fuzzylogician

If you're successful now you'll have to deal with many word/page/whatever counts in the future. Grant proposals, conference abstracts, proceedings papers, full-length journal papers - most academic writing is done under some kind of limit. If you don't meet the requirements, your work may not be reviewed/accepted; would you really risk a multi-million dollar grant for an extra 212 words? Similarly with SOPs. There are more strong applicants than open positions in any incoming cohort, and you are not more special than anyone else who is applying. Why take the risk? Everyone can get their pitch across in the alloted space, so can you.

Lets see. 1 before I started grad school - I paid by myself, slept in a hostel and got a discount from the organizers for the registration fee. 2 in my first year of grad school - one inter/national, one small student conference, both happened to be in my own city, the large one at my own university. No expenses at all. 4 in my second year of grad school - three inter/national, one small student conference. All my expenses were covered by my department through my travel funding (we get $2000 for 4 years + $500 for the 5th year). My colleagues presented our joint work in 3 other conferences: we got partial funding from two conference and one was invited. 3 so far in my third year - a small one at my own university at no cost, two inter/national; I'll use up the rest of my travel funding for that. I'll also go on a research trip over the summer, the funding for that will come from a university-internal grant. 1-2 future trips will be covered through another departmental travel-funding source. Beyond that I'll have to either pay my own way or apply for outside funding sources. ETA: in two cases, I had two posters in the same conference. That's another way to save costs..

Generally you just need to take whatever is required to graduate. That will be the main concern grad programs will have and you won't be able to start grad school otherwise. Re: language requirements, some programs might care: they might admit you ocnditioned on your fulfilling some language requirement before you begin the program in the fall, or they might just take you at you word that you are studying another language. Either way, if there are languages that you'll need in grad school and you haven't started taking yet, don't wait to start studying them in grad school even if you could. Start learning them now to save time and energy later.

There are two aspects to consider - life/friendship during the program, which above posters seem to define (roughly) as "someone who you would go out for a beer with", and collegial relationships, which is more along the lines of what I was aiming for: the ability to create a network of colleagues/friends while in the program. If you are considering a career in academe but are unable to develop any kind of network while in school, I think that is a serious problem. If none of your colleagues are acceptable drinking buddies, of course that is less of a problem (as long as you have friends elsewhere). Being an outcast for 5 years is still no fun, though, but extremes aside you should be able to develop professional relationships with students as well as professors while in a PhD program, even if you don't make best-friends there.

I bet, after just one semester, that there are still many people in your program who you haven't gotten to know well enough. Maybe people in your cohort or your lab aren't a good personality match with yours but someone in another lab or another year is? Making friends takes time, but it sounds like your personal situation isn't allowing you to stay too long on campus outside of classes and that probably makes the situation more difficult. Have you tried attending departmental events or just hanging out in common areas when there are no classes? Are you allowed to take classes with more senior students or only those from your cohort/lab -- taking classes in different concentrations could help you meet different kinds of people. You should probably give yourself more time before you decide that your program is a bad fit in terms of friends, but if you do decide that this is the case, I would not dismiss it is an insignificant complaint. The friends you will make now will be your colleagues in the future - the people you collaborate with, meet at conferences, who invite you to give talks at their schools, review your papers, etc. These connections are just as important as the relationships your form with professors. If you truly see no prospect of having meaningful friendships with anyone in your program, I think you will need to reevaluate your choice to attend your current program and find ways to professionalize more.

An honors thesis. An independent study. An internship. An RAship, even if it didn't lead to publications. A TAship. I don't know about ideal students, but those would be ways to gain extra experience.

I assume this means that you're applying to history programs? The adcom will comprise of all kinds of historians - not only specialists in South Asian history but also specialists in American history, correct? As long as you can resonably expect the adcom to be able to judge both the content and style of your work, I don't think you need to worry about submitting a paper that is not very closely related to your stated research interests.

Is it possible that you are overthinking this? Does the application actually ask for a summary of the contents of the writing sample or does just state that anything that is part of the writing sample be within the 25 page limit? FWIW it sounds like the content note you have on the cover sheet as well as the introduction would suffice as a "summary", so just keep everything within the limit and I think you're good to go!

Get yourself a SSN if you don't have one already - that can be done through the embassy before you arrive, I believe. Travel insurance is probably the cheapest insurance you can get before you have something through your university, or go without as eco_env suggests. Getting internet/cable set up can take a while so get that started as soon as you have an apartment. Getting furniture is easy - rent a truck and go to ikea. In some places the housing markets are seasonal and it could be difficult to find something in the middle of the year, so take a look at craigslist for whereever you're moving to and try to get an estimate of how long you'll need to search. In any event I would strongly recommend searching from the US and not from abroad so that you can see the apartments for yourself. Get a prepaid phone (or a contract phone) so you can contact renters. Before you come, familiarize yourself with the area you're moving to (googlemaps and streetview), so you'll have a rough idea of the neiborhoods you like, distances to public transportation, etc.

There is no way that could possibly make a difference in your accepance decisions. You can ask to send updated transcripts and you can mention your GPA if you are asked at interviews (unlikely). I would still consider both ways slightly obnoxious and furthermore completely unnecessary.

I put "in press" together with published papers. "Submitted" (I don't do "under review/revision") goes under work in progress, even though it's a small section, because I think there's a line dividing work that has passed peer review and work that hasn't yet. I also separate journal papers from proceedings papers for the same reason - conference papers are not peer-reviewed in my field (the abstracts are, but you can write whatever you want in the paper), journal papers are.

Since you just started it sounds like you'll have to reapply and start over at the new school. Your advisor may be able to virtually guarantee your acceptance but you'll probably still have to repeat the first year. If that is what you want to do - assuming that your advisor will move next year and that admissions decisions for next year are made right around now, you need to talk to your advisor as soon as possible. It may be premature for many reasons, but I think the potential for complications is high if you don't bring this up now.

Congratulations!!! In my field we use "in press" + journal name for this stage in the publication process, certainly for citations. I've also seen "accepted", "expceted" and similar expressions on CVs. The safest bet is to ask your advisor or more advanced students in your program about the procedures in your field.

Again, are you expected to only work with one professor or will you work with others beside your advisor? I don't see the need for this secrecy about your field and the answer to this very general question. Going off of what you wrote - it's safe to assume that professor B knows (or is likely to guess) that professor A has seen your application, even if B doesn't know A has contacted you. Say so if you're asked, but don't volunteer that information if it makes you feel uneasy. I always talked to several professors at each school I interviewed with and they all knew that I talked to their colleagues, but it sounds like your field may be different.

Are students expected to only work with one professor throughout their tenure at the school? In many places students work with more than one professor. In addition, it's always a good idea to have more than one person who could be a potential advisor at a given school. For one, you never know how your relationship with professor A will develop, and in addition you'll eventually have to form a dissertation committee which preferably contains people who are experts in your field or surrounding fields.

Choose whichever one makes you feel more comfortable, just to have one less thing to worry about. I don't think there will be anything wrong with the old bag -- graduate students are poor and often use the same equipment for a long time. I also don't think there's anything wrong with a designer bag, except how it makes you feel. Honestly, if you are going to be judged at a certain place for how you're dressed, would you really want to go there? You're going to be using this bag for a long time if you attend this school, so if it's going to be a problem I would think it'd be good to find out early. Really, though, I think both options are fine.

Suppose you gave your recommender a "changed" transcript and she mentions a part of it in her letter? It'll come out and you'll be disqualified for cheating. As should happen, because what you are suggesting is exactly that -- plain cheating. Both tampering with grades and leaving out lower grades IS wrong.

Because you do, and there are concequences if you don't. They just don't include expulsion right away, according to the guidelines you quoted above.

I usually stumble onto topics by coming across data I don't think is adequately explained in the papers I am reading or by coming up with new data of my own, usually following reaing a paper that I think makes some predictions that weren't tested. For more experimental work, I occasionally come across a theoretical paper that makes claims that I think it would be possible to test in the lab, and I go from there. I know some of my professors occasionally want to try out a new method and then try to come up with a problem that fits the method. Another way I used in undergrad for shorter papers was find papers on interesting topics that explicitly discussed "questions for future research" or however else they call those pesky problems that still linger in one's work these days. If it's up to you to define a topic from scratch, I can't think of a concrete way to get moving except use the readings and find corners where they seem unsatisfactory, but not hopelessly impossible. I assume you are allowed to consult with professors and peers once you've started zeroing in on a topic? working in a vacuum would be counter-productive and an unintuitive way to do research.

Does the app request that you translate your grades into the 4.0 system? None of my apps did. As far as I know schools prefer to use their own conversion standards and simply ask that you input your grads in the original scale, which will also appear in your transcripts anyway.

If you're not interested at all, you should decline. If there is a chance you could be interested but only if there is funding, ask for funding for the visit and decline if they don't have any. Schools receive polite rejections from admitted applicants all the time so they should not be offended.

Sounds like putting it in the additional information section can't hurt. I don't think it needs to be in the SOP.

That does sound a bit out of balance to me. I'd devote at least twice as long as you currently are to fit and research interests. Those are the two most important things that adcoms look for in SOPs, which may not be found elsewhere in the application. I'm not sure what's in your "why I want my PHD/why I like my major" but that's one place to cut (anything general is useless, assume everyone in your field loves FIELD; anectodes about how you discovered your field are also not going to get you into grad school. Everyone has a story and the quesiton is what you do once you decide you like the field, not how it happened). Relevant coursework and the extreneous circumstances are also places to cut a bit. Not sure what you say about courses but it should be something beyond what can be found in your transcript, if you say anything at all. So - more current and future interests and school-specific details, less past and generalities.

You did write anything about your research experience and your concentration within linguistics, and consequently how strong your SOP, letters and writing sample are. Your grades are great, but it's these other factors that will determine admissions to these top schools.

Since I got to see the text before it disappeared: for one, I felt that you had too many references. I'm not sure if the claims you are making are controversial and that is leading to the citations, or if you're just treating this as a regular academic text. If it's the latter, there is no need for the references. if it's the former, make sure the stances you take are accepted by the scholars in the department you are applying to. In many places it seemed like you were presupposing opinions and/or assuming things that one would imagine should be the result of study rather than a point of departure. But since this is outside my area of expertise, I might be completely wrong. In any event, make sure not to alienate potential advisors. I would advise to be more specific and detailed in the fit areas. Your text in that section was very vague. "students work on fascinating topics" shows much less insight than "X's work on Y is fascinating." One place to cut text to make room for this addition would be the opening paragraph, most of which was too general to truly support your candidacy. If I rememebr correctly, only the last sentence said something personal about you as an applicant, and that could be fused into the second paragraph. Good luck!