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When practising with powerprep I ran into a question that said a square is inscribed in another square. And then they wanted to know the size of the inner square. And to be honest I don't really understand what they mean. How can a square be inscribed in another one, without them having the same size? Sadly, powerprep doesn't supply you with an explanation, so I don't know how to understand this question.

I am just wondering because I will apply to university of Maryland, college park. Though it is a different campus, maybe there are specific reasons for you to be unhappy with the program? If so, I would be interested to hear them Also, I am wondering how switching programs works. Do people at you institution support it? Will you adviser write you a LoR?

Mh, I really would suggest retaking the GRE... Your quant score is kind of low but it still could be enough. However your verbal score is horrible. I guess most schools expect at least 50% and you are at approx. 10%. I am a non native speaker too and learning some vocabulary and reading the New York Times really helps. There are good apps to study vocab - e.g. "Painless GRE". If you do not retake the GRE try to score at least good at the TOEFL. Otherwise people might think your English is not good enough for grad school. Note that many schools also expect that you score good ( often >24) at the speaking part of the TOEFL if you want to be considered for a TA position. Also note that some schools will not accept your application because you already hold a masters degree. So check before applying.

Hey All, I am retaking the GRE in two weeks. I got Q157 and V151 on my last one which seem to be too low for most CS Ph.D. programs. However, yesterday I got a mail through the ETS search service from the University of Chicago. If they approach me does that means the scores are good enough to apply there? They are not a top school but ranked not that bad (around #35). Just wondering if anybody has experience with that service. Thanks!

Same for me. I am just not a good test taker so I don't expect to get much higher. I don't apply to top (5) schools so I hope I make the cutoff and my research experience and previous projects will make up for my not-perfect GRE scores. What schools do you apply to? 164 should be good enough for most of them.

Okay thanks. I am still looking for more schools that meet my research interested but it is not that easy...

Checking back into this thread after some time. I will retake the GRE in 2 weeks. Did a powerprep sampletest some days ago and scored V157/Q160, even though I felt like I could have done much better on the Quant part I am still happy: this would have been an improvement of 8 points Assuming that I will have similar (hopefully Quant will be better, got higher scores on previous practice tests: but maybe I'll loose some points to anxiety) scores in the real test. What kind of schools should/can I apply to? Also, nobody talks about the AW score. Does it matter at all for CS? I contacted a professor from Cornell some weeks ago and he looked at my CV and said "I highly encourage you to apply". However, he doesn't know my GRE scores nor my GPA (which is around 3.7 converted). Can I assume that work/research experience is much more important that GRE? I do have both research experience and also work experience. My plan is to apply to the following schools (likeliness of acceptance in my opinion in ascending order): Cornell, UIUC UPenn, Georgia Tech UMass, UNC I know Cornell and UIUC will most likely reject me but do you think that I have a chance with any of these schools?

Do you know if the essays from this site are any good: http://www.testpreppractice.net/GRE/awa-samples/gre-awa-essay-samples.html

So, you are already in a MS/PhD program? Why do you want to switch?

Yeah that makes sense. When I started my studies at college I was also mainly interested in AI/Psychology but my interested shifted. So I guess applying to AI, HCI etc is much more competitive than other fields?

I am applying for Networks/Systems. Wonder why there are so few people doing the same. In my opinion video streaming is a field that will expand rapidly in the near future. There is 3D and Ultra-HD videos that demand more bandwidth. And many different solutions: p2p streaming, MPEG-DASH etc. However I am also interested in networking middleware for distributed systems. You added "middleware" as a different category, but i think it belongs to networking Still, I am looking for suggestions where to apply. Any help is welcome. Currently I have a professors at UNC, UIUC and Cornell I am very interested in. Those schools are very competitive so I am searching for alternatives...

Yeah I am using the Magoosh Videos too. But the problem is that you don't have any feedback for your AW part. On the other parts you know if you answer is wrong or wright so it is easy to improve. With AW it is not :/ Thanks Today12345 I will try to understand what the structure is they are looking for and then may do one of those ScoreNow sample tests...

Hey All, sorry if this has already been asked. I am retaking my GRE and want to raise from 3.0 AWA to at least 4.0. I am using Magoosh to practice but it doesn't cover much on analytical writing. I wonder if anybody has used ScoreItNow! from ETS to practice AW. Does it makes sense? 13 Dollars doesn't seem that much, but maybe there are better alternatives? I would be also happy to hear any other suggestions how to study analytical writing. As you may guess from my nickname I am not a native English speaker, but I think my English is not that bad (105 TOEFL). Thanks!

In my opinion it is much easier to get into a German grad program. There is nothing like the GRE and most schools don't ask for LORs or SOPs. I suggest you jusst check the schools website for the admission criteria. Normally, there is just a minimum GPA ("numerus clausus") that you need to have to be accepted. I have no idea how to convert an American GPA to a German one. Again, I recommend just contacting the school. Its international office should be able to help you out.

Hi Nuya, have you already checked with the schools wheter they accept your 3-year bachelor? I had contact with one (University of North Carolina) so far that told me they normally do not accept 3-years bachelors. They told me that because I did the 13-year Abitur and my bachelor takes 3.5 years they can make an exception. They also weren't aware of the fact that we switched from diploma to the bachelor/master system. I wonder if other schools accept German bachelors.

In my eyes your profile looks really good. You already seem to have a lot of research experience. However, I recommend asking in the Physics subforum. There a people who have already applied for Ph.D. programmes in your field http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/30-physics/

I can recommend any of the Google phones (Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4 etc). They always come with the latest stock Android and you can also install any other operating system/Android mod on the them. Additionally, they are pretty cheap. The Galaxy Nexus is around 300 bucks and should be enough for your purposes.

Hey All, I was wondering what tool you use to create graphs from your measurements. My advisor recommended me R (which we also learned in our Statistics lecture), but I was wondering if there are any other good tools/languages to use? Is anybody using Excel for such a purposes?

Arcanen, you are definitely right. However, I did not add "in my opinion" to the post without a reason Maybe I should put it somewhere in my profile that I am an applicant myself so people will not be mislead. Thanks for the advice. I can speak just for myself here. My bachelors thesis/project each involve nearly a year of research work. I thought the "Research Experience: No" statement referred to additional research internships. However, I wonder why anybody would want to get a Ph.D. without having any research experience in the first place? Why spend 5 or more years working on a degree that prepares you for a life in academics you might not even like?

A Ph.D in Europe is short? Here in Germany it takes an average of about 6 years, and you cannot enter directly with a Bachelors degree. As far as I know a Ph.D. in the US has far more classes and there is more emphasis on methods and academic skills. However, a European Ph.D. might prepare you more for a life in industry than an American Ph.D. Also, in Germany a Ph.D. programme is much more "liberal". For example, a lot of people do their Ph.D. while working in a company.

Normally, in Europe a bachelor is finished with a thesis. So he should have at least some research experience, although the extend of research work can vary a lot.

Nearly all schools in the US admit people with a BSc. into a Ph.D. programme. The only school that had a MSc requirement I found so far was Columbia. Your verbal score and AW seem a little low. You GRE (Quant) score looks good, but admission depends more on research exprience and LORs. Do you have at least a bachelors thesis or smiliar? I think that would help a lot. But in my opinion you definitly have a chance. However, I would think about retaking the GRE.

Thanks for the help! The Quant part seems pretty easy on the first sight. I realized too late that it isn't that simple. I mostly studied with the official GRE book from ETS. Guess this one book wasn't enough (only two paper based practice test, the powerprep stuff didn't work on my linux machine...). Still it sucks that I have to spend more time studying for the GRE instead of working on my research projects. I would wonder if with such a score I would even make the cutoff at schools better schools...

If you don't want to go out that often you should be fine. Though, Temple Bar is right next door and a wonderful place to party... If I think more about it. You should definitely accept the offer

So, I took my GRE yesterday. I had less time to study for it than I expected (it the middle of the semester here and exams are approaching), and ended up with Q:157 V:151. I definitely will retake the GRE, but what would happen if I did not improve my score? Will this totally screw my application? I decided to cross of top 10 schools from my list but are top20 or top30 schools even possible with such a score?