let go' due to budget cuts. He left gracefully and he's now working as a consultant for some media analysis firm. 

Can I still ask him for an LOR? It KILLS me that he isn't in the department any more, because he was a terrific professor. 

Consequently, how do you figure out which professors would make a good LOR writer? I see a lot of people here saying that they took multiple classes with a professor, or they did research with a professor. Due to some funky class choices by me, the only professor I've taken two classes with is someone whose field of work is completely unrelated to my field (French Revolution and the History of Paper? no way!). I have one LOR sorted out, but how do you figure out the rest? 

Are there any reputable graduate schools with psychology programs in Europe, particularly western? I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like the study of psychology is more popular in the U.S. than it is anywhere else. Is it safe to assume that the most career opportunities in psychology will be found in the U.S.?

Also, are there any creative writing or similar type programs in Europe? France, especially, but again--western?

Thanks!!

Please, I don't deserve it for procrastinating for so long, but could anybody help me out with my SoP? It's due February 1st, and it's for a Master's of English in Film Studies. I don't feel like I am at all eloquent, and that everything I do manage to write down is a complete mess. A professor of mine from undergrad sent me a few examples of other SoPs, and of course mine aren't nearly as good. I'm almost certain that there are some unfinished thoughts and sentences in there as well, but I'm pretty much cutting/pasting the second I've gotten everything down. Also, how do in incorporate interests that I haven't even studied? And what about my internships? Should I just add on my CV at the end?

For the record, here's what the school's prompts are (1 from the Dept. of English site and the other from the application itself):

Tell why you want to earn a graduate degree in English; what your intellectual interests are; what your research interests are; whether you have any teaching experience and interest in teaching; whether there are particular faculty here with whom you would like to study. Explain your interest in the M.A. program and what special skills or experiences you may bring to it. If you have been working and wish to send a résumé please do so.

Describe your career goals and research interests, as well as your publications, work experience, and academic honors and organizations. You may also include an optional statement of your achievements, talents, background, experiences, and traits that will contribute to the enrichment or diversity of the University or community, beyond your academic credentials.

So pretty much, please look it over for me, tell me what doesn't work and what I need to fix...and tell me I'm not that badly off!

( I'm DOOMED! )

Also....the school (yes, singular) I'm applying to has an average GRE of 600V and 5.0 AW. I took the test twice, December 26th and January 5th. The first time I had a 540V and 6.0AW (WTF!). The second I had a 640V and 4.5AW. So...do schools tend to take whatever score is highest, or is it JUST the most recent. I'd much rather have the higher verbal score, but...I don't know. So confused. Quite worried.

Thank you for the advice/info!

-Taylor

How does the FAFSA work? Do I fill it out now (before I hear back about acceptances, rejections, etc)? Or do I wait until I hear and then fill it out?

When you register an LOR writer online, do they have access to / will they be able to view the content of your application (app info, SOP, etc)? Does anyone know what information (about you, the applicant) the LOR writer receives/sees when you register them online?

Hi gang. Please forgive my total ignorance about the above. I'm interested in doing a PhD program in New Zealand, because my area of research is in Polynesian migrant communities. I've written to some professors and they've been helpful and encouraging, but I don't want to betray my lack of familiarity with a research-only PhD. I'm assuming that means you just write the dissertation, and this program requires three years in residence so um...what do you do all day at the university? Meet with your adviser a lot, have seminars with the other PhD students in your department? All the other programs I've applied to are really coursework heavy, and I have no idea if my inferior American education has prepared me for the British system, which NZ uses. Anyone have any information to share?