applying, costs, and questions
Hi guys!
I have honestly been spending quite a bit of time between flailing around and being in the dark hole of "I am not going to get in anywhere. Period.," so this place has been a great discovery!
I feel pretty behind on all of this, but there are still a few months left...
Quick background on me:
I'm an undergrad senior with a double major in political science and comparative literature. My political science GPA is 3.83, my comparative literature GPA is 3.93, and my overall GPA is in the 3.8 range. I am planning to apply for Ph.D. programs in both areas, and have a few in mind. My hopeful starting date for grad school is Fall 2011.
I have not taken the GRE but (after looking over practice tests) am relatively confident that I will do well on the Analytical Writing and Verbal Reasoning portions, but am not hopeful, even with a lot of studying, that I will do well on the Quantitative Reasoning portion.
General questions:
-> How negatively would a less-than-great Quantitative Reasoning score count against me? Are scores looked at as a whole, or individually?
-> Looking at other people's entries, it seems like a lot of people apply for 10 or so grad schools. Is this accurate? How does one person pick that many schools? (This is a mind-boggling number for me - I only applied to three for undergrad, and had issues picking that many.)
-> To go along with that, how much money is it typical to spend on applications, sending GRE scores, etc?
Specific questions:
-> I am bilingual (French and English) and have studied abroad in France. However, most comparative literature programs seem to want people who are at least trilingual.
Would it be possible for me to take a third language as well as grad classes?
Is there a chance that the rest of my application can outweigh this issue? In other words, how large of a strike is this against me? (Looking a few entries below, I'm not looking so good...)
-> I did my undergrad studies very, very quickly (in the sense that I will have just turned 21 when application deadlines roll around - I've basically been in school nonstop since high school). What kind of message do you guys think that this will send? (Will I look really dedicated, or really inexperienced and young? Both?)
Any help/advice that you guys could offer would be very, very appreciated.
Edit: Thank you guys so much! Wow. This has been very eye-opening and informative.
If I didn't reply to your comment, it's not because I didn't appreciate it - some of my responses would have contained a lot of rambling about my personal situation, and that would probably be a bit TMI.
I am going to try and keep all of your advice and information in mind, though!
I have honestly been spending quite a bit of time between flailing around and being in the dark hole of "I am not going to get in anywhere. Period.," so this place has been a great discovery!
I feel pretty behind on all of this, but there are still a few months left...
Quick background on me:
I'm an undergrad senior with a double major in political science and comparative literature. My political science GPA is 3.83, my comparative literature GPA is 3.93, and my overall GPA is in the 3.8 range. I am planning to apply for Ph.D. programs in both areas, and have a few in mind. My hopeful starting date for grad school is Fall 2011.
I have not taken the GRE but (after looking over practice tests) am relatively confident that I will do well on the Analytical Writing and Verbal Reasoning portions, but am not hopeful, even with a lot of studying, that I will do well on the Quantitative Reasoning portion.
General questions:
-> How negatively would a less-than-great Quantitative Reasoning score count against me? Are scores looked at as a whole, or individually?
-> Looking at other people's entries, it seems like a lot of people apply for 10 or so grad schools. Is this accurate? How does one person pick that many schools? (This is a mind-boggling number for me - I only applied to three for undergrad, and had issues picking that many.)
-> To go along with that, how much money is it typical to spend on applications, sending GRE scores, etc?
Specific questions:
-> I am bilingual (French and English) and have studied abroad in France. However, most comparative literature programs seem to want people who are at least trilingual.
Would it be possible for me to take a third language as well as grad classes?
Is there a chance that the rest of my application can outweigh this issue? In other words, how large of a strike is this against me? (Looking a few entries below, I'm not looking so good...)
-> I did my undergrad studies very, very quickly (in the sense that I will have just turned 21 when application deadlines roll around - I've basically been in school nonstop since high school). What kind of message do you guys think that this will send? (Will I look really dedicated, or really inexperienced and young? Both?)
Any help/advice that you guys could offer would be very, very appreciated.
Edit: Thank you guys so much! Wow. This has been very eye-opening and informative.
If I didn't reply to your comment, it's not because I didn't appreciate it - some of my responses would have contained a lot of rambling about my personal situation, and that would probably be a bit TMI.
I am going to try and keep all of your advice and information in mind, though!