newms

fun house

I agree with bhikhaari. The delay may just be that the PoI is busy. I think a good way to get a feel for how a PoI would be as an advisor is to talk with their students. See if their students are happy with the program and just talk with them about the program and how the lab/group operates. You might also want to know how much access the students have to the PoI - does he meet regularly with them? My PoIs at schools I've been admitted to offered to put me in contact with their students, so perhaps you could ask the PoI. You could also look at placements for their former students - do they get jobs at good schools or good companies after graduating? Of course, the best way to know how well you'd work with the PoI is to meet or talk with them - if it gets close to Sunday and no reply from him, I think it's perfectly ok for you to send a polite reminder email. Good luck.

Sunday paper

I haven't been a TA yet, but I read a tip elsewhere on this forum that perhaps you could pass out the evaluation forms when your 'bad' students (the ones that give you the most trouble, are usually late, don't do their work etc) are not there, and your best students are. So maybe you could do this at the very start of the class. I think there's a problem with having someone being rated as 'good' being not good enough, because 'good' tends to be the rating people assign when they are satisfied with performance.

The highest I've received was 30K, but that was with a fellowship top up. The others have been 24.5K to 26.5K, so more than enough to live off of. Fortunately for me, I'm able to choose the school that's the best fit for me, and not have to take finances into account so much, since the offers have been more than enough.

Thanks for your help - is it that you can sign a lease without ever visiting the place in person (or having a representative do so)?

You're welcome. Glad to help. I'm guessing that somewhere between now and the Fall (I'm going to be moving too) that there will probably be something that doesn't work out how we expect, but the good thing is that the school you're going to will likely be an excellent resource to help with any unforeseen problems in getting there.

medical school

It's perfectly ok to submit papers to US conferences as a student (even for foreign students)- in fact, it's encouraged and expected in most fields. In some fields, Ph.D candidates help with organizing workshops and with reviewing papers for conferences, so student participation is definitely generally encouraged. I've seen foreign students submitting and getting papers accepted in my field. Perhaps you can look up the top conferences in your field and see what policies they have for submitting papers. Good luck!

I'm not 100% sure about the fellowship, but they definitely will take out taxes for your TA money. See a related discussion here:

Thanks for keeping us updated!

You're welcome. Yes I also applied to Rutgers, they make their decisions late in the process though - it seems last year they didn't send out emails until the second or third week of March.

Congrats on your acceptance! I called Rutgers yesterday and the department grad coordinator said that Ph.D. decisions are being made now, so I am assuming that the emails will be going out shortly. Since you haven't received your email yet, then maybe the financial information would be in there. Good luck! PS This question is probably best posted in the Computer Science forum, where other CS applicants will see it.

I just want to second and third the responses that a lot of us (including myself, and surely including many profs) are socially awkward. To answer your question, one way to get good LoRs is to look out for undergraduate research opportunities. I'm not sure how much research opportunities there are in your field at your school for undergraduates, but in some fields particularly STEM fields, profs are usually on the lookout for undergraduates to help out in their research projects. Volunteering to do even 'grunt work' such as data entry is a good way to build a relationship with a prof so that you can get a good LoR. Perhaps you can look on your profs' websites to see if they have any needs for undergraduate assistants?

Congratulations! At this point you should wait for the response from the grad school or department. They will be giving you information for getting your student visa. If you really want to be a go getter, perhaps you can communicate with your POIs and possibly ask for a reading list? There's also some excellent advice by fuzzylogician in this thread for international students on what steps you can take in preparing for the move to the US: Good luck!

May I suggest this template for your email rejection? Just kidding In all seriousness, I know that feeling as I'm talking and meeting with potential advisors at the schools I've been admitted to, I know it's going to be hard to turn down offers, because each one is like a dream come true (at least for me). Just remember though that we're not indispensable to them. They'll find another student and their program will be fine. Just send them a simple email thanking them for their offer and explaining that you've chosen to go to another school.

Right - I meant a non-Mac laptop.

I have an Acer netbook and I'm pretty happy with it. It does pretty much everything I want it to do. Of course, it doesn't handle video games or video editing, but handles all my web surfing and document processing needs. I'm getting a Dell with high specs for grad school though - I decided against a Mac when I realized how much more computer I could get going with a PC rather than getting a Mac at the same price point.

cranberry sauce

I think what's happening is that people are reporting them as spam - if enough people report a 'result' as spam then it gets removed. As people above said, the results board are for results and questions are better asked in the forums where more people will see them.

It's much better to ask about an extension. You really don't want to accept and then back out - you run the risk of alienating potential future colleagues. Just simply email the person that sent you your admit and explain that you will need some more time in order to make this potentially life changing decision and ask for an extension.

I agree with the above posters. It seems that you've already done more than required in terms of establishing contacts with POIs. I see that you've applied to Canadian schools and my understanding is that they can take a little longer to make decisions than US schools - so maybe that is why you haven't heard back yet, and yes, it is better to contact the program secretary about decisions timelines. Perhaps you could just call the program secretary to ask when decisions for your program would be announced. Good luck!

tomato juice

stop sign

I haven't seen any information on this forum about an RA interview before, but my guess is that it would be an interview to determine fit. I'm guessing that the PI will want to make sure that you share similar interests and that there are projects that you're interested in working on. I agree with alexpap - you definitely want to be prepared on reading up on the PI's research and definitely come prepared with questions about the PI's projects/research. Depending on how far along you are in the process to getting the RA, I'm guessing the PI might let you know what's expected of you should you get the RA. Good luck and let us know how it goes!