eklavya

lucky number

We all are in the same boat. Best thing to do is stick together, share experiences and hope for our better future. We'll get there, no worries!

dude, that letter is of no use. send it to me.. i am in dire needs of some fire starter for my fireplace.

Yea, I agree... edit your CV/resume and send it to the gradsec. I completely forgot to send my resume to one of the schools and I emailed the graduate program coordinator (he also happens to be the HoD of the program I am applying) asking if they could add my resume to the application packet. He said yes and saved the day. Your situation isn't too different, so I think you'll be fine.

I try not to commiserate - mainly because I haven't seen a single soul from my area of interest. Obviously then, by deductive reasoning, I haven't met anyone who's applying to the same schools as I am. So, I feel like I'm the single king around here.. hehe Now to those who are commiserating, lets think about it this way: Maybe the adcomms will come to realize that students will stellar credentials are the types who need constant babying, pampering.. you know, all that celebrity-ing stuff? Then they'll be like 'hmm, lets take an above average/average kid. it'll fare well with all of us'. OR, maybe they'll be like 'a kid with 4.0 gpa, 1500+ gre and 7 publications, you say? we can't hope that he/she'll grow intellectually anymore! for christ's sake, he/she already had more publications than our grad students... combined! lets take someone who we can teach, and be a part of his/her development and success' This is when our lucky star will shine! You see, we are the ones with upper hand here!

Exactly my thought/disagreement. While, according to my belief, a letter should be long enough so that the adcomms know that the writer was enthusiastic about writing the letter; and personal stuff is important and therefore should be mentioned, both aren't the only things that make the letters good. Remember that a long and personal letter can swing either way - good or bad. The holy grail of a good letter is that it should leave positive mark on the adcomms and your POI. It should outline what your strengths are (academia-wise, research-wise, and leadership-wise), and not how cheerful, happy and fun you are... although mentioning these latter attributes shouldn't cause any harm either.

big gun

aren't there multiple '28 days' movies? i think i like all of them.. i like horrors with some sci-fi premise. i haven't watched the walking dead, but i'm totally stoked on the video game that'll come out in 2011... it looks SICK!! (like sick as in awesome) i have watched trailers for the episode though, and it does look interesting! did anyone watch 'heroes' few year back? their first season was amazing, but then the show went downhill. i follow/been following 'supernatural', and it's pretty cool.. check it out from the first season if you have plenty of time.

Those who got interview offers - when was the deadline in the schools you heard from? And how many days/weeks in advance did ALL the materials reached the grad office? Although my field is different, perhaps I can guestimate my situation and start tenting my fingers Mr Burns style!

seriously, dude?

NO!! DO NOT put any title in front of the name except Dr or Prof.. even if the prof is an assistant/associate, write Prof (or Dr). Although the truth is that they are assistant/associate profs, the adcomms might not take it nicely. Most profs have PhDs, so writing Dr is probably the best idea.

In general, the consensus in the forum is that while simply mentioning the prof's name won't hurt, going into great lengths about what kind of research projects you have in mind and want to do with the emeritus prof might lower your chances because, well, the prof ain't taking any students no more. You can say that your research interest matches with few profs such as... and throw in the emeritus name in the mix. The adcomms might take this positively because it will appear that you have done your research on the profs. A similar question was asked in the forum few days ago.. perhaps you can do a search to find it.

Interesting! Good to know!

phone call

cray fish

yeah, it should be a 7 digit code near the bottom of the GRE sheet. and you need to enter it without the dash. perhaps you are mistaking the email conformation number for the registration number? you can always call the ETS or Prometric to retrieve your number.

Yes, check off "No Preference" for all types of funding. Although fellowhips are better over TA/RA-ships, you don't know what types of funding your POI will have at the time of (thinking about) sending you an acceptance letter and making you a financial offer. While seeing (on your application) that you prefer one funding type over the other might not deter him/her from making a decision, you being cool with any funding type probably could make him/her more comfortable in making you an offer.

designer shoes

road map

The way I see this: Statement 1: Write about your preparation - classes you have taken, research, internship, volunteer work, etc - and how that has shaped your interest in pursuing graduate degree. You can explain about what kind of things you've learned so far from your classes, research, internships, etc and how that is/will be valuable in future studies. You can also talk about why you want to work with a certain prof at UMN. This is a 'in general' type of question. Statement 2: Now, be specific. Why American Studies, and why at UMN? You should focus 2/3rd of the essay on why are you interested in your program, and remaining 1/3rd on why you have chosen UMN. You can certainly relate that from your course and research experiences, you have decided to study American Studies, and how it will help/keep you working in Ammerican Studies in the future. There is certainly a gray, unexplained area between the two, and the adcomm might not care that much on how much 'overlap' there is between the two essays. Just try to be original and less redundant in both essays. You'll be fine. When I applied to UMN, the statement #1 asked to me was the same as yours but statement #2 was about how am I going to bring diversity to their campus. I did not have a departmental section like you do.. most probably because the field of study.

(chorus) hi Zouzax

You guys have someone to share stuff with.. I have none!! This (and most other forums) seem to have very few Plant people, and it's a rarity to find folks who are applying to same schools. I am almost like a one man band man!

nope.. just 2: breathe in, and breathe out. that's how i've been surviving. but easier said than done.. I CANNOT WAIT ANY LONGER!!!!!

Hey all. Thanks to 'ScreamingHairyArmadillo', I came up with this idea. We all are super addicted to checking out application status and emails bazillion times a day, and that's not good. So, lets face that we are addicts and vent the anxiety here. This should be self-explanatory. I'll start: Hi, my name is bhikhaari and I am an application addict. I have been clean for 8 hours now (barely woke up). I think I can hold up until noon. I need help!

Yea, we all are freaks freaking out other freaks here!! Hi, my name is bhikhaari. And I am a freak.