rising_star

I didn't call thecauldron a jerk. I said I thought he was being a jerk. He flaunted his/her scores but failed to address the original question of the thread: "I know this varies by school, but does anyone have any ideas or knowledge of what scores are used to weed people out? "

It's ok. No worries. Now get some acceptances!

Sometimes schools do a quick review of applicants to identify those that they would nominate for fellowships. Often the university deadlines for nominations are early to mid-February. So they have to decide very quickly on some offers of admission so they have candidates to nominate for these fellowships. After that's done, they meet to do a more complete review of all the applications. That may explain why some acceptances come out crazy early and others a bit later.

Darnit grifter, I'm sorry. Was hoping to know someone else in the tundra if I decide to go to Syracuse.

I definitely don't think your age will count against you. You have to send all transcripts, even from the CS portion of your academic career. I'd recommend starting to build a relationship with a professor now so they can write you a recommendation when the time comes. Alternately, could you maybe get a professional reference from a supervisor? I think building some kind of relationship, research or otherwise, with a faculty member is your best bet for the third recommendation letter. Good luck! The rest of your stats are great so I imagine you'll have a great chance of getting in somewhere.

There's another museum studies thread here: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2816

I think SNRE is pretty accepting of the social sciences. Congrats!

I second the suggestion to see if you can visit at another time.

I wouldn't call until after March 15, personally. P.S. I would add that there's another discussion about this in this forum so I'm going to lock this one.

Being rejected from a bottom choice doesn't really say anything about your chances at other schools. A lot of it really is about fit.

I don't know anything AT ALL about criminology/criminal justice other than that it sounds really fascinating and I briefly flirted with the idea of doing a MA, specifically to study the impacts of the justice system on minorities and to look at geocoded crime data...

I know some folks who work full-time and they tend to take no more than two classes a semester. They get schoolwork done in the evenings and on the weekend. Time management skills are key.

Moved this from a second comp lit thread.

This really varies. You could check the university's academic calendar to find out whether school is in session or not.

It may not end up being a rejection. If people who they've accepted turn down their admissions offer, the department can admit you. That's the point of having a waitlist.

I didn't think you were mean, Minnesotan. I thought the person you were replying to was being a jerk by flaunting his/her scores and abilities when it's really not needed. That post did nothing to answer the original question, while yours did.

A lot depends on what the trends in your discipline are. Usually an interview means that you've at least made it through the first round of cuts.

I wasn't aware that being a moderator meant I couldn't have personal opinions and express them. I would also point out that I'm not a moderator on this particularly forum. And it wasn't mean. You keep expressing the same complaint repeatedly and I decided to point that out. Blunt maybe. But not mean.

Who are you looking to work with at Ohio State, out of curiousity? Is CU-Boulder completely not competitive these days? I thought they still were even though it seems like their better young faculty...

First, I'm pretty sure I didn't miss the whole point of your post. You're posting to whine about being worried about your application possibly not even being considered. If you thought that was a possibility, why did you submit the application? Why did you pay the $75? You choose to apply, they can choose not to consider your application. That's just the way the world works. So I feel like you're whining is a bit petty. I think such things could be very misleading. Everyone knows that applications to graduate schools tend to increase when there's an economic recession. So maybe what would be a competitive application based on stats last year would not be next year. Plus, I don't think any committee could ever write something like your "In recent years" statement because it would minimize their ability to consider applications whose first language isn't English, who don't perform well on standardized tests, etc. You two can't have it both ways. You can't have posted minimums and the desire to be considered based on more than just your statistics. Either they weed you out based on the minimum, or they skim through your application and give you a chance. If you did more informal networking before applying, you might know about these minimums and maybe that could alleviate your complaint about paying. Once you give them your money, it's up to them to decide how to treat your application. If you don't think you'll like the way they handle it, don't apply. On that note: I think this entire conversation should either be dropped or moved over to the Applications section of the forum since it is decidedly not focused on History 2008. I'm going to leave it up to Minnesotan to decide.

Do you think faculty receive any part of that application fee? Sure it helps people who handle the administrative things (application processing, paying to have an online system, etc), faculty members don't necessarily get a pay increase for serving on the admissions committee. Often it's the assignment that you get for drawing the short straw because it means you have to go through all those applications. I can understand wanting someone to read your application. But, have you ever graded papers? Can you imagine having 200 30 pg papers to read and grade for all your students and having a week or so to do it (in addition to your other responsibilities)? Given those time constraints, wouldn't you start to seek out shortcuts to help you sort through the papers and grade them more expeditiously? Using GRE scores is just one way to do that. P.S. You can't get a 599 on the Verbal. It goes by 10s.

What's your focus area? I looked at Ohio State when I applied for MA programs... You can PM me if you want more of an insider (but still outsider) perspective on the department. Though my knowledge is fairly limited.

I think they have to have some criteria to help weed people out. Lord knows, no professor has time to read the 200+ applications they receive. They still have to teach, grade, attend faculty meetings, advise students, etc and admissions can take a lot of time. I know in my current dept, it was even harder because of a job search occurring at the same time as application review... It's made it impossible, as a student, to get quality face-time and advising since everyone has been so ridiculously busy.

A friend of mine heard from Brown today. She was accepted. No clue how it was received but I'm guessing email since she currently lives outside the country.

Acceptances can come in thin envelopes too! Mine did a few years ago. Why were you disappointed with your thesis?