emmm

YES - I sent a transcript from a school I had taken ONE class at. When they say all, they mean ALL.

I will be starting a PhD program in September. I graduated from undergrad over 20 years ago, so I did not even consider trying to get letters from my old profs there. I have been taking CC classes for the past 2 years -- it started out as something I wanted to do for fun, but it ended up motivating me to apply to grad school. My LORs were from 2 of my CC profs and a university prof I worked for over the summer. I had also heard letters from CC profs did not carry much weight, but I did not see that I had other options, and I had some fabulous profs at the CC. I was able to get to know my profs, given the smaller size of CC classes, and I felt confident that they'd do a good job on the LORs. However, they were even more supportive than I expected, and I will be forever grateful to them for writing letters on my behalf.

I would retake, since it sounds as though your score does not accurately represent your ability.

I think programs will like your research experience, but your Quant score seems a bit low. Given that you are older, you really do not want to give them any reason to reject. I found contacting programs and meeting with people very helpful. Perhaps you could get more useful feedback directly from the programs you are interested in.

I do not recommend hiding that you took the class. If you do not think you will do well in the class, take it as a P/F class or audit it. You are required to send ALL transcripts to any graduate programs you apply to.

I was able to get a part-time position teaching at a local community college after tutoring there first. The pay for both jobs was pretty terrible, but the hours were great, and I was happy to get the teaching experience. To get a teaching job, you would need to admit to having the MA . No actual teaching experience was needed to get the tutoring job -- in fact, they provided paid training for that.

http://grad.washington.edu/about/statistics/summaries/2010/rptGsisAnnual_dept2010.pdf Stats from UW.

I took 3 classes one summer -- Bio 2, Org Chem 1 and Org Chem 2. The school had 2 summer sessions - I think each one was 6 weeks long. It was more like 3-4 hrs a day every day of the week (lectures + labs). First session was fine, I had half the day free. Second session was one class all morning and one class all afternoon - no free time at all. But I wasn't working. It was OK, but not ideal.

Well -- I think I have you all beat :-) I signed up for Calculus 3 this past fall after taking my last math classes in 1987 (Calc (full year) and Differential Equations). Calc 3 was a struggle, since I did need to review a considerable amount of Calc 1 and 2 material, but I went on to take Linear Algebra with no problems, and I'm currently taking Calc 4 and Differential Equations. It does get easier, but be prepared to work really hard at first.

I think you really need to make an effort to get the letter from your supervisor -- unless he/she really does not like you (in which case, why are you still in that lab?). Otherwise, it will look very odd and send up red flags. These are busy people. One of my recommenders has been incredibly supportive, and even asked me to send her regular reminder emails. She still sent in most letters right at the deadline and one a week late (it was still accepted, however, as grad adcoms realize how busy profs are). When it looked as though she wouldn't get around to that last letter, I was philosophical about it. She'd already done a lot for me, so even if that ball had been dropped, I really didn't have much to complain about. Perhaps your supervisor is just overwhelmed with work. It doesn't make your situation any easier, but it may not be due to him/her not being supportive of your grad school goals.

It's hard enough staying connected when we're both living in the same house, given our busy schedules. If we had to fly to see each other ... I just don't see it being a good setup for us. It might be easier to focus on work, though, if you're apart most of the time. If you have no options locally, you're definitely in a tough spot. I don't really have any advice, because I think whether you can handle a long-distance relationship or not is something only you and your spouse can decide. I have known people who managed it successfully. I feel very fortunate that things worked out for me. If they hadn't, I would have been able to study at a school 5+ hours away, but I don't think I'd have considered that. I might have gone for a masters in a different field at a different local school -- a much less competitive program, so it would have probably been a sure thing (just might have been too expensive -- though I could have probably continued working to pay for it). I looked into various options because I thought it was entirely possible that I wouldn't get in anywhere. While none of the alternatives I came up with was ideal, I was happy to know that there were options.

I've been married for over 20 years, so when I started thinking about grad school I only considered programs that were near home. Of course, I would have preferred having the freedom to apply anywhere, but it wouldn't have made sense for my husband to give up his job and find a new one at this point in his career, and I wasn't willing for us to live apart. If the grad school applications hadn't worked out, I would have tried again (still staying local), and if it still hadn't worked out, I would have found something else to do.

I only applied within commuting distance, but I'm not sure my husband is ready. He kind of had to go through this before -- a decade ago -- when I was in med school/residency. I quit that time, since it was not possible to give the kids the attention they needed, so I'm really not prepared to give up my goals again. He'll have to adapt.

This does not sound very professional of your advisor. Is it typical of her behavior?

I wonder if the application is just not making it past the initial screening process because of the GPA. I would hope that with an MS, the undergraduate GPA would not be the only one used to determine whether or not to look further. I agree that the rest of the qualifications look very strong.

I have a friend in a masters program now who's my age ... 40s ... and she's gotten some flak from fellow students (not most of them, just a few). Her profs, however, have been delighted with her. She's competent and responsible and doesn't whine or need her hand held through everything. So, it's interesting. The faculty respond to her ability, but SOME classmates resent her because of her age and feel that she is taking opportunities that they should have been offered, and don't seem to be willing to accept that she's getting the offers because she's GOOD!

Wait to see if you actually get off the waitlist before stressing out about this. And if you DO get accepted, go for it! Schools understand waitlists. George Mason may very well have waitlist applicants of its own ...

I think that UC-Riverside sounds like a good option. It is not a no-name school, and doing well could help mitigate the effects of that UG GPA.

Well, I can't say I ever thought much about what I had accomplished compared to others. Rather, I felt that I had made choices that had, ultimately, left me in a place I didn't particularly want to remain in. Typical stay-at-home mom story -- put aside my goals to deal with raising kids. Now the kids are teens taking college classes. I felt that I had had my opportunities in life,and that I had chosen a different path. I wasn't really sure what I could do now. I was really afraid it was "too late" for me -- my hard-earned credentials were now all outdated, I didn't have much in the way of work experience, etc. Fortunately, I started taking classes and met great people who advised me not to let age, time home, or any other "excuses" keep me from whatever it might be that I wanted to do. So now I, too, am going to be starting a PhD program in the fall, and I am super excited (and more than a little terrified). I'm sure it's going to be challenging, but I have a great support network in place now, and it feels like the right thing to be doing and the right time to be doing it. Don't focus on the past -- you can't change it. You still have time to accomplish great things.

Interesting article.

Write it that way -- at least it will get you started. See if you like what you end up with. Then, get feedback from profs/mentors/advisors. Also, consider writing it as a letter and then modifying it so it has a more standard format later. Getting started is the hardest part! Good luck!

The public university I applied to gives no admissions advantage to state residents. The programs pick the candidates they consider the best. There may, however, be an admissions DISadvantage for international students, due to funding issues -- I did not ask about that.

I have a math prof now who just got his masters in the UW Applied Math program, and he's great. However, he did have to pay out-of-pocket for a considerable amount (funding was given, just not full funding). I lived on the east coast before moving west, and RPI has a very good reputation (and I'd say it keeps getting better). I'd also say go with the funded PhD offer, especially if the PhD is your ultimate goal.

Currently loading up on math and programming classes (BUT AUDITING EVERYTHING!!! -- which I've never done before and which is amazingly fun -- still doing the HW and exams, but NO STRESS!!), will travel and read background material over the summer (classes originally taken a very looooooong time ago).

It sounds as though you just had bad luck with the prompt. There really isn't much time for brainstorming if ideas aren't coming to you right away. Then the nerves kick in and make everything worse. For what it's worth, I really did not like my issue essay, and I felt it was going off on a tangent, but I didn't have time to "fix" it, so I tried to pull things together at the end to make things sort of fit the prompt. I guess it worked out well enough, but it's such an artificial form of writing. I think you can look at the different prompts on the ETS website. You could try to do short outlines for some -- brainstorming without the pressure of taking the actual test.