VickyG

I'm also considering deferral because I'm pregnant. EDD in August. I am also an international student. I have a couple of offers from PhD programs I have been dreaming of. I wonder when is the best timing to communicate with my potential advisors/programs? What is the worst case scenario? I heard some programs requires you to re-apply if you defer. Thanks!

Hi everyone. Normally schools require 3 recommendations. So I spoke to 3 former mentors/employers to write me LORs. However, a couple of programs only require 2, yet they left a 3rd space for an additional LOR (min. 2 max. 3). One of my 3 LOR writers has a history of skipping e-mails randomly and nearly missing deadlines. But he is an ideal reference. Should I put him in the additional space? (I already have 1 academic 1 employment ref) 1. If my application is considered complete once 2 LORs are submitted, it doesn't hurt if I put him as additional prove of my abilities. 2. But if application is only considered complete when ALL the letters are submitted, I would drop him to avoid risk. Do anyone know which is the case? Thanks!

@Psygeek Thank you. After reading your reply I waited and nothing happened. I sent another email asking for a short 5-minute phone conversation and there was no reply either. It's impossible we meet face to face, we are in different countries. Then I called. It was his assistant and told me he was in a meeting, and I left a message. But there was nothing after that. No call back, no email. I start to doubt if he is really taking this seriously. Or, maybe he keeps the US deadlines (Dec 1) in mind and ignore my message on the Australian app - because he is incredibly busy this time of year. Either way, I wouldn't count on him for the October deadline. But I still have no idea if I should keep him on my referee list for US grad schools.

Thank you @BabyScientist, I followed your format and completed my CV, though my contribution is rather limited. Hopefully during this month there will be some progress in research and I can update my CV a little bit.

Hi everyone. I'm in the middle of my application and one of my LOR writer really made me confused. I wonder what to do next and need your advice. He was my mentor and a good fit for my LOR. We live far from each other so the only way to contact was email. The correspondence was quite strange, at least it was different from the other referees I contacted: My first e-mail was sent on Aug 1st. It was very formal in 4 paragraphs explaining the reason I apply for grad school, my future goals and my recent updates. I waited for 2 weeks and sent a follow-up email, simply implied that the forwarded e-mail was sent 15 days ago, it may got lost. On the same day, he replied with ONE WORD: absolutely. At this point I should have assumed there shouldn't be any issues, right? Well, before the US app season, there is Australia. A professor I met at a conference last year encouraged me to apply for his program in Australia, and I would love to expand my options. So besides several US grad schools I am applying for, there is also an Australian institute. Their deadline is October. Upon receiving my mentor's reply, I immediately sent him the app guideline of the Australia institute, which requires his email and phone number (to fill in the app form). I couldn't find his number elsewhere, not on the department homepage nor his email signature. I waited for a week, no reply. I sent a follow-up email. On the same day, he replied with a number. I submitted the online application on Aug 29 and email him. I also told him that I'm starting my application to US grad schools. That's all for now. It's Sept 7 and I am confused. With 2 long formal (the first one and the guideline one) and 3 follow-up emails I sent, I only got 2 very short (yet positive?) replies. I wonder: Is he really interested in recommending me? Judging from the correspondence, do you think I will get a lukewarm or mediocre letter that would harm my application? Should I give him a call? (I have asked in one of the emails, there was no comment on this.) Is it rude to just call, since he may be just overwhelmed by workload? Last, should I keep him in the referee list for my upcoming applications? Thank you!

@little_lady Same here. My background is not related to education whatsoever, and I'm applying for PhD in education this year. My limited experience in education is working in a non-profit on education exchange projects and then co-founded an education start-up and teach courses here. How is your application going? I'm also aiming for UW and Indiana, other schools on the list are NYU, Columbia and Northwestern.

I'm also worried that the professor I'm asking would feel awkward since I have left academia for 10 years now. Advice needed. Thank you all.

I have worked for 10 years after graduation and am applying for PhD within the field I'm currently working in. I haven't been involved in academic research at work, only several research-heavy projects. I wrote to potential supervisors, and they assured that I meet the application requirements of their programs given my degrees and previous experience. To gain some research experience, I volunteered in a research lab in a local university a couple of months ago. I was asked to help research the literacy and compose part of the funding application. There will be opportunities to collect and analyze data once the new term begins, but that might be in a couple of months in the future. I also hope to provide my writing sample based on the literacy review part I am currently writing. THE QUESTION: I don't know what to write in my Curriculum Vitae about this short research experience. Does what I did considered contribution in research? How do I describe my "products", my achievements or, my contribution? The project I am helping with is at a very early stage. Look forward to hearing from someone who have experience in academic research. Thank you!

I also graduated a decade ago, with a bachelor's and a master's degrees in unrelated fields. I am applying for PhD in psychology in the coming application season. A couple of months ago, I wrote to 3 potential advisors about my background. 2 of them replied and gave me some practical advice: a) a writing sample related to psychology is not essential, but it could be helpful; b) (since I didn't have any thesis relating to the field) there may be multiple benefits of conducting a small-scale study that results in a writing sample; c) academic references are generally preferred, it doesn't matter if they are your supervisors in a degree program or not. I started volunteering in a lab in a local university after hearing from the professors. I have read nearly a hundred research papers and contributed in various ways to a project. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be (it's not easy - but as long as you took the first step, the rest comes naturally). My next step is to ask the lead investigator of the project to write me an academic reference. I would advice you do the same. Hope this helps. All the best to your dreams. ---- p.s. Though my background isn't in the field, part of my experience is related to their research interest, and both professors think I have merit. My feeling is that it all depends on how you present it.