newms

Thanks for the reply. I do plan to try to meet as many of them as I can.

Hey everyone. I have a question about resumes/CVs. Is it practice to list a conference you attended, but didn't present a paper/poster at on your resume? I ask because I'm planning to attend a top conference in my field later this year, but I won't be participating as a presenter, just an attendee. Thanks for any insights.

Thanks for the link. I really like this article: http://www.labspaces.net/blog/511/What_I_wish_I_knew___Before_applying_to_graduate_school. I'm not in Life Sciences but I felt it was pretty relevant to my field. The site doesn't post about Computer Science does it?

Thanks for pointing this out. It's a good read. A link I found is here: http://paininchildhealth.dal.ca/documents/Lord.pdf

If you can change it, I would. Some programs don't let you change it once it has been submitted though. I made a similar mistake last year in a SOP and they wouldn't let me change it - I didn't get in but I wish you all the best.

stay quiet

rock salt

Yeah, I think it would. It would almost be like 2 recommendation letters from the same prof. I think you should ask someone other than the grad student.

It could very well be that the third prof was too busy at the time to reply to your email and just never got around to it. I had this problem with a prof I couldn't contact when I applied last year - he had moved on to another school. I got through to him this time, and he apologized for not getting back to me last time, so it could be the person was just busy. Since they have moved to a new school - do they have a new email address and was that the one you used? You could also follow up with a phone call to just check if they got your email since you hadn't heard from them. If you had to choose from the additional options you have, I think most places prefer letters from profs rather than grad students. Here's an idea though, why don't you get 4 people to write you letters? You could ask your strongest letter writers to write to all the places, but then share the remaining spots for letters among the other profs. That way if one of your profs takes longer than expected or isn't able to submit the letter on time (happens every year to people), you would have a 4th person who is already writing letters that you could ask to fill in.

keep apart

I thought this blog post by a prof about some prominent cases of fraud was relevant. His conclusion (depressingly) - Scientific fraud is a low-risk, high-reward activity. Whatever you decide to do, you need to disassociate yourself from the prof as soon as you can.

I'm in Machine Learning

Yes. Especially in Computer Science because you will need to fit into a group at the University you are applying to, so it is useful to know before if the professor will have space in his/her research group for new students. It doesn't work this way in other fields, from what I've seen, but in Computer Science you need a prof to be willing to have you in their group. I met with a prof last month who told me that I should let him know when I have applied, so he can look out for my application because there was an applicant a couple years ago that wanted to work with him and he didn't realize that that person had applied. The applicant didn't get in simply because he didn't notice her application in the hundreds that they receive and so her application 'slipped through the cracks'. I wouldn't recommend this. Sometimes profs put on their websites that they don't have the time to respond to individual emails - did you check this prof's website? If they don't reply I would suggest contacting another prof who you're interested in at that school, or even try contacting the prof's grad students. If they don't reply and you still want to apply to that school, make sure that you mention that prof in your SOP and how you would fit in with their research. You might want to consider sending an email when you apply too, so that they can look out for your application (although I'm not sure of the etiquette here if you've never contacted him/her before)

Likewise, I have been in the workforce for a while too. Which CS area are you in?

fall season

I've heard that it's around 5 weeks. The end of October should be fine for a mid December deadline. You can check with the schools though, because for a lot of programs, they don't start to review applications until January - even with a mid December deadline. So in some cases they anticipate ETS being late with the scores - definitely check with the schools if you have any doubt.

If you have the money to spare it might be a decent idea to give yourself two bites at the cherry, as they say. Your scores are likely to be the roughly same, but if (in the small chance) something were to go horribly wrong on the first attempt - such as you being sick, you could cancel that test and do it again a week later.

application season

I would say that tskinner gave the best answer to this question in this thread: It's best to ask early. As he said, today is a good time. Profs are busy and the more time you give them, the better. Also, when you ask early, you'll be able to get their input into the process. I've already asked my LOR writers and had positive responses.

lounge suit

I'm glad to help. Here's the post I made when I was meeting with the potential advisor: American in Beijing had some great advice.

Research experience is probably the most important thing on your application, so your research experience and publications will look good on your application. Were your papers published in journals and conferences that will be recognized by US profs? If they were published in the top journals and conferences in your field I would say you have a good chance.

deadline extension

birthday suit