Applicant2014

I am an international student, so the local colleges that I refer to are bound to be unknown to the admissions committees. This raises another question: since it would be beneficial to the applicant to make sure that all relevant information is conveyed to the adcomms, how would you suggest to tackle the issue of unknown colleges/grading standards? Would the adcomms be interested in viewing the syllabuses of the courses taken to get a better idea of content/depth? However, it might be too time-consuming for a committee that has to evaluate around 500 applications. I appreciate your suggestion to demonstrate the learned content through GRE quant section and writing sample; I think it is the best way to move forward. Thank you, RWBG!

I have a question (possibly a silly one) about how adcomms view courses taken by the students online (Coursera). I want to build my mathematical base before entering graduate school, and for that, I have been planning on taking courses online. However, I am a little confused. I could take these courses at a local college, but it would cost me considerable amounts of money. The material benefit of going to college for these classes is the transcript with grades on it for the adcomms to view and evaluate. However, Coursera offers free courses, but if I spend some money, they would provide a 'verified certificate;' still, with no grades on it to sufficiently allow the adcomms to evaluate my mathematical training. Therefore, I am not sure where to go from here. It might be helpful to also note that I have very little mathematical training, so these are the courses I am looking to take: statistics and probability, algebra, calculus, real time analysis, and econometrics. Also, I'd appreciate if you could suggest any other good courses.

Hello everyone! Longtime lurker, this is my first post. I have learned a lot from gradcafe, so thank you all for contributing. I have an acceptance without funding at Binghamton; I really like the department, and would love to go there. So, if anyone who has a funded offer from there that they are going to decline, please consider doing it sooner than later. It would help those who have been wait-listed for funding. I'd really appreciate it.