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They care about both, and yours are quite low, so I'm not sure how much of a boost you can expect from having a master's. Perhaps your LORs can address how your grades are not truly indicative of your potential. If you try to explain why your grades are so low, well, it just sounds as though you are making excuses.

Some profs are comfortable sharing letters and do it routinely, but I think they're in the minority. In applying to schools 3 times (starting with undergrad), I have only ever been shown 1 letter -- but I've always gotten in to great schools.

You should meet with him to discuss if he feels he can write a strong LOR for you. If he is enthusiastic about doing the letter for you, you should be fine. He can discuss how impressed he is by you, despite only knowing you for a short time.

Are you sure you want a grad student writing you a LOR? Don't you know any profs who can write for you?

That is perfectly acceptable -- you waived your rights to see the letters, but if your profs want to give you copies of them anyway, that's fine. You should not ASK them to give you copies, however.

ktel - it's not mandatory, it's just generally understood that if rights are not waived, the letters may not be as reliable. So, you'd be wasting your LORs, in my opinion, by insisting to view them.

No, you generally do not get to see your LORs. You MUST waive your right to see them, or they won't be taken seriously. Your profs MAY give you copies, if they are comfortable doing this. One of my profs did, two did not. I am sure all of them wrote me wonderful letters, as I got multiple interviews. Don't worry about this. If you chose your LOR writers well, your letters should be fine.

I took the GRE almost 6 months before my application deadlines. I was giving myself time to study and retake, if necessary, as I found it very hard to motivate myself to study before taking the test.

Yes -- I was an adjunct at a local CC, and I got a letter from another adjunct. But I also took his class.

I think you might be better off staying in your current program until your overall undergraduate GPA is over 3.0 (or as high as possible). Anything under 3.0 is going to be problematic. Right now you just have one good semester trying to balance 8 semesters that resulted in a poor GPA. I'd say give it at least another year -- don't apply this cycle.

Yeah, I think it should be over 90th percentile -- Congrats!

I used to fall asleep driving home when I was working 100+ hours/week. I also had some weird "hallucinations," for want of a better word, where my brain tried to convince me that I'd already finished tasks I hadn't even started or that I already knew results I hadn't checked. I'm not willing to work those kinds of hours ever again.

I just know I am going to be completely overwhelmed during the first year. I am sure I will feel really stupid. I'm lucky in that I'm not alone, as I am going to my local U. and have people I can count on to prop me up when I'm feeling really down. I hope you find people to support you soon. I guarantee you're not the only person in your program feeling this way.

I also found it difficult to study with the materials that were available, so I didn't bother using them. If you're finding the math materials too simple, I'd guess you're ready and fully capable of breaking the 750 barrier. I did, and that was including leaving the last question blank, which I've heard carried a heavy penalty in the old test (no idea how leaving questions blank affects scores now). I felt it was really a test in time management, and I wish I had just clicked ANY answer at the end, but everything worked out in the end.

Sorry - that sounds really tough. It will probably get better. Adjusting to teaching is not easy. I taught part-time for the first time recently, and the first term was stressful. Having to adjust to grad school and a new home on top of teaching would have been even worse. I'll be starting grad school soon, but my program does not make its first year students teach. Possible encouragement: teaching turned out to be really fun. I'll actually miss it. But I wouldn't have guessed it based on my experiences the first few weeks.

If I'm not following the material, I still try to take good notes, so I can figure out the parts that didn't make sense later -- with lots of time and reference materials as necessary (including internet ).

I don't know how the 5-paragraph essays typically score, but I did fine on the AW without writing one. I agree, though, that the writing score is the least important of the GRE scores.

I also have problems staying focused in class. My solution: I take extremely good notes. If I don't take notes, my mind wanders and I doodle. I don't know if this method will work for you, but you could try it.

I doubt it would matter much at all. I think your overall GPA is more important, and that you have the background to do well in the program.

My advice is to just write something. You really need to get the process started, especially if you think this part of the application process will be problematic. My first two or three drafts were horrible. Seriously dreadful. I was working through some stuff and might as well have been writing a statement of why I should not get admitted to graduate school. So, after I wrote these pathetic statements, I showed them to people. It was not easy, but it did keep me moving forward. My drafts got a little less awful with each rewrite, and I finally had a breakthrough and managed to write a statement that portrayed my accomplishments rather than my weaknesses. I absolutely hated writing the SOP, and I am really thankful the people who read the first few drafts didn't just give up on me.

One of my advisors (a PhD herself) has told me to use "Dr." when writing to ANYONE at a university. So, I'd say don't worry about it. If these people correspond with you for any length of time, they will find out sooner or later how to properly address you. What I find more disconcerting is when I get mail back from people I know have PhDs, and the mail is signed with just their first names. I certainly don't feel comfortable jumping to that level of informality right away, as sometimes I have not even met these people yet.

That's too bad -- the GRE does seem out of line with your other qualifications. Did you try one of the commercial prep courses? Maybe your approach to studying was not effective.

Well . . . it's hard to say without knowing the GRE Q score, which ideally would be as high as possible (and definitely over 750, although lower might be OK for an MS -- not sure about that). For example, from the Duke webite: http://gradschool.du...s/admitcomp.htm Average GRE Q for the PhD program is 789. But just having a good GRE score is not enough (as I'm sure you know). Good Luck!

It does seem one step further along in the process, but I can't say that it assures an admission. Most likely it means you met their initial screening requirements. Good Luck!

I think it is fine to express your thanks now. If your LOR writers don't already know about your admissions offer, you could send them an update and thank them at the same time. You could also go on to explain why you feel you still need to apply to some more schools. Your references want to help you, or they would not have agreed to write letters for you, but you should let them know that you appreciate their efforts. Waiting until the whole process is finished before thanking them(February or later?) seems too far off, especially if you have good news to share now or if you want them to do more letter writing. You could wait until then to send formal thank you cards, but send emails at least sooner rather than later.