ResilientDreams

Thank you thank you thank you everyone. This has made me feel so much better. It really is hard not to freak out.

I actually made some headway on my honors thesis.

Yeah, my friend who's a math major only scored 157 on quant, so don't worry about it.

Those are good scores!

I would say 2-3 pages single spaced would be good.

Hi everyone! So one of the programs I'm looking at has cutoff GRE scores for each section, which I am above. However, I was wondering how schools that have cutoffs generally view the GRE. Is it that as long as applicants are above that number they don't care about the score anymore? Or is higher better? I'm 10 points above the cutoff in verbal and a full point above in writing, but only like 3-4 points above in quant...is that going to look bad? I'm applying for developmental psych so not as much of a quantitative focus as some of the other disciplines and the rest of my application is strong (4.0 major GPA from public Ivy, lots of relevant research experience, etc.) I got As in my stats courses and have data analysis experience. Sigh. I promised myself I wasn't going to make a post like this but...I made a post like this.

Hi! I'm interested in first language acquisition, so most of my programs are in the psych department, but I'm also applying to the University of Maryland for linguistics. I'm also applying to UPenn, but for psych.

Yessss. Read my blog please!

I love this post so much. I dread standardized tests as well because it's what makes it look like I'm bad at math. The truth is, I feel like I'm actually pretty good at quantitative reasoning and was actually in charge of a lot of data analysis for one of my professors. I also can learn quantitative skills quite well. But in a timed environment with questions that are designed to trick you... I'm going to be mediocre every time. I hated the GRE because I was strong in every other way and yet this one test that's controlled by this one company has given me a weakness...

Well. I'm in a different field, but my honors thesis advisor is a lecturer and I'm getting a letter from her and it's going to be my strongest one probably. If they can speak to your strengths it shouldn't matter what their rank is.

I have no motivation right now to work on my other personal statements.

I really need to start working on my other personal statements but for some reason I'm mentally exhausted.

Haha yeah, the schools with the fancy equipment tend to be the most competitive ones. I think you have excellent qualifications. Your quant score on the GRE is particularly impressive and I envy it haha. Your math and computer science background is also an asset. I certainly don't have that. I don't think you have to worry about your writing score. You can always provide a supplementary writing sample to showcase your writing ability. And I also don't think not having publications will be a problem. Most applicants actually don't. As for being an undergrad...I am too! Same boat! The professors I contacted didn't seem to mind that I was an undergrad and none of them mentioned wanting someone with a master's or post-bac experience. Is that something you were told directly or something they implied? Overall, I think international status is the only thing that you might actually have to take into consideration.

In other news, I submitted my first application today!