Deletethis2020

Of course, I do hope that it's fake--plus, it seems strange that there would be only one post....

English PhD, University of Virginia.

I didn't have anywhere to decline, so, uh, there.

Hi all,
I've been a lurker on this forum for some time and it's provided me with a lot of help/advice in the completion of applications to schools in the States. However, I remain a somewhat ignorant Brit when it comes to a. my chances of getting in b. my chances of getting funding and c. when I'm likely to hear back with any news.
I've applied to the following schools: Princeton, Columbia, U Penn, Georgetown & WashU - for their History PhD programmes. To date I've studied for a Masters in History of International Relations at the London School of Economics (awarded a Distinction) and have some reasonable work experience in the Houses of Parliament (although I'm not sure how relevant this will be, I've been told to put it down). My GRE results weren't great, V 600ish, Q 650ish, 5.5 in the written section - however I'd never taken any test like this, will this be considered? I also speak German to a reasonable level and can work with foreign primary sources, again I'm not sure exactly how relevant this is but it can't hurt right? Finally I was in quite a bit of contact with professors from said institutions before I applied and they seemed generally interested in my work to date and my proposals for further study, also I've got some pretty good (I think) references from LSE.
In the UK I've applied (and been accepted) to UCL but I have an American girl friend whose visa expires at the end of the month and a keen interest in modern US history so it seems to make sense to try my hand in the States.
I'd greatly appreciate any input/advice on the application process and my chances.

Hi,
I have secured 1270 in Gre General with 790 in quant and 480 in verbal. My toefl score is 102. I did my BSC in mathematics form Panjab University with 83.93 % marks and secured the first position in my batch. I have a masters degree in mathematics from IIT Madras with a cgpa of 8.97. I want to pursue MS in finance in the US. I really need some guidance on the universities that I can apply to. Please help me?

As fuzzylogician pointed out, there are numerous - numerous - threads where people have presented exactly this worry. Also, there are quite a few that discuss the scope of the AWA and how it differs from the ability to "write well." I think the reason some don't believe that your post is sincere is that this concern is so common, it sounds like you're mocking the people who ask it.

Wow...you're kidding, right?

You suggested that I was mocking posters who were worried about their scores. I was simply pointing out that I was asking the same question that many other posters ask. Different people have different goals for the GRE. No big deal. I just don't like being accused of something that is absolutely false.

blueellie, thanks for the reassurance. Although I have been through the application process before, it seems like this year has been filled with frustration. As soon as I stop panicking needlessly over the GRE, I find out someone lost my transcripts. As soon as I resolve the transcript mess, one of my recommenders asks me when the letters are due. (Tomorrow.) At several points this week I've almost just given up and decided that it wasn't meant to be this year.

I was just trying to alleviate your confusion over some of the responses you received. Chill.

Thanks for the advice. And to clear up confusion, I meant to refer to the situation as a debacle, not the man himself. Do I think he is a very good person? No, because impressions are everything, and to me he was not a good person. I know he isn't evil, or has it out for me. I am mostly venting here, but this is a community college where I am taking random gen ed prerequisites that I never had to take for my undergraduate major. In this case, I really will never see him again. All of my recommendations and speech courses are through a larger university, not this community college.

In the grand scheme of things, I suppose I am more surprised at the overall lack of respect towards me. I would normally NEVER think "I pay for __, give me what I want". But in this case, he made a mistake, and is now refusing to be accountable for it in any way. That is my argument for the committee to contest the grade. As you said, I am not so silly as to insist he give me what I pay for. But at least so far, the committee is leaning in my direction. The person I submitted this to already emailed me back saying that while they are not done investigating, and will finish doing so after break, it sounded like the professor made an error and they were going to communicate with him directly and see if they can "fix it" without having to use the whole petition process.

For anyone who might be taking/retaking prerequisites at community colleges, it is worth remembering that colleges (particularly community colleges) are businesses. While the professor may (and probably rightly should) be insulted at being told their salaries are being paid by the students, in the case of community college, it literally is. He does no research, he has three online classes consisting of 75 students total, all in the one subject. Grading was finished over a month ago when we all turned in our last short essay since the exams are multiple choice and automatically graded by a computer. He has a pretty sweet arrangement set up for himself. And in the end, administrators at community colleges want to minimize the complaints. I asked one of my other professors, one from the larger university I attend, about this situation and they reminded me of this fact. Lucky for me, it seems to be working out that he is correct.

I very much thank all of you for the advice, it was under that advisement that I waited until yesterday to send any complaint form, and had someone else read it for me before I sent it, to be sure I was firm but not disrespectful or unreasonable. Because while I am 99% certain I will never professionally run into this man, I would feel terrible being overtly rude to anyone, let alone a teacher I very much respected until this incident. And even now, I mostly just hope the administrators make him resolve his error in some sense, and he is more careful in the future. And even if he refuses, the school might allow me to take a belated W in the course, and I can retake it during the summer with a different professor. Either way, I am much less panicked.

Hey everyone! So I was temporarily living abroad somewhere that only offered the paper-based GRE. I had registered for it and everything but ended up deciding to return to the U.S. sooner than I had originally planned. I canceled that registration and have since signed up to take the computer-based version in the States. I know that this is really risky considering that I'm applying to Ivies and other top 10 programs, but I'll be taking the GRE for the very first time in about two weeks. Most of my deadlines are in late-December and early-January. Since I'm taking the GRE on Nov. 22, when can I expect that my programs will receive the scores? Should I consider the option of self-reporting in case my schools and fellowships aren't apprised of my scores by the deadlines? I'm not freaking out... but maybe I should be?

I feel extremely well-prepared (...well, for the Verbal section anyway), so I'm not in the least worried about the fact that I'll probably only get to take it once. I've been consistently getting Verbal scores in the mid-700s and higher on PowerPrep and a plethora of other practice exams. Since I'm applying to Ph.D programs in the humanities, the Verbal section is really the only one that matters. I had a close friend who aced the Verbal and had below a 600 on his Math and he got into 7/8 humanities Ph.D programs, all at Ivies and other selective schools. However, I did apply for some competitive national fellowships so I have to be sure to get something respectable (~600s) on the Math section... Worst case scenario, I have to shell out the money to retake it in early Dec., if anything to boost up the Math a little for the fellowships (but I really don't think it will come to that). Considering that I'll likely only get one shot and that it's so late in the game, am I being too nonchalant here, or am I alright?

Warning: The following is slightly sesquipedalian and may contain trace amounts of grandiloquence. It's definitely not my intention to suddenly sour this post; I'm only providing the following background info to contextualize my situation. Consider yourself warned. I graduated summa cum laude from an Ivy in the "HYP trinity" with the same major as what I'm hoping to study in grad school. My thesis, which I will be using for my writing sample, received accolades in my department. My adviser and other professors, well-known scholars with friends at the schools on my list, will be writing coruscating letters of recommendation to support my applications. Furthermore, my alma mater is on my list of grad schools partly because it's one of the top programs in my field, and my professors have made it abundantly clear that they'd be delighted to have me back. They're very confident in me and have reassured me that I'll get into most if not all of the schools on my list. The friend I mentioned earlier who was accepted practically everywhere he applied had a similar background as mine. These are among the reasons why I'm not so worried about taking the GRE only once and so late. I'm posting under another alias here because I'm more or less well-liked on this site under my main username and I didn't want to ruin that with this post...

P.S. The poll I made for this thread is mostly for fun (and procrastination). Your actual responses in the thread or via PMs would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all so much in advance!

The GRE. Seriously. For one thing, it's not exactly a brilliant tool to use to assess someone's potential and admissions teams know this. It's nothing like the be-all and end-all of your applications that so many believe it to be; i'd personally be more concerned with getting my writing sample, recommendations and SOP perfect before i gave even one second's thought to the GRE. For a second thing, it's not even that difficult.

I'm coming from the UK educational system and i've never taken a standardised test in my life. I've never done an analogies or antonyms test, for example (whereas i believe they're common practice in the US from about middle school, no?) Moreover, the UK system forces students to begin specialising their education from the age of 15/16 and, to that end, i haven't had a maths lesson or taken an exam in maths (or physics, or anything involving maths) since i was 15. I didn't do any revision for the test and showed up yesterday to take it not even having used the PowerPrep CD that ETS sent me (it cracked in half in the post). I don't think i did too badly:
670 verbal (95%ile), 720 quantitative (75%ile). The Q score, especially, is not too shabby for someone who hasn't seen an exponent or a root sign or, indeed, anything remotely mathsy, since their early teens.

This surely goes to show that it's not difficult... no? Truly, it's really *not* a taxing test. Granted, i would have liked a better verbal score, and had i put a bit of effort into brushing up on my obscure vocab then i'm sure i could have... but it's so, so not something to sweat over. It's not a massive ordeal and it simply doesn't take months of swotting to get a decent score. Living proof, right here.

Chill, breathe, it's not that bad!

Though I agree with everyone that the writing sample eclipses the AWA score, I do sympathize with you medievalmaniac. I scored in the 95th percentile for verbal and got a 6 on the writing. I know that the AWA writing is vastly different from the writing we'll be asked to do in grad school. That being said, the AWA expects less from you; it's kind of like 'can you write a freshman comp paper? can you answer the question? can you pick apart this boring marketing summary and see the underlying assumptions? etc. Maybe this sounds awful, but I don't understand how someone can score under a 5 if they're a smart writer, (unless they're sick or something or just experienced some tragedy). What they ask you to do maybe be "a joke" compared to scholarly writing, but it does ask you to think on your feet and have some ideas of your own, (i.e. you don't have time to read articles and create a perspective based on other people's thoughts or criticisms...). I mean, a lot of grad school is being able to produce in a short period of time and work under pressure.

Also forgot to mention: fluent in Spanish, English Intermediate/Advanced:Italian
Extensive multi-media reporting experience
 
 
 

I wouldn't worry. Official scores from ETS take 10 to 15 days to arrive at the institutions you choose on test day, so your scores will arrive well before December 15th and you will be fine. Even if you need to retest, you can do so once per calendar month, meaning if you had to retest you could do it on December 1st (assuming you can get an appointment for that day) and still get your second scores in on the deadline or one day late. While one day late might be a problem, many programs only require unofficial scores (received at the testing center as soon as you complete the test) on your application as long as the official scores are received soon thereafter. Check with your individual schools to see if they require the official score report by the deadline or if you have some wiggle room. Even with the strictest of rules and no wiggle room, your Nov. 20th scores will arrive in plenty of time. The only possibility of a problem is with strict schools and a need to retest, which is a pretty unlikely combo since you already delayed once to give yourself preparation time (I bet that means you'll be ready on the 20th). Best of luck!

Regards,
Taylor Dearr

The application of one program to which I am applying has a section to list the professors with whom you have had contact. Is this merely a way for them to decide which professor will give your application the first read? If so, it seems redundant with the POS listed in your personal statement.

Any thoughts on contacting (via email, most likely) potential professors prior to applying? If that is a good idea, what is the best way to open the dialogue short of "I want to study with you"? Thanks!

I simply try and answer everyone's questions. The fact that similar questions show up repeatedly is a symptom of the fact that people have the same concerns. For that reason we try and develop comprehensive answers to those common questions. I'm sorry that it bothers you, but I am really just trying to be as informative as possible.

Regards,
Taylor

While you can have an unidentified experimental section or an identified research section, neither of these will count. However, there is sometimes no way to know which unidentified section is real so I would recommend taking everything as if it counts. Hope that helps.

Figured I'd say thank you to those of you who urged me to take the test again. I took it again today and I raised my score from 580V/640Q to 660V/700Q

I'll never understand how I got that high on the math (a one-armed, blind chimpanzee is better than me at math), but hey! Whatever works!

Why are you only interested in doing a 1 year MA program? There are many downsides to doing a 1 year program, particularly in terms of giving you the opportunity to develop a strong thesis, to further your language training, and to demonstrate your performance in graduate seminars prior to (re)applying to PhD programs. If you're at all serious about wanting to do a MA before a PhD, you should give serious consideration to 2 year MA programs in comp lit, area studies, and/or a national language and its literature.

It's really great that you're planning ahead! It's important to start thinking about grad school as early as possible. In terms of the admission process, there's a lot more to it that I would be able to explain here. I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591477999/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0155050699&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1HKS7QR62J7J666NXKB0 It's written specifically for people looking to go into Psychology, and it explains the process in detail.

I don't think your B+ average is a problem, but you definitely want to pull your overall GPA up to a 3.5 at least. Adcoms like to see an upward trend in your grades.

The best advice I can give you is to get involved in research! You absolutely need research experience if you want to pursue graduate school in psychology. Contact your professors and see if they have any openings for a research assistant. Even if you start out just doing something boring like data-entry, it opens the door for more opportunities down the road.

I third or fourth or fifth the Papers suggestion. It has its weaknesses, but it's great for organizing PDF's. Combine it with Dropbox and you can have one database shared across multiple computers...

Your GPA isn't shoddy. Major GPA is the most important and a 3.7+ isn't gonna bring you down. As long as your other components are there, you'll be fine. That's really only a hair below the median for top schools. And your Major GPAs are fine. A D in your last semester (even in an unrelated course) isn't gonna look great on your transcript but if your application is strong, people won't care.