newms

mission impossible

I don't think May is too late, but it would be better to start earlier, maybe April or March (if you know then where you're going). Returning students have already been signing leases for the fall, so we can't wait too long, otherwise there won't be a lot of (good) options left.

virtually there

Lat year, I had applied to 4 schools and at this time, was 0 for 2 and had that sinking feeling that the other 2 places would have been rejects, which they eventually were. This year has been a lot better though

Very nice! Hope they do recommended you - I'm guessing that the odds are in your favor, since you have a prof who wants you. I don't think that they'd bother to call if it weren't likely that you'd get admitted. Fingers crossed.

Thanks. Mine went well - it was basically an informal notification of acceptance. I got the email saying I'd been recommended for admission the next day.

I would ask for clarification because I would imagine that everyone who applied would not get this email, so it would seem to suggest that you were admitted, but don't get ahead of yourself and seek confirmation from the department or grad school. It may very well have been a mistake since it seems odd that they would send you an email like that out of the blue. Good luck!

I believe at it's more like A at most places in most programs, as well as leading labs (for the sciences). I think in some instances experienced TAs might teach introductory undergraduate courses, but I'm not sure about actually developing the course. I may be wrong though since I don't have any TA experience of my own.

tyre pressure

I'm guessing that there may be a wait-list of some sort since last year there was an admit reported on the board here in March, but you're right - the odds don't look so good at this point

I think your odds are pretty good, but I guess it really depends on the reputation of the school - a very highly ranked school will have less admitted people going elsewhere than one that is not so highly ranked. Perhaps you can ask the department admissions people how many applicants typically get accepted off the wait-list - that might give you a better idea of your chances.

fishin' trip

dine in

Yeah it shouldn't be a problem unless possibly it's a language program your applying to. I re-read one of my SoPs this week and saw a couple minor grammatical errors that I somehow missed earlier - I still got admitted. They'll be much more interested in the substance of your SoP than a couple minor grammatical errors.

student worker

Congratulations!

Congrats on your acceptances! If your first choice are a signatory to the Council of Graduate Schools resolution here: http://www.cgsnet.org/?tabid=201 then they really shouldn't be putting an earlier deadline than April 15 on a financial offer - does their offer come with funding? If there's no funding involved, then I think they may be able to set an earlier deadline. In either case, you can ask them to give you an extension in order to make your decision - best of luck!

Congratulations on your admit! I don't think there's any harm in asking. They want you to come, otherwise they wouldn't have sent you an admit, so I'd imagine that they wouldn't mind your inquiries about funding.

Hey Kitkat, I had this very same question when I was applying: A couple schools that I applied to had a requirement for something like a personal statement in addition to the SoP. One school wanted something like a diversity statement, to show how your cultural and life experience led you to want to go to grad school. Where others wanted something like a background statement that described the process in your academic journey that led you to want to apply to grad school. What I did was just to answer what the prompt asked for in both cases. I've been successful at one of the schools that asked for a Personal Statement - so I'd like to think that I did something right in that case (or at least not disqualifying ). If you want I can PM you that one that I used so you can see an example.

lemon chicken

I like this. Did you tell them that you had already been accepted elsewhere? If so, did they know that you were likely to go elsewhere?