MathCat

I'm looking into a school, and I'm trying to gauge whether or not graduates of this program are generally successful in finding positions as researchers in univerisities. Is there any good way to find this information in general, or should I ask the department? I haven't found anything helpful on their website about recent graduates beyond their thesis titles. The school is in Canada, if relevant.

I believe it means he has logged in or something with the instructions they have sent. I don't think it's anything he would have manually selected. A few of my applications had this happen, but I knew from speaking to my recommender that he had not done anything yet (this was quite early).

Don't panic. Grad schools care far more about grades in your major and especially in your final two years - it is unlikely they will put much weight on your engineering grades.

Wow, awkward. Was she a student in the program he was interviewing for?

Bumping this thread. I'm interested in UWaterloo. I see people have said that it's hard to rely on the buses in Waterloo. However, I don't even have a driver's license, let alone a car - so are they really bad, or just not as convenient as having a car? If I got an apartment within walking distance of campus, would I be able to easily get around for things like grocery shopping, etc? Also, how common is air conditioning in apartments or public buildings?

Recommended for admission means you're unofficially admitted. Funding information is usually included in the official letter of acceptance, so wait for that before you ask about it.

I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at with the first part there... but actually, all of my undergraduate math professors asked to be called by their first names, so that doesn't seem weird to me. Maybe math is just not as formal.

When you accidentally delete the early acceptance email from one of your top choice programs, thinking it's another recruitment email from a school that found you with the GRE search service. To be fair, I have received a lot of those, and I didn't know they offered admission to anyone before February! I only noticed when I got a second email from a professor in the group I'm interested in that opened with "As <grad coordinator> has undoubtedly told you, ..."

In math, it is also standard to only require final transcripts if you accept their offers. They wouldn't expect to see final year grades at all when making decisions, I think. I would submit the transcript you currently have, if you think your new grades will lower your GPA. If you haven't yet gotten those grades, it's the most up to date one you have, so I see nothing wrong with this at all.

If yours now exceeds the length, I would email the department and ask about it.

This is not a stupid question! I wondered the exact same thing. You do have to choose whether or not to cancel them before you see them, but you get to pick the 4 schools to send the free reports to after you see it - and you don't have to select any at all! There is really no reason to cancel a score now that they have the ScoreSelect option - if it's terrible, just never report that one to anyone.

My recommenders preferred having them all available so they could upload their letters in one go. Unless they are writing different letters for different schools, I think this is the way to go.

I would not say anything. They may not notice, so you don't want to draw their attention to it. If they have already noticed, I don't think you'll say anything to change their view of it.

I was in a similar pickle for one of my applications. My grades are all letter grades instead of percentages. All I could think of was to convert my cGPA to a percentage - which gave a number I'm sure was not accurate. But, when I e-mailed the grad admissions office they told me it didn't actually matter what I put there, since they would recompute it themselves. I would suggest contacting the school/department to save yourself the stress.

No, I think it is good if you have them from your Masters instead.

A lot of schools ask insist on at least one, and in some cases two or even all three of the letters being from former professors. I think having none will not look good - you probably want to limit it to one non-academic reference.

If there was only one German professor, there's not really anything you can do about it. Focus on things you can improve instead.

Learning vocab is definitely important, but if English is your second language, it is also very important to practice reading comprehension questions. Just try to read as much as you can. Have you done the practice tests by ETS?

I would say apply to any schools that do not require the mGRE (and there are some good ones that don't!), but only if you would be excited to go. Do not settle just because you haven't taken the test. If nobody takes you, write it and then apply again for 2016. Or, maybe consider applying internationally where the GRE is not required, if that is something that interests you.

Almost all the schools I applied to required institution e-mails. They explicitly stated that free emails like gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc. are not acceptable. I believe this is to prevent students from creating fake accounts in their professor's name and uploading their own letters.

Definitely make sure to do the practice tests from ETS. I believe 2 are available online, as well as 2 paper based ones if you buy their prep book (about $20 on Amazon). You have to practice timing yourself, and being familiar with the software by doing the practice tests also reduces anxiety on exam day.

Took exactly a week for me.

I do not think this is true at all. If a university receives an application early and they determine this person is a great fit for their program and they will definitely offer them a spot, early admission offers do happen. They want to try to nab such an applicant before another school does.

Contact the department and explain, then ask them what they want you to do.

I think this is only "unbelievable behaviour" if they refuse to refund your application fee.