wsc215

Very nice list, awkwardpants. I want to add Upland and Lennie's, the two breweries in town if you're into beer. They're both excellent and also have excellent food.

The best way is to take a graduate level class as a nondegree part time student, get an A+, make sure to drop by for office hours, then ask for a recommendation.

I think your SOP is too long. I suggest taking out the part about Nintendo motivating you to go into EE. Tons of people probably did that and plus you didn't put it in a very mature way. You're repeating your CV in paragraphs 4, 5, and 6. Currently, it just says, I did A, I did B, I did C. Try this format: "I'm a good fit for this program"/"I want to do MSc in EE" because "<qualities> I gained from doing <stuff>". Specifically in paragraph 6, it's good that you do stuff outside of school but you've got to relate it back to why that makes you a good electrical engineer or a Master's candidate. I would avoid words like amazing and unforgettable, they say nothing to the admissions committee. Also, that paragraph has nothing to do with EE or grad school except the fact that it makes you a well rounded person that can work with diverse groups of people halfway around the globe. So say it! Just in a more mature way. I think you should definitely include your vision. What you want to do after graduation, be specific, make sure you research what's in and what's out, and pick a niche that jives well with your CV and also increases your chances of admission.

Hey, I'm ESL, and the first time I took the GRE I got an 155. The second time I got an 164. Depends on what you're having trouble with. For me, vocab was no problem. IMO if vocab is your problem, then it's straightforward. Just grind out a ton of words, I guess. I had trouble with the reading comprehension mostly. I ran out of time often and fell into a lot of trap questions. What I did was just grind out a ton of tests, identify the problems I missed and before reading the question itself, I'd try to categorize the answers. What they are talking about, what the claim is, etc, just broke it down. Then I went back to the question and I could clearly see what problem I missed. I really agree with Octavia's post, too, reading challenging books will help your score quite a lot. I got a 4.5 on AWA both times, doesn't matter for my field apparently.

Lots of undergrads read three research papers a week, Joey. Some read three a day. The GRE isn't really a good descriptor of your abilities IMO but it is very learnable nonetheless. You'll see your performance go up with each hour you invest into it.

I would say Manhattan, I've used Kaplan and Manhattan and Manhattan is better. I wouldn't know if it's available on Pirate Bay as I definitely did not pirate it.

I applied to one school last year, was sure I'll get in, got rejected. Applied to 8 this year, got into all of them except one, waitlisted, waiting on it. Yeah it sucks, everything from having to use your Plan B (if you don't have one, work on this, it'll help) to explaining to your friends and family, especially your recommenders. For me planning a trip away helped a lot. I went backpacking for a while and spent the time thinking about how I could improve my application, and basically restate everything I said in my SOP in a more mature way. I kept in touch with the POIs who all encouraged me to reapply. I kept reading literature in my field and wrote a lot, both in my field and just personal stuff. I would say just let your recommenders know you were rejected, what your plan for the next year is, and then when they reply, ask for feedback. Don't show weakness because even though you'll get pity points, it might count against you down the road. Let them, POIs, friends, and family know you're trying again next year and that you have a Plan B. Take more time to research your field, think about long term career possibilities to further motivate why you want to go to school. Start working on a better SOP. Also, drinking helps.

I would just to practice exams. I don't think any gimmick works, sure it's learnable, but it's contrived to make it as difficult as possible to learn. I really don't see how The Poisonwood Bible would help at all, except to relax. For me at least, doing practice exams helped more than anything else by far.

This is more blanket advice but I think you're having problems with the reviewing process. This is what I sent another guy that PMed me with the same question, hope it helps. The most important thing you can do in the way of preparation is review the practice test you just took. Don't just go through and go, okay, I got this wrong, next time I'll get it right instead! Instead, follow these three steps: 1) Identify the type and format of the problem you missed. 2) Write out on a piece of paper, in a couple sentences, why you got it wrong and what strategy you can use next time you see that type and format. Writing it out is critical because your brain needs a time out to articulate the specifics. 3) Find examples of that type and format and grind out a few problems using that strategy. See if there are subtypes (e.g. plug and chug testing might not work well for complex equations) that might warrant picking up another strategy for that problem type. Type and format of each question isn't voodoo, it's pretty set in stone and every GRE prep program classify them similarly. Write out a chart of each question type and format to see what your weaknesses are. It's not enough to just review, you have to articulate the why (you missed the problem) and the how (you can get it right next time). The good news is, Q is much more learnable than V IMO, but maybe it's because I'm ESL. Anyway, I was able to improve my Q more by studying than V. Good luck!

I did better on the actual GRE than any of my practice ones, and I took 18 of them. 164/169/4.5 Q was expected but my verbal score (didn't want to say "my V" ) was consistently 156-161 range. I used PowerPrep and Manhattan, studied 72 hours.

Yeah, just make sure you have a coherent theme IMO. If you can't motivate one coherent theme with interests, try doing it with values. E.g. you're interested in how the flow of arms as well as immigrants affect the world. Or you can tie it together under one topic, e.g. you want to research arms trade and immigration across the US-Mexico border, surely there must be an interplay between the arms trade and immigration. Might make for an interesting thesis. I feel like the post you made explaining why you have a second interest would be perfect if you took the time to polish it a little. Why did you find interesting about your partner's immigration process? Is it the same values that motivated you to investigate the arms trade? Just make sure you tie it together with an overarching theme. That way it seems like you have broad interests but you have a focused reason why you're interested in two different topics.

Quantitative is all about practice IMO. It depends on how you like to prepare for exams but I prefer cramming. Well, "cramming" is such a dirty word, I think my method is closer to "total immersion". Basically I put off studying for the GRE for two months, and one week before I took 3 GREs a day (I took 18 total that week) plus 4 hours each day. Essentially I spent all day just doing GRE stuff for six days. But it was just for a week and I ended up getting 164/169/4.5 (V/Q/W). I think there are two ways to get a high score on the GRE. One, you try to learn the test. You can spend months doing that, dissect each question type and memorize different strategies in the GRE prep books. That's what both my siblings did and I outscored them by far. Instead, I recognized that I have solid quantitative skills and that GRE math isn't much harder than SAT math... so for me, it was more about comfort, familiarity, and having confidence. I acclimated myself to the test environment over a week of cramming, so taking the test was second nature to me, and in fact I performed better on the actual test than any of my practice exams. My point is, look at the problems in the quantitative section. They are not hard questions, if you had them in homework form you would probably blaze through them. What's hard to cope with is the time pressure, the testing environment, and the emotional stress. Find a way to deal with those and you'll do fine, after all if you got into college you must have done okay in the SAT/ACT quantitative sections and GRE's isn't much more difficult.