joro

I sure wish I had that verbal score at least. I expected myself to get 60 points higher in the verbal than I did on the actual test. I personally wouldn't retake it, especially since it's nearing the deadline. I did have plans of retaking it, but I would need to maintain my quant score while raising my verbal score by at least 100 - 200 points. If you are thinking about retaking it, make sure you're absolutely sure that you'll raise your score significantly. You don't want to take the test and end up getting just 20 points higher or a lower score. I think that your GRE score won't affect you too much. If your GPA was low, then I'd probably worry a bit more.

I'd say your profile is a lot better than mine. Good luck on your GRE. Have you finished your SOP?

What would you call low GRE scores? I believe my score is low, but did get into respectable schools last year.

I have 3 portfolios to submit, but all applications have been submitted online. I just need to request my transcripts to be sent, which I will probably do some time this week.

I printed out my school's transcript request form and it states that only 10 transcripts max allowed each semester. I have 14 transcripts total (some schools require 2) that need to be sent. I've already paid and submitted all my applications. All that was left was to send off my transcripts and make sure my recommendations are submitted. Is anyone experiencing a similar problem? I have 3 schools I can probably postpone sending my transcripts to since they don't require it till next year.

I made some of mine a bit more personalized by adding a paragraph honed towards the school before my conclusion. Everything else is relatively the same for all my SOP unless I had to cut it down due to length.

I had no issues with the online request. I was accessing it yesterday and today. I did have a little problem at first because of the way I had to enter my name. My first name is split into two names and I had to add a dash when I registered for the GRE. My suggestion is to make sure you're entering your information correctly, if you recently took the GRE and haven't received your scores in the mail yet then it will be difficult to access the site with just your web registration number. The actual test registration found on your score sheet you get in the mail is the only thing that worked for me.

I just finished submitting all my applications online yesterday. I also sent all, but 4 GRE scores (I need to find out which departments to send them to). I'm still in freak out mode because I need to finish my portfolio and send it off at least by December 1. All my recommendations are not too and one of my references is out of the country. I'm hoping everything will be done by mid-November so that I won't be in this state of panic.

I did not apply for that particular program, but I had a friend who was accepted into that same program at CMU. I just received an email from the University of Michigan this morning asking me to consider their school.

No, it isn't strange at all. I was contacted by CMU last year for a PhD program. So what happens is that after the GRE, they'll send some information about you to Universities if you meet a certain criteria of some sort I think (you need to opt in for them to do this and you probably did). It doesn't matter who you sent your scores to, some random schools will contact you. You should be receiving information packets from these schools too. I'm not sure if you should be flattered by it, but I would think it would be to your advantage if a school and program you're interested in contacts you.

I'm currently submitting all my applications online, except for the UC schools because I need to finish my Personal History Statement. I'm hoping to finish all that in the next 2 days. Then I need to finish a portfolio for a school I'm applying to. Oh gosh, it feels like I'm running out of time.

Oh cool, thanks. I will definitely try applying for some of these.

When do you suppose a good time to make such a visit would be? I'd like to do the same for one school. Should I make the visit before the due date for my application or should I do it after?

If you don't have any good work experience, then they'll look at where you graduated from and your GPA. If you have the work experience, then I'll say that it doesn't matter. I have friends who graduated from a CSU who now work at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Netapp, etc.

Wow, that is totally great news. I don't think you should send your first draft SOP. I recommend you go through at least 3 major revisions before you send it to that Professor. Good luck!!!

I've never been to a grad school fair, but I would like to attend one. How do you find out about these things? I've been to a conference where the exhibit hall had schools passing out information about their program. I spoke to several schools about grad school. I basically told them what I was looking for in a grad program and waited to hear what they had to say. If the program fit, then I talked more and asked for a business card of sort so that I may contact them after.

Where here's my complaint: After completing my SOP, I still have a Personal History Statement to write. I'm still unsure how to approach this, but I do have a vague idea of what I want to discuss. I always have problem starting a process, but have no problems keeping the momentum going forward once it is started. Here's hoping to finishing it by the end of this week and submitting all applications online. Then there's also my portfolio which I need to work on. I need to take high resolution photos of my artwork and submit it online to a site for them to create an old type of slide. I can't do any of that yet because I'm still missing 3 pieces of artwork!! I don't mind drawing, but it's the whole starting process that gets to me. I'm just afraid of not starting it the "correct way". My goal is to finish EVERYTHING by the end of this month; all applications submitted, portfolio complete, transcripts requested, and Professors alerted to submit the LOR. So much to do, so little time!!

I asked for help from a bunch of friends. I went through about 6 revisions and about 4 - 6 people looked over my essay at each stage. On my 5th revision, I sent it to my Professors for some input and they said that it was very well written. Like what other people have mentioned, be careful about those editing services. There was a thread posted maybe just a few weeks ago asking for someone to proofread their SOP. They had some success, perhaps you will too.

Your stats look a lot better than mine. From your list, I was accepted into USC and UCI last year for a MS. I think you should get in there no problem, good luck. Thought I'd add some of my stats: School: unranked (possibly 3rd tier?) Major: CS + minor in Math Type: California Resident GPA: 3.11 Research: no publications Professional Experience: 2 internships -IBM (Software Engineer Intern) 11/07 - 5/08 -Stanford University (Research Assistant) 6/08 - 6/09

I think the best way to actually find out is to email grad admissions for the schools you're applying to.

I would say your gpa is a 3.79 unless I did my math wrong. 94.75/100 = x/4.0 x = (4.0(94.75))/100 I also don't know if this is what you're supposed to do.

My Professor told me that I could enhance my SOP by including a few screen shots of my computer graphics projects. Is it alright to add pictures to your SOP if it's relevant to your research (mine would be computer graphics)?

When you say research experience, do you need published research for it to count? I was an RA at some point after graduating for about a year, but no research was published.

Wow that sounds really tough. Just try to stay organized, keep a schedule (as tough as it may be), and try not to go insane. If you still have to write your SOP and you don't have any ideas. I'd bring a little notepad with you where ever you go and jot down ideas during your few seconds or minutes of free time.

I started pretty early in the process. I've registered for all schools I've considered and entered any information I possibly can. I also have a folder filled with folders for each school which contains anything I need to submit or work on (e.g. sop, other prompts, supplemental forms). I've only done 6 rewrites (normally have 5 - 6 people look at my paper each time) for my SOP, but it seems that my LoR are happy with what I've written thus far. Now I just need to tailor the SOP which shouldn't be so difficult since I already have my reasons for attending almost each respective school. I also have a list of schools with addresses and how many transcripts needed to send. I'm hoping to finalize everything by mid-October, then do another once over and send everything in early November. It is an overwhelming process and then we need to play the waiting game too. That's probably an even worse feeling since the decision is totally out of your hands.