jujubea

...soooooo glad I don't have any November deadlines

Stellar verbal, smg!

Some programs, it's mandatory. Some programs, it's not mandatory, but if you do it, it helps your chances a lot. Other programs, it will get you thrown out. Best to check with your programs whether or not it's best.

I have a feeling the waiting is going to be WAY worse. And, April? I don't know! If you check out the database on here, a lot of the funded decisions come out in February! At least for the remaining contenders on my list. Wouldn't that be sweet?

Slowly but surely. I had a lot of work to catch up on after taking off for a week of campus visits... The visits were great, but now I feel I'm quite far behind on my apps!

Awwww, and admittedly hahaha. That, for current lack of desire to sound eloquent, blows. Aren't dreams excellent at reminding us what our deepest worries are? Gotta hand it to the brain. Really brain? Come on! We're supposed to be in this together!

The Economist wrote a great article on this fairly recently (past year or so), about how PhD programs are enabling legal slave labor, and pushing the best and brightest into lower economic classes in the meantime.

Well, what kind of research did you do on the school beforehand? Did you make a school visit? Sit in on any classes? Speak to any students at length, both in terms of the program but also casually? Did you ask about what teaching is like and what the workload or philosophy would be? Those are all the factors you're pointing to as not fitting, so I wonder whether you understood those things or not before going in. If you did know these things beforehand, then it sounds like you didn't know yourself very well, or at least not what you would like out of a program. If you did NOT know these things beforehand, it would seem like you could have done more thorough homework. Also, I don't know how long you've been in the program, but is it possible you're having a sort of post-Christmas Day let-down? You know, after you anticipated grad school/Christmas Day for months and months, getting all excited and imagining what it would be like, and what might be inside those boxes, now that you've gotten it, it's a sort of let down? Either not what you expected and hoped for, or simply just the normal deflation after all that excitement and anticipation... ? Just a thought.

Santa Barbara only accepts your most recent scores. Congratulations on the improvement, lesleyautumn!

Yikes. Are there any you'd recommend in particular? I wonder what cost is like for private schools out there.

Thanks lyrhc. For complicated reasons, we can't go any further east than NM & Colorado (and no further north than CO either). Np, hnotis. Glad my trip was fruitful for others

Anyone have insights on what ABQ is like for families with middle-school and high school aged children?

Just got some in-person scoops on a few campus visits: DU does not fully fund anyone at the MA level. Best they offer is half tuition waived. They also do not offer teaching opportunities while at the MA level, even though they require teaching experience of their own incoming PhD students. You can't teach unless you teach, but they don't give you a chance to teach. Sounds like we'd be better off getting our MA first, then going to DU for the PhD, which they fund for 3-4 years. It's a grad-heavy school: campus-wide, half of all students are grad students. Within Comm Dept however (not MassComm), the ratio is about 1:3 grad to undergrad. Around 50 grad students (MA & PhD) at a given time. Nice, intellectually serious atmosphere, conducive to scholarship. CU-Boulder offers every student it accepts funding, and they have just updated their website to reflect the most current TA-ship information. You teach two or three days a week, generally not as a stand-alone class though - you are the actual TA for a primary professor for a class of 100+, and then one or two days a week after that, you run a small discussion section of about 20 students. Very heavy supervising and personalized mentorship/feedback sessions. Around 50 grad students at a given time, 1200+ undergrads, and the undergrad culture is palpable. Summer teaching AND research opportunities. Multiple course options for teaching. University of NM offers most students varying forms of funding, including up to full tuition remission, either in-state or out-of-state (despite what website says) and a TA-ship stipend on top of that. You teach two sections of one class per semester, and you are the primary instructor. You get advising and mentorship as a TA, but the students there emphasized that it is not "heavy" supervising, or in other words, they really let you run the show, because there is a very set, and structured curriculum for you to teach from. I can't recall the grad:undergrad numbers, but I do recall the grad community to be tight and collegial. Limited to no summer teaching opportunities. Occasional summer research opportunities. Course options for teaching grow with time. Faculty at all three seem basically stellar. (Who am I to even make that call!). Pretty different environments all around (inside, outside, structural, environmental, intellectual, etc...), so if you can swing a visit, I'd highly highly recommend it. I learned a lot more than just these things, but this is most relevant to our current discussion. Any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

I don't know if you guys should be feeling so down - from the sounds of other threads on this forum, the AWA is almost a throw-away score that sometimes doesn't even get looked at. If that's true, I would imagine that particularly applies to non-humanities, non-arts programs like all of yours. Don't stress too much and remember it really is about the whole package! Have you considered scheduling a phonecall or Skype with some POI's? Perhaps if they hear you speak knowledgeably about your subjects then any AWA fears could be allayed. Good luck!

No but I am having problems getting newer software generally to work on an older Mac.... including the OS itself..

You're probably fine since you're in a science program, you have been published, and I'm guessing you'll be submitting a writing sample to apply.

A double burger means one burger that has two patties of meat in it. English language is crazy confusing, don't sweat it.

Peace Corps first. The experience will serve you very well in determining your life path, including your grad path and beyond. Do it. Be changed by it. Become a better human, and figure out how to better serve the world. You can do it. Bsharpe and lzs give sage advice on planning ahead for LORs. Maelia's Fulbright suggestion is also def worth looking into. Good luck.

I think it's a risk for you to even be posting as much as you just have.... You're also inviting some nefariousness a little bit... In any case, if their relationship with you is relevant to the program you're applying to then great. Plenty of side-flippers end up doing great things (both ways). It seems shortsighted to not consider that. If you think about it, it's kind of like someone who used to break into cars, but not necessarily steal them, who now works for Tesla to help make their cars more secure. (In that way it's not so much about reform as it is a redirection of skills.) If you're wanting to go into a similar field, then it seems he/she'd be a great reference.

I went with my dyed hair. And vibrant. UNM's TA's and faculty (and students) have colored hair, uncommon piercings, and uncommon dress. When I showed up they said, "You'll fit right in!" Not so common at Boulder though - haven't seen any of the above yet. Not even among students. But it doesn't seem to be deterring faculty in our interactions so far. Although I can tell it is a bit distracting for them, a potential negative. On an unrelated note - holy cow Boulder's campus is GORgeous!

Got my writing score back today. Whew it's done. I hoped/ expected for 5.5 but I got a flat 5.0. Oh well. I know I write well and hope my pubs can speak to that...! I also know I can improve though, so it's a good score to keep me humble with

That was a really helpful answer, TakeruK. I'm in a similar position - both types of programs I'm applying to are not my undergrad major, and while I have enough interest in both fields to make some specific research-interest statements, I would feel it would be disingenuous to claim I know precisely what things I'd like to study - part of why I'm doing the Master's is so I can get that more legit foundation in the field in order to carry out deeper, more meaningful research. Good luck, holamynameis.

Yeah - you (and others above) make some great points, too. Not everything's so black and white, and no way should bosses be asking those questions (including the hypothetical one related to the OP's post)... it would put someone in just such a moral conundrum.

That's great! If you look at it another way, you improved your quant score by 12 percentile points! And that's excellent improvement! Don't be fooled by the tiny 1-point increments You did great. Good luck on your AWA score! I'm eagerly awaiting mine still too.

No response from him yet... Guess that's a good sign?