Advice for a Young Grad School Applicant?

star3x8
Sat, 14 Sep 2013 15:48:29 +0000

Hey, everyone!

Basically, I want to apply for my PhD in English this fall. I’m a senior at UPenn.

Here’s where it gets muddy: I’m a transfer from a CC (4.0, honors program, published research, PTK, etc, etc). I’ve been at Penn for a year right now, and they’re having me graduate early. I’m 19 now, but I’ll be 20 when I graduate.

I would love to take a gap year because I feel that my age will work against me when I apply since I have literally no experience, but my parents are against it. I know that technically I am an adult and should make my own decisions, but they are willing to help me with grad school whereas if I decide to take a gap year, I’ll be out on my own.

I feel that the problem now is that I haven’t proven myself well enough to apply for the grad schools I want to apply to (definitely UCLA, USC, Berkeley, and UCI, but there are others that I would like to apply to, like Brown, Chapel Hill, Columbia). I was supposed to have an internship with summer, but due to family obligations and personal issues, I had to back out. I only have a 3.45 GPA here at Penn, and my official GRE scores aren’t great (which I just took last week, and came up to 157 V, 154 Q, and a 5.0 W). I’m hoping that the fact that I’ve had two jobs last semester and this semester (including one on research this semester) will help, as will a retake of the GRE.

Any thoughts, advice, or suggestions? I know that the likelihood of getting in is almost nil, but any suggestions would be nice (especially before I talk to my major advisor… I don’t want to sound like an idiot in front of her).

Thanks!