dendy

I'm fortunate enough to know my job is really flexible and will be here for me as long as I need (academic lab) but I will be so embarrassed if I don't get in anywhere; everyone in my lab got in to grad school the first try, without even taking any years off. Another thing that worries me is if I only get into one school, and I end up thinking it's a bad fit after interviewing or I realize I'd be miserable there (never been to the east coast). I don't think 1 shitty option is much better than none.

School's are usually not very strict with LOR deadlines, as long as you got the rest of your stuff in on time. Just have him resubmit it and call the school to assuage your fears. If your recommender sent an incorrectly addressed letter to a school it will reflect poorly on him, not you. It's not really a big deal.

Oh god, I can't wait til my winter vacation--at least then I'll be visiting my family and have them to distract me. Now I just spend all my time at work refreshing my inbox and grad cafe. I have a meeting with my boss this friday and I have nothing to show her...

Dude, call her! If she agreed to help you, don't let her off the hook. This is part of her job as a professor.

Did she already agree to write the letter? If so, call her and also send emails with urgent subject lines. Don't worry about being pushy, but remain polite. If she hasn't even agreed to writing one, I guess call her and supplicate, but don't expect much.

Probably her own fantasies. And lord knows that studying french impressionism affords you the lifestyle of an impressionist!

Haha, oh moms. mom: so have you decided what you're going to major in in grad school? me: uh, I told you that's not how it works.... mom: huh?? So you're just going to decide when you get there? me: Well, I'm pretty set on neuroscience, but maybe I'll switch to comparative lit. Anything could happen in grad school. several hours later sister: mom says you're getting a phd in compartive lit??

I thought all the little math tricks in my review book (I used princeton) were completely stupid and nonsensical. Like they suggested plugging in the suggested answers or random numbers instead of actually solving algebraic equations, which ended up just confusing me and slowing down the whole process. I had more luck just falling back on the math skills I learned in class, but I guess that won't help if you don't remember them. I ended up with a 164.

How is your grad school supposed to verify that the scores on your transcript are valid? For all they know, your undergrad accepts self reported scores.

I think that's a premed thing. Everyone I know gets by on coffee and naps in the "sleeping room."

I think I have trichotillomania because I start compulsively breaking my hair when i'm stressed. My hair hasn't looked this bad since my honors thesis in undergrad D-:

Not really, and 29 is not going to be considered "old" by the admissions committee who is likely to be 60 years old+

1. No, if only 3 were required you should be ok 2. No, they know some professors are flakey, and they might think you are responsible because you made sure you would have 3. There's still a chance your fourth recommender will still submit their letter and have it accepted, schools are usually pretty forgiving on LOR deadlines.

Yeah, schools are usually pretty forgiving for letter deadlines (fellowships are not though!!!). Unfortunately this doesn't mean you can completely relax, you don't want to risk him straight up forgetting to submit any letters. It's pretty dumb that he doesn't just submit them all at once though.

A note on etiquette: don't just automatically send them a bunch of attachments; that can get really annoying. You should offer them your CV, SOP, "and anything else they would find helpful."

According to a student who participates in the admissions process at their school, some schools actually do really want you to take it, namely Stanford. Though I did get this info from someone who did their undergrad in the UK, and at a school more well know for, uh, economics.

If he offers to show you the letter then there should be no issue. In fact, it's not uncommon for recommenders to have you write the letter for them, so I wouldn't worry about something like this. Of course it is an advantage to see it--you have the opportunity to tell him what strengths he should emphasize for academia.

Wow, I had no idea that not waiving your rights called the content of your letter into question. All my apps just said my recommenders may not want to submit letters if I didn't waive. I waived them. Then one prof emailed me a copy of my letter and another offered to as well...

I ended up not emailing anyone... I asked someone in my lab for advice and she said that while it couldn't hurt, it didn't really matter because the PI would just smile at the adorableness of an applicant thinking they wanted to study one specific topic. Though I think she got her phd in biochem,, so what does she know?? Maybe she's just trying to sabotage my apps because I'm the best benchmate ever and she doesn't want me to leave, hmmmm.

don't be so self defeating. There's really no harm in asking and the administrators in charge of admissions will likely not pass on info about your mistake, even if they do not let you correct it. Give it a try!

I would definitely contact the institution and explain the issue. I doubt admitting your mistake would count against you more than them discovering it on their own, and there's a chance they'll let you submit a fixed copy.

Undergrad Institution: big state school - reasonably well respected Major(s): neurobio Minor(s): GPA in Major: 3.73 Overall GPA: 3.76 Position in Class: idk, I ended up cum laude? Type of Student: Domestic female, white as the driven snow GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 166 V: 164 W: 3.5 - pretty confident I made up for this with well written SOP B: Research Experience:1 year for undergrad thesis, 1 year as research assistant after graduation--both for neurobio, 2 papers as millionth author Awards/Honors/Recognitions: nope Pertinent Activities or Jobs: i'm a research assistant now? Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Special Bonus Points: my PI is kind of a superstar in our field and many of my POIs are her former mentees so we'll see if that helps... Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Applying to Where: all neuroscience: UCSD, UCSF, Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, UW, JHU, mebbe Duke

Hmmm, well she only got around to it because I panicked, so I wouldn't say it was for nothing haha. I think it's a good lesson for other students of chronically flakey profs--they are used to people freaking out at them for always being tardy so don't worry about offending them and just be assertive; it's your future on the line. Also next time you'll know to select a punctual mentor to save yourself from dying of stress.

Have you also been practicing using a review book? I used the general princeton one and the strategies it suggested were really useful--like the process of elimination and figuring out if you're looking for a "positive" or "negative" word. You need to learn to game the system, so to speak--but really it's just being very aware of context. I ended up with a 166 - 96% but I'm a native speaker so ymmv. And memorizing the word list is also invaluable.

A 149 verbal is ~40th percentile. A 141 Math is ~11th percentile. Those are both "bad" scores. I would expect scores like that from someone who did no studying for the test whatsoever and hasn't taken math since high school.