fakecoffeesnob

I'm applying to a comatriculation program at a grad school connected to my undergrad institution (current junior) - unfortunately, due to a few poor math grades, I'm a long-shot candidate. I've been in touch with one of the program administrators, and I got permission to take one of the core classes (a pretty quant-heavy class, that could hopefully offset some of my math grade issues) of the program as one of my standard undergraduate classes, without program admission or any of that. I'll be taking that in the spring. I'm very aware that it's essential that I do very, very well in this in order for it to help my admission chances. I have the option of applying in the spring or in the fall. If I applied in the spring, I could start taking grad classes in the fall, which would be nice since I'll basically be done with my undergraduate requirements this spring and plan to graduate next winter if at all possible (and if I did this, the cost of undergrad+grad tuition would be the same as four years of undergrad tuition, meaning I wouldn't be particularly concerned about funding). Plus, spring admission might mean that I could graduate on the typical four-year timeline, but with both degrees. Is it worth it to wait for the fall application deadline, though, so that I will have been able to build a relationship with the department before that through that class? Would this be a situation where applying twice might be acceptable if spring didn't work out? When should I apply, and is this indication of interest likely to aid my application much? Spring application also precludes taking more time to study for the GRE (although I'm actually feeling okay about that) and building more work experience over one additional summer - what I have is pretty good, but I'm also 20, so I don't have much (and virtually nothing in the way of research - I'm hoping that the fact that this is very uncommon at my institution for undergraduates to do in the social sciences will compensate for that. I should have, and I'm trying to see if there's a chance I can swing that with two particular professors, but unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to have much. I tend to assume they'll be more understanding about that the more junior I am but I don't know). Any/all advice is welcome. Thank you guys so much!

Hi, I'm new around these parts so I apologize if this is a stupid question. I'm a current undergrad - a junior - who had no intention of taking the GRE particularly soon. However, I realized I may want to apply to a BA/MA program with a February deadline (I also have a fall deadline option if my scores suck, thank goodness, but that's not ideal for other reasons), for which I would need GRE scores. And they would have to be awesome, because I'm a fairly long-shot candidate. I did well on my SATs (2340) and ACTs (35, superscored) without much studying and really enjoyed both tests, so I figured I'd do well on the GRE. Just took a powerprep practice test, though (with no prep whatsoever) and I was pretty disappointed - 162 verbal, 161 quant. Test conditions were far from ideal - I'm in a Starbucks and I can't stop listening to the fascinating interview happening next to me - and I had plenty of time left over on each section (at least ten minutes per section), so I'm sure there's room for improvement there. I thought the math seemed really easy but some of the vocab was challenging. Weirdly, it looks like I did better on verbal anyways. I don't think I lack any of the quant skills or need specific teaching in regard to that but I should probably be a little more thoughtful and methodical about everything. I'm a former math major and I wasn't confused about how to approach any of the math questions, so it's not the actual math skills that are challenging. Ideally, I'd like to go home for my three-week christmas break, study like crazy, and then come back to school and take the GRE right away. I live in a city with plenty of testing centers, so I can pretty much take it whenever. Is that an insane timeline? Given that I'm starting from decent-but-not-stellar scores, what's the best way to study? Just a ton of practice questions? Practice tests? Should I pay for Magoosh or a tutor? I really don't know what the best way to proceed from here is, so any help is welcome.