Maxtini

I do wonder~ since I'm international student and don't know about the living cost differences among each states. It may be one of the most influential factors to me in deciding which schools to go.Although it seems I won't have any options but Texas so far

That's very normal~ You haven't seen how Saudi Arabian KAUST luring top notch professor's from all over the world

Oops~ just got rejection from University of Chicago. It seems decision from top programs will be finalised this week, given Harvard had sent out their acceptance. Bracing for Incoming rejection form Yale, UNC-CH, Berkeley, UPenn, Northwestern, UCSD. Hoping to get news soon from GATech, NYU, Houston, UCSC, Arizona State, and Ohio State.

You should remember that this is a two way game, they can admit and reject your application but students can also accept or decline their offer. If you see the statistics (below is from Northwestern), they offered 154 admissions last year but only 53 enrolled. http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/documents/program-statistics/C10PH_adm_enr.pdf I doubt they offered those 154 admissions all at once. Maybe they're sending 70 or 100 offers first. i don;t know, but the way I see is that they're waiting for some response from their top applicants first~ either they accept or decline their offers. Gradually, the university will send their offer to "waitlisted" students until the end of March, when the enrollment rate becomes more or less is certain. Of course for top program like Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, and Northwestern, their decision will be finalised at a sooner date. I think other schools are still waiting for Harvard (and other top programs) to finalise their decision first which will be around february.

My~ I haven't received any news since Texas A&M. To think I received their admission so early in Dec, I started to doubt myself that it was not because of my good qualification, but merely of by chance and luck. Come on~

Maybe this will help~ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3923635/

Today I've just received an e-mail from my POI with a title "Congratulations!". I immediately thought I've just been accepted to another schools! But turns out it was from Texas A&M (which I have been offered admission as early as 03 Dec). Nevermind~ But did anyone of you have contacted your POI asking for research prospects and details etc? What questions did you ask? I want to reply my POI's e-mail, but I don't know what to ask (seems awkward). Do you have any suggestion?

Adjunct Professors in other countries: Fulltime Professor in one instituton (has full-research group there) who are invited to work part-time in other institution. In these countries, you can have adjunct professors as your advisor with conditional requirement that you have another full-time professor in your institution as co-advisor. Adjunct Professors in USA: Part-time worker scrambling for work

Still haven't heard any news since TAMU's super early admission letter (03 Dec)~ Turns out I'll have to wait till february/march, judging from past year's results for international applicants

Pre-application policy could address this problem (sort of). Although you aren't guaranteed admission, you're guaranteed that your application will be reviewed. A lot of departments use this tactics so that they will not be overwhelmed by "unqualified" applications. It is also fair for applicants who won't waste time and money applying to schools that won't review their application. It's a win-win solution in my opinion. The more I see is that the University afraid they will "lose" money by doing this. If you can squeeze US$130 by selling hope, why not? And this is where it becomes unethical/unjustified. The price tag should not be that expensive.

That's why I really appreciate the pre-application policy some departments are having. Essentially they would just do a quick screen to your GPA and GRE score and told you whether they will consider your application or not. This is much fairer to anyone, but it would mean the university get less money.

I think the problem is not with screening and reviewing process per se, but with the charges of the application fee. The application fee for most US university is exorbitantly expensive to the point that you'd expect to get some kind of "standard service" in return for such payment. I don't think it is in anyway justified for a university to charge US$100 for reviewing an application in such a way. I myself really pissed off with several of the universities I'm applying to~ Due to my mononymous name, my GRE and TOEFL score cannot be matched properly. From most universities, I received a very helpful reply when I told them about this. But there are a few universities whose admission offices are really terrible, even in a way dismissal about my problem. And one university never reply me back (I even re-sent my email thrice!!) even though their website explicitly told me to email them. As a result I wasted my whole US$110 without ever getting my application completed (GRE and TOEFL score not received) and probably never going to be reviewed.

That means your application has been favorably reviewed~ it's just a matter of time before your got the departmental (Chemistry) or university approval. But since you also applied to biochemistry, which offer official interview invitation, maybe you should ask your PI for clarification.

Usually International students will be offered admission or interview around january/february/march~ Relax and enjoy your holdays~

Switzerland (ETH-Zurich) consider PhD student as employee~ you get CHF 47,040 (60% employment) a year. https://www.ethz.ch/en/doctorate.html

Congratulation! It seems everyone here got his/her own early admission~

As a student with chemistry background, I find the paranoia against additive and preserving agent in food extremely ridiculous. If you examine the history of human civilization, food preservation and processing is the cornerstone of human survival and advancement. The foods are processed exactly because of the need to preserve them for a long time, this enable us to conserve our food and survive through drought, famine, and disasters. Of course, there is price to be paid, but the positive outcomes of food preserving far outweigh its negatives. The advancement of technology has extended our abilities to better preserve our food, unfortunately this was met with hostility from public, exactly because of their ignorance. To illustrate my point, let's look at sodium chloride (table salt): http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927593 Sodium Chloride Chronic Effects on Humans: MUTAGENIC EFFECTS: Mutagenic for mammalian somatic cells. Mutagenic for bacteria and/or yeast Causes adverse reproductive effects in humans (fetotoxicity, abortion, ) by intraplacental route. May cause adverse reproductive effects and birth defects in animals, particularly rats and mice (fetotoxicity, abortion, musculoskeletal abnormalities, and maternal effects (effects on ovaries, fallopian tubes) by oral, intraperitoneal, intraplacental, intrauterine, parenteral, and subcutaneous routes. What happen when this sodium chloride is some other preserving chemicals? Everyone will go crazy and said "OMG, those greedy capitalists add harmful chemicals in their products! My unborn child would have cancer and have birth defect" etc.... Of course I am not saying all chemicals are safe. But the FDA has been very stringent in approving food preserving agents. Most preserving agents on the market are actually chemicals that you can find naturally in fresh fruits, vegetables, and other plants. Modern technologies enable us to extract or synthesize these active chemicals and put it into other food product. Since they're additives, government regulation would require company to describe the chemicals using chemical names (or other codes), which sound scary to most people. And this is the fact that most people forget, foods are all 100% composed of chemicals themselves. This is what will happen when FDA require those selling eggs and fruits to describe their products exactly by their ingredients.

It might also be an offer for interview~

Wow~ this really sucks. But as far as I know, reference from your previous institution is imperative for doctorate admission. The doctorate admission committee contacted your master institution exactly because you raise red flag by not referencing any Professors from your master program. Because you don't mention any Professors to be contacted, they have no choice but to contact your head program. This is the biggest mistake you've made, in my opinion. You don't need reference from your head of master's program, you just need at least one of the professors from your department (which really knows you well and your circumstances). This way, they will just contacted the Professor you referenced directly without contacting your head program. (And avoid all this fiasco) Even if the reference turns out to be a "so-so" and generic, you can compensate it with your outstanding reference from your supervisor. I would suggest that you make appointment with one Professor who have a good relation with you and tell him/her about your circumstance. Make him/her as your reference.

I submitted quite early~ around one and a half month before the official deadline because of my special circumstances (I have a mononym name, so i need to do a lot of e-mailing to make sure all scores were received properly and not lost due to computer error). In my opinion, there aren't anything called "too early" or "too late". As long as the university has opened up their application, you're free to submit your application within the application period. Depending on each school policy, some will start sorting out (and reviewing) your application once it was submitted, others won't do that before the deadline. In my case, I was offered admission by Texas A&M and rejection by USC as early as (02 Dec) way before their official deadline (15 Dec). Others like UPenn has only started sorting out my application this 16 Dec.

Everthing that expands the current knowledge is considered as research, even if it is theoretical. I don't know much about linguistics, but certainly Einstein's work on Theory of relativity counts as research despite no experiments (when it was published) conducted.

How did you know 80 is 3.7? Are there any official conversion scale from your university? As far as I know, 80 is not 3.7 but around 3.3 for CGPA calculation. But that depends on your school conversion policy. My percentage is around 78.35 and after calculation using official conversion scale from my university, I get around 3.21 GPA. Is your GPA around 3.3? My university conversion scale: A = 4.0 = 80~100; B = 3.0 = 70~79; C = 2.0 = 60~69; D = 1.0 = 50~59 I know some universities convert A = 4.0 = 90~100; B = 3.0 = 80-90; C = 2.0 = 70~79; D = 1.0 = 60~69

I think you could narrate it into a more "non-emotional" and "non-conversational" way, especially the one pertaining to your undergraduate experience. Don't go into length explaining your emotion and way of thought. Your SOP lack concrete details to highlight your strength. The key point is "don't just tell~ but show"; For example: "Finally I acquired a PG Diploma in game design and started working as a game designer which was a job demanding creativity more than anything else. I met my companies expectations well and soon started exploring additional ways to contribute." You could describe in detail what is your responsibility as game designer in the company. How in a way this work demand creativity more than anything else? Back your claim with particular projects that you have contributed to. Give concrete proof that you have met your company expectation (you get reward, more bonus, promotion??). Explain in details what "additional ways" you have explored.

Thank goodness their application fee is only US$5~ My Professor has just told me that she hasn't sent her LoR to OSU~ but the OSU web application indicated that they have received her letter!! My professor cannot submit her LoR because of this, and worse, I cannot add her as recommender again.

I just left the field blank~ although for some university asking for unofficial GRE, they can see where I sent my scores.