velua

Fall 2015

Only took 8 days for them to grade my essays (I took it in May), but may take longer in the fall. I'd recommend taking it late this summer. You'll have a lot going on this fall -- arranging LORs, doing well in classes, working on applications, potentially a subject GRE, etc. You don't want to worry about the general GRE. Plus it gives you time to retake if you really need to. I doubt it matters that you know your A score before the deadline anyway (as long as you get a reasonable score on it). They're not going to review your application in December. Still, just get it over with early IMO.

Some schools won't consider you if you already have a Master's or Ph.D. I suspect some other schools may officially consider you but in reality it'd be a long shot. Some schools will be happy to take your money though.

Well I recall looking into Yale's Math Ph.D. program many years ago and their website was horrible. I wrote to the grad admissions person several times for some information and never got a response. That turned me off of even applying to the school. If you can't get a simple response now, there's a good chance you won't get as much support as you might like (whatever that means) once you're in.

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous in any situation in life where you pay (a lot of) money for some service and then you have to spend your time to get them to do their job. This is one example, and it reminds me of buying a Super Bowl jersey 2 weeks before the game for some absurd price and then having to constantly email or call them to actually get them to do their job and mail the damn jersey. The one year when I didn't pester NFLshop constantly, they of course had it delivered the day after the Super Bowl. Of course, I'm not saying what the hard deadline should be. That's a different question, but I don't think I got an answer from one place many years ago, and several others I had to ask multiple times to get my answer. Totally unacceptable.

I don't know about a 6. My guess is you need it to be long (5 full paragraphs) and full of big words. If you need to make up an example, that's fine. Just as good as a personal example. My only worry was when you get a really horrible topic that you just don't have any opinion on one way or the other.

Only a handful of decently ranked schools will offer spring admission, and even fewer will do so for Ph.D.

If you come clean to anyone, talk to the department, not the graduate school. If they really didn't say to disclose all previous transcripts (not just degree-granting), then who cares?

Yes, I'm not suggesting what the deadline should be. That's a different issue. But some schools definitely do fail to inform some applicants one way or the other, essentially stealing their money. I think one school I applied to about half a dozen years ago might have done that to me, but I can't remember for sure.

For whatever it's worth, I was never very good at PDE stuff when I encountered it. I never took PDEs, but definitely saw them in several complex variables, as well as functional analysis. But I still did very well in algebra, topology, number theory, etc. Also, my first upper level math class I got a B in. That class was probably what inspired me to go into math, the professor was so great, and the material was so interesting. I actually got near 100% on the midterms, but then bombed the final because I just couldn't get a handle on one of the later topics in the course. Anyway, I basically got all As in my other math classes the rest of the way, and even took several more courses with the same professor, did very well, and got a great LOR from him.

So what? That excuse is completely unacceptable. They know long in advance that they will get applications, and they know roughly how many applications they will get. I don't know if there's technically a stipulation in the fine print that you're agreeing to pay, say, $100 for a yes/no answer, but as far as I'm concerned, it's theft not to give a response.

Except when you spend money on an application, possibly $100 or more, they should be obligated to give you a response in a timely fashion. This makes it different from job postings.

You're unlikely to improve your vocab or reading skills in a month or two enough for a huge improvement, but if you have 6+ months, sure. But spending that much time on GRE scores instead of other things is not wise. But if you scored poorly because of testing techniques or you couldn't focus or something, then sure. That said, on the old test, I improved my verbal by 60 points (about 4 on the new scale) in the span of a couple months.

I agree mostly. I'm probably going to take an online probability class. Many programs want it as a pre-req, and although I have a pretty good handle on the material already, I learned it by studying for an actuarial exam, which is kind of awkward to show on applications. That said, I should still learn some stuff and fill in gaps in my knowledge. But the tuition for the course is really cheap and I probably wouldn't take it if it were an expensive course. (This isn't about a retake per se, just about spending time/money on a class where you don't learn a huge amount.)

It's not worth it to show you made a gaffe that one semester. It's only worth it to increase the numerical GPA value on your transcript. So if for example you've already graduated, don't bother retaking it as a post-bac course at your local university. The exception being if you failed an upper level (or maybe even a C grade) class in your major that's very fundamental and not just an elective course.

Some schools have deadlines after your fall grades are out, and even if not, they likely won't start reviewing apps until after Christmas, so you can rush in a new transcript if you pull up your GPA a bit. Just deal with the GRE this summer so you don't have any distractions (unless you want to take a subject test).

3 publications is quite strong, and the LORs are the most important thing, but you should still try to get your GPA up. Definitely above 3.6, try to get closer to 3.7 if you can. Sure GPA isn't the only thing, but the top schools will have their choice of students and they're going to choose the guy with 3 publications, excellent LORs, and 3.8 GPA over the guy with 3 publications, excellent LORs, and 3.55 GPA more often than not. You can look for student profiles at your target schools though. Some of them will have a CV on their page (or a linkedin page), and some of those people will include undergrad GPA, even GRE scores. Maybe you can get an idea of what else the 3.5-3.6 GPA students had to do to get in.

Also look at your professors' CVs to see good ways to format or convey certain things.

I don't know what kind of score you need. If you can finish an application, I don't see why not. You can check how late you can take the GRE, maybe even later than that. I'm taking it next week. I was a math major so that part's easy for me, but I put off preparing for a while because I was nervous about the verbal part. I took a few practice tests and it turned out to be way easier than I thought. I'm not too worried about the essays. You can choose which scores to report so even if your score is awful, it can't hurt unless the $195 is burdensome to you. It used to be the case that the ETS would report all scores, so there was more pressure.

You can't hide it, you have to disclose all transcripts, but that doesn't mean you have to spend your whole SOP talking about your weaknesses. It sounds like you have a decent story to tell anyway. I'd recommend saying you were dealing with health issues or something vague instead of specifically mentioning depression. The fact is, you have turned things around and proved you can be a good student. Also, maybe you need a slight attitude adjustment. "I wasn't told it was too late" is an irresponsible attitude to have.

Sounds like good advice. I'll probably just end up mentioning something about the one semester I TAed a class that's actually relevant to CS, and leave the full details of my TA experience to my CV.

There are some Master's programs that do fund their students, so I think having a whole paragraph about your teaching experience and how much you enjoy/value teaching, etc. is useful. Is the same true for unfunded Master's programs (where you might have the opportunity to apply for TA positions, although all the positions will likely go to Ph.D. students), or should your TA experience be limited to a sentence or two and a few lines in your CV?

Also, if you live somewhat nearby and have access to a car, it could be a good idea to check out the city (and the campus). You want to know where you're going to be living for the next 5+ years. I wouldn't hop on a plane across the country to do that before being accepted though.

Ph.D.s are better, ask them by email. If you were close to them, I'd say just ask to set up a time to talk about grad school, then ask in person. Either ask now or early in the fall. Professors are horrible about responding to email, and their inboxes during the summer will likely be a black hole.

I assume Ph.D. in physics? Are you international? I don't know much about physics but that sounds like a high-reaching list. You should apply to them, but maybe also add a less selective school or two.