jujubea

I can tell you this at least: the Foreign Service, and the federal government in general (excluding politicians/political positions), does not care at all where your degrees are from.

How low are you talking? You know, GRE scores are really only a small part of the package. Maybe you can get in places you don't realize.

You can definitely raise it considering the amount of time you have. And overall your background looks great. The letters will matter quite a bit, though, too, so be selective. Good luck!

Sorry I got nothin... Hmmmm... the person was paid to do the work though... I'm curious how these things are; interested to see answers..

Omg that would drive me INSANE if I really thought it was a possibility....!

Just fyi - I submitted a writing sample I produced while not affiliated with any institution or school or think tank or anything. It was published, and I was accepted.

Congratulations!

Congratulations

Just had an excellent visit with my new department there.

Congrats

Generally, it's possible. I didn't interview at any of my schools and was accepted to all three - however, only one of those three schools actually does interviews (that I'm aware of). Specifically to your field, might be a different ballgame! Edited to add: Case in point, below!

Hi - I wonder if this is something UC-wide, or common to California schools' "fellowships." I was also awarded a Regents Fellowship, except at UCSB, and only for the first year. It is pretty clear from the writing that I will not be working that year. However, the second and third years I am covered by another Department "Fellowship" also, but it says in the letter what I'll be awarded, "and an additional $X per quarter, either as a stipend or a mix of stipend and Student Assistantship (of no more than 40 hours per quarter) to be determined by the Department." I've never even heard of a "Student Assistantship" but I'm assuming it's similar to TA-ing or RA-ing? Anyway, not sure this helps, except to say, you're not alone in deciphering these things.

Have you looked at UNM? It's probably right around there. Though I don't know if SLP tends to have different tuition schedules than other grad schools in the same university.

Heh... the one place I haven't done an official visit to, is the one I already accepted... Official visit later this week - SO excited. Granted, I did do a visit there on my own about a year and a half ago.

I know nothing about your field, but judging from what I've seen in the results search and on the forums here, you probably have a shot at a top 70 school. I've seen several rejections though on Results Search in various engineering subfields from people who sound similar - not the best GPA or GRE's, but significant papers and awards. They're usually really pissed/arrogant sounding in their Results Search posts. I'd talk to the actual schools you're looking at applying to and go from there.

Can you elaborate on the "early decisions-big impact later" point, as others have done? This sounds like an important one...

Yay! Congratulations! It's like we're all graduating!... From the "Applications" section of GC ...

Well, Program A sounds pretty great because even though there aren't perfect overlaps with faculty, they do support independent research in the area you're interested in. It seems like, in reality after graduation, that's sort of what the job is going to be like - pursuing your interests despite (or even because) them not overlapping with anyone else's, or getting help from anyone else. In that way, it sounds like a good "apprenticeship" in that you'd get real experience, in a supportive environment, being a pioneering academic. Is that what you want to do afterwards? Or what are your post-doc plans? To add: I also got an offer kind of like C and B. They offered a very low stipend, and, even though there are university fellowships available, I wasn't nominated for it, nor, from what I can tell, was anyone else. The other two it seemed like were actually trying to "fight" to have me. They ended up getting dropped from the running first (after many, many weeks of agonizing however).

Congratulations! Very exciting!

Congratulations!!!

UCSB! Yay!

Well, there are lots of factors besides ranking to consider. How else do the schools and programs match up?