mathandcoffee

I rarely bring my laptop to campus, but I use my phone for a lot of things I'd rather do on my laptop. I'm getting a tablet soon, and I think that will help in my situation. It's possible that a laptop may be more/less important depending on your program. Personally, I would hold off on buying another laptop until you get a feel for how much you need it.

What impact do you think forums like thegradcafe have had on the admissions process and the graduate student community as a whole? There are many threads for applicant profiles and admissions results, which shed more light on the admissions process than in years past (not that any conclusions drawn are necessarily correct, in fact I would guess most conclusions are either false or too black-and-white). I did, however, find the information here pretty valuable when I was applying. Admissions committees absolutely know that these exist, so do you think this has affected the admissions process on their end? Do you think this has affected where prospective grad students apply, and what information they consider most valuable on their applications? Also, on a related note, what does this mean for the community of graduate students as a whole? Freak-out threads and sweat threads seem to be somewhat toxic, with people ranging between crippling anxiety and bragging, with everything in the middle. On the other hand, we get so many more resources and are able to connect with people outside of geographic location and area of study. In my opinion, the good outweighs the bad here, but there are some interesting things to think about.

I'm math applicant not a chemistry applicant, but I did very poorly on the math subject area test (less than half your score ). If a school didn't require it, then I didn't send it, but I know from talking to schools that they know your subject test isn't the whole picture.

I'm a math and computer science double major, applying to math programs. When asked for a major GPA, I just used the math GPA, since I figured that's what they're looking for. If you're applying to stats programs, then I think your major GPA should probably be your stats major GPA.

Last year, my roommate got the professors that wrote her recommendations chocolates. I'm still deciding what to get mine; I don't want it to come off as generic. I'm from a small undergrad school, so I know my professors pretty well and I know they wrote strong letters. I want to make sure they know how much I appreciate the time/effort they put into them. The mug idea is cute though, and a little more unique than chocolates. It's closer to what I'm looking for I think.

I've started investigating apartments in the areas of the schools I've applied to also. I figure I should at least have some idea what's available and for what price. Hopefully it will make the moving aspect a little easier once I know where I'm going.

The way I see it, if I end up getting rejected from the school of my dreams, then maybe it isn't the school for me. I want to go to a school where I really fit in with the students, faculty, and program as a whole. I would take a rejection as an indication that this school might not be the best fit for me. I guess my best advice is: don't give up! You'll find your place and you'll do great there, even if it's not where you originally thought you'd end up.

I'm applying for math PhDs! I'm primarily interested in algebra and number theory. I've got my full profile on mathematicsgre with the same username.

I have a wrist and an ankle tattoo that I intend to cover for things like interviews, but I did see professors with tattoos at my undergrad school. I have a "better safe than sorry" attitude about covering mine for important things, although I certainly hope they wouldn't hurt my chances anywhere

I'm relieved to hear that too. I've had all the transcript troubles in the world I transferred colleges and my first undergrad college didn't send my transcripts for more than two months (in spite of 3 phone calls to check in, where I discovered they had actually forgotten to send my transcripts) and the school I actually graduated from had a records oops and instead of a double major in computer science and math, only had me as math - a big discrepancy on my applications. I'm still nervous that the records oops with my major will hurt me, in spite of sending corrected official transcripts. Fingers crossed that everything is sorted out though