geographyrocks

This person has no idea what they are talking about. I agree with Kleene. Grad school is very competitive and even more so if you're international. Your quant score is great. But the verbal is below average and I'm afraid that might be held against you.

Ditto

Some programs offer RA funding or TA funding through the summer. You should definitely inquire. I just straight up asked my advisor about summer.

Let's break down the math. $5000 per semester generally means that it covers 5 months. That is $1000 a month. After taking out a generic tax amount of 20%, you're left with $800 a month. After $550 for rent (I hope that includes utilities!), you will have $250 left for everything else. I guess it's doable if you live very cheaply.

I've met with my professor twice now. Not only was he happy to see and talk to me, he was already trying to convince another professor to give me a good TA assignment. This both shocked and amazed me. To sum up, it was a lovely experience and he didn't once ask me how I tricked him into letting me into grad school! If your advisor wants to meet for lunch, I'm betting it's because he/she is eager to get to know you. :-)

Just to confirm: who your letter writers are mean ALOT. My adviser told me today that grad students underestimate how important the letter writers title and position are.

Two days ago you were from Kuwait and your major was Poli Sci...not it's Uganda and bio politics and psych? OP: do not take anything this guy says seriously. Since you're international, you really want your scores to be higher. If you consistently scored higher on practice tests, then you should definitely take the GRE again if you can afford it. However, you should look at techniques to reduce test anxiety before you test again. My test anxiety got the best of me as well. And yes, a school with a 310 cutoff could cut a 309 as that cutoff is there to make going through the applications easier UNLESS you have a professor that will fight for you.

People will not let you wander into the dangerous areas. And those areas are pretty obvious so I think you'll be fine. :-) I really like Chicago. I just hated how cold it gets in the winter.

Look at the GRE like designer jeans. They charge $300 when really you're getting a $10 pair of jeans. Is that fair? It sure isn't! And while you're calling ETS and complaining, could you call Levi as well? And Nike...they really should get an earful too. Ooooh, college textbooks! Those are expensive as crap! And Ford! $14,000 for a car that's only four years old and falling apart. I call fraud!

I took my file cabinet to my office today. :-D Orientation at my school starts tomorrow...TOMORROW!!!!! I feel like I should've gotten more done this summer....

Does it say anything about contacting PIs on the website? If the school requires it then email her again. If the website doesn't say anything, you could call the department admin and ask if it is customary to email PIs. Every once in a while, professors get no say in the graduate process. Weird, but apparently it happens.

I don't like the opening. Maybe it's just personal preference, but it just seems off somehow. I think it's all of the questions. Maybe you could rephrase it so that you are telling a story AND stating your research interests. "which is acknowledged in being one of the best in Europe in training future teachers" - By saying this you are: stating the obvious if it is the best and potentially insulting the schools you're applying to. Don't list the classes you studied, talk about the classes that had the biggest impact on your future research. They can see what classes you took on your transcript. Don't list assignments that you did, talk about how your interest developed because of the assignments. Did you have any accomplishments as a teacher? Talk about those. Also, I'm a little confused. Are you interested in how children can learn languages faster or in how cultures view one another and themselves? Your entire second paragraph is about learning languages while the rest of your essay is about cultures. You paragraph about the university you are interested in is WAY too vague. Of course they offer higher learning, all universities do. What are the professors you are interested in doing research on? Does the department specialize in the methods you want to use or the subject you want to study? Why will *insert university* prepare you more than other schools? After reading your SOP, I still don't know exactly what you want to study or why you would want to study at that university. I hope I'm not coming off as harsh, but these SOPs really play a big part in getting accepted. Maybe you should make a list of questions and answer them. That's what I did. It kinda went like this: What do I want to study? Why? How did I decide what I wanted to study? What are my accomplishments so far that makes me an awesome candidate? What makes this university a place I want to attend? (Must be specific) What professors do I like? What papers have they written lately that are related to what I want to study? I hope that helps a little.

That's probably what I'll do. I'll keep it to one or two sentences at the most. I'm still debating letter writers. I'll definitely have a good letter from the professor I did research with over the summer. I can't ask either of my senior thesis advisers because they're just too damn unreliable. I asked one of them for letters for grad school and 1) he didn't even start on them until 2 days after I asked him to submit them and 2) I had to practically stand over his shoulder and then fax the letters for him. My other adviser is tenured and close to retirement. He half-asses everything. However, he was extremely supportive of me so I'm still torn as to whether I should ask him. Is it customary to ask your current graduate adviser even though they've only known you 3 months or so? What about professors who aren't in your field but know you and your work well? Edit: I should have added that my current adviser is well-known and respected in the field for whatever that's worth in the NSF process.

It's not the teaching. I was an UG teaching assistant so I'm fine with the idea of teaching. I'm more worried about having enough time to do research. And I can't even really start on research until after I take Matlab this fall because my UG was sooooo backwards that they didn't offer it. I'm sure it'll all be okay...but I still have my moments of panic. Another introvert/antisocial person. I've been trying to decide whether I should take my SO to the graduate meet and greet for my department since it's at the house of one of the current graduate students. If he doesn't go, I'll be forced to mingle (or panic who knows!) and if he does go, I might end up only talking to him the entire time. Social anxiety sucks, but I'm going to force myself to be more social. It's just too unhealthy to never socialize. I found that out during my last year of UG. So just repeat to yourself, "Not hanging out with people is REALLY unhealthy". That's what I'm going to be saying to myself. PS. I love this thread. It's a nice release to get the panic out of my head by sharing it with others.

Anyone else feel woefully unprepared by their undergraduate institution? Seriously...the methods I learned are like 5 years out of date...

Here's what I always do: Go to job websites and type in chemistry masters. http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Chemistry+masters&l=&radius=25. Hopefully that link works. Then I look at the most interesting jobs and see if I will qualify when I graduate. Just an idea...

I hate the GRE. I do not feel that it clearly portrays who will or will not succeed in grad school. I hate buzz words in resumes. I hate that resumes are scanned for them. I don't think it accurately portrays who will do a good job. I hate that it is easier to get a job if you have one because it's easy to thin a herd of resumes by looking at current employment. Unfortunately, like jobs, schools have to go through hundreds of applications every year. Standard tests and rules make it easier to thin the herd. It's just life. You learn to get over it. And I would agree that the test is harder for internationals except this: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/21/ets-releases-data-gre-averages-country Take a look at quant...America scores are next to last. As for verbal, the way I understand it is that verbal scores are looked at along with TOEFL scores so a lousy verbal is generally balanced with a great TOEFL. This entire thread simply sounds like someone who is pissed that their scores were too low for acceptance. It's a ridiculous hoop to jump, but we all do it. PS. Quantitative classes are generally undergraduate classes in my field with only advanced methods taught as graduate glasses. And all science contains philosophy. We wouldn't have any questions to answer if we didn't ask why.

I go back and forth. One minute I'm convinced that this is the most brilliant thing I've ever done and my research will change the world. The next minute I'm convinced that I can't do this and I'll be a total failure. Needless to say, I feel ya. At least the moving part is over off me. Moving across the country with three cats probably shortened my life by about 10 years! Edited to add: I forgot to mention the class/TA freak out. I'm taking 9 credit hours and teaching three labs. :-S freak out city!

Then hell yeah you should try again! I think this is one of those things that if you didn't try, you would always wonder. Read some of the threads on GRE resources. I really think the hurdle is those automatic cutoffs. One other thing, did you reach out to professors that you were interested in working in? I know it varies from field to field, but it definitely helped me. As for gpa, I can't even imagine what mine would be had I stayed with Biology. Cellular division...protein transport...my mind just stops functioning when I start to think about it! lol

We might as well get this bad boy started as applications are officially open. This will be my first year applying. I have a question for those who have gone through this process before: If you have outreach in something that's not academically related, do you mention it? I have academic outreach as an undergraduate teaching assistant and tutor, but I also perform Central Asian Dance for schools, libraries, and cultural events which is also a form of outreach as we explain the culture and traditions of each country before performing. I've just been power writing and now I have three pages worth of personal statement that are in dire need of editing. It's difficult deciding what to include and what to leave on the cutting room floor. And I haven't even started on the research portion...

I'm thinking that as long as you don't tell anyone: "I'm here so I'll have back door access", I think you'll be fine! lol On a more serious note, I don't think professors will think you're trying to weasel your way in. If anything, this gives them a chance to know you better which, depending on your character, could be a good or bad thing. Either way, you're showing professors that you are committed to learning. I would also advise reading as many papers in your field as possible and striking up a conversation with professors about them. Not only will it allow you to network, but you'll have a real advantage when talking research if/when you get interviewed.

Holy crap! That's crazy! Good luck on Thursday!

I guess the questions are: Can you afford to apply again? How much do you want it? This entire process is a pain in the rear, but you have to try if you really want it. I know that's probably not what you were thinking about when you asked the question. Your GRE scores are a bit low and susceptible to an automatic cut. Can you take it again? I absolutely HATED taking the GRE, but I would take it again if I got those scores. I upped my verbal score by at least 6 points just by using flashcards for vocabulary. One point I disagree on is the reputation of the journal that your paper is published in. I have a paper in review in a journal not really even worth mentioning, but it did wonders for my application.

One idea is to google your school's name and harassment. At my school, we have the Office of Equal Opportunity. Any complaint of sexual harassment or a complaint about a hostile work environment (which you have both in my opinion) goes through them. You can also just contact them for advice on whether to file a complaint. It's definitely something worth checking out. Good luck!

Have you taken any geosciences courses at all? If not, that could be one of the issues with your applications.