fuzzylogician

I would guess that a significant portion of the program involves internships/observations/on the job training. If so, then where you go to school might dictate what connections you make and where you can get a job. Similarly if there are different accreditation processes in the different states. If alternatively you want to go back home with your degree, then you need to find out if all of the schools you got into are accredited by your country and whether one of them has a better reputation or job placement than the others. Knowing none of answers to these questions and assuming that all three schools will award you a degree that you can get a job with, Miami will be significantly cheaper than the other two schools. Between Boston and NY, Boston is cheaper, but still very expensive. It's hard to give better advice than this since there is a lot of important information missing here.

The PhD students also only have one project each? Or their side project is in the same lab as their main project? I guess either way I don't think it hurts to ask. You know, the worst thing that could happen is your advisor will say no. I don't think that putting it as chasing an opportunity to strengthen your research profile should cause you trouble. It shows enthusiasm and initiative even if it doesn't end up working out.

Unless judgmental = didn't say what you wanted to hear, no one here was judgmental or unsupportive. People wrote long thoughtful posts about why they think there is a time to start taking less classes and do more research. That's a perfectly valid opinion, even if it wasn't what you wanted to hear. True, but the thing is, there are always too many things happening now that you may not have access to later. You have to pick and choose and as was already discussed above, at some point rather early you need to concentrate more on research and less on classes. That said, I'm glad you enjoyed your class. You're right that there aren't going to be lots more chances to take classes now, so it's great that you could make the most of it.

I suppose it might depend on the program, but in mine it'd be perfectly fine to have a second side project over the summer. What's your program like? Do people tend to have just one project or do they collaborate with lots of people in different labs? You could ask a few advanced students, if you're not sure. My guess is that if you bring it up with your advisor as a possible opportunity and not a done deal and make it clear you're aware of your responsibilities in your advisor's lab, you should get a positive response, e.g. "I was thinking it would be good if I could get involved in a second side-project over the summer so I can get more experience and a stronger second LOR for when I apply to PhD programs in the fall, what do you think?".

Doesn't your consent form have a "I waive my compensation" box? Mine does. It's never happened in the history of ever, but it's there just in case someone wants to participate without getting paid.

Don't you have an advisor who can help you with this?

I have to agree with you that now is your best chance to get to live in California. You'll have fewer and fewer options as you progress in academia, and it'll be less and less possible to choose your next location based on geographical preferences. Not impossible of course and your options may depend on your field, but if you're offered a good postdoc or good job it's going to be very hard to turn it down because it's not your favorite location, if otherwise it's the right thing for your career. This was definitely a consideration for me when I was choosing schools; given my top two choices, I preferred a large city over a small town and that played a big role in the decision. Still didn't go with a school in a much better location (California, in fact) because academically it wasn't as good an option as the other two schools I was considering (both in a cold New England state), but that's me and my preferences. Now that I'm moving on to a postdoc, location didn't factor into the equation at all because it was much more about survival in my field and for that I just went with the best academic option I had available. As it turns out, I'll be in an even colder, snowier place next year than now. Can't tell you I'm looking forward to it, but I'm sure I'll learn to deal with it. I think your preference is completely valid. The worry is that the department doesn't sound like a good place academically, and I'd really worry about that, if I were you. Could you thrive there and have a good education that will prepare you for the career you'd like to have after you graduate? From your description that didn't sound like a sure thing at all.

I wouldn't apply to places that I would not go to in the first place, so my basic assumption is that the places the OP is considering have the property of being possible places where they could be happy, even if they do have a preference from one location over the other. But I completely agree that for some people location can play a major role and I think it's a very important concern if you know that about yourself.

I think the doubts are completely normal, but the thing is that you can never know what would have happened if... You make the best decision based on the information you have available at the time, and with some luck and some hard work, things work out in the end. It's rarely exactly as you'd planned, but that's just life.

Again -- you don't know how that will be perceived. You risk burning a bridge doing this. bsharpe's suggestion makes a lot more sense.

This is not my specialty but I know David Pesetsky at MIT has an interest in language and music (though it's certainly not the only thing he does). I think beccamayworth's suggestion is a very good one -- find some papers that interest you and find out where their authors teach. Follow up on the references in those papers, and read up on their authors too. That's the best way to find researchers who you'd like to work with.

This is rude and uncalled for. If you do it again, you'll get suspended. If you have nothing helpful to say, don't say anything at all.

I wouldn't. Keep it very professional--no sarcasm!! Even if you don't want to have this person as your advisor, she obviously does similar work to yours and so I am sure you'll run into her again. She'll be at the same conferences you'll attend, she'll review your papers/grants/abstracts, she might be on a hiring committee when you graduate (if there happens to be a job in her department). People remember grad school applicants who go out of line. Don't be that person, there is NOTHING for you to gain except maybe some satisfaction at having "zinged" her now, but trust me it's not going to be worth it. That said, I agree with everyone that this seems like a person to avoid as an advisor and/or collaborator. It might be worth to keep in mind that some schools lose the ability to re-offer admissions/funding to students after April 15 and that there might be people on a waitlist, so while she is not supposed to do this, it might not be completely without a reason that she wants you to make a decision. If that's the case she should have explained the reasons for pressuring you, and should have backed down when you said you're still waiting to hear from other schools before you can make a decision. So either way, she's not looking too good right now, but try and keep a level head about it and don't do anything to burn any bridges.

I attend a B-type university and went on the job market this year, which is also my dissertation year. This is what almost everyone I know in my field does, though some schools allow you to take longer to graduate so you can make sure more of your dissertation is done before you go on the job market (so, a version of the A-type, but normally not with a full dissertation in hand before going on the job market for the first time). I'm not sure if my impressions are entirely relevant for your field, but I think most of them probably will be. There are pros and cons to going on the job market at the same time as writing the dissertation. On the pro side, you become much more familiar with "real life" and what's expected of you in order to get hired. You live a very protected life in grad school, and seeing things from the faculty perspective is quite different. I think it did help me pitch my dissertation a certain way and frame things so they're more congruent with my other work (to define my "research program"). I've also learned *a lot* through the job process, especially preparing for interviews and really thinking through some difficult questions about who I am as a researcher and teacher, and what matters to me. I think I could use most of the materials I prepared for the application process again next year, so I'll have a much better starting point for my applications. The interviews I had also provided a lot of insight that I hope to use to revise some portions of my statements. Since I'll be starting a new job (postdoc) in the Fall, it's great to know I won't have to spend quite as much time preparing my applications as I did this year. Also important, word gets out about who was on shortlists, so even if you don't get the job, interviewing helps to get your name out there. In my field there are not that many good jobs, so if one comes up you want to try for it. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky. Once you commit to applying to one job, I think it makes sense to apply to them all. The real premium is on getting the materials ready for that first time, and once they are done it's much less costly to modify them for other jobs. [To address something mentioned in the OP, I don't think a dissertation becomes outdated after a year, so this really wasn't a concern at all one way or the other.] On the con side, writing a dissertation and going on the job market at the same time is CRAZY. It's an emotional roller coaster--much more so than grad school applications, and I was pretty anxious back then. It made me completely unable to progress with my research and writing for a couple of months during the process (I'd say starting in mid-December, when I left for a conference, through the holidays and my field's society conference where I had several interviews in January, until mid-February, when I came back from a campus visit, I didn't get any serious work done). The amount of rejection, and worse (in my opinion) the amount of silence and waiting that you have to face can be hard to deal with. The stakes are quite high, so the uncertainty is ... unsettling. In statements and interviews, there is a real difficulty that everybody recognizes in talking about your dissertation when some of it is still no where to be found except in your head. You write statements that describe what you're doing, but everyone knows it's (partly) bullshit because you haven't done the work yet. I already know that some things I said I was going to do I will look very different than how I described them in October and even in January. For me, having successfully gone through the process, I think it was a worthwhile experience. However, it was terrible while it was happening and made me seriously consider what I am willing to invest in my career and how many times I am willing to go on the job market. I don't know that it would have been any different if I had waited another year, though. I think it would have probably been the same.

I wouldn't worry about the rankings too much. For me, the most important question is the research fit, and it sounds like Northwestern wins on that one. It sounds like you've already identified great mentors you'd like to work with and the program is friendlier than UCSD, so there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to get a great education there. More generally, planning according to 'what if I fail' seems less helpful than planning for success. You're going to grad school for a purpose, namely to obtain an education that will carry you on to the next stage in life (be it as a researcher, teacher, industry worker, or something else). I'd go to the place you expect to prepare you best, not to the place where you'll have a better life if the education plan doesn't quite work out.

You're welcome! For the final sentence, you say: I truly hope that [XXX] University will give me the chance to join [XXX]. The program will be my stepping stone to make great impacts in people's lives while still being true to my passion and interests. How will you make an impact in people's lives? What will you do with your degree that will cause that? Also, I'm also not sure I understand what the second half of your sentence means: while being true to your passion and interests -- is there any danger that you won't be true to your interests? I'm confused about this point. Maybe it's just an awkward English phrasing. Here is what I am missing: you already said that the Masters program will give me the needed background to combine your undergrad experience with engineering, so you could then apply to a PhD program. Do you have some (vague) idea of what you'll do in a PhD program? Here it's ok to be vague, because we are talking about future plans that no one can guarantee will come true as you plan them (because, you know, nothing ever does). But you could say that in the PhD program you hope to study X, and with that knowledge you hope to go back to your country and get involved in doing Y, which will improve people's lives because of Z. (or whatever it is you are actually hoping to do -- this was a guess.) So, give some description of what the program will help you achieve, in the long run. Even just saying what you hope to do for a PhD (in broad strokes) will help more than just saying "your school's reputation will help me get into a good PhD program." That by itself is not really a good reason to admit anyone.

It totally depends. In my program you do 4 courses (3 very intensive, one less so) in each semester of your first year, then normally 2-3 courses per semester in the second and third year. 4 courses would be a lot, but not unheard of. Some people occasionally even do 5, if there are lots of once-in-a-long-while courses offered in the same semester, but that makes for a thoroughly crazy semester. People don't usually do more than 3, preferably 2, courses when TAing, but our TA requirement is so low (2 semesters over the course of our 5 years in the program) that we can afford it. I'd consult with current students in your program about recommended loads. I'm sure it varies and it may even depend on specific courses and/or specific instructors.

Much improved! I have made some in-line edits below, but they are all rather small. Your last line is rather grandiose and at the same time vague and naive. I don't have many suggestions for it, and I don't even know if you should remove it. If there is anything more specific that you could say about what you hope to do with your education in the future, that could help. Alternatively, one place you could elaborate a bit is about your past activities. For example, when you write about your undergraduate final project, what were the results? Is there anything interesting that came out of it? What were your actual responsibilities during your internship? What did your experience in the lab include? You basically give a very vague list of things you've done, but you don't give any details about any of them. If you could choose one and elaborate a bit more, so the readers get a sense for how you describe a problem and its solution, that might help.

Having moved across an ocean myself, a lot of this advice seems relevant to me. It's not that different, except it's even more advisable than if you were just moving in the US to not drag along any furniture, unless someone is paying for you to ship it. Selling/giving it away and buying new stuff will be cheaper and easier.

This has been discussed many times in the past. Here are a few old threads to get you started. I just searched in the Officially Grads forum. I'm sure there are other relevant threads in other forums, but I don't have the time to check right now.

Well in case this still helps: Since you want to explicitly talk about your grades, I guess something like your second paragraph is required. I'd still recommend placing it later in the SOP, after the first two paragraphs I suggested above. Perhaps the discussion of your grades and other activities can fit as part of the second paragraph - so, the first one discusses your research interests and the inspiration for them. The second paragraph discusses the specifics of your past work - thesis, internship, consulting, extracurriculars, and one short sentence about the semester with bad grades and how you've overcome it. Then you go on to discuss your future goals and how the school you are applying to will help you achieve them.

To clarify: I would not want to be in a relationship with someone who thinks it is acceptable for me to sacrifice everything to be with them, and I wouldn't enjoy my life if that happened, even if it's the most amazing SO to ever walk on the face of the earth. I don't think my relationship could survive it. There is a difference between compromising (acceptable and necessary in a relationship, goes both ways) and giving up everything for someone (straight up unacceptable).

No.

Get rid of the entire first paragraph. It tells me nothing about why this school should admit you. There are odd language choices throughout. A non-exhaustive list includes: "spawned," "finally reached my maturity." "imprint," "my pivotal point," "as proofs of excellence" The second paragraph is too long, and isn't focused enough. Is this paragraph about your undergrad experience or about your extracurriculars? I don't think there is a need to list classes you took as an undergrad, since it'll appear on your transcript and you're not using the opportunity to talk about any of these classes. I'm also not sure if there is a need to mention "slightly marred" grades and explain them away, honestly the explanation sounds worse than the problem. If I were you, I'd start my SOP with the something like the contents of the third paragraph. It requires a bit of work on the language (missing articles and some awkward phrasing), but it actually tells the reader who you are and what you do. I'd put that front and center. Since this one is important, here are some in-line edits: Later paragraphs are quite good. They could use some English language editing, but overall I like them a lot. Since you need to submit this tomorrow, I think it's a better use of your time to work on the first few paragraphs. This should also help you bring this essay down to the length that was recommended to you. My suggestion would be basically to get rid of the first two paragraphs entirely. Start with a version of your third paragraph as the opener, or alternatively use the 4th paragraph as the opener (but shorten it a bit, because it's long-winded). So the narrative is -- I am interested in X types of questions; I think interdisciplinarity is very important. This became clear to me when the Venter team published their article about [blah] and I saw in that an opportunity to do [blah]. it inspired me to join the competition [blah] where I learned [blah]. In my own studies, I've embraced interdisciplinary in different ways, e.g. through my UG final project abotu [blah], my internship and experience in a biotech company. I've also done volunteer work as [blah] and teaching as [blah]. -- This could be two paragraphs, one about your broad interests and how that study influenced you, and one more detailed about your experiences with your project, internship, teaching, etc. Once you have this, take the first sentence in your current fourth paragraph and put it at the beginning of the fifth paragraph. The fifth paragraph can pretty much stay as is. I'm not sure that the "I will bring my experience as a person from a tropical region" etc. is relevant, since I'm not sure I see where else you say that you want to solve problems that are relevant to that part of the world. If it's important, I think you need to mention it as a goal early on. Good luck!

These things really do vary by field. In my field, people don't just go to conferences where they are not presenting, unless the conference happens to be geographically near them. You can't get funded to just go, at least not on most sources of funding I know of. It's also not nearly as good as having presented in terms of networking and visibility possibilities. On the other hand, most conferences (with the exception of our society's annual conference) have between 50 and 200 attendees. So even if you are not presenting, you still have a pretty good chance of being able to talk to someone who you want to meet over a coffee break or the conference dinner. As for publication vs. presentation ratio, in my field you should be presenting regularly (though not necessarily very frequently) at the big conferences in the field and in your subfield, and ideally you should have a few conference proceedings papers by the time you graduate. It's important to turn those into manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed journals, but students who go on the job market in my field often have very few (or no) journal publications, because the review process tends to be very slow--a fairly fast turnaround time would be 6 months per review cycle, and there is almost without exception at least one round of "revise and resubmit," so it takes over a year from submission to acceptance if things go smoothly, and there is enough of a backlog that it also takes a really long time to then have your article in press. For example, I'm still waiting for an article accepted in late 2012 to be published. I haven't even seen the proofs yet. So if you start submitting papers to journals late in your third year or in your fourth year (which is really fast, btw--I can't think of many people who were able to do that), you may still have nothing to show for it when you go on the job market in your fifth year. I would therefore absolutely not recommend for anyone in my field to equalize the number of presentations and publications--if you've been actively going to conferences, it's important for your CV to reflect that. It's also important to make clear that you've been turning these presentations/proceedings papers into articles, but not at the expense of listing your conferences.