Monody

You mean whether you can earn 8000€ + 6*700-900€ per semester? I would argue that this is hardly possible. That is about 12200-13400€ per semester or 2000€+ per month. Sorry to be so frank, but I dont think that this is really doable and I would argue that this would even be the case if you were to get a RA position or something like that. It's probably hard to even get a job if you dont speak German.

You can have a look at the "Begabtenförderungswerke" and see whether the application period hasn't yet passed. They are basically party-based foundations that offer scholarships for students based on performance and political orientation. Some of them offer scholarships for foreigners and partially also interest-free loans. At least mine (Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung) does.

I dont really mean the heavy duty math as you call it. It is more the kind of stuff like: using an estimator with 200 observations that is known to be inconsistent with fewer than 500, assuming no auto-correlation in pooled models, using fixed effects plus a lagged dependent variable without clustered standard errors, not considering selection effects, using control variables that are determined in the model, etc. Then I usually look at the replication file and attempt to correct for those things just to find out that the results change and don't support the paper's argument anymore. I find that severely annoying and I think that a more in-depth training could alleviate these issues.

MIT posts are trolls (source: called the dept.). 
 
UT Austin - I do not know what is going on. 

I agree with you. I do not believe that OLS is the answer to everything and I wish some more recent articles I've read would treat it as such.

Maybe it's an elaborate troll...

The original statement is not recorded still. It only states the date of the original submission but it said on the top of the checklist before the deadline that they keep the date of the first submission but change the file. It is different from Columbia's process where you explicitly upload an updated version.

I can second this. While I am anxious about February, Ive so much work to do that it only creeps into my conscious rather rarely, like twice a day. I am preparing for exams in January (that I don't need) and Ive two papers I am working on and am currently trying to figure out which of the underlying files changed so that Ive now 15000 observations less than in the original run. Recently, I also decided to get my Math up to speed again and am working through an undergraduate calculus textbook when I can't read anymore as I find it rather relaxing to do some exercises. And of course, for the evenings there is always Wooldrige 2010.

I realized that a word was missing in one of my statements and that was before the deadline, but I don't think that they accept revisions especially after the deadline simply because they initiate the process of preparing all the files for the committee and it may be somewhat unfair to all other applicants if they were to allow you to revise it again.

I realized that a word was missing in one of my statements and that was before the deadline, but I don't think that they accept revisions especially after the deadline simply because they initiate the process of preparing all the files for the committee and it may be somewhat unfair to all other applicants if they were to allow you to revise it again.

Finally the 15th is over and I can't change anything anymore. Feels great.

Finally the 15th is over and I can't change anything anymore. Feels great.

Finally the 15th is over and I can't change anything anymore. Feels great.

I was stressed out already. Doesn't change my status.

Columbia, Princeton, and MIT have the option though Columbia recognizes it as a revised version and they keep both.

I know I shouldn't. Everything is going fine, the writers submitted the letters yesterday, and neither the SoP nor the writing sample is terrible and the grades/GRE and such are great. I just continue to realize all the possible improvement I could have made to increase the admittance change by a few decimal points. I recently changed the SoP and writing sample for Columbia and will do the the same for Princeton and MIT on the weekend. Maybe I should rather look forward until mid-January when I really can't change anything anymore.

I am uncertain. I thought about thanking them before the results, so rather soonish as a gesture that I value their help irregardless of the outcome. On the other hand, this may come across as weird. I will probably wait until Ive got a response and then thank them with a small gift or whatever also irregardless of the outcome.

The thing is that the writing sample isn't the article I am trying to get published, but I see your point. I am probably much too nervous about all this and am also constantly reevaluating the writing sample I submitted as well as the SOPs that I can't change anymore. :/
Anyway, for the universities where I can still swap out documents I just added the article under "Working papers" with a link to my Google Drive and mentioned it in the SOP.

You don't have a ton of choices at this point, do you? Like Monody said, a more traditional academic research piece would probably be ideal. But if you don't have one that you can realisticely get into a usable form in the next ~2 weeks for applications than the policy paper is probably your best bet. 

I would say wait until Monday or at least Saturday due to Thanksgiving...That is what I am doing anyways.

I rather mean that your success chance generally depends on your profile, so in case that the rest of your application is similar in quality to your GRE scores (even though this comparison probably doesn't work) 12 makes an admittance somewhere probably relatively likely.

I would say that 12 is plenty, but it strongly depends on the schools and your profile. If you had only perfect score, then 12 would probably be too many.

I wouldn't say so unless you use 0in margins and it specifies double-space in the FAQ. As long as you write something meaningful, I dont think that anyone will be bothered as it is in the prescribed range.

I wouldn't say so unless you use 0in margins and it specifies double-space in the FAQ. As long as you write something meaningful, I dont think that anyone will be bothered as it is in the prescribed range.

From my experience so far, most universities handle this differently. Some (Princeton, Stanford) ask you to write 0.0 and will convert it themselves, other will ask for the original GPA and the original scale (NYU if I remember correctly) and others again will ask you to use WES to transform it yourself (Duke). I would really suggest that you do what they tell you and don't decide anything by yourself without contacting them first. Some specifically told me that I should really not transform my GPA on my own.