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So after all, people do receive rejection letters. There are also a lot of rejection letters from MIT online. Maybe this was some way of MIT saying: "You are certainly not getting in. NOT YOU!".

Hi! One simple question: Should a foreigner (meaning no US citizen or resident) even bother to apply to universities which are need-aware towards foreigners, when they cannot afford tuition and/or living/accomodation expenses on their own? Considering the rest of the application is pretty good. Thanks in advance for your answers!

Applied to the PhD program in Linguistics at MIT. Got rejected on February 14th. Not only that this was surprisingly early, they didn't even send a letter, I just received an email. Disappointing.

@Mocha: As I said, in the German system, you have the possibility to avoid certain subjects. In the German version of Highschool (means 11th, 12th and 13th grade), you have a 15 point mark system, and you need to get at least 5 points to pass and at least 2 points in order to not have to repeat the whole year. I was good at almost everything, but I kept receiving Fs (means 1 point) at Math, so I came to an agreement with my Math teacher that she will give me 2 points and I'll just be present (meaning: attending the classes, but not doing anything) in order not to screw up my Highschool diploma, as it would be stupid not to pass just because of one subject. And, as I said, at university, any field of studies not involving Physics, Math, Biology, Chemistry or Economics has no need and no contact with Math whatsoever (which is the main reason why I am a straight A student). This means that I lack the very basics of what would be required to pass the Math part of the GRE exam (I took a look at it, and you could as well give me the task to write a summary of Macbeth in Chinese). However, I will try, as you said, to get some good recommendations and do the writing parts as good as possible. I hope that'll do it.

Define "mathematically challenged"... I'm having problems adding up my groceries without a calculator while shopping... I've read that NYU doesn't automatically disqualify you, if you do bad at the GRE. I hope that when I'm doing good at the other parts, they'll somehow excuse my complete failure at Math. Looks like, I have to go through this and just try.

Hi! I am a German student, graduating this July, and I'm considering a PhD in the US. As this is the first time, I'm thinking about the US as a possible location, I came across this GRE exam, which obviously contains a lot of Math. Now, I am a straight A student, and I'll graduate with summa cum laude (cultural sciences), but I am very close to a retard concerning Math (in Europe, social or cultural MA programs usually don't contain statistics, and you don't necessarily have to take your final exams in Math at high school to get your high school diploma, and to be honest, I don't know much about the American education system). So my question is: Does anyone know a university in the US where you can get around this GRE, or should I better bury my PhD plans for the US? Thanks in advance!