rhizomic
12-29-2006, 08:59 PM
A little late in the game, but was wondering if anyone could give me a little feedback on my chances in getting into some of the top Comp Lit. phd programs (Berkeley, Irvine, Yale, Chicago, Cornell).
In terms of scores and grades, I have a BA from NYU in comparative literature with minors in Mass Media and Computer Science. I have a 3.92 overall GPA, with a 4.0 in my major and all of my minors. I have taken one graduate course in Comp Lit and one in Computer Science. My GRE scores were Verbal 750 (99%), Quant 720 (75%), Writing 6.0 (96%).
I have a fairly firm basis in French (it was my national literature for my degree and I studied in Paris for a semester taking literature, film, and theory courses in French) and am currently studying German while living in Germany. I also have a basic foundation in Chinese.
I believe that my statement is fairly strong and well thought out, though I am a little concerned that I have a stronger interdisciplinary and theory emphasis than a traditional national or comparative literatures one. My writing sample is excerpted from a senior honors thesis project that I received a grant to write and presented at an in-school conference.
My concern is for my recommendations. I know that recommendations, especially in the humanities, carry a great deal of weight. I was fairly secure in mine until about a month ago, when one of my most important recommenders went MIA. As it stands, I still have enough to meet the 3 recommender minimum, but now I only have one recommendation from a comparative literature professor. I am fairly certain that this recommendation is a very positive one, since it comes from my thesis advisor, with whom I've worked for two years. My other recommendations include one glowing (but short) one from an adjunct from the French department and one from a professor in Computer Science whom I worked for as a TA my senior year. I am very concerned that the lack of that second Comparative Literature recommendation will hurt my chances, especially since it now almost looks like in my application that he is unwilling to submit a recommendation (which I am fairly certain is not the case, since he has written numerous recs for me before and they have all been very positive and detailed).
Any thoughts?
In terms of scores and grades, I have a BA from NYU in comparative literature with minors in Mass Media and Computer Science. I have a 3.92 overall GPA, with a 4.0 in my major and all of my minors. I have taken one graduate course in Comp Lit and one in Computer Science. My GRE scores were Verbal 750 (99%), Quant 720 (75%), Writing 6.0 (96%).
I have a fairly firm basis in French (it was my national literature for my degree and I studied in Paris for a semester taking literature, film, and theory courses in French) and am currently studying German while living in Germany. I also have a basic foundation in Chinese.
I believe that my statement is fairly strong and well thought out, though I am a little concerned that I have a stronger interdisciplinary and theory emphasis than a traditional national or comparative literatures one. My writing sample is excerpted from a senior honors thesis project that I received a grant to write and presented at an in-school conference.
My concern is for my recommendations. I know that recommendations, especially in the humanities, carry a great deal of weight. I was fairly secure in mine until about a month ago, when one of my most important recommenders went MIA. As it stands, I still have enough to meet the 3 recommender minimum, but now I only have one recommendation from a comparative literature professor. I am fairly certain that this recommendation is a very positive one, since it comes from my thesis advisor, with whom I've worked for two years. My other recommendations include one glowing (but short) one from an adjunct from the French department and one from a professor in Computer Science whom I worked for as a TA my senior year. I am very concerned that the lack of that second Comparative Literature recommendation will hurt my chances, especially since it now almost looks like in my application that he is unwilling to submit a recommendation (which I am fairly certain is not the case, since he has written numerous recs for me before and they have all been very positive and detailed).
Any thoughts?