fuzzylogician

Schools are sometimes slow at updating information on their websites; some never do. I'd give it more time before I contact schools if you just submitted the app but I suppose you could also try now. It also depends on when the deadlines are.

The program may not have a TOEFL cutoff but the graduate school might. Check the general graduate admissions page for each university you're applying to. The TOEFL is usually one of those things that can keep you out if your score is below some minimum but will not do much if you're above a certain threshold. They might care more in Humanities programs (though there, too, there are better ways of learning about an applicant's fluency in English than using the TOEFL score). In Science fields, AFAIK, it's really one of those things where all you need to do is pass, and doing very well doesn't contribute very much at all.

As I said. They'll try now and see what happens. Might have to wait until the summer.

As far as I know the idea is to hire someone for a period of 1 year (though I'm sure the contract is extendable if both sides are happy), normally starting in the summer. Since the money for this just came in now, they're looking to have someone start earlier, in March if possible. If they won't find anyone they'll try again in the summer when a new batch of students graduates. As for summer internships, I'm don't think those exist but it might be something they'd consider if there was interest. We can have undergraduates from MIT and collaborating institutions as RAs for credit or pay, but I don't know about other students. You can try emailing to ask - the person to contact would be Martin Hackl, you can find his contact info in various places online.

At my school you can have incompletes indefinitely (you can even graduate with some on your transcript, I think up to three) - so it's obviously different from school to school. Generally it just means you're not going to complete the course requirements on time, but you'll make them up some time after the official deadline - in your case, apparently up to one year into the future. All you need to finish is whatever was the final project/paper/whatever required for the class, not anything beyond what was required of others. Once you complete your class requirements, the professor changes your grade from an "incomplete" to whatever grade they give you. On my transcript those grades show up as I/A, so it shows that it was an incomplete that was changed into a letter grade. I suppose if you can't call him or find him in person, you should try another email after enough time has passed from the previous one. You might also want to ask around and see what experiences older students have. They might have better ways of dealing with this professor, or someone may have a meeting with him or else know when he's around. Also ask the admin people if they can help you get in touch with him. If all else fails, ask your department chair or other person of authority for help.

DGS - Director of Graduate Studies. It's a professor in your department (not a dean outside it) who is responsible for all graduate students. Who have you been working with if your advisor is on sabbatical? Is there someone you know and feel comfortable asking about this? Any professor could tell you about the procedure of taking an incomplete, or the admin staff probably know too. Maybe you need to go to the head of the department (the chair)? It depends on how your program is structured.

Some professors just suck at using email. I'd assume that's the case rather than that he's ignoring you in particular. Are you back on campus? If so, the easiest way to get his attention is stalk him and just corner him somewhere and get him to talk to you. If office hours don't work, try hanging out outside a classroom he teaches in before/after his class. Additionally, the admin people in your department might be able to give you more updated contact info than you have. But if he or you are not on campus, or you've tried and definitely can't reach him, then I think you need outside help. Depending on your program you might want to talk to your advisor or to the DGS. I assume that someone there is aware of your long absence and oked it, so that's probably the person to approach.

Wait, both users are yours? I didn't know! In any event, I looked back at the thread and I believe I was also being as helpful as I could be actually giving you advice on your SOP on the forum. But, as you say, water under the bridge.

You artfully neglected to quote my entire post, which was in reply to someone else - not you - saying they PMed me their SOP without permission and asking if that was ok. My reply is to that person. Yes, it appears in the thread you started, but it wasn't addressed to you. In any event, if it offended you, I apologize.

I think you're confused about the nature of discussions on this board. At least ones I'm involved in. I don't "confront and address" your "bad behavior." I express my opinions, when I have them. They may be different from yours, and we may discuss our differences and agree or disagree on varying matters. If I thought you were disrespecting me or calling me names, I would not take the time to reply. I have better things to do. And no, I don't think that showing solidarity with someone who describes intense feelings of hate is being helpful to them. I think that telling them they're over-reacting and there's a healthier path they could choose, difficult though it may be, is much more helpful.

And telling them your own story without giving any relevant advice is helpful? I didn't say it was easy, but I still think that ignoring the behavior and moving on is the best strategy here. (and, although not quite relevant, I wasn't speaking without experience. As a non-native speaker and a minority in America, I have some experience of my own dealing with this crap.)

Then for all relevant intents and purposes you are a native speaker of (some variety of) English. Agreed. It's one of those things you learn as you grow up. It takes work and it's not easy but getting offended really is a choice and not something that someone external can control or change in you. You have issues you care about and you have typical ways of reacting when things go wrong, but both of those are things you can change. One good place to start is to just not get into situations that are difficult; that includes not be friends with people who put you down for being 'international', whatever that means.

Your point about some people's grammar might be true but it's irrelevant. As a rule, it's true: People who acquire a language as children become native speakers of that language. They have implicit knowledge of their language that second-language learners can never obtain. It follows from the brain maturation procedure and how/when language develops. Hating someone for being condescending is really a waste of your time and energy on someone who is clearly not deserving. Best I can suggest is, grow up and move on. There are always going to be immature people who get a kick out of making others feel small. It's your choice to get offended though, and it's much a wiser choice to simply ignore such people and not be friends with them.

Glad to hear, and I'm sure the instructors would too! We invest a lot in making the undergrad ling courses fun (yet intensive and informative, as befitting an MIT course). 24.900 in particular is difficult to TA for. I hope you left your TA a great comment on his/her teaching evaluations. Undergrads don't seem to understand just how important these comments are - they go with us for all eternity when we look for jobs and when we're up for tenure, and the good comments can make all the difference. Good grades alone aren't always enough. There are roughly 40 grad students in the program - 8 per year.

Oh, I see. I understood that differently. If that's the case then by all means, you could still explain in a brief 1-2 sentence statement that you had a bad semester all that time ago but you've been doing well ever since. And indeed, that's not the kind of thing that the question you quoted is referring to. I apologize for the confusion!

I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I don't think it matters and I think it's a particularly bad idea to read too much into the wording here. OP: you say that there is a record of this academic probation on your transcript. This is not the kind of thing that will just slip by the adcoms' eyes unnoticed, and there is no reason for them to give you the benefit of the doubt - there are plenty of good qualified applicants out there who didn't commit any academic offense of any kind during their studies. You need to find a way to address this in all your applications, regardless of whether or not they have a question specifically targeting academic probation. Maybe the way to do it is by having a recommender write about it, or by having an addendum to your SOP, but whatever you do don't just ignore it and hope for the best. As for what to actually write, you didn't quite explain what the offense was, why you committed it, and what exactly your transcript shows; so you may need to tweak this accordingly. Generally, I'd suggest having a very short (=1-2 sentences) text acknowledging this past bad behavior, explaining it briefly and stressing the up-trend in your behavior and grades ever since. If it's a behavior problem, I think it'd be very important to have a recommender explicitly state that it has not been a problem for X years (or as long as they've known you, or whatever works). Precisely because it's a one-time offense that happened many years ago, you want to put it in that context and not let adcom members think up other explanations. Again, don't just ignore this. You messed up, now you have to deal with it. If you do it right, it shouldn't hold you back.

In my field - Good: 2-3 months. Normal: 3-6 months. Happens more often than should but is not considered ideal: 6-12 months.

I say it's definitely worth going to the professor and talking this out. If the point values weren't known in advance then this is indeed an unfair situation. If it's at all possible, maybe you could ask to submit the missing problem late or to do something to replace it. I think that if you show how your grade was affected by this one poor circumstance, most professors would be willing to hear you out and help you correct the situation. At least, it's worth a try.

Location fixed. OP - as MoJingly says, you should have someone look over your English. There are several instances of awkward or incorrect wording. As for the content, if you've decided you really need to address your low GPA I would suggest cutting half this paragraph and spending only one sentence on this issue. An entire paragraph is excessive. Cut the sentence: And emphatically I am onto upgrading my grades. I am aware that your university expects high standards from its students and possibly everything after it. If you keep the last couple of sentences, you should rewrite them to fit in with the first one; don't mention the "adequate financial assistance" part and also keep the self-assurances to a minimum. Your saying you're confident you'll succeed will only have limited success in impressing the adcom.

It's great that you got your first choice preference in the past, but I still fail to see how not getting it now is the result of some kind of politics. I also don't understand why you're making such a big deal out of not being asked or told before you were assigned a less preferred course. At the end of the day you're a first-year student and no one needs to get your permission to make TA assignments. I also don't think that ascribing this result to being a woman or a minority is particularly helpful. Indeed, there are many ways in which women and minorities have a harder time than white males in academia (and everywhere else) but you've yet to give me a reason to see this as an instance of discrimination.

It's great that they ask for your preferences and hopefully you'll actually get your first choice when you're more senior but I still entirely fail to see how your not getting your top choice is anything other than a simple fact of life - you're junior and other people's requests trumped yours. I don't see how your being a woman or minority is related, unless you can point out a general tendency to grant white males' requests before other people's, regardless of seniority and other legitimate factors.

Look, better no mistakes than 1-2 mistakes but typos of that nature really aren't going to be what keeps you out of grad school. Can you imagine anybody saying "we really liked X and her fit with our department, she has great research interests and would be an asset to have in our incoming cohort! ... but her writing sample contains two typos, so lets move on to the next candidate."

You probably shouldn't list either one. If you're set on listing the course, add an addendum and list all your relevant coursework (including from your BA), not just this one course. As for listing conferences you didn't present at, I would advise against it unless your field has different conventions than mine. Again, if you choose to list these conferences, be absolutely clear about them being conferences you attended but did not present at. You don't want to create a false impression that you presented at conferences where you did not - that's something that is very easy to verify.

Not sure if this is relevant to anyone here, but in case it is, you can find more information in the link below: http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-4980.html

Officially the two deadlines are the same. However, many times schools will accept a late LOR and will be much more forgiving than with a late application submission. They understand that students can't control when professors submit their letters. As long as the admissions committee hasn't met, there is a fairly good chance that your letters will be accepted, even if they are late. As for knowing whether this policy holds of any particular program is, of course, much more difficult.