socialcomm

How did it go? It sounds like you were on the right track, so I hope it went well!

Bumping this! I'm 31. My background is in Psychology and Communications and I have almost ten years of experience in marketing communications and marketing research. Now, I'd like to return to school to study social movements. I don't consider my chances great, as I'm limited geographically to where I'm willing to apply. Currently, I'm looking at UC Riverside, UC Irvine, and USC. And yes, the CA budget situation doesn't help me either!! Good luck everyone!

If schools have them, it'll be different for each school.

Agree with fuzzy. Use the knowledge you have about their research to show how you'd be a good fit for the program.

What specific questions do people ask? Some of the areas I inquire about: -their future research (does your research align with theirs?) -how they'd describe the atmosphere of the department (is it one you'd be able to thrive in?) -how they would describe successful students in their program

Nice perspective... thanks for sharing!

Your research doesn't HAVE to lead to publication, but it makes it more impressive if it is. Or if you can present it at an industry conference. A lot of people will complete a master's program before applying to PhD programs to gain research experience.

Why did you fail and what's different now? If you can answer those questions, you should be fine.

I've been out of school for many years, so even though I applied last year and didn't get in anywhere, I just continued to work so I didn't need to address another year 'off' from school. I changed my SOP to be more research focused though.

If anything, your professional experience can show the work ethic you have. I wouldn't leave it off entirely, even if it's not entirely relevant to your future plans.

Check out the website www.ets.org. You'll find most of your answers there. Just remember if you do take the test again, the schools will get all the scores you've gotten in the past 5 years.

You have to remember it. When I took it they let me write it down on a scrap of paper when I signed out. In a couple weeks you'll get a final print out.

I'm struggling with the exact same thing, but I don't have the two paragraphs you already have! I worked full time as the sole breadwinner of my family while I went to grad school for my masters, but that isn't really anything significant. I may just concentrate on how my social experiences shaped what I want to study. I'm finding this much more difficult to write than my personal statement.

Your experiences/situation sounds a lot like mine. It's easy to get discouraged, but don't give up!

Yes, that's what was recommended!

Agree with rainy_day. If it's something you want to do for the right reasons, don't just forget it!

Do you live near your undergrad school? It might be worth it to go in and talk to your old professors about your plans for grad school -- at least get one or two recommendations from professors. Typically, it's not ideal to have only professional references. Are writing samples or work samples required for any of the programs? Make sure what ever you submit is stellar! Also... make sure you have a really good statement of purpose.

How's your statement of purpose? Letters of recommendation? If those are strong, I'd promote those areas of your application.

It sounds like you have a good plan. Hopefully today you can relax a bit. I'm taking it tomorrow as well. It's hard to step away from it. I'm just going to try to look over roots one last time. Good luck!

Will you really spend 2-3 hours a night reviewing? If you do, hitting your over-500 should be attainable. Can you pick up a workbook and start tonight? I agree that Number2 is a good site as well. ETS has a math review that might be helpful: http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menu ... f95190RCRD

Generally, it's fairly important to make contact before you apply -- so you know that you're a good fit with the research the faculty is currently doing. But like anything, it often depends on the program. One of the program admins told me that if you say you've talked to faculty, your app gets put in the special pile -- so in that case, it ends up being a good thing. But I know there's some programs that discourage prospective applications from contacting profs... so it goes both ways. When did you contact them? Months ago? Weeks? What questions did you ask them? I'm sure you'd be more likely to get a response in the Fall, but it could just be that they aren't going to respond (maybe an indication of what they're like to work with??). If it's been a couple months, a follow up wouldn't hurt.

It really depends on how the particular school treats the GRE score (do they have a cut off you need to meet?) and your other qualifications. As others said, if you have excellent SOP, recs, experience, writing sample, a low (and you can see that people define low in different ways) GRE score may not make or break your entrance into a program. Contact the schools and find out more information!

I don't see anything glaringly wrong. Just a few comments -- instead of 'hope to apply' perhaps make it a bit stronger and say I AM applying? Also, you don't ask a direct question, so perhaps state your question as a question. Also, it might just be the time of year? Good luck!

Thanks steiner!

I found this on gre.org -- are they being counted yet? NOTE: Two new question types are included in the computer-based GRE