Grad school grind
Fact: GRE Literature subject test is in 13 days.
Fact: I am not ready for it.
I guess I'll have to decide by the end of next week whether or not I will be taking the October GRE subject test in Literature or not. I lost 2 weeks of study time because of my whole wisdom tooth/oral surgery and the complications that came with it. So as a result, I am very behind in studying and have been cramming like crazy.
Today, I studied from 8-10PM, 11-3AM, then filled out graduate school applications till 5AM. I see a lot of this in my next two weeks, though at this point I think if I can't score at least a 630 or higher on a practice test next week, I might as well just opt out of taking the October exam and put all my hopes on November's. It's better for me to do well on an exam, than to have all my grad schools receive a shitty score from October's, then a good one from November's. :|
...I also somehow need to fit in time to go visit colleges in October while studying for November GRE and the general GRE. In November, I have to revise my writing samples, get my letters of recommendations, write my personal statements and/or personal history statements and maybe research faculties. Somewhere in there are two GRE exams. I now realize I also probably need to register myself for another October GRE exam due to UC Berkeley's application deadline.
So this is the hell I am going to be going through in the next few months:
October 10GRE Subject Test in LiteratureNovember 7GRE Subject Test in LiteratureNovember 21GRE General Test
Schools, deadlines, and requirements
InstitutionDeadlineWriting Sample LengthGREUniversity of PennsylvaniaN/A20 pages GRE; GRE LitNYUN/A (Last year: December 8)10-12 pagesGRE; GRE Lit
U C Berkeley December 820 pagesGRE; GRE Lit Duke UniversityDecember 1510-25 pagesGRECornell UniversityDecember 1515-20 pagesGRE; GRE LitColumbia UniversityDecember 1515-20 pagesGRERutgers UniversityDecember 1510-20 pagesGRE; GRE LitPrinceton UniversityDecember 3125 pagesGRE; GRE LitCUNY Graduate CenterJanuary 115 pagesGRE; GRE LitBrown UniversityJanuary 1At applicant's discretionGREYale UniversityJanuary 210-15 pagesGRE; GRE Lit
Yeah, maybe I'm a little ambitious with 6 Ivy League schools, but. Hey. Might as well aim high, right? (Note: the above schools are not listed in the order in which I want to attend, but in the order of deadlines.)
To everyone who has applied to a graduate program: Would you be willing to share some of your application experience? Specifically, how did you decide what you wrote in your personal statement? I have no idea what the hell to even put in my personal statement, and am a little lost as to what it should even look like. Of course, personal statements drastically vary across departments, but having an idea of where to even start would be helpful.
On a side note, hieronymousb is going to be coming to visit from December 17 - January 5! We are going to be nerds, do a lot of research, do some touristy stuff, and plot out a book that hopefully we will be writing in 2010. So far the idea is that it will be postmodern and will probably have Asian American intersections and deal with issues of gender, race, sexuality, class, etc. Quite a bit of an academic project of sorts, but I think it will be a very exciting project that I really look forward to.
Fact: I am not ready for it.
I guess I'll have to decide by the end of next week whether or not I will be taking the October GRE subject test in Literature or not. I lost 2 weeks of study time because of my whole wisdom tooth/oral surgery and the complications that came with it. So as a result, I am very behind in studying and have been cramming like crazy.
Today, I studied from 8-10PM, 11-3AM, then filled out graduate school applications till 5AM. I see a lot of this in my next two weeks, though at this point I think if I can't score at least a 630 or higher on a practice test next week, I might as well just opt out of taking the October exam and put all my hopes on November's. It's better for me to do well on an exam, than to have all my grad schools receive a shitty score from October's, then a good one from November's. :|
...I also somehow need to fit in time to go visit colleges in October while studying for November GRE and the general GRE. In November, I have to revise my writing samples, get my letters of recommendations, write my personal statements and/or personal history statements and maybe research faculties. Somewhere in there are two GRE exams. I now realize I also probably need to register myself for another October GRE exam due to UC Berkeley's application deadline.
So this is the hell I am going to be going through in the next few months:
October 10GRE Subject Test in LiteratureNovember 7GRE Subject Test in LiteratureNovember 21GRE General Test
Schools, deadlines, and requirements
InstitutionDeadlineWriting Sample LengthGREUniversity of PennsylvaniaN/A20 pages GRE; GRE LitNYUN/A (Last year: December 8)10-12 pagesGRE; GRE Lit
U C Berkeley December 820 pagesGRE; GRE Lit Duke UniversityDecember 1510-25 pagesGRECornell UniversityDecember 1515-20 pagesGRE; GRE LitColumbia UniversityDecember 1515-20 pagesGRERutgers UniversityDecember 1510-20 pagesGRE; GRE LitPrinceton UniversityDecember 3125 pagesGRE; GRE LitCUNY Graduate CenterJanuary 115 pagesGRE; GRE LitBrown UniversityJanuary 1At applicant's discretionGREYale UniversityJanuary 210-15 pagesGRE; GRE Lit
Yeah, maybe I'm a little ambitious with 6 Ivy League schools, but. Hey. Might as well aim high, right? (Note: the above schools are not listed in the order in which I want to attend, but in the order of deadlines.)
To everyone who has applied to a graduate program: Would you be willing to share some of your application experience? Specifically, how did you decide what you wrote in your personal statement? I have no idea what the hell to even put in my personal statement, and am a little lost as to what it should even look like. Of course, personal statements drastically vary across departments, but having an idea of where to even start would be helpful.
On a side note, hieronymousb is going to be coming to visit from December 17 - January 5! We are going to be nerds, do a lot of research, do some touristy stuff, and plot out a book that hopefully we will be writing in 2010. So far the idea is that it will be postmodern and will probably have Asian American intersections and deal with issues of gender, race, sexuality, class, etc. Quite a bit of an academic project of sorts, but I think it will be a very exciting project that I really look forward to.