columbia09

I also applied to Rice, when did you hear from them ?

I was told that most people who get their masters in a science don't pay usually. All the grad students at my school aren't paying anything. I would imagine that if a school can't found you then you won't be admitted.

Oh really ? Are they masters or PhD ? My Stanford POI emailed me back and said that they are reviewing the applications. I'm applying for my masters

Is it still too early ? When are most of these decisions made ?

Many, perhaps why my GRE scores are low or how I'm doing with my senior thesis etc. This is especially true if they are on the committee or have any say in the process which I'm sure they do

I just emailed all of them (including the two that didn't respond) that I submitted my app and that if they have any questions please let me know

Yea I agree. I emailed them a short message saying I hope all is going well, submitted my application, if you have any questions please let me know etc.

All 8 of my applications have been submitted in November and now I'm waiting to hear back from the schools. In the mean time, should I email my prospective advisors ? If so what should I say? I spoke to almost all of them except the ones from UT Austin and U Mass who never responded to my initial email. Also for those of you who've applied to UT Austin, VT, UW Madison, UN Lincoln, Texas A&M, Rice, and Stanford, when did you guys hear back ?

Did anyone hear back from any schools ?

Yes but just call them if that's what you want to do

I have almost the same exact statuses as you and I'm also applying big. I hope by 3.8 GPA and double major will make up for my horrible GRE ( I'm also in the bottom half and in the upper half for writing). I despise standardized tests and think they should be done away with all together because in reality it's all for the $$$$$. 200 $ a test give me a break !! And it's 27 $ to send scores out. if an applicant is strong in every other prospective why should a GRE score even matter ? There are a lot of people on this site and on others that worship the GRE and will tell you you won't get in sorry. Anyway, I chose not to listen to them and I applied anyway and hoped for the best. Good luck to you !

Usually no but they might ask for them if they're on the fence about accepting you. Which is why it's important to do well your senior year! Or at least the first half of it

Yea you have to call up and request that they resend it. Very weird all my other apps give you the option of resending your lor

Yea I need to resend the request so my recommender can submit it since the original request was a couple of weeks ago and is probably lost in his email

Don't know if this is the correct spot to put this but for those of you applying, do you know how to resend a request for a LOR to one of your recommenders ? All my other apps had options to resend the request but I don't see one for U Mass. Thanks for the help !

I don't know if grad school classes are easier. My TAs always complain about some of their grad classes that are ridiculous. This is in geology by the way

When do we start hearing from these schools ?

How about we growup and stop the insults.

You should go by the range that the program asked for. If they said they prefer 500 - 1000 words that's what you should submit. Take the aspects of your paper that you think will bend it you the most and construct a new paper from that. They might get irritated that they have to read a 3 page paper that's single spaced and you don't want that do you ?

Mine was single spaced and little below 500 words. Both my professors who looked it over said it was good

Yea both oceanography and geology. I think what people, like the rude prospecting person, fail to realize is that in my case the oceanography masters is heavily concentrated in geology. Plus oceanography is a subfield of geology so even if I didn't change it I would have a case for myself. Also my graduate adviser/professor just told me to replace words in each essay and he sits on the admissions committee at my school. They know we do this

Ouch such hatred

Well whatever the case I resubmitted it however I didn't think that this would've been a big deal.

Also I should state that I spoke to the head of the department who was a former student of one of my letter recommenders. She was very enthusiastic about having me there so I think I'll be fine.