Maxtini

I don't think there will be any penalty at all as long as you arrived before the "report date" on your I-20. Considering it's been very late, you should push your university for expedited processing. I think they will understand this and your report date will be adjusted accordingly (after the term starts). Once you get your I-20, immediately apply for visa. Expedited visa processing is usually available.

It is very difficult to determine whether it is plagiarism or not from one sentence. Especially for factual sentence (that is sentence that only describe fact not ideas/opinion). If your sentence is followed by a whole paragraph of idea that is similar with the author. Then it is plagiarism.

Some landlord might accept your I-20 as proof of fund. If not, you might be required to put 3-months deposit or more.

Wow~ never know this thread would revive again~ Well, I personally don't feel offended in anyway by suggestions to change my name. But I decided to just stick to my single word name regardless of the consequences/difficulties. On the other hand, I think the US government and other US institutions have slowly begun to adopt a more inclusive policy in naming. In fact, the I-20 form that I've received reflects my name correctly. Although my single name appear in "Surname (Family name)" field instead of in "Given name" field (left blank). This seems to be the new name standard for SEVIS that was implemented starting this year. The FNU thing has been banned!! . (https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/SEVIS%20Name%20Standards_0.pdf) For google, there is an option to fill the last name field with dot and the google system will automatically register/display your name as mononym. (https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1228271?hl=en) For facebook, they allow me to leave my last name field blank and only one single name appears on my facebook account. But that will only work if you change the facebook language setting and access facebook from my country, where mononymous names are common. (Shhh! That's secret ). For the curious, you can try using proxy/vpn : http://www.techavengers.net/2014/11/how-to-create-single-word-facebook-name.html Unfortunately, US embassies still keep their old policy with FNU, so my visa was issued with FNU-thing. In US, I think I will just treat my single name as my last name and left the given/first name blank if possible. If not, I will just fill in FNU. This will be consistent with my VISA and I-20 form.

You can cancel the appointment and make new appointment on the same date (provided it is at least 2 days from today)~ you MRV fee serial number will still be valid for the new appointment,

Relax~ It's important that you don;t feel nervous when answering the questions. The key is keep your answer short and simple. Only answer what is asked and always make eye contact with the VO. I've just had my interview and there's no difficult questions asked. VO: So you're going to study in the US? Me: Yes VO: To which university? Me: XXX University VO: So why do you choose this university Me: Because XXX hosts several Professors whose research really suits my interests. VO: What's your interest then? Me: (It's important that you answer in easily understood terminologies. Don't use too much jargon especially if your major is on the TAL list) My interest is in the application of chemistry to find new drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, obesity, and diabetes. VO: I see... you have a fellowship from the university. May I have a look at the documents from your university? Me: (Gave my admission letters to him) VO: Congratulation for your scholarship. Me: Thank You. VO: So where do you studied before? Me: XXX Universities. VO: Welcome to US. Good luck on your studies. Congratulations. (Handed me a white receipt indicating VISA approval) Me: Thank You. Thank goodness there were no background check (considering I'm majoring in chemistry) and my visa was promptly approved. Hope this will help.

I don't think that will be a problem. But You could cancel your appointment, fill in new DS160 application and make new appointment. I did it on my appointment due to stupid mistake in my DS160 and my MRV visa fee number can still be used for the new appointment.

No~ I'm from Asia. I can't give you estimate, nobody knows for sure. But I know a lot of my friends who got accepted without publication. Publication is just supplementary. As long as you can show the admission committee you've adequate research experience (Master thesis, research statement), I won't think it will hamper your chance a lot. There is still one or two years, I'm sure you'll get one during your master studies when you're doing your research. It doesn't need to be first author, being second, third, fourth, or n-th will be good.

1. In most US universities, contacting a professor is not required to be admitted. It may or may not influence your chances to be admitted. But you want to make sure that once you're admitted, your faculty of interest will accept you. So, contacting professor is a good idea. And yes, you get paid through TA or RA. 2. No comment. I don;t know 3. Getting into top program is difficult. The competition is fierce, especially for international student. Your recommendation letters and personal statement are the most important factor in convincing the school to accept you. But let;s be realistic, the admission committee do not have time to read all applicants' essays, so there must be some cutoff criteria to weed out the less competitive ones, and that's your GPA. Besides GPA, they would also seek 90% percentile score for GRE and GREchem (for international student). Having several publications will boost your competitiveness a lot. 4. GRE test score is valid for 5 years and you may take the test several times a year, so the earlier the better. 5. Usually international students (except for Canada) will not be offer the opportunity to visit the campus, It is not required, but if you want to make the visitation, it is at your own expense. 6. You might want to apply to several schools. Considering you're international students, I suggest you apply to 10 schools, or more, if you're not confident with your scores. I personally applied to 15 schools because my GPA and GRE score is quite low for international student standard. In the end I was accepted into 5 schools. Not the best schools, but certainly better than any schools in my country.

When you want to formulate your idea or asking someone about their opinion, make sure that you made it publicly known (to all members in your lab) that you're the one pursuing that idea first. You don't need to talk about that in details, just some vague idea to make sure everyone takes a hint. This way, when someone in your lab try to "steal" or "hijack" your idea, you will be better positioned to defend yourself. Never, ever talk about your idea to someone in private, even to your PI before that happen. That is from my own experience.

Same here~ I think their office is extremely busy right now. They did ask me to resubmit my application because of some problem with my original application though. So it means they're really working on processing the application. But beyond that, no news, no update and no reply to any inquiry so far.

If this stats is to be believed, rent constitutes 48% of expenses in NYC for Average income of about 3,263.57 http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=United+States&city=New+York%2C+NY

The majority of international students actually finished their master degrees elsewhere first before applying for PhD in the US. Your MS experience will help you a lot and convince the admission committee of your suitability to their program. Unfortunately having a Master degree from US university might be perceived as "failure" to get a PhD, so you might want to be careful to avoid such perception.

If you want to find out how is your PI's funding going on, you could look at: http://grantome.com/ It's not really up to date but useful nevertheless.

Did anyone know what is the chance of getting off from UPenn waitlist? It seems UPenn waitlisted virtually everyone only to reject them very late in April.