Loric

They may really not have the funding. He may not be mentioning that he also suspects one of the current students wont be continuing (by force on his part, or by choice on their part.) If you want to let it play out, let it play out. The application isn't -that- expensive, right? You can say you're not showing up at the last minute, no harm no foul, if the funding doesn't materialize. Heck, keep trying other schools and see what they offer.

Well, in theory that's a good reason to want to go to school - the desire for knowledge. In reality, you need to temper it with some realism. You say research.. what are you looking for..? Answers to what? What will it provide the world? Essentially you need to frame it the context of how it benefits the university, the subject itself, etc.. They want to produce people who contribute to the science, not just feed your intellectual curiosity.

They probably have something planned along those lines - they know you'll want to see the facilities, etc.. Not the whole school, but the department. You can always ask, but I found it ended up being a guided tour even if I had asked for one or not.

I'm pretty sure they can't tell who your supervisor is. It's also entirely possible to have a better personal relationship with people who aren't your direct superior. I think it'll be fine. If it's not, then what? Is hunting your sup down and then trying to get the rec going to be worth it? I don't think it'd make that big of a difference, if at all.

If it makes you feel better, you can write "Blah blah blah prepared me for the rigors of bleh bleh, as you can see in detail on my resume." They will probably have both right in front of them.

My opinion..? Whatever your train of thought is.. probably best to ditch and start over. The SOP is about what you want to do while there and how your background proves you're up to the task. Your resume/CV is for the extensive chronicling of what you've done in minute detail. Broad brush strokes. They see all your stuff at once.

They can easily give you more than 1, btw. Had an out of state tuition waiver, graduate assistant, and was hired by the program itself. So i got the lower tuition, got paid to teach, and got paid to do "lab work" so to speak (the equivilent for my major.)

The 2nd one is almost certainly just an out of state tuition waiver. It's your last choice i think. The first is the obvious first choice - free money! 3 and 4 are "jobs." 5 is if you're applying as a diverse student.. you "not white" gay, transgendered, female, etc..? And between 3 and 4 is just the difference between lab work and teaching.

Dress shirt, no tie required, it's fall - snazzy dress sweater. Skirt/pants (no clue what your gender is.) You just need to look presentable - like the faculty, not a student. When I did school visits for my first grad school attempt, it was expressly for the sort of reason you're going. The whole realm of what I did functioned on people being vetted and "ask to apply" before putting in any formal paperwork since the professors essentially chose their students. I brought a folder with me - resume, print out of scores, print out of transcript, etc.. I was a design major so I had a portfolio I lugged around as well. But the folder was all the info they needed to "judge" me on the fly. One said my GRE score was low.. i think he was full of it as it never came up at any other school and they all saw it too. I know my GPA was low, so.. maybe he meant that? Whatever, no big deal - he still admitted me. But a folder - maybe get yourself a snazzy leatherbound folio for taking notes, holding that folder, etc.. A lot of times when it's this sort of process and not the "apply at random, be accepted/denied at random" (that all other programs seem to do) they're looking for faculty. Someone who is going to teach a class as a graduate assistant. They vet you in that manner - and if they want you in their faculty lounge. I don't know anyone who got into graduate level design school without going through a dinner/drinks thing with the department at the end of their "meeting" day (starts at like 11am, you end up being passed off to various people, bought to get the head nod approval, shown this or that..) and around 4pm it's off to Tias Tex Mex for drinks and apps with all their faculty friends who will later chime in with if they like you or not. This may not happen, i'm just telling you so you're not surprised. PLAN NOTHING ELSE THAT DAY.

Ran across a base cutoff for a program once - it's art, so, it's a low ball but still... - Combined = 290. Above that, you're fine if you're not going for math/science.

My app had a similar sort of prompt about academic probation and I put "no" of course, cuz.. I didn't, i withdrew. Unbeknownst to myself, my transcript said that I was and was listed as failing an entire semester (I thought i had withdrawn proper-like.. gee, thanks old school.. i knew there was a reason I left you.) So I panic, email admissions advisor. He tells me to try and get it fixed (at this point "fat chance" - ever try to reason with the records department for grades from over 3 years ago?) He says all else fails they just require another document/letter/etc.. explaining the how/why/what of it that they consider when looking at your whole app. And if i had never mentioned my other grad school they'd have never known it existed and i'd never have had this problem. Oh well. Can't go back in time and undo what's been done.

I did the whole follow-up email again today and included a bit about just trying to tie up loose ends and if he could let me know he recieved it, that'd be peachy. He replied, says it's on his radar, and should be done by thursday. Woot.

I don't know much, but i do know "did not follow instructions" is a major pet peeve of the folks who read these things. Find something that is 5 pages or less that you wrote.

You need to learn test tactics. Screw actually knowing anything. Toss out the idea that you need to "learn" anything other than how to take this test at this point. Eliminate bad answers. Things that are obviously wrong. This should narrow you down to 2-3 choices. 33-50% chance of being right. Then you plug them in.. "Nope.. nope.. Yup!" You just saved yourself all that time of actually figuring out the answer for yourself. The same goes for lit - if something sticks out as "not right" cross it off the list of possible answers. Tests are written that way.. if you cant find anything wrong with an answer other than "well i dont know that word.." - that's the point. It's trying to throw you. Make you doubt it because you don't know that word, so you'll take the bad answer with the word you know but also know isn't "quite right." When it's "sort of right but wonky" versus "answer with word i don't know" the answer is the one with the word you don't know.

And a thought.. You say you really want to go to graduate school.. but why? If your answer is compelling enough, you stand a chance.

I recently asked for a letter from a prof i hadn't talked to in years - I had forgotten I had asked him for a rec years ago for a study abroad program, he actually pulled that up when i said "Gee, I don't recall a thing I wrote in your class" and he was like "Covered! Here's the letter I wrote while you were in my class - remember Bunraku?" So it actually helps if they've written one for you before. Makes their life easier to just pull that one up. You've gotta keep in mind that most profs (aside from adjuncts in more far flung topics) have been through all this themself and pretty much do this every year like clockwork, if not more often. You're not being rude or obnoxious by asking.

Mention the internship, but don't try to spend your time "explaining" anything. Essentially see your life and events as a forward trajectory. They can decide on their own if it's not enough - this is a part where you're supposed to be tooting your own horn. Refocus on the prompt they gave you. Make sure you hit all those points clearly and concisely. "Should I be...?" Well, if it's not blatantly in the prompt, the answer is no.

Try not to mention that in your apps.. The academics sort of live by their gold stars, you have to remember that if you want to be part of their world.

Just give the school whatever it asks for. Connect party A to party B and offer to "assist" as needed. The app I'm looking at right now just wants an emailed doc/pdf from the rec's instituitional email address. No mention of letterhead.

I'd never heard of a Letter of Motivation until you mentioned it. Google says it's essentially the SOP of European schools. Google also says you can do away with the formalities of addressing an audience, etc.. So no Sir/Madam. Where it's "titled" and such is going to depend on how it's submitted. If you copy-paste into a text field, don't bother titling it. If it's submitted as a Word doc or PDF you'll want to put your name, info, etc.. somewhere in the document and with that you can "title" it as needed. In the header or footer or something. You don't have to have a big 16pt title centered above your text like an assignment essay. Imagine they're going to print it out and put it in a folder - what happens if they drop a page? So page numbers, your name, what it is, are important to be in header or footer of the pages. Think of it like if you were the person reading it, in a heap of papers, and you dropped a page or wanted to go back and reread something. "Who is this? What is this? Are these pages out of order?" That sort of thing. But my understanding is that it essentially -is- a SOP. So you'll want to try and avoid the sort of opening you're looking at. It's in a file, they know who you are, what you've applied for, etc.. so you don't have to spell it out at the start. You'll mention the course and why you want to take it, but you don't have to be so literal in answering it. What exactly does the prompt say and how does it fit into the rest of the app? Are there other areas where you can address information instead of this Letter? (CV, Resume, other personal essay). The art of these things is getting the info you need to get across in very strict word budgets. Think of your app as a whole. What does this part need to convey to make the full picture of who you are?

I agree that putting who you are out there instead of what you think they want to hear is important. There is such a thing as the "wrong grad school" and having to work so closely with people who dont share your ideals, visions, etc.. is going to be nothing but trouble. I am going to include an excerpt from a book I wrote in my application, part of the portfolio section. I ran the excerpt by some folks on these forums/chat from wildly different areas of study. They essentially lost their minds over what i'd written, how i'd written it, and really disliked my choice of syntax (correct - different, but correct.) Long story short, they hated it. Troubled by their feedback, I went to a friend who is a professional editor - who immediately confirmed their nonsense about my grammar was just that, nonsense. I also ran it past people I know in the field, and they liked it, said it was great, and read fine. So I stepped back and weighed things. People who I don't want to work with or even have as assigned lab partners telling me it's awful.. and the people I respect telling me it's good. If the people who don't like it are on the adcomm, oh well, no loss on my part if I don't get in.

No, it's ok - I feel your frustration right now myself. I dont think they drop students.. I think they don't like to write these things. Writing does not come naturally for a lot of people so it's a task to sit down and figure it all out.

Since you talked recently in person, I think it's more than fine to call - call their university phone number. Heck it's the weekend, do it now, you can leave a message I don't think you're being irrational or anything by asking, you need this and they said they'd do it. Offer to provide any info, etc, they may need when you mention it. That way it sort of comes off like "Oh, did I forget to get you everything you needed? I'm so sorry, what can I do to help?"

Waive. Just waive. It's a thing, just do it. No amount of logic or rationale will ever apply, just waive it for your own best interest at this moment.

For non-traditional students: Get your crap straight with any undergrad or former masters programs in regards to transcripts, etc... before putting in any kind of application with your intended programs. I had no idea my transcript was janky or that I'd be calling random department and having to send them proof I didn't steal their keys to get my transcript released. That has royally screwed up my intended timeline ("We didn't get your fax." "We didn't get your certified mail we signed for." "Oh, our secretary is out with the flu.. for a month." "No one has the password for that system, they're all in Egypt counting sand, try calling when they get back - when? We don't know!" "What, you think anyone here actually does work?!?!")