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Things like this are good for padding your CV under the heading 'Community Service'. It also helps you to network when it comes time to look for a job. I don't think it helps much, if any at all, when you're applying for a Ph.D. It won't hurt you either, but admissions committees are looking at your research potential and being on a student association doesn't help in that regard.

That is definitely something to think about. The increased wear would probably mean you'd probably have to replace your debit card (if you used your MCard as a debit card) more often than if you had a separate debit card.

There are a few worldwide rankings of universities out there, such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities Times Higher Education rankings (they don't have a CS specific ranking) Quacqarelli Symonds' rankings (they don't have a CS specific ranking) Those are three that I've come across, I'm not sure if there are others. I can't speak to the value of these rankings and some of their rankings look a bit suspect, so use it FWIW.

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As you say just below this statement, there isn't much difference between the top 5-20 schools and that's an important caveat, because while it is important to go to a school that is well regarded in the field, it probably is more important to go to a school that's a good fit for your interests. So there has to be some balance between prestige and fit. I can absolutely imagine a scenario where someone gets into a top 5 school and a top 15 school, but the top 15 school is a much better fit for the person's research interests and because of that the top 15 school is a better choice than the top 5 school.

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The NRC ranking isn't thought highly of in some (most?) quarters in Computer Science. Here's a statement from Washington CS department about errors in the NRC rankings for Washington, which is almost universally acknowledged as a top-10 CS school, but NRC ranked them ridiculously low. Here's another statement from the Computing Research Association about the errors in the NRC data for Computer Science. I'd stick to the USNews rankings for what it's worth. It's far from perfect and should only be used as a guide not a definitive ranking.

Hi cyborges, U-M has a survey of local banks here (.pdf) that has a handy comparison of rates, policies and the number of branches each bank has in Ann Arbor. I believe that TCF Bank is the partner bank for U-Ms Mcard - which allows your U-M ID card to be used as a debit card. So you may want to consider that as well.There's also Key Bank, but I'm not sure why that wasn't included in the linked survey.

Can you find 15 schools which would be good fits for your interests? That to me is the biggest issue here, as you may end up applying to schools that you wouldn't be particularly happy to get into. I agree with OH YEAH, the time factor is going to be a big issue when it comes to writing SOPs - you really would need to prioritize the schools that would PS The CS GRE isn't important unless you want to prove your CS competence - i.e. you've been out of school for a long time or if you come from a particularly unknown place or if you don't have a CS background.

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I'd definitely second the idea of a Google spreadsheet. I wrote about how I organised my stuff for my applications One thing I would caution about starting as early as you are (and as I did last year), is that some schools have a nasty little habit of changing application procedures (sometimes minor, sometimes major stuff) around the start of the application season in September. So as you start to gather information about schools' application procedures and deadlines, be sure to revisit the schools' pages to verify your information in the fall. One school I applied to last year had moved up their application deadline by a month from the previous year, so I was surprised when I happened to look through their website last fall and saw the new sooner deadline.

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Hi hahahut, I'm moving to the US as well and at my school they have a partnership with a local bank. Perhaps you could scout out to see if your school has any partnerships with any banks that would make it convenient for international students?

Hi Phd Pharmacist, Good to see that you're re-applying Here's my take on your questions: 1) I don't know how important the subject Test is for Neuroscience. Perhaps you can browse the requirements of different programs to see if most places require it or not. You could also ask in the subject forum to see if any Neuroscience people can give you advice on it. Which subject test would you be taking btw? 2) You can re-apply to the same schools - some people have done this and been successful. I didn't re-apply to the same schools I applied to the year before, just because I completely re-evaluated which schools would be good fits for me. It turned out that there were many other schools that would have been better fits for me than the ones I had applied to the year before. Is there a particular reason why you only applied to Texas schools this season? If you're able to consider out of state schools then that would give you more options. I would suggest that you do a complete re-evaluation of the schools you want to apply to in the fall. Perhaps you could consider factors such as: research fit, the reputation of the school, the location of the school, its acceptance rate, the chance of you getting funding, how many PoIs you would have at that school. You could assign some numerical value and rate schools to see which would be the best ones for you to apply to. 3) If the school or prof says don't contact them, then don't. Otherwise it might be worth it to find out if a PoI has space in their lab for new students. It could also be worthwhile to establish a conversation with a PoI before applying. This doesn't always make much of a difference though, as many (most?) people in the sciences get admitted without contacting a PoI before. 4) I'm not in your field, but your research interests don't seem too narrow at all. 5) It's worthwhile to mention your secondary interests since they may give you more chances at getting an admit when the adcomm is considering your application. When I was applying this time around I thought about this as well and was wondering if I should leave out my secondary interest especially when there wasn't a PoI at the school for my secondary interest. I decided to include them though, since they are part of what I ultimately want to do in grad school and beyond.Of course, I made sure to focus on my primary interest. 6) It's perfectly acceptable to continue your MS research (this would probably be better) or to go in a different direction. What would be ideal though, is even if you go in a different direction, you can show how your MS research links to or led you to what you want to do for your PhD. 7) If MIT is any where as competitive in your field as it is in mine (<5% acceptance rate) unfortunately I wouldn't think you'd have a good shot at MIT. I'm not sure about the other places. Perhaps you can check Peterson's that has acceptance rates of different programs. 8) Redo your SoP! I think that this one of the most important things you can do. I started mine from scratch this year and I recommend doing so. 9) Yes! Yes! and Yes! You can do a lot in the next few months to improve your application. Re-do your SoP, get your papers published, do some good research on which schools you want to apply to. We'll be here to help you and I believe that if you keep trying, eventually you'll get accepted. As someone joked - it only takes one place to make a mistake and accept us, huh? Good luck.

I'm headed to grad school as well. There has been similar threads about business cards on here before and some grad students have suggested contacting your department and requesting business cards from them. So that may be a possibility when you get to your grad school. I wouldn't have my undergrad school on it though, I'd have my grad school, school logo, contact info: phone, email, address, website as well as the research group I'm affiliated with.

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Congrats kroms! I'm hoping people don't vote this thread down again.

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Haha! I've had a bit of time to think about these things since this is my second go around applying. I'm dusting off my plans from last year and implementing them

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Is there anything you can point to to show that you would be able to pass the Physics exam? I agree with fuzzylogician's advice to not give up. Perhaps you can talk with the PI to see if there is anyway that this could be worked out? Alternatively is there another lab that you could bridge with and still get to work with this PI? Hang in there! You have us on the gradcafe so you're not alone.