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We're either gluttons for punishment or we want to go to grad school soooo bad.

wasting time

jelly bean

October is fine, the scores will reach the schools in time for a December deadline. It's up to you really, some people prefer to get it out of the way earlier and focus on writing SOPs and the other parts of the applications.

I'm concerned about this too, but you have to remember that most of the LORs will be very similar. Chances are the profs will have to fill out a simple form for each school, rating your strengths in various areas and then upload the LOR (which can practically be re-used for most schools). I'm planning on asking 4 profs/lecturers to do LORs for me, so they wouldn't each have 10 LORs to submit.

Excellent advice. I'm planning on getting this part done as soon as I can and then upload my documents later on.

Hi balderdash, You mean for Political Science right? Duke CS had their app open on Aug 2 and Rutgers CS had their app open for at least a couple months now - I'm not sure if one could have actually submitted the app then though. Those are a couple I know of, I'm sure there are more:)

Perhaps this thread would be helpful to you. Since the GRE Score will be available by phone on Dec 13 for the Nov 13 test, and most schools have a deadline of Dec 15 you should know your scores before the deadline for most schools.

You can get into grad school with a below 3 GPA - its harder but not impossible. See this thread by user belowthree Ad comms also love to see that your GPA has been improving over time, so I don't think that the fact that you did badly in your freshman year is going to keep you out.

Most applications have a section in the online app form that allows you to put in your GRE scores - some schools will allow you to modify these after the deadline since they know that a lot of students wont have their GRE scores until the end of December. You can also have the scores sent to the schools after you have submitted your app online. Check with individual schools to make sure, but I think you can just send them when you get them in December.

I stand corrected as you have first hand experience on this, but do grad schools give a lot of weight to high school experiences like this?

I really like this. I think I'll follow it with a few minor tweaks

3.0 is on the low side. Is your TOEFL score ok? (I'm not sure what the acceptable scores are for TOEFL, but TOEFL would be more important than AW). Remember that the AW score for a CS Phd is not very important on the list of things they consider - if you have a well structured statement of purpose then it should be ok. If you have the time and money it could be useful to do the test over if it will settle your nerves. I've seen a cutoff of 4.0 or 4.5 on AW for some schools, but I don't know how many schools use a cutoff.

If you can get good recommendations I think you have a pretty good shot at top 50 schools.

Simply put, high school isn't relevant to grad school. So no, don't put any high school stuff on your resume.

I wouldn't send him a research proposal just yet. Are your research interests aligned with his or with other profs at the school? If your interests align I would read up on his research and ask him specific questions relating to his research. Definitely try to keep the conversation going without being a "pest".

Don't take it personally. Probably she was very busy with preparations for the conference. If you had a good meeting with a prof at that school and are otherwise interested in that school, I would continue to apply to that school.

Hi, The most important parts of your applications are your research experience, your letters of recommendation and your statement of purpose. You seem to have good research experience, but I don't understand why you cant get good letters of recommendation if you have 11 papers published? If you can get good letters from Microsoft or especially from any of the profs you worked with to produce your research papers then you should be ok.

I'm with Branwen on this - Its been 2002 since I left school with my BSc and I applied to 4 schools last year with no luck. I've always wanted to go back to grad school, but life kept getting in the way. I'm doing everything I can to get in this time.

I'm planning on applying to 10 - 7 Phd and 3 Masters

It definitely can be disappointing to hear back from a POI that there won't be space for a new student in their group, but on the bright side, as you said, at least you didn't waste the application fee.

Thanks American in Beijing, and thanks again for the great advice.

Yes. And if possible try to arrange a meeting with a prof who's work your interested in.