Catria

The question is straightforward. In an attempt to save some time, I had the GRE (and TOEFL) score reports sent to all 11 schools I applied to back in late October. They should have received by now... yet, when I check the status on some of these 11 schools (knowing for a fact that 3 of them have the score reports marked as received, WUSTL, Tufts and UChicago), some of them say that they have not received the scores. So I suppose that it can take some time to process supporting materials upon receipt of the application...

This is assuming that you are about to get a graduate degree from a different school than from your undergrad. Of course, the question is mooted if, for some reason, you stayed at your undergrad for a graduate degree (be it because you are attending a graduate-level, professional program or because your undergrad has a star professor in your subfield)... Are you more proud of your undergrad school or of your graduate school?

I was confused because that recommender assumed that the effect of a connection is greatest if that connection was in the same subfield as you, or closely related, because they have a greater ability to bat for your application (as long as you clearly articulate your research desires).

That sort of practice is more common for business school; I'm surprised it even happened for PhD apps...

Suppose that one of your recommenders have a connection to one of the depts you're applying to. However, that recommender tells you that his connection's research is unrelated to the subfield you want to study. How helpful is one such connection? Perhaps it is not going to be as helpful as a connection in the same subfield as you, but is it still helpful somewhat?

Regarding withholding of taxes, what paperwork is involved in this?

Do you think you need a PhD in your new field to do what you want to do? Also, how selective is the program you are in?

Are there some internal fellowships that require you to maintain a certain GPA to keep? For some students, not getting straight As can mean the end of their funding...

For this reason they pretty much expect a higher graduate GPA vs. undergraduate GPA if there is a graduate GPA...

My PI once said that the reason for why direct-PhD is so prevalent in the US is some decision made by NSF (or another grant-awarding agency) somewhere in the 60s or 70s that affected the way professors received grant money to fund graduate students. If a professor asked for, say, $25k to fund a masters student, the prof wouldn't get anywhere close to $25k, if the prof got anything at all to pay for a masters student from the grant, whereas if the prof asked for the same $25k to fund a PhD student, the prof will get a sum much closer to the amount originally requested, although not always the full amount. The NSF claimed back then that PhD students were more productive than MS students. Perhaps that is correct, perhaps it is not. It is undeniable that BSc+MSc+PhD is better from a student perspective, but the time to a PhD from BSc is usually longer in MSc+PhD systems than in direct-PhD ones, assuming fast-tracking is not in use.

I stand corrected...

I wonder which chamber is most responsible for Congress' role in civilian scientific policy: the House or the Senate... My family claims that, while Congress has been less incompetent in civilian scientific matters than my home country's government, the situation could change depending on which chamber plays the greater role in civilian scientific policy: for them, if the House plays a greater role, then it can't be that much worse; on the other hand, if it is the Senate, then the situation could become catastrophic.

I understand that there isn't a whole lot of people wanting a PhD in classics but surely one is ready to tell us what their credentials are like, as well as the programs applied to, for the benefit of future applicants...

But can having more acceptances give you more leverage to negotiate better offers from a department?

It's easier to second-guess a non-reach than a reach... Then again, how important is balance in an application list depends on the field, and often subfield within a field.

What about a subject test?

Maybe the one that spent 200+ hours was out of school for years or came from a weak undergrad...

General GRE: 3-5 hours Physics GRE: 40-45 hours

It is obvious that there are schools that are easier to get into than others, given a research area. However, are you the sort of applicant that had a top-heavy list? This dinosaur of a recommender advised me that, if one is applying to 10-12 schools (two depts at one school count as two schools here) one should have 5-6 reaches and 5-6 non-reaches (he also claims that there is no such thing as a safety, perhaps correctly though) and the most critical, as well as those that require careful consideration, are the non-reaches. Perhaps he gave that advice to me because the last student he wrote recs for at US schools was shut out and had a top-heavy list (in his defense, that particular student was unable to register for the physics GRE on time). Anyhow, how many reaches did you apply to? How many non-reaches?

And some schools won't allow you to list all of them, if you're applying to a large number of schools; in fact, there are schools where you have limited spots to do so (Tufts have 3, Notre Dame has 4, Princeton has 8) and you then have to strategize.

How did you prepare for it?

Applying to 10-12 schools really is as much work as a 3-credit senior-level course in the field of one's PhD (or MA if one's field is one of those who prefer a MA first before embarking in a PhD, or if one is applying to graduate programs in countries where direct PhD passage is not encouraged) but, really, you have to do the bulk of the work with the first application, at least as far as US STEM graduate programs are concerned... Maybe the effort required to apply in humanities or in social sciences (due to the need for a writing sample) is more dependent on the number of schools applied to than in STEM disciplines.

Here is the answer from UChicago (I am applying to the astro department there because it's the better cosmological fit between the physics dept and the astro dept): So it didn't have much of a bearing after all...

When I went on ETS' website to order GRE score reports to be sent to institutions, with the appropriate set of scores, I have entered an institution. The problem is, I forgot to enter a receiving department when the university's website did not explicitly say that department codes were not in use. Is there any way to tell ETS to append the department code (given an order number and the institution where I need to have the dept code appended) to an institution in a pre-existing order? Or is there another way to have that mistake fixed?