Comp Lit Application Stuff

[i_zarathustra]

Ok, I've actually already submitted all this to UC Berkeley already, but I'm still tweaking it for future submissions this month and next. So anyway, let me know what you guys think!

Comments

[circumfession]

Overall, this is a strong, well-written statement. However, since you're aiming for top programs, I'll be quite hard on you (and perhaps unnecessarily so, but I'd rather err on the side of toughness

[circumfession]

continued...

4. I didn't notice this until a second-read-through, so this might not be a major issue. However...I noticed that you did not reference past work at all. While your current research ideas have legs, it might be helpful to show, or at least sketch your past, relevant research to describe that work that has been done already.

***
PS: again, I'm being picky. Forgive the crankiness...it is the end of the term, and I'm blurry-eyed with exhaustion.

"in practically anything that involved Otherness."
This statement made me cringe. I understand that you didn't mean it "that way"...but there it can be (mis?)construed as a certain fetishism of alterity...a certain "any one will do" attitude that I think you might want to avoid. It's not obvious, but possibly latent. Without going into unnecessary detail, there's a certain violence in being drawn to something *because* it is Other. Then again, maybe I'm revealing my own biases here, and your audience might not have the same reaction.

[anonymous]

re ps first. maybe it's just because i'm sensitive to class issues, but you're first paragraph is really off-putting to me. you start off by saying that you came from a working class family-- then by the end you make it look like working class people can't be smart-- like being raised working class was a burden not because of the class hierarchy but because you were surrounded by idiots-- like the only way to be smart is to be in academia--like religious people are morons--like everyone else in your family is stupid because they aren't "intellectual." if you had any professor reading this statement even slightly interested in new working class studies they would likely be as irritated as i was

[sockmonkeyjoe]

You may want to try to focus and strengthen the first paragraph of your SoP. It seems like you're just making some general statements instead of really trying to catch the reader's attention. Remember, your paper is going to be one of very many that the adcomms at Berkeley will see (I initially wrote 300+, but then I remembered you're going into Comp Lit, which works in your favor numbers wise). Drop the colloquial speech (as circumfession pointed out) there and get our attention somehow.

[sheelo81]

This is completley off topic but I find it quite uplifting to see two folks on here who drew inspiration from their time spent in Korea.

P.S. I am a huge Starcraft fan!