zapster

What sort of preparation / background do you have - have you taken a mock test, and if so what are your scores. Unless your scores are really very low, I would recommend self-study combined with as many practice tests as you can take as the best possible option. There are plenty of full tests that accompany some of the standard GRE books, some free tests available online + some paid prep tests (e.g. Manhattan) which are really good.

Although research experience does help a lot, you can definitely get into excellent programs even without research experience as long as the rest of your application is great and your SOP / LORs can demonstrate a good understanding of what research entails / qualities that demonstrate potential for research. The best piece of advice I have received whilst applying is "to remember that they are not looking for students who have already completed a PhD, just for students who will be able to complete one (well) !"

The degree of flexibility provided to students on pursuing their specific interests - especially early in the program. Opportunities to collaborate with other departments / programs faculty wthin the University The collaborative network of the POI outside the University

Thanks. My programs are in Social Sciences. The other aspect that I forgot to mention earlier is that the more reputed school with the more reputed POI but smaller department does not offer too many other options in terms of profs. whose work interests me - i.e. good fit only with this one prof in the dept. The less reputed program with the younger prof. actually has a few other profs. with whom I also envisage a good fit of research interests - just thinking in terms of risk, in case things do not work out with my initial POI in either case.

Am normally an optimist, but one ay to evaluate such situations might be to think about worst case scenarion with either decision - what if you decide to wait a year, and (hopefully not) do not get admitted to your top choice for whatever reason, or get admitted without any funding again; vs what happens if you take up the admission now, and find it difficult to get funding even in the second year - which situation seems worse and how might you handle it? Also, in case you do not take up the offer, do you have a strong backup plan - especially one that maybe helps you save up a bit of money in case you face a funding situation the next time as well ?

Actually, many programs do not necessarily meet all accepted candidates, or even some - for example - Brown American Studies mentions in its admission FAQs that they usually do not meet with anyone at the time of application review. The truth i that this varies so much across fields, schools, departments and even individual POIs, that it is difficult to draw conclusions. One observation (based on a very small sample though), is that departments where the initial admission decision is made by individual POIs tend to interview more than when these decisions are made by an adcom. But I could be wrong.

You could send an email saying you are hoping that they consider your application positively, and ask if there is any further information you can provide.

Definitely do not put it in - I do not see any upside, the infomation will be available from your personal information supplied in the application form, and in the worst case it may even back fire (e.g. If the adcom interprets it as "I want to go to XXX University in NYC because I live in NYC", i.e. you risk trivializing your reason to apply to these schools).

Perhaps find a way to reach out to a POI - ask them if they would like some more information or another writing sample etc. If they are prioritizing between 2 or 3 students at the latter stages of their process for example, a reminder highlighting that you are still very enthusiastic about the program will not hurt.

Agree, being silent will not really help the situation. I would try to find a polite way to actually come straight to the point - i.e. when things are going off on a tangent, you may want to actually say so and steer the discussion back to what you consider relevant (without referring to any specific individual of course).

Have shortlisted 2 programs - soliciting opinions for my final decision. Both programs are very collaborative, and initial contact with professors has been excellent with very friendly and amiable discussions, and both seem to promise a fair deal of flexibility in following my specific research interests. School A: More reputed school but a small department, recently restructured program. Have a good track record of placements till a few years back, post which they were not accepting new students for a couple of years whilst restructuring the program. They do have existing cohorts, some of whom are on the job market now and seem to be doing well. Good fit in terms of research agenda, focuses more on applied work in my area of interest Very reputed, well-published and established POI with diverse interests in the field and a very large external collaborative network, known to support students well in terms of placement. Research interests / publications and existing grad student research seems to continuously build on well established ideas. Slightly better financial package with lower TA requirement School B: Decent school, not as reputed as School A. The department is large but placement track record is not as good. Excellent fit in terms of research agenda, focuses more on theoretical work in my area of interest (which I prefer to the applied work at this stage, but then I am aware that preferences may shift). Young POI, still setting up own lab, wants grad student to assist in setting up the lab, and help in defining agenda/scope of projects etc. (am really excited by this). Obviously has a smaller collaborative network, publications so far limited to specific sub-topics - however these are mostly what I would call "new ideas" in the field. Decent financial package with higher TA requirement My primary conflict is between seemingly better future prospects from school A (reputation of school and POI, POI network), vs the excitement and experience of being part of setting up a new lab with new research ideas etc. in School B (note that the program/dept. in school B is well established, in fact older and larger than in school A). Any thoughts ?

A or B - factors I would take into consideration in selecting between these are: Since B has a relatively 'loose' structure, you may in fact have more flexibility in designing your own customized research agenda and collaborative network, as long as you are confident of navigating your way around independently. Since B is not as reputed as A - how different is it really in terms of publication history, and placement record. Depending on whether your POI at B has an active and quality publication record, and a good external collaborative network such that he can provide support at the time of placement (you can perhaps speak to existing grad students on that aspect?) this may or may not be an issue.

This is quite subjective - how much less of a fit, and how highly ranked ? It is very difficult to take a decision without knowing the actual specifics, but one factor you might want to take into account is whether the better ranked school might help you get placed in a job that is far more aligned to your interests than what the lower ranked school might be able to support you with? i.e. balance the 'fit' over the next 4-6 yrs with what you might be able to do in the next 30!

A very personal opinion - I think just picking flashcards / wordlists to cram off the shelf is a very inefficient method. Whilst nothing works like reading, reading and reading over a long period - I understand that may not always be an option. So even if you want to study over a short period and specifically for the GRE verbal I suggest the following (rather than the so-called tactics that many of the books provide): Keep practicing as many complete GRE verbal tests as you can get hold of. During the tests note down any words that you do not understand - even if the word appears, for example, in a comprehension and has nothing to do with any question specifically on the test, or appears as part of the various answer choices in a text completion task, regardless of whether it is the correct answer. Post the test, look up all of these words and create your own list - keep adding to the list and reviewing it periodically. Keep knocking off words that you are comfortable with after a few days. This provides a context to the words you are learning making it easier to retain the meanings, and also provides you with constant practice of the actual GRE verbal section, and being far less monotonous. There are many online websites which help you maintain your own customized wordlists (cant recall them right now - but am sure someone will know and post!).

Whilst they might get a little annoyed, I doubt most profs would actually weaken a letter simply because you are following up on the deadline (unless of course you are calling them on their house phone 5 times in the middle of the night to remind them!). Even if busy, I think most have the maturity to understand that your following up is only natural - unless a prof has specifically asked you not to follow up, I would not worry too much. One simple method I used was to send a (very polite) reminder about 10 days or so before the deadline - specifically mentioning that I appreciate them taking time off their busy schedules, - and to let me know if they would rather not have me follow up in the future. None of my referees came back asking me not to follow up, instead a couple of them actually told me to "please follow up a couple of days in advance of each pending deadline", and that the reminders actually made it easier for them!

salty chocolate

I think the first thing to understand that final PhD admissions are relative - depend on both supply (no., quality, and relative profile of students applying) and demand (no. of professors activey looking for new grad students in that particular year, and the specific fit - for example a Professor with diverse research interests in topics A & B may already have 3 grad students workng on topic A but none on topic B - if he or she is looking for someone with specific interests in topic B, even a GPA4, GRE 99% student with published research experience in topic A may not make it, but someone with a not so good profile but demonstrated interest in topic B might). This is just one situation - you can envisage that there will be many permutations where a perfectly capable student is rejected not because their profile is unsuitable, but because of other extrinsic reasons. I hence do not think that you should not be discouraged with rejects or take them personally (cliche alert!) - you may have been rejected purely for circumstantial reasons, and a reject by say a Rank 50 program (for example) does not mean a Rank 5 program will necessarily reject you. For future applicants, my humble advice... (i) you should research the programs you want to apply to rigorously (write to professors early on to understand if they are actively looking for students, understand if their research agenda overlaps significantly with your interests so that you can highlight such overlap in your SOP, speak to grad students in these programs to see if they can help you with 'inside' knowledge on the program, study the recent publications of your POIs and also check whether they have been actively publishing as well as actively advising grad students in recent years). (ii) you cannot really predict who might or might not accept you - so apply widely (not indiscriminately - so ensure there is a good fit) (iii) if you find that your interests are only represented by a very small set of programs, study the profile of recently accepted grad students to identfy what (if any) your shortcomings might be so that you can work on strengthening these.

Thanks - that helps (not the ideal answer I was looking for , but I can now focus my efforts on external awards that are not restricted to fees).

look alike

smile face

If I have an RA/TA offer that pays / provides a remission of all fees + provides a small stipend, and I apply for an external funding / scholarship that only agrees to pay some of my fees - are schools usually open to then correspondingly (or at least in part) increasing the stipend amount or is this not normal practice ?

I think you should do a bit of research on the professors before you ask to speak to someone specific - you do not need to review all of their research in detail, just reviewing the abstracts of some of their most recent work will actually give you a very good idea (much better than what the online bio / profiles usually), and you do not need access to any research database - either the individual POI's website or any research database where the paper is available will let you view the abstact for free. After viewing these abstracts, you should be in a much better position to shortlist a few POIs that seem more relevant to your research interests, and you should be able to have an informed discussion with them as well. Although you have been accepted into the program, it always helps to create a positive impression right at the start by showing that you are aware of the research priorities of the POIs in your area.

I think most experiences change us - study, work or play - people keep evolving (or in some cases devolving!) all the time simply because life keeps throwing new experiences at us that we cannot possibly have conceived of earlier. In that sense, constantly rediscovering yourself is as 'true to oneself' as one gets - IMHO if you find that you have remained exactly what you were a long time ago, it is because you are not living life to the fullest. To answer your question - one should expect to be changed by most life experiences - grad school definitely being one of them (of course you can argue that grad school life experience has the 'life' part missing !!! ) p.s. As far as putting on 10lbs goes - I've unfortunately found out that this keeps happening all the time as well - grad school or otherwise

Yes - just email, explain that you have been encouraged by discussions with thi prof. and you believe it will be a fantastic fit etc., and hence need to add one more school to the list; show that you are aware that they will be busy and you respect their time, but you are only asking since this is so important to you and that a letter from them will be critical. As long as you come across as being appreciative of their time (and not take them for granted), I dont think they will mind submitting one mre letter - as uromastyx said, it aready written. Best of Luck !!

It often helps to do a shorthand brain dump - just points, words or even small ugly diagrams that represent what you are thinking...I often find doing this with a paper and pen rather than electronically makes the thinking process much smoother....then accumulate all the points, words and small ugly diagrams and classify them in subgroups, creating a broad outline of your paper, finally keep expanding on each point, not necessarily in the order it needs to be in the paper. This process is esecially helpful if you find that your string of thought often gets broken when you write (basically separate the thinking and writing process to some extent). I find that thinking through what I want to write - even creating actual complete sentences, paragraphs in my mind - whilst doing some physical activity, and then sitting and writing it down immediately afterwards also helps.