captiv8ed

Just to prove how maddening the process is, I will chime in to say I took the opposite approach and have had very good luck. I have said something along the lines of "I am looking forward to applying to your program because of XXX" Almost everyone has gotten back to me and told me how well my research interests fit and lots of very encouraging and welcoming words.

I have been told that it is one way to go. It is all so confusing, isn't it?

Bleh, now I have depressed myself with my own posting. My scores are so much lower than those top program averages. I have already taken the test twice and don't want to take it again.

I am planning to go into some detail. I am actually ending up with three different SOPs. For schools that want short ones, I am going almost straight research proposal. For one school, I am getting a bit more personal on why a specific period of my life ties to my research. And the others are getting a bit of background and then my research interests. I would be happy to read it.

I am trying to decide on this. I have one piece that I just reworked for a conference. It isn't screaming "Original research!!!" But I do have some non participant observation and analysis in it. The professor who I submitted it to said it is excellent, and my advisor suggested I use it as my sample. I also have a briefing paper that I cowrote with my advisor (who is pretty famous) and I am lead author. It was written for a mainstream audience, but it uses scholarly sources and has analysis of a current issue. The paper was required reading for several introductory college classes around the country (!!) So I would like to include it. Also, I refer to it often as the springboard for the work I want to do in grad school. Should I use both? They are each about 8 pages before citations.

I am pretty sure I put their position in the title spot.

Congrats! That is so awesome to already be done and know!

It is def not too late. I just got back the email of my DREAMS. Sent this afternoon. One thing I realize too, is that most profs I know are constantly in a state of meeting deadlines and trying to stay on top of things, so I would think they may be very understanding of later emails.

7. I was going to apply to one program where my favorite sociologist teaches, but I think the acceptance is even lower than any other of the ridiculously low acceptance rates at other programs. And most of the other folks have left, so it is pretty much just her. So I traded that one in for a much lower ranked program that has the benefit of being in my state.

Good luck!! it was interesting, I ran into some of the same questions this time. In fact, one of the writing prompts was the same way I wrote on last test. I think the only thing worse than taking the GRE is taking the GRE again

Thanks! Yes, the experimental section is evil. BTW, thanks to LateAntique for the well wishes!

That really sucks. It sucks that it is where you want to go and now you can't. It also sucks because, although they will refund your money, they can't give you back the time you invested in the application process.

I took the first one in Sept and got a 600 V, 410 Q and 5.5 AW I have been studying like crazy and had my second round today. The stuff on the test was almost all the stuff I didn't study for (coordinate geometry was recurrent) or stuff that I was still shaky on (percentages, numbers with lots of zeroes). And I had a second V section While I was taking the math section, I almost started crying because it was all so foreign and so difficult, even after all the studying I had done. In general, I was almost sick for the whole test because I was so stressed. And during the verbal, I actually ran into two words that I had never ever seen before. I thought I was going to get a migraine or fall asleep. So I was just ready to move on and then comes the next verbal!! I thought it was experimental because it was SOOOO easy. But then when there were questions about highlighted sections in the RC, I knew it was. SO I went through that part pretty quickly. But when all was said and done: 600V 590 Q!!!!! 1190 I was so happy and astonished. I know these still aren't great scores, but they are much closer to good enough. Also, an increase of 180 in less than 2 months makes me happy. Although I really think it is such a luck of the draw because I guessed a lot on this one but I must have guessed right

I have been thinking about this a lot the past few days as I have been cramming for my test. I haven't taken a lot of math. I got a 4.0 in logic, so that should show that my brain can wrap itself around difficult concepts. I need to know statistics, and will probably never look at a triangle again. 4 years of hard work and nearly perfect grades and really good recommendations should count for much more than a handful of questions, I think

I think that two days before deadline would seem rude and ill prepared, but a month or two? No. At least that is how I am hedging my bets, since I will be sending the bulk of my emails this weekend.

Whoops! Sorry. I have too many GRE books floating around here. It was the ETS GRE that was more difficult for me.

I have actually foudn the tests in the PR more difficult than the powerprep tests. Or at least I score lower on them.

No, you get to search by school, and then choose a department

Why is this so often the case? I have seen the assumption often. Do famous people not usually work with students? Also, in what capacity do people usually know these professors if they know them enough to ask for a letter but not well enough for the letter to be really strong? I am not being snarky, just curious.

My Verbal was on the low end of my practice test range on the Powerprep tests. My quantitative was 200 points lower than my practice test scores

Call the school and find out what their policy is. I emailed one school that has a Dec 15th deadline, and the DGS told me they don't start looking at the material until Jan 1, and they accept supporting paperwork until then. Maybe your school has some wiggle room on extra documents. Do you live near the recommender? If so, go in person and show desperation.

The whole name thing is so weird for me. I go to a school where all professors are addressed by first name. It is automatic. I have met some heavy hitters in my field, and I met them in an environment that was first name basis automatically. So using Doctor or Professor would have never occurred to me and I was glad I saw that advice on here earlier! I plan to continue with "professor" to all new contacts unless specifically told otherwise.

My advisers have told me that if it is a good fit and a lower ranked school, I should still apply but plan to work hard to shine (get published, attend conferences, get my name out). The funding is better at the top schools, but lower schools do have funding as well, and you will know about it before attending. As for quality of the education, I am not sure. You would have to visit and get a real feel, maybe talk to some current or former grad students. Find out if the program has a strength in your area of study. I am applying to schools that range from #3 on USNWR to 57!

homesickalien2, I am having a horrible time with the school application balance. I was planning to apply to 10, but the cost and the feeling of overwhelm had me tick it back to 7. Then I threw an 8th on. Now I am trying to decide whether to pull Penn off the list or not and if so, what to add. Have you checked out Michigan for labor studies? Also possibly Yale and Princeton.

That is the truth! There were one or two problems on the GRE that I couldn't decide on the answer because if I read the question in one way I would get one answer and if I read it another, I would get another answer.