newms

I am willing to give you some feedback if you would like. You can PM me.

literary genius

Right, I don't think that whether you are married or engaged will make a difference - you are both American right? I may be wrong, so perhaps others who have been through this situation could give you some advice as well.

Nov 20 is late, but check with the schools you are applying to, since many schools don't have a hard deadline for when they receive the scores from ETS. Some schools, even though that have a December 15 deadline, do not consider applications until January, so you *may* be ok if this were the case. In other cases, they might delay looking at your app until they get your scores - in this case you would probably be at a disadvantage since they would be considering other applicants before you. The worst case scenario for you would be for them to insist that all materials (including GRE scores) reach the school by Dec 15. In any case, just check with the schools you are applying to to see what their policies are.

chaos theory

This could be advantageous if one of you gets accepted and that department really wants that person to come, but realizes that he/she could only come if the other of you is accepted. This could accelerate the other party's application decision or maybe even give him/her a bump in the process. That said, you shouldn't tell schools that you are in a relationship like this until after you have applied. Here is some good advice on situations like this from a prof who applied with her fiancé to the same schools or schools in close proximity: http://sites.google.com/site/gradappadvice/the-two-body-problem

You can send them now. You don't want to wait too late since it takes a couple weeks for ETS to get the scores to the schools, so if you have your scores, send them.

string theory

Your case reminds me of Christopher Scaffidi who did his undergrad work in Math and Physics and then a masters in Physics, before deciding he wanted a PhD in Computer Science. He realized that he had to demonstrate competence in the CS syllabus so he studied for the CS GRE and scored in the 97th percentile. He subsequently got into CMU to do his PhD and is an assistant prof at Oregon State currently. I'm not sure how easy it would be though to do a simple transfer from Math to CS. Remember that even though there is a lot of Math involved in CS, it is in many ways a different field, so you will probably have to show that you have the competence required in CS.

Am I understanding this correctly, that you contacted only 2 profs you were interested in, and one of them forwarded the email to everyone in the department? If that's the case then it shouldn't reflect badly on you, just send a follow up to the person that replied explaining that the other prof thought it would be a good idea to forward the email to others in the department. Also make your interests clear, since the prof that replied doesn't seem to be clear about your interests.

If you actually did research, then it would. You don't have to have a paper published or even have solved the problem you were working on to have 'research experience'. I'm going to be honest, your scores aren't great, but that shouldn't discourage you. You will need to be able to write a very good SoP as well as choose the schools you're applying to very carefully. Have you decided on a sub area you would like to work on in grad school? This could guide which schools you apply to.

If they don't give a word count,, but say 'brief', then 1 page or there abouts is enough I think. I'm using my default SoP to be around 900-1000 words and then I cut this down for schools that have a shorter limit, like 750 or even 500 words. For the third one, if you say everything you need to say and it's around 750 words, don't put in fluff to get it up to 900+. They'd prefer reading the 750 words that are concise and to the point rather than 900+ words that have superfluous stuff in it.

I think you can scan the official documents. That's what I did since my UG doesn't have the 'unofficial' ones, just the sealed official ones with a big stamp 'PLEASE DO NOT RETURN TO STUDENTS' on it. Or you could go with what alleycat393 suggests, if that's an option. In either case, they need to see something official. If they admit you, then you'll send the sealed official ones.

AWA scores aren't all that important, plus the schools will have your SoP to judge your writing ability. That said, some school do have a cut off point for AWA scores so you might want to check if the programs you're applying to have a cut off score.

I think 2 or 3 should be your choice. It sounds like 2 might be able to write a better letter than 3 since he knows you outside of the classroom and he's in your area.

What degree are you interested in applying for? A research based MS, a professional MS or a PhD? Also do you have any research experience?

I had the opportunity to visit a campus in August and meet with a professor I am interested in working with. He was very willing to meet with me and the grad coordinator was very helpful in giving advice - so perhaps you could contact the grad coordinator at schools you are interested in. I would suggest summer is a good opportunity, since its a 'downtime' for profs and they're not as busy as in the fall, but you should also be aware that some profs might be on vacation or away at conferences or doing research, so the summer might not be the best time. I guess it depends on the particular situation. I've also noticed that quite a few programs in my field have a prospective students day where they show off research that is going on at the university and applicants have the opportunity to meet with grad students and professors - at one school you can even apply for funding to visit the research day. This is usually around October - November, so perhaps you can look out for those at programs you're interested in. Another option you could look into is possibly attending (or even presenting at) a conference in your field - it would be a good opportunity to network and meet potential advisors.

This is a tough situation. Depression is unfairly stigmatised in society and I really don't know how an admissions committee would react to it. You will have to somehow explain what happened in the past, perhaps you could frame it as a positive to show that you overcame a difficult situation to do well academically. Was there an underlying situation in your life that caused the depression? If so, it may be better to show how you overcame that situation rather than mention the depression it caused.

Personally he seems creepy to me. It's good that others don't seem to think he has crossed the line from being a mere annoyance to something worse. I had an experience once where someone at a job I had gave me details and opinions on everyone at the job and about the organization before I had a chance to form my own views. I didn't automatically believe his opinions, but allowed myself to form my own views and impressions of the people at the job and about the organization as a whole. Ultimately my views were quite different from his, so I would suggest that you allow your own experiences to shape your views about the program, rather than allow his to. If he insists on sharing dirt with you, perhaps you can tell him that you would rather have the opportunity to form your own views based on your own experiences.

I think you should have a fair to good chance at all those schools actually. Perhaps you could consider adding a top 20 school that is good in robotics as a 'reach' school for your applications.

Ok, well then your chances should be better, especially at places that say that they don't require research experience like Cornell. I'm not sure how to access your chances at a terminal program since I'm looking at research based programs myself, but I would still suggest that you look at other programs outside the top 20 that are strong in your area, to give yourself more of an opportunity to gain admission to a good program.

Those are all tough schools which even for the best of applicants wouldn't present particularly high chances. It would be worth your while to apply to a few schools that aren't as competitive as those are. Are you applying for a terminal MS or a research based MS? If it's a research based MS, the most important thing they consider is your research experience and interests. You don't mention that you have any research experience, so you would have to convince them in your SoP that you have research potential. The GRE isn't very important at a lot of these schools, especially the verbal part. What would concern me about your GRE (remember though that its not particularly important) is your quantitative score. The average quant score for admits at these top schools you mentioned is likely to be somewhere from 780 to 800 (and closer to 800). My advice would be that without research experience or sparkling recommendation letters that speak to your research potential, the very top schools like CMU, Stanford and Berkeley would very difficult for you to get in (like less than 5%). If I were you I would focus on a couple top 20 schools as 'reach' schools (like UCLA, USC) and then apply to others in the 30 to 50 range that have good programs in your area. I know this advice must be tough to hear, but I wish someone had told me this last year when I applied to top 10 schools without research experience and came up 0-for. Best of luck!

baby steps

prison cell

It is possible to getting in with a sub 3 GPA, there are many threads on this forum by people who have got into grad school with a GPA below 3. Furthermore, your major GPA is more important so that 3.4 will help. Also I'm guessing that your GPA in your senior and junior years would be higher than before? If so, admissions committees like to see an improving GPA, so that will also work in your favor. It is harder to get into grad school with a low GPA, but it is possible. You're just going to have to convince them in your SoP and in your letters of recommendation that you can do well in grad school. So go ahead, apply.