fuzzylogician

Look, no one can promise that a low AWA score won't hurt your application at all, but the general wisdom is that it's the single least important component of the entire application packet. You have a high GRE verbal score; you'll have an SOP and a writing sample to demonstrate your writing skills directly; you could have one or more of your LOR writers talk about your writing in their letter, and if you're international you'll have a TOEFL writing score as well. Each of these components is a better testimony of your writing than the GRE writing score. My advice is not to worry about it, and concentrate your efforts on making the other parts of your application shine. Also, there are numerous other threads on this forum about low AWA scores which you can find using the search function. Here are just a few of them:

My department maintains a public calendar with things like talks, events, conferences, deadlines for abstract submissions, etc. It's updated by several professors and students and I find it very useful for keeping track of what is going on in the general area of my university and in my field. A tech-savvy friend of mine also set up an RSS feed that updates users about upcoming conferences/deadlines. Our field is small enough that there is a website with updates about all of the conferences that could be relevant to linguists in general. Maybe there are resources like that out there in your department/field that you are not aware of? Even in the absence of shared resources, I find that creating a calendar entry for the deadline that includes a URL of the call for papers is very useful. Also, I sometimes use good old fashioned pen and paper lists. Those have the advantage that you can cross out completed tasks like finished abstracts and papers, which I find very satisfying..

This may not be relevant to the general discussion of immigrants but I just wanted to point out that not everyone who studies abroad thinks of themselves as an immigrant. Many plan to return home once they've completed their studies; and while personally I don't think that's a good reason to avoid contact with the culture one's currently living in, I do know a number of students who are expressly uninterested in getting too involved. They're here to study, they're going back as soon as they can, why should they learn more than they need to about another culture?

I can't tell you the AW score doesn't matter at all, but I think it's safe to say that it's the least important component of the whole application packet. You'll have a writing sample and a SOP and in many cases, recommenders are asked to comment on non-native speakers' language abilities in their LORs, so you may get support of your skills there too. There's also a writing section in the TOEFL exam which is somehow easier to get through than the GRE writing sections (that was my impression, at least). I can hardly see anyone saying 'he has great essays and recommendations and a high TOEFL score but his AW is low so we can't accept him.' Really, If the rest of the writing "evidence" in your app shows that you are a competent speaker, that should be enough.

Where are you be going? Maybe this old thread could be useful:

I know, it's not quite the same as racking up 11 bad reputation points with a total of just 16 posts. But it's something.

No offense to the two posters above me, but judging people who post to this forum is completely unhelpful and is not in the spirit of theGradCafe. Many who start this process are insecure and underestimate their chances, and many international applicants initially don't understand how the US grad school application process works. There is a lot that is hard to understand and is unintuitive for people from higher education systems that are different than the American one. Not to mention how many Americans don't know understand how the process works either. No one can estimate how successful anyone will be, regardless of their stats, and it's completely acceptable to ask what you call silly questions. We don't claim to be experts here but we can offer some advice some of the time, or at least help posters decide who to address their questions to, if we can't help. You're both new to this site but if you spend some time in the GRE forum you'll learn that insecurities and retake questions about genuinely high scores are actually pretty common. If the OP is lying about their stats, then the answers they will get here will be useless for them. Others may still benefit from them, which for me is always a reason to give the OP the benefit of the doubt and write a serious reply. Or you can just choose not to reply if you don't have anything useful to contribute. I understand that some people want to brag and/or don't want to admit that they got low scores, but still, it's an anonymous forum. In any event, I don't think it's all that difficult to understand how someone could get a high score in one section of the GRE and a low score in another: they test different skills. Writing could be more difficult for a second-language learner than memorizing "difficult and uncommon words." I could also link to numerous posts about the outrageous way in which the writing section is scored and to outraged posters who got low scores that they think they don't deserve. But this is beside the main point, which is: please only reply to posts if you have something to contribute to the discussion, and not otherwise. This is what has made this site so pleasant and successful in the past.

This is a question for your co-authors or other professors, preferably ones who sit on the adcom in your department. In some fields co-authored papers are the norm and you're hardly likely to find any single-authored papers. In others, co-authored papers are rare and people have a harder time understanding the nature of the collaboration. First-authorship means different things in different fields too (as do contributions that merit second-authorship, etc) --are these conventions clear within your field? Do you expect the adcom members to understand these conventions? Do you expect people who are unfamiliar with these conventions to also read your writing sample? Even if you only put your advisor's name on the paper because it's customary in your field, people in other fields may interpret it to mean that they did part of the work on the paper. If the assumption is that the work was shared, your readers won't be able to judge your contribution. They can't assume that any specific part of it was yours, so there is nothing unique in the paper that can be attributed to your research abilities. Since the purpose of the writing sample is to demonstrate your research skills, that is an unfavorable eventuality. Does the paper specify each author's contribution? Will your co-authors write you LORs and explain your contribution? Even with clarifications, I would guess it's probably better to submit a single-authored paper, if you have a good one ready; you should make sure it's acceptable before submitting a joint paper as your writing sample, even if it is your best paper. Ask someone who has admissions experience in your field for the most reliable answer.

But the best outings are the ones you don't plan Seriously, no, you probably don't need the passport. I personally prefer to always leave it safe at home than to carry it with me. I like to have some sort of identification on me, but a school ID is usually enough. I don't know if it's enough for bars, though. Probably not, but you could try, in case it also has you birth date on it. Otherwise don't even try.

Most likely, the immigration officer will staple it for you. They've always done that every time I've entered the US so far. They always staple it to the same place--the page across from the visa--but probably any page will do. Maybe you could use a paper clip if you're worried about holes. I just looked at my passport, and yes - I do have ugly holes in that page. No one ever seemed worried about that.. You should see my I-20, though, it looks like such a mess that they may not even notice the small staple holes You should carry some form of identification, in my opinion. I don't know if it has to be a passport, though. If you don't drink and don't ever plan to sit at a bar with friends who drink, or cook anything with wine or buy certain kinds of medication, maybe you don't need any kind of ID. But I think it's wise to have the option to go to a bar anyway - even if you never go out with friends, you may want to have that option for conferences where people go out in the evening. You don't want to be left out because you can't go out with the group.

THIS. If they don't do it themselves, staple the I-94 to your passport and don't lose it. Next time you leave the US (except to go to Canada, I believe), make sure that someone at the airport takes it from you -- this is what documents the fact that you left the States. Every time you enter the US you'll get a new I-94, and every time you leave you have to give it to the airport officials. There's a procedure for recovering an I-94 if you lose it and there's also a procedure for if you forget to give it back before you leave the US, but you really don't want to have to do that. As for identification, it's an excellent idea not to use your passport. You can use an ID from home that has your birth-date on it or you can get a state ID (liquor ID) after you arrive in the US. I've personally found that things go much smoother with the local ID, but it may depend on how your ID from home looks and how easy it is to understand--so you can just try showing it at bars a couple of times and seeing how people react.

A DWIC letter is as you say, one that only talks about your grade/class performance and doesn't add much about your general abilities as a scholar. They reflect the fact that the writer doesn't know the student too well and/or doesn't have anything insightful to say about their research potential. From what I read, it's acceptable to have an ok letter as your third letter, provided that your first two are strong, if you don't have any other options. I imagine it's also less harmful to have a DWIC letter for an MA than for a PhD, because by definition you have less experience, hence less to write about. In general I don't think it's the kiss of death to have one DWIC letter, but it's probably not a good sign if all of your letter writers can't say anything more about you than the grade you got in their class.

I use google calendar to keep my schedule -- I could never remember everything I have to do without some kind of calendar! In the past I used to have a small moleskin I would take with me everywhere but now that I switched to the online variety I have to admit that it's much more convenient. I love to-do lists so I keep several of them. There is nothing more satisfying than crossing off something I've achieved, and I don't know of a better way to keep track of all my chores. I maintain a long-term to-do list on a dry erase board near my desk, and I also use a small legal pad for my day-to-day chores. Recently, though, I've taken to simply keeping lists as gmail drafts. That way they go with me when I switch machines and when I go away from the office. I've tried some fancy notes software but in the end I keep going back to simple documents.

Not that you don't have a point but in the midst of a big move to another country--often another continent--where the language, culture, food, customs, money system, transportation system, (I could go on) ... are different, there is some comfort to at least having some friends who understand your culture and where you're from. It takes a long time to learn the local slang and to be completely understood by people from another culture, and some things are really not transferable. There's a common background that people share who grew up in the same place that others may not be able to understand. I'm obviously not suggesting that you should only have friends "from back home," but it can help ease the transition. Often I find that any kind of "foreign" student will be easier to form initial bonds with than "locals," just because of the shared difficulties and the fact the everyone starts out anew. In America, funnily enough, this definition can also apply to Americans who have moved from a far away part of the country. And, of course, there is no reason that "locals" can't become your friends too.

Yep, that's actually what I drink now too, and I love it.

hm, I don't really know and I suggest you don't worry about it until you are actually in that situation (most treaties are much better..). I only know about it because the issue of funding and treaties came up in a recent student meeting in my department so I've been talking to money people about it. I don't know if it's possible to not claim a treaty (it may be, thinking about it) and anyway it may still be more desirable to have the money to yourself instead of paying it to the government right away--maybe you could earn some interest on the money for those three years--but it's absolutely no fun to suddenly find out that you have to pay a whole lot of money so it's important to learn about these things.

At the office we have a fancy nespresso machine and the pods are much less expensive than going to Starbucks/others, so I do that. At home I brew my coffee on the stove, the old fashioned way. I guess I still can't get used to American coffee, so most places aren't even an option for me anyway. It's only very specific places that make (what I consider to be) good coffee, but they're too expensive and out of the way to go to on a regular basis. Yeah, one day I hope to own a fancy espresso machine of my own

That's not necessarily true -- it depends on the source of your funding and the definition of your status. If you're getting a fellowship, you don't get a SSN. If you're on an assistantship, you may be able to get one. More generally, you get a SSN if you get payed for work, and you don't otherwise. It's complicated, though: you may serve as a TA but still be on a fellowship and therefore not be able to get a SSN. Some people prefer to be on a fellowship for a number of reasons - being on a fellowship allows you to work in addition to TAing (whereas if you're on an assistantship it's automatically defined as if you're working the maximum allowed number of hours per week that international students are allowed to work, regardless of how many hours you actually work), and it's usually better for tax reasons which I expand on below [i've been learning about funding sources and tax treaties recently in my capacity as student rep for my department, so I know what I'm talking about here, at least for my school; I assume that these money issues are general but as always, you should find out for yourself]. The money people in your program will be those who know best about your funding and SSN options. You don't have to have a SSN to pay taxes: people who can't get one are assigned an ITIN number which is used for the purpose of identification with the IRS. As for tax treaties, it's helpful to straighten it out with payroll right away but if they do deduct more taxes from your income than they should, you'll get it back when you file your taxes in April. Again, how much you'll get back may depend on the source of your income. In most cases, countries that do have treaties with the US have better conditions for fellowships than for assistantships. But be sure to read about the treaty your country has with the US or ask other students in your program; in some cases, the treaties may not be that helpful at all. For example - I know of treaties that are valid for e.g. 3 years and give a full refund on all taxes, but state that if you stay in the US for more than 3 years you have to pay back everything you were refunded. You don't want to get hit with a bill for several thousand dollars down the road, so it's good to know these things now. Or in some cases, the exemption is from an amount so low that the treaty will never apply to you. But in other cases you can save several thousand dollars by being on the right kind of funding so it's definitely worth knowing the details and being proactive. There are many factors that go into deciding what kind of funding each student gets, but you can at least try and ask to be on the kind that helps you most.

Well, it's still early in the application season so if you have a full draft ready, maybe you should set them aside for a while and return to them with a fresh perspective in a couple of weeks. I'm sure you can still work on the body of the essay and polish it. Aside from that, I think you should seriously think about the questions I asked above and answer them for yourself. There are two general approaches to the SOP intro, both work at different times for different people. One is using a "hook," anecdote or some short story that's unique and catches the reader's eye. Usually these stories are about some discovery moment - how you got interested in the field, when you first thought of the question that you are now going to grad school to answer, etc. There are some very good hooks out there, but it's very easy to miss the mark and come off as unprofessional. That's why it's important to let professors read your intro and make sure it's a good one. The other strategy is to open with some research questions or interests that you want to explore in graduate school. Personally I prefer the latter approach - I find it more professional, and it addresses the readers' needs better. Think about your readers: they pick up an SOP after having developed a basic interest in a student, probably skimming through his/her transcripts and the rest of his/her file. Now they want to know what that student is interested in studying and whether the school s/he applied to is, in general, a good match for those interests. If they find that s/he has well thought out questions and developed interests in mind, the adcom will want to pick up his/her LORs and see what their colleagues think of that student as a researcher. So the SOP is key to getting your ideas across and convincing the adcom that you will fit well in the program. In some programs that involves getting an advisor's support before you even arrive and in others not, but in both cases you will want to demonstrate that there is faculty at the school that you can work with. One way to do that is to highlight your overlapping areas of interest, and starting the SOP with those interests should catch people's eyes. It's a professional way of getting right to the point without losing any space on unnecessary details.

No offense, but both version are very banal and are pretty much what any good advice I know of says to avoid. It states the obvious (the adcom will know you have a passion for polisci, let's assume as a starting point that every phd applicant does), it mentions childhood experiences, and it's completely generic. It commits the sin of telling instead of showing (your passion). It does nothing to set you apart from other applicants or teach the adcom anything new about you and your interests. Like every other part of your SOP, the introduction should say something unique and new; for example, did that lecture you wrote about spark an interest in any specific question or subfield? Can you define the specific questions it raised in you or the ones it led you to develop? Can you explain why you have these interests? Identifying relevant areas of research will be one of the first things readers of your SOP will be looking for, and if your interests fit the school and its strengths they can be what keeps your readers from putting down your essay and moving on to the next applicant. In any event, I suggest you leave this part until after you've developed the rest of your SOP -- including a long and hard look at your narrow interests and the questions you are interested in. Don't worry about the intro and the conclusion until you have the body of the essay mostly done.

General name recognition is important, but what's more important is whether or not future employers you are thinking of know UIUC. As far as rankings are concerned, I would advise you to ignore them. The relevant question is what you want to study and how each of these schools fits your research interests and agenda. At this stage in the game, if both are reasonable matches - why not apply to both and see how it plays out? (sorry I can't help with specific info about either school)

Yes. I don't know how you get it (I didn't have to) but it can't be too complicated.

You can get a SSN if you're on a J-1 visa. On an F-1 visa, AFAIK you can't get a SSN if you're on a fellowship - you have to be working and getting a salary, so the question is where your stipend funding is coming from. The administrators in your program should be able to tell you that. It may also be possible to get a part-time job in your department/school that will allow you to get a SSN - e.g. working at the library, in the office, etc. It doesn't have to pay much, it just has to be an actual salary, as opposed to a stipend. Even if you don't get a SSN right away, though, it's entirely possible to get by without one. Even with one you're not going to have a credit history so you may have to pay higher deposits and some landlords may like you less. But otherwise you should get one if you can, but not worry too much if you can't. You need to get a waiver if you can't in order to be able to be issued a State ID (sometimes also known as a liquor ID), but it's not hard to get. I'm sure the International Student Office, administrators in your program or older students can tell you what to do.

If you connect to a wifi network, you don't have to pay anything when you surf. That's what I do - I almost always use wifi and don't pay extra for internet. If you want to connect to the internet when there is no available wifi, you have to pay an internet service provider like Verizon. If you have an unlimited plan, it doesn't matter how much you surf. If you have a prepaid plan then you pay according to how much data you downloaded and uploaded, so you pay more if you surfed longer or on heavier sites. Checking your email and when the next bus will come won't cost much.

The letter should be about your work, not about your grade. The grade matters much less than the prof's opinion of your research. If you think you impressed him and he will write you a strong letter, go ahead and ask him. He may spend some ink on his grading policy--especially if the grade you got is high for his class--but it's actually much more important that he emphasize your research skills and your potential to succeed in a grad program, regardless of your grades. Grades aren't going to be what gets you into a good program anyway. It's all about research skills and fit with each program.