Azsy16

Language barrier

Great thread! Applying to Brown, NYU, Yale, Columbia, Pittsburgh, CMU, Emory, Stony Brook, and Northwestern, mainly the reasoning/cognition side of things. Being an international applicant, I'm as anxious as can be. Not sure if I should've applied to more schools... Best of luck to everyone!

I had one (of nine) who didn't reply even after the reminder email. I'm still applying anyway seeing as it wasn't close to my top choice. Definitely would consider choosing another program had it been one of my preferred few. This.

I'd suggest reading 2-3 of the publications of greatest interest to you so that there's stuff to write about. Seeing as I've gotten reasonably interested responses for the most part, I'll share my POI email format: Dear Dr. LastName, I am a 4th year B.Sc. student who is currently completing a XXX at the XXX. Specifically, I am working on addressing XXXX. I am writing to ask if you will be accepting applications for new graduate students in 2017. I am writing to express my desire to work in your lab as a fall 2017 graduate student (if it already says they're accepting). In general terms, I am deeply curious about how people XXXX. Consequently, I find multiple aspects of your research highly interesting. Your piece, e.g., regarding various interpretations of the XXXXX (XXXX, Year). Likewise, evidence for a XXXXXX challenge the current accounts of XXXXX (XXXX, Year). My XXXXX, etc. can be made available at your earliest request; I am more than glad to expand on my details if you so desire. Should you be interested, I have a few potential research questions in mind that I can propose here. Thanks very much for your time. Sincerely, MyFirstName Hope that helps. I didn't attach any files for this first contact, but it's really more of an aspect left to your own discretion.

I'd report the second set. The writing score is decent either way, but the verbal looks impressive and the quant less distracting.

Wow, those are very different requirements... I've chosen to email the department instead. Thanks for the advice.

Hey guys, what do you upload when a school recommends providing a writing sample? What are they looking for? Does any section of my thesis suffice, or must it be an entire product (essay/lab report)? I'm an international applicant and no one around me is entirely sure about this.

Thanks guys. I guess if they need to know more, they will probably get back to me around December. Seeing as I've already been encouraged to apply, I don't want to risk annoying them with follow-up emails that have no actual questions.

Hmm I'm hoping it's this. They asked for my details and for me to propose the question (that I mentioned I had in mind on first contact) so I replied with those. But I did mention that I'd be keen on hearing more about their future research plans.

Hey guys, I'd like to know what you think of this: So, I've made the first contact with my POIs a while back, and they've mostly replied. A few of them have expressed additional interest, asking me to send over my SOP, CV, the research questions I've in mind etc. The thing is, I've not heard back since my reply (nearly 2 weeks ago), and I'm not sure if it's a matter of their being busy or their being uninterested. I know that my GRE and GPA are decent, but my research experience is somewhat sparse. At the same time, my reply email was quite long, so it could be that it's taking them a while to craft a reply. And of course, I get that they're not obliged to reply at this stage after all, so my paranoia of their losing interest upon seeing my details might be ill-founded. That said, one of them did reply to say that I'm a competitive applicant, but I tend to fixate on the negatives... Am I right to fret about this?

Fuel gauge

Thanks guys, very helpful. Guess I should wait a bit before attempting to incorporate school-specific details into my draft.

How would you guys handle it when the websites of certain schools don't list the word limit for SoP and online applications aren't open yet (which might provide details)? Do you treat it as what is required for schools that list it, for e.g. 1000 words, the usual case for psychology programs?

Thought I'll post mine since this forum helped me out a LOT in what to expect. Powerprep I: 158 V / 166 Q Powerprep II: 159 V / 160 Q (Did these two right at the start, which in hindsight is quite stupid. Also, think I did them with iTunes playing. ) Manhattan practice test: 161 V / 160 Q Kaplan practice test: 162 V / 164 Q At this point, I decided to sign up for Magoosh, seeing how everyone was touting it as the best thing ever. Magoosh practice test 1: 164 V / 164 Q (I felt pretty confident, since their material was supposed to be harder than the actual ones. Little did I know it'd be my best performance on the site ) Magoosh practice test 2: 159 V / 158 Q Magoosh practice test 3: 161 V / 158 Q Magoosh practice test 4: 159 V / 162 Q (I was hesitant about creating one last practice test, but decided to, since it was a week before the actual test and I wanted to see how much I've improved. Needless to say, I was completely floored by the performance.) Magoosh score predictor: 160-165 V/ 158-163 Q Actual GRE (3.3.2016): 166 V / 164 Q / 5.0 AWA I was both stunned and ecstatic when the results appeared on the screen. For one, I've never gotten that verbal score in any of the practice tests. Also, the first verbal section felt incredibly difficult somehow, and I was mentally prepared for a retake. Just goes to show, you can never tell! The quantitative score was a bonus, since I almost completely did not practise for it, as it's less important for the program I'm applying to. I'd say I studied lightly for 2 months (maybe 7 hours a week?), consisting of doing practice tests and reviewing questions thoroughly (for verbal at least). I also watched all of Magoosh's verbal videos, albeit knowing most of the 'tricks' already. I knew my problems with verbal was grounded in the fact that I hated reading with a passion (there are exceptions though). My last book was a celebrity autobiography, and the one before that was the sixth Harry Potter book from many years ago (yes, I was so lazy that I couldn't be bothered to read the final one and decided to be informed by the movie instead). I also paid for Scoreitnow to know where I was with my writing, got a 5, and never thought about it again. In reviewing your answers, it's definitely beneficial to not just 'get' the right one, but also to know what makes the wrong ones wrong. Also, I think it's quite crucial to have personal strategies that complement you. For example, I've this discard/speed-reading technique that lets me automatically skip words like 'the' 'an' 'was' etc, which obviously ties in nicely with my aversion towards reading. I'm now thinking if I should retake and see if I can get a better score by chance though...