day_manderly

I'd go with writing a new paper. There are schools that will specifically tell you NOT to submit anything that's co authored but even if that's not the case, I see too much risk of running into an ethical issue. Even if the main idea originated with you, developing the idea, deciding what direction you are going to take it and how to actually write it wasn't all you. This is different from when you're writing something and you incorporate feedback. So best be on the safe side and go with a different paper

I doubt anyone will care, especially since they may not even see the same file name on their end. Our admin puts everything into a single PDF file with only the applicant's first and last names in the file name.

I don't know if this is what @MAC2809 is referring to, but Penn has a notorious low acceptance rate in their Ed programs. According to US News rankings, they accept 4.5% of applicants. Don't let this deter you though! People apply and get accepted to programs with low acceptance rates and rejected from programs with high acceptance rates. At the end of the day, the 'admissions game' doesn't always make sense. 

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.

Hey everybody, 
I am very new to this website and I am currently applying some grad schools around US and you know some schools want the transcripts to be send directly from the universities. However, the university I graduated in Germany refuses to send the transcripts by mail to US universities and they say it is forbidden by law. I am abroad, so I can't go and take personally from them. They won't even send them to me by post. I only have one original copy of my transcripts and that's it. Only one school agreed to accept a scanned copy but still 2-3 schools want them by post and they don't understand. Neither my german coordinator nor the officers in US. Can anybody update me? Are there any german students that can help me?

TF?

K, I'll give it a go...my BA and MA are in Geography, but environmental is really not my strong suit, so all with many grains of salt. I've tried to be merciless about it, I figure its what I would want if I ever finished writing the damned thing. I'm also not american so there might be a level of waffling about thats expected...so, you know, what do I know?
First thoughts, and I've deleted/highlighted a lot of stuff in the text itself as well:
- It seems like a very strong statement once the actual content is arrived at, its just that that takes a while.
- Length. It's over 1500 words, which strikes me as too long. Seems like 1000 should be the very max...whatever the specifics of application are, really.
- You have a lot of grammar issues and what look like poorly re-merged copy-paste breaks, as well as ocassionally convoluted/academic-y (in the bad way) writing. I figure you don't really need me pointing all those out below, but make sure the grammar and structure flow after you've totally finished solidifying the content, moving things around, figuring out the exact issues you want to talk about, etc.
- To my eye, there's too much of standard platidudinal writing that borders on cliche and repeats the obvious.
- Your vocabulary is...over the top, in places. Trying too hard, if you will. "embedded", "impetus", etc, where there are more straightforward and better flowing words easily available.
Well, I hope that was helpful and not too harsh...you seem to know exactly what you want to do and why, it just feels a little buried in there in the long paragraphs. Good luck!

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.

Not if they're not directly affiliated somehow... Even then, with the word limits on SOPs, not sure you'd want to spare lines for someone that's not going to be directly related to your research. If you really want, you could maybe say that University X is so great because it has excellent faculty both in and outside of Department Y, which will be great in stimulating your research interests... 

Your post contains what is really two different questions, so I am addressing those separately. 
First, you can mention professors in your SOP to show that you have done your research into their program. If you are interested in housing policy, for example, and you are attracted to Michigan Ford (for example) because of their faculty expertise in that area, you can definitely mention you're looking forward to working with that faculty member. This is not a must. It's just one way of showing that you have done your research on what the school offers, which adcoms will see positively. You don't need to have emailed the professors already at all. It doesn't make sense for you to namedrop people you personally know unless it speaks to your interest in attending the school. 
Secondly, you can email professors if you have questions for them. For example, you can reach out to professors that you admire or are interested in working with, and ask them questions about their work or if you could work for them as a research assistant if you attended. I found this more useful to do after I was accepted at schools, when I wanted to hear from faculty while making a decision on where to attend. 

I would include all of them at this stage in your career.

In academia, some people are just really terrible with email (I'm sure this is true outside of academia as well). If I've waited a while and haven't heard from someone, I often think of some new reason to write them. In this situation, did they come out with any recent research? Are there conferences in your field coming up that maybe you can ask if they are presenting in? Just some reason to reconnect...then, as part of the email, you can reiterate your interest and say you'd love to talk further.
Don't do any blaming for the non-responsiveness and don't let on any suspicion that they found your materials weren't up to snuff. Keep it short and respectful but breezy. They will probably write back apologizing for not getting back to you (if you respond to the same chain from before they can see that they dropped the ball).

Specifics about what you gained/did would be helpful especially if tied directly to the program's goals/ your goals. I think you want to be careful that what you say can't be boiled down to: you told me to do x so I went and did x. 
If someone were to paraphrase that section it should be closer to: I did x, as suggested, and now I'm better at y and z.

This wording you suggest is really awkward. As someone said, I wouldn't phrase it that way. Here's a sample of something one could write in a SOP. Let's assume that in earlier paragraphs, you already established your interest in the study of apple pie making:
I am excited for the opportunity to study Apple Pieology at University of Pielandia. I would be interested in working with Prof. Cool to study Crust Layering. I also anticipate collaborations with Prof. Great on the sugar-to-apple ratio. The research facilities at the University of Pielandia, particularly the Pie Recipe Library and the Automatic Filling Injector, would also be helpful.
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Basically, I think you should mention professors in a way to achieve two goals: 1) you want to show that you have done some homework on the department and know who studies what and 2) you want to give the committee an easy way to "classify" you and basically suggest an answer to the question they are all thinking "Where would this applicant fit into our department?".
In the above example, I show a way to distinguish between who you want your advisor to be and who you will just collaborate with. But, you don't have to always distinguish this, you could just say that you are interested in Prof. Cool's Crust Layering work and Prof. Great's sugar-to-apple ratio work, without specifying that you want to work with one or the other.
Maybe your field is different, but I wouldn't think there would exist a professor so renowned and prestigious that it would be a faux pas to even email them. They are still human, and remember, their fame is only within their field. To people in the field, they might be the most famous person, but they don't normally think that of themselves. e.g. when they go to the bank, their teller is going to treat them like any other person. They are still humans!
However, if they are super famous, then it might be hard to get a reply from them because they probably get a lot of emails. No harm in trying though. Try to send relevant application materials. 

I think this does depend a lot on your field and your school as you say. I think it's a good idea to contact or to try to contact a professor before mentioning that you want to work with them. But I don't think it's an absolute rule that you should not mention a professor unless you have contacted them. 
There's also (at least) two ways to mention professors in a SOP, like I wrote above. If you say that you are interested in Prof X's work, that's not the same as saying you want Prof. X as your advisor, and I think if you are just pointing out connections between your interests and someone's work, you don't need to reach out to them beforehand.
That said, if you don't, you take a small risk that the person you mention isn't present any more or isn't working on that anymore. It's a small risk though, and it's probably not going to be an auto-reject if you are wrong about this.

I think I would phrase it just a tad differently. I'm assuming there is a line or two about how great you think the program is, I'd link it to that:
As a leader in the Coolness discipline, I feel like blah blah this and that excellence in research, especially with faculty like Prof Renowned who has helped shape discourse in Coolness.
Or
I trust that with my work with Prof PotentialAdvisor will be further "good adjective" with discussions and interaction with renowned faculty like Prof Renowned who has helped shape both the discipline and my past research. 
Just my two cents and thanks for the great question 

I'm not sure what the answer to your question is, but I would certainly be interested in hearing it as well.
I'm having the same problem with a prof who is in a different department, however she is a senior member of a center conducting research in the department to which I'm applying, and her research is very applicable to mine. I'd like to mention her, since she would be around and available, but of course she could not be my advisor, so I'm not sure how to frame it. (there are several profs within the dept as well who have highly relevant research interests)

I'll start with a standard disclaimer that different fields may have different norms.
My advice is to not mention this at all, unless this previous experience has direct effect on what you did for the previous year**. Otherwise, they know that they didn't accept you last time so there's no need to remind them (and give them more reason to not accept you again). Instead, just focus on what you actually did. Write the application as if you are applying for the very first time, don't mention your previous application and don't be afraid to repeat some things from last time. You don't know that every person reading the application this year is the same as the people from last year. And even if there is overlap, you can't assume they remember anything about you.
As Triangular said, academia is full of denials, so you want to show that you are able to have unsuccessful experiences and move on. You do this by showing, not telling. Writing a strong application with new stuff from your last year is how you show that you have moved on and will persevere. Spending time and space discussing the past attempt is just telling. Also, since many other people will have denials and try again, telling a story of how you didn't get in the first time but will try again this year isn't an original story and would be kind of cliché. Just show that you are moving past this by focussing on your strengths.
The personal statement is meant to be an essay on why you are a good fit for this school, on why you want to attend this graduate program, and why this department will help you meet your career goals. So, writing about how you didn't get into this program last year does not further these goals. 
** Note: An example of this would be if you applied last year and did not make it into their graduate program, however, a professor at the school recommended you do X first and reapply. X might be something like attending a 1 year Masters program, joining a specific research project, or maybe working part-time or volunteering in their lab, or maybe they help connect you with something to work on etc. In cases like this, I think it is a good idea to discuss your past application cycle!

I think the rule is to disclose only what is relevant to your future professional/academic plans, and to your intended project. People coming to you for advice - definitely relevant. You being bisexual - not sure (is you being bisexual connected with you having trustworthy air?.. it helped people open up, sure, but it wasn't a defining thing, right?).
I also wouldn't start with talking about this in SoP. In Personal Statement - maybe. See the difference here. Some schools (like UMich) ask for two separate essays.

I know schools like HGSE definitely value the AWA more than the Q....  I'd go with the 2nd too.

Ahaha, no, I was going to start my SoP with a childhood story, and then be really, really, really vague about my research plans. Yes, now when I am looking at the phrase, it seems ok, too. Perhaps, application anxiety is already working its way into my brain.

I'm mostly cramming for GREs still. I am repassing, and my previous scores are ok, but I really want to have stellar ones, so... I've drafted SoP, but it needs a ton of work. What scares me is - trampampam - the Writing Sample!!! How does one make time for t h a t?

I'm going to offer what may or may not be useful advice, so...

I'm willing to bet the committee doesn't even look at your transcript beyond a verification of your GPA. Heck, it takes me 5 minutes to figure out my own and I took the darn classes. How on Earth could they even begin to divine what all that mumbo-jumbo means? I take that to mean you're in no better or worse shape than anyone else. If you feel that you got passed over, it's more than likely NOT because you left out the names of your classes. I'm under the impression (and several professors have confirmed this) that the classes you took are less interesting to them than a sense of whether you "speak the language" and how you got to that point. When you write about your project, do you convey that sense of "I know what I'm doing and I don't have to mention a bunch of names to prove it"? Is your interest in the topic personal enough that you'll stick it out? Why do you want to study this? Why are we the school to do it at? Who here is going to help you and how are you going to help them?

A boring recitation of what you did can be a death knell in my opinion, especially if you don't stand out from everyone else who's applied and provided a list. I handled my "qualifications to do research" section by crafting a kind of personal story of how I studied this with that professor but also supplemented my studies with this other prof and how it informed my ongoing decision to follow my current project. I spoke briefly about how my lackluster performance in the MDiv was offset by a solid GPA for my ThM. BUT, this was barely two paragraphs (if you put it all together) and was definitely interwoven with the overall "story" of my SoP.

In the end, my strong sense of this is that your transcripts are only important for your GPA. The names of the classes you took are meaningless to the committee if you can't talk about your project with a commensurate level of competence (not saying you can't, mind you). Spend too much time talking about the names of classes and profs and you'll shorten the amount of time you can talk about what you plan to do (and bore profs who are now reading the 100th SoP in two weeks). Certainly mention why you're qualified, but keep in mind that taking a class in no way qualifies you to do more advanced research. The knowledge and understanding you synthesized from the class is what matters. One can take a class all day with Cornell West, for example, and still come out just as dumb as he/she went in. Your SoP needs to stand out. If it's interesting and engaging and keeps the profs' interest, you're in great shape. If it bores them with lists of achievements, you're in trouble. No matter what you provide, they've seen more impressive résumés. What they're looking for is "will this person be someone I can stand to have in my office weekly for the next 5 years?"



PS the name of the class is nowhere near as important as the name of the prof. "I studied with Cornell West" is a far more important sentence than "I took 'History of the Civil Rights Movement from 1962-1963' and 'The Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr' and got A's in both." (And please note that I totally made all that up, so don't kill me if I said something wrong.)

PPS I'm not suggesting that the OP is aiming for a "boring" SoP, just that too much information can sink an app far faster than not enough. Boredom is your #1 worst enemy.

I wonder if it would be possible for you to go through that college's webpage and select someone to email the question to over there...or whether that would cause some other problem you wouldn't want...cause someone to associate your name with a problem at first glance....but it seems like PROB-ably not, to me pretty much....but I don't know....!....