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I like the shape of yours better -- mine's too wide for its height.

Here's mine.

When you take whatever prerequisites you think might strengthen your application, get letters from those profs. And if you get a research position anywhere, you'd definitely want a letter from that.

This makes sense to me. It reminds me of my thought process when I applied to college . . . one school I applied to primarily because of a joint program it had with my first-choice school. Anyway, I've heard that some of the programs I applied to have already started calling people about interviews -- I've heard nothing. I knew I'd be a long-shot applicant, but it still makes me sad. I will also be applying again next year, if nothing comes through this year.

1 school, multiple programs -- all pretty competitive because it's a highly-ranked school. I wish I had the freedom to apply more broadly. Now, I'm in "wait-and-see" mode.

I'd be surprised if you needed to get another undergrad degree. It sounds as if you've been out of school for only 5 years or so, so you're still pretty young (unlike me). Taking whatever prerequisites you need and doing well on the GRE should be good enough. What you probably should focus all your efforts on is finding some sort of research position. With your programming experience, that might be a bit easier to achieve, but if you're not at a school that does research, it can be hard to find someone willing to let you work with their group. So my advice would be to try to take your classes at a school where professors are doing research (versus a CC, if you can afford to -- given the classes you likely need to take, a CC probably won't have what you need anyway) and try to get into a lab. Professors are not very likely to respond to your emails, but you could call the graduate admissions office for various schools/departments and ask them for advice. I actually visited a number of graduate program coordinators when I was first considering applying to grad school, and they were very helpful.

No advice, but it's really awful that the instructor is being so inflexible -- especially after he'd told you he would take your circumstances into consideration. It's not as if the missed test was typical of the effort you put forth for the class and the rest of your grades in the class were mediocre. It certainly sounds like an anomaly that he could have easily minimized in his grading. Your plan sounds good, but I'm sorry you're in such a frustration position right now.

Six programs. We'll see how it goes.

I did something similar this term -- I took Calculus 3 P/F. I have not had a calculus class in over 2 decades, so I thought going right into Calc 3 for a grade would be pushing my luck. I doubt adcoms will care much one way or the other, considering I have a lot of grades for them to look at. Including other Ps. If anything, I'm hoping they'll be happy I have some more recent experience with math. I'm kind of anti-grades anyway, though.

Better late than never -- I hope.

Still in the middle of the process ... Hardest: Deciding to apply -- I'm a non-traditional (OLD) applicant -- so lots of doubts -- will people think I'm crazy? Will they even look at my application? etc Next hardest: SOP -- A lot of those doubts came out in the early drafts. Honestly, my first essay might as well have been titled "Reasons to Reject Me" The rest of the process hasn't been so bad. GRE was relatively painless -- didn't prepare, took it early, expecting to take it again -- didn't have to Won't be moving -- applied locally only I'm HOPING deciding where to go will be the toughest part!

One of my professors even commented to me that the reminder emails were very helpful, as it saved her from having to keep track of the various due dates.

I'm not sure I recommend this approach, but I knew I would not study seriously for the GRE unless I took it and saw a real baseline score that I did not like. So I scheduled it for the day after finals, went it, took it, and decided I did not need to take it again. Going in with a "this is not the real thing" attitude made it hard to be nervous.

Scanning my transcripts was a major nuisance, and I don't think they're easy to read now that they're all under 500KB. The programs that just wanted official transcripts ended up being much easier. Good luck!

What field are you in? I'm hoping things work out for me, and I'll try again next year, if necessary. Sure, I wish I'd started earlier, but it wouldn't really have been possible much before now.

The Q score seems low for engineering, but the rest sounds OK (but that's not saying much . . . since I am certainly not an expert). Good luck. It's nice to have submitted articles -- I'd think you'd have a decent shot at a spot at one of the schools on your list.

I think the rest of your credentials look good. All you can do now is apply and wait and see. Most of us probably have an area or two that we wish were stronger. Good luck!

Looks OK, but the GRE Q is a bit low . . . were you thinking of re-taking it?

No suggestions, I'm afraid. I did what UnlikelyGrad did and took classes at a local CC. I'd been out of school for over 10 years -- homeschooling 3 kids. It was great just being in a learning environment again, and my relationship with the instructors was certainly different from when I was in school before, given that, generally, I am now much closer in age to them than to my fellow students. I even got offered a part-time teaching job at the CC, which has been fun. My GREs were similar to yours 770 Q & V and 6 AW. Moms are no slackers! Good luck -- it will be interesting to see how things work out for the non-trads.

Sounds as if you should be getting them any day now. I know waiting is hard.

UW has this info: http://grad.washingt..._department.pdf as does Duke: http://gradschool.du...about/stats.php others may also. Basically, for both programs, looks like an 800 Quant is best -- UW average is 786 and Duke 790.

I don't think you always have to take exams to take individual classes. You need to see if any schools in your area will let you enroll as a non-matriculated student. For some schools, this may require filling out an application and sending test scores, but I think others will let you take classes if there are speces available in the class.

Sorry to hear about last year. I'm hoping the same thing does not happen to me, but I'm aware it is certainly a real possibility. I am also an older applicant with what will be an unusual application for the programs I'm planning on sending it to. My GREs were OK. I've done as much as I can to "fix" the deficiencies in my preparation, but there's only so much I can do right now. If things don't work out, I'll have more time to work on my qualifications, but I'll also be a year older next time I apply. However, making the decision to apply to grad school has been good for me. I've ended up doing a lot of things that were definitely out of my comfort zone, and I am very thankful for all the people who have been encouraging me and helping me figure things out. Good luck with applications this year. Is it possible for you to take the GRE again to improve the quant score, if you think that was a major reason for the rejections? Or are there other areas of your application that could be stronger? Did you ask any of the programs what might have made you a more attractive applicant (I've heard some programs will give rejected applicants such feedback).

I took the exam a month ago, figuring it would give me the summer to prepare before I took the exam "for real" But now it's done. So, I'm glad I took it early and now have one less thnig to worry about. Still plenty of other things to stress over, however. I am certainly not a "perfect" applicant (Oh well. . . .).

I know they do that -- just not sure the context it's done in. This website has some info: http://biotech.wsu.e...ch/default.aspx unfortunately, some of the links don't work, so you might be better off contacting the school directly to see if they offer what you want.