yannbd

I got 4.0 at the Analytical Writing and was very surprised about it ! I am a foreign student and never studied in an English-speaking country. However I am a published writer, I have a BA in philosophy at the Sorbonne, which is one of the best European universities in humanities, and I ranked in the 81th percentile at the verbal test, 88th in the quantitative, and got good Toefl results. I was quite surprised by the subject I had (about the relevance of the study of history) and I think I have done a bit 'too much', that is : I treated the subject as an academic essay. I read it happens sometimes for good philosophy students, and the Grad schools staff I got in contact with told me they wouldn't care about it at all, specially for foreign students (anyway I give them a 25 pages sample writing with which they can appreciate my ability to 'articulate complex ideas' - what 'analytical ability' stands for, according to ETS). I'd like to ask whether I should ask for a rescoring of the AW. Do you know if there is really a chance to score lower ?

Hi, My girlfriend has been offered a three-year post-doctoral fellowship in Harvard. I applied to several graduate programs in the Boston aera. However, if I'm not accepted I will join her. We would then get married. She was said that she can have a F1 visa, and that in this case I would get a F2 visa, allowing me to work and to earn at most the amount of money she gets. Can you confirm this ? It seems that it's different from what is said on this thread. We are from the EU (I don't know if this is relevant anyhow).

Has anyone heard from BU, Columbia, UMass (PhD) or Tufts (MA) ? Do they notify everyone, admitted or not ? May I have to wait untill the closure of the admissions (or of the waiting list) to have an answer if ever I'm not in ? I'm not American and I'm not familiar with the admissions process. Thanks for answering if you have information (anyway it would help me not to overstress...).