Mechanician2015

What you want is to rescind your acceptance of program A. It can be done politely and professionally, you don't have to go into much details(no need to tell them that B accepted you and you prefer them, for instance).
 
I don't understand, why would university A want to stop your visa process? I mean, if you rescind their offer, they won't issue the I-20 for you(University B would), but besides that, why would they do that? I assure you that university A has a waitlist, and as soon as you inform them, they will call someone from the waitlist to fill your place.

My opinion is that whenever anyone makes you a "promise" that they are not actually responsible for (in this case, your advisor is not going to be on the admissions committee at these schools), that you don't take their promise very seriously. It's one thing when a professor promises you something they actually have control over (e.g. they'll write you a strong LOR, or they'll ensure you are a coauthor on their paper etc.) but another thing completely when they are making promises on behalf of other people.
 
Sure, your advisor, through their connections and your demonstrated research ability, can do a lot to help you get into a top program. But some academics (actually, some people in general, academics or not) like to make themselves feel or sound more important by making these strong claims. Usually, they are exaggerating. Some people do this to exploit students by making false promises to get more work from them. But sometimes they don't even realise that they are making promises they can't really keep.
 
Either way, it is true that working hard and doing a good job will help you get a position at a top school. Don't do it because your advisor is making some claims. In the end, you are the only one responsible for your future and do the work because you want to, not because of what your advisor said. 

@Crucial BBQ: They are indeed! I guess that's the best part
 
Sunn o))) - Orthodox caveman
 
Wolves in the throne room-I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots (Gee, some times I wish I lived in Seattle!)
 
Infected mushroom- heavyweight

Prefefably in the format:
 
Artist-Song.
 
Here:
 
Drudkh- The day will come. 

Or black... =X

TOEFL is valid for 2 years.
GRE for 5.

TOEFL is valid for 2 years.
GRE for 5.

Most programs I've seen require the scores to be valid at the moment they receive the report. So yours should be fine(IE: no retake), but it wouldn't hurt to contact each program.

....a friend turned me on to the Black Angels a few years and I was just like Who are these guys?  The Black Wizards?

I was admitted to a great program in my field, and I loved it. I loved the area, the facilities, the faculty, the experiences it offered, and even the current students.
 
I had to turn it down because it was $20,000 more than a good in-state school I was admitted to. I'm in a professional master's program (speech-language pathology) so funding doesn't really happen except for one or two students per program, and which school you graduate from doesn't affect your job prospects or even your salary. The school I decided to go to is a good compromise between cost and what I want. It'll still offer me a great education, and it even has some opportunities the expensive school doesn't. But I still can't stop wishing I was going to that first school. The program director at that first school called me and asked me if there was anything she could do to get me back at the school, and offered to keep an eye out for any financial support. She agreed with my decision, but still said there was something she wished she could offer me.
 
I feel fortunate I do have an alternate option which will be great, and I know I'll wind up happy there, but I really wish I could have gone to that first school, and I hate that cost was the deciding factor. I keep thinking about it, hence the complaining. Even my professors agree that that school would be great to attend and they wish I could, but also agree that I should follow the money. :\ 
 
Long story short: Money sucks, and higher education is so expensive.

I am so sorry this happened! At least the program director from the first school understands your situation and is still keeping an eye out for you. One of the oddest pieces of advice that I received was to follow the money, which was so odd considering everyone told me for undergrad to "go where I wanted" and that "money was not a factor." Money does suck, no doubt about it. I hope good things happen for you at the second school as well!
 
At least you have a very good chance of keeping connected to that first school - so maybe in the future something good will come of those connections! 

Texas A&M hands down...i was accepted into texas A&M and UFlorida for chemical engineering. I was able to get RA funding my second year. If you do good work and have a good relationship with your research advisor you should be able to get one....and even if you dont, if you plan ahead you should be able to get a TA ship. In terms of funding  you wont have problems at A&M...

It's sadly quite common for universities to never inform applicants, or inform them sometime in the summer of rejections. 
 
It's possible you're on a silent wait list, it's possible you're getting a silent rejection, or it's possible that the University will send out rejections in the next couple of months. 
 
While it does suck, it's not a bad thing to get used to. Most job's, academic or not, won't notify people they don't hire- they just contact those that they want to hire, and you don't find out where you fell until you notice that the position has been filled. It's kind of hard to term it "unprofessional", when the common professional MO is that rejections aren't noted.
 
The priority of the school is notifying and working with the students they're interested in, and while most try to send out rejections in a timely manner, they're usually significantly understaffed and tight on time.

Oh man, I wish I had this amount of feedback in my post... 3 pages later and still the same?

You can't beat PowerPrep in terms of realism, because it is real. The only drawback is that there are just 2 lousy tests available. Why just 2? The LSAT has like 100 tests available.
 
Mechanician, I took a Kaplan MST, and I think you might be right about the math, or at least in stage 1.
 
Kaitlynlea, I agree. Triage is a game changer. I think if everyone knew about it, it would blow the curve.

I think the best way to make someone else comfortable in a conversation is to be comfortable and at ease with yourself. What I’ve noticed about people with very diverse social circles is that they tend to be open and comfortable sharing their experiences, and they are not self-conscious about whether they are different from the people around them. When someone is willing be vulnerable and share their stories, those stories become relatable even if they’re very different from our own sets of experiences. That, plus genuine curiosity about other people and willingness to look beyond surface qualities for commonalities.
 
As an introvert without much pop culture knowledge, I understand the frustration of trying to connect with people with whom you don’t have a lot in obvious similarities. It’s difficult for anyone to make meaningful connections without having some common ground. If you’re really stumbling, I think it’s always helpful to remember your common humanity - everyone has felt like they didn’t fit in before. You won’t click with everyone you meet, but a little momentary discomfort isn’t such a bad thing, and you can always find something to ask someone about for ten or fifteen minutes at least. Ask where they’re from, what their favorite part of what they do is, what their go-to karaoke song is, how they got into their profession (for example, I just asked a bartender this and learned that he’d previously been a marketing analyst until he realized he loved bartending, which opened up many more things I could have asked him), what their favorite place they’ve been is, what their favorite thing to do is in the area (you never know what cool suggestions you might get, even if you’ve lived somewhere for years), etc.   
 
My two cents is that you should own and be proud of your successes -- just don’t try to work them into every conversation. If you go to Harvard don’t bring it up constantly (think Twofer from 30 Rock…), but I agree that it’s better to say you go to Harvard than to say “a school in the Boston area” or “on the east coast” (I used to work with two Harvard alumna who did this, by the way). If someone says, “Oh my gosh, you must be so smart!”, why not say something like, “Well, I’m pretty good at X, but I still count on my fingers/have the worst sense of direction you’ve ever seen/can’t figure out how to make rice without burning it.” My field is very esoteric, but I still give people a several-sentence pitch of my interests if they ask, and explain that I want to teach, etc. When people tell me that they hated school and can’t imagine being a student for so long, I tell them that I get that because I hated school until I got to college too. I try to be honest, share my excitement when appropriate, and then shift the conversation back to the other person.
 
Another thought: For those of us who don’t love small talk, I strongly recommend structuring social events around interactive activities like a game night, bowling, karaoke, or something similar that allows people to have something outside themselves to talk about.  

I always find these threads to be an exercise in obscurity.  
 
FLEETWOOD mofo MAC!!!!!!
 
 
 
(and Run the Jewels 2   )

I'm working to open a new field of astronomy that is no longer restricted to electromagnetic radiation.  From the infrared, to the visibile spectrum, and to the ultraviolet, our understanding of the universe came from building instruments to detect various forms of radiation, electromagnetic radiation in this case.  My work is ushering in a new field, known as gravitational wave astronomy.  In short, gravitational waves are produced by accelerating massive objects, which cause rapid distortions in what we call spacetime, and these propagating deformations are what we call gravitational radiation, or gravitational waves.

Most diseases are related to protein malfunction. Proteins are made up of (usually hundreds) of amino acids. The string of amino acids is able to fold into a specific 3D shape and then the specific shape is what enables function. If one of the amino acids mutates then the protein might not be able to fold into the correct shape which causes malfunction. I develop computational tools to study how proteins fold and how their fold enables their function. I also apply this to specific diseases/health issues to study how we could fix the issues by targeting areas of the proteins with drugs.

Shows I DVR/binge watch when on include, but are not limited to: The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, Fixer Upper (HGTV), 19 Kids and Counting, Naked and Afraid, Grey's Anatomy, Sister Wives, Jeopardy!, and Chopped. Other shows I enjoy: Babylon 5, ST: TNG, ST: DS9, Eureka, NCIS: Los Angeles, and House.

Always wondered what a PhD in accounting would research. This makes a lot of sense, thank you![ I was under the impression that you merely focused on developing new/more efficient methods of auditing!]

A couple of people with different backgrounds all got what I do and why I do it, and it was a conversion starter because it is something many people can relate to.

Always wondered what a PhD in accounting would research. This makes a lot of sense, thank you![ I was under the impression that you merely focused on developing new/more efficient methods of auditing!]

Invite friends and bribe them with Beer and Pizza!