fuzzylogician

I don't know, but possibly things could take a bit longer than usual. The DGS is on sabbatical (she still participates in adcom discussions, though) so things could be a tad less organized. On the other hand, they might not be.

I TAed an undergrad advanced course last year that was required of some MA students in our department who lacked previous training. These are people who I also took classes with (talk about awkward). It's customary and even encouraged for people to work together on assignments, so there were several groups working together throughout the semester. At the end of the course we gave a take-home exam....and we caught a group of 5 individuals, 2 of whom were MA students, cheating. It was very obvious--they chose the same variable names, they made the exact same mistakes in the exact same places, they (and only they) completely misinterpreted two whole questions. Even if I hadn't had to fail them, none of them got a passing grade, even with the joint efforts. Ugh. How incredibly uncomfortable it is to have to report peers as cheaters! But the worst of it was that the department preferred to sweep it all under the rug and give them the lowest possible passing grade than admit that its students were messing up so badly. I haven't seen behavior this bad in my current program yet, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to hear it exists.

I'd still suggest you do that - break it up to 6 pages and number them 1-6, and write on each page "continues on page X" or some such. The adcom should be able to piece it back together (they should know what you're doing, no?), it doesn't sound like that much of a nightmare. Attach a cover page that says "this should be read in one long line" and maybe even put a small picture of how it looks when it's all pieced together. You could also send another printed version in the mail, but since the adcom is meeting now, you want them to have all your info as soon as possible.

Is it possible to email the secretary the extra essay and have her print it and add it to your file? That would be much less of a hassle than having you snail-mail it.

Just to let you guys know--MIT linguistics is going to have its first adcom meeting this Wednesday...so I wouldn't expect decisions any time soon

Thanks for the love! It's nice to be appreciated I agree with all of the above. There are so many great people on the board! For the record, I am female, but I am very often confused for male - even in real life (it's hard to tell by my name). I've often wondered why that is...there must be some study that asks people to decide what a writer's gender is based solely on the text? If not, *ahem*, dissertation topic!

You need to distinguish between the (sad) fact that big names sometimes get more leeway than us regular folk, and the question of what is the best place for you to establish your own reputation. Being endorsed by [big-name advisor] will help you publish more than being from [insert ivy name here], for obvious reasons. If big-name thinks your work is good, reviewers at top journals are likely to follow suit. Most fields are small enough that people know each other and form opinions based on that, for better or worse. Maybe in your field there is a 1:1 correspondence between brand names and advisors, but at least in my field that is certainly not the case. By far the more important factor in your decision where to attend should be the support you'll get from your advisor, not the sparkle that goes with the school's name*. *to qualify this statement, yes, there is an obvious link between the two. But (again, at least in my field,) you'll get much further with a good dissertation from a less known school than with an average dissertation from an ivy. So, the questions to ask are: Do students from ivies publish more? Do students from ivies get hired more often/at better places? Look at people's stats who are currently holding the positions you would like to have in 7-10 years: where did they study? Who was their advisor? Aim to have a similar career path as them.

I think it's more about the people you work with than the school name (though obviously the two are connected). It's going to be easier for you to publish when you have the "seal of approval" from a major name in your field, and their recommendation will also help you get hired at good places later. Brand names are there to make your parents proud.

All of the above. Also, look at this thread and the links in it: Good luck!

That's before the applications are due. After the deadline, you're just setting up an awkward situation for both you and the POI. They'll let you know when a decision is made.

... Or you could politely contact the admissions office, say you found a mistake in your SOP and ask if it would be possible to replace it with a new version. Personally I don't think a typo or two are anything to worry about, but you don't have to "make a scene of a typo" or breath heavily to have it fixed. Asking nicely works just as well, if not better.

You could be speaking the Truth and I wouldn't care to hear you out. I'm sure from your reputation that you've been told this before, but just in case--is it really that hard to make your point without personally attacking the other posters or dismissing their views?

Your scores are good, don't worry about them. I would have said that even if you were a native speaker, but they are certainly good for an international--85th+ percentile will get you past any cutoffs. Then, as they say, it's up to the rest of the application to get you in; but these scores won't keep you out. The AW is the least important part of the GRE. You don't need to worry if you do well on the TOEFL and submit well written essays (SOP and writing sample). ETA: Wow, the percentiles have seriously changed since last year! I also got a 4.5 and the percentile was somewhere in the 50s.

ASAP

It was never about rankings for me, and by the time it came down to deciding between my two top choices, it wasn't even about fit. It was about where I felt I clicked with the people more, where I thought I could see myself living for 5 years, where I would have the best chances of securing a good job down the line. With everybody telling me I should go to the school I didn't choose, it was hard not to have some doubts. Yes, both choices were probably going to be good ones, but some post-decision second thoughts are inevitable.

The answers to your questions surely vary from department to department so no one here can really know. However, if you were interviewed by five people, it stands to reason that all of their opinions matter. I would assume that each interviewer will write a short summary of their interview with you and perhaps a recommendation of whether or not they think you should be accepted; once the interviews with all the candidates have been conducted, the adcom will meet, review everyone's opinions of all the candidates, and decide who to accept. I wouldn't worry overmuch about not hearing back after only one week, because the interview process can take some time.

I attended two open house weekends. Open house events are really about the department selling itself to you, not the other way around. You'll have meetings with professors in your field of interest, which you should use to see if they do work that interests you, and if you have chemistry with them and can see working yourself with them as your advisor. There will be breakfast/lunch/dinner events where you can meet with other prospective students and current students and get some frank information from them; and there will be tours of the university facilities and the town. You'll be able to see how current students live and if/how they get by on their stipend. They were always very honest about how they felt in the program and told me inside information about professors in my subfield (like who might be retiring, who has funding, etc). There was always a party for students and staff at one of the faculty member's homes, and there was an outing with grads alone -- really, you're given as many opportunities as possible to gather information about the school. Re: clothing, dress nice, but casual. Dark jeans, a nice cardigan and nice shoes should be fine, no need for suits or anything of the sort. You might want to have something nicer for evening outings. waylance - I was able to incorporate visits to my other schools in between these two open house events, and negotiated with the schools so that the (partial) funding I got from each of them eventually covered all of my travel expenses. The biggest expense was obviously the flight, so you want to only do that once. I know it's hard to make plans just yet, but keep that in mind and if it gets reasonably close to when you have to decide whether to attend the open house and you still haven't heard from other places, it's legitimate to contact them and ask what the status of your application is.

A small wave of "what-if..." came over me with every email I sent out declining an offer. However, I don't believe in post-decision regrets. (I do believe in pre-decision prolonged deliberations.) Every professor that got such an email from me was very understanding and even thankful that I had let them know in time so they could make an offer to someone on the waitlist. Professors know students decide between several competing offers, so they are not offended by rejection. Once you've made your decision there is no reason to delay much further--let them know as soon as you're convinced your mind is made, and everyone will be the better for it.

I have a fellowship and get payed monthly, so it seems it depends mostly on the particular department and its preferences.

My acceptances were all announced via email/phone call from an adcom member. These were followed by: - From the department: a regular sized envelope containing the acceptance letter and some funding info; - A few days later, from the graduate school: a larger envelope containing some general info on housing and such like, a form to sign+send back to let the school know if I accept/decline the offer, and in some cases, student visa forms.

It is true that schools generally care about your uGPA, in the sense that they always want to know what it was, and it carries some weight in the final decision. However, it becomes increasingly less important when: a) time has passed between undergrad and the current grad school application, then the other things you've done in the meanwhile become an important way to prove your maturity, experience, etc.. b)you have a Master's degree, which is one of the common ways to make up for a lackluster undergraduate experience. So while it's in principle possible that a school will toss your app as soon as they see the low uGPA, I think it's unlikely. The app still lists your MPH, even if not your GPA (I assume that appears on the transcripts you sent), and I assume there was also a space to list your other work/volunteer experience. I'm sure that the adcom will see these things and take them into consideration when making their decision.

Usually it's on a monthly basis, split over either 9 months (=excluding summer) or 12 months.

Congrats on your acceptance! I'm sure your professors will be very understanding of your situation...no one will prevent you from visiting a PhD program that has accepted you. As for the visit itself, even if the school doesn't fund your flight (some public schools didn't fund me last year, and this year is probably going to be just as bad), every school provided me with a host, rides to- and from the airport, a public transportation ticket for the duration of my visit, and a few lunch/dinner invites. You can probably expect the same treats

Assuming they'll want to do all the interviews at around the same time, it's probably not a good sign if you don't hear anything by the date of the in-person interviews. But then, this is just an educated guess.

This. They will probably want to have a phone interview with internationals at some point, probably around the same time they have the in-person interviews with the Americans, so invitations should go out at some point in the near future.