Neist

I don't see it any different, either, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily fair. Then again, life is pretty unfair. I had a friend in high school who took costly test prep courses and after maybe a dozen ACT attempts, he got high enough of a score to get a full ride. His first attempt was no higher than mine, but his parents could afford to put in that extra effort, and it paid off. My parents could afford to let me take it once. This is pretty much sentiments. But, as I stated, I don't mind. If paying for someone to look at your application is the only option you have, and you can afford it, so be it. However, having a willing mentor is considerably cheaper. I actually took a course at my university from the director of our McNairs Scholars Program to help my application, and I found it invaluable. I mean, that still cost money, and not an insignificant amount. Tuition certainly isn't cheap. Whatever gives you the ability to polish your application, I say. The reason these services don't bother me all that much is that there's plenty of professors who will generally help you the same way for free, but the services are definitely more straightforward and easy.

Really sorry to hear that. Not sure if anything can be done about that. If she's willing and there was extenuating circumstances on her part, perhaps she can do something on her end? You have unfortunately experienced what I'm fairly positive every single one of us fears. I'm really, really sorry.

Yup! Certainly takes ages for them to get back to us. I'll know all the details of my acceptances by that point. I'm not sure what the awardee rate of HoS people are for the NSFGRFP, but we can get them. I think there was only around 3-4 awardees year before last. Not a large number, certainly, but I'm not sure how many apply, either.

I think what you're wearing in the picture is probably fine. You look presentable wearing that, and that's what matters. Besides, if you overdress, it's probably going to be far more obvious than under dressing. You might look at portraits of faculty members at the department you're visiting (on their website) and consider seriousness of their attire. That might be a clue. Just my two cents, but I certainly would accept the advice of others on these boards. However, from my admittedly anecdotal experience, I think what you're wearing in that picture is perfectly acceptable.

I know nothing of biology graduate programs, but I've worked in a law school full-time for the last decade. As such, i see a lot of potential applicants passing through, and, at least for law school standards, which are fairly high, I think you'd be fine wearing that. I wouldn't wear that interviews for an MBA program, but I bet it's fine for bio. But someone else might want to chime in. Like I said, I know nothing about standards in biology departments.

I used Magoosh and Vocabulary.com Only those two, and I really liked both of them. If you use Magoosh to its limits, you probably don't need anything else. I used Vocabulary.com because I really didn't care for Magoosh's flashcards. I basically remade their flashcards on Vocabulary.com

At least you'll have a story to tell people later on. Driving that much in that period time sounds like a personal version of hell. The letter I needed was for my NSFGRFP, too! We history of science folk get spoiled. We can apply for it as well. I had a backup, too, if I needed to resort to it. I actually didn't get my letter from my capstone prof. I had asked for letters way back in August, and I began my capstone in August with a professor I had never taken before. Of course, but the time letters were due, he knew me pretty well.

The circumstance that lit the pyre was an email I eventually sent to my adviser. I had not heard from my letter writer in over two weeks, and my letter was due the next day, I believe. I asked my adviser if she knew if they were okay. This person had some medical issues the previous semester, so as I hadn't heard from them in a while, I didn't know if something had happened. Apparently my adviser made some inquiries which my letter writer didn't appreciate. It was a messy, anxiety-filled week or so after. This letter writer is quite a delightful person, though. I don't think they'd resort to bad letters, but you know, irrational fears, and all that.

One of my letter writers was on sabbatical so I was sending reminders every week or two. This letter writer didn't appreciate that very much, so I backed off. I admit, a secret fear of mine is that she changed her LoR because of my reminders, but I don't think she's the type of person who would do that. At least I hope. I ate happy hour tacos and beer myself. It was pretty satisfying.

The programs I applied to haven't historically contacted acceptances until at least two weeks from now, so. No worries here.

Oh my, that's horrible. I better catalog that back into my memories and approach any email with a little bit of apprehension. Hope that's not the case with you! But I'm sure it's fine. Best to be positive, I find.

I certainly hope so! One of my letter writers graduated from Cornell in 2000. And I wouldn't sell yourself short. I started at a community college, too. And I've spent the last decade finishing my degree (married with kid). Also, it's not like HoS or STS departments are law schools. They don't accept 100+ students a wave. Their acceptance numbers and applicant pools are low enough that I imagine it's pretty easy to have broad inconsistencies in matriculation rates from year to year. I think we'll all be fine, and if we don't get into first choice schools, it might certainly have been due to considerations other than our performance.

Cornell STS is a top choice for me, but it's definitely not the most competitive program I looked into. I could study at U. Michigan in the English department and get their STS certificate, but its rough getting into that program. Their websites states that in Fall 2015 they accepted 12 out of 305. Ack.

Ugh. Double post.

I'm from a state school, but I'm from a highly-ranked HoS program at a state school (University of Oklahoma). We're probably one of the best places in the US to study early modern. My letter writers are fairly known in STS/HoS circles, so it's definitely an advantage for me I think it's probably the same 30-40 applicants as well. You have to consider that interest in the HoS or STS from outside the discipline is somewhat niche. People from outside the these disciplines float into these programs because their interests more easily gravitate towards these programs. All for the better, I say. I like diverse peer groups. However, those people are probably a numeric minority overall when compared to those who currently attend undergraduate HoS or STS programs. The thing is that a lot of undergrad programs are at higher ranked schools, so I'm not surprised that a lot of graduate students are pulled from higher ranked schools. It just makes sense, numbers wise. There's not a lot of HoS or STS people in community colleges.

Cornell. They take about 3-4 people a year. They average 7-9%, as per their field metrics. I'm thinking specifically at some Anthropology or Psychology programs. Some have like 1% acceptance. That's... crazy. I'm in no way good enough of a student to perform better than 99% of my peers, but ~8%? I might have a chance there. Maybe.

One of the programs I applied to had pretty low numbers the last few years. I visited them a few months ago and they seemed to want to fill the ranks back out. So I'm hopeful. History of Science and STS certainly aren't dying disciplines, but even selective schools still have acceptance rates in the 7-10% range. That's not too horrid. Cornell has some pretty fantastic field metrics. http://gradschool.cornell.edu/academics/field-metrics I love digging through them.

Don't think a STS thread exists for this cycle yet. Anyone else out there?

I do the same thing with assignments. I finish paper's quite early, but continually revise them. Forever. I never understood people who turn in assignments a few days early. That's crazy to me. It was a good simplification, though. The major point about rolling admissions is that they give funding before any deadline (meaning before they've seen the rest of the pool). It's pretty much always better to apply as early as humanly possible in rolling admissions so there's better odds of funding.

Some people says it matters. I don't think it matters all that much. Like @haltheincandescent stated, rolling admissions are a different matter entirely. None of my programs do that, and I don't think their applicant pools are large enough that they wouldn't simply review them at one single point, beyond the application deadline. Two of my applications were submitted fairly early, because they didn't require writing samples. However, the remainder of my applications were pretty close to the deadline because my writing sample was my capstone, and I just finished my capstone in December. I didn't really have it polished up to my standards until late December. I'm not really concerned.

Yeah, I work full time, have small child, and take undergrad courses typically close to full time. It's all about efficiency. It's definitely not easy, but it's certainly doable. I've only had a few semesters that bordered on impossible. I would say these people are insane. Although I guess it depends on the discipline. I wouldn't do it as history. Too much reading. I mirror these sentiments exactly. I'm pretty sure my GRE scores were affected by the circumstances of my life, but I still produced relatively strong applications. I'm positive I'll be going to grad school somewhere (already got one acceptance, yay!). I can only reflect upon my own life, but having a kid really motivates one. No one in my family went to college, and I really want to be a good example to my daughter. If I have to drag myself through hell, I'll do it.

I did that, too. Wasn't necessary because I'm already here, but I did it anyway. Official transcripts in this age of digitization seems so dated, at least when it comes to the application process. Cornell accepted scans of my official ones, as did RPI. Both of course require mailed transcripts if you matriculate, but official, mailed transcripts for all applicants seems like it'd just create an enormous amount of paperwork and sorting. At least I think it would.

I've more or less turned off my brain, although I haven't been horribly stressed. According to Gradcafe's results, most of the programs I applied to do not contact applicants until early February. Although I can't find any results for Drexel's STS program. Doesn't seem to be any reported statistics. Weird.

I just checked the status of the application of the school I'm currently attending... They said they haven't received the transcript from here. To here. Which isn't supposed to be necessary if you're applying here. Hm. Think I'll call someone.

I wouldn't lose hope yet. This is pure conjecture, but I'd imagine that immediate invites are shoe-ins. I'd guess that as a program approaches their limit, they tend to be a bit more deliberate in their selections. At least it would make sense if they did so. Logic follows that no news isn't necessarily bad news. Might be, but it might not be. Also, 22 schools? Wow. Just wow. Six schools was more than enough work for me. Twenty two would have been a full-time job.