magnetite

If two professors are interested in an applicant, what kind of politics goes on to determine which one takes the student? Does seniority play a big role?

Might be worth letting them know, in case they can either expedite the process or at least let you know where you stand.

Anyone know when UNLV usually sends out acceptances?

Have you seen the thread over in the Earth Sciences forum?

Just needs a "See you in August for the start of classes" before the closing.

Had a customer service representative wish me a happy early Valentine's Day earlier. Not sure why that's a thing. I'm currently single, so that felt a bit like a rejection.

Dallasite checking in. Feel free to PM me!

Good luck with your visit! Thanks for the insight, too. Just about everyone I've talked to says I've got a really good shot, like I'm practically accepted already. I've been trying not to listen, but it's hard. The open house I was invited to is really the department's graduate symposium. It's like a mini-conference where the grad students all present their work; it's open to alumni, undergraduates, and the general public as well, from what I can tell. No idea how many prospective students were invited, or how many spots we're all competing for. I just hope I don't run into someone else who's wanting to work with my POI.

Definitely be able to coherently explain why you want to get a PhD. I managed to fail at that one, somehow. Saw someone post that they got rejected from Yale two days after going to their open house. Now I'm incredibly nervous about the open house I'm going to next week.

I've considered doing the same thing, but I've read in a few spots around here that it might seem desperate to send an email when departments are evaluating applications. The general consensus has been to contact the department administrator to get an idea of when offers will be made. The benefit of this is that you could call and ask without giving your name, thus staying anonymous.

Wonder what the devil's phone number is.

I'm willing to bet jimmay meant rockclimate. There certainly are a lot of rock* users in this thread. (I just noticed the potential for that to be a pun as I typed it out).

When you didn't get ghosted but kind of wish you did.

It was 80 degrees here yesterday. Now it's 40!

That application scored a 7.0 on the writing section of the GRE, too. That's just bad luck. There's also a follow-up post, asking for their planet of interest!

You're not required to send all your scores though, are you? If your best score for each of the three sections came on three different dates, then I suppose a school would see you've taken it at least three times.

I'll take all three

I touched on it a bit in my SoP, but I suppose it's not guaranteed that whoever interviewing me would have read it. I'll come up with a few short sentences to summarize my early waywardness and how I've learned from that, just in case the question is asked. Thanks!

When taking the GRE, I found the incredibly loud, mechanical keyboards in my test-taking center quite a distraction. I had the headphones on pretty much the entire time, not just during the writing sections, but that didn't help much. Just in that regard it seems like there could be quite a variance in GRE scores, depending on the environment of the center and how prone to distraction the person taking the test is. If I'm in there all by myself, rather than with a room full of others, I'd think my score would have been better.

Not industry, but IT and web development. My first job after graduating was half support for Linux servers, half web development. Then I found a software engineering job. I had done a lot with Linux, MATLAB, and python for a few semesters and a summer REU, which helped me convince people to pay me to do this stuff. At the time, I didn't want to move, so my job opportunities were limited to what was local. Good luck with Harvard!

Hello! I didn't get into any grad schools I applied to for the fall 2016 cycle. This was somewhat of a relief, as I was in a long-term relationship (~5 years) with someone who wouldn't have moved with me if I was accepted somewhere. Being in this relationship played a pretty big role in my decision not to apply the next two cycles. The relationship ended last February, so from then I had planned to apply again for the 2019 cycle and started contacting potential advisors. What would be the best way to address this gap if it comes up it in an interview?

I definitely empathize, and I'm sorry you're going through this. My first cycle, I applied to two of the three schools you did and was rejected from both fairly quickly. For most of the other schools, the rejections came on April 15th. I didn't have as much time to work on my backup plan between then and graduation, so it took me a few months to find a job. Are you still waiting to hear from Harvard?

Thanks! I was going to mention in response to your post that my first time around I applied at eight schools and didn't get in anywhere. Only wait-listed at one school, and never actually formally rejected. This time around I only applied to three schools and this symposium invitation, even without an acceptance, already makes this a more successful cycle for me! Seems like the case for you, too. I thought that was a nice juxtaposition. Anyway, I'm applying to their PhD program. My POI said she has four years of funding for a graduate student on one of her grants, but that I'd likely have to TA for my final year. How do you think that works out into the spots that the department has available? Is it considered a Fellowship if you're being paid out of your POI's grant, rather than through the department?

How would you answer this if you dropped out of undergrad right after high school, then started again 10 years later? My first time around, I changed majors more than once a semester and didn't have anything close to resembling focus. Should I talk about only my most recent undergrad experience, or try to address my entire academic history?

Same here! And if I stay in my current city, I really want to move somewhere else. Until I know where I'll be in August, I guess it's month-to-month at a considerably higher price.