chocolate_blanche

By failing the test of patience I mean I could have waited, just another week but I could not. I am very humble by your encouragement. We'll all have to see where this takes me. I have seen multiple applicants with above 1500s in GRE being turned down at top schools. This year I only apply to schools where I have a chance to talk to the faculty. <br /><br /><br />

I was extremely nervous about the score on saw on the screen. By the time I clicked View score at the end of the test all my neurons were officially fried so I did not trust what I saw. I decided to shell out 12 bucks to hear the score again, just to calm the nerves. And I was relieved. They are exactly what were reported on the test date: 670 Verbal (95%) and 800 Quantitative (94%), 4.5 AW. I predicted correctly my AW score because I did not like nor felt that I did a good job with the topic I chose. Thanks everyone for your kind words and encouragement. If anything I think I failed my test of patience today. I am international student.

Thanks everyone. Yep, problem was solved by avoiding Firefox. <br /><br /><br />

All of my schools use ApplyYourself for the online application. I run into this problem: normally schools request three letters of recommendation and even the site (ApplyYourself) says that I can list up to 5 recommenders. After adding two, I can not for the life of me add an extra one. I tried two different computers and filled the contact detail of the third recommender like 5 times, still I failed. Has anyone here encountered or heard of the same trouble and how to fix it? I apparently emailed the administration of one school today (who deals with technical stuff) but can not expect reply right away though. Any thought is much appreciated!!!

Thank you very much. I hope that this admissions season will surprise me in a good way too. <br /><br /><br />

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. <br /><br /><br />

Did you guys remember the score screen? Is it always that Verbal score first and Quantitative later? Is there always a combined score as well? I dont remember seeing the combined score. I did not even look because the score was really surprising (in a good way) and now am nervous that I might have seen it wrong. <br /><br /><br />

I took the GRE on Thursday Oct 7 and Writing was the experimental section. I was too tired to be even tempted by their prize. Now after I clicked Yes to the question whether I wanted to see my score, I saw a screen with Verbal score on the first line and Quant score on the second line. Did you guys all experience the same thing? I did not remember seeing a combined score anywhere or the writing score (which must take time to process) and am now very paranoid: would the score on the official report look the same??? (it was good so I am nervous that I saw it out of mistake and lack of sleep)!!! <br /><br /><br />

Thank you very much for the kind words. <br /><br /><br />

So I just got off the phone with a prospective advisor. Not having been a particularly great mood or a good week I tried my best. First of all I will say that for those of you who have not contacted profs at the school you will apply to but think of doing so, it is still quite early in the season. Second of all, I would like to be level headed with my interview result and hence in need of your comment. I asked the prof what her thoughts are on having a co supervisor (she mentioned it as one of my options), her advising style and (boldly) how many student I am competing against. She tried to answer all of them and ended with saying 'You showed a degree of maturity and inquisitiveness here and I think there is a good fit between us so I encourage you to apply'. She also mentioned that I am the first person she spoke seriously to (because I contact her so early) and told me a couple of things to make sure that she would see my application in the review round. Now with my now current supervisor, I was hired off the bat. Of course hiring a PhD student always requires caution. What do you guys think about his result? Personally, I should keep contacting I think because nothing is yet set in stone. Many thanks for any comment,

Thank you all so much. I made the change just now and will resend the essay. I really appreciate all the kind words - they mean a lot

Okay, I just submitted the statement of purpose to a program. In the section for future plans I mention that I would like to work for a certain institute. This institute is very prestigious and a long time collaborator of the program. And I am totally freaked out when I saw that in the institute's name, instead of impact I wrote 'change', whereby changing its title. The theme of the program and also my interest is on climate change so I guess I was so obsessed by the term that I made this fatal, idiotic error. What do you guys think? Am I totally screwed yet? The deadline is still a week from now, so would it be tacky of me to resend a different one, in which the term has been corrected. Nothing else will be changed, so will they notice? Please let me know what you think.

That's great to know. Thank you

Hi guys, I am wondering about what happens during the reading comprehension part with CBT GRE. Do they allow us to scroll up and down to see the paragraph? Or we only have a limited amount of time to read and move on to the question without another chance of looking back at the paragraph? Hopefully not the latter case. Many thanks for any insight!

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate it. I am inclined to the same tactics using SoP and their papers. However I agree that it is very important to be as natural and sincere as possible.

The thing is, how many people do you think they will reply to, even as short as Please do apply? I dont think professors have the kind of time to write the same stuff to every prospective student - its too boring and tiring to them. My supervisor told me that more often than not, if he is not interested, he will simply delete the emails without even opening. Now scale that up to the upper tier schools and I think you have made some impact, but small or big, it is hard to say. In the case of 'please do apply' prospective advisors it means they need to see the whole package that you could offer before making a decision. So the game is still on. I am now wondering how to keep the contact alive within the next few months. Will that be weird if I stay silent and then just drop them an email to say that my application is in with their names on the supervisors I would like to work with? I think it is both weird and rude. Any suggestion?

@ abolitionista: I am in the same situation. about 10 emails written, 5 replies: 2 looks promising, 1 Ivy League - on sabbatical this year, 1from another Ivy League - not sure yet but please apply, 1 - no. But it is too early in the game to be disheartened. @rising_star: I think I read a thread about your field in 2007. If it is not too intruding, may I ask where Boston University stands in your field and have you heard anything about how generous it is with stipend? I am international student so cost is a huge factor. Many thanks guys. This discussion has been very helpful.

I am really glad to find an official thread on this topic. I just put myself back on the same boat with everyone for the upcoming PhD cycle. Actually this was not my first time doing this. I sent an email to my current supervisor (Master) and got a reply within one day. But the situation was different then. Two years ago, my supervisor just arrived, having no grad students and a lot of funding. So I happened to contact him at the right time. I am wishing that the luck will happen again. So far, I have contacted 4 professors. On one hand, my current school (in Canada) is not very internationally known (although it is good), I have a few publications at good journal and conference. On the other hand my field is so specific that I had to look at top schools (we are talking about MIT, Harvard etc) here to see if they do the stuff I am interested. So the result was that my email was a bit long (1 page) since I feel like I have a few points to make and those schools are amazing as we all know. I referred to the email I sent two years ago, making sure of no grammatical error or ethical error (name of professor and school) and doing my homework to align my interest with theirs in a respectful way. Now a few days has passed and although I understand that the battle has just begun and can always forward with a more concise email, I start to wonder: - In general, is there any difference in selling yourself to a good school and in selling yourself to an Ivy school? (suppose there is and I just dont have that kind of connection. I am also international by the way) - After one week to a fortnight, or even a month I should follow up (hopefully I will not have to wait that long but Ivy is worth a wait). What if I still do not have a reply? In my reasoning, either these professors are not interested or too busy to read my emails, OR they want to wait until they see my actual application, amid other prospective students and make decision. Now, how likely is the second situation? Is it worth a chance applying to those schools without knowing whether the professor you want to work with remembers even remotely your contact? What has your experience been? - I know that at some schools it is the admissions committee that do the job of matching incoming PhD students with faculty. What is it often like at top schools e.g. Princeton, Yale, Columbia? - The other reason can be this state of insecure funding so no one can say anything. Thank you very much and I would really appreciate any input.

Hi everyone, I intend to apply for PhD programs in the States for the Spring/ Summer term 2011. Usually the rule goes that if you should start contacting prospective advisors 10 - 12 months prior to the starting term. For Spring/ Summer term it is a bit tricky because the deadline to apply is often in September/ October, which means the contact should be done between January and April of the same year. Say since I would like to start in January 2011, the deadline to apply is October 2010 then by that rule, I should start writing some emails about now. However this is the time when profs are busy selecting students to start in the Fall 2010. I am a bit lost and confused here, so would appreciate any input/ experience at all about when to start contacting. Also is there anyone here who knows anything about spring/ summer admissions for engineering @ Columbia and Carnegie Mellon? Any input would be very much appreciated.