Eigen

Hey, truth is always the funniest stuff :-D I have yet to meet a graduate student that thought their coursework was particularly challenging.... Or a graduate adviser that thought it should be.

The head of our department regularly tells us that classes are overrated, and the sooner we get out of them into "real" graduate work, the better.... And it's the same thing I hear repeated over and over from others.

Fair enough. I never even thought about being graded because that is completely beside the point of my graduate courses. They expose me to new, sometimes exciting, materials. They allow me to broaden and deepen my knowledge of topics both within and outside my immediate areas of interest (a great way to discover new ones, btw). Assignments, such as they are, are absolutely not the main point of the class. You can choose to take from them what you will -- you can do the bare minimum and be disappointed, or you can become interested and do more, usually outside the immediate framework of the class.

Wow, it's nice that they changed this.

When I took it a bit over a year ago, the experimental section was not identified (to encourage uniform effort), and was not always last.

I ended up with my experimental quant section before my "real" quant section. I was finally able to guess because of the question types I hadn't seen before.

From the perspective of a current grad student, if you sent something along the lines of : "Hi, I'm just finishing undergrad at X School, and I'm interested in applying to Your Grad School and working for Your Boss, would you have some time to talk to me about it?" I'd be perfectly happy to e-mail you back and chat.

We were all in the decision stage at one point not too long ago- that, and our departments love us to help with recruiting.

Since he's in biology, I'm comfortable with the field being similar to mine.

I have yet to find a PhD program in the sciences in which a 3.0 average is not failing.

It's not about a change in GPA "weighting". Just that a B average is considered the lowest acceptable, and anything lower puts you on academic probation. I'm sure there are some schools that don't do it this way, but I'd say it is by far the norm.

From the perspective of a current grad student, if you sent something along the lines of : "Hi, I'm just finishing undergrad at X School, and I'm interested in applying to Your Grad School and working for Your Boss, would you have some time to talk to me about it?" I'd be perfectly happy to e-mail you back and chat.

We were all in the decision stage at one point not too long ago- that, and our departments love us to help with recruiting.

From the perspective of a current grad student, if you sent something along the lines of : "Hi, I'm just finishing undergrad at X School, and I'm interested in applying to Your Grad School and working for Your Boss, would you have some time to talk to me about it?" I'd be perfectly happy to e-mail you back and chat.

We were all in the decision stage at one point not too long ago- that, and our departments love us to help with recruiting.

From the perspective of a current grad student, if you sent something along the lines of : "Hi, I'm just finishing undergrad at X School, and I'm interested in applying to Your Grad School and working for Your Boss, would you have some time to talk to me about it?" I'd be perfectly happy to e-mail you back and chat.

We were all in the decision stage at one point not too long ago- that, and our departments love us to help with recruiting.

Dude. Suck it up and get a roommate.

Actually, I take it back. Pile on tons of debt and dig your own grave.

You're not even attending yet and your username is gradschoolstinks? You feel entitled to a solo place... for what reason? You can't stand the thought of rooming with someone?

The negativity! It burns!

I had dropped most of my highschool stuff by my Junior year.

If you have some really prestigious awards, they might be worth putting on there, otherwise leave them off.

I felt the same way about my 760. I know the question that screwed me up, and I feel I should have done better.

I talked it over with the head of my department when I applied, and he told me that he didn't think it would make much, if any, difference when it came down to it. While an 800 is what you shoot for, a 760 is still respectable, and is only 1 or two questions off of an 800. Both show you know your basic math skills.

Honestly, at the level you need your math to be for a Chem PhD, the stuff that the quant section shows is relatively meaningless.

Your GRE score is fine, don't worry about it.

Most schools want to see, most importantly: Research experience and good letters of rec.

Good grades are also beneficial.

My score was only a bit higher than yours (660V/760Q) and I had no trouble with any of the schools I applied to (got full fellowship offers from Tulane, Vanderbilt, Penn State, the three schools I applied to). As with you, I applied more to the 10-30 schools, with Tulane as in in-state fall back.... Interestingly enough, their research program impressed me the most, hence why I'm here.

Make sure you research the prof's you want to work with well, and tailor at least a paragraph of your statement of purpose towards discussing their research and how you see yourself fitting into it.

Personally, I didn't take the Chem GRE... If you do well on it, it will help your application, I'm sure.

Bottom line, I would say your scores are fine. Focus on the other stuff.

And as for the writing scores? No one takes them seriously. The way they're scored is really hit or miss. The writing samples themselves are sent to the school, however, and they matter a little bit.

If you have previous publications they can look at, that will help significantly.

If you want to talk more, feel free to send me a PM and we can talk.

I like that you throw the words kindle, moleskin, and macbook around - but then use a $50 camping backpack to keep them in.