kaykaykay

Oh and of course tell her you are 150% interested in attending! if you are taken you can still change your mind. MAybe there is some financial issues and she just wants to get a sense about how many possible applicants there may be before securing spots from the grad division!

a, I think if she sees your file anyway, you have to tell her that you are applying (she may get angry if you do not), I would probably try to go to her office hours and try to "ask her advice" in person. I would be as naive and innocent as possible, as I would have no idea she could hate me. b, I would probably not tell her where else I am applying even if she asks, just a few places if absolutely necessary. I do not think she could have any influence on the outcome but she can give you horrible remarks. c. I would talk to another prof that you are close to about her class (not her per se, they will probably not talk to you completely honestly), if she is that bad, maybe everybody hates her and the fact that she hates you can even help with your appplication. Just be very professional and try to set your anger aside, . I had taugh teachers who played easy and hard on two groups of students, but usually being in the hard group was a good sign. Also I had profs who changed their whole attitude to me after some office hours conversation, when they saw that I am genuinly interested in their subject, and/o if they heard I was applying to grad school. That said I also knew terrible teachers, so these are just my ideas.

Check the exact deadline on the school webpage though(it may not be 11.59). I had a school where the deadline was DAY/MONTH 5.p.m.EST.

Check the exact deadline on the school webpage though(it may not be 11.59). I had a school where the deadline was DAY/MONTH 5.p.m.EST.

Ah really cheating should be punished. I assume it is the huge social stigma in the US that makes the universities tiptoe around the subject even in the most obvious cases. I cought copy cats before and nothing happened. I was so angry with the system. Just declare that you are not a terrible person if you cheat BUT if you get caught it goes directly on your transcript, and employers, grad schools can decide whether a one time mistake can be forgiven. Now most cheaters go unpuished, add to the grade inflation but those who get punished suffer well beyond the scope of their deed. Besides, who would announce that the questions are from a question bank and make the possibility of cheating obvious?

I transferred to another country! in my first year. In my applications first I included the first university on my CV and wrote: withdrawn for such and such reasons. I was afraid somehow that "they" would find out.(I did not intend to send any transcripts) I was advised by my MA advisor to drop the whole thing because it was very confusing and useless. My advisor was right, nobody ever cared what did I do in that semester which was not accounted for on my CV. Now thinking it over with clear head I doubt that even in the universities where I got in and they closely looked at my file anybody had noticed it. (Mind all of this takes place outside the US but I doubt that your case would be any different)

You just have to remember that is just another human being on the other side of the line. He or she may be some years ahead you but certainly he or she started the same way as you, and most probably they remember that time. Also you have to remember that your whole future will not depend on this conversation. This is of course can be good or bad. But there will be an admission commitee which will go through your file and they collectively decide, even if this person will be in that commitee. So relax, and talk about the things that interest you in that person's research. I am sure you contacted him or her for some reason. Listen to what advice he or she has to tell you, they might be in the "business" for a long time so they know how admissions go even if they cannot help you directly. Also in a phone conversation you have to overplay a little your emotions because they cannot see your facial expressions, and you should give a little more vocal feedback because they cannot see your nodding either. Good Luck!

Almost exactly the same happened to me. My prof was right to warn me about the process though. I did not make the right decisions because I was to confident in my GRE points and the locations I picked. (I had fairly good points and gpa) I am still angry with this prof for questioning my abilities, but I have to give credit that the person tried to point out the arbiteriness of the application process. For some admission commitees GRE points matter a LOT, and as the prof served on a lot of these committees I guess the person knew this. All my other profs were enthusiastic about me and my results. I ended up in a place I picked for the location and I almost dropped out from grad school altogether. My advice (take it or leave it): do not ask this prof for recommendation, she may be biased now, and of course she thinks it is waay too late now. do look around on the other coast. Hopefully you will be in the lucky position to decide after the process, but why would you throw out good options before you know? the application process is very random, but only a small percentage of the applicants are stellar in every respect. if you do not have the perfect gre scores you can still get into great schools but you may get unlucky too depending on what the committee will weight that day. and of course don't get upset because of your prof, you have plenty of time to prove her wrong, which I am sure you will. good luck.

The other parts of your application sound great so do not panic. But you have to be careful with the verbal GRE. There is no international or domestic cut off point, you are competing with the native speakers. (if you make it to the final cut this may change). Maybe some people have 550 GREs at Harvard Poli Sci but you should be careful with the all institutional average: professional schools and hard sciences students are in that mix. I would considering retaking the test, even if I could not do it by the deadline (you have at least one score) and send the new results too if I managed to improve the score. (well, I guess you might not get lower ones...) Of course if you can spare the time and the money.

I think your verbal and quantitative score is within the range of acceptance. I think AW scores should not be a problem at 20-50 universities esp. if there is a writing sample and LORs will not say that you cannot write. maybe someone has a close info though.

Your gains: A little money depending on how much your dept wants to make external funding search insentivise (they will deduct the rest from the internal funding) Possibly you do not have to TA or you can decide when and how much to TA, which can be helpful in busy years You do not have to depend on the mercy of your advisor/ department (in hard sciences this matters a lot but I am not sure about humanities) In admission decisions: you are not going to cost money for the dept which helps even at the most affluent universities if you are a borderline case.

oh and there are usually plenty of gre spots in January

Actually to my biggest surprise a lot of universities will accept late gre scores.(you just have to put down the date when you will take the test) Why don't you check which is the absolute latest time to take the gre and evaluate whether you have the time to prepare for it?(you may have to call the schools and ask them) I think you can improve a lot just in one or two months. I am not sure about your firld but I would imagine that you really have to do good in math and ok in verbal. And frankly math should be doable for anyone who even remotedly deals with math. oh and there are usually plenty of gre spots in January

I do not want to worry you but I thought the Kaplan tests were easier than the real one. It was maybe because of the stress, maybe because the book made me practice similar questions that came up in their test. However, I think the actual test varies quite a bit, so it may be worth retaking if you did not get the desired points. In any case your verbal practice points seem to be too low with the low gpa. just study those 500-3000 words and you will be much much better!

Well, money is an issue bc international students cannot become California residents and they are more expensive. But they will take international students if they are good fits. There are a number of area studies institutes too which may chip in with some money. My impression is that if you really feel that your dream is to work with some professor at a UC, by all means apply. If you just want to put a UC as a safety school without much aim, think it over again, you may be waisting some money.

Yes they do.

You really think about SOP as a declaration of independence? I tell you what: you want to belong there. ok well, it is the applicant`s choice clearly. The person who suggested me this is a senior prof who have been on trillions of admission committees. Also I got into several grad programs so this will not bomb your essay. I just always like to be a notch on the polite side if is possible. p.s. Sparky is right some places will cut your essay ...sorry about my comment... so be careful! Anyway it is not bad to have a sentence you can easily cut, that is my experience .

I always finished my SOPs with: Thank you for your time and consideration. I think actually my adviser suggested that, but I found it to be neat and respectful. Also I have seen essays which got people into very respectful places that were twice as long as allowed. Not that I am suggesting you should do anything like that but I think you can easily add a few words.

UCLA also had a competitive offer last year so this is really not something to worry about. Besides, in the worst case scenario if you get accepted without funding you can still decide whether you want to take the offer or not. Those who attend a program without funding rationally decide to do so, probably because the other offers they got were from lower ranked universites. Really it depends on how you see the cup: half empty or half full. You can be upset that you do not have funding or be happy to be in a top 10 program....

Can` t you tell the uni that your parents, and you will finance your study (this means the uni will put self-financig on your I-20 so there is no misleading info on it) and apply or loans? Evidence of funding means that you have to show a bank account with appropriate funds but noone will check later whether you actually use that particular money. So if your family can open a temporary account you are good.If you do not get the loans and you cannot attend you can simply say your family`s circumstances have changed they should not worry no one will touch the money on that account.

I do not want to sound pessimistic but I think you should change advisors. best of luck in either way.

I think your institution gives you the money even if you have to TA/RA. I will put company/organization as an answer to that question. But as Beck said I think if the situation is clear from your papers it does not matter really.

I believe that the F1 work on campus rule only applies for 1 year, but you have to check this. You can get permission to work in a training program if it is part of your curriculum. In my experience do not expect your school to tailor their correspondence to international students, or to know about visa regulations. I think you should ask the international office of your school, they know the rules and backdoors inside out and probably have valuable insights for your case specifically. I would take the US immigration seriously.

650 V non-native speaker. I was told it is a borderline case.

My new knowledge that I acquired this season is that down jackets and coats are the best, and that they are not made equal: you can check in the inside how much down % they have. 70% is on the good side. I survived a cold cold winter in a fairly cheap Gap coat with 70% down content. Also long underwear is good to have. Otherwise as said before waterproof boots are a must, and I would say that a no-name one is fine too until it is warm and waterproof. I find that it is better to buy the boots on the spot: the places with tough winter are usually well prepared with appropriate garment. My boots that I carried over were eaten away by the salt in just one winter. This winter I got new ones (no name) locally and they are as good as new, even though the snow was probably worse than last year.