Extra Espresso

Other than Magoosh (which, like I others, I highly recommend), my favorite study resources were the ETS GRE books. The main book comes with two more practice tests than what you can get for free online, and they are an excellent indicator because they come from the people who make the test. My score on the real test was slightly higher than what I made on the practice test I took two days before the real thing, but it was very, very close. Also, their math and verbal practice books have tons of GRE-style questions, and you know they are quality because they make the test. I HIGHLY also recommend the GRE vocabulary sets you can find on memrise.com. The way memrise does their vocabulary testing and reminders is excellent, and the words really stuck for me (at least until I took the test). The system has you learn the words in sets of 10, and it has you match the word to the definition, the definition to the word, gradually raise to more options being shown for each question, then finally type the word when given the definition. If you miss a word, it automatically adds it back into the rotation. It also says each word to after you answer the question to help auditory learners. Then, it does the staggered repetition thing where it prompts you to review words about a day after learning them, then two days after that, then about a week after that, and so on with increasing time between repetitions as you learn the words. If you miss any words, it has you review them more often until you are consistently right. My favorite three sets were the Manhattan Essential 500 Words, the Manhattan Advanced 500 Words, and the full Magoosh vocabulary list with audio. (Make sure you find the versions with audio for each set!) I ended up being very happy with my score after a month of heavy prep with those resources.

Well, I am officially going to be attending graduate school next year! I received an admissions offer from Cornell this morning. It is definitely reassuring going into my interviews knowing that whatever happens, I will be able to go to graduate school next year. Plus, I had an awesome research fit with Cornell, so I can't wait to visit there! If I get other offers, I'm going to have a really hard decision in my future.....

I did this for my Skype interview as well, but the professor wanted to give me an overview of his research for our Skype interview so it didn't end up being necessary. He did invite me to the formal interview weekend at the university and told me to ask to interview with him, so I'm assuming the second time around I'll be able to discuss potential ideas with him more.

I would not call. Admissions offices have a whole lot going on during this season, and unless you have a problem with your application or need assistance with something pressing, I would not pester them. At this point, you are best off assuming that you did not receive an interview at the places that have contacted people and assuming that you are still in the running for the others. Definitely don't lose hope for the schools that haven't contacted people, though, because there's definitely times where schools contact fairly late! Also, check the results survey (thegradcafe.com/survey) to see when people are hearing from programs. It may be that some of your programs historically don't notify until February or something like that.

Pretty sure we're Skyping with the same POI! I am chatting with a POI on Saturday that gave me the option of today or Saturday. How did it go?

As far as I know, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, and UPenn have sent out their interview invites and Columbia has not sent any notifications yet. I can't speak for Cornell BCMB or Wisconsin.

I can confirm that MIT and JHU sent email notifications about interviews in the last two weeks. Stanford has been calling people over the last four days for interviews, but they did not start until Friday. UPenn appears to have already sent out their invites. Columbia and Harvard SEAS have not begun to send to invites/acceptances as far as I can tell. The rest aren't programs I applied for, so I am not sure. We have a thread if you want to join us!

I think you would seriously hurt your chances with this other program by attempting to change interview dates now. It would tell the university that you have another school that is so much higher of a priority to you that you would be willing to completely change on a commitment you made just to visit this other school. You also may have the problem that this tickets may be non-refundable, so the university may lose that money. Or, they may have already started coordinating interviews for you with faculty members. I think it's more likely that Stanford would understand you asking for an alternate date. They know that the people applying there have also applied to a lot of other schools, and there are very limited weekends in which to schedule interviews. From what other people in this thread have said, they will work with you to schedule an alternate weekend, and it likely wouldn't have an impact on your overall chances. This is especially true if you are able to interview early before they evaluate the other applicants. Congratulations!! I was super excited to find out yesterday evening! It bites that so many people have conflicts, but hopefully it won't affect anyone. I'm in that boat with MIT's interview, so *fingers crossed*. SAME. I am missing so much school in February. It's definitely worth it because I know that I need to visit each of these schools and meet with the faculty and students in order to make the best decision, but I am not looking forward to missing so much class. I keep reminding myself that my graduate school decision affects my next 5 to 6 years and these classes will not matter nearly so much in the long run as picking the right school for me.

Ooh, that's awesome! It's too bad you can't make it to the main weekend- I'd love to meet someone else with similar research interests!

Same!! One of my POI called me, and I am sure I sounded completely unprofessional because I was so caught off guard and excited. Definitely wasn't expecting it on a Sunday!

Rum cake

Thanks for the reassurance! And congratulations on your interview!!

Yeah, we'll have to see if anything else rolls in through the next couple of days.

Last year! That was one of the things that made me think they may not be done because nine people posted last year and only two so far this year.

Based on last year's results in the survey, Stanford has people's POIs contact them about their interview invites. Nearly everyone said something along the lines of "Phone call from POI, so excited!" Also, last year nine people posted their results within the span of a day, and only two have posted theirs so far this year. My best guess is that a couple professors went ahead and sent their announcements last night to get them done and others held off because it was fairly late on a Friday (the two results were both posted after 4:30 Pacific time). So there may be more invites to come this weekend or Monday. But that's all just conjecture based on a minute or two of scrolling through the results page. It's also totally possible (and sad) that none of us got an invite, in which case we'll just have to celebrate all of our amazing invites and acceptances up to this point!

@eternalnoob You may have better luck asking this in the forum for public policy since you're more likely to get traffic from people who have experience in your field! I would try to help, but my background is completely different, so I'm not sure what your programs are looking for.

Two of my programs sent out interview invites yesterday, and I didn't get ones. One of them was one of my top choices, too. I can't complain much because I already have some really amazing interview invites, including ones at my other top choices, but it's the first bad news I've had this cycle so it's taking some effort for me to swallow it. The one I really wanted has POIs send the interview invites and they didn't start until fairly late last night, so there's still a chance, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

Thank you! I bet it's such a relief to know you are 100% going to graduate school.

@Dr_Patel I recognize that signature format! Super congratulations on the two acceptances already!!

It really depends on your overall profile and what you want to do. It's certainly not only a numbers game, but how much each category is weighted depends on the specific program and the field. Virtually all US universities will ask for your GPA, GRE scores, research experience, a resume/CV, a statement of purpose, and two to three letters of recommendation. The statement of purpose and letters of recommendation both have a large bearing on your application: the statement of purpose because it is where you tell your academic story, why graduate school, and what you will bring to the program and the letters of recommendation because it is where others who are experienced in your area can speak honestly about you as a candidate. GPA, GRE scores, and publications all certainly have bearing on your application, but the general consensus is that schools take a much more holistic approach in reviewing your application. Also, note that the "top universities" vary widely from field to field, and even then it's better to choose a place that fits what you want to research and what direction you want to take for your career than one that is simply ranked highly. The stickied posts under this forum (Applications) have some really great advice about the whole application process - you should definitely check those out for more detailed responses!

Also, keep in mind your #1 may change! What I've heard over and over again across this forum is that a lot of times, people fall in love with a school that wasn't originally their top choice when they get to go to the campus, meet the people, interact with professors, and get a real view of what the school is like. In most cases (unless you've been fortunate enough to visit the school already), it's your first real chance to experience the university and not just their website, and it's definitely possible for your opinion to change. For me, I'm really trying to go into my interviews with an open mind and really enjoy every weekend because I expect that I'll be surprised and my opinions may change.

Thank you for the extremely informative post!

Agreed on that you got a different e-mail than me! My e-mail was basically like you can interview either weekend and here is a list of when professors are available/not available so you can make sure the ones you want to interview with will be there when you interview. They probably didn't send it to you since they wanted you to attend the first weekend!

Did he apply to Stanford and MIT ChemE or BioE/BE? From what I can tell about BioE/BE is that MIT has at least begun sending invites but may not be finished and Stanford does not appear to have started sending invites. I can't speak at all for the ChemE programs though. The Grad Café Survey would be a great place to check to get ideas about if those programs have started sending invites!

I don't think Stanford BioE has sent anything out yet at all. There's nothing in the survey for this year, and last year they sent interview invites around 1/21.