day_manderly

Haven't seen it... I've included everything relevant (like, really everything, including my competitive running hobby )

As this is his responsibility now (for he has agreed to do this for you), you can and should call.

I think most schools are ok with letters coming after you've submitted - like, 2 weeks after. You should check though. I made my profs send theirs like a week ago, just in case (all schools I'm applying to have the option of inviting recommenders prior to submission - I think if you apps don't have that option, then the letters can come later).

Have just submitted my 2nd app! So excited, even though still have 2 to go for the December 1 deadline! How are you guys doing?

I saw a thread somewhere about this. A short answer is no, don't risk it, keep it professional.

Boy, did I procrastinate with this. My SoPs are perfect (thanks to the fine forlks of grad cafe, my friends, and me editing them 100 times!), but my so-called Personal Statement.... (about how has my background influenced my decision to apply to the Wonderful Grad School) Well, all I've got is the first draft. PM me your e-mail address, and I'll be happy to send it to you and to have a look at yours.

That's the avenue I've ended up taking.

Are there any guidelines anywhere?.. Headers, title, anything?..

Yes, moving on is really important. Otherwise we would all go crazy (I personally am almost there ) Same here. Btw, I will be happy to look over your other SoPs if you look over mine. :/ I already have one application submitted, and I put too much work into it and too little into other schools.

Of course, it's impossible to give a proper feedback on someone's writing sample, especially if they are in a different field. However, little things - like formatting, referencing, or whatnot, can be noticed. I can have a look at your WS if you have a look at mine. Background - I'm in Education, so I can say something about WS in Social Sciences or Humanities. If you are in, PM me.

It will definitely not strike you out (according to everything I've read on this website). It's just a tiny thing, probably won't even be noticed. You are just panicking out of geeky perfectionism. Moreover, your panic might be a sign of your application being successful - you h a v e proofread it, right? Probably polished the content to perfection? Who cares about Grammar? (as long as it's not in e v e r y sentence and not too dreadful)))

Why?

Ohhhh... I'll share my experience and vent along the way if that's ok with you. I thought the last sentence is the worst. The 2nd is bad, too. And the 10th. Like, really. SoPs are a pain in the ass. At first I went with 'Applying to This Great School is an informed decision'. I wanted to show straight away that I meant business. Then somebody pointed out that was self-evident (that the decision was informed). I had a blank there for a while, waiting for the insight to strike me. Now it goes like this 'My interests are...' (a bit more elegant in terms of prose, but same meaning). That's it. The structure of my 1st paragraph: My interests are at the crossroads of sultry goodness, smoldering nerdiness, and comparative hotness*. The profs at This Great School (especially at the Awesome Division) explore the same stuff, and also the School is so very international (in the case of my field that's ultrarelevant), so it's the shit for me. And then I go on to describe my background, PhD research ideas, and plans for the future. *closely related fields

Ah, I've had this problem. Write to your intended grad school and asked. I ended up with them agreeing to be ok with a scan for the time of application. However, they might ask you to make a photocopy of your trans-s, and then get it notarized or w/e.

Try Liberation Serif, it's perfectly Times-New-Roman/like.

So within my field I am interested in many different topics. Now I have something like: I do not wish to limit myself to one theme only. [Short sentence about another interest I have, apart from the one I want to explore in ]. I would like to keep advancing my knowledge of the subject, and build upon [a bit on the concrete conceptualization]. Will this make me seem unfocused?

Question: one of the professors I am interested in does not work at the department where I will be studying. He will still be available for conversations, I guess, but I am not sure whether I should mention him at all. By 'mention' I don't mean saying I want him to advise me, just that I'm excited he works at the same university, and I've enjoyed his work in my field. Do you know anyone who mentioned profs outside their grad school/department?

Thank you!

Thank you so much for valuable advice!

Thank you, that sounds great!

If a professor doesn't respond, and there's 'administrative support' (some schools have one assigned to every professor), I very gently write to them. Usually they reply very quickly, with questions like 'what e-mail did you send your letter to?', and then I get a reply to my initial letter after a while. That said, the professors I truly have rapport with in terms of our interests reply quickly enough, but that might be my field thing - I'm in Education, and people there cannot afford to be all Ivory Tower-y.

I have several publications in the academic journals of my country, and those journals are not prestigious at all. I also have participated in several conferences. By no means this is the heart of my CV, but I still mention them. Question: is it better to concentrate one's CV on important stuff (i.e. I have impressive experience with impact-intensive research), and omit my non-prestigious publications altogether, thus painting a picture of someone who only goes for top notch, or is it better to mention whatever research I've done over the years? I am pretty sure one of my LoRs will mention my national publications (I was a research-active undergrad).

I asked one of the professors I spoke with at my target school, and he told me to mention everything in a CV. I think it all boils down to organization of CV - mine has the section 'Skils and Interests' in the very end where I put my language skills, and my interests, which are competitive running (because it shows that I can be determined enough to run a half-marathon, and to train for a marathon), and creative writing (I stated the number of stories I've written, and the published ones, because it shows I have diverse interests). That being said, my CV starts with education, research experience, research interests, etc. SoP - I would say definitely no, as it has nothing to do with you being a good researcher (even if writing poetry helps you relax after those long sessions of reading academic stuff, because so does shower ).

I think I'm not the only one struggling with this. So I know that: you shouldn't mention professors you haven't contacted as your potential advisors; you shouldn't mention anyone if you haven't checked whether they are alive, still there, available for interaction (courses, talks, etc.); it's good to talk about potential advisors in SoP, because otherwise the adcomm will not know what to do with you and which faculty should have a look at your application. Now, the question. If you know that a professor cannot advise you (not being a standing faculty, etc.), but will still be available for discussions, and you admire them - how should you talk about them? My SoP has it like this now: 'Regarding the faculty I would like to work with, I must mention Professors Cool and Great'. Now, Professor Great cannot be any PhD student's advisor, but I'm still looking forward to discussing various problems in my field with them. Professor Cool is my intended advisor. I don't want to appear badly informed about the internal politics of the school. Meanwhile, I still want to mention Professor Great. Background: advisors do not direct your whole trajectory in my field, it's all rather loose, not like in Biology or smth, where funding is linked to project leaders.

Thank you; this is all extremely useful. I'm almost certain they will remember me, and the application will be read by the same person. That professor did explain that usually they look for candidates with more working experience, so my pitch will be something along the lines of working for one more year in my field, and though that's not too long, but the nature of my work is intense.