Ohm

Being 3 rejects ahead, I'm starting to doubt that now...

Another policy would be to stop internal recommendation and special consideration for their own students...somehow I feel others loose big opportunities because of that.

I love that...also, what's lacking in today's valuation system is proper feedback. A change of policy where there can be real time interactions with evaluators after the results would be great...hell, we need to see our money's worth one way or the other!

I would reject someone instantly if they were a bad fit...and would tell them the exact reason. Not make them wait for 3 months!

We all have been posting about the hitches we faced during the admissions process...filling forums with complaints and stuff. Now, if you were to be made the 'Chief Admissions Officer' for all the students who apply to any of the programs for ALL the universities....what would you do? (you may choose to keep a certain process or you may choose to put in your own...) Call it an open forum to appeal for the change in the current system, if required

Seriously! Only after a while of writing your SOP and not looking at it do you realize how stupid/inaccurate it was! And yeah, if you have a lot of time, you can let it sit out for a while before realizing that it's gone bad

Ok, Hilarious! :D And regarding what ThePope said (God, that statement sounds so tacky!), I've heard the same thing from many others. Personally, from what I experienced last year, if you don't hear back till the first 2 weeks of March, be happy cause you're certainly not rejected. But if it goes into the end of March and then April, then be worried. The first mails that are sent out are the rejects, so don't worry. You're name is still on the 'Under Consideration' pile! The ones who already have got their admits needn't necessarily be tier-I students. They can be students whose research work EXACTLY matches that of their POI, or students who've already contacted their POI beforehand and discussed possible studentship. Others are considered after their places have been filled. Bottomline: It's not yet time to worry

Fairy godmother

When accepted, think carefully before taking the offer. If you get 2 offers - one from a top school without funding and one from a mediocre school with full funding, always take the one with funding (unless of course if you can afford it)

purple daisy

Adding to the above.... If you're applying for a PhD program, make sure you have a good thesis written and ready. Have it proof-read by your current guide - this helps mitigate any possibilities of the guide feeling that the idea has been stolen from his projects. Frame it to be crisp and short, a maximum of 2 pages Check your CV/Resume to make sure that you've got down all the details. All internships and company training should be mentioned separately and a brief of what you did should also be provided. All project work should be mentioned in Chronological order. When mentioning publications in the resume, arrange them in order of weight (first author papers/higher impact factor papers in the beginning and so on). Provide links where the reader can download the papers from, or in case they need to be purchased, attach a copy of the paper and send. Do not write stories about your personal traits in your resume. The maximum you can do is a SWOT analysis and leave it at that. A very pictorial resume also stands out, so try including charts/diagrams Research on the department and your POI before writing your SOP or contacting the prof directly. You need to show that you know their work, for which you'll have to go through the papers published by that lab/by the professor concerned. Check if the university needs you to send in hard copies of the application, and any supporting documents. Make sure you send them in before the deadline, cause some universities have the same deadline for online submission and the hard copies t reach them (maybe 5 days gap). Don't go for last-minute submission of the apps. More additions welcome.

Sorry to hear that...i survived a very similar situation this time, but thankfully had a last minute referral. I'm sure you will find someone too...every student has some prof who he/she is a favourite of Doesn't matter if he's a lecturer or a doctorate....as long as he can talk good and personally of you.

That's good news But a word of caution too...some people (like my ex-guide) are even bothered by 'gentle' reminders. I was in fact accused of being a 'customer'to him and no longer a student...and this was because I sent him ONE gentle reminder the day before the deadline. People are weird...you should know who and what you're dealing with :/

Dark chocolate!

Yeah, I did the same. While submitting the first time, I did in such a hurry I never realized there was now flow to it. The second time was way better, yet still could be improved. I hope there's not going to be third!

Hope not! It's gruelling...and everyone makes mistakes. You just have to hope that they're not bigger than your competition's

This is the second time I'm doing it

I suggest Times rankings....this one

Lot of the English PhD notifications have started....you should hear soon And yeah, I get the wait! It's REALLY terrible and only this knowledge is keeping me going for so long....masters outcomes are not expected for a REALLY long time....sometime in March and April or Feb end at the earliest for some univs.

That was an awesome addition

It's been a hell of a journey but finally I've completed all the applications and am now just waiting for the application outcomes (fingers crossed!) Meanwhile, I'd like to share what I learned in the entire process (and probably answers to most of the questions asked in this forum). I know this might be repetitive with previous posts, but I still want to do it for some reason! Applying is NOT easy work. It requires extensive research on the universities, professors, their areas of interest, your possible areas of study, etc. If you do it fast, you're doing it wrong. The more you research, the more options you find Your chances of getting into the university of your interest is purely based on your match with what the program has to offer. You may have GREAT stats, a 4 GPA, 360 (or 1600) GRE, 120 TOEFL, 20 top journal publications/conference submissions, but you still will not be selected if your area of work/interest is not a major research area in the university, be it MIT or Harvard or Cambridge or any university for that matter. The safety rule is to apply to 6-8 universities of which (say you're applying for 7) 4 should be in your grade, 2 above your grade and 1 below your grade (commonly called the 'safety' school). An example of profile evaluation can be found here. Prepare your recommendation letters WELL ahead of the application process. Discuss with possible referees and decide who will recommend you for which program. Give them their resources and to avoid all last-minute non-submissions, running around, reminding and forcing, here's a useful tip: Get signed hard copies of recommendations in a sealed envelope from the referee beforehand. This can be done as much in advance as you need. This will help in case the referee retires, changes his mind, gets too busy, or in some unlucky cases, dies Most of the schools accept paper recommendations if directly mailed to them. Also, regarding the people who recommend you, it is not necessary that they be top professors, department heads, etc. Not everyone can get to work with the top people, mad if you have great recommendations from ordinary professors, it still will work just fine. DO NOT FORCE/SIT ON PEOPLE'S HEADS. Work extensively on your SOP. Do not keep any stories or beating around the bush. Make it as direct as possible. If the question is 'What made you passionate about your area of interest' do NOT start a story from your childhood describing how you grew up playing with construction blocks, etc. etc. Give them the life-changing even if any. Just be direct and honest. It's not a creative writing competition.Have many people proof-read it before you finalize it yourself. Also, never ever read another person's or sample personal statement(s) before you have finalized yours. Their style will stick to you and you will become repetitive. Contacting possible guides in the university of interest will be of good help. Ask them for open positions in their labs/under their guidance. Make a strong impression in them in your email. Keep in touch with them. Compile all your documents and keep scanned digital copies of all in a separate folder in your computer. This will come to be highly useful when you are uploading them to the websites. Go through the application forms slowly and check every detail before submitting and payment. Check the email ids of the referees and verify if the correct, latest versions of the documents have been uploaded After you submit the form, BE PATIENT. Do NOT write to/call departments constantly asking for updates on decisions as it will irritate them and might even result in rejection of the application. Keep your referees updated regarding the decisions. Not everyone can get admitted everywhere. It's also heavily dependent on luck. So do not be upset when you get turned down by some schools despite you doing everything properly. Talk to a lot of people who've applied before. Clear all your doubts and get to know the exact process before you start. It will help in avoiding small mistakes. Be clear on what you want. If you want to get into a school only if they offer funding, then there is no point in keeping the offer without funding. You do not want to spend and regret. In the end, if nothing works out for you, take it as tough luck and proceed with life. Don't beat yourself thinking you're not worth it, cause at the end of the day, there's no one 'not worth it'

International Convention

Anyone waiting for Cambridge? Haven't seen a lot of that yet...

Thanks booksnlooks.....I do have 3 other journal pubs with 2 as first author and one as second (not really great ones but ok nonetheless) but they're not in the relevant field...hence the worry. I have mentioned it in my resume

My Undergraduate research paper just got published in IEEE Xplore and I'm the third author (out of four) in a major international conference (held in a different country). I also was the sole presenter of the same. Thing is, the fist author is my guide, justified why he should be first author by saying 'My idea, my program, etc.' So I was the second author. Then he took in 2 people under his guidance for their PhD and suddenly decided that their names should also appear in the paper. What more, he put their names before mine (making me the last author). One of the 2 professors realized that it was very unethical and backed to being the last author and I was pushed to third. I know it's great that I've presented this paper right at an undergraduate level, but I thought it was very unfair. I worked hard on the project (being the sole student working under him), put up with all his idiocies (he's the MOODIEST, highly egoistic guy and the other girl who was working with me actually ran away to a different project!) and I did do my own programming (whose results were perfect but he insisted on using his). Agreed that the idea was his, but I think that doesn't give him any right to pull in the other 2 guys, what more degrade me down to third author. Arguing with him about it would only have lost me even that position - he's that sort of a guy who thinks he and his principles are always right. So here's my question - How good is this third authorship for an undergraduate student applying to really good graduate schools? Will it just increase my publication count or will it be considered significantly to add to my research capability? P.S: I'm applying to allied fields of interest only - not the exact same as the research topic of my undergrad project, but it's in the same field (Electrical engineering, Power systems)