DF394

I'm moving in less than a month so I'm also looking for some pointers. Unfortunately shipping almost anything from Australia to east coast USA will be slow and prohibitively expensive. So even with Qantas' surprisingly generous baggage allowance it's a bit of a squeeze - everything has to fit into two suitcases and as big a carry-on as I can get away with. It'll mostly be clothes, small toiletries and some crucial books. I'm also bringing a sleeping bag and very light roll-up sleeping pad to use until I can buy myself a bed. Totally agree with scanning notes. Also, if like me you have a giant collection of hard-copy articles and chapters, set aside a few hours and scan those too. It's a huge weight saver. One tip to make this easier: triage first by checking your new library's catalogue. Generally if a longer article was easily available at my new school, I didn't bother scanning it, but just made sure it was properly recorded in Endnote. If I happen to need it again, I can just look up the details and get a new copy quickly. Shorter or more obscure items got scanned into PDF, saved in Dropbox and neatly linked to their Endnote records. [This has the added benefit of encouraging you to get your computer folders in order!]

I have an offer from Penn - not sure if I'll be taking it yet, as I still have an interview to come with another top choice, but there's a pretty strong chance so I'm starting to think about housing. I'm an international student who realistically won't be able to arrive in Philly until shortly before the start of semester (I can't afford to get short-term accommodation before my stipend begins, and I don't think an F-1 visa will even allow me to be in the country before late July). I'm pretty intimidated by the prospect of doing an apartment search remotely, without being able to look at places or speak to landlords/agents in person. I'm kinda tempted by Sansom Place, at least for the first year, because it would save me SO MUCH hassle and stress. But the reviews in this thread are mixed and it seems quite expensive, so what to do?

Are you sure ETS won't do anything? There seems to be a pretty clear-cut case that an equipment malfunction caused you to be disadvantaged. Not that I've ever had to deal with their administrators, but surely there's a good chance they'll give you a free retest or something. You should definitely keep bugging them and see how they respond. Unfortunately, the length of time until the next available test is a bit of an issue. I would email UCSC and UCSB, explain the situation, and ask what they'd like you to do. They might ask you to submit the current scores for the moment, and then submit the new ones once you're able to retest. (However, do UCSC and UCSB already have the scores from your first try? I suppose there's a risk that they'll just decide to rely on those scores, since you took that test unimpeded.) Basically, just keep communicating, and hopefully something can be worked out. Don't give up!

Hold the phone! Literally 5 minutes after I posted this, an email came back from one of the schools saying they've manually waived the requirement for me. I guess I'll have to write to the other school again. The materials management systems are really a pain. It must drive the admissions officers crazy too, getting desperate emails from dozens of people because Applyweb etc can't handle things automatically. In the case of TOEFL scores, literally every applicant from Australia, New Zealand and the UK must be having this problem. It could be solved easily if Applyweb just looked at the country of your undergraduate school and waived the TOEFL requirement accordingly.

Hi guys! I'm an international applicant, but from an English-speaking country, which means my schools don't require me to submit English proficiency scores. I just left the TOEFL/IELTS sections of the application forms blank. I'm pretty sure that was the right thing to do - I know some schools have an option on the form to notify them why you don't have to submit scores, but that wasn't the case for any of my applications. My problem is that two of my schools are still showing my application status as "awaiting materials". The checklists show that the TOEFL scores are the only materials they're referring to. I know it takes a while for the administrators to go through and fix up everyone's test scores, but it's getting to be a long while after the respective deadlines (December 15 and January 1) and there hasn't been any change. I emailed both schools' admissions offices but haven't got a reply. So, someone help a stressed-out applicant! This is fine, right? I don't really think it's an issue, but I'm a little worried my applications haven't been forwarded to the departments because of an administrative issue.