GeoDUDE!

Yaguchi, You know, no one really knows since not many people do it. I would assume it still does not matter that much, because in my experience, undergradaute research does not play a big of a role in graduate admissions as people like to pretend. Sometimes it does, but when it does, its usually because the undergrad has gotten a strong letter from his/her research advisor or has made a significant impact ( IF > 3.0 ) publication. In the case where the research does help the student, they probably aren't applying to be a special student because they are a strong enough candidate to get funding and do research in a degree program. My guess is they have an application section just so that they dont take on 1000 extra students and overload their classes. Even at a school like harvard, compared to actual graduate admissions I cannot imagine this being competitive. But thats just my guess, and everyone who answers will have a guess. You could find out by emailing some program coordinator asking how the application will be evaluated. If you were to email my advisor about my current program, for example, she would cite a holistic approach that includes some form of student experience, stats, and letters of recommendation. She might also state that the typical student in her lab has done a senior thesis or a few undergraduate research projects. But I have also seen students with strong stats and no research experience get into top 5 programs. It might totally even depend on what courses you want to take! For example, if you were to take math graduate courses, research experience would not matter at all since almost no math undergrads do any kind of meaningful research until their 3rd year of graduate school! Like telkanuru said, the best guess is that they will be happy to take your large amount of money you will pay harvard. I hope you aren't disappointed at the quality of the class though, because at top research schools, graduate classes are often after thoughts and you will be paying 5000 for it just because of a name.

You guys haven't had mediacom.

Extension-type courses are often the same ones that normal students take. They just register a different way. Many of my friends have done nondegree or certificate (like post-bacc) and they have said that they are in the same classes as normal students. In particular, the person who has told me most about this did nondegree at Columbia.

My feeling is, by what you mean as "special student" meaning you are taking classes as a non degree student, then almost anyone can take these courses as long as they can pay for it.

You should use headings: people read many grants. This doesn't just apply to NSF GRF but any proposal.

No one knows ScarletAmethyst, its hard to say. You certainly have a profile I think that could get into those schools (i'm not really sure how competitive they are really, I'd imagine they are relatively easier schools to get into) but funding is another story. The problem is that these schools arent the best funded, and international applicants can cost more than double to fund because you can never get instate tuition. I really think you should try and find some private schools with strong tectonics backgrounds, since it costs the same to fund everyone.

Statement of Purposes are no mystery: state the reason why you are applying to their program.

I think people who make a big deal about this section have much more to worry about then where else they are applying, graduate school or not.

This is wrong thinking. If you have an advisor and you are using your masters program as leverage to get into a PhD program, it will be a major red flag not to have your research advisor give you a recommendation even if it isn't the strongest one.

What exactly is your question

In my opinion, while advisor is important, in the sense that he/she is advising you, the program is also equally important. You aren't going to just be taking classes from your advisor, you need to think about how strong your committee will be, you need to think about how independent you will be. I'm very independent from my advisor: she's knowledgable in the methods I am using (numerics) but the subject I am doing these numerical experiments I know much more about. You need to talk about research with these advisors to get a better idea of who you will choose: the top 20 professor might be younger and ready to take on the world with his new graduate student! Also, just because someone has more citations/articles does not make someone more famous: it just means he/she publishes more. Having 1 or 2 strong papers is a lot more memorable than 10 medium to minor impact papers. just some food for thought.

I think it depends on where you are in your literature review. If you are in a field with many publications that do similar things, I'm not sure its necessary to read those papers as much as know about them. You want to find papers that provide motivation for your dissertation. The background "history" can come later, you want to be able to write maybe a 6 sentence paragraph that states a Hypothesis, a reason for that hypothesis, and what new this hypothesis brings to your subject (intellectual merit).

Crucial, That sounds like a good plan, and well thought out. Consider that if your ultimate goal is to do a PhD, and some of the places that are reaches now are places you want to do your PhD, you might not apply to them this year. Often times candidates who apply a second time get reviewed much harsher than first time candidates.

There are departments at brown that only have PhD programs.

why would thanking anyone for anything ruin your chances at anything?

Hey GeoMex, I would apply to stanford (you are doing MS right?) If I were you, having full funding is a huge leg up. Plus, if its a company that they don't already have connections to, you would serve as that connection making it better for their graduates to get jobs if they want to go internationally. Goodluck!

Yes. Not to be a downer, but if your overall GPA is lower than 3 (or around there) I would be floored if you got into some of those schools(WHOI, Scripps, Brown, UCD,URI) which are all top tier programs, barring some kind of high impact publication (EPSL, Nature, Science). If your GRE scores aren't stellar, I'm not even sure they would even see your application without some kind of petition from a faculty member that wants you, and only you. Remember, POIs get many interested applicants, they don't always pick one they lobby for. Often times they present 3 or 4 and let the adcomm mold the entire incoming class to accommodate. I had a 3.05 GPA from undergrad, so while I wasn't below minimum requirements, it just means that they didn't have to petition to accept me. At that GPA, you should question if you can keep up with your would be peers at those schools, as thats what they will be asking when looking at your application (if it isn't chopped out). It's one thing to say you could do the work, its another thing to do it and be productive in research. I don't think its fair to say you can just flip a switch (which a lot of people on this forum do). Remember that the best undergraduate applicants have years of research experience, good grades, GREs and maybe even a publication. How does someone with poor GPA compete with that? The answer is a masters degree (funded). Three things that the masters degree did for me: Improved my GPA (graduated with 3.85), Deep research experience ( much more technical than even a senior thesis), and a High impact publication (its still going through the 2nd round of reviews, but even if this journal doesn't except it, its a lock at the next one down which is still very high). At my program, they still wanted me to do the full 5 year PhD (maybe less depending on how fast I can do research) since I don't have a masters degree from their program. I'm fine with that. WHOI is the same way. So is URI, Scripps and Brown. Its going to add a year or two over going straight to PhD, but you will probably end up in a better program because of it. So while you may still want to apply to those programs, it might be worthwhile to invest time into masters programs instead of your middle tier schools. Just some thought; I know this is your second time, but you have to ask if you have enough meat in your application to begin with. goodluck!

Are you sure he will right a FAVORABLE letter?

I think Eigen is right: I originally applied to 8 schools and once i got into 1 I immediately withdrew 3 of my applications. I had wished i didn't waste the money. 5 is a good strong number if you have strong research interests; if you MA/MS didn't include a thesis you are pretty much the same as a candidate with a BS/BA. You should have a fairly narrow research focus 2 years into graduate school: if you were in a PhD program you would be taking quals right now, and perhaps, proposing your dissertation.

Pen is good for lab books: you never want to erase anything. When you erase with pen, its just one mark through the center, so you can still read it incase it was a good idea. It doesnt fade as fast as pencil. I personally use pencil because my habits were formed in physics and math and not the lab. There is a divide: physicists and mathematicians tend to use pencil where as everyone else tends to use pen.

Why wouldn't you contact them? Doesn't the act of contemplation make it dishonest?

Has anyone found cheap dot graphed ruled notebooks? It seems they are only found in expensive moleskin like notebooks and i just want a 1-3 dollar per notebook.

Waive them, I have never seen my LORs since HS

1 pound is a big deal, in my opinion. Consider what the power gets you; most people do not need a 2000 dollar laptop. I'm a power user, I manipulate big data, and my big data dwarfs what most grad students think is big data ( Think terabytes not gigabytes ) and most of the time I don't even need the power of a 15 inch macbook pro (because I can ssh into a much more powerful computer).

that verbal is horrendous.