fuzzylogician

Moderator note, iteration #3: This discussion has absolutely no chance of being productive. Please, let's up it to rest.

(a) it's unlikely that this will make or break your application. Breath. (b) you could email someone (either at IT support if the info exists or at the department otherwise, likely the dept admin person) to say that you've noticed a typo and would they mind replacing your CV with a newer (attached) version. They may say no, but you have nothing to lose. I don't think calling makes all that much sense since they need a new version of the document. You could follow up with a call after you've emailed and waited an appropriate amount of time for a response.

No one can tell you how any one person is going to treat your 4 letters. They may read them all attentively, skim them all, choose three to read carefully, skim three, read/skim 2, etc etc. Here is my general thinking: anything you submit beyond what is required (and for what it's worth, everything that you submit, period) should serve the purpose of advancing your candidacy. There is no point in submitting a "did well in class" extra letter or a meh extra writing sample, etc. If you have four strong letters that would give your application an extra boost compared to just having three letters, that to me is a reason to submit the extra letter. Note of caution: since it's not out of the realm of possibility that someone will only read three letters, and those could be whichever three happen to be submitted first, you do want to ask yourself how your application would be affected if one (random) letter is not read. Also check if the department doesn't have guidelines that say "submit exactly three letters"; they may use a school-wide system that technically allows for more letters, but check to see that they haven't said not to abuse this function. If there are no instructions to the contrary and you think all four letters are strong, I'd submit them all. There's a small risk involved, but to me the potential benefits outweigh the risk.

I'd definitely opt for the letter from the PI on the 5th. But you should make sure they know that the letter absolutely needs to be there on the 5th and that they're okay with that.

Ask first, worry about what-if scenarios second. Write back and ask who will sign the letter. If it's co-written, I think you're generally fine. It'd be better if it came from the prof, but apparently that's not working out. If not, the question is what your alternatives are at this point. Is there an emergency contact you could ask for a last-minute email? Either way, you might write the prof again and ask if they might agree to submit the letter themselves, since that will help your application compared to a letter coming from a student. You'd appreciate their time, etc etc. I would do my best to hold back on accusations, and simply stress the benefits to your application. I'm sorry, this is unfair :/

I am not sure what the point of this post is, but it is inappropriate for a graduate school forum, and as such, I'm going to lock it.

1. I would not add references in an SOP in the first place. It's an essay about you, not a traditional paper. 2. If you do choose to ask to swap SOPs, I highly doubt anyone will count it against you. You simply say "I noticed a typo, would you agree to replace the old version with the attached, newer one". They may say yes or no, but either way that should be the end of it.

This may depend on norms in your field, but FWIW in my field, Facebook is often used for professional connections, including adding contacts that one meets at conferences who share interests with you. Nonetheless I would not reach out to someone for something like you're describing in a FB message. I'd email.

Could you just say "[first author], [Prof A], and colleagues"? or if you're citing more than one work with varying authors, you might say "in a series of publications, Prof A, along with various colleagues, argues that blah".

Probably unnecessary. Just give enough details for a reader to find the paper. E.g, Smith 2017 (Journal of Magic Unicorns) will usually be sufficient.

Most undergrads will have a fairly short CV. Look at some CVs of beginning graduate students at your target programs to get a sense of what to include. As for your questions: No need to include a coursework section unless you were asked for one. Don't include abstracts of your thesis or other projects. That might go in your SOP but not your CV. You might include very brief descriptions of your responsibilities at internships, provided that they are related to your field in some way. Are languages important for your application? How much detail to give will depend on the answer to this question (usually, the answer is "no details" but it might depend). Generally speaking, give information about Education, Presentations and Publications (as one heading unless you have enough to separate them), Grants/awards/honors, Teaching experience (if any), Research experience (if any), Service and memberships (if relevant to your field), Languages. Again, look at what others are doing in your field for the most targeted advice.

If all you want to ask is the above information, in my opinion it's too late. You've submitted your application, so nothing they say can change how you act next. What would be the point in emailing them, then? Re: your recommenders, one hopes that they will use their influence to help your application along, either through influential letters (because we tend to take our friends' opinions more seriously than strangers' opinions) or by e.g. calling or emailing their friends to talk you up. You could mention to the faculty that you are contacting that they were recommended by your PIs, but I don't think that's really going to carry all that much weight. You might have already done that in your SOP, too, and again, this is one of those places where your words won't carry half as much weight as your PIs' actions.

Does this really matter? I would take this to be one of those small errors that even if anyone notices, they aren't going to care all that much. There are other places where the dates are correct, and since sounds like a small bit of background, I don't think there is anything to worry about. If you're really worried, you can email the schools and ask to replace the SOP with a new one -- but this one had better not have any more typos in it! Frankly, I would just let it go in this case, based on what you've written here.

Perfectly fine. My dedication reads “To my grandparents and their families, who history has forgotten.” and frankly I don’t care what anybody thinks about that.

Well mostly it probably raises a question of how well you fit with the department, if you can see yourself in another department as well.

Averages vary. In the US, the stated length of most programs is 5 years, but there is lots of variation here -- if you google this you'll find averages that are much longer, especially in some Humanities and Social Sciences. An equally important question to ask is how many years of funding one gets; for that, the answer more uniformly is "5 years", in many cases. In Canada programs could be shorter if you already have an MA (e.g. only three years, again with variation). This is really something to check specifically with programs that you are interested in.

Since we're just on the back end of a holiday weekend and some people took time off for a break, one option is that she simply didn't check her messages over the holiday. Your email is either sitting there with hundreds of other emails in her inbox, or it may have gotten lost in the shuffle. It sounds like this prof has been responsive in the past, so I'd suggest assuming some kind of oversight and simply following up again in a day or two, after she's presumably had time to get back to work and clear out the most pressing emails. If all your communication in the past has been through another platform, you might just try and use that again.

It's worth considering that despite the fact that your cohort mates may admire some aspects of your work or personality, you might all benefit from you being a "normal human being with flaws" around them. If for no other reason, then so you can tell them that you appreciate that they are trying to flatter and support you, but instead it's generating anxiety and makes it more difficult for you to connect with them. And also so they learn that judging what you see on the outside is rarely the full picture, even for someone who you envy. But honestly, at the end of the day, you have to decide that you'll make friends with people regardless of how they do academically. There will always be people who are better than you (or so you think) and those who seem to do worse. That has not much bearing on whether they'll be good friends. You also need to choose to not measure yourself against others and to do your best to find friends who are the same (and they do exist!), because comparisons aren't healthy for anyone.

You're young; there is no reason why any of that should happen! (And wow, you have some unsupportive cohort mates! I hope you find a better match in a PhD program. Not everyone is like this!). And for the record, for women there is always an option of starting a family without a partner. Definitely not ideal, but not finding a partner should not stop you from having a family.

Best suggestion: make an appointment with the REB office at your institution and talk it over with them. They will usually have office hours when you can walk in, or it might be better to schedule an appointment ahead of time. I think there's a question about the nature of the data you'll collect and whether it could potentially harm anyone (for comparison, in my field we actually have a habit of thanking language consultants who we've worked with by name; but depending on what you ask, you may need to take more precautions). If there is anything potentially harmful, then the question is whether a person can be identified by their institutional affiliation and the answers they provide. If so, then you might need to omit the institution name (and ask yourself if, in that case, they are no longer identifiable), or some other identifying information.

Moderator note: chiming in to preemptively suggest that some comments are best ignored rather than replied to.

The best answer to questions of this sort is to simply go on the People page of the departments you're applying to and looking at a few CVs of professors and current grads. I would suggest concentrating on early-career graduate students, since they'll have similar contents to what you will presumably have. You'll see that there is always some variation in how people format and structure their CVs, but you'll probably also detect some trends in how people do these things in your field. (You could also run a search on this board, this question is asked fairly frequently.)

I think it comes down to the content of the letters (assuming that at least one, preferably both, of the other letters is from your current institution). What can each write? For the older one, since your MA was presumably in another field, will the content be relevant? Are there transferrable skills? Did you do meaningful research? All things being equal, I would lean toward the one who can write about your research skills over the one that is basically a 'did well in class'.

Absolutely not #1 (and not #3, which includes language from #1; see below about content). Forgive my bluntness, but I just wasted time reading two whole paragraphs of totally useless information that would not help me decide to admit you to an IR program whatsoever. Your childhood dreams, how long or uncomfortable a plane ride was, and frankly even having a bonsai tree as a child, aren't at all relevant. Yes, you can say that you've been interested in Japan since an early age and that you've engaged in various activities to familiarize yourself with the language and culture. You might even mention this early desire to study at a particular university, though I tend to think people think that's a better story than it actually is, because at 13 you have no idea if that university or career is actually right for you. But either way, you're applying for a professional program, and you are writing an essay for professionals to read. Treat it as such. Your readers will read this essay along with a couple of hundred of other essays as part of their job, not for leisure. They are looking for very specific information to decide who to admit to their program. This isn't a creative writing exercise. Be detailed and specific, but be concise and professional in your writing. Don't embellish with adjectives, don't flatter your readers, and don't forget that the point is to convince readers that you're a mature applicant that is suitable for this particular advanced degree that you're applying for. That is what your essay should concentrate on.

^ Yes, it's up to your recommender to decide if they want to update the letter. If they do, either the application IT department can help update the letter, or sometimes the department will simply ask that the recommender email the updated version to them and they can update things on their end.