OK, I know this question can be pretty annoying, but I'd appreciate your help, a lot. Mainly because I'm on the waiting game and terribly nervous
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Not being an official graduate yet isn't a problem, American universities routinely offer conditional acceptances to people who are still undergraduates. My main concern would be that you applied only to top schools with pretty mediocre GRE scores. This may be offset by grades, writing sample, or other work, but it may not. English programs are incredibly competitive and oversubscribed here, so I really would suggest applying to some less selective (or at least lower-profile) programs if you really want to get in somewhere and must be funded.
Hard to say. The writing sample and statement of purpose are the crux of your application in this particular field. Did you thoroughly explain your research interests in your SoP? Did your writing sample make a strong, original argument? Even if you submitted the best possible SoP and WS you were capable of, it's still pretty competitive, so anyone's chances of acceptance are low.
Oh, I forgot to say that my GPA is 3.7. As for specifications on my SoP, yes, I specified my research interests and I even mentioned members of the faculty I would like to work with. My writing sample, by the way, was a fragment of my thesis, and it's about about the role of absence in literature.
A colleague of mine just got rejected from Duke's PhD program. The acceptance rate is around 5%. He is in an MA program. His numbers are higher than yours. And still, rejected.
To put it in perspective, here are some undergrad acceptance rates:
In short, you have a better chance of getting into Harvard undergrad than landing a spot in an highly competitive English PhD program. You have a better chance of getting into CalTech or UPenn than landing a spot in most PhD English programs.
This is why many people will say that landing a spot in a PhD program is like winning the lottery. Even if your application is awesome, statistically you will be rejected.
In all honesty, I got higher on the GRE, got LORs from famous professors and a department head, and I have an MS, but I got rejected from all of those places.
It's just hard times. I wouldn't rule out less selective colleges, you should definitely apply to those as well. A friend of mine went to Trinity in Dublin and loved it so much that he stayed to do a second Masters there.
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- Ray
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To put it in perspective, here are some undergrad acceptance rates:
Cornell: 18%
U Chicago: 15.8%
Duke (undergrad): 12.6%
UPenn: 12.3%
CalTech: 12%
MIT: 9.6%
Brown: 8.7%
Princeton: 8.4%
Yale: 7.4%
Stanford: 7.1%
Columbia: 6.9%
Harvard: 6.2%
In short, you have a better chance of getting into Harvard undergrad than landing a spot in an highly competitive English PhD program. You have a better chance of getting into CalTech or UPenn than landing a spot in most PhD English programs.
This is why many people will say that landing a spot in a PhD program is like winning the lottery. Even if your application is awesome, statistically you will be rejected.
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Thank you.
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It's just hard times. I wouldn't rule out less selective colleges, you should definitely apply to those as well. A friend of mine went to Trinity in Dublin and loved it so much that he stayed to do a second Masters there.
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