fuzzylogician

That's awesome news, congrats!!

I'd follow up with another email, then try a phone call. A week isn't really that long to wait, but it's ok to follow up at this point. I am not sure that offering to be admitted under any status is something that would be particularly welcome, as it's not really your place to make this decision, but you could reiterate your interest in the program. This may also be the time to reach out to your professor again for help, maybe he will be more successful getting in touch with his friend. I'd explain that you had reached out a couple of time and hadn't gotten a reply, so you were wondering if the prof knows if anything is up or if there is another way to get in touch with the director, since the email address you have wasn't working. It'd be fair to mention to your prof that you're very anxious about this, but I would try and remain more professional in the email to the director.

I rather like the gist of the intro, though I feel like it's too long for a 500-word essay. It's certainly too detailed. However, my two main thoughts are as follows: 1. Your third paragraph gives too much detail in places where it's not necessary and not enough where it is. You don't need to list the names of the authors of books that you read, that really just sounds like name dropping, and not of the useful kind. On the other hand, I'm missing a "so what" conclusion to your finding -- how does this affect what we think? how did you reach your conclusion? what's the evidence? tell us something! 2. I am missing a paragraph that talks about your current research interests, both on a global level and in detail. What do you want to study in grad school, and why is it interesting? You mention your minor in Economics a few times. If it ties into your research interests, you need to paint a clear picture of how. If not, then you shouldn't be talking about it. Either way, the level of detail you give now again has the "too much but not the right kind" feel to it. There are some small nitpicky things about the prose that it's too premature to discuss, so I'll leave them, but you should have someone read this carefully for style, too.

It would probably help to know what field you're applying in and what your long term career goals are. Then it would be a question of which option does better to strengthen your application to help you attain your goals.

I would strongly advise against doing that. A obviously doesn't think that there is anything wrong between the OP and B. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if B doesn't think that there is anything wrong, either. I can't see anything good coming out of introducing this intrigue to A and telling him about whatever is (perceived to be) wrong with B. I would do my best to keep the relationship professional and free of personal drama. A is clearly a supporter, and B might actually be one as well. Either way, telling A about problems with his colleague might make him uncomfortable and in case the story is more complicated than the OP is sharing or thinks it is (which I would be willing to bet is the case, since B has her own side of the story), it may cause A to think less of the OP. If this is all just about avoiding one dinner/party interaction with B, I hardly think it's worth the risk. OP, I think you need to get over it. Nothing bad has been done to you here.

1. Taking a week is in all likelihood perfectly fine. Moreover, since there is no way for you to get the documents sooner, I'd say it'll have to be fine even if it causes some kind of delay or other problem. 2. This is really a question for whoever asked you for the documents, we can't actually know.

^^ you didn't exactly ask any questions that we can answer. So until you specify more, my thoughts are the following: first, you need to contact the schools you haven't heard from yet and ask about the status of your application. Second, if your goal is a career in research or academia, sounds like you'll need a PhD. You say that you don't believe you'll be able to get into a PhD program without an MS, so therefore it sounds like applying for the MS needs to be your next step. What we can't help you with, based just on the details you gave, is whether your choice of MS programs could actually lead to good chances of getting into a strong PhD program that would allow you to achieve your long-term goals. To be quite honest, from your post it doesn't sounds like you are very convinced of this long-term goal, and that's something you should really figure out before you commit to a long academic career or to debt. We also can't help you decide how much financial expense is worth it to make your plans come true; that would depend on how much debt you are willing to take on (if any), how much you think you could make after you get your PhD, and whether you're willing to risk it in case you don't end up in the job you hope to eventually get.

If he created figures based on instructions from the PhD student, based on data collected by the student, and he was paid for the job, then I don't think he has anything to complain about. It may have been better etiquette to give your friend credit more specifically for the figures he created, but at the end of the day it sounds like his only contribution was entirely technical and it was paid for. That's not plagiarism, if you ask me.

It's a fair part of the process, and it's an important consideration so it's worth getting over your apprehension. You will not be the first person to ask to speak with someone about the program, I assure you. And you also will not be the first person to turn down their admissions offer (whichever one you decline).

If you were just starting, I think this would be different. Personally I'd much prefer an Advisor B over an Advisor A so if the question were about spending 5 years in a program basically left alone or working with someone who supports me and I enjoy talking to, the answer would be easy: I'd value the advising relationship that made me feel better more than people's fame. However, you're already a few years in and have a project and a relationship going with Advisor A. At this point, I think it's different. Towards the end of your PhD you should begin to be independent, even if you have a very hands on advisor. Moreover, you need to really think about your next career step and who will help you make it. Advisor A will probably be able to open more doors for you. Given this, at this point I'd probably stick with Advisor A.

No one can answer these questions for you other than the school that makes you the offer. I would guess that if you get the offer before the 15th, that may be the deadline for the decision, or you may be able to ask to extend it by a little bit because the offer came so last minute. At the end of the day, though, it seems pretty clear that you have to go with the offer you have over the one you wish you had.

Well I am not all that familiar with these schools but my impression is that Syracuse might be better for a more rounded education, especially if you don't know what you want to do next. I would suggest trying to talk to some potential advisors, if you have any kind of idea who they might be. Getting along with them will be very important to your success.

Something presentable but comfortable. I wore nice pants and a blouse for a summer defense. I think the most important thing is for you to feel good in your clothes, because there will be enough other things to stress you out.

I think this is a general problem in academia. No one ever tells you about their failures, you're left assuming that you're the only one who's ever struggled to do things or had rejections. It can give people a very skewed picture of reality. Even very successful people have setbacks, and they also get low grades occasionally, and they have papers rejected and grants not awarded, etc. But no one puts that on their CV, so you end up just seeing their shiny successes but none of the hard work and frustrations that preceded them. It's like the Facebook syndrome for academics--everyone's life is full of beautiful smiling children, spiffy vacations, delicious looking food, etc., but you know no one's life is really like that.

It might help to know what your goals are for getting the degree. Also, do you have weather preferences? Is the stipend the same at both schools? Is the placement record the same (for what you want to do in particular)? Did you get along with potential advisors just the same?

One option is to wait until you get to the US to buy your new computer. It'll often be cheaper than in other countries, and you might be able to get an education discount through your new school that you can't get before you're officially a student there.

If you had the option of getting a publication out of your work or not having anything to show for it, people would advise you to have nothing? I don't know about that. I am not talking about a situation where with some more work you could submit to a better journal, but work that you are no longer pursuing -- maybe it was a class project; for me it may be having worked with a speaker of an interesting language who left town so I can't get more data -- so you have something sitting there and there is a chance of turning it into an ok publication or not having anything at all. Seems like a no-brainer to me that you should have something to show for it. You should also have top-tier publications for your main work, yes. But sitting on these things for too long increases the chances that they'll never turn into anything, and I don't think that going into the job market with no publications does you any good either.

I'd write down anything you might want him to include in his letter. Help him make the letter stronger. So: - How long he has known you and in what capacity - What your specialization is, why you want to go to grad school - What your background is, how it prepares you for grad school in your chosen (sub)field - Anything important in your background: awards, publications, conferences, etc. - Specific examples of anything relevant that he could/should know about you: details of the paper(s) you wrote for his class, details of how you organized something or other, details of how you came up with a new way to solve whatever problem in a lab meeting, collaborations you were involved in, how you helped tutor other students who were struggling, anything at all that shows initiative or otherwise reflects well on you. The key is in the details. The more, the better.

Definitely. You can't begin to imagine what your reviewers are going to worry about. It's almost never what you are worrying about. So I now have a policy of sending papers out as soon as they are decent enough, definitely not when they are "perfect" or I think they don't have any holes in them (just not glaring, obvious ones, that I think undermine the work. Also, no mistakes that I know of). I've also developed a policy that everything I do should end up published somewhere. Maybe not always at top venues, but I also don't want any of my work to have nothing to show for it. I am now trying to go back to my early work from the beginning of grad school and see about turning those papers into journal submissions. I wish I had done that 2-3 years ago, but better late than never.

Please don't publish the same post multiple times. Your other posts have been removed. I am not entirely convinced that this board is an appropriate place to recruit a co-editor, but I am going to leave this here for now.

Well in that case I'd suggest putting together an email that is truthful, though may not contain the whole truth, and emailing the PI. You can say that you are leaving the lab and state personal difficulties as contributing to the decision. Even if you're not too thankful, I'd still thank the PI for the opportunity they gave you. I don't think you owe anything to the other students or the lab manager, they are not your supervisors. You need to let the PI know, and they can take it from there and find a replacement for the projects you were working on. Since you already know that there is politics involved, keep information to a minimum so it can't be used against you; don't lie, and be very polite and thankful.

My school had all the international students take an English exam during orientation before first year. I don't remember if it had a particular name, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I'm sure you've taken various English proficiency exams by now so you know the drill -- they're all pretty much the same. Mine had the "usual" reading/listening/writing components and then a interview portion where they would bring us into someone's office two at a time and have us talk to each other about some topic for a few minutes. It was no big deal, though I understand that given the stress of everything else you want to clarify as many unknowns as possible. Given your TOEFL score, I don't think you have anything to worry about here. I wouldn't even recommend preparing at all.

I am not reading this email as upset at all, but as being friendly and supportive about the NSF fellowship and still trying to recruit you as a graduate student. Personally I think this email makes some very good points in that I too would consider the fellowship and teaching requirements not as important a factor in my decision and that the school, environment, advising, opportunities, etc. are much more important. This is of course just me and you can have other priorities. For me, once it's clear that the stipend I am being offered is sufficient to live reasonably well, that's no longer a consideration. Teaching is also important in terms of getting important experience, as long as it's not excessive, so not having any teaching requirements isn't necessarily a good thing. Once it's been established that the stipend and teaching requirements are reasonable, it's then all about the research fit and opportunities I'd have at each school that meets these initial criteria. I think that this professor is trying to tell you that the experiences you had a few summers ago in the lab might not be current anymore, so the research and fit are good and you should know that. If you're still convinced that school A is right for you, that's of course within your rights. But honestly I think it might be wise to give school B a shot and take the invitation to visit seriously.

I had 10 days between defending and filing, and I also used some of that time to pack up my entire apartment in order to move to a new job. I wouldn't say it was plenty of time, but it was enough. The one thing I'd recommend is reading up on the filing requirements ahead of time. There were some things that I could have done earlier on when I wasn't as busy that ended up being very time-consuming (like formatting the front matter, writing the acknowledgements, writing summaries/short abstracts, filling out official forms, etc).