Tritonetelephone

Thanks for the idea, t_ruth and ridgey! If you have taken the GRE more than once in the last 5 years, choose the highest of your GRE verbal scores.

Except for contact I had with UT and SBU last year, I didn't make any personal contacts this year. I'm relieved to hear that this is fairly common in social sciences. Truthfully, I didn't really have any questions that weren't answered by dept websites and faculty CV's. But I always prefer resources that don't take up anyone else's time - that's supposed to be a good skill for grad school, right? Maybe I should have contacted some faculty members and asked if they were accepting graduate students in fall, but I only applied to schools with 3+ people that I would like to work with, so even that might have been inconsequential. I should mention, however, that once I learned enough about a school to know that it was a good fit and affordable, my plan was to apply and filter through the more petty details after campus visits of spring's admits. This isn't the best option for people who are applying on a more limited dime. I'll be able to answer your question in April, t_ruth

All the grad students in my classes last semester (at my UG univ) were much older than me... 30's and 40's. This makes me feel much better that maybe things will be less awkward from here on out.

You're not in the social sciences, are you t_ruth? :wink:

And old favorite of mine: live webcams at the National Zoo... http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/WebCams/

Exactly! I did have one professor ask me to read his LOR last year, acknowledging that it wasn't a traditional practice, but that was because he wanted to talk specifically about my research interests and future plans in the letter and was making sure he had it exactly right. So I'm glad I read it - it had enough praise in it to keep me motivated.

Yeah, I would wear black pants and a dark long-sleeve shirt/blouse. I tend to get a little screwed over for professional attire when it's cold outside - men have the opposite problem I think. Out of curiosity, is it for counseling or sociology? Because I didn't think sociology did interviews.

Tell me about it! There's a place in my hometown that sells 8G flash drives for only $15. They have up to 32G for $60.

I can't imagine an adcom expecting you to know something like that. They'll probably make the connection on their own after reading about your interests and still think you're a good fit. BTW, what magazine is this, that reports on the career of an english professor?? I'm sure it's flying off the stands

It is a good start, though. I for one feel a little better.

So did I, but if that's all it really takes to guarantee a shining LOR, I might be as confident as you. I thought there was much more for them to consider? That's the impression I get from the cover forms for some of my schools, anyway - wanting them to rate me for things like "breadth of general knowledge" and "emotional maturity." (Not that my ratings for those things would be bad...)

Just a list? I have a 3-page Excel spreadsheet

Ditto. Some of my schools specifically said to upload the SoP online, for example, but MAIL the writing sample directly to the dept. Read the department website very carefully, you'll probably find out that you're fine.

Me neither. :? But I have a 99% safety.

Plenty of schools are still showing that they haven't received my transcripts. I have proof that they were sent out 2 weeks before the deadline, though, and I don't want to contribute to tying up the grad admins staff with nervous phone calls when they have so much to sort through.

Not to mention, he was only one of three. I'll bet he'll at least be flattered - and you know he's probably on the committee

It is very unethical to read your letters without permission. Don't. Do. It. I had an extra letter, but I gave it back to him so he'd know I never looked at it. (That was a tough one, too. The prof that I least trusted of the 3.) Another one of my recommenders has even been pretty open about what was in his letters, but I still would have done to the same.

UMass has an online status page, but it says... I understand if they want to keep things "official," but I don't see the point of then having a status website at all... maybe for International students? Unreliable post office?

Actually, rejections from safety schools happen all the time, to people that get into the top programs: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13768 I would think that if you're stats are too much higher than your safety and your SoP doesn't indicate that it's a really good match for you, they can probably see right through that. So don't be discouraged right away if the safeties reject you! As for me, one of my safety schools admits 76% of applicants and the other, 43%. Their avg scores are significantly lower than mine, too, and two of my recommenders have worked with faculty members at one of my safeties. But both schools have programs that would be a really good fit for me, and I would be happy at either one of them.

I'll answer in a PM

What is a double-safety school? Does that mean it's even safer than your other safe school?

Well, I can say that I went to a very large, very low-ranked university where I had no chance of being a TA/RA as an undergrad, and in my experience, top programs have absolutely no sympathy. They're interested in applicants with research experience, and they don't care why you don't have it. They definitely won't be comparing apps and saying, "wow, Person A has 3 years of research experience and was a TA for 3 semesters... oh, but Person B went to a large university so they probably didn't have the opportunity. Let's admit Person B instead." That's not to say that you can't get in without research experience, but I think it's unlikely for them to "level" your application based on that type of consideration. Of course, I'm not on an adcom so I don't know for sure In my experience, where you had your UG is part of your application and if it's not impressive enough, you probably need a high GRE score to balance it out. I remember meeting with a faculty member of a top program last year - she knew little about me except that I was a prospective grad student from XYZ University, and the first thing she asked me was "so, what's XYZ like?" in a very condescending tone. :roll:

A few of my online status checks say that transcripts haven't been received, but I called my Univ and know exactly when they sent it out. I'm just assuming the grad schools have a lot of transcripts to sift through and probably won't update my status right away. I don't think that's freak-out worthy.

Yeah, there's an old post somewhere on gradcafe (looked for it, but couldn't find it) of a girl last year who opened an extra letter and found out that the professor ended his letter with "I would not recommend this student for graduate study." So you can understand my temptation, but I went the honest route and made it a point to return it to him so he would know I never opened it.

I was very resistant to retaking the GRE, but one of my soc profs (a recent Stanford grad) insisted that, as a rule of thumb, your V and Q score should be at least 600 and your writing score should be at least 5.0, to be considered "good" by prospective programs. I also did not think I had any chance of improving my scores, but I retook it anyway because I needed his recommendation. I didn't learn any new vocab or even study very hard - all I did was ONLY use the powerprep software to simulate the actual test when practicing. Raised my verbal score by 110 points. My advice would be to retake it and do your best to control your environment. It made a big difference for me.