RachaelMC

I heard today from them, and I think most of the departments are on similar schedules. Best of luck!

On my first acceptance, I dyed my hair blue (well, just the ends). I had been wanting to do something drastic with my hair for a while and this seemed like fun. I bought the dye when I was feeling low about my applications as a sign of confidence in myself. The day after the email came, I was up to my elbows in Manic Panic!

I got admitted to the University of Rochester, without interview, comparably late in the game. I guess I was on the second round of admissions. Still, it was a nice surprise!

I was at work, had a couple of slow minutes and just happened to open my email. I sat there stunned for about five minutes. The first person who knew was my boss!

They do! Several in the United States (including one which I'm applying for, but is probably too expensive at American tuition rates) and at least one further afield - France. That's a good point.

No, I asked the person from the department and she confirmed it. I guess it varies by program!

I've been out of undergrad for almost two years. They do ask for a $500.00 confirmation deposit, so I would lose that if I accepted and then left, but that seems like a small enough price to pay. Going to take a little bit of time to think about it.

Hi, I applied to three programs and have been accepted at Ryerson with funding. Yay! The trouble is, I'm also interested in attending U of Amsterdam, and was hoping to be able to wait for their decision before deciding for myself. Ryerson wants to hear back by March 7th (I just found out I was admitted last night - these guys work fast) and Amsterdam probably won't decide until April 1st. Should I accept Ryerson and forget Amsterdam? As far as I can see, the only advantage is that Amsterdam gives the chance to live in Europe, which I would absolutely love but which is achievable in other ways down the road. I also doubt I'll get funding, since I'm international and don't have a genius academic history. In terms of program quality, I think they're about equal, with maybe an advantage to Ryerson. Thoughts?

Sorry, I keep flooding this board with questions. Most of the people I know who went to grad school were there about forty years ago and aren't much help! I'm applying to three graduate schools - one in the US, one in Canada and one in the Netherlands. All my documents are completely ready and uploaded, except for a couple which have been sent by post and haven't arrived at the schools yet. Anyway, I'd like to get these in as soon as I can. However, I'm not sure how close I can get to the deadline before losing it all. The university in the Netherlands has two deadlines, Feb 1 and April 1, and wants me to submit the letters personally. My two profs who are writing the letters are OK with this. They don't want the application at all before all documents are in. Which is fine. The Canadian one (dl January 19) wants the letters before submission, won't process an early application without them, fine. The one in the US (dl January 15) "strongly encourages" early applications - it doesn't specify why, but a different part of the site suggests it's to account for screwed-up paperwork. They suggest sending it in before all the references are received (my references know they have been chosen, have had the link for a while, and one has already submitted). In people's experiences here, is this a wise idea? If my profs take too long to submit between the application and the deadline - that is, if they're still before the deadline, but several weeks after I submit everything else - will the university junk the whole thing? Of my references, one has finished his letter, one hopes to have it ready by the first week of January, and the third (American school only) wants to submit it this week. Anyway, the big wrench in the works is the holiday break coming up. I was hoping to submit two weeks ahead of the deadline, but in some cases that's still during a holiday, so some of university offices are actively not accepting documents during that time. Is, say, January 5th too late for a January 15th/19th deadline? Or is a deadline a deadline? I know it's kind of a dumb question, but this is just SO important to me I don't want to mess it up. I'm sure you know the feeling

So, one of my applications requires that you write your grades in as a percentage. (So, instead of _.__ GPA, you get ___% instead.) I've tried several different methods of calculating this percentage (taking into account the weight of all my courses) from all my grades, and wind up with the same number every time: 79.5%. Since there's no decimal on the site, I guess that makes 80. The trouble is, 80 at my undergrad is 3.7, and my GPA is definitely not that! I did have an unfortunate tendency to get grades one point below the cutoff for the next level, so that might account for the higher percentage vs the lower GPA. What do you guys think? Did I screw up royally? Should I be trying to convert the percentage directly from the GPA itself, or was my "adding up classes" method better? They'll be getting my transcript too, of course, so I'm worried I'll look like a liar if anyone thinks it's out of order. Not submitted yet, but could be right away if not for this problem.

Okay, so I got my GRE results back. 168 V, 152 Q (ugh), both of which seemed pretty reasonable to me...but then 4.0 on the writing! I've been a strong writer throughout my studies. I'm also a native English speaker. This was shocking. I'm really upset and my first instinct is to retake, but I don't know if it's worth it. Here are some factors that might influence it: - I have a great writing sample to submit, and my SOP has a good chance of being similarly strong once I've polished it up - My recommendations will likely make reference to the essays I wrote for them, none of which were below an A, ever - I also have some experience in the field I'm applying to, which I suspect is going to weigh heavily on the final decision (it's a profession-based MA, not strictly academic), and my GPA is okay (3.5 range) - To retake the GRE, I would have to travel at least 5 hours by car/$400 worth of plane tickets to get to the nearest testing site. It would be extraordinarily difficult to arrange the time to do so, as well - Only one of the colleges I'm applying to is in the States (my sig says UCLA, but the program has unfortunately been suspended there), and the other two are along the lines of "GRE? What GRE?" - Some universities that offer this specific program, even in the US, don't require the GRE at all, which makes me wonder how important it is in the admissions process - Pretty sure they're likely to disregard Quant (it's a humanities-oriented field - no math more complex than calculating a score on a student's paper) - The deadline the GRE is required for is January 15th, so I would at least have the time to fit it in Thoughts?

In my fourth year, I wrote an absolutely killer essay. It was an idea I loved on a topic I was hugely familiar with, and everything just worked out. I poured my heart into it, came out with an excellent grade, and received great comments from my prof. The subject matter is also relevant to what I'll be studying in graduate school, so I definitely plan to use it as a writing sample. However, when it came time to return the essays, I was moving across the country and was never able to pick up the marked copy before leaving. At my request, though, the prof emailed me his comments about the essay, which I still have on my student email account. (Furthermore, this particular prof is one of my references, so he can confirm it was real - in fact, he'll probably mention it in the letter.) Do you think it's okay to add the email comments along with the essay, as a separate document or at the end of the essay, and just put a note explaining the circumstances? If not, what do you suggest? It seems like a waste to disregard this essay when I have everything put together...

What if the school doesn't specify? One says 300 words, one says 500, but the other two only say "concise". Should I just stick to 500ish?

Hi everyone, I'm attempting to apply to four graduate schools in a more professionally-oriented than academically-oriented field - there's no such thing as a Ph. D in the field, you're pretty much just trained to do a job and then unleashed onto the market. Each university I'm applying to has either asked for a resume or given the option of either a resume or CV. Here's the thing - I don't have a lot of experience directly related to the field. In undergrad, I didn't publish, TA or go for any awards (in my major it was unusual for undergrads to go in for the first two). Here's what I have going for me: A BA from a very well-respected university - strong GPA and a major which is very close to my potential master's Lots of volunteer work connected to this field or at least imparting similar skills - working in a very similar environment An upcoming internship which is more or less exactly what I'm going to be doing in graduate school and after (not sure if this should go in resume, statement of purpose, where?) - unfortunately can't begin said internship until after all the applications are due Some work experience which is not part of the field, but could help in this setting (eg teaching) I'm not sure what I can do to strengthen the resume. List specific courses from my major? Find a way to work in the upcoming internship? Play up the volunteering? Any advice can help. My undergrad education was in Canada and I'm applying to universities in Canada, the US and the Netherlands. Thanks!