fishasaurus

Pachel, I've noticed that compared to social sciences and the arts, science and engineering is very straight. I would say that being a sexual minority in science is a lot harder than in other fields. I happen to be queer as well, and it's been really hard for me because I don't feel like I can be open to my peers and still be taken seriously. I have a friend who has had questions about his orientation come up in his lab (it started as a joke but then took a sinister turn), and even though he's straight, just having rumors about him being gay has been enough for his peers to completely shun and ignore him. The trick to answering these diversity statements is you need to turn it around and say how your special flavor of diversity will make the school/department a better place. One thing you can mention is there will be undergrads struggling because they are coming to terms with their minority sexual orientation, and by supporting these students as a TA and/or mentor, you will help them be better students.

I would most definitely mention it if that's the area you want to work in. One natural way to get it into your SOP is to say that you have an interest in this area, and even though your grade was low due to a death in the family at that time, you have explored those areas after finishing the class and have a solid understanding of the concepts now.

When you take the exam, you select four schools to send your scores to for free. After that, you use the website and pay to send scores. You can probably call and have scores sent, but it's easier to do it online. You have to pay the $25 no matter what.

There are two kinds of essays, and in both they are looking for your ability to reason logically and provide a cohesive argument for or against an opinion. Make sure you have an introduction and conclusion and supporting paragraphs. Organize your thoughts as best as you can (I used scratch paper for outlines and wrote some quick drafts before I started typing). Obviously don't throw in long words if they don't fit, but make sure you use excellent grammar and spelling (there is no spellchecker built into the program!). The best way to prepare is to look over example writing prompts and practice. Have somebody read through your essays and get feedback. I got a high score on analytic writing, but I'm not a grader so I may be wrong. I heard the people who score these are usually high school/college teachers trying to make a little extra money, and they get paid per essay so they don't spend a whole lot of time on them.

Eigen, thank you!! I didn't realize the school got chunks like that. Definitely makes me feel less panicked now!

They're going to shut down Fastlane, so you won't be able to submit your application. I imagine they would push back the deadline to allow submissions if the shutdown lasts beyond the current deadline.

Hi everybody, I heard that the NSF will be impacted by the government shutdown (http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2013_09_30/caredit.a1300215), and that it wouldn't be making payments during the shutdown. Does anybody know how this will impact current NSF Fellows? Will we not get paid? Sorry if my question doesn't belong here--I didn't know if I should start a new thread or not, and figured it was relevant here.

Most of the programs I applied to didn't have a length requirement on the personal statement, but the professor who told me to stick to one page is on the graduate admissions committee so I figured one page was standard in my discipline. Depending on the type of application package, a longer personal statement may be more appropriate. My familiarity is within engineering only, so things are likely to be different in psychology. It's tough fitting everything onto one page, but concise writing is a valuable skill and the statement is great practice! Especially if you're going to apply for an NSF Fellowship.

When I was preparing to write my statements, I did a ton of research. I looked up example statements online (even if they were for a different field, similar rules apply). I had applied for the NSF fellowship so I already had some text written, which made it easier to dive into personal statements. Long story short: Open up with a hook. Something that can be summed up into two sentences that kick the reader in the pants and makes them think "Wow! I want to read the rest of this!" Generally it's related to what got you interested in your field, but it can relate to anything. My first paragraph lead the reader through a quick summary of why I was interested in science and research and explained it was a lifelong passion of mine. The next two paragraphs described my research interests, the experience I earned in my undergraduate work and how it prepared me for graduate school, why I wanted to go to graduate school, and what I wanted to do after graduate school. The goal is to show that you have a plan, that you know exactly what you want and a graduate degree is what you need to get it. For all my statements, the first few paragraphs were the same, and I rewrote the last paragraph for every school. I would say why I was interested in that program, how my research interests fit into the program, which professors I could see myself working with and why. This involved doing a little bit of research each time, going through professor profiles and looking over their recent publications. Generally, this paragraph was 6 lines long, and the whole statement was never more than one page (a professor told me nobody will read over one page so don't bother going over that limit). Other advice I would give: have professors read over your statements! Preferably profs who are writing your letters of recommendation. Hopefully at least one of these profs has experience reviewing graduate applications and can give you specific pointers on what will make your application stand out.

Your limited research experience is definitely not in your favor, but having extensive TA experience, a high GPA, and great recommendation letters will make you competitive at a top 10 school (in my opinion, which may be irrelevant because engineering is different from many other disciplines). The worst thing that could happen if you do apply to top 10 schools is you don't get in and you're out the application fees. But the best that could happen outweighs that by far, and you never know until you apply.

Is there a department graduate adviser who is impartial and can give you some guidance? It seems like you should address the trust issues with your PI before they start impacting your work, and a neutral third party could help with that.

In my program (Chemical Engineering), you're admitted into the program and meet with advisers for the first month, then you fill out a form and they assign people based on their rankings and how the advisers feel about each student. Everybody officially joins a lab a month after they arrive. I've never heard of getting into a program and spending years searching for an adviser before!

Your number is fine, but make sure that the rankings vary. It's fine to apply to a bunch of top tier schools as long as you apply to a few "safety schools" as well, that you are guaranteed to get into.

They are looking at your ability to think critically and present your ideas well in a written format. They are looking for an essay, essentially, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You would want to formulate a solid argument that either supports or refutes their claim, and shows your ability to reason within a time constraint. As an example, for your deer question, you want to address the logic behind saying the deer population is decreasing due to rainfall. You would want to focus on factors directly related to rain that would affect the birth and death rate of deer, as well as factors that could be completely unrelated to the rain that could affect the population. Is their food source inaccessible due to rain? Are predators more active? Has their habitat been destroyed? Are deer unable to find mates? Did they move to a location that doesn't have heavy rain? To make a strong argument either way, you'd want to find a counter-example: one thing that could definitely affect the number of deer that would be unrelated to rain. Maybe there was a construction project in the area that made the deer leave. Maybe there was a disease outbreak. You need to show that there is a logical error in the conclusion made in the problem statement, or show that the conclusion is sound. Your snow example would not be relevant. The problem specifically mentions rain--nothing about snow. You want to be very on-topic when answering the analytic prompts.

UT Austin does not provide NSF Fellows with health insurance. In my department, all PhD students are enrolled in the staff insurance at no charge as a benefit. Unless you're an NSF Fellow, in which case you're on your own. I don't know if this is at all related to UT Austin not requiring health insurance, and I've actually never attended a university that required students to have it (I've been to three). Considering how large a school UT Austin is, I'd say that this isn't an unusual practice.