<p>So I'm basically done with my applications, though I have no idea how it all turned out for me, of course. Partly for my own sake, as a kind of debriefing exercise, and partly for the benefit of anybody up-and-coming, I wanted to make a list of things I did right and things I did wrong as I applied (official past tense: hooray!). FYI: I applied in English, to 10 programs, all over the map in terms of selectivity. I made some good choices and also some major errors. Maybe if anybody else has anything to add, either in the category of thank-God-I-did-it-that-way or I-wish-to-hell-I-hadn't, they can reply and add. </p>
<p>Please note: I am not an Official Expert of any stripe...just passing on my small share of experience. Moreover, please note that several of these items are subject to disagreement: in a lot of cases, I included something on the Right list precisely because there was an argument to be made for more than one course of action and the decision was very hard: I eventually felt good about finding a way to sacrifice the good for the best. So feel free to disagree with me if you think I did the wrong thing. </p>
<p>What (I Think) I Did Right:</p>
<p>a) Very respectfully and tactfully asked major favors. For instance, I asked several people, including two very busy professors, to read (and in the case of one professor, reread), my 20-pp. writing sample. After I heard that a fourth letter could be helpful, I asked a couple of professors that I would never have ordinarily asked even though it was November already. One person I thought might write for me never even answered the email, but one person I never thought would answer turned out to be very responsive and happy to provide an extra letter. On balance, I feel like my application is much stronger because I asked for help even when it made me cringe a little.</p>
<p>b) Chose to submit Writing Sample A, in my secondary field, rather than Writing Sample B, in my primary field, because Sample A was publishable and showcased my foreign languages and specific research skills, while Sample B was not publishable. My secondary and primary field are more or less related, but this decision was still very painful. Nonetheless, I think that this hard decision positioned me much better for some of my top choice schools. Especially in fields where writing matters (English etc.), I think the writing sample should usually be a painstaking revision of a paper that was already substantially finished and almost never a new project.</p>
<p>c) Drafted my SOP and CV in October. I'm never this on top of my game: this decision was forced upon me because one of my LOR writers wanted to get the letter out of the way and asked me for the statement. Still, in general, I'm happiest about the writing that I drafted very early in the process--even if I merely took an hour in October to do the s**t version--and most frustrated with the writing that I started late, even if I spent the same amount of time on it on balance as I would have by starting early.</p>
<p>d) Sucked it up and spent money preparing and applying. I invested a lot of hard earned cash in this process, on test prep materials and on applying to ten schools. I stand by the decision to spend more or less freely: I try to be frugal in general, but I felt (and still feel) that in my case it would be penny wise and pound foolish to skimp on GRE books, multiple applications, etc.</p>
<p>e) Took practice GRE tests very early in order to figure out how much time I should plan to prepare.</p>
<p>f) Occasionally risked angering my boss at work (sorry, boss) in order to take care of my application process. I didn't do anything underhanded or unethical, but I did have to take a day off unexpectedly on more than one occasion to deal with the application process. Again, a hard choice, but I don't know where I'd be if I hadn't made it.</p>
<p>g) Thought hard about how my application would work as a whole, instead of focusing on individual pieces in isolation. Deliberately wrote my SOP in order to integrate my letters and coursework. Really tried to tell a story (as it were) in putting the whole thing together.</p>
<p>Things I Did Wrong:</p>
<p>a) Requested my transcripts in December. The registrars (I had several transcripts...long story) screwed absolutely everything up, and as a result I didn't have the information to calculate my GPA or provide my letter writers with full course lists or anything else. The reason I didn't get transcripts sent earlier was because I didn't have a finalized list of schools and I thought I needed everything sent at once. I should have requested all transcripts, first thing, to be sent to me and to the schools to which I knew I was applying, and then added as I went. So obvious in retrospect.</p>
<p>b) Failed to keep in better touch with my research supervisor after I graduated in May. I should have made it a point to stay in some kind of personal contact in order to keep the relationship live and keep up my engagement in my specialty.</p>
<p>c) Failed to get in touch with professors at most of the schools to which I was applying. Still trying to play catch up there.</p>
<p>d) Failed to read enough getting-into-grad-school books in, like, July. Seriously. I wish I had taken a day at my local megabookstore early in the summer and read everything I could find on this process. Instead, I was still learning about the process very late in the fall. I should have spent the money to get the books.</p>
<p>e) Committed to working an extremely consuming job this year. Oops. </p>
<p>I guess that if I could give some general advice on the basis of my own checkered experience, here's what I'd say. This list is basically what I wish someone had told me six months ago. A lot of it will no doubt be obvious to the more organized among you, but for me, it represents some hard-learned lessons:</p>
<p>a) Do a dry run of absolutely everything as early in the game as possible. Draft a list of schools and have your transcript(s) sent to them as soon as you possibly can. Take a <em>realistic</em> practice test of all exams you have to take: that means the PowerPrep software and the ETS version of the subject test. Make sure that you have <em>all</em> your own copies of important documents at the very beginning of the process. Draft a working SOP and CV and choose all necessary writing samples as soon as possible so that if anybody asks you to see a document at a moment's notice, you can immediately say, "Well, I can show you the current version."</p>
<p>Remember: this approach does not require you to spend any more time on the process than you would otherwise! Instead of trying to perfect your application one piece at a time, you just stumble blindly and rapidly through a draft of absolutely everything as soon as you can, as quickly as necessary, and then begin the long process of perfecting.</p>
<p>b) Always be respectful, but never ever be shy. I am often horribly, fatally shy myself. But my best decisions this fall involved forcing myself to get over my shyness, and my worst decisions involved succombing to shyness. Ask for favors. Get in touch with strange faculty. Extrovert! (No, "extrovert" it is not a verb; it is here offered as a furtive attempt at wordplay.) </p>
<p>c) Realize that applying well might mean that applying has to be your number one priority sometimes: you may have to place it above your day job if at all possible, for instance, even if it means that you have to create temporary tension. You have made the decision to become a career academic. That means your career is academia, not whatever-it-is-you-do-during-the-day. Or so I keep telling myself. Likewise, do not be penny wise and pound foolish: you are about to sacrifice at least six years of adult earning potential while a PhD candidate, which is an enormous opportunity cost, so you might as well make it worth your while and get in to the best program you possibly can. </p>
<p>d) Think about how your application will work together as a whole; remember that committee members are not trying to pass an ultimate judgment but rather trying to picture how you, as a person and a scholar, will function on a day-to-day basis on their campus. Use your own contributions, especially your writing, to integrate your application into a sensible, relatable whole.</p>
<p>e) Assume that almost all your available time will be spent polishing and beautifying, and do not imagine yourself taking on any major new projects, no matter how gloriously they might add to your record. As much as possible, rely on past, finished work at all stages of the game. Postpone any and all new endeavors (research or otherwise) until after January 1.</p>
<p>Well, those are my thoughts. Anybody else want to debrief?</p>