randybobandy

You can email professors you're interested in to ask if they'll be accepting students in the next couple of years for their labs. I don't think that would come across as insincere, more like thoughtful planning.

I'll be going abroad the University of Queensland for my last semester Introduction to Music Technology (using expensive equipment to make music) 3D and Interactive Media (3d animation class) Australia's Marine Environment (snorkeling in the great barrier reef!!) Software Engineering OR Criminology, haven't decided yet It's gonna be a nice semester

I don't think it has much to do with socioeconomic status. I didn't buy any preparatory materials because there's more than enough websites around the internet specifically devoted to helping people on the GRE. You can find anything, greek/latin roots, vocab lists, etc for free if you look for a bit

You get to send your scores to four schools for free...but they ask you to pick immediately after the test. I don't know if schools would keep the reports around an extra year or two.

I should also point out that I'm lazy.

It's not about numbers at all. My GPA is pretty poor compared to most people here, my GREs are good I suppose. It's all about marketing yourself almost as a product. Schools are looking to make an investment, simple as that. To write my statement of purpose (two drafts), I thought long and hard about what made me different from other students applying. I chose the schools that appeared to be interested the the traits that made me different. There are plenty of people with good stats, those really only tell you if they're good enough. PS. Sorry Pamphilia, that sounds like a full-time job. I would have gone crazy doing that. Power to you.

It's all about stress management. I'm of the opinion that stress is the worst part of any process like this. If you start to overthink things, they begin to consume your life, making you sleep worse, making you feel worse, really making you unhealthier. And worst of all, we put all of this stress on ourselves. All I did was make a list of everything I needed to do at the beginning of this process. Every couple of days, I would take one item on my list, and work for maybe 15 minutes to an hour. Then I would go out with friends or do something fun the rest of the night. Yeah, there are a lot of elements and variables to the application process, a lot of things out of our control (slow professors on LoRs, I was pretty worried around Dec 1), but the worst part is what we do to ourselves. The more we include destressing activities in our day (different for everyone, could be exercising, weed, watching tv, anything really), the easier the process becomes. But that's just my attitude, and who knows if I'll get in to my programs. But I'm still confident, and that's probably because I never let the stress get the best of me. To be honest applying to college was a lot more work than this.

Not sure how it is for other programs but Neuroscience grad apps are not exactly very difficult or time-consuming. - GRE: alright, study some vocab for a week or two - SoP: write a two page essay, modify a paragraph or two for each school - LoR: send your SoP to three profs and they do the rest... - applications: fill out a few forms online - send your transcripts. Seems pretty simple to me. I started and completed most of my apps within a few hours. The hard part is the waiting, which doesn't exactly require any effort. Sounds like you guys need to chill

People in academia have pretty big egos. This is just the beginning I myself have a 1590 GRE, 3.98 GPA, 9 years research experience, and only 4 first author publications. I'm really worried, especially about my GRE score, do you think I'll get in?