CherryBlossom_

Hey, you're Brazilian too! ❤️ where are you from? Right? We're all about holidays here... and last year was one of the good ones! I think the next one is... Carnaval already? Ohh that's a good idea! I don't follow any of my schools on Instagram! Hope we'll hear back from them this week or so!

Exactly hahah here in BR we aren't supposed to work on federal holidays! ? But it's good to hear schools are open today =D and even better knowing that the schools I've applied for are located in states with a later time zone =D afternoon is just starting there! Hope the rest of the day brings me more results...

And today is a holiday in the US... ? nooooo!

Hello, guys! I've been reading your posts for the past few weeks and I finally got the courage to share my story and ask you for advice! I picture myself as an "unorthodox" applicant... I'm Brazilian (international), 29 years old (a little older), majored in Chemical Engineering 5 years ago (years away from academia) and have worked in Finance (where is Engineering?) for all these years. I wonder if there's something in my favor here hahaha I worked for the largest retail bank in LatAm as a credit risk modeling professional; that's when I "fell in love" with statistical modeling. It was a pretty good job but, long story short, a financial institution is not the perfect place for someone who likes to get to the bottom of things, to really understand concepts etc... eventually I started to feel like something was missing and decided to quit and follow my long-held dream to move abroad and go back to academia (focus: research in financial statistics). I know my profile is far from usual (just read 2nd paragraph). I'm well aware that: 1) I've been away for a long time; 2) I'm changing fields here. It would be a long shot for me to be accepted directly to a PhD, so I'm taking one step at a time and starting out with a MSc. I'll get the feeling of going back to school, will take important classes I didn't have as an engineer undergrad and will have attended a school more well known abroad. My university is ranked 1st in Brazil (110-ish worldwide), but I know competition among international applicants is fierce and a "domestic" university would help me get to a better PhD program afterwards. Here are my stats: International: Brazilian Undergrad: Chemical Engineering, university ranked 1st in Brazil Undergrad GPA: 8.3 out of 10 (top 3%). My university issued an official document stating that the highest grade is usually 7.0, and that our grades are absolute (not comparative). IELTS: 8.0 (9.0 reading / 8.5 listening / 7.5 speaking / 7.0 writing) GRE General: 158 V (80th), 165 Q (88th), 3.5 W (41st =/) Work Experience: 5 years as a credit risk modeling analyst at a major retail bank. Logistic regressions, optimization techniques, neural networks, random forests etc, you name it. Solid experience with MATLAB, SQL, R, C, SAS. Research Experience: to be honest, none. I worked with one professor for 3 months in one of his projects (he's one of my recommenders), but the project was all about MATLAB and chemical engineering stuff. I don't think it's something worth mentioning =/ Obviously, no publications for me. Letters of Reference: I've been switching between 4 recommenders: 2 undergrad professors (both of them are in the chemical engineering field... one of them works with computational mechanics and the other with kinetic reaction modeling) and 2 former bosses... one of them has a post-doc in computational neuroscience and the other one a PhD in Statistics (both of them work with statistical modeling nowadays). Statistics / Math courses: that's the point... my grades weren't that great in my 1st undergrad year. I've never failed a course but even so my grades may run against me. Calculus I: 6.5/10 / Linear Algebra I: 6.1/10 / Computing: 8.7/10 / Calculus II: 5.6/10 / Linear Algebra II: 5.7/10 / Numerical Calculus: 7.3/10 / Statistics I (that's the only Statistic course I've had): 6.8/10 / Calculus III: 8.7/10 / Calculus IV: 9.7/10 Questions: 1) Does my rationale make sense (going after a MSc first etc)? Will I have a shot trying to apply for PhDs after it? 2) About grades... do you think it's that bad? Even with the official document from the university stating that the highest mark is usually 7? Of course I had plenty of engineering courses with a heavy math workload, but will they matter for the adcoms? 3) Would I be competitive for top tier schools? I've been advised not to apply for the top 10 (because I wouldn't be able to be accepted anyway), and I followed this advise... now I wonder if I should at least have tried =( 4) There're some applications still open for MSc programs (Columbia, NCSU, Wisconsin (DS), Minnesota, UC Davis and Ohio State). I'm quite insecure right now (haven't heard from my 1st options yet), so I'd like to apply for one more program... which one of them would you recommend? Unfortunately us Brazilians have to deal with highly unfavorable currency rates (picture that: my savings being divided by 4 haha)... so we're dealing with a budget restraint here. Even so, I'd like to attend a solid program. Thank you very much, and good luck to us all ?

I can't tell how much I appreciated reading your reply! It was a tough decision... to get out of Finance. We feel there's so much at stake: steady job, a good income and, to be very honest, the status (unfortunately, I can't deny it played a role for me =x). I'm glad we were able to get out and try something different. Should we be younger we wouldn't be so sure about it...

Yeah, one school in Italy and one in Australia. I don't wanna sound ungrateful or anything, I'm very happy and relieved, but it would be great to be accepted to my very first choices. I'm actually more anxious than before results started to come out =O It's good to know the visa process won't take too long though!

Same thing here =( I'm lucky I slept almost all day, but as soon as I woke up there I was... checking every application status1

Imagine being an international applicant :S Which country am I moving? How long will it take to get a visa? Will currency rates be favorable by then or the BRL/USD conversion will still be a punch in my heart, with all of my money being divided by 4? The waiting is excruciating

Did anyone apply for schools in the UK? I'm waiting for results there (Imperial College London and University College London) but it's taking them so long! =(

Just ended half a jar of Nutella. When I was on the job I used to love weekends but now I hate them... 2 days schools won't send results and I'll be nervous and anxious anyway.

Worries: I’m past 29, got my undergrad degree in Chemical Engineering but worked in Finance for 5 years (related fields huh). Had a major burnout 3 months ago and finally decided to take matters into my own hands and “follow the dream”: move abroad and go back to academics. It’s the ultimate goal but occasionally I still wonder “am I too old?”, “is it worth to spend most of my savings on expensive tuitions?”... Excitements: omg life is SO beautiful, bright and calm without my previous job! I can sleep, laugh, hang out with my friends. I was working my life away, literally. Already got 2 offers which makes me feel SO relieved (won’t need to go back to the old times) and excited!

I've applied for both CityU and HKU. Haven't heard back so far... status still as "Under review".

Hey... I'm new here! Just wanna say I feel so "warm and welcomed" when I read your posts... I'm not alone in this =`)

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