someDay

@DrFaustus666: Universities don't give credit for "fair share of life-problems". Your application is weak, from an academic point of view you've pretty much wasted your life. A perfect GRE result, whilst demonstrating your commitment, would not significantly strengthen your application. Prescience is not my strongest point, but there's no way in hell a top uni is going to accept you. It'll be tough enough to get accept *somewhere*.




sD.

@DrFaustus666: Universities don't give credit for "fair share of life-problems". Your application is weak, from an academic point of view you've pretty much wasted your life. A perfect GRE result, whilst demonstrating your commitment, would not significantly strengthen your application. Prescience is not my strongest point, but there's no way in hell a top uni is going to accept you. It'll be tough enough to get accept *somewhere*.




sD.

Public transport is excellent in Montreal. A monthly pass for subway and buses will set you back around 50$. Never been to Düsseldorf, but I'd rate the public transport system on par with Berlin or Stuttgart. You won't need a car and taxis are fairly cheap, though parking won't be much of an issue.

Language will not be too much of a problem though your partner really should make an effort to learn French. English is not the language of choice for most Monrealers even though everyone speaks excellent English (you'll find the odd person who flatly refuses to speak English though). It's accepted but not encouraged; and if your partner wants to immerse in Quebec culture then French is an absolute must.

sD.

@DrFaustus666: Universities don't give credit for "fair share of life-problems". Your application is weak, from an academic point of view you've pretty much wasted your life. A perfect GRE result, whilst demonstrating your commitment, would not significantly strengthen your application. Prescience is not my strongest point, but there's no way in hell a top uni is going to accept you. It'll be tough enough to get accept *somewhere*.




sD.

No. Although this is an awesome strategy - apply to crappy state uni (not implying anything here!) + Harvard, be accepted at crappy state uni, be informally told by Harvard you're rejected, then withdraw your application and brag to all your friends that you "are so elated to go to crappy state uni cos it perfect fit + you love the brutalism architecture that obviously you withdrew your Harvard application - only morons go there anyway".

sD., regretting he didn't apply to Harvard.

There is a general agreement that one should not accept unfunded offers, so you really don't have much of a choice? McGill and UoT are both very excellent schools, so you should definitely accept McGill's offer. Gratulations BTW!


sD.

This is my GRE story. I was applying for admission to Columbia University in their Master's programme in Political Science. The admissions office told me that I needed a Quantitative score of at least 750 to be eligible for consideration. It looked as if the school did not have a specific minimum for verbal or AWA scores.

(1) I took the GRE exam twice: once in October 2008 and again in December 2008, all after studying on my own. Worked through Kaplan and ETS guide for GRE prep.

(2) My scores from October 2008 GRE's are; AWA 4.5; Verbal 630; Quant: 670. Not good enough for admission to Columbia. So, registered again to take the GRE in December 2008.

(3) My scores from December 2008 GRE's are: AWA 4.5; Verbal 650; Quant: 660. At this point, I was frustrated.

(4) Self study is not working for me in terms of helping me achieve the target score of 750 in maths. Did some research on the Internet and enrolling in Mlic's GRE turboprep class in London. Soon after enrolling, I received a file dump, with all sorts of study materials and tests. Called the Mlic company in desperation and asked for guidance on how to proceed.

(5) I explained my situation and said that I was going to just focus on the AWA score and the Quant score going forward. I was asked to prep through the essays file and the mathematics preprogramme assignment file.

(6) The company gives you a terrific template for the argument essays but merely suggests that you create two different perspectives for the issue essay. I worked on 6 essays and turned them in before the start of in-class training.

(7) Worked through the quant assignment file which covered some really great stuff in algebra, statistics, and gave me amazing strategies for working on quantitative comparison section. In hindsight, it was probably the comparison problems that let me down. I was beginning to get some new insights into how to approach this section. Was that the missing link?
I could not wait to attend the classroom training.

(8) The Mlic classroom training quickly escalated to high difficulty levels of GRE math and covered sections that I had not seen in other books. Sequences, arithmetic progression, cool problems in exponents and geometry, and all the drilling in comparison problems.

(9) I was required to take the GRE's again within 30 days of finishing the training in December. So, I got a GRE date in January 2009, and took the test. At the end of the day, when
I asked for my score report, my quant score was 770. I could not believe it. I had skipped the verbal sections (I received two sections, one obviously not scored).

(10) I waited for the official score to arrive to confirm my quant score. My official score report read: AWA 5.0; Quant: 770; Verbal; --

(11) I applied to Columbia with the new maths scores and was accepted.

(12) So, I am thankful to Mlic for a great GRE course. I could not have made 770 in maths without Mlic course.

@DrFaustus666: In case you're referring to my post, let me clarify. Whether you have lived your life to the fullest I do not know, but judging by your postings here what you haven't done in this time is the only thing that matters in academia, namely research. It will take you another couple of years to learn this, by which you'll be in your mid sixties. You might be able to publish some interesting papers, but you can't make up for all those years.

I understand you want to do a PhD in music theory / computer science. Label me a pessimist, but I don't see how a Master's degree in German will greatly support your application. It's great you managed to overcome difficulties in your life and learning a foreign language on your own initiative deserves a lot of credit, but stamina is just one of the skills required for a PhD. It's fine to have a dream, but a significant part of your dream- and the way you present yourself here - seems to be more about recognition rather than academic curiosity. The latter I encourage, the first is up to you to prove. As you quite rightly point out, I am not the one making decisions, but my I believe my conclusions resonate with a majority of posters here.

Wunschträume sind schön, aber meist nur Träume.

sD.

@DrFaustus666: Universities don't give credit for "fair share of life-problems". Your application is weak, from an academic point of view you've pretty much wasted your life. A perfect GRE result, whilst demonstrating your commitment, would not significantly strengthen your application. Prescience is not my strongest point, but there's no way in hell a top uni is going to accept you. It'll be tough enough to get accept *somewhere*.




sD.

@DrFaustus666: Universities don't give credit for "fair share of life-problems". Your application is weak, from an academic point of view you've pretty much wasted your life. A perfect GRE result, whilst demonstrating your commitment, would not significantly strengthen your application. Prescience is not my strongest point, but there's no way in hell a top uni is going to accept you. It'll be tough enough to get accept *somewhere*.




sD.

@DrFaustus666: Universities don't give credit for "fair share of life-problems". Your application is weak, from an academic point of view you've pretty much wasted your life. A perfect GRE result, whilst demonstrating your commitment, would not significantly strengthen your application. Prescience is not my strongest point, but there's no way in hell a top uni is going to accept you. It'll be tough enough to get accept *somewhere*.




sD.

@DrFaustus666: Universities don't give credit for "fair share of life-problems". Your application is weak, from an academic point of view you've pretty much wasted your life. A perfect GRE result, whilst demonstrating your commitment, would not significantly strengthen your application. Prescience is not my strongest point, but there's no way in hell a top uni is going to accept you. It'll be tough enough to get accept *somewhere*.




sD.

No. Although this is an awesome strategy - apply to crappy state uni (not implying anything here!) + Harvard, be accepted at crappy state uni, be informally told by Harvard you're rejected, then withdraw your application and brag to all your friends that you "are so elated to go to crappy state uni cos it perfect fit + you love the brutalism architecture that obviously you withdrew your Harvard application - only morons go there anyway".

sD., regretting he didn't apply to Harvard.

No. Although this is an awesome strategy - apply to crappy state uni (not implying anything here!) + Harvard, be accepted at crappy state uni, be informally told by Harvard you're rejected, then withdraw your application and brag to all your friends that you "are so elated to go to crappy state uni cos it perfect fit + you love the brutalism architecture that obviously you withdrew your Harvard application - only morons go there anyway".

sD., regretting he didn't apply to Harvard.

The easiest way to get round this is to set your bloody status. Perhaps to "wonders whether their should be there."?

"His" used as gender-neutral sounds odd to me, I don't think I've ever heard someone using that. "Their" is fine and what I was taught in school.

sD.

somethingelse, what program are you applying to?

You should bear in mind that research interests often change within the first years of starting a PhD and nothing in life is guaranteed. Even if you you really love your subject now you might discover in a few years' time that it's a niche subject and not that interesting after all. Also you should bear in mind that the first year of a PhD is spent doing coursework (even if you have a master's degree) and not on research, so even if you're hooked on a particular topic you'll have to take some other classes.

I personally find it very risky to apply to only one school. If this is your absolute dream and it's a "either this or nothing" thing, then fine. But I really cannot imagine this to be the case. In particular since you do not seem to have any alternatives, applying to one school only seems an extraordinary thing to do - there're so many good schools out there.

In any case, I really hope you do get in!

sD.

What an awful thing to say. While it's true adjuncts cannot serve as graduate advisors, it is not true that they aren't important. Even if they are not full time faculty, they are still professors, and therefore deserving of respect from their students as such. Furthermore, adjuncts often 'work twice as hard for half the pay', as it were; I know some who teach as many as seven courses per semester, sometimes at multiple campuses, for a stipend for each class (about $2500.00) and no benefits. They are definitely people, and certainly merit respect!

@alexis: That's a little bit over the top. You'll find that grad schools admit considerably more than 7.5% of applicants (even Princeton admits around 13%). Granted, acceptance rates do not rise to 100% as one goes further down the ranking list but that's because the school has to find a supervisor and needs to be convinced the applicant will make an original contribution to their proposed field. Grad school admission is competitive, but getting into Harvard as an undergrad is still harder.

On the other hand, sometimes people are just extremely unlucky, which - given it's unpredictable nature - is more common in grad school. Your safety school might not be a good fit and thus rejects you, or the professor already has 10 students, the university finds itself in a funding crisis, etc. I suppose this is why most people apply to a vast number of schools, even though they're very competitive candidates indeed.

Best of luck to everyone!



sD.

Depends on the circumstances. At this point, take it as a positive sign, but don't get *too* overexcited. Before the interview, read over your SOP and perhaps read his latest papers. Interviews before (in)formal acceptances are usually not a formality, whatever way they go. Having a prof that pushes for you is a crucial stepping stone in the admissions procedure, but by no means guarantees an admission.

What's likely going to happen: You talk a little bit about your interests and your background. The prof might briefly go over your file and point out potential pitfalls or particular strengths. In one interview I was asked whether a (perhaps more famous than I had thought) prof at my institution knows me well. The prof explains his/her research and tries to make it sound as interesting as possible. I don't think you'll be asked in-depth questions about your subject in a phone interview.


Best of luck in your interview!

sD.

While looking up a few things for I stumbled upon some information that I thought deserved a topic of its own. This is only about HUMANITIES/SOCIAL SCIENCE not Engineering/Physical Science/Biological Science. You guys can start your own club (naw, just kidding, that stuff just already has it's own spots: Wendy Chao has an updated list of high Biomedical stipends for example).


Source: Princeton's Annual Report on the The [sic] Graduate School 2008-2009, table 10

Further comparable stipends:
Chicago | $19,500 | $3,000 for 2 years | $103,500 (source)
Northwestern| $20,928| $??? for 3 years* | $94,640** (source)

*It's unclear if 20,928 includes summer, judging from results page post from last year in Economics "15k + 5k summer; TA years 2, 3, 5" it seems like it does. Also from the results page: one person had 4 summer funded, some people just listed "summers funded", several had three summesr funded
**Assuming 15,928*5 + 5,000*3. Admittedly, this is the least definite of all the numbers. If it is 20,928*5+5,000*3, then the total five year stipend is $119,640.

Unless noted, the figures were for 2009-10, the last round of admittance. Between 2008-09 and 2009-10, Princeton's stipend was raised by $750 dollars. Between 2009-10 and 2010-11, Columbia's stipend was raised by $500. That seems to be normal year to year. Between 2007-08 and 2009-2010, Chicago's raised by $500 (though it had been considerably lower before 2007). Not all departments pay the exact same. For example, the language departments at Chicago pay slightly more (see first Chicago source). Princeton, in addition, has Presidential Fellowships available to underrepresented minorities (including women in science and engineering, see table 8 or 9 [i forget] in the Princeton Source above). Slight variations are possible other places as well. This table only tries to collect the standard offers.

These charts all divide between summer and the school year. Some schools don't do this: Yale for instance advertizes a yearly stipend of 25,500 but that includes five summer.

There are more stipend numbesr available from the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/stats/stipends/ if anyone sees a particularly noteworthy one in the Humanities or Social Science, post it here. NYU's is probably up here too, perhaps Duke's is as well. I just wanted to start collating the data.

So did I (and plenty of others). Congrats to your acceptances and Stanford and Caltech.
You should e-mail the DGS about your withdrawals.

@origin: Grats! Weren't you interested in Algebraic Geometry? One senior profs here at <good British Maths department> who is an algebraic geometer went to Utah for his PhD.

sD.

Thanks for the congrats, all



I'm not worried about it being super Mormon, I think most (secular) universities are pretty liberal places, so I would get along no matter where I went. The Buffalo area is super Catholic, and I get along just fine. I am worried about living there without a car for 5 years. The area around the university seems more spread out and suburban than what I'm hoping for, though there are tram lines and busses. I'll have to do more research on the city and when I visit try to see how easy it is to take their public transit.



Yes, and the algebraic geometry seems good there. As far as research goes, I'm worried it doesn't have enough differential geometry. I'm not sure which I might want to continue in, so right now I'm looking for a balance. Actually I'm leaning more towards diff. geometry right now, but thats probably entirely due to me having a grad class in it right now.

Personally I would steer clear of the Ghetto. There're some nice places, but prices have gone up in the last years, and some landlords charge ridiculous sums for shitty places. Plateau is awesome. Anyway.. I wouldn't worry about apartments at all. On your PhD salary alone you can afford a lovely apartment.

You've perhaps been a little bit too ambitious. Your profile is excellent, but perhaps not amazing enough to make up for the mediocre subject score. Your BS at a good school is average, your MS is really good but at an average school.The main problem I see is your MS courses don't go with your research interests.

Topology, Differential Geometry and Min. surfaces is more suited to a Geometer or theoretical Physicist than someone interested in Financial Mathematics. Financial Mathematics is where the $$ is and more competitive than Pure.

Princeton & Stanford will reject you purely on the basis of your subject score.
Chicago, Cornell and Michigan will be very difficult, though not impossible. Have you talked to profs in your research area? If one really likes your profile and they push for you, perhaps you stand a chance.
The others I don't really know.You should perhaps check whether there're any schools further down the ranking list that still accept applications? You should get one or two insurance unis in the top 25 - 50 league.

sD.

Public transport is excellent in Montreal. A monthly pass for subway and buses will set you back around 50$. Never been to Düsseldorf, but I'd rate the public transport system on par with Berlin or Stuttgart. You won't need a car and taxis are fairly cheap, though parking won't be much of an issue.

Language will not be too much of a problem though your partner really should make an effort to learn French. English is not the language of choice for most Monrealers even though everyone speaks excellent English (you'll find the odd person who flatly refuses to speak English though). It's accepted but not encouraged; and if your partner wants to immerse in Quebec culture then French is an absolute must.

sD.