Cosmic

I thought so. Thanks so much for sharing this! And congrats on your upcoming offer

Do you know of Information Sciences & Technology (ist.psu.edu) students were also invited?

I'm not worried about interviewing. I'm worried about not getting interviews to begin with!

Cool..I applied to their Info. Sci. program. Haven't heard from them yet. Seems like they do conduct interviews. My fingers are crossed.

You applied to Informatics/Information Science programs? Where did you interview?

Which interdisciplinary program did you apply? Information Science?

Did you had an interview with them?

Did you interview with them?

Did you interview with all the universities that extended an offer to you?

I think you're right. If research interests purely align with theirs, then students are usually excused from interviews. But I'm sure there's post-admitted "interview"?

or some applicants get lucky and just get admitted without any interviews?

Just checking

*bump*

Anyone?

In one of my first apps, I totally forgot to write my after PhD plans. (it's corporate research) It was too late to contact them as they already started reviewing applications. Am I screwed and done? I'm still pissed off and angry..and sad

I hope I'm not the only one. Would love to know you lurkers out there..

I applied to a few universities for a PhD in XYZ. My only Master's (Master's background being only somewhat different from PhD's) paper to be published is this paper -- which won't publish till next year. However, in my CV, I only put (submitted: 2011 blah blah conference...) when applying. Should I email the adcoms/admissions coordinators and let them know about the status of my co-authored paper?

Hi5 You're absolutely right, lily. I like what you're saying. Again, it would be better to ask Adcomm before firing four LORs and wishing for some good luck.

Ah. Unexpected query. Well.. My elder brother was already doing his PhD in the States, scholarship, family pressure (typical). Is that enough of an answer?

Your story is almost same as mine, Emilee. Hmm..Certain PhD admission sites only mention this: "Three LORs required" without words such as "maximum", "at most", "only" etc. I think the best option is to email Adcom/office and see what they have to say.

Interesting comments, Venetia and Jae B While it's true that I want to make up for my undergraduate failures (I was a foreign kid from a small 3rd world village, new to the States, 17 yo, cultural shock, lost) by getting a LOR (that describes my determination etc. but briefly and hardly touches on my research interests) from someone who saw my potential and had faith in me, at the same time, I'm worried about it's relevancy to an important PhD admission requirement: i.e. "can you write a freaking research paper? Point that out in your LORs where the profs. can attest to your ability to do quality research." Bottomline remark is: Excluding your professional recommender, do you really need a minimum of two professors to attest to your ability to do research or one is sufficient? HAH

First of all, thank you for helping out the ever demanding newbies This is a great forum! Background: - I just finished my Master's (4th tier but highly ranked program) and applying to certain Fall '11 PhD programs (not same as my Master's program but somewhat relevant) at different schools (1st and 3rd tier). Now, here's the twist: My overall, final Bachelor's (3rd tier) CGPA is 2.85 (lost my tuition scholarship after 2.5 years - however, did quite well in my last semester - straight A's in all grad level courses, dean's list) with a 3.0 MGPA. - My undergraduate advisor/professor (and other professors) believed me in and helped me get into a decent ranked program for my Master's. I did exceptionally well in my Master's (RA for 2 years - full scholarship, 3 top internships, industry case studies, papers published etc.) Now, I have a question for you experienced folks and would appreciate any comments/suggestions etc: I'm planning to get one LOR (professional) from where I'll be interning this year (relevant to my PhD focus) and the rest two (academic) from my current dept. professors. However, for the academic one, I'm starting to think if I should rather get one from dept. (my current advisor, another great mentor, who has known me for 2+ years) and one from my undergraduate prof. who mentored me to what I'm today. I'm still in touch with him (he just emailed me yesterday). He's well-known in his field (not directly related to my Master's or PhD field/focus though) and has known me for more than 6 years. What do you guys think? TIA. Edit: P.S. I'm not interested in sending more than three LORs.