GeoDUDE!

I have a masters degree in geology. I have taken 0 geology classes (unless you count geophysics). I am also getting a PhD in geology. Who ever said you needed to take classes related to the degree you are getting ?

That is not what I said at all. Please read carefully what is below. Before it was shown that even if all the first phase fills the spots, the international applicants are reviewed. You stated it doesn't matter because their probability of acceptance is 0. I just showed you that at the time of spending the money that the international applicants probability of acceptance is greater than 0. There is still no proof that applicants aren't all reviewed, there is only proof that some(or many) years offers are made to only domestic student. Your going to quote that email to me again, and we will all roll our eyes as it has been explained before that nothing in that email contradicts what I just explained. This has been the entire argument in the thread, minus your straw man attempts and sarcastic remarks.

Because you think it is unethical to accept money from someone for an application that has 0 chance of acceptance. At the time of the deadline, before any applications are reviewed, there is no way of knowing if there are enough quality domestic applicants to fill the first phase. Therefore, there is a non zero probability. That probability changes depending on the initial review. This idea completely contradicts the idea that they took an applicants money without having any intention of accepting them. Another way to look at this is that international students have been accepted , therefore there is intention to accept some international students. We can think of people as the evil empire, but that would be a waste of our education. What is the point of education if we cannot think of things that make us happy when we aren't presented with any evidence (or reason) to the contrary? The nature of your questioning begs another: Have you even read any of our arguments? Or furthermore, attempted to understand them?

My final letter was sent 2 days late at my current institution. Nary a word from the program. I can assure you that Adcoms dont meet until a few weeks after the deadline. You'll be fine. Just make sure he gets it in within a few days of the deadline. Its not your fault, they wont hold it against you (though if it is too tardy you wont be able to match up to the other applicants who have all their letters in). Oh and also, if you have had contact with POIs who are looking for your application they might solicite the letter from him directly.

I don't have much to offer in terms of your applications, but I will say that those collaborations you are looking for are out there. I do a ton of material science work, and collaborate with a few material scientists, and they are definitely eager to work with earth scientists (or the other way around).

The representative never said that international applicants weren't reviewed. You have brought up good points, regardless, and perhaps you might gain some ground next time if your insights weren't littered with immature piths.

To make sure they aren't missing out on a generational candidate (like a Feynman). This has been said before.

If you both are equal on the lease, then you are both entitled to have guests over. There is nothing she can do about it. You can be nice and work out some sort of compromise (something I would do), but she can't legally stop someone from having a boy overnight in her room. So while its her right to be uncomfortable, its not her right to stop it completely.

I agree with the sentiment, with the exception that at a state school domestic applicants pay taxes to fund that school. In the early 1900s, the same thing happens to my people, the Jews. At one point the incoming classes at Harvard were 50% Jewish, so instead of just using GPA and test scores, they switched to a more holistic approach and reduced it to 30%. They also implemented quotas: It was Richard Feynman's dream to go to Columbia University, but he wasn't one of the 6 jews selected, so he ended up at MIT instead. But that kind of discrimination (based on ethnicity) is different than what people are accusing Wisconsin of. There is a clear difference between citizenship and ethnicity. I do not believe it is wrong for a government (ala state school) to prefer its own citizens (who fund it) over someone who does not. The school would not exist without its tax payers, and thus, should serve them foremost. That does not mean I think the university should take unqualified candidates because of their citizenship, or refuse to take exceptional candidates just because they were born somewhere else. Obviously you need great scientists to run a great lab, and that should be the goal. But numbers aren't everything, and thats largely the difference between international candidates and domestic. I think there is no evidence here of the university taking money from students knowing that they will not review their application, no matter what definition of "review" we use.

There is no proof that the international applicants aren't given a quick look over to see if they are missing a generational candidate. There is no proof of the contrary either, as the definition of "review" seems to be vague, but the educated side of me wants to appeal to the better case scenario where they do give them a quick look over, because why would i think about something miserable when there is no proof of the situation being miserable in the first place?

Living alone is fine I think once you've made many friends, but I use roommates to help me meet people outside of my department. Those are good friends to have, especially if you are looking for people to date. Try it for a year... whats the worst that can happen? Also, whats to worry about when you have a roomate? He/She just recognizes the bro code and stays in his room, or you just stay in yours. Everything fun happens in the bedroom anyway =D (like mario kart).

Furthermore, I would bet that many departments do this at state schools. No one is saying its perfect, but I think applicants are getting what they paid for, however little it is.

That probability isn't 0 at the time of application. It changes when they have found enough domestic applicants (or in other words) picked the qualified candidates they want. The same happens for lesser domestic applicants. That is the flaw in your reasoning.

Igotnothin, Perhaps you see something in that email that everyone else doesn't, but, that email does not show the department taking international application fees without having the possibility of admitting them, as been said many times as you have quoted that. It would be helpful for us if you could show your syllogism on how you came to this conclusion, so we can address either our or your drastic misstep in logic.

I spent about ~6 hours total applying to 6 schools. If it really takes you 5-10 hours to fill out a single application then there are larger problems here.

dont think about it.

psychology and neuroscience are two very popular majors in undergrad, especially among those who enter college and have no idea what they want to do (nothing wrong with that). At my undergrad (liberal arts school) its the most popular major ! Unfortunately, I wish more people decided to study physics, but alas, getting people to sit down and learn math might be the greatest human endeavor.

http://admissions.ntu.edu.sg/graduate/R-Programs/BeforeApplying-Research/Pages/GeneralAdmissionRequirements.aspx

I love how all your points are either strawman or insulting. Grow up. I know I've had applications rejected without an adcom ever seeing it... it happens to everyone except the top of the top candidates.

When was the last time you sent an application with snail mail?

We are all in the matrix.

If thats all you can think of that is what you should put down.

They tend to be very holistic, but the level of competition will depend on the subject of degree and the institution you will be applying to. Coming in with money gives you a major upper hand.

If a qualified person was required to review all applications than your advisor would have no time for their current graduate students.

You will not die from this, so I think you will be ok.