What can you do to amaze Ph.D. admissions committee?

Question

Aside from high grades, what can you do during your Master's program to ensure admission to a competitve PhD program?
(Ph.D in the Humanities)

Answer 1

1) Get to know your professors, forge strong academic relationships with them, and perform well in their classes by giving well-prepared presentations, and asking informed questions. Show your passion for your field of interest! They're going to be writing your letters of recommendation, so give them something to work with.

2) Participate in the H-Net discussion lists appropriate to your area of study. On these lists, you can get a handle on current topics of discussion in your area, and make contacts.
http://www.h-net.org

3) Present papers at grad student conferences, and at the regional or national meetings of your discipline's scholarly association. Attend the national meeting even if you're not presenting. Network while you're there. Your current professors can introduce you around.

4) Publish an article in a peer-reviewed graduate student journal, or even in a professional journal in your discipline. Talk to your professors to find out which journals you should be reading regularly. Make a practice of reading the current issues of each journal relevant to your work.

5) Acquire languages at the Master's level. You'll have to pass French and German reading exams, as well as any other languages relevant to your area of specialization. Getting those languages down early, so that you can take and pass your language exams early in your PhD program, is very helpful. But more importantly, having evidence of linguistic preparation will put you ahead of some of your peers in PhD program admissions!

6) Work well with your peers. Students who are difficult to work with will make a poor impression on the professors, who, again, will be responsible for writing letters of recommendation. Being combative, pretentious, or otherwise unwilling to learn from others will affect your letters.

Advice for later:

When it comes time to apply, make sure the writing sample you submit not only displays superb writing skills, but also demonstrates facility with current theory. And in your personal statement, identify your strong preparation for a particular area of specialization, show familiarity with the particular faculty with whom you desire to work, and highlight any teaching / research / fieldwork experience you have gained at the Master's level.

Best wishes to you!

Answer 2

Precisely what has been said here before. The more you can publish in schoalrly journals the better. Also, speaking at a conference such as the MLA would help a great deal. Your writing sample is going to be one of the most influential factors of your application so I would focus as much effort as you can into that along with your Statement of Purpose.

Answer 3

Write a great thesis and publish a lot!