fuzzylogician

When do you expect to graduate? At the end of this year or next -- and how will your time have been spent, how long at your current university and how long at the new one, if you move? What stage in the development of your thesis are you in? Also, how much supervision do you need? Do you meet on a weekly basis or once a semester? Can you just meet over skype and get emailed comments, and is your advisor good with emails? Personally since this is the only person you could work with, I'd move if it was early in my degree and would try to make it work without moving if I was close to finishing.

That probably will work fine, especially since the letters will come from Interfolio and it's clear why they don't mention the department/university by name. As you understand yourself, the letter probably won't be as strong as letters that can address the question of why each school is a good fit for you, but I don't think that will kill your chances by any means. Lots of people use Interfolio and I've never heard of any particular problems associated with that. Generally, though, customizing the letters is not labor-free but it's also not all that labor-intensive, compared to actually writing the letter. Just like you do with your SOP, the letters will basically all be the same and might just change a little bit to mention specific professors who work at each department or other important resources. If you want to help with that, one thing you can do is simply provide your writers with a list of where you're applying and what you think is attractive about each school (that is, what makes each one a good fit for you). That could help a lot with the customization of the letters, if you end up going down that route and then just helping your professors navigate the websites.

If you're not feeling confident about your writing, I doubt that writing a whole new paper under the time pressure will help much. It's probably a better use of your time to get someone (a friend who is a native speaker, a professor or someone who provides editing services perhaps) to look at what you already have. Realistically speaking, even if you had the time, is there really another topic that you've done Masters-level research on that you are now able to write up? I can only guess that your thesis work is the deepest and most extensive that you've done to date, and it makes the most sense to submit that work from that perspective, too. I think that scanning the thesis is not going to look good to some people but I don't know that re-typing it is a good use of your time right now, either. My advice would be to scan it so you have something prepared and then see if you have the time to type it up. Maybe that, too, can be outsourced to a friend or family member? As for what to submit -- assume that even though there is no official page limit, at least some admissions committee members won't read the whole document. They have many writing samples to read! So, if they only read, say, 20 pages, would the first 20 pages of your thesis be the best example of your work? If not, I think it's still fine for you to submit the whole thesis but I would send it with an instruction to concentrate on pages XX-YY (or chapter X) with a short description that situates it in the larger context of your thesis. That will also help anyone who is interested in reading more find the parts that they are interested in. Maybe if it's a smaller section you could type up just that part of the work. If not, just make sure that the scan is clear and not crooked, and maybe explain the issue in a short note at the beginning, because I bet it will be kind of unusual.

The writing sample is -- as the name says -- a sample of your writing. It's a lengthy(ish) paper that should demonstrate both your ability to do research, think critically and construct an argument, and write about it in a coherent and compelling manner. For most people, the writing sample is a paper they wrote for a class, a senior's thesis or a chapter of a Masters thesis. Some people will write a new paper from scratch, if they don't have anything good or long enough, but it's important to get comments from a professor and not just submit something that hasn't gone through some serious editing. I've seen page counts that go anywhere from 10 to 50, but I think 20-25 pages is a good average length. The SOP is a short 1-2 page document that states the reasons you are applying to the school, your past preparation, your future goals and why you chose that particular school. There are several good advice threads in the forum about how to construct the SOP. I'm not in your field and I don't know what the norm is, but if your applications don't require a writing sample, then you don't need to worry about creating one. Just make sure it's really not required.

The instructor job sounds relevant, both for the language and for the teaching experience. As for being a journal/editor, I'd probably also include that because being able to write and edit is actually a skill that many students struggle with, so it's definitely a plus. I'd keep it short and at the end, probably under 'other experience.' Honestly, as long as it doesn't seem like you're padding your CV, I think you can get away with quite a lot. It won't hurt and it may even help.

Don't email again right now because you simply don't have anything relevant to say and the conversation will go nowhere fast. It doesn't sound like you necessarily crossed any lines but you are headed there. Don't. At the end of the day, there aren't too many working on any particular problem and you'll end up meeting the same people over and over again -- they'll judge your papers, they will ask you questions when you give talks, and they may eventually hire you, so don't alienate any of them. The good news is, you were not rejected before -- no funding means just that and nothing else. And, changing fields between a Masters and a PhD is not all that hard (it's probably one of the best times to do it), so just keep your interests alive and think about how you could take the most from the Masters that could be applied in the PhD and maybe also think of a narrative that either ties the two together or explains how and why you are going from one to the other.

It may depend on the award but generally, if it's related to your field and/or high profile, I'd include it. Something small and unrelated I'd have to think about on an individual basis, but for the most part I don't see why you wouldn't include such things.

As others have said, it sounds like you're overreacting. Don't even consider changing advisors at this point, you've only known your advisor for a few weeks and this was just one conversation! Moreover, the way I read it, it sounded like more of a warning than just bitching about this professor. I hope it turns out not to be true, but it sounded like your advisor was telling you to be very careful with this professor and watch his behavior towards you (if you're female). I'd take rising_star's advice very seriously and avoid having them both on your committee--or even working with both of them on the same project without having them meet, you'll still get yourself into hot political waters.

Well, how much research experience do you have? Maybe it's sufficient for you to apply. As for your question, some students work as a lab manager or research assistant in the US to improve their application, but I'm not sure how easy it is to get a visa for such work. I can imagine it's not at all straightforward. I'm not sure how BioMed works, but in my field there is a website where universities post job openings and there is another website where people collect information about anything that they hear. If that doesn't exist in your field, you may have to contact possible labs and ask whether they may have an opening. But again, you should read about how the visa would work for these cases, because I think it may be complicated. I think it may be easier to find such work in your own country, and in that case probably the best way to get a position is through contacts. Either your professors can hire you, or they might know of someone who can. If that is not possible, the most common way international students get the necessary experience and the personal contact with professors for letters of recommendation is by doing a Masters degree before applying to grad school.

Yes, of course that counts are research experience. How relevant it is and whether you should mention it in your SOP or just keep it on your CV depends on how well you can tie it to your research interests, or whether there are things you've learned that will be relevant to your grad school work.

I don't know how those scores fare with regard to other EE applicants (though I bet they're not too great), but I just wanted to point out that preparing for the GRE will also prepare you for the TOEFL. There is not much you need to study in particular for the TOEFL exam that you don't need for the Verbal GRE, although it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the structure of the test and practice a bit for the speaking portion because the short "speeches" you need to give are not exactly something you do every day. But even with that, it's really not like you have to prepare for two separate exams--the GRE can be a lot of work, but the TOEFL doesn't require more than just a few days of work, assuming that your English is solid (which, from your post, it seems to be).

I did a lot of studying in my first year in a group. Some of it was more of an exchange of ideas and discussion, as you say, but sometimes some of us actually taught some of the others parts of the material because we had more background and they had none. These people were classmates and friends and teaching was good both for us and for them. There was no such thing as freeloading and no one tried to get the others to do the work for them, because, well, it's grad school and you're there because you want to and you study these things because you need to know them. I don't know, maybe your situation is different, but I'd give it a try. [disclaimer: I used to HATE working in groups in high school and undergrad precisely because of the freeloaders. Don't even get me started. It's been a very different experience for me in grad school and really I only encountered freeloading behavior elsewhere in academia (and again, don't get me started).]

Be VERY careful with this advice. I'm not sure what is meant here by contacting potential advisors to "explain your situation" but I don't see any good coming of trying to explain that you didn't do well on your thesis (with or without blaming your advisor) and that you don't have LORs from your advisor or other reader, but you still want to go into a PhD program. Any kind of "explanation" about how the advisor wasn't supportive is going to seem like an excuse and will not help. It may even get back to the advisor and actively hurt you. Why would a stranger go out of their way to help someone who in their present state couldn't even get the support of the people who know them? Much stronger applicants get rejected from programs all the time. You should be thinking about getting the support of professors who already know you before you start contacting others. The other reader sounds like the best bet, but maybe there is some other professor you have a relationship with. Seriously, don't send out "dozens, if not hundreds" of emails until you have worked on improving your application, or you may just burn bridges.

First, they will know you couldn't get a LOR from any of your committee members because they expect you to submit them and if you don't, they will assume it's because you couldn't get them. Not having a LOR from your advisor is a huge red flag. Not having a letter from any committee member is even worse. Second, LORs ARE important. They are one of the most important parts of the application. It's where you show that other professors have faith in your ability to succeed. LORs are crucial when you apply for grad school, when you apply for jobs, when you are up for tenure -- at various stages of your academic career. You can't make it without your supervisors' (and later, peers') support. Third, bad LORs exist (read some more on the grad cafe, specifically in the letters of recommendation forum, if you don't believe that). Letters can be outright negative or just dry and not glowing. Or, they can be of the "did well in class" variety, which the OP may have to get if they can't get the people who saw their research to write a letter. I agree with the advice to not let others stop you from going after your dream, but the stubborn head-on approach isn't always the smartest. Sometimes you have to take a more indirect route because the otherwise better way to go contains impassable obstacles for you.

I grade assignments in one go, in an afternoon I keep clear for that purpose. Normally I do it a day or two before I need to return the assignments, not right after the deadline because students get extensions or otherwise turn assignments in late and I don't want to deal with it twice. I start with some students I expect to do well to get a feel for how well the assignment went over. If several good students messed something up I will probably want to address it in class rather than on individual assignments and I may not even take off points, depending on how pervasive the problem is. I then do the rest of the assignments, and always save some good students for last, to keep morale high towards the end of each cycle. I grade the same question for everyone, then move to the next, instead of grading whole assignments for each student. I also normally have a grading key and I add to it if I need to deal with unexpected mistakes so I can remember why I took that 0.5 point off. Most importantly: I decide in advance how much time i am going to spend on grading, based on what I am paid and how much time I invested in other TA related work. I don't mind working more on some weeks, but not on a regular basis. It might mean that the students get fewer comments on their papers, but they instead get a solution or we discuss things in class together. Either way, it's important not to let TAing take over all of your time but instead keep it under control.

Dear (potential) posters, Please take a moment to think before you post in this thread: are you revealing too much personal information? Could what you write be traced back to you, and could it hurt you? For anything and everything that you post online (here and elsewhere), assume that you are not anonymous in posting --- do you stand behind what you wrote, and would you want it to be known to everyone? Note that it's this board's policy not to delete posts, though we do understand that people can get carried away and over share. We are happy to edit identifying information out of your posts if necessary, but please, think before you post! Save yourself the anxiety and us the extra work.

Which one would be easier, balancing a spoon on your nose or a tray on your head? Seriously, you are not giving us any information that can help us answer your question any more than mine. Official rankings aren't really the best way to choose schools--I suggest you concentrate on finding programs that fit your research plans and future career goals and worry less about what your parents think.

You know, you can normally log into the applications for schools you'll be applying to and click through the app to get a feel for what's required. As long as you don't submit, you can just go back and forth and see what kinds of documents they require/allow you to upload. It's generally not a bad idea to do this anyway, to make sure you're not missing an important requirement.

It depends on the system but usually there is a place to either upload the documents directly onto the app or there will be some text box asking for "any other information" you want to provide the adcom (or some such). You need to check the apps for the schools you're applying to for an answer that is relevant to your case.

Dear posters, As Sigaba wisely points out, you should carefully consider what and how much information you share on the internet, here and elsewhere. Assume that everything you say can be traced back to you -- do you stand behind what you said, and would you want it to be known to everyone? If you've already posted here and would like to edit your post, please PM a moderator. Note that, in general, it is against board policy to delete posts, but we are aware that sometimes posters get carried away and over share and we are happy to edit out identifying information. So --- think twice before you post!

Your credentials overall sounds perfectly fine (I know nothing about admissions in your field, but high grades, strong LORs, research experience and publications are what you want pretty much anywhere). I'm not sure I follow how you can have 1.5 years research experience if you've only been in school one year so far, but I'm guessing it means that although you've been enrolled at your school for one year, you've been doing Academic Stuff for longer. This is something I would probably mention in the SOP because I'm sure people will have questions, and you have simple answers. Keep it short and positive ("By [stopping time/inventing more hours in the day/bending the time/space continuum/other] I am planning to complete my studies at CurrentU at the end of the current academic year. I have been fortunate to [have research experience at CurrentU and before, work with people, publish, whatnot]. My experiences have guided me to seek more training in the field of [time/space magic].")

Applying without a letter of recommendation from one's advisor is a huge red flag, as mentioned. Not having a letter from the other reader is, again, not a good sign. It takes more than just wanting it to be successful, and your advice here is simply unhelpful. This situation does require some thinking and some planning. First to figure out if applying to grad school is a good idea at all, and second to devise a plan to make it happen, if the OP decides that it is.

I understand that such short papers are not normally considered by this journal but in this case (exceptionally) they will be. But then, I have no idea what length papers in your field normally are. In my field such short papers are called "squibs" or "notes" and some journals have special sections for them, though most will just find them too short (these papers normally have different requirements than full-length papers). Why don't you just contact the editors and ask about the preferred length of the paper?

Finishing my coursework felt important in terms of my progress in my program, but not really in terms of feeling like an independent researcher. Same for defending two qualifying papers - they were the products of projects that were started very early in my career and working on them made me feel like I know more and less at the same time. Working on the first few projects and papers, I think I needed more guidance and had less of a good feel for my progress. Somewhere along the way, though, I somehow acquired quite a good sense for things like time estimates for projects, identifying choice points and making informed decisions, academic writing that will appeal to readers, and potential outcomes/pitfalls of my work. I don't know when it happened, but now I can do a lot more and be confident about it, without needing to ask for advice, or rather update my advisor about what I did instead of asking for his advice about what to do. And then recently there appeared new aspects where I am completely clueless and depend on my advisors for advice rather fully--for anything having to do with the job market. I assume and hope that I'll learn more about that process and improve over time, too. Generally, though, I think this feeling of (in)competence comes and goes in waves. You face a new challenge or you're not yet able to do something, you're insecure but you go on, then slowly you figure that stuff out and feel good about yourself, then you encounter the next challenge and are insecure again, you work at it and figure it out too, and so on. There's a lot of that both during the PhD process and after it, as a young post-doc or professor. You always learn on the job and there is usually not a lot of training that is geared towards the psychological/mental aspect of being a researcher/professor, especially when you compare it to the kind of advising you get for the professional aspects of it. So that's a thing many people deal with alone but don't talk about, and for whatever reason everybody assumes that they're the only ones having these thoughts and difficulties. I really like this TED talk by Uri Alon about "the cloud" that deals precisely with this issue (and the fact that we don't even have a good name for it, let alone talk about it freely).