sjoh197

I know the cycles have an upside eventually... but it certainly sucks to hit the job market in 1993, 1998, 2004, now. It was like when my partner graduated in 2008. Not a single job opened in his field for an entire year in his region. He went back to school and snatched up before he even graduated because the market was so much better. Hopefully I can do the same thing. My confidence in getting into my program is pretty abysmal right now.

So shell is laying off 2800 more people... so now if i don't get into grad school... i'll never be employed. http://www.khou.com/story/money/business/2015/12/14/shell-announces-another-round-of-layoffs-in-2016/77323254/

I agree ^^^^ And I hope that no one thought that I was attempting to invalidate highborn... I was just simply agreeing that people will judge you for many things that are not fair, whether it be weight, appearance, race, gender. All of these things are still prevalent, even if people pretend they are not. I feel as though I am at an advantage, in that people (particularly male) will give me certain opportunities and such due to my appearance, but at the same time they will assume that I am unintelligent and dismiss any advances that I make out of my own hard work and determination.

So I might catch some flack for this but to Highborn who said... I am considered quite "pretty" by current american standards. I am in shape, well endowed in the chesty region, long flowy hair, nice facial features... blah blah blah. (Although I certainly have my "I feel ugly" days). I have blatantly been told by my male peers that the only reason I have done well is because my professors want to do me. I was actually word for word told that I looked like a "snow bunny" (look it up if you don't know) by one of my prominent professors. I was fully clothed. It was 35 degrees outside. I was so dumbfounded that I didn't even know how to respond. I have had multiple professors and peers stare at my chest while I was speaking (And no... I wasn't dressed provocatively) So many other instances, I could go on. I'm at the other end of the spectrum, I feel as though no one takes me seriously because they think I am some super ditzy trophy woman, and when I say that I'm applying for a PhD to study alpha particle thermochronology, they look at me like I'm nuts. You just have to believe that what you do is important, and passionately stand behind your goals.

I know that my school allowed all reports to be sent in... but I've known other people who said that this wasn't even an option for them. Perhaps their online application navigation score wasn't high enough

I agree that the V score is very useful and important in math/science... but if you are applying to a math intensive degree and have a crappy Quant score, that really doesn't look that great on you. Ideally, you can have a decent score on both. I have also spoken with faculty on this subject, and many people with math intensive interests would balk at a physics or engineering student sending in a crappier quant score. Obviously sending both scores would be best, if they accept both. Not all applications allow that though.

I would maybe just send an email along the lines of "Hey Dr. X, I noticed that you weren't able to send in my LOR yesterday, just wanted to make sure that everything is still ok, as my deadline was yesterday, and I need it as quickly as possible. Cheers.... " Personally, I would have sent "Dr X, You are the suck" and left it at that.... but I don't think that would have the desired results. Lol. He probably had something dropped in his lap that really distracted him. Good luck

Does the school application site have a reminder link.... some do and you can send an auto reminder from the application page, I would do that now

I think (although I am not the original poster) that the point was not that SAHM's or teachers are lazy and don't do anything... which the poster never said... rather, that he doesn't have a lot of casual question for someone he just met, concerning those career choices due to the fact that most of us understand the basics of what a teacher and SAHM do. If he is just learning their career, he obviously doesn't know them well enough to ask such personal questions such as " Tell me about a moment when you really connected with your child/student that left a lasting effect on you. " Now the "how did you get into that" question is valid... but I think you are being kind of defensive in your previous post. The poster doesn't actually know these people like your PhD friend knows you.

Also... it might be too early to find out if you were accepted, but it may be early enough to know if you were rejected. Not that I think you would necessarily be, I'm just saying that the "reject" pile starts a lot earlier than the "definitely accept" pile is finished.

If you can't send both... apply logic to which portion your degree program would value more. If it's math/hard science.... send the one with the higher Q. If it's english/social science... send the one with the higher V. If its something in between, well then, hopefully they do take both.

With my last LOR in, my application is finally finished. Now I can finally let it go and not think about it much until the spring. Anybody else completely done?

^^^^ I personally wouldn't have written any of these sentences lol (no offense to the original writer) But was instead attempting to to turn her paragraph into something slightly less rambly without completely changing it. The whole paragraph is basically filler fluff that could be brought down to 2 concise sentences. This is computer science, not poetry. Honestly June Yan, I would have simply said something along the lines of "I've done X research for X years. I would like to pursue a career involving Y research. In an attempt to accomplish this goal... I am pursuing a PhD in blah blah blah.

I have spent my past two years dedicated to academic research, during which I have developed a nuanced understanding about the significance of research. I have come to understand its meaningful way of exploring new concepts and innovation - based on bold imagination, rational derivation and scientific experiment. Above all, I have realized that scientific research is my passion, and I have decided to scale new heights both academically and professionally through a Ph.D. program.

Could you not just give the last person the slots to certain schools and the rest to the other "third" recommender. No hurt feelings, No going over limits.

Despite my previous statement, i agree with fuzzy that it is best not to blame others, even if you believe it is their fault... it reflects poorly on you. However, some people on here can be stubborn and will indeed blame.

If the reason for you leaving was in fact that your mentor left you to float.... perhaps you could mention this extremely briefly... (don't go on and on) and then state that you believe, after talking with "such and such" professor at "such and such" program, "such and such" program is much more dedicated to its student... and so on. The lack of involvement from my previous advisor left me attempting, but unable to continue my pursuit of blah blah blah. After talking with Dr. X, I can see that this department puts more effort and care into the mentoring of their students, and I believe that I would be a much better fit. Or something :/

Unless you have extenuating circumstances... schools usually have a minimum for a reason and it is a good way to get rid of the first list of applicants. If I were you, I would take it again.

^^ well then for that professor... I do believe it would be a fine choice. Professors that you know at a level beyond your campus life are quite a different story from professors you only know on campus, even if you know them quite well.

My program was notorious for the amount of alcohol consumed.... we even had tgif kegger parties every friday in the building. We were the only building allowed to do so :?However, I would also refrain from alcoholic gifts, although consumables are a good choice. You never know if one of them has a previously alcoholic spouse and can't bring home beer, or something weird like that. Many professors are avid coffee drinkers, is there a local coffee grind that you could bring. Or loose tea... or some other kind of local snack. When I lived in MI, lots of people would go to WI for the sausage and cheese.

Unless it specifies a rolling admission,.. there's a good chance your application wont even be reviewed until after the deadline. I would wait until at least after the deadline before calling.

I usually prefer to feign "ignorance" in these situations.... "I noticed that your letter hasn't been submitted yet. As some people have had trouble with these types of servers actually uploading their document, I just wanted to make sure that you were not having any trouble or that you haven't already tried to submit it and the server failed to pull it up on my end. " unless you're in computer science... then I guess that won't really fool anyone.

I have dealt with severe depression and anxiety after my daughter passed away while I was still in college. While time has certainly diminished these, I still suffer from quite a bit of general anxiety, especially over these types of things. I have found that the best way to ease your anxiety is distraction. If you have finished your application.... move on, don't agonize over what could have been, because you can't change it now. Adopt some soothing hobbies (I crochet scarves, paint., garden, play my piano.. it helps me calm down). Also... have a plan B.. the biggest worry with grad school is "what if I don't get it?" People worry about this but then aren't proactive with what they WILL do if they don't get in. Start researching areas that have good work potential for your field. Make a game plan of where you would be willing to move... etc. Or, figure out what you would do in a gap year/semester if you didn't get in. Would you have to scrape money together? Could you travel? Is there some kind of volunteering you have always wanted to do but have been too busy? etc. Having a plan B can really ease your anxiety.

I didn't remember it being an option to not select a department when I sent mine.... but I could be mistaken. All of mine went through just fine, even though the scores were to be sent to the office of graduate admissions. They will filter to wherever you need them to go. If anything seems off, you can call or check you application portal after a reasonable amount of time (however long ets takes to send stuff) to make sure everything went through.

I never gave my LOR writers my SOP, but instead briefly explained who I wanted to work for and what type of research they were doing. They all knew the work that I was already doing and my general interests. I think by "know what to highlight" fuzzy may have been referring to things that the professor might not be aware of... relevant awards, more in depth personal research accomplishments, etc. I didn't even have a writing sample. The one poster I did, they all saw, so..... I personally gave each my cv, transcript, and a link to the personal page of the person I wanted to work for, and an open invite for any other info they might find necessary.