<3Brains

Got my first choice too! EV 1BR (couple w/o children)....it was either that or Munger, so yay not having to pay out the wazoo (though man a dishwasher would have been nice....) Anyone else in EV? I want to know whether I'm in the low or mid rises....hoping for mids.

When I applied last fall, I found that average scores for top 10 engineering schools were around 550-600 verbal (for phd, slightly lower for masters) and nearly 800 quant. Seems like 550 would be ok if you're just trying to get a score that won't keep your app from being considered. I've heard that a very high verbal score can make you stand out, though....and standing out is definitely a good thing with such large and talented applicant pools! Studying for verbal isn't too hard, even if your english isn't great, because your score can go up hundreds of points just by memorizing tons of vocab. There are free lists online of thousands of words. Good luck!

I'd say go with the prof. If you let him know far in advance and give him the specific deadlines for your apps, he'll get them in on time. Even the busiest profs have to write recs all the time....they know the deal. Also, on the flip side, admissions committees know that profs are busy and have (at least from what I saw this admissions round, having a flaky prof myself) realistic expectations and appropriate time lags between deadlines and evaluation time. For the schools I applied to, it was never an option to submit the letter for your prof. He'll have to do it, but start your apps early and you'll have the chance (early!) to send him the "request" email telling him how to submit it. Most schools have systems which help you send reminders, too. Don't lessen the strength of your app by being too careful Go for it!

Don't worry too much about your lack of "relevant" research experience. I believe that many grad programs (certainly not all, but many!) just want you to have exactly what you mentioned -- experience working in a lab, asking research questions and finding some answers, and generally completing projects. I was accepted into plenty of electrical engineering programs with the intention of doing brain-machine interface work....and I have no EE research experience, very little brain-related research experience, and a degree in physics! If your SOP clearly explains why you want to pursue the research you say you're interested in and even explains some possible research ideas, it'll be strong. Also, it won't be as hard as you think to tie in your research -- while you're reading about the research of labs you want to join (so that you can explain why you're interested and why you're a good fit), it'll probably become more and more clear to you how your past research will give you an edge in your planned research. I can't comment on which schools you should apply to. But worry not! Just get to work early

I agree with most of the above advice except the bit that it's too early to start thinking about grad school. While it's definitely to early to narrow your vision and only consider *one* possible future (explore your options! really! no matter how sure you are!), it's not too early to be thinking about the general future. Most grad programs will of course want a good gpa, but 3.65 isn't prohibitive, especially from a good school....so just keep up the good work in your classes, and improve if you can without killing yourself. The important things for you to focus on are things others have mentioned....summer programs/internships/REUs, research, and building relationships with professors. These are all *very* important. Also, someone mentioned that extracurriculars won't help you get into grad school. This isn't true. While admissions committees may not care much about extracurriculars, fellowship committees do. And not only do you want fellowships to help you pay for school and for general resume-building, they can also help you get in (schools like funded students better than unfunded ones, if they're allowed to). Sounds like you're already on a good path. Keep it up

I think the 2-bedroom efficiency is like you say....regular 2-bedroom with not much of a living room. Sounds better than a 1-bedroom single occupancy because both people get a door (in other words, privacy not affected....if anything you'd see your roommate less often because there's no common room).

I have no experience personally with test prep courses or tutors. I have worked for test prep companies, though, and have definitely seen scores go up on these tests by more than 100 points per section. This is relative, though. It's easier to get from 500 to 650 than 650 to 800. If you have the money, I think the best way to guarantee improvement is a tutor who knows what they're doing. The big test prep companies offer these, and they even offer different levels of tutoring (regular, master, elite, etc.) with different levels of guarantee. If you want to stay cheap, you can't beat studying vocab words! There are huge lists for free online That's all I did, and it worked wonders for my verbal score.

I got a three-year full-tuition + decent-to-big stipend fellowship with GRE 800Q/720V/5.5AW. I got several fellowship offers from other schools, but I also got rejected from several schools. I think it really depends on the place!

You're right: the GRE doesn't distinguish good from better when it comes to math. In fact, last fall Q800 was a 94th percentile....so that's 6%, not 4%, that get an 800. I don't know about GMAT versus GRE and what schools/depts accept what, but I do know that what I've heard about GRE scores in quant programs (being an engineering applicant myself) is that Verbal actually matters more. Most people applying to quant programs have perfect or nearly perfect quant GRE scores, but good verbal scores are mich more rare (last fall V720 = 98th percentile!). Thus a good verbal score can go a long way. Also....as far as letting the schools know how top-notch your math skills are, if you're applying for strictly math programs (which may not accept GMAT) as well as mathematical finance (which, yeah, probably would want GMAT), you'll probably want to take the GRE Math Subject test...which is orders of magnitude more difficult than GRE Quant. It covers things you actually learn as a math major, and is a difficult test. One last thing. Most of the programs I applied to said my GRE score had to be from the past 5 years. If that's true for your programs too, you'd have to take it again anyway. Check the admissions pages for schools you want to apply to Best of luck!

I agree with the others: go ahead and retake it. Your current scores may not hurt, but they won't help either. Private tutoring (Princeton Review offers good stuff, can't vouch for other companies) would probably be the quickest way to raise your scores....and also the most expensive. Cheap methods that I found useful were studying lots of vocab words (LOTS.....there are lists online of in excess of 4000 words....) and just taking free practice tests.

This is really true! My boyfriend and I did six months (may seem like nothing to some!) of long distance when I was a senior in undergrad, and I think it did a lot to strengthen our relationship. Everyone has given great suggestions. I wanted to add two more small things: People have talked about having even social lives. That's *really* important. And equally as important: remember to actually have a social life. I often would say no to parties or outings because staying at home and talking to my boyfriend (we did mostly phone...this was a couple years ago and I didn't have a webcam) sounded more appealing. In retrospect, this wasn't a good idea (for both my sanity and our relationship). And the second thing...it really helped me to have a friend who was also in an LDR. Talking about things with him made me feel orders of magnitude better...he was in the same environment I was in while dealing with the long-distance stuff. Highly recommended!

I thought the mid-rises were only for couples. It seems like if two single students are living there, they must have entered the housing lottery as a "couple without children." If not, it's not very nice of Stanford housing to put a non-couple in an all-couples, all one-bedroom building.

Although that would have happened anyway. Because it has to now.

google: cardinal care Looks like Stanford health insurance (which you can decline if you have outside health insurance), is $800/quarter currently. Grad students get a 50% subsidy if they have a 25% or higher CA/RA or a stanford fellowship paying a stipend at at least the same level as a quarter-time CA/RA. If you have a 10-25% CA/RA/fellowship, you get a 25% subsidy on cardinal care. So at least $1600/year, up to $3200/year if you don't have financial aid from Stanford. And...there's a $10 co-pay when you use Stanford health services. And...you can use other places if you want but they'll pay only a percentage, after a deductable. Yay I'm going to have health insurance again.

A tidbit: when I asked which grad housing option people liked best (aimed at every grad student i could find during visit weekend), pretty much everyone said rains. Also, they said "Munger is nice," which we all already know. This doesn't do me personally any good since I'll be living in couples housing (EV only....I think....), but I thought you all might want to know