newms

Getting involved in research is the single best thing you could do to improve your chances. If you're not already working with a research group, perhaps you could look around for a prof whose work you're interested in and ask them if you could work in their group for the summer. It will give you a taste of what research involves, so you can see if you really want to go to grad school. Your GPA is on the low side, but it's not impossible to get into grad school with a GPA around 3.0, it's just harder. As the poisoned pawn said, we can't really say where you'd have a good shot at just by looking at your GPA, since there are more important factors, like your research experience and recommendation letters. A somewhat useful resource is the UTEP admissions estimator here: http://www.cs.utep.edu/admissions/ which can give you an idea of schools that you could look at. It's far from perfect, but is useful for seeing which schools are out there. Good luck!

Very nice read. Thanks for the link!

man down

Is funding an issue at either of the schools? If the expenses were do-able at both places, I'd choose UPenn.

I think it's ok and understandable in a situation like this to back out of your commitment to school #2 and accept school #1's offer instead. Since School #2's offer wasn't a funded one, then I don't think the April 15 resolution would apply and you may be able to simply back out without needing them to release you. In any case once School #1 says it's ok for you to switch, contact School #2 and let them know the situation and explain why you want to be released from your previous commitment. I don't think School #2 would have a problem with it, especially since they didn't offer you any funding. As for your second question, I agree with the above posters, in that the offer means $12.5K + tuition + health insurance.

That's tough on an incoming grad student to have to choose their advisor right away. It sounds like you'd have the best of both worlds if you could have Prof A supervising your work in Prof B's lab Perhaps an ideal situation would be to have Prof A and B co-advise you, although I'm no sure if that's possible at your school. This is a decision that you're going to have to make, but here are some things that I'd consider: 1) 30 is an awfully large number of students for 1 prof to supervise. How much attention would you be getting? 2) It is better to be supervised by a tenured prof, since the possibility greater that a non-tenured one might leave while you are a student. 3) A younger non-tenured prof would probably publish more than a tenured prof, but how willing would the non-tenured prof be to let their students be first author? 4) Ideally you want to pick the research area that you're most interested in, since that's what you're going to be working on for the next few years. 5) How do the students of these profs tend to fare? Do they graduate in a reasonable amount of time? Do they find good jobs after graduation? What do their students say about them? You have a tough decision before you, and I wish you all the best in making it.

Thanks. That's good information Just a FYI though, I saw Music on this list under group 50: http://sait.usc.edu/ois/Upload/2009_revised_skills_list.pdf (I don't know if this is the latest list). However, that list doesn't mention Canada, so I'm not sure if it applies at all to your situation.

That's interesting...I didn't know about that. What I've come across is that it is possible to get a waiver of the two year requirement - see here: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/1288%20-%20J%20Waiver%20FAQ-Nov-10.pdf Apparently the 2 year requirement doesn't prevent you from visiting the US before you serve the 2 years in your home country, but it prevents you from working or immigrating to the US before that 2 year requirement is fulfilled.

Do you have to choose your advisor now? Some schools allow you to spend your first year working with different PIs to get a sense of which research group and which advisor you want to work with. If this were possible at your school, I would explore this option and spend time working with both profs during the first year to get an idea of which you want to advise you.

social network

You're right that she wouldn't be able to work with a F-2. You should be looking at a J-1 visa for yourself and a J-2 for your wife. This visa will allow your wife to work when she gets to the US. However, the J-1 visa, since it's an exchange visa, comes with a requirement that you reside for 2 years in your home country after you finish studying before you can return to the US.

It may be worth it to ask for feedback, but it might be odd to contact the head of the adcomm if you hadn't been in contact with them before. Had you been in touch with a professor before you applied? If so, maybe you could email them and ask what you could do to strengthen your application. You would have to word your email appropriately. Don't phrase your email in such a way to give the impression that you are surprised and angry that you weren't accepted and that you wanted to know why they rejected you. Make sure that your email is humble and that you could tell them that you intend to apply again and that you wanted their opinion on what you could do to strengthen your application. Keep in mind that they will probably not respond to you (especially if you haven't been in touch before) and some schools say that they are unable to give applicants individual reasons for their rejection but some people have received good advice by asking schools or profs what they could do to improve their chances when they re-apply. Good luck.

Ok, well don't worry then. I heard from my grad school a bit over 3 weeks after my department had notified me that they were recommending me for admission. If more than a week passes and you still don't hear from them, you could always ask the grad secretary at you department about it. I'm sure, though, that grad schools would be busy at this time with processing paperwork, so don't worry about it too much if they take a little time to process your admit. Congratulations and good luck.

Hang in there. You're right that the program wouldn't have recommended you for admission if they thought the Graduate School would reject you because of your GPA, so you are quite likely to be admitted. Usually the grad school mainly processes the paperwork, which can take a few days or even a few weeks. When did you get notice that you were recommended for admission?

personal attention

Congrats! It almost certainly means that you have been accepted. Rackham just does the paperwork and I think they may check to make sure you don't have anything in your record to disqualify you from admission, but if the department has recommended you, then that shouldn't be an issue. When did you get the email saying you were recommended for admission? I got my official notice from Rackham about 3 weeks after the department told me I was recommended for admission.

I've been on here for the last 2 application cycles and plan on sticking around (time permitting) when I start grad school.

Hey mj53. I was in your position last year. Emailing my LoR writers to tell them that I wasn't successful and that I needed their help again was one of the harder parts for me in reapplying. You almost feel like you disappointed them and you wonder if they would bother to spend the effort to help you again. Of the three that I emailed, 1 didn't get back to me, but the other 2 were very supportive and expressed their confidence that I should be able to get in. They also gave good advice. Thankfully, I was able to find another LoR writer and everything worked out for me this time. In my email, I had thanked them and explained why I thought I wasn't successful and what I was planning to do to make my application stronger for this year. I also asked their advice on what I could do to improve my chances. Ultimately, your former profs want you to be successful, and they understand how competitive getting into grad school can be, so they are likely to be supportive of your desire to apply again. Good luck and don't wait too long before sending that email to your LoR writers.

Rice is more prestigious in engineering than Notre Dame. However, you should also strongly consider which school matches best with your research interests. Which of the two programs has a better nanotechnology program (that's your area, right?). I don't know about nanotechnology programs, but if everything else was equal, I'd go with Rice, even if their stipend is slightly lower than Notre Dame's. Good luck with the decision.

If you want to go to grad school don't give up after your first attempt. I, as well as several other people on this forum, was successful this year after not getting in anywhere last year. In fact, some people get in on their third and fourth attempts. Applying to grad school is a very competitive process and every year people who are qualified and capable of succeeding in grad school get excluded. If you plan to re-apply, I would encourage you to make your application stand out as much as possible. Your GRE scores are ok, but could you score higher? If so retake the GRE. As you said, your SoP could have been better - re-working an SoP could be the single most important thing you can do to improve your chances of admission. Also, consider your choice of schools that you applied to. Were they good fits for your interests? Did you apply to a range of schools that are strong in your area, or did you apply to only really competitive ones? For me, improving my SoP and choosing schools that matched my interests better were key to my success this year. Good luck with what you decide to do.

Sounds like a great offer actually, congratulations! As others have said you'll be assessed tuition at the residential rate - which you won't be paying since your advisor's funds will pay it. The half-time appointments usually means that the assistantship is equivalent to a 20 hour/week job (although the amount of time you work per week will probably vary). A full-time appointment would have been equivalent to a full time 40 hour/week job. Good luck!

Way too soon to freak out. It's only two days and perhaps the prof was busy. Give it a day or two more and you could try to remind the prof. Good luck.

I second beanbagchairs. A polite reminder would be ok I think.

There are just so many things that could go are wrong here.... There. I fixed it. To the OP - you're in a (long) bad patch in your marriage. That should be the first thing you should be trying to work out in terms of your relationships. If the marriage isn't good for you and you want to move on, then end it. If you think that it's salvageable then try to get counseling with your husband. As for the attraction to the professor, as others have said, it's natural when you're lacking affection in a relationship to look elsewhere for it. And this desire for affection can color our perceptions of relationships. Your prof may or may not be showing interest in you romantically, but even if he were, that is an ethical lapse on his part - is that the kind of relationship that you would want to pursue? My advice is deal with your marriage - if this means getting a divorce then do so. Focus on your course work and get a satisfactory grade in your course. And after you're separated from your husband, and you've completed this prof's course and will not be doing any more of his courses (i.e. after you've graduated), then you could possibly pursue the relationship. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up for a fall. PS. You're not an evil person