STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

bumblebee · Dooney & Bourke

another edumacation question

Mia · Kate Spade

Can't help you on the scores (I was a hair away from starting a post grad English Lit degree this fall) because we don't have that/those tests here, but apparently the professor recommendations are worth a LOT in English. As in, if you have kick ass recs (esp. if they are from well known/respected profs) it can really outweigh mediocre test scores.

Also, anecdotally, I have a friend who's really kind of dim and got into a very good English PhD program - if she can do it, you *definitely* can, Bumblebee, 'cos you are much smarter than her (unless your hiding some kind of serious intellectual deficit from us...hee).

bumblebee · Dooney & Bourke

thanks, mia. it's such a weird thing--i guess because it's not a very popular course of study, there's not a lot available in terms of reaserching programs and knowing how you are stacking up against other people in the field.

the thing i know for sure that i am lacking is the professorial recommendations--i graduated several years ago and don't really feel comfortable tracking down my old professors to ask them for that kind of a favor, plus i wasn't super-close with any of them anyway. so i kind of shot myself in the foot there. but if my scores are good, and i know my grades were good, maybe i would still have a chance!

esquiress · Marc Jacobs

don't have any concrete advice about the test score thing but seriously bumblebee, you shouldn't feel bad about tracking down old professors--really. they're used to it and don't mind, my dad's a prof. and he's always writing them. esp. if your grade was good in that class, they'll just look you up and write in the letter "bumblebee was in the top 5 percent of my class that semester" or whatever. so no, you may not have someone gushing over you but you seriously shouldn't feel bad tracking your old profs down. and i know that you may not think they remember you but they might surprise you and totally remember. so it's worth giving it a shot. no harm in trying right?

halleybird · Hermes

did anyone take the GRE years after college? How hard is it? I am wondering whether I need to think about a prep book, etc.

I am seriously considering an M.A./English next fall (just found a program near me that I can actually affird) but never took the GRE.

-- Edited by halleybird at 22:00, 2005-01-05

cc · Marc Jacobs

in terms of professor recommendations...aren't you in a master's program now? in psychology? why don't you get a rec from one of those professors? it doesn't matter what subject the professor teaches, as long as they have a handle on what you are like as a student. well, obviously it should be a humanities prof so they will have knowledge of your written/analytical work, so are you taking any less-sciency classes?

cc · Marc Jacobs

also, i poked around on the internet a bit and found some info on gre subject test scores. it looks like a lot of schools give average or minimum gpa and gre info.

-http://www.washjeff.edu/users/ltroost/GradSchool.html
Washington & Jefferson page about applying to grad school: Mid-rank institutions also will be looking for GRE verbal scores above 600; the top 10 or 20 schools will want scores over 700 as well as strong showings on the afternoon subject test (over 600, that is).

-http://www.english.ucsb.edu/grad/applications/application-info.asp
UCSB English Grad Program: For the Subject Test in Literature, we seek applicants whose scores fall into the 85th percentile or above. We do not use the score from the GRE Quantitative test as an important criteria of admission.

-http://english.berkeley.edu/redesign/graduate/
Berkley: There are no minimum GRE scores but those admitted score, on average, in the 700s (97%) in the Verbal test and 650 (88%) or higher in the Subject test.

bumblebee · Dooney & Bourke

thank you, cc. i can't even remember what my score was on the afternoon subject exam, but i don't even think it was 600. i am on hiatus from my psych classes now, but i could definitely go back and ask at least one of those profs for a rec--good idea.

halleybird--i didn't think the GRE/general was very hard. i took it several years post-graduation. all i did was buy a book and study (not all that much, either) and i did fine. i thought it was about the same difficulty level as the SAT, to be honest.

Mia · Kate Spade

bumblebee - Esquiress is right - there is NO problem asking profs, even years later, for recs. It is totally done. My dad is also a prof and he has students calling the house sometimes looking to track down recs a long time after they finished uni.