a fragrant plant

Thanks for your input. In the first paragraph I discussed how my interest evolved over time. Do you think I should replace it with: "My interest in xxx is influenced by XXX and deeply rooted in my XXX"

Can you elaborate? Thanks in advance!

Mine is "In retrospect to the development of my intellectual inquiry, I realized that my interest in ...." My boyfriend said he wouldn't start the SOP with "in retrospect", what do you guys think?

Thanks. Did you wait two weeks before you used the online service? I took mine on the 12th. Looks like they don't have my info yet.

Yes, I list the community college I attended on my CV.

Without the zeros? What do you mean? Mine starts at 880000000.

No offense, but I found the NRC rankings quite outdated.

The program sounds fantastic! I'd definitely apply. I do agree with you that the Pacific North West is hard to beat. Besides, 58 is not bad. One of the programs I applied is ranked below 60 nationally but the department has consistently produced professors who teach at places like Stanford and Berkeley. Who knows what things will be like in a few years? There are many factors that can influence a school's ranking. Take Indiana for example, I bet they have received more applications to their political science department this year when Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic.

There is no national ranking for my field (if you know of one, please let me know) so I can only tell you the national ranking of the universities I'm applying to. School ranks TOP 20 - 4 between 30-50 - 3 between 50-70 - 3 I have no safety school. They're all competitive programs that admit less than 10% of the total applications each year. You didn't say why you want to apply to the school below 50. Do you treat it as a safety school or do you find a fit between your research interests and theirs? If it's the latter reason that prompts you to apply, I'd encourage you to stick with your decision. If you apply to the below 50 school just because you want to be accepted by somewhere, I'd save the money. There is no point of going to a school that you doubt.

I've just signed up for a GRE account but the same problem occured when I tried to order additional report. I live in the UK so I don't want to waste money calling the ETS at this point. I'll write them another email to address the problem.

Hey looks like ETS has updated the website. Has anyone tried to order additional score report with the new interface yet? https://mygre.ets.org/greweb/login/login.jsp

The publication part is also annoying. They have a word limit for your publication's title. What the heck!? I sent them a hard copy of my CV. It's not a requirement but as you said I just don't see how they can use the information to distinguish between applicants.

Well, let's hope that the GRE is just a requirement that matters the least.

I have attended quite few important conferences/seminars/forums in my field but have never formally presented my research there. I was purely an audience. Do you think I should mention these experiences in my SOP? Are they inconsequential?

I found Powerprep an accurate predictor of my acutal GRE score.

It took more than a month for ETS to send me my official score report. I'm pretty sure that my score will be late for a number of schools. I tried to order extra score reports on its website a few days ago but the system didn't work. ETS is driving me crazy.

Thanks. But I don't think I have the registeration number. All I have is a confirmation number. The website doesn't let me order with a Confirmation number.

I took the GRE in Nov 12 and reported my score to 4 schools which deadlines are fast approaching. I am wondering when I can report my score to other universities? Do I need to wait till I receive my official score report?

Yep, I inserted "peanut, writing sample, p.1" on the top header and the essay title at the bottom.

Ziz - I asked exactly the same question a few weeks ago. Check the thread out:

If the university allows you to submit your writing sample online, is it still a good idea to post them a hard copy? Some universities say explicitly that they don't want any hard copies besides transcripts while others are more tacit about it. What do you think? I'm going to post my supplementary materials tomorrow!

I feel so sick of reading my writing sample again and again. I'm going to print it out tonight and post it with my transcripts tomorrow morning. Now I understand why it takes some people ten years to complete a doctorial dissertation. Some people just won't let go if there isn't a deadline. I'm glad that I'll be done with them next month!

Hi Maya, I do not have this problem. Even though my writing example is an excerpt from my Master dissertation, it is an essay on its own. I suggest you put the abstract (no more than 100 words) at the bottom of the cover page.

Mine has: Essay title:[XXX] Author's Name:[Peanut] Purpose:[Writing Sample for the Department of Anthropology] Source:[This paper is an excerpt from the Master dissertation titled XXX] Do you think I need to put anything else on the cover page? Many thanks!

I can only speak of what I think about the issue. I think it would be problematic if you had lots of Ws on your transcripts. Moreoever, if the class you withdrew was a very important class in your subject, the adcomm would take it as a sign of your lack of intellectual capacity. I don't know about your major, but in my field the SOP and writing sample are most important elements of the application. I don't think the adcomm will scrutinize the transcript to nitpick a W or a particularly low GPA as long as your cumulative and major GPA look good. Since you're going to retake the class in Jan, you can always submit an updated transcript. I personally think a W is better than a low pass if you are confident that you can earn a topnotch GPA later on when things wind down a little bit. This is just my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt.