fromchaos

Do well on the GRE and you should have a good shot at all of those. Rice is a great school, so is Miami...TexTech and Houston are pretty good too. If you can get over 320 and have good LOR you should have a decent shot.

You are just above the cutoff at most schools. I would say an elite program (top 20) or so is out of the question, top 50 or so may be possible depending on how GRE goes and what your LOR look like. My advice, lay the hammer down in class this semester. Do as well as possible, maybe even look to take a class or two in the Summer to boost your GPA. Also make sure to do well next semester as well, and wait for those grades to come in before you send out your applications. If you could get it up to say 3.2 I think that would make a huge difference. There are some schools who mostly only care about the last 60 credits, so finishing strong is important. Also it sounds like you may have taken a harder course load then others so this will likely be factored into things. You dont need to knock the GRE out of the park but you should have solid scores, especially on the quant in order to counter act your low math grades. The Verbal section is tough to study for other than taking a practice exam or two. The quant problems arent that hard but you have to be able to do them quickly (they are essentially hard 8-9th grade math problems) you need to know the quickest way to solve these problems. There are "tricks" to some of the problems, find out what they are and learn them. GL

Professional Masters hardly ever (if ever) get funded. I think they are being so nice because it is you, not them, who would be paying. I have no idea about their rep, havent heard much about them. Also when you say "in petro" it is confusing most people might think "petrology".

Good point Stanford is like so 2000 and late.

University of Toronto also saw my CV on monster.com..They want to offer me a full professorship with tenure (straight from undergrad). Is this good? Should I hold out for something more prestigous. I am feeling a bit odd about living in Canada #cultureshock #idontspeakfrench ...thoughts? I m so confused help me...

That would be two mistaken rejections for columbia so I am going to go with April Fools Day.

Hmmm sounds like you need to "check your privledge".

Thanks mkd17! I was going to sit on it for a week or two but I will just email them back "no way Jose!" (the name isn't really Jose but you know what I mean)...Does anyone know if UC Boulder or Scripps accept late applications? Also is it rude to send an email to people at a school you want to contact? I want to talk to a possible POI at UC Boulder but I m afraid emailing them will come off as "pushy" and "desperate" ...should I just assume they will know how great I am and come to me?

Hmmm so they do Earth Science stuff but not true geology hmm... a grad school appointment...i dont know guys I m SOOOO... confused is this a good offer??

I just spoke with my POI he told me ALL funding is being rescinded. He emphasized ALL. Does that mean all their school's funding? Or all funding for grad students in general? Also Stanford just called me they said they found my cover letter floating around online (thanks Monster.com!) and they said they would really like me to come to Palo Alto but they can only offer me 50k a year for 9month appointment plus my own office? Should I go? I don't know I m so confused...!...please help! Also does anyone know if Stanford does geology stuff?

Ummm I think you answered your own question.

Are you sure they were accepted without funding? Is it possible funding hasn't been decided yet?

Not true...I still havent decided what I am going to have for breakfast tomorrow.

What do you plan on studying?

20.8%...and yes

I have been receiving financial aid letters from your school, where I was waitlisted.

If it makes you feel better I now have offers from three schools two of which I consider more prestigous than the waitlist school and they all have better funding packages then I assume the waitlist school could provide. The Professor asked me when I graduated and if I could come out early in the Summer to get a head start on the Fall. He also mentioned how he wanted me to start thinking about fellowships because he was going to have me apply for a bunch in the fall. Not only did he act as if I was accepted but he acted as if I had accepted the acceptance. That being said I am better off now with the offers I have and I think you are better off not paying a semester or more of out of state tuition.

I had a somewhat similar situation and ended up waitlisted. Sometimes people talk out of their ass.

So maybe he didn't find funding. I imagine the Professor has a lot of sway but in the end the committe has to approve you.

It sounds like you misinterperted what was said. Either way they may have done you a favor and saved you money.

Looks like it is from the department itself. I was wondering about the email from your POI where he said he would accept you with or without funding. Maybe others can help you interpert it.

Columbia Post the email exchange. You can block out the identifiers.

Look at it this way, the rejection may have saved you a lot of money. If they sent you an official acceptance I am not sure how they can go back on it unless you falsified documents. It is possible the department accepted you and the grad school rejected you. I think that is pretty rare but it happens, ususally the grad school requires a 300 GRE so maybe that is the issue.

I was actually in a similar situation and I think I got passed over because my POI thought I wouldn't go if accepted (which was a possibility but I did like the school alot). Sometimes you aren t good enough and sometimes you are too good I guess. Good luck with it all, you might want to send one more email him how committed you are to UT.

I emailed my POI yesterday and he said the first round of acceptances went out. I am unaware of a separation between when decisions are made for geophysics vs geology, there may be one but I am not sure. You could certainly email your POI but I assume he or she will tell you the same thing or less.