SportPsych30

I'll*

love bug

I'm currently working on an application for a school in which my POI did not respond. It is a little bit awkward in writing the personal statement because usually in my research fit paragraph I throw in a line about "through conversation with Dr. Rockstar, it has been made clear to me that there is a marriage of research interest blah blah blah" but here I have to simply refer to the POI's CV as proof of fit. The hard part is knowing that I may be wasting my time and cash-money on a pointless application. Nevertheless, I told myself that finances would not hold me back from giving myself a fair shot at getting into a Ph.D program, and the fit would be very good, so here I am gambling...

I think your scores are incredible.. I don't know that increasing your scores will help you anymore. Will your high test scores make up for the gpa? I guess only time will tell. I think schools factor in medical circumstances if they are legitimate.

Sometimes I honestly feel like you are just here trolling all these threads...

I promised those around me that I wouldn't chronically complain about this whole process, so here I am venting to you fine folks. I think that if and when I become a big-wig professor, one of my first projects will be to develop a more uniform and universal application process. My roommate who is applying to Law Schools has shown me how easy it can be. Basically he fills out one application, with every piece of supplemental information, including transcripts, statements, LOR's etc.. and then goes through a list and clicks on each school he would like his application packet sent to. Easy as that. I understand why it can't be that easy for us, although I wish it were. Luckily I just had midterms in all of my classes, so I can use this weekend to finalyl get ahead on this application process. Feeling burnt out and exhausted by the redundancies. Thanks for listening SP30

Wouldn't it be nice if we only had to write one statement, like those applying to Law School, as opposed to tailoring ours for each school and their unique requirements...

Juliet, Thank you so much for sharing your experience, and lending some advice. This is what the board is all about. I took my time off after high-school, and I am certain that I am now ready to keep going this next year, right out of undergrad. I certainly can see the pro's and con's of each path. SP30

Im curious as well, but for the opposite reason. I scored 162V (89%) and only a 4.0-AW (54%)...

Bren, thanks for sharing! Well I finally did it, with help from all three of my letter writers. I actually think I benefitted from just writing. Putting all my thoughts to paper and going from there. I started at 1400, went down to 600, then let my letter writers tack a whack at it. Finally down to 470, though I expect this number to fluctuate as a play with it over the next month. My question now is whether or not I should add more stuff back in for letters that are allowed to be longer? As Fishasauras said, if its over a page, they may not read it. I know as a general rule that more concise is preferrable. That being said, I don't want to give off the vibe that I can't even write a full two page letter on myself.. Any thoughts on this?

I think your other areas make up for it, but I'm no admissions committee..

Is anyone else struggling to get their personal statements into 500 words or less? Any tips? If the limit was 1000 words I'd be golden. Help me...

I just did my initial draft today! I did it for my number one choice school, so I can tailor it from here. Luckily this was just a rough draft because mine ended up a little over 2 pages, single spaced I just have so much to say and talk about, all of it feels necessary to include. This doesn't make me feel any better.. How can they make a decision on you if they don't even read the whole Personal Statement?? Sounds Iike I have some serious shortening to do

I got the same email from U-Chicago yesterday. What would be a better sign, is if you recieve emails that are offering to waive the application fee. I recently sat for my GRE as well, and have recieved one application waiver so far. Good luck on your upcoming re-take! SP30

Amen... I don't like when I see the 169-V GRE person asking if he/she needs to re-take and get a 170. Likewise, I don't like seeing the mile long research experience person that needs a pat on the back by asking if they "have a chance." Reality is most of us have done the best we could with the situations we were in, and comparing with each other sucks, especially since we don't all get the same opportunities and luxuries. I for example play a sport, some need to work full time, others have children, etc.. We can only spread ourselves so thin. Sorry for the rant, and best of luck to all the applicants! Remember, we are here to help each other, not to compare the size of our.... Vita's SP30

LuLa, I'm afraid you'll drive yourself nuts trying to interpret and read into the actions of these POI's.. They can be very myseterious, but try to sympathize with them in that they have a ton on their plate and probably are recieving a number of emails just like yours on a regular basis. Just don't let their ambiguity get to you. Good luck! SP30

What if we don't have any business background? I'm interested but skeptical. I'm not looking forward to the GMAT either haha

Well, practice tests give you a pretty good estimate of where you are at. Depending on your results, you may or may not have a reason to worry. Beyond that, just relax and only worry about what you can control. Do your best to fine-tune this week, and go in there with a confident attitude and give it all you got. The GRE is only part of you application, applications are only part of grad school, and grad school is only PART of life. Relax SP30

MCVCM92, I'm in the same boat, but I know my UG school's transcripts will include which classes I'm currently taking. There is no way to include the grades. I don't think there is anything you can do, and I doubt that they would want you to wait. If you do bomb your last two semesters, they can always revoke their offer of admissions. SP30

I don't know enough about engineering to be certain, but it is my understanding that quantitative scores are pretty important. If that is in fact the case, you will probably want to brush up on your math skills and raise that Q score.. Cheers, SP30

Newlyadmit, Don't get discouraged pal, you even said so yourself that you didn't perform as well as you could/should have. That should be reason enough to motivate you to get back up on the horse and give this thing another whirl. Three weeks probably wasn't enough time, especially since I see that English is not your first language. I've been surrounded by English for 20 years, and I studied dilligently for 4 months straight. I was fortunate enough to have the time available to me this summer, but I understand that this is not the case for everyone. Re-taking it will likely result in better performance. At least you will be less nervous and know what to expect. Rooting for you, SP30

I also sat for mine today. In all of my many practice tests I had been doing awesome on Quant (160-164), and poorly on Verbal (150-155). I was so worried for the verbal section, but once I started it was the exact opposite! I choked on quant, just wasnt getting problems that I was well studied for. Luckily, I pulled a verbal score out of my ass that salvaged my results. V-162 Q-157 I am confident that if I re-took, I would score 160+ on Quant, but I am equally certain that I would score <160 on Verbal. I am happy with my results, overall. Newlyadmit, I think the best way that I was able to bump my score was to get some flash cards (Kaplan, in my case). I locked in on 500 of the most common difficult words. From there I "learned to love" vocabulary, and really paid attention to when I would read a GRE sounding word. It is impossible to learn every word that they can throw at you, but you can certainly get a good solid base. Additionally, the test comes down to "luck of the draw", meaning you may get questions with all words you know, and you may not recognize a single word. Such was the case with my quant section, and I am certain that I would do better if I re-took this. I am always equally amazed at the 170 Verbal scores we hear about on this forum, but I hope that I helped you a bit.

Hello everyone! Finally done with the GRE, and am so excited to be done! I have read that for Counseling Psych Ph.D programs, the GRE score is mainly to get past the initial phase of the review process, but won't hold too much weight in admissions decisions. Scores today: V-162 Q-157 Any reason for concern? I'm pretty happy with these scores, though I know I could have done better. Do these scores appear to be good enough to get them to open my application and read all my other accomplishments and experience? Thanks, SP30

Lisa, I am assuming that you were forunate enough to have some publications during your undergrad. You make this out to be the norm, which I am hoping that it is not, but it does have me interested. Can you give some advice to those of us who have plenty of research experience, but are having trouble finding the means to have this work published? For the record, I am not sure what your operational definition of "published" is (i.e, I do not consider certain journals to hold as much value as others). Thanks, SP30

Thank you so much for the responses!