gazelle

This is exactly what I'm worried about, with my 3.1x. If I can get past that initial cut schools surely have whether or not they advertise it, so they can see the extenuating circumstances that no doubt contributed heavily to it, then I'd feel a lot better. But alas, I have a feeling one of my apps (if not both) won't even make it to that stage thanks to the 3.1x.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound curt in my reply, I am just another lowly Columbia applicant waiting for a decision so I'm a bit on edge. My apologies, and thanks again.

Nice, what was your undergrad major and what classes do they want you to take prior to enrollment?

No offense and thank you, but this tells us absolutely nothing.

The U of M is a highly ranked public research university; when Yudolf became president, it was ranked 7th, and Yudolf's plan was to make it a top 3 school by a certain date. Not sure where it is now, but it's a good research school.

Had I made the early deadline for one school, I would've found out as early as last week, though I was one recommendation letter short of making the early deadline...I was assuming I'd have to wait until March, like my other program, but checking the website it said I'll get my decision 4-6 weeks from the time they receive all materials...and I just passed the four week mark since they got that final letter, so starting NOW, I can actually hear back anytime...I was quite surprised, and now I'm quite nervous, knowing it can come anytime. My nonchalantness is about to go out the window in lieu of refreshing my email :|

Congratulations!! How did you guys find out? Email or snail mail? Also from another board, apparently despite the site saying they interview most applicants, they actually don't--they only interview when they have a few slots left with more equally qualified candidates than spots, or at least that's what IR/PS told a student who asked. I had all of my stuff done in November to meet the priority deadline, but I was one LOR short of the priority deadline so it will be awhile for me I believe. EDIT: Also if you don't mind, could you share your stats/profiles?

Where did you do your undergrad?

Well, I WAS chemE as an undergrad (and a chem major thrown on top for shits and giggles) at the University of Minnesota (massive grade deflation FTL...) and now am going into international relations programs at UCSD and Columbia.

Yep, another chemE here.

UCSD--"California" by Phantom Planet Columbia--"Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z Feat. Alicia Keyes

The longer I wait, the less concerned I seem to be now that the process of preparing applications, which consumed my life for a few months, has been finished for close to two months now. Furthermore, the longer I wait, the more I come to terms with rejections from both of my schools; given that I'm living abroad and have a long-term girlfriend who wants to come back with me to study in Fall 2011 (my tentative plan is/has been to defer admission for a year, though I can't defer funding...), and all sorts of other things going on or things to think about, like the shelf-life of an unused engineering degree before it becomes worthless, how long I want/need to stay in this country to do the things I want/need to do, and what my potential options and tough decisions are should I get admitted with a large amount of funding (or admitted period), the more I realize that rejections from both schools will make my decisions at least a little bit easier. On that note, I was planning on reapplying next year if I don't get in, but I know that one more year here just teaching English isn't going to make my application, so if I don't get in, it will be a few years at least before I reapply, if at all. Sometimes I look at the things I want in life beyond my education/career and realize that going $60k-$100k+ in debt will all but exclude me from ever having those things; how easy it would be to get an engineering job with a $65k starting salary before my degree expires, a $200k condo, and a Z4/128i and call it a day, with no debt and a healthy retirement account. Or, I can plunge deep into debt that will last me the rest of my life, lose another two years of earning potential, ensure that my undergrad degree is indeed useless by being out of the field with no experience for too long, and only coming away with a job that pays $45k. I know what it sounds like, but I want that acceptance as much as the rest of you. I think I'm just rethinking the idea of grad school altogether, as I'm turning 26 this month and still have nothing, whereas I have peers who are married (I'm not worried about that) who have been in their careers for 2-5 years already and have houses and everything going for them. Pretty soon I'll be 30, and the last thing I want is to be 40 and broke, with nothing going for myself at the age I finally realize, "This IS it."

One was due January 5th, and the other is due January 15th...however, all my applications have been submitted. I'm not really sure what I would/could even say at this point though...perhaps this was a futile thread.

But is it too late to come up with some kind of contact to throw your name out there now that applications are submitted and being prepared for committee reviewal?

I didn't contact any professors at potential schools, since I really didn't know what or have anything in particular I wanted to say/ask that I couldn't find on the school websites. But now I'm starting to think that I should've, since it seems like these professors often really do remember you and put you in their favor when your application comes across, should they be on an adcom. Is it still too late to contact professors? What should I say?

Despite a chemical engineering degree, I still think calc 2 was one of the most asinine classes I took. "DURRR, let's just throw an integral in front of AS MUCH CRAP AS POSSIBLE and watch you silently tweak during the test. What a useless class that ever was.

Anyone know generally how many people are on an adcom? 5 or so?

Whatever your program, your stats are awesome! The University of Minnesota is my alma...great environment, big school spanning the Mississippi, mixed in with the city so lots of restaurants and stuff mixing right in with campus, and only a five minute bus ride from smack dab in the middle of downtown Minneapolis.

UCSD School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (the only Asia-specific program) and Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Needless to say, I'm reaching with Columbia but I'd love to go there. I have a good shot with UCSD though, as my GPA isn't too far off their 3.4 average and my GRE scores for Q/AW exceed their averages, and my verbal is only 17 points shy of their average. Trying to stay positive!!

Trying to get into international relations, with a focus on energy/environment/development, so more quantitatively focused. I'm still a JET, through this coming July. JET is good for international experience, but I'm ready to start something new.

That's just a standard grading scale, no? A: 4.0, A-:3.67, B+: 3.33, B: 3.0, etc. etc...? Anyway nice stats! My positives: --Quantitative heavy degrees (chemE/chem) from a top 3 undergrad program (though I HIGHLY doubt the adcoms in IR will have any idea it's a top program) --Good quantitative/AW GRE scores --Good SoP (I think) --Took additional courses on top of engineering work related to my chosen area of specialization (Japan) and got all As in them --Took intensive summer Japanese language courses for the country of my chosen specialization and got grades of A- both semesters (4 hours a day M-F for 10 weeks) --Volunteered at a Japanese garden for two years --Have been living in rural Japan as an isolated foreign national for almost two years teaching with the JET Program --Held a graduate-student level gen. chem. lab T/A position for a year while an undergraduate --Spent three years as an undergraduate working in a demographic research office on campus --Worked 20 hours at the demographic office while being a T/A 20 hours a week while battling a top chemical engineering program and double majoring, and losing my mom to cancer in the thick of it and persevering and finishing --One LoR that for sure is glowing, another likely glowing --Also proficient in German as deemed by my university --Graduated with 181 credits (6 years full time) since I switched majors after two years and started over (a reach I know, but it may show maturity) The cons: No internships or directed research (taking care of mom/financial strain), and a relatively low overall GPA (3.12). Also a pretty crappy verbal GRE score (70th percentile). No publications either, and could also use more work experience. I think the GPA will keep me out. I've got a few Cs littered on my transcript, more towards the end of my undergrad program, which look terrible.

Another regret with the school I don't feel too good about--they wanted a detailed quantitative resume with descriptions of all quantitative courses I took, course overviews, and quantitative methods applied. The site said they wanted to know "...as much as possible...". Well, being a chemical engineering major, my quantitative resume was ten pages long. I waffled back and forth on whether to send it or not or cut it down dramatically, but at the end of the day I sent it since it did indeed say "...as much as possible..." and it's a quant-heavy program. I feel like I could've made it three pages, and just wrote something at the end summarizing the use of many of the same/extensive quantitative methods throughout my courses. Ugh.

Started with four schools, cut it down to two. Not feeling too good about it.

The thing that irritated me to no end was how one school chose to have me enter my degrees. For whatever reason, it made me select the type of degree from a drop-down menu. OK, fine--except the only options were Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. Too bad I have one Bachelor of Science, and one Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, a considerably different degree than a BS. Moving on from that, what irritated me more was the major field. Instead of just letting me type in my major, chemical engineering, I again had to choose from a drop down. Well that would be great, if they didn't include every type of engineering EXCEPT chemical engineering in their choices. There was a generic "Engineering" option, so I had to take that. So I had to put that I have a "BS in Engineering", which isn't even right. To then make this worse, there was the "primary degree" section, where I could put one major, and the "additional degree" section, where I could put the other. OK, fine, no big deal. Put the engineering (albeit incorrect) in the first one, and the chem degree in the additional degree section since far and away chemE was my primary degree. Well, well, well--after I submitted the application, it flagged me to send them two transcripts, despite getting both degrees from the same school. So, in summary, what I wanted to do: enter "Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Engineering" as my primary degree, and "Bachelor of Science, Chemistry" as my additional degree. What I had to do: enter "BS, Engineering" as my primary degree, and "BS, Chemistry" as my secondary degree, which not only flagged two transcripts, but also only pulled up reflecting "chemistry" as my major in the printable application PDF when all was said and done. What a mess. Dear God I hope they take a good look at the transcript. I have two degrees from the same school. A BS in chemistry and a BChE in chemical engineering. Why can't I just type these in, and why can't there be a field right underneath for "second major"?

I still feel pretty good about one, but the other one the more I think about it the more I think I could've made it better; after I submitted it more information came out from the school about how to really make it strong and I hit most of their points, but even a few key changes to a few key sentences could've made my SoP that much stronger. Also just in general I think I'm a weak applicant for one of my schools. *sigh*