MathCat
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Posts posted by MathCat
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I've been told I can't register for courses until the department orientation in mid September, so I guess this is all very department specific.
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I don't remember exactly, but I do recall a fair number of these questions. My second quant section was especially high in them, so I think they consider them to be somewhat difficult questions. (I'm basing this on the fact that the computer based GRE adapts the difficulty of the second section according to how well you did on the first. If you do well on the first section, your section second is harder, and I believe this is the only way to get a very high score. I got a 170Q, so I got a harder second section.)
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It's asking for a formula that works for all values, so you can't always pick and choose to identify the right answer. It's possible that two expressions could be equal for specific values, but that does not mean both are correct formulas. As a speed strategy, choosing numbers can be good for the GRE - it allowed you to narrow down your choices to B or C. Now you need another approach to decide which is right. (This could be picking different numbers and seeing that only one works.)
You are correct that you shouldn't assume things are drawn to scale, and it is possible for KJ to be longer than FK if b is large and a is small. If I'm interpreting what you wrote correctly, I think your observation about GK "emerging directly from it" is correct. This is because it is labelled that both legs GF and FK have length a, and angle GFK is 90 degrees. Thus, the other two angles are 45 degrees in that triangle.
Two ways to approach the problem: 1) compute the area of the entire rectangle and subtract the unshaded area. 2) compute the area of the shaded region directly. I think 1) is easier.
The area of the rectangle is ab, the product of the lengths of the two sides. The area of the unshaded triangle GFK is a^2/2, because the base and height are both a. Thus, the area of the shaded region is ab - a^2/2 = a(b-a/2), which is C.
- Simeon and OriginalDuck
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This is a gut-feeling answer and I haven't thought about the pros and cons that much, so take it with a grain of salt. I think that a Masters degree in the US is not viewed as well as Masters degrees in other countries are, because of the common direct-to-PhD model in the US. A lot of people seem to view American Masters degrees as somebody either flunking out of or failing to get into a PhD - not many people intending to go into academia would choose to do the Masters first if they could get into a funded PhD program directly in the US model.
My impression of NYUs Masters program is that it's the booby prize they offer to people they don't want to admit to funded PhDs, so it doesn't seem very prestigious to me. I wouldn't count on getting into the PhD program just because you were in their Masters program, and I would question how you will be treated as a Masters student (you might be invisible to the faculty).
Based on these thoughts, I'd lean towards Warwick. But I don't actually have any first hand knowledge of either school or program, so you shouldn't base too much off of what I've said (double check that what I've said is true!).
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I'm Canadian, and there's no GRE testing centre in my city, so that significantly increased my costs. Like TakeruK, I'm close enough to one that ETS doesn't care. I applied to 8 programs, 3 in Canada and 5 in the US. All figures are in Canadian dollars. At the time that I paid most of these costs, CAD was around 0.75-0.80USD.
Writing the GREs (general and subject, different test days) cost me almost $1000, because I had to travel to another city and get a hotel room (twice, once for each test) on top of the registration fees.
My university charges $10 per transcript. I needed one to scan for electronic upload on every application. Two of the programs I applied to wanted hard copies as part of the application as well, for a total of 5 transcripts ordered in the application process. I also had to send one to the school I accepted the offer from after. I also had to pay to send GRE scores, but only for 2 programs (the rest I used free reports from - I had to pay for 2 because I decided to apply to it after I had sent the general scores...), that's about $60 CAD I think.
I visited 5 programs. All travel and accomodation costs were paid for by the departments except for one for which I was out of pocket about $300. There's also the cost of food on some of the visits (some had food provided for every meal, some only for a few. In any case, airport food is expensive.) - lets call it $500 on visits? [Note: most costs were reimbursed, not covered upfront. So you need the funds available to buy plane tickets as appropriate. Most hotel costs were paid directly by the departments. Some reimbursements arrived within 2 or 3 weeks, others took more like 8!]
Application fees varied, but I think once I converted to CAD it cost about $800-1000 total.
This isn't really part of applying, but as an international student I also had to pay the $200 US SEVIS fee, and I had to pay $50 to get my I-20 couriered to me.
So, I guess it cost me on the order of $2500 CAD. I was lucky that I had these savings available - the costs can be really prohibitive, although of course the GRE can cost a lot less if you have a nearby testing centre.
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GPA is far from the only consideration. What does the rest of your profile look like?
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Honestly, you may not make a minimum cutoff score if they care a lot about verbal. Isn't that below 50th percentile? That could hurt you a lot. Your AW score is probably fine, and the rest of your profile is great. But if they toss it after seeing the verbal score, none of that will matter. If you honestly think you can improve your verbal score, I would retake it, and focus on that more than the quant.
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But that makes a stronger case for the apology! If I am in deep Sh*t and my husband slander someone I am experiencing troubles with, the first thing I will do is try to smooth things out with the slandered one, so no need of escalating things to other authorities will be necessary.
But I guess you are right, different people react differently to the same situation.
Absolutely, I'm not saying she *shouldn't* apologize. I'm just saying that sometimes people are so scared of how their actions will be interpreted that they end up just doing nothing at all.
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I did not read the original post, but I can say that it sort of bothers me that many people here are talking about how the professor is not responsible for the acts of her boyfriend. Certainly she is not, but let's not forget she is THE PROFESSOR and her boyfriend just assaulted HER STUDENT.
She should have stopped her boyfriend's actions immediately. It would have been nice to have an apology right there, but even a late, email apology to the student was the professional and right thing to do.
I agree completely, but here's a devil's advocate possible alternative explanation. Other posts have mentioned the professor has a history of complaints - perhaps she fears any more complaints or infractions will cost her job. I don't know what it said, but some people alluded to an email OP sent. I'm inferring that it was vaguely accusatory? So perhaps the professor lets off steam about it at her boyfriend [i can imagine unfairly negative things being said about OP here, in private angry ranting]. This gets the boyfriend worked up, maybe he's got a short fuse. He takes this out on the OP when they encounter each other wherever that occurred. The professor is too scared of getting involved and having it held against her, so instead she stays uninvolved. (I firmly believe what I said in my previous post - if she had apologized, somebody else would be jumping on *that* as an indicator of guilt.)
Alternatively, maybe the professor did get her boyfriend to do her dirty work. This is all speculation, we have no proof of anything. In any case, I think if the OP felt threatened by a professor (even indirectly), it is worth talking to somebody.
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Finally, while confronting the professor in private could clear up some details and provide answers, in the general case, once the situation has deteriorated to a point where a student does not feel comfortable addressing the issue (due to the nature of the harassment), the student should not feel any obligation to resolve it privately first. That is, in the case of harassment, the right reporting office (whether or not it's Title IX or something else depends on the specifics) should not have expected the student to try to resolve it on their own first. My past training would tell me to advise the student to just go ahead and report it to the administration and only ever talk to the people involved when there are other people in the room.
I agree with this. If the student feels threatened or uncomfortable (which sounds justified from what I've inferred, even if the professor isn't involved), s/he is under no obligation to try to work it out privately first. Indeed, that could backfire legally - it's best to have witnesses or records of anything said from this point forward. I don't think it's out of line to talk to the university when a student feels threatened, but what Telknaru said pretty much sums up my view of the thread.
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I guess it depends what you consider walking distance, but I would say that Mesa is close enough to the Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Ralphs on Villa La Jolla Drive. I'd say it's about a 20 or 30 minute walk.
30 minutes walking home with groceries is more than I'd like, but looks like there's no better option. At least, Google doesn't know of any good bus routes either.
The LAS coordinator sent an email about registration being open about 3 days after I first logged in and registered for classes. That was weeks ago now, most of the classes I wanted filled already. Maybe you will have more luck than I did for courses.
Math is one of the programs that requires advisor approval to register, so I guess I'm in a special boat. I don't even have the advisor that approves courses assigned to me yet.
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I just got my SHORE offer, it's also a shared South Mesa 2 bedroom. It was my third choice, and I was really hoping to be on the other side of the I5. The South Mesas are pretty big, but that seems to be the only perk for me. I don't see any grocery stores within walking distance on Google maps though - does anyone know if there are any? Or a shuttle or bus to grocery stores? I do not drive.
They emailed me about 3 minutes before they called me, which was at about 3pm PST.
edit: Any current/former UCSD students know anything about the on campus markets? Google identifies a few places on campus such as Roger's Place and Market (by Revelle), Sunshine Market (in Price Centre), Sixth College Place and Market (by Sixth College, as you'd expect). Are these places you could do all your grocery shopping, assuming you cook all your own meals at home? Or are they more like premade sandwiches and snack food type places?
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If I recall correctly, test taker photos were only required for some testing centers when I took the GRE. But now, I think it's standard procedure. I think it's a little weird, since the graduate school reviewing your application is not going to be able to use these photos as proof of anything, since most US schools do not require you to submit a photo with your application (maybe for programs with interviews, they can verify your identity in this way). But I know ETS does administer a lot of other tests and maybe they found it was easiest if they used the same protocol throughout all of their tests.
I think my General GRE testing experience was the highest amount of security I had ever had to submit to, even more than entering foreign countries, and even the United States!
I also think it's weird/hilarious how little security there exists at the GRE Subject Test sessions compared to the General GRE!
One thing is that the graduate schools could notice you don't match your picture if there is reason to look after you've enrolled. Maybe it's just ETS wanting it for their own purposes, I'm not sure.
The level of security at the Prometric test centres is kind of ridiculous. At that point it was the highest security experience of my life as well. I've since been the lucky randomly selected recipient of the full TSA experience, and despite it being more intense, the TSA agents' professionalism actually made that more pleasant than the GRE experience.... And yes, the contrast with the nearly nonexistent security at the subject tests is bizarre.
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Disclaimer: I didn't see the original post before it was deleted.
Those who are saying that the professor is clearly involved *seem* to be saying it because she didn't apologize to the OP after the incident (whatever the incident was). I'd just like to point out that some people would have taken the professor apologizing to the OP as the professor admitting responsibility, so maybe the professor was worried about that perception of things. I can't possibly know what happened, but people are jumping to conclusions on both sides of this.
- rising_star, 1Q84, fuzzylogician and 3 others
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Unless your programs specifically require math courses, I wouldn't mention it on your applications. They will throw away your application, gobble up your fee, and take someone else. There are other fish in the sea.
Without more specific details, there's not much other actionable advice I could give.
It could provide explanation for the GRE quant score, and if math is not required for the program, they shouldn't care too much. I definitely think it should be mentioned on applications (as a side note, don't make a big deal about it).
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Test-taker photos?
When I wrote the GRE (computer-based, not sure if they do it for the paper test centres), they took my photo with a webcam before I started. It's part of ensuring there isn't fraud. I guess now schools can look and make sure the person who wrote the test is actually the person they've met, if there's doubt after admission or something.
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Did my undergrad studies at UCSD, and have returned as a graduate student, and have been following this thread... allow me to help!
If you're coming from graduate student housing (One Miramar or Mesa), I can confirm the only way to cross the 5 is via Voight Dr or La Jolla Village Drive, but I highly recommend Voight Drive. La Jolla Village Drive is dangerous for cyclists(cars go very quickly and there is no bike lane). As a pedestrian, while there is a sidewalk, you would have to cross the on-ramp and the off-ramp to the 5... which can be risky, especially at night. Do you know about the Mesa Shuttle? It takes graduate students from grad housing to UCSD. It will drop you off in front of Mandeville Auditorium, which is also in Muir College.
I do know about the shuttle, but would prefer to walk or bike if possible and safe. I think I would avoid La Jolla Village Drive unless I was walking during day time, and even then it looks pretty unpleasant. I definitely wouldn't consider cycling there. I'm kind of getting ahead of myself anyway - I haven't received my housing assignment yet, and don't even know which side of the I5 I'll be on! I appreciate your insight though, thanks.
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I can't imagine most adcomms would care enough to look up the essays, except in certain circumstances or fields. I could imagine some might look if there appears to be fraud, for example a very different level of English proficiency indicated in the AW score vs. SOP or communications they've had, but I know a lot of fields really don't care that much about the AW section except as a possible indicator of English proficiency. I wouldn't worry too much about it - write the essay that you feel will get you the best score. I doubt they'll read it!
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Does anyone know if Voight Dr. is the only place to cross the I5 as a pedestrian or cyclist on campus? I'd really like to be able to walk or bike to the math building (which is around where Google maps shows John Muir College) and it looks like you have to be pretty indirect about it if going from Mesa or One Miramar. If I ask Google for directions as a pedestrian, it does say you can cross the I5 at La Jolla Village Drive, but on street view that didn't look very safe... edit: actually, there is a sidewalk. Maybe it's okay? If anyone has actually been there, insight would be appreciated.
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I definitely don't agree that a PhD should just be pursued for intellectual enrichment. You could make the argument that an undergraduate degree can follow that model to some extent, as it requires broad education, but a PhD is highly specialized. Somebody with a BA in [Non-Vocational Major] will learn skills that they should be able to use in a wide variety of careers even if they never work in their major, due to general education requirements.
I'd like to point out that a Bachelors is not structured this way in all countries and all fields. I did a math degree in Canada, and the closest thing I had to "general ed" requirements were: 1) needing to either take first year English or pass it by a test, 2) take two programming classes, and 3) take X number of additional 'Science' credits on top of the math credits required for the degree. These could just come from more math classes.
In my opinion, a university degree shouldn't be a job prep program. This isn't a career college or program that certifies you for a specific career, and people can have many different intentions when completing the degree - indeed, some do it just for the experience, with no intention of having a career in that area. However, I'm kind of torn on the PhD issue. In some fields (such as lab based sciences), a PhD is definitely useful for pursuing a career in industry. In pure math, I'm not so sure how useful a PhD will be if I fail to have an academic career. I do think that departments should try to be more open about the academic career prospects, and have options for students to gain more industry-relevant skills as appropriate.
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Is it weird that my imposter syndrome seems to be coming from people saying positive things about me? The program I'm attending was very flattering in their recruitment of me, and it makes me feel like I must have been oversold, or they must have misunderstood my application package in some way, etc. Even my current professors' encouragement just makes these feelings more intense. It's making me pretty anxious, feeling like I have to live up to this inflated expectation of me.
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The number and composition of courses you should take is going to depend a lot on your program, teaching load, other commitments, etc.. It's probably best to talk to people in your department about that. I know that what was recommended to me is different from what people are saying here (taking 3 core classes would be a LOT in my program).
I didn't know course registration was open already! Did your department tell you it's time to register or something? I don't even know how...
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Is the summer funding thing field dependent? In my field, schools seem to offer a stipend of X amount her year, split evenly throughout the year (including summer). I've never heard of people not getting paid during the summer in my field. What are you supposed to do if you can't find summer funding? You stop grad school for a couple months and work a different job?
You get paid over 9 months and make it stretch to all 12 if needed, I suppose. Like I said, in practice, they said (and students corroborated) that they can always find TAships if their advisors don't have funding. The 9 month package is enough to live on for a year if you are frugal. I should also note that students are not required to be present during the summer at these two programs (although most are).
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I had two offers that offered more in the first year than in subsequent years. Both waived tuition and provided health insurance and guaranteed stipend for 5 years. The first year was higher because they guaranteed summer funding, and offered one year fellowships to reduce or remove the need to TA in the first year. One of the offers also had a "move in/signing bonus" that would be paid out before the start of term. After the first year, the funding goes down to the standard TA package and no summer funding is guaranteed.
I think the assumption is that, once you have chosen an advisor (you don't decide until 1-3 years into the program), they might have summer funding for you. You also might apply for external fellowships in later years. If not, both places said that summer TAships are almost always available, they just cannot guarantee it (and students corroborated this).
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If the rest of your application is competitive enough for a top program, I think you should apply regardless of your GRE score. Some places don't care much about the GRE, or would be willing to overlook it if the rest of the application is strong. Don't let this one factor dictate where you apply.