bgk

The power of the interwebs!

Hi Guys, I might not do this every month, but here's the top 10 posters for Jan '09: t_ruth 243 IvyHope 154 Tonights 127 CAPoliSciPhD 118 ridgey 118 rising_star 112 Tritonetelephone 105 misterpat 96 linden 93 gadhelyn 93 In total there were 4769 posts made this month. That's the second busiest month in the history of the forums. (The busiest being March 2008). There were 71938 visits. 25128 unique visitors. 679050 (!) pageviews. The average time spent browsing each visit was 8 minutes. And you're wearing blue underwear right now .... Thanks for helping the community to grow.

Hi Guys, This morning I updated the forum software (from 3.02 to 3.04). Please let me know of any problems that you see in this thread! Thanks!

Just adding my 2cents. If your interest is academia then getting experience of as many environments as possible is wise. Making connections with faculty in different schools (via working with them) can only help you! I'd go for option B!

I think it means they write so many emails, that they're too busy (or lazy) to sign their name.

Is this really true? The second part, extremely well qualified? Do you think a humanities PhD today is the same as a humanities degree granted 25 or even 10 years ago? In my field, I hate to suggest it, but I think there is a bit of a dumbing down in the PhD program, which arises because of a dumbing down of the undergraduate curriculum. So whilst there are a few geniuses, most PhD graduates are merely competent.

I'll think about it guys. I know there's a place for real time communication, but I'm not convinced yet. Mainly because there'd be no archive!

you can always just bookmark a search you know

Hi Guys, The blog is live! http://thegradcafe.com/blog/ So far 9 folks have volunteered to contribute, see the other announcement if you're interested. Feel free to comment there or here, or whereever. Still work in progress, I'll probably play around with the theme in the next few days.

It's possible. What kind of research experience do you have? Do you have any connections at these 'top 20' schools? What are you working on in your MS thesis? Why do you want to go back to grad school? Your GRE score indicates you probably won't get 'filtered into the trash', so if you write a good engaging statement, then there's always a chance. Put yourself in the position of a professor reading lots of excellent letters and statements from seniors wanting to go to grad school, and think about things you could do to make your case really stand out. A few years in industry means you're probably a bit more mature, which has its pros and cons. Play up the pros! I like to think that getting accepted isn't entirely a game of "where did you do your undergrad, who wrote your LORs".

Yep, and never finishing the ones I start. I'm especially bad around breaks when I think "hey it's break and i've finished my finals", let's start something. But we'll see how this goes. :-)

OK, all who've messaged me or replied here expressing an interest, I'm writing messages to you now!

Hi All, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in contributing to a 'blog' writing about your admissions experiences? I envisage you'd write a few (~5) posts between now and April 15th along the following lines - Personal Intro/Bio (can be semi-anonymous if you wish), Academic Interests - Reaction to a rejection - Recation to admission - Decision process for accepting the school - Summary of your admission experiences And of course you'd be welcome to write more. I'd setup a (wordpress) blog for you. Let me know in this thread if you have questions, and send a PM if you're interested! Cheers

For info: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaki ... p_Emailed7

In my department it means fewer slots for new grad students.

Look at some school with good OR departments, there usually some good probabilists to be found too.

I'll just add my 2c. worth. If your score meets the minimum GRE criteria (if any) for schools to which you're applying, then you should be good. In my experience the GRE is used as a cut-off/filter type thing. So a bad GRE score can means your app probably won't be looked at, but conversely a great one doesn't mean they'll accept you.

Hi All, Just updated the forum to phpBB v3.02. Let me know if you spot any problems! Thanks

Hard to tell. Your verbal score is a bit low .. so it might have an impact. But you have a publication record, are you first author on any of those?

Ha! Maybe you need a humour transplant? :-D. Your profile looks fine. Just be sure of what you want to do and apply to relevant schools with an interest in that area!

Just a little heads up for you and other users, since it's not all that obvious: Fields/Majors can be found in the profile at the right of the post. In this case: "Program: Materials Engineering".

If you intend to graduate in summer/spring '09 then I think you should apply now. I don't know much about your area but people usually apply in the final year of their previous degree. Unless you want to spend some time 'out in the real world', in which case wait :-) Or maybe just apply to a few schools to get the feel for the process.

What AllFiredUp said. Also you can submit a reference from your employer as an additional vote of confidence. I wouldn't do this in lieu of 3 academic references though. As a really safe and sure (but potentially expensive) way back, you might consider first getting an MS. This will give you the chance to do some grad work, some research and find out if you really want to be in a PhD program.

Two years without a car here. No problems at all. Although a friendly neighbour does take me to Wegmans in the winter. Being downtown you're close to Greenstar - Oasis, and there's a bus to Wegmans too. AND ... there's a new carshare scheme so you should be good.

Hi Guys, I've just updated the board to PHPBB v3.01. Let me know if you notice any strange behaviour... thanks!