another_time

I would try for some choice PhD programs and see where it gets you. Try emailing/skyping with some potential advisors, soon. The glaring flaw in your profile is your lack of research experience, which is also linked to your lack of professor recs. It may be a good idea to explore some alternative options, i.e., lab manager positions, post-bacc research programs, or a masters. You could also just lend a hand in a couple of labs for the time leading up to the Dec. deadline, since it seems most of your other application components seem to be in order.

I agree with sibs... Princeton Review has very quick and easy methods for solving most probs on GRE Q. This is definitely a problem where plugging in a couple of values could get you the correct answer, D, in a minute or less...

I know this is a personal choice, but I was wondering how many of you are considering getting a pet/dog in grad school? My partner and I are going to be hitting another milestone at the same time as I am starting my first year of grad school. I really, really want a dog. He has experience with dogs and wouldn't mind. He has entertained my ideas when I bring it up by mentioning breeds we could get. It makes me really excited. I know it is a big commitment and people say the dog will get lonely if we are too busy. Personally, I find that to be motivation for a work-life balance. What are your thoughts for having a dog/pet in grad school? I am not a cat person.

I dunno what your tone-shift was like (which might be more important), but I think your language is just a bit under the level of formality I prefer... and by that I mean using the word 'yeah' instead of 'yes' (or nothing at all) and 'hey' instead of 'hi'. Staff don't tend to care if you call them by first name. I have heard underclassmen use Ms xxx or Mr. xxx and find it highschoolish. I do believe I am on the formal side as I find it very hard to transition from calling even my close professors by their first name instead of Dr. xxx, unless they very clearly want me to use their first name (like they change their email signature from Dr. to their first name). I find dear overly formal, but not objectionable. I have to say that professional formality is important. A new staff member at a school I was visiting sent me a series of email replies and requests for information that she could have acquired herself that might as well have been text messages. I found it really gross.

Well, anecdotally I know someone who made it into an MA program in a health field with a letter from a family member and her boss. I thought it would be a kiss of death, but it apparently wasn't. I do think that most admissions committees would want at least one academic letter if not two. I would definitely ask the admissions staff for suggestions of what would be sufficient. A letter from someone who could speak to your abilities and experience would seemingly be a valuable insight over a letter from a professor who doesn't remember you that well. If you did need to get a letter from a professor, then perhaps you could volunteer a bit of your time and expertise doing research or data analysis for them.

It is probably much less of a factor than acquiring teaching experience and fitting the needs of the department you are applying to. CCs tend to feed into 4-year institutions locally first, then within their state second. If you are applying for CCC jobs, I would think that going to school in the state would be a positive since the CSU & UC systems are pretty extensive. Getting TA or teaching experience in core lower division courses is also probably going to be way more of an important factor, since those are the classes you would be teaching. I really don't think that where you get your PhD is gonna be the deciding factor at a community college job search.

Hi, your stats are stronger than mine were and I got interviews/acceptances at some programs in top 20 for cog neuro. I applied to 10 schools, got accepted into 4 and interviewed at 5. My choices were strongly oriented to a specific sub-field and I made more-than-just-email contact with most PIs before writing my personal statements. I was told by one PI that he considers Q much more important than V, but your Q is not that bad. If a school posts their GRE stats, it is safe to assume they care about them more than schools that don't. If you can meet or exceed their admittance averages, you are probably fine. My opinion is that there is no need for overkill since you have some really good credentials already and you could be working on something of more substance. I would go with accomplishing something more substantial than spending the time and effort needed to roll the dice for a 4pt increase in your Q score (or whatever you might shoot for). I think at your level, you should be rounding out your skill-set and experiences, applying for predoctoral grants, networking, building a website... - not fretting over making GRE cut-offs. All that said, I retook the GRE to increase my Q. My AW went up and my V score went down, but not enough to make me regret retaking (although I did have a "circumstance" for my first score). It really depends on how much time and energy you have. I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life!

True true. OSU was like that. Some schools also require transcripts to be mailed in and one wanted me to white out my SSN on any unofficial transcripts before scanning and sending them.

The spreadsheets, etc. are good to give to your letter writers, especially if you get them done early. I didn't find them extremely useful since the application itself is basically only 5 things--transcripts, personal statement, letters of recommendation, CV, GRE. It's probably just hard to be organized because of everything else that is likely going on around you. I don't think it's possible to do too much while you are applying to grad schools, especially making an impression with pre-interviews.

A few schools I looked at had a 3.0 cut-off, so assuming your couple of math classes will bring your GPA above 3.0, that is probably the most significant shift in your GPA you will be reasonably able to achieve. I think your GRE will make up for a lot. If I were in your shoes, I would just take the courses for cheaper at a CC. I don't think it will make a difference where you decide to complete your lower division math. Most Stats programs I looked at have prerequisites that include Linear Algebra, Calc 3, Probability, and Stats w/ Calculus. It could be different if the schools you are looking at are just looking for Linear Algebra & Calc II. You have a shot assuming you ace your summer courses (which can be pretty intense if you are not repeating the course work). I think you would be solid at a state school, assuming you meet prereqs or think you would qualify for conditional enrollment.

This is funny. I didn't study for V, but Q study has definitely filled in a few of holes I probably should have learned in high school.

Your application will probably be strong if you start putting it together now. If you are going to get eaten alive as a teacher, it is because you haven't developed classroom control skills. This can be partially taught through a teaching program, but it will mostly come from experience. I have known plenty of effective young teachers. It takes charisma, not age. I would honestly advise you not to expect a graduate program to age you into maturity. You have to develop your own confidence, ability to engage students, and intuition for the attitudes that motivate their thoughts/actions. Personally, I don't think going to graduate school is a bad idea, especially early in your career. It's scary to move out of your comfort zone, but even that is a skill you can develop. I'm just saying it is not guaranteed that there will be some magical factor in grad school that will flip the switch for you and make you feel ready to take on the world - sometimes you have to contrive to do that for yourself.

I listed my AA on my CV, but I would not have listed my community college if I weren't awarded a degree. I attended multiple community colleges in order to get around unit limits at my university (I double majored). It would have been ridiculous to list 5 community colleges on my CV where I may have only taken 1 or 2 classes online. I think it would be against your best interest to worry about the lack of prestige associated with attending a community college. You are responsible for making the most of your education, and if you have done that then there is nothing to feel insecure about. List your honors and where you got them.

April 15 is not field specific. http://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution Anyway, I was just curious for facts.

I used a combination of Magoosh and Princeton Review online. I really liked Princeton Review's online tutorials and drills. They were much more focused than Magoosh. AFTER completing Princeton Review, I practiced on Magoosh. I got 162 on V without any practice (so I didn't bother studying) and 152 on Q during my diagnostic. This practice got me to 160 in Q: I spent 1 week studying about 10 hours a day on Princeton Review (requested off work, skipped class), then the next week practicing questions on Magoosh that changed difficulty based on what I got right. On Princeton Review I focused on understanding concepts. I watched all the tutorials and took my time on the drills. I practiced their method of taking notes and followed them during the actual exam. During Magoosh practice I focused on speed. If I didn't think I was gonna solve a problem in 1.5 mins (it's a feeling), I gave up and studied the explanation video. As you can probably tell, I basically crammed for the GRE... If you stretch it out over a summer, though, you could definitely get better scores than me by studying Princeton Review's excellent methods and using Magoosh's excellent question bank. Most of my friends who did that tested much better than me.

Yeah, but what if someone misses the April 15 deadline? April 15 is specifically for financial support, not for admissions... Couldn't any school take funding offers away after April 15 and admit another person off their wait-list with the funding that was taken away?

The linear algebra class I took was not too tough. I missed a lot of classes for grad school interviews, but the concepts are all basic algebra and the nuances are easily extracted from the textbook. Calc concepts didn't help me that much. GRE prep actually helped more. What was way useful was not being intimidated by summation notation. That, I got from my Psych stats classes. If you were fine with the math and concepts in Psych stats, you will be fine. The only difference in a math class is that you will have to get your hands dirty more often. We did a crash course in linear algebra math in Multivariate Stats, which helped me a bit in accepting the concepts in linear algebra but I don't think it was hugely beneficial. I would have felt prepared enough understanding ANOVA and multiple-regression formulas.

I'm glad I exchanged contact info for that very reason (and also I like making friends). I found out ahead of time that I most likely would not be accepted to one school. At another school, I was waitlisted and eventually got an acceptance... after I already made my decision. I see how that could have been a bad thing if I didn't pick my hard-thought first choice school. This April 15 business got me thinking... where does the promised funding go if we miss the deadline? Does it shift to some other person on the waitlist, leaving the original recipient with an acceptance but no more funding?

Hey, haven't been to NYC but I have been to the SFSU campus and the surrounding area a few times. San Francisco is a really great city, and if you are really motivated to spend 9 bucks and 45 minutes to take BART to UC Berkeley (better than driving), then I think you don't have much to worry about in terms of prestige. I was accepted into prestigious PhD programs from a state school. I think it will not necessarily hold you back to be at SF State, studying what you intend to study. It seems bioethics would be a distraction since it is not what you want to do. Those 3 semesters are going to be critical for your letter writers - that is really not a lot of time to make a good impression, especially if you are looking for 2 or 3 letters. TA work and developing a good track record in relevant coursework will be way more important than prestige. Additionally, you may have more opportunities to prove yourself at SFSU by applying for fellowships and other prestigious positions during your second year. Keep in mind, your 2nd year coursework is going to show up in your transcripts and that should be important to schools where you are applying. At a good 2 year program, you will spend your time developing a good personal statement that is grounded in all the work you are doing there... after an intensive year of Bioethics, what are you going to have to write about?

^ Same as above (we probably met? haha). The programming/curriculum is very smart and the grad students in the welcoming committee were all nice people. The UC system in general is pretty great, I think. As for faculty, I just found a better advisor fit somewhere else. Some folks I wasn't in love with, but others were really great. The funding was also really good... better than the place I accepted... haha

The majority of undergraduates are going to feel a "divide" between undergrads and grad students. Most college seniors are not equipped to enter a PhD program when they graduate, so even graduating seniors may feel as if they cannot relate to graduate students. Undergrads who are involved in research might feel there is less of a divide, and over time they should notice that they just fit into the overall framework of the lab and that even between PhD students there is a hierarchy of authority. It really depends on how involved the undergraduate is, but the ones who eventually bridge the divide are in the minority. PhD students have just attained a status most students don't even aspire to. The difference between a graduating senior and the same student 1st year in grad school is the application process, which creates uncertainty in everyone. But if the only thing separating one student from another is a rite of passage, a so-called divide can seem superficial even if it is sufficient to endow authority. Er. I should mention I am attending a public university, so there is no drama created from the spawn of donors.

I wore my ring to my interviews. After being admitted to one school, it was helpful to let my POI know that the school I decided on was actually the BEST fit for my husband and me. I ended up not being admitted to a school that was very excited to have me because I mentioned it created a bad two-body situation for me. That was the only school I interviewed that didn't admit me and the only school I mentioned that my husband would play a decision in whether or not I attended. Interestingly, the POI mentioned she had been in the same situation as me in the past! I'm sure there were other factors I did not turn out to be a fit. I was not in love with the school. I was admitted to all the other schools I visited for interviews and never ended up mentioning my husband because it was not relevant. Edit: AFTER being admitted it is CRUCIAL to let them know you are married, especially if you want to live in family housing. Your PI will be able to advocate for you to the university and it is helpful in general that your friends in the department know how they can help you settle in.