alexis
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Posts posted by alexis
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I know it's still really early, but the fact that others are hearing back from some of my programs is starting to really freak me out, but I'm trying really hard to remember that it is still REALLY early (the redundancy is a bi-product of the waiting-induced crazy).
Ditto. I'm such a defeatist, I see some psychology interviews going on at schools I applied to (not sure if it's even social psych), and I am now assuming I got rejected, which is WAY jumping to conclusions. (Admittedly I'm not really confident of my chances at those programs anyway, so it wouldn't be a huge surprise).
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Intersting... how do you incorporate the notes from your performance reviews? We have a pretty extensive review system where I work now, and I could see using some of those quotes.
I have a portion below my work history, which says 'NARRATIVES FROM PERFORMANCE REVIEWS', then 4 blocks positioned horizontally, each containing a quoted sentence, then giving the position of the person who said it. (If an employer/school needed the original performance review showing that it was said, I could provide a copy of it.) I had a friend who had this in her resume, I thought it was a good idea, and ever since I added it, people who I've shown (both in work & academic settings) have been impressed with it. Kind of makes your resume stand out as something a little bit different and shows what previous supervisors have thought about you.
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Hi. Long time lurker, now waiting, thought I'd chime in. I am an incredibly non-traditional applicant, with 22 years of human resources consulting and experience, so my perspective on all this is quite different from many of the folks here. For instance, the agony over completing apps and getting LOR's mystifies me, as I had to contact graduate professors from 20 years ago, and still managed to get my LOR's submitted on time, and I took the GRE without having set foot in a math class for over, well, lots of years. Nevertheless, Alexis, I am with you in applying to OB programs, both within and outside B-schools.
Your background sounds really interesting! What areas of HR have you been involved in?
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I have a few different futures I see for myself depending on how things go. If I get into certain programs, it's more likely I (may) get a teaching position at a decent R1 university and go that route someday. Or maybe I'll end up at the program (still a respectable one) where I'm currently getting my master's at and teach there, or go somewhere similar. I really like teaching to working adults: I don't feel like there are enough top programs in my field that caters to those and offer them research opportunities. I'd like to keep doing research, and I love to write, so it would be great to publish a book someday, whether in my field or even just an indulgent work of fiction. I'm also open to doing consulting work, since there are many opportunities for that as well. Honestly, there are quite a few things I'd be happy doing, which is kind of a nice feeling. I just need to get that PhD first!
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I think *most* everyone on here has been helpful and supportive as always. There are really only two posters that I've noticed who have tried to incite things. Whether intentionally or not, these individuals have been making things less pleasant.
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i wonder what the cut-offs are for top-tier programs or universities. in psychology / business / management programs, for instance, i wonder whether they automatically reject scores below 1400, or whether just screen out applicants that are way, way below the program's average.
I can't imagine a cutoff being that ridiculously high...for one of the top business programs, their AVERAGE accepted GRE is 1400, so for every 1500, you have a 1300 applicant accepted. (I'm sure that's not exact, but you get my point.) It seems 1200 would probably be on the higher end of cutoffs, but who knows. Some programs seem to be more "high GRE" conscious than others.
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Not even going to reply to the nonsense of ff's posts...
Anyway, back to the original topic, I'm glad everyone has found the link useful. I agree with others that it's really disturbing how so many programs insist "oh, we consider applications holistically..." when many DO have cut-offs and some grad student is sitting on their couch, automatically eliminating a bunch of people. I'm really starting to think this may be done in part to boast a low acceptance rate (because if they DID post cut-offs, students below that would be discouraged to apply). It got me thinking about one of my programs, who this year supposedly got 1,200+ applicants (it's a large business school, and a third of those are in finance), but they insist they don't have cutoffs. Yeah, right...I highly doubt the adcom is going to go through THAT many applications holistically. It would be nice if they were just honest about their process.
- 0100111000, melusine and NEPA
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Saw this thread, which is a couple years old but had various insights from faculty/grad students who have been a part of the admissions process. Thought I'd pass it along...
- genotype and Strangefox
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How low are the GRE scores?
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I don't want to get into specific positives, but I will say what I (hope) gives me the edge is my M.S. (come May) in my discipline. I've seen other profiles of people applying to similar programs as me, and I get depressed when I see that they went to I Am More Elite Than You Universities, have a 30,000 GRE, 5 billion publications, worked for Awesomer Than You Company (work experience is important to a lot of my programs)...so the only thing I can come up with to give me an edge is that I will have a master's and some unique work experiences/background. Yeah! Take that geniuses! (just kidding. sort of.)
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Agree with others to target it towards grad school. Whether you use a resume or CV depends on a few factors; for example, in business disciplines, a resume may be more appropriate, but in the humanities, a CV may be more appropriate.
I used a resume, and kept it pretty similar to the job version I have. However, I made the following changes:
- Moved education info up to the top, highlighted research/academic achievements, took out student activities that weren't really relevant
- Made sure my job history area was concise & included the most relevant aspects that would relate to my research/field of study
I have a unique part of my resume too where I actually put quotes that have been in previous performance reviews. It's a small part of my resume but is nice because it says things about me that supervisors said. For example, "Exceptional leader" "Displayed meticulous attention to detail..." etc. Anyway, just a random tidbit! I kept it because in my programs, they are looking for those types of skills (e.g. leadership), so I thought it couldn't hurt to keep these boxes.
You generally don't double space a resume though, so I'd say keep it the standard 1-2 pages, unless you use a CV, which I know is different.
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THEY WOULD NOT DO IT IF THEY DIDN'T BELIEVE YOU HAD (at least) A DECENT SHOT AT ACCEPTANCE.
Ditto. My strongest LOR writer (who maybe tends to divulge a little too much information to me about other students, but I selfishly don't mind) told me that one of my peers--who is also applying to similar PhD programs as me--had a list of schools that the professor thought was way out of this student's league. She (the professor) told the student straight up, "send me a more realistic list." The student had some top programs on there, and the professor wouldn't write her an LOR without some more medium/lower schools on there. I know she was ultimately trying to help the student out and be realistic, but that must have stung. My point is, though, most professors will probably be honest with you. If you are following your professor's advice about programs, and the other LOR writers don't disagree, this is a VERY GOOD SIGN. We all are panicking that we aren't going to get in anywhere, but I think you (OP) have really good chances based on your description and the number of programs you're applying to.
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Since your husband came over on a K-1 visa, he's eligible for naturalization after only 3 years as a permanent resident. It's 5 years for some people, but since he married a U.S. citizen it's only 3. Any reason he doesn't want it? They say you have to renounce your British citizenship when you get your US one, but apparently the UK government doesn't recognize that renouncement so you can have dual citizenship still.
This. He has an aunt and uncle in the US who have lived here for 30 years and never got citizenship, and he doesn't see the point either. It's just not really a priority for him. We also kind of have a philosophical beef with them making you renounce your citizenship, even if your home country doesn't recognize it. "Proud to be an American" will never exactly be in his vocabulary (though he's not anti-America or anything). If we end up really needing to do it, we'll reevaluate.
As for leaving the US for a long time, a permanent resident (10 year or conditional) can only leave the U.S. for a maximum of 6 months out of a year whereas a citizen can leave for however long they want. So, since my husband will still be a permanent resident at the time of my graduate study, he'd have to pay $400 to apply for a reentry permit. As is typical with the USCIS, there's "no guarantee" he'll be allowed back in after going over the 6 month limit even with the permit. Would be so much easier if he had citizenship already, but we have 2 more years to go. Then hopefully I'll start working on my UK citizenship.
Good to know! I hope things work out for you and your husband with your graduate studies, it's a real pain dealing with all the citizenship/USCIS nonsense. My husband and I will most likely be staying in the US for awhile (especially if I get accepted into PhD programs this round!), so hopefully we won't have to deal with this for awhile.
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He arrived in the US on a K-1 Fiance visa in March of 09. He's now a permanent resident. We're hoping if I go to grad school in the UK, we can get a re-entry permit document thingy so he doesn't lose his green card. Oh, immigration! Feel free to message me if you have any questions.
Alexis, does your husband have citizenship yet? It seems a bit complicated to leave the U.S. without citizenship...
To peanuttheanthro: My husband also came over on a K-1 visa in September of 2006 (after applying for the visa in February and getting it approved in May), then we got married in November 06. He was granted his greencard in April 07, started looking for work, and got a job to start in July 2007.
He just got his 10-year green card, which is really nice, because we don't have to worry about immigration issues for 10 years. (Note: we didn't have to get an interview for the 2-year or 10-year green card, which was awesome.)
TerriM, I'm not sure what would happen if we left the US for a long time. My husband doesn't have citizenship and doesn't plan on getting it, but you can apply to be a citizen after 5 years as a permanent resident I believe, so for us that would be in 2012. It's something I'd have to research if we did ever decide to move back to the UK. Is this something you've looked into? (Unless you're talking about traveling, in which case, it's super easy; once you have the green card, you can go anywhere just like any other American. While we were waiting for the green card after getting the K-1 visa, he could only stay within the US without things being a HUGE HUGE headache and risking a denial of re-entry, so we took our honeymoon at the US Virgin Islands, since it was technically still US territory
)Also, for anyone who is interested, a GREAT forum/resource is visajourney.com. It seriously saved me many times in the process. We also used britishexpats.com a lot.
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My husband immigrated to the US from England to marry me and has been out of college for a few years now.
Same here!
I'm trying to stay where we currently live in the US, for a few personal reasons & so he can keep his job, but if it doesn't work out this year, I plan on expanding my search and also applying to schools in the UK. -
Even though I know for a fact that three of my programs won't even MEET until late Jan/Feb at the earliest, and the others don't send out interview invites until at least late January, it still doesn't keep me from checking my email every day and hoping that the adcoms will magically convene earlier.
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The general GRE? Just once. I resolved that I was going to retake it if I didn't score at least 1350. (I wound up scoring 1460). So I didn't have to retake it, thank God.
I never bothered taking the subject test.
Heh you set the bar much higher than me. I only took it once, and was pretty happy with my score at the time (1330). I was applying to master's programs then, and for those, a 1330 was considered quite a good score. (Cringe moment: in one of my LORs, one of my professors actually SAID how I have high aptitude because of my "outstanding GRE scores." I couldn't break it to him that for the programs I'm applying to, I'm average to below average at best. And letters had already been sent anyway.) I perhaps should have retaken the GRE once I decided to apply to PhD programs, but knew that really, there wasn't a big chance of improving my score a great deal, though I do believe if I had studied more for the quant I could probably do better...but eh, not sure if I would have seen a large improvement. I gave up on the verbal long ago.
If you think you first got a score that you would likely get a second time (for me, I'm doomed in the 1300 range, was for my SATs and now for my GREs), then don't retake it. At the same time, I don't think it looks weird to take it again, but just make sure you're fairly confident you could increase your score significantly (even if it's keeping the rest the same, but increasing one portion, i.e. the AW, etc).
Same as swisnieski in that I never bothered taking the subject GRE. I like his suggestion though in setting realistically achievable goal and striving to achieve it. Like they say, when it comes to goals and setting expectations, "make them challenging, but reasonable." I.e. don't aim for a 1600 if you're scoring in the 1200s on your practice tests. And if it takes a few tests to get there, so be it.
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I have a friend in my program who did undergrad in 3 years thanks to taking community college classes for high school, and then applied right out. She started this fall in her PhD program at 20!!
My current prof & PI did something like this, got undergrad at 21, PhD at 25, and now she's 30, worked in consulting, now in a tenure-track job, published a ton, won prestigious awards, speaking at conferences, etc. She is a mad genius, but it's like "uh...I'm 25 and only getting started!"
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It's so strange when a boss (who I am friends with) sends me a text that says something like "can u work 2morrow? i need some1 2 cover 4 james" Even in texts, I generally try to use proper punctuation and capitalization. Those can be dispensed with on occasion (especially capitalization), but I will always at least write the damn words out.
Haha I feel the exact same way. I've generally done away with capitalization in text messaging & facebook, but I still think it's nice to spell out words.
Bad grammar irks me so much, I remember being shocked in undergrad when one of the psychology grad students used "it's" as possessive in a powerpoint lecture to about 100 students. And I get annoyed when, in facebook, people put, commas, after every bit of sentence, where there shouldn't be, a comma, it drives me, crazy. I keep getting tempted to post on this one girl's statuses: "learn how to use commas!!" but that would be rude and mean of me. And the billboards or advertisements that say things like "We sell Wines' and Beers'!"? Don't even get me started. I wish I knew why bad grammar annoys me so much. I know I'm not perfect either, but...seriously? Can no one get right something so simple that you learned in 3rd grade?
To the OP, I absolutely agree with you. I like this forum because a ) most people know how to write coherently, which is refreshing, particularly on the internet, and b ) people aren't jerks, and seem to (generally) talk to others almost like you would in real life, i.e. respectfully.
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I thought you might be the only person to apply Alexis, but I figured I would try anyway. I am not sure why we insist on not being identified since we are not really saying anything that hurts our cause, but it had been bothering me too so as you can see I removed the two schools from my post. I assume I will post them again once I get some acceptances and such as well. I am thrilled about my interviews, though I am pretty sure I heard so early due to a couple of professors being on top of things, I think I just got lucky.
I really like your profile. I know we are trying for different programs but your profile is definitely stronger than mine. Percentile wise your quant test score is actually higher than mine. I don't know where all you applied, but I think you would definitely get some attention from some schools. Also in my personal statement I went in to almost no detail about me research interests outside of the general area. I think that is an advantage of business schools in that the focus can be discovered while in the program. Good luck and I am sure we will add more to this post in the future.
Agreed, it's worth a shot, hopefully others will add to the discussion.
You're right, I know it's silly for me to worry about being identified, I don't know why I'm so paranoid...I guess one big reason is that I'm applying to some departments within the same schools, and some programs that have different focuses; also, I'm only applying in one geographic region--so I guess I have this fear that an adcom will see me as not committed/focused, and I don't want the slight chance of someone in grad admissions recognizing me on this forum (and really, my application could make both of the above things obvious anyway, sooo...I'm not really fooling anyone!). I figure, if any grad admissions people WERE to look at these forums, they would look for people who said they were applying to their school/program...and that would be the easiest way to identify people. But you're right, it's not like we have said anything bad or disparaging on here that would hurt us, and in your case, you don't have to worry about the (silly) "red flags" that I'm worrying about.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, I applied to a range of programs, so even if I don't identify them specifically, I can discuss them generally here. I applied to 3 business programs in management, one is a top 10, one is top 50, one is not ranked (but has a good local reputation and is my second choice, next to the top 10, out of all my applications). I also applied to social psychology programs to study organizational psychology; one is top 10, the other is top 70 or so. So out of those 5 programs (at 3 schools), there is a range, and I will be so ecstatic with one acceptance!
I think you're probably right about the personal statement--since we usually don't specialize until our second year or so in b-school, it probably isn't a harmful thing to be general about our research interest.
Your profile looks good too, even though I know you said your quant percentile wasn't super high, your overall GMAT is good, and since you've already gotten 2 interviews, you are on your way to some acceptances! Your couple years of accounting experience will really help you too I would think--b-schools seem to like that.
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acup, congrats on getting your interviews!! that's awesome. I haven't heard back from anywhere yet (though the programs I'm applying to have said they don't meet until late January/February).
It seems you & I are the only active business PhD hopefuls on the forum, but hopefully others will join in.
I'm planning on studying organizational behavior, applying to PhD management programs.
My stats...
BA from USN top 25 undergrad, minor psychology, 3.7 GPA
MS (in May 2010) in HR, 3.9 GPA
1330 GRE, 600V, 730Q, 5.0AW (<--definitely concerned about that quant score, since it's 78%...not the best for b-schools)
Math- Calc I-III, Research Methods I & II, Stats I & II
3 years of management experience
Currently a lab supervisor in an OB lab, involved in some other research projects as well, one publication currently in press
Very strong LORs from tenured or tenure-track professors
Good personal statement, but concerned about not having a defined research "plan"/ideas- identified an area of interest, but didn't go into too many details
I'm a bit paranoid of being identified, so I haven't mentioned any of the schools I'm applying to on this forum, but if I get acceptances, we'll see
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Like another poster mentioned, there is a crucifix in every classroom instead of a clock.
Not to start a tangent that's off topic (but okay yeah)...the fact that three of us at different institutions have crucifixes in our classrooms but no clocks makes me wonder. I get the crucifix, but is there something about a clock being a bad thing in classrooms at Catholic schools? A quick google search has yielded no definitive results. Now I'm really getting curious...
I think I should take this on as my next research project, in lieu of doing actual research that I should, in fact, be working on.
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This is interesting. I wonder if all the the info about SOPs applies to LORs? One of my recommenders gave me a copy of their letter, and there were two minor typos in it. Do you think this would reflect badly on me? The deadlines are coming up quick (Jan 5), and if I ask her to rewrite the letter will be late. So, is it better to submit a letter with typos or late?
No. It might reflect badly on them, but not you. And two minor typos? As errors in LORs go, that is nothing. Definitely do not ask them to rewrite the letter, in my opinion. If the letter is late, your app might not be considered.
OP: good article, thanks for posting it!
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