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newlyadmit13

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    2014 Fall
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    biomedical engineering

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  1. thank you all for all your comments. sorry for posting this in the wrong topic, I was not aware; it is too late out here and I have not slept for days. Sorry again.
  2. hi, I have been reading on the program requirements pages of the schools and on a lot of websites which state that ''strong'' LORs help the prospective students get in the programs. Frankly, I don't understand what ''strong'' really means. Does it mean that the professors/referees who write the letters are well-known or famous in the field, or the letters written with full of superlative adjectives? For instance, my LORs , as my profs told me, mentions that I accomplished this and that perfectly or got A in their/this and that/ classes. So, to my referees these are enough to call the letters as a 'strong lor', however, some professors in the schools that I am applying to told me that my LORs were not strong at all. I am so confused, and when I told this to my referees, they were so upset, too. They told me that they didn't know what else, or in what way they should write their LORs anymore. Maybe because my referees are not well-known? Maybe that is the reason? Please advice, I appreciate your taking the time to read and reply this. good luck in your future endeavors!
  3. Thank you Sizzle for your suggestions. I have GRE Physics score which was 950. It seems like it is above the cut-off for many schools. My Quantitative is 158 (cut-off is 150), but in my field, they put more emphasis on GRE Physics rather than Q. part. However, since I am international, they ask us to score at least 150 on Verbal and a good score on TOEFL, as well. I will follow your advice and maybe do some part-time job to save money to sit it again. Thanks. Regards.
  4. Hi, Sat GRE again with the hope of improving my scores. I did NOT study/practice Quantitative at all. I only studied Verbal, just verbal. Memorized all the vocab in many books. Guess what happened? Unofficial scores appeared on the screen right after the exam and I got 142 on Verbal. And scored exactly the same Q. score that I had scored on my first taking the exam. What should I do? what is wrong with my Verbal ? Not to even mention about that I know other languages and English is like my 3th language. Practically, I should have done it way better. But, sadly, I cannot! Could you please advise me what I should do, how I could improve my GRE Verbal score? Do you think it would destroy my application if I sent that that GRE with very low Verbal score to the schools? I don't know what to do, I also cannot afford to pay 250 bucks again because I am not even sure anymore if my scores will improve or not. Thank you beforehand for your advice. I appreciated it. Best regards.
  5. Hi to everyone who contributed to this topic. I do thank you very much for all your comments and pieces of advice. This page really is one of the best pages on SOP that I have seen/read so far. At the beginning of my trying to write an SOP, I had no idea; did not even know where to start, how to start, what to write, how to write. Asking people if they had any samples to send me, googling a lot, reading school web pages a lot are just a few to show you how anxious I was and how inundated and overwhelmed I was feeling. However, after reading every sentence of yours on this forum, I can frankly state that I learned a lot. I have now finished my SOP, which is only 1 page long. Starts with ''why I am choosing that university and why it is a good fit for me'',consisted of just 6 lines in total. And then, continues with a new paragraph of 4 lines only stating ''why I love that field''. And then, continues with new 2 paragraphs of ''my focus/my past educations'' ; a paragraph for undergrad focus, and a new paragraph for grad/work focus. This way, I only wanted to show the adcom that my past experiences and projects prepared me very well for the field that I am choosing in grad school. Not to mention that I also mentioned about my non-academic work experience with 2 lines only, at the end of the last paragraph, to show them how those experiences, in return, helped me improve my character, etc. And finally comes a new paragraph of my ''future work'', explaining what I would like to do in future at that university, during PhD and after, just with 4 lines and ended with a new very little paragraph to thank them to consider my application. I did not mention about any POI names or so, because I can work with any of them. After having been doing so much reading on this topic, I agree with most of you on the fact that there is really no need to find a catchy quote from the big idea people in history or in related fields; just making it lucid and 'brief' /to the point is, I believe, the best way of all. Because, I think, regardless of how much we use cliché quotes; at the end of the day, the POIs really don't care about what Einstein said or what M.Jordan or Edison said when they failed, stood up again, and succeeded in their fields again. The POIs are looking for ''great fits'' for their research groups. The POIs are ambitious to publish amazing articles and get awards with their projects and be recognized and do great scientific work. And this is only possible if they can , somehow, recruit their research groups with those who have aligned/parallel backgrounds or research interests with them. So, in that case, I believe, they like to see those in their group whose work speak for itself rather than those whose catchy quotations speak. Therefore, I agree with the previous posts on this topic. I am thankful to you all for all your great comments and your taking the time to post your opinions on this forum. I hope we will all end up at the places we dream of. Bonne Chance ! ps: sorry for my typos.
  6. Thanks IRToni for giving your opinion. Yes, I thought about it last night, and decided to put my name at the bottom of the page after closing it with 'Sincerely'. Sometimes, as you put, they print out and read the whole file of the applicants on paper, not on computer. For that reason, I decided to title it. Thanks and bonne chance !
  7. Hello friends, Could you please advise me on these issues, if possible? I am a little bit confused about the format of my SOP as the schools that I am applying as they did not note any rule or so. Do you think it is OK to title the SOP, like ''letter of statement of purpose'', is this correct? Also, should I write my name and surname and address to the top of the page? I am also using Arial-10, is it OK? Generally people use Times Roman 12, this may sound as stupid question but really I just wanted to ask you to put your two cents in. Thanks so much beforehand.
  8. Hi fuzzylogician, I am grateful to you, thank you so much for your clear explanation and taking the time to reply my question. Thank you!
  9. Hi there, I am desperately in need of your help. During my online application, the school website asks me to upload, Resume, SOP as a pdf to their databse. But, there are also 2 separate parts to fill in, I am so confused about these 2 parts, are they SOP? If so, why do they ask to upload SOP in pdf. Are these Personal statement or writing sample? Here are the questions: 1) Briefly describe your intended plan of study or the particular subdivision of the major field in which you wish to specialize. Discuss any scholarly research, writing, or similar research that you have done or are currently pursuing. Include other information that may be helpful in evaluating your application. 2) Briefly describe any additional factors that you would like to have the admissions committee consider in evaluating your application (e.g. personal background, work experience, leadership role.) Please advise. Thank you so much.
  10. I am not Computer Science major, but if you don't want to face any confrontation due to your GRE scores (V), Purdue University Computer Science program does not ask GRE scores, just fyi.
  11. Hello, Is there anyone among you who applied/got admitted/rejected or is planning to apply to Rice University Applied Physics program? I really would like to ask several questions about the online application form....I would appreciate it so much if you returned back to me, thanks. Have a great day !
  12. Hi there, I have finally started my 2014 Fall applications. One of the schools I am applying asks a ''writing sample'', an SOP, Personal Statement letters plus Resume. I am just so confused about it all. It is too much work to do and my time is so limited. For those who have experience with 'writing sample', I appreciate your giving any of your advice/input. I have a paper published, it is not a very original work, it's research but finding different results from those who did the similar work in the literature. I am wondering whether it is a good idea to 'copy-paste' that published paper as a 'writing sample'. I also have some ideas/projects that I want to do. Besides, I worked on 2 more different projects, but the proposals do not belong to me. I am wondering how I can put it all into the writing sample. Also, that published paper is one chapter of my MS thesis, is it still a good idea to mention about other work in my thesis? Is there any cover letter for the 'writing sample'? Please advice, I appreciate all your input.
  13. Scarf in the Wind, Thanks for your suggestion. I will look at the websites you advise; though I have no idea if the vocab that I will have memorized will be on the test or not. I memorized so much vocab, but only 1 or 2 were on the test; this is my concern. Phew ! V-150 will be good for me ....As to Q increasing 157 or more, I can only state that try not to miss the easy questions, if you realize you cannot solve some 'very hard' questions, skip them and re-check the easy and medium questions, just guarantee that you did answer 27 questions correctly. I shouldn't have missed geometry questions, for instance. I am normally scoring full in geometry, however, in the exam, I don't how and why, my mind went blank and I could not remember the 'arc formula' ( So, I scored less than I expected.....I will re-take, too...I hope we will score better next time, let's cross our fingers...Good luck!
  14. Hello SportPsych30, First, congrats on your GRE; your major is not engineering, therefore your Q is still very good, I think. Wow, you really aced in Verbal, so good. Yes, I too was doing better during my practices (although I studied only for 3 weeks from scratch), yet, during the exam, I was just so inundated with the pressure or I don't know what it was, but I was stuck somehow. Yes, Q section had really ''very hard'' questions, some had too many words just to confuse, in fact, when I refreshed my mind after skipping those questions and returning back, I realized they were solvable, yet my time was not so enough. I think, I will re-take in October, as the November is full, I could not find any spot where I live. I really have to study for Verbal, and practice Q for the last time. As it's very expensive for me considering I also paid for TOEFL, and if I don't score good in that then I am gonna have to pay for IELTS....So, it's very costly, very stressful, I am just so disheartened and disappointed....Thank you for your suggestion, I will search for Kaplan Flash card and will give it a shot for the last time. Good luck in your endeavors ! Thanks again.
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