eklavya

this is indeed a terrific idea. i'll be attending a huge conference in my field in mid january, and i know for sure that few of the many faculty i wish to work with will be there. it'd be ultra to make my advisor grease up my app credentials and slip it into the minds of those faculty.

does this professor teach in your dept? school? elsewhere? if she's someone you can meet in person, i suggest that you go and ask her nicely 'hi, just checking if you got my email about the LoRs? would you be willing?' if yes, then 'the deadlines are such and such'.. and so on. also, try to be patient, as they might have been really busy. two of my LoR writers were long distance fellas, and i emailed them.. one prof emailed me back the same night, and other prof took about a week. but both agreed, and submitted the letters in time. EDIT: unlike what above poster says, i would only call them as the last resort. pestering them is the absolutely last thing you'd want to do. but that's just my opinion.

yea, really? pocket check? that's bizarre, and obnoxious. i can't remember if they had a limit of 2 or 3 breaks.. too many breaks for a <3 hrs test is suspicious. but basically, you raise your hand (as they're watching you on the cam) or walk up to the window, and tell them you need out.

'course, there are exceptions. but my point in general was, since literally 1000s of universities around the world teach in english, even where english is not the obligate language spoken, the rule in general is that the nation has to be obligate/primarily english speaking. again, in general.

here!! plant genetics phd candidate. i hope there's some room for me!

two things - full funding, and a year long program. i started an MS with the advisor with whom i had worked as an undergrad because of these two very reasons. and like someone mentioned above, getting an MS - be it your school or elsewhere - is a great thing to do. in fact, i look back and smile at the decision i made. MS is a solid platform to boost up your grades, get papers out, learn thesis writing, expand your network, and most importantly, know exactly what kind of science you want to do later.

mention it on your resume. and SoP. once invited for interview, take the sample with you to give to the prof directly. prior to interview, your application materials (minus the sample) should suffice to make a good impression.

you go in time. you check in. put stuff in locker. take a coat/hoodie.. sometime they make the damn room very cold. walk into the judgment room. two sharpened pencils and two sheets of paper await you. let the test have its way with you. you can get out for lunch/toilet breaks. you can take breaks when you want. finish the test. before seeing your scores, you will be asked to enter the school codes (you can search for schools if you can't remember the codes). you can't take scrap paper with you when you leave. check out at the desk. get a booze.

honestly people, i swear, i encountered zero words that i had studied/memorized. so i don't know if you should really rely on this repetition situation. or perhaps little luck is what i lacked! drifting sideways a bit, i personally think it's in the applicant's best interest to determine how much emphasis the program puts on gre scores. depending on what type of program you are applying to (liberal arts vs science, and anything in between), the weight of gre largely varies. i am some biology student, and i know that the programs i apply to want to see that i do well on the math section than the verbal. of course, doing well overall wouldn't hurt either. moreover, and needless to say, the programs want to see that you have strong academic record and research skills.

yoga? hehe.. that was pretty funny. to handle the stress, simply assume that there is no stress. i mean, how many times in your life have you taken similar/more important tests? eat well, sleep well, and ask jesus to be your wingman. you'll sail easy. myself, was in europe partying a week before my gre. came to the states, but studied nada before the test. simply walked in, and took it. wasn't too bad. i excelled on quantitative. verbal? meh. but i got what my top univ asked for.

from my experience, i've discovered that the programs you apply to require you to send them an official transcript with the application whereas the (main) grad admissions does not want you to do this. or vice-versa. therefore i ended up sending official transcripts to all schools i applied anyways.. just to be on the safe side. and most of these have deadlines similar to yours. it's better to get things in early, and make sure they have reached there ahead of the deadline rather than panic at the last moment.

barren field

use adobe acrobat professional to do this. if you don't have the program, someone around should have it - parents, profs, university copy center, etc. if no one has it, torrent does my scanned transcript (4 pgs) was >6mb but allowed size was 800kb. using acrobat, i reduced the size to about 300kb, with no deterioration in quality. good luck

the answer is no. read the instructions on grad program website again. toefl is exempt if you study in a school in a nation that has english as its primary language. an example: indians have a long history of communicating in all forms of english, but they still are required to turn in toefl scores. unless you can make the grad program waive the toefl requirement, you are going to have to send the scores.

i am adding my reply with my limited knowledge on the german (esp. max planck) admission procedure. i did an internship last summer with max planck institute for chemical ecology. i gathered this info from the folks (from US and other countries) i worked with. but boy, is europe shweet!! first off, honestly, european schools shouldn't be regarded as cushion/backup because they are hard to get into. not because they are necessarily better than any US schools we have here, but because the procedure is horribly excruciating and the papertrail never ends. you'll have to jump through so so many hoops and hurdles. and are you applying for MS, PhD? if you don't already have an MS degree and are applying for a PhD, forget it. germans like to see that you have academic progression in a 'linear' model, i.e., BS - MS - PhD. about the decision deadline, it differs. as far as i know, all max planck centers are (/have to be) affiliated to local universities. but they don't like to follow university procedures and deadlines all the time. so they do things the way they like.. and is often totally random. if you haven't heard from them, simply email them or just wait. patience pays off sometimes. that said, good luck! max planck institutes are great at what they do.

damn, you folks are early birds!! i turned in mine (7 apps) few weeks ago, and the last LoR made it to the schools last week, for plant breeding phd. prior to submitting the applications, i had talked to few profs in few programs via email, and they indicated interviewees would be invited starting late jan/early feb. this means will i get to hear starting mid december? but inside, i know i won't hear squat at least until jan second week. the wait is indeed a killer! @gatorgirl: from florida?

in addition to what the above post says, there are some (all? - idk) states that allow you to work more than 40 hours when the school is not session. however, this is applicable if you secure an in-state co-op or internship and still (have time to) work on campus. you see, 40 on campus and 40 outside.. if you can manage.

i do mine this way: education, scholarships/awards, research interests, work/research (this includes internships, ta, ra, etc), publications/conferences, community/volunteer works, bioinformatic skills, and leftover (eca, languages, etc) if there's space left. i don't necessarily enlist 'skills' or 'techniques' as you guys are talking about, since research and internship experiences indicate that anyway. although, i do mention where and what projects i worked on, and with whom, if 'whom' is a bigshot name in science.

1200 should be fine, as it is nothing more than a mere criterion for filtering out not-so-good candidates. my bioinformatics friend got into a top 10 computational biology program last year with ~1200 score. though, he was a US citizen.. and had good grades and excellent research experiences. still, retaking might be better if you are confident of scoring more.

fyi, there isn't (as far as i know) a tissue culture program/degree running solo in US schools. although the concept might be taught during your project/research. browse research sites of the labs you're interested in and see if they have whatever you are looking for.