Apogeee

See if there is someone from your time in college who will advise you. You're going to need LOR.

The sport has little to no impact on your application. Your writing score is a little low. The lack of experience and research is somewhat problematic, but not unusually so. Overall, your portfolio sounds reasonable. Ask your advisor; perhaps there is some work you can do now to bolster your portfolio. Good luck.

Did your former advisor give you a reason for suggesting that you delay? Before you do anything else, have an honest meeting with your advisor, in person, so you can find out what's up. Your advisor's reason could give you some insight. But without that letter, your application package isn't that competitive, and, as you know, it's not always just a letter that they have to provide. Sometimes there are other online hoops they have to jump through. You want this person on your side.

Test anxiety is a terrible thing. Sorry that's happening to you. How about using the materials on the ETS site? If tech support isn't readily visible on a site, chances are, it's just a scam. Genuine web sites have some way to contact them in the event of a problem.

Try to maintain a balance. If your grades suddenly nosedive, that is a bad sign in an application. Discuss research possibilities and ask about the work/study balance. Your advisor should help you with this. Are you taking a GRE or some other standardized test for grad school?

Why don't you contact the bank and change the address on your account? You don't have to close an account because it has an old address. I'm not really sure, from what you said, why you haven't done this yet.

Exactly right, Crimson Wife! This is an important distinction. If someone can't get at least a 5 on an "inane topic that ETS has devised" how can they possibly engage in effective business writing? The same types of analysis that go into writing on the inane topic will improve the writing on the reports that a professional is expected to produce. Nothing we learn is wasted. I, too, have seen the writing that some people send out to parents, administrators, and clients. Learning how to write well behooves us all. Thank you for pointing that out.

I don't think that this will cause you as much of a problem as you fear. Try listening to American accents on youtube and try to imitate them to help you to be more easily understood. Slow your speech a little bit. Here is a college professor discussing accent training. This seems to be a university lecture that was recorded. After the first couple of minutes, her presentation gets going. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkQ7lwEWeGA Do you have a friend you can talk with on Facetime or Skype? Perhaps you can help them with their accent in your language - half and half. A colleague of mine is learning German. She is watching television shows in German, sometimes with subtitles, sometimes without.

Jolie717 makes an important point. Grad school is too important to put all of your time, energy, and cash into test-prep for one test: even the GRE. A great idea is to thoroughly learn the material. Then you not only have it on test day, but forever. The ETS website has exam guides and practice tests. The practice tests at ETS give a good approximation of what you will need to do on test day, which can be grueling. On that day you have to ignore the ick factor of wearing the headphones that have been on countless other heads, and the fact that you are being monitored on a camera. You can't even have your own pencil! After you work with all of that material, if you need something else, go and get books. An experienced, professional tutor is a good investment right from the beginning. Also, don't skimp on writing preparation. One of the major tasks of grad school is professional writing. Try to get that score to at least a 5.

Why don't you use all of the resources on the ETS website before you go and buy anything? And perhaps your local library has a GRE prep book you can borrow. It's not something you need to buy.

Did you write to their tech support? Did you try a different browser? What did their help section say?

They look pretty similar without knowing the percentiles. You could send all of your scores, or the most recent ones. Did the percentile scores change? What department are you applying to? Anyway, wait for the writing results before you make up your mind.

From everyone I know who has applied to grad schools in the last 10 years, it's not always fair. Sometimes the most brilliant people with the greatest portfolio don't get in, or they barely squeak in. And then someone else who has a kind of mediocre seeming portfolio has 8 acceptances. Now factor in "impostor syndrome" and the whole process is toxic! It's really a numbers game: the more schools you apply to, the better your chances of getting in. And yes, of course a strong portfolio is desirable. That personal statement is something that is entirely within your control.

I agree with everything the posters above have said. Your experience isn't unusual. It doesn't seem to matter the discipline. Just finding out that the research you do winds up being shaped by the work of your advisors can really be a difficult wake-up call. Somewhere along the line, undergraduate advisors neglect to explain what graduate school would really be like. But now you know. If I were you, I'd vote for that second choice, and finish your degree. If you have professors you trust whom you can really talk to, you may be able to ask them about their own experience in research. I think you will find that most of them were able to find value in their projects, even when those projects weren't their initial favorite. Passion is intrinsic: it comes from you, not the project you're working on. Bring your passion to what you are doing, rather than trying to extract it from the project. It's a different mindset.

I'm iffy on that third writer. Is there a professor who knows you better in mainly academic professor-mentor to student relationship, not social?