Edge

Nowadays there's no difference if the institution is accredited, but historically BEng and MEng were originally considered professional degrees and BSc and MSc were more theory based.

External funding will definitely help your chances of admission. The school views it as free money. Try and talk directly with a POI and discuss it with them.

Speaking from experience, Stanford sends their responses back notoriously late. Which I always thought was ridiculous since they were one of the first applications due.

It is exactly an unofficial interview. It's one of those cases where they want to make sure that you are everything as advertised before formally admitting you. So attend, be on your best behavior and get your acceptance.

There is no "eligibility" for a MS. You can get one right out of your bachelors or wait 40 years. Your prep time depends entirely on how much you're willing to allot for preparation. Some people do 6 months, some 4, some are still in school and do very little. Personally I did 2 months and thought it was fine. Could I have used another month? of course. Anything less than 2 months and I probably wouldn't have felt as confident during the exam. There are several prep guides that some people like more than others, Magoosh, Manhattan, Kaplan, etc. Read reviews in the forum.

The university I attend basically rejects the bottom 70% immediately, and simultaneously accepts the top 15%. The middle 15% gets a more thorough review and/or waits for responses from the top 15%.

Current PhD Student here. In my program the other PhDs in the cohort ONLY give opinions on PhD applicants that visited and we personally talked to. Usually what happens is the professor will meet with a prospective student, then me and a few members of the cohort will give them a tour, take them to lunch, maybe grab a beer and talk to them about their interests, why they're here, what they want to study etc. It gives the student a more relaxed environment to ask questions. Then we can offer our recommendation to the professor. We DO NOT give recommendations on ANY masters students. We generally don't meet with them as my professor doesn't take on any masters level research assistants.

MS Project is a super easy way to make Gantt charts. If you want to get more advanced then use P6. Oracle used to provide it for free to anyone with a .edu email. Not sure if they still do.

You can never go wrong for business casual. What's the worst that happens? You're slightly overdressed? Wear slacks/khakis and a button down. No tie, no jacket.

Me: "Hey mom, I'm bored so I'm gonna go be a doctor"

There could be a lot of reasons why there was such a small cohort: -The professor (not school or major) doesn't have a lot of funding for many students. -The professor might have a heavy courseload or do consulting so he limits the size of his research group. -A bunch of students in the cohort just graduated. -University sets a limit on number of students permitted per professor. -The website isn't updated to show all the students, it might just show students that are actual PhD Candidates. -Many more.

If you have a TA or RA attached to your PHD, you'll probably have to show up 1-2 weeks BEFORE classes start. For training, getting your office in order, etc. My classes started Aug 25th, but I had to check in and take training on the 15th.

As a current PhD, I only reach out, tour or talk to prospective applicants when instructed by my advisor. However I have heard of other departments using a mentor system so they could be reaching out for that reason as well. Either way it's a good sign, someone wants you there.

I graduated from with my BS and MS over a decade ago, my GPA was decent, not great, from a very tough private college. But since it's so old, what indication, good or bad, does it have on my current level of intellect? Without the GRE the university wouldn't have any standardized scores to compare me to applicants coming fresh out of a masters.

I took mine mid-October and my first application was due Dec 1st. The scores got there well in advance of the deadline.