fuzzylogician

If a school has a word-limit, you DON'T want to go (noticeably) over it. The SOP is not going to be the last document you write in academia that has this kind of limit -- abstracts and papers often have similar restrictions. A reviewer (and similarly an adcom member) will simply disregard your submission if you make them work extra-hard. Why should they spend more time on your work, and why should you be given this unfair advantage over others? Bottom line: being able to convey a strong message within an allotted space is crucial in academia. Don't just ignore the requirements.

They sound excellent to me! The GRE writing is probably the least important part of the whole app. The SOP, writing sample and LORs are the most important, and it sounds like you'll have strong ones. Good luck to you and to everyone else!

OP: if you were in touch with someone in the department before you applied, you could try writing them again just so they remember you when the reviewing process begins. However, I doubt a random professor in the department will know how to deal with an error in the application software or will want to spend time learning how to do so. What you are describing is a systemic problem that must have affected the program as a whole, and there must be someone who is dealing with it there - the graduate secretary, the DGS, the dept head. It would make more sense to continue contacting them, in my opinion, and it does sound like they are taking care of the problem - though I understand your frustration with the amount of time it's taking.

I wouldn't waste space in the SOP explaining a falling out with a professor, only your joint work. It may look odd if you don't provide a letter from this professor, especially if you have a hard time coming up with three good letters without this one, but highlighting a conflict like that won't do you any favors. People will guess on their own that something went wrong if you don't provide a letter from this professor. Even if the falling out is entirely the prof's fault, I just wouldn't go there. Let the adcom wonder, and ask you in an interview if they are really interested. If you have another professor or mentor who knew you while you were working with this prof and saw how that project evolved, maybe you could have them mention that in their LOR? That would be a way around this problem, even though another prof would obviously be able to provide less accurate details about the project.

It will be different, then, based on what you describe. But different doesn't necessarily mean bad. Ivy-type schools (their grad schools, in particular) usually have a different kind of diversity than you may be used to - you will be surrounded by brilliant people from all over the US and all over the world. They will be people with diverse backgrounds and fresh perspectives on things, that you could learn a lot from. Private schools in particular can afford to attract more international students from cultures you otherwise might not be exposed to. I'm sure less people will be (very) poor, but that doesn't mean that everyone will be the same. In the end, we are all students who make just enough to get by, and none of us are rich, even if our school's endowment is considerable. It's not undergrad -- people attend a school because of fit, not just because of its name, and they get funded to do so -- so why would grad students be snobby or elitist? I'm also sure that you could find outreach programs organized by the school or by the nearby community so you'll be able to keep in touch and contribute the way you have been doing in your current school. As I said, in the end you just have to visit and see how you feel about each school, and you'll get more out of it if you keep an open mind.

The one thing I was concerned about before I accepted the offer from the school I currently attend (which meets your broad definition of "Ivy") was the social atmosphere. I'm so glad I go to visit, because my fears were completely unfounded. I do understand your concern, coming from a foreign university that's not particularly famous for anything, and getting my information about American schools from 2nd and 3rd hand sources. 'Clicking' with the students and the faculty is very important -- possibly the most important factor for a successful grad school experience -- and the only way you will know if you get along with them is to visit and see how it goes. Try it, you have nothing to lose. My department, at least, turned out to be nothing like I had worried it would be.

I declined an open house/interview invitation during my application cycle for the same reasons as yours, and I more or less 'rejected' two other schools following phone interviews with potential advisors before they got back to me but once I realized I was not interested and had better offers. It's uncomfortable to have to say 'no', but if you keep it professional no one will get hurt. You've graduated to the next stage in the application process - the one that eventually ends with you saying 'no' to all but one school. Schools are used to applicants rejecting offers and don't take it personally. Once you've decided you're not interested in a certain offer, let that school know as soon as possible, so that they can have time to offer admissions to someone else down the list or reuse the funding allocated to you for other people. Trust me, they will be grateful.

Good idea for a thread! I love the research that I do. I love the friends I have made in my program, who teach me so much -- more than classes and more than my professors. I love the professors I work with, and the support and encouragement they give me. I love the freedom to choose my research, and the freedom to work in my own times and at my own pace. I love it that they pay me to come to the office to do this every day for the next several years. My program is very demanding but it offers so many opportunities, it's hard to decide which to let go. I love the city I moved to, weather and everything. I could write about the many things that I enjoy less in my program, but in general I think I am very lucky to be where I am.

Are your deadlines in the past or in the future? Some application software allow you to add a fourth LOR directly. If you can do that, it's the easiest route to go. Otherwise, you don't have a choice and you need to contact the DGS or grad secretary and ask how to submit the extra LOR. Schools that will be willing to receive extra letters will probably let you email them directly and will tell you what address to use. Or, if you're submitting hard copies of materials and haven't sent them out yet, you could ask your writer to write a paper LOR and add it to the package. If for any reason you can't submit a formal letter, a famous contact could still be very useful if he is willing write or call his friends at your schools and put in a good word for you.

One way to demonstrate fit is to define your interests so precisely that it's clear how they interface with those of different faculty members in the department without needing to "state the obvious." A very professional SOP is probably a refreshing change from most essays which are more story-oriented, and reflecting professionalism in an academic essay is never bad. If you chose your schools correctly and you wrote a compelling proposal, you will catch some professors' eye at every school and they will want to work with them even if you didn't specifically say that their work will support yours -- because it'll be clear that it does. The other things you say you didn't mention are not critical if you don't have anything special to say about them - e.g. your undergrad career. That would be reflected in your transcripts and some of your LOR writers will have mentioned it in their letters too. So, unless the SOP prompts specifically asked for information that you didn't provide in your essay, I'd say you're fine.

I chose not to apply to schools in places that I would not want to live in precisely because of the TT market -- if I can get a good education and a good stipend from a school in a place I enjoy living in, why not take advantage of that? I probably won't have that kind of choice once I graduate, so choosing grad schools may have been the last time I could afford to be picky in that way. Five years are a lot of time, so if there are schools that are a good fit in areas you prefer living in, I don't see why you should choose a location that will make you unhappy.

No, the visa is only issued at embassies outside the US. It also can't be renewed, to the best of my knowledge. You have to have a new one issued and you have to go through the same procedure to issue it as you did the first time around. The visa is the document you use to enter the US, and it needs to be valid at the point of entry. It can expire during your stay in the US but you'll still be in status as long as your I-20 is valid. The first time you leave the US you then have to pass by the embassy (preferably in your home country, I've heard stories of people being refused treatment when they tried to go to the embassy in Canada, for example) and have a new one issued before you can reenter.

Unfortunately in this situation they have all the power and you have none. If you haven't contacted them since you submitted all your paperwork then probably what you need to do is contact the embassy and ask for a status update, maybe there was some mistake or something got lost, or they are swamped and it takes a long time to get an appointment. From all I've heard embassies are usually understanding when it comes to grad students who attend reputable schools. However, you need to be careful not to irritate anyone by contacting them too often. If for any (unlikely) reason your visa is refused, you'll be in a great deal of trouble. Have you tried contacting the international student office at your university? They might be able to assist, or at least tell you what your next move should be.

It sounds like they just want a short note to know to take you into consideration when they allocate funding. Tell them when and where you served and possibly add a short description of what your work included. It doesn't need to be more than a 2-3 sentences.

Here are some older threads for you to read for more information about your situation. Getting a high verbal score and a low AW is apparently not all that uncommon, and the general advice seems to be that it's not worth it to retake the test or to pay or a rescore as long as you can submit a writing sample and your SOP is well written. Just make sure that the schools you are applying to don't have AW cutoffs (I've never heard of any, but apparently they do exist).

It sounds like you've made up your mind to leave, and if so then I think that transferring or reapplying after getting the MS is your best option. It shouldn't be difficult to explain the change in your interests and the subsequent need to reapply in your PhD applications. The only thing to watch out for is to stay on good terms with your current professors, who you will need to get recommendation letters from. That means that you should be open and let them know well in advance that you are planning to leave, and why. Seek their advice about how to finish the MS in the best way possible, and about where to apply next if that's relevant. Concentrate on continuing to do well in your current program while you are there, and getting LORs that support you in your new route once you leave.

None of us sit on admissions committees and can really know, but if I had to imagine what I would say I think that "hard working" is good but "masochist" is bad. Yes, a lot of hard work is required in grad school, but as you say there is an increased risk of burning out. Not to mention that being too enthusiastic is not always such a good thing. It's hard to believe that anyone can sustain that level of enthusiasm for a full 5 years without having anything else in their lives. Overworking is the sure way to burn out, really, and I don't think that as such, it's anything to stress out in your application. Grad school is a marathon, not a sprint. Beside all that, I can't see how you would mention any of those masochistic "anecdotes" in your sop in an endearing way. I wouldn't say they are particularly "cute" stories; they would be weird and stand out around what should otherwise be a professional document. So, the fact that you did more than you were required to do should be noticed by looking at your transcript, or it could be mentioned by LOR writers, and it should be seen as a good thing. But I wouldn't suggest addressing it directly in any way.

I downloaded a template off the internet and had a friend help me get things set up initially. It's just one page, nothing fancy, and I know just enough HTML to be able to make minor changes and keep things up to date. For my purposes, I think it's great.

I don't know about that school specifically but in general from what I understand electronic submission sites usually include a section with some general questions for the recommenders to fill out (equivalent to the reference form for paper-based letters) and then space for them to type in or upload their actual letter. There should be clear instructions on the website and recommenders are versed in writing letters so they should know what's expected of them.

My department used to be competitive in that way and isn't any more. To me, a supportive, non-competitive atmosphere is one of the most important considerations in the choice of graduate school -- along with the choice of advisors. If you don't enjoy being around your peers, you will suffer in a program, even if the academic support there is excellent. The lack of a social life will make it hard to do well in such a program. To anyone who is still in the process of applying -- the social atmosphere is crucial to a balanced life in grad school, but can be hard to investigate. My program, for example, has an undeserved reputation for being competitive, when it is not that at all, at least in recent years. Once you are admitted to a program, everyone will be much more forthcoming. Talk to as many students as possible, particularly students who are currently in their first or second year, and ask them about social life in the department. It's no less important than knowing how demanding your potential advisor is, how many classes you will have to take or how much rent in the area costs.

Schools are usually tolerant when it comes to late LORs. Professors get more leeway with being late than the applicants themselves. In addition, today is the first day everyone will start coming back from their holiday break and even though the deadline was two weeks ago, I doubt adcoms have started looking at apps yet. Don't worry. In all likelihood your chances haven't been affected at all by this mishap.

As LJK wrote, when you talk to your advisor, concentrate on presenting your perspective, not on criticizing his actions. It's a very good idea to approach this as a new-semester-evaluation-talk. But before you have that conversation, I think you need to take a step back and do some thinking. Decide how you want your work/life to look, and then figure out what would need to change in order to get to where you want to be. Don't talk to your advisor before you're very clear about what you want. It's very hard to compare your work to others, especially when you're new and aren't very familiar with other first-year students' work. Having just started, already working with your advisor on co-authored papers is very good progress. There is another recent thread in this forum about someone who is upset about never being invited to write with their advisor, let alone in the first year. You should appreciate this fortunate aspect of your situation.. However, it may be that you've taken on too much work - what with starting a new program, taking classes and also working on papers. Although it's very hard to make this choice, you may need to decide to reduce your workload in some way - either by spreading your classes more or by withdrawing from some project or other that you are involved in (or, as I suggested before, by doing less work for those projects - either by officially asking to do less or by being late with your assignments; it seems like that is exactly what your advisor is choosing to do). You can try and address your advisor's tardiness in roundabout ways. Is he late because some other particular meeting runs long just before yours, because he is coming from some other place, or is it just always the case that he is late for meetings? I'm afraid you can't change him, but you can ask for a longer meeting if you are constantly not getting through everything you want to because there isn't enough time left. You could perhaps change the location of the meeting, or you could ask him to come get you from your office/lab when he is done with the previous meeting and can start yours, so you don't have to waste time waiting for him. Your advisor generally sounds like a very busy person. You and he may have unrealistic deadlines for yourselves for what needs to get done. Maybe part of adjusting your expectations should be deciding how long he takes to read your work and comment on it, or just giving you a time estimate so you can plan accordingly. Since it's too late to reapply to new programs right now anyway, I think it'd be best for you to plan for trying to improve your current situation in the coming semester; you can think about reapplying in the summer, if things don't improve by then. Ideally you could spend this semester [a] meeting new people, getting better perspective on where you stand with relation to others in your department, and generally having a social life; deciding whether or not you can see yourself working with your advisor for another 4-5 years, and [c] getting to know other potential advisors within your program. If you do decide to transfer, changing advisors within your program would be the best course of action. Talk to the person who did this before you and get advice about how to approach that process. For the actual meeting with your advisor: I find it helpful to play the whole conversation in my head several times, since I also tend to get emotional in these situations myself. I tell friends what I am concerned about - that way I practice parts of the conversation out loud; they help bring perspective and potential answers that I would want to prepare for. I also always wait until enough time has passed that I am no longer upset like I initially was about whatever the situation may have been, which also helps to bring perspective about what's important and what I should forget and let go. I always come with a piece of paper that contains a list of everything I want to say, with keywords highlighted. And, if I feel I may get too upset, I actually warn the other person that I'm upset and apologize that I may get emotional - but that I am being very serious. I hope this was helpful. Good luck!

I've never been on an adcom and I couldn't tell you what adcom members are likely to do, unfortunately. I doubt that your anecdote would make anyone disregard your application, especially if the prompt specifically asked for that information; I just think that what you wrote doesn't provide enough relevant information to make adcoms excited about accepting you. That would be in the rest of your SOP. So, the impact:length ratio of these paragraphs is pretty low. Again, I don't think they are hurting you, either, except for maybe placing too much emphasis on your past instead of on your future. I've had discussions with professors about abstract-writing and abstract-reviewing, which I imagine is a similar situation to SOP-reading, and what I've been told is to imagine that the reviewer is tired, hungry, doing his reading at the last minute and will not spend more than precious minutes skimming each submission. You want to help them by being clear and concise, and you want to lead with the important details. In an SOP that means - what you want to study in general (subfield) and what interests you in particular (specific questions/areas), and then how your background prepared you to study those questions and why you want to go to school X (fit: who you want to work with, what resources appeal to you, etc); plus other information, as is requested and as is relevant. Additions that don't contribute to your "argument" (why you should be admitted) are simply not helping your cause.

You spend too much space on this anecdote. I'm not saying not to use it at all, but you're basically spending two whole paragraphs on it, which I am guessing is about a third or so of your SOP. That's completely off balance. What's more, the details of what the topic of the discussion was exactly, what resources you used to find it, the precise session in which you made up your mind to go to grad school -- those things are almost entirely irrelevant. Certainly they won't convince an adcom to admit you to their program. These two paragraphs read like your conclusion; if that is the case, then I think that they are out of place. Really, the only thing that is relevant in them is your precise interests, which you should move to the beginning of the SOP and expand on significantly. Your goal of becoming a professor can remain in the closing paragraph, but it can be tightened and made sound less naive. I hope this doesn't sound too harsh but you should condense this to no more than 1-2 sentences and lose all the fluff. Concentrate on the specific issues that concern you and how you will study them in grad school. Your autobiographic story of how you developed that interest is much less important than what you want to do with it, now that you've discovered it.

In my field it's not very common for professors to publish with their students, at least on anything that is purely theoretical. It's much more common in experimental work - in fact, I am writing a paper with one of my professors right now, and at least one more paper are in the making. The original idea for the experiment was the professors but I developed the idea, came up with the actual experiment and with the theory for interpreting the (unexpected) results, and I'm first author on the paper. The other paper is based on my idea and I have been encouraged to pursue it. I don't feel like I've been given any favors (=invited to publish with the prof in order to "give me a leg up", as you put it). I think I deserve the credit on my work. My professors from undergrad and MA programs gave me excellent recommendations and made efforts on my behalf which helped me get accepted to some excellent PhD programs in the US. I'm sure my current profs will give me excellent references when I graduate as well. I'm sure they would help me contact people if I couldn't get in touch with them myself, but usually I'll just write a professor at another university by myself if I need anything, I don't ask for an introduction. At conferences it's more or less the same - I'll usually introduce myself, though I've been lucky enough to have profs introduce me to their friends, who are prominent figures in our field, on a couple of occasions. I never asked for the introductions, I was luckily standing nearby and I guess they were discussing something related to joint work of ours. OP: I'm not sure I understand what your friend is disappointed about. If it's about not being encouraged to publish, I understand that it's difficult because as students we can't always tell if our work is advanced enough or even good enough. But at least in my case, if I ask then I get clear answers. Has your friend tried asking his advisor about publishing? If the problem is about not publisthing with the advisor, well, that really depends on the situation but first of all it's not automatic, and second of all that's something he should have investigated before he decided to attend his current program. He can't just expect the prof to want to publish with him. Same for introducing him to people--did he ask and the advisor refuse to introduce him to someone, or is he expecting the professor to do his networking for him? It's easy enough to check a prof's publication record and find out how often they publish and if they publish with their students. Just go on their webpage or google their name in google scholar. An advisor who is active and respected in their field is very important not only for providing useful guidance during the writing and publishing process but also for providing your work with the credibility that is attached to famous names. You don't necessarily have to publish with your advisor -- in my field it's clear enough who you worked with based on the department you study in and from reading the acknowledgments in your papers. Being backed by someone famous certainly helps getting published and gaining a name for oneself. However, different advisors have different ideas about pushing students to publish. Some profs I know won't say anything on their own initiative but will provide advice about when/where/whether I should publish if I ask. Others will tell my themselves that they think e.g. that I should submit project X to conference Y. Again, it all depends, but it usually pays to actively ask for what you want much more than to sit by and wait for things to magically happen.