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fuzzylogician

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Everything posted by fuzzylogician

  1. I've been resisting the urge to write something like this for 3 hours! Thanks coyabean
  2. It's fine to submit the electronic app before the supplemental materials. If you'll scroll down the forum topics a few days back, you'll find a post asking about the exact opposite - submitting the materials before the app itself. Most people seemed to think it would be better to do it your way - app first, materials second.
  3. All of my programs required three letters. I ended up submitting four because at one point close to the deadline one of the original three writers started to seriously flake and I was afraid of being stuck with only two letters. I don't think it damaged my application in any way. I was, however, prepared for the eventuality that only the first three letters would be read. I made sure that this fourth letter arrived at least third (=that the first two letters, which I was sure were very strong, arrived first) so that either this new LOR or the one from the flaky prof would be the ones not read. I also listed the letters in the order I wanted them read in my online app. So, bottom line, four should be fine. If you have the time, contact the schools to make sure. And, be aware that schools might choose to only read three letters, so if there is one that is substantially weaker than the others, it might not be worth it.
  4. I didn't end up getting a J1 but I did seriously research that option. All the universities that offered me a J1 presented that option after I had been accepted, when they sent the visa application forms. In them, I could choose between an F1 and J1 - just tick the box for the visa I wanted. I don't remember there being a question about this on the applications. But pretty much all the programs that got as far as sending me the documents did have that option. You could contact your prospective programs and ask if they issue J visas - it's an important factor that might cause you not to apply to a school to begin with. Current students might also be a good resource - you could go online, find married international students and ask them.
  5. I'm both nr#3 and nr#12. Huh.
  6. It varies, as people have said. The programs I applied to usually had a 2 page limit, which depending on the spacing you use could be up to around 1000 words. My SOPs were around 800 words, which I thought was a good length. It was less than two pages long, and I had enough space to talk about my MA thesis, research and teaching experience, questions I wanted to explore in grad school and fit.
  7. This pretty much sums up how I feel on this subject. Why ask for advice if you're just going to ignore it?
  8. All things being equal, a letter from a famous professor will get you much further than one from an unknown professor. Certainly, if an authority figure within your field is eager to endorse your candidacy (write a strong letter, call friends, mention you in conversations with admissions officers at your prospective schools) - that's a hands down winner. These people's endorsement carries much greater weight than that of an obscure professor at an unknown university. Unfortunately, though, things are seldom this simple. In most cases you will be weighing a stronger letter from a less known professor against a decent-but-not-great letter from a known professor. That's a hard call and will come down to the individual factors - how famous is the professor? how much weaker will a letter from her be compared to your other option? There's no simple rule of thumb that covers all the cases.
  9. I sent transcripts and GRE scores long before I submitted my any of apps and everything was matched correctly. Usually there shouldn't be any problem - when your first credential arrives the grad school will open a file in your name, and then everything new should be updated there. Of course things can get lost, but that also can happen after you submit your formal application. The same thing could be lost more than one time... it's happened before. Personally I think the chances of something getting lost increase the closer it is to the deadline, because the flow of materials increases exponentially towards that date. I would say, you don't necessarily have to wait, but do make sure that you send everything in one package, to the extent that it's possible. That'll decrease the chance of things getting lost.
  10. I imagine the schools will know the report is yours because it'll have your name on it. Some schools have systems in which they update received materials, others don't. It depends. But in any case it normally takes the schools a LONG time to update the site, assuming they have one. None of my materials were updated before the deadlines, and some never were. Try to look online and see if the schools have some preference regarding applicants contacting them to find out if materials have been accepted. Some don't mind, other do. Some say that they will contact you if anything is missing.
  11. Your thinking process seems sound to me. You can choose to only send the score report to the one school that requires it, and decide later whether to send it to the other schools after you see the actual scores. Caveat: if you do that, you will have to pay for the reports - you only get the 4 free ones during the test, not after. Another thing to think about: for the programs that don't require a score, how do they word this? Sometimes "highly recommended" really means "required".
  12. If you can get the transcript issued in English, I don't think you need any "certified translation". I think that's only for when you submit a transcript in a foreign language. One of my transcripts was from a school that operated in similar way to yours - It was basically a pdf file that I complied and printed myself. What I did to make sure it was official and met the US schools' standards was convince the departmental secretary to: a) print the file on school letterhead b ) put the department's stamp on each copy c) put each copy in an official school envelope d) seal the envelopes and stamp+sign the flap If you're on good terms with your secretary/advisor, maybe you could do something similar. I think it's probably safer than having that online verification thing, because I imagine most programs won't bother doing that.
  13. Start at the very top: what does the SOP prompt ask about? Do you answer everything? You are applying from another field -- what caused your interests to shift? What prepares you for work in this new field? Any relevant background, coursework, etc? (For an applicant from an outside field, these questions are really tantamount to: "how do you know this is what you want, if you've never done it before?" You want your SOP to answer that implicit question). What do you want to do with your degree after you graduate? (notice that this is different from what you COULD do with the degree. You talk a lot about the opportunities this degree will afford you, but not about what do you actually want to DO with them - which of these many options you talk about are the ones that make you want to get the degree?) Why that specific school? Any interesting faculty? Courses? Facilities?
  14. I'm sorry if this is harsh, but this essay is a good example of what not to do. This essay is repetitive, contains mostly irrelevant information, and doesn't tell the admission committee anything that will convince it to accept you. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that being happy in school is something most applicants will have in common. It doesn't separate you from the crowd, and doesn't tell the school why you want to go THERE specifically. Again, you're speaking in generalities and stating the obvious. This paragraph is going to be true of all applicants. Why are you special? "relegated" is probably a bad choice of verb. That screen saver story is an irrelevant anecdote. You also don't want to be talking about envying other people. Nothing in this paragraph tells me anything substantial about who you are or why you want you degree. I envy the astronauts that went to the moon, but it's not like I'm going to start training for the next Apollo mission or whatever. What specifically drives you to follow this interest in engineering? Finally you talk about your credentials. But here too, you speak in generalities. The adcom will know that successfully completing a Math degree means that you have good analytical and logical thinking (but most other applicants will as well). It'll also be clear from your transcript that you took a course in chemistry and physics - I'm sure that'll be true of enough applicants, and besides you're not telling the adcom anything it didn't know before. You promise to be good...but why should anyone believe you? Your essay didn't contain anything to convince us. This essay is lacking in many ways. It doesn't give a good description of your background, of your specific interests, future goals, or why you want to attend any specific university (the "fit" paragraph). I think you need to go back to the drawing board and rework this.
  15. In my field it's customary for programs to fund all admitted applicants (to the PhD program, MAs are rare) regardless of nationality. There were probably some considerations that went deciding how many foreign applicants to accept - e.g., in some states US nationals can become state citizens and pay a reduced tuition while foreign students pay a larger sum for all 5 years of their enrollment - so Americans are cheaper to accept, so to speak. This consideration is only true of public universities, of course. In any case, once the department decided to admit a student, that student always had their tuition payed by the department, regardless of how high it was. I think this is a fairly common situation out there, but it might not be true in every field - particularly for professional programs and Masters degrees. Aside from school funding there's also funding from Fulbright, from your own country's funding agencies (like the SSHRC for Canada), and probably a couple more. Schools sometimes give lists of potential funding sources on their websites, it's worth a look.
  16. That's much too general a question to fully answer, but the answer is most probably - yes. If you want to be more specific, it depends on many many factors - MA/PhD, top ranked/lower ranked, applicant's previous research experience?, publications?, strong LORs, focused SOP, WS, fit.. Some departments will have strict cutoffs and won't even look at apps that don't meet them, but many others will look through the pile of apps that didn't make it through that initial point and look for outstanding apps to move back to the "further consideration" pile. Some departments are small enough and can afford to read every app seriously. In those cases, GRE scores are less important. So I'm sure that there have been candidates with lower scores admitted to all kinds of places.
  17. If nothing goes wrong, your scores should get there in time. Put the 4 schools with the closest deadlines as the ones with free delivery and order additional reports for the other schools right after you take the exam. In case you're still worried about delays, it's usually not a huge deal if scores are a little late - most admissions committees probably won't even start looking at the applications until after the Christmas break. Some schools will also accept an unofficial copy in case the official one gets lost.
  18. To depart from the current view in this thread, I'm actually glad I was never able to see any of my recommendation letters. I'm sure I would have spend hours (days. weeks.) over analyzing every word in the letters and not being happy because there's one small thing I thought was off or missing. In the end I know I had strong endorsement from all of my recommenders, and that's good enough for me.
  19. I feel your pain, that is unfair! I don't have personal experience with this but from reading people's posts last year who were in a similar predicament, I think the common wisdom was that you had to have your degree finished before you could start grad school. It should be fine even if it's only in the summer, even though it's reaaaaly last minute so there's no wiggle room in case something goes wrong. It might be a good idea to contact the schools you're applying to directly and ask, but really I think as long as you can prove that you have your degree before the graduate program begins, you should still be OK. But seriously. Ugh.
  20. This. It might depend on how superior/unrelated option C is, but generally you want to submit the paper that best showcases your writing ability and your ability to conduct research. A paper that presents a stronger argument but is less relevant is usually a better option than a weaker related paper. So I'd suggest using the ideas from the related paper in your SOP, but submitting the strongest paper you have even if it's not directly tied to your future research plans.
  21. I agree with alexis. It's not too late--it'll be hard, but it's possible for you to have a good application ready by December. Going through your list of concerns: - Your GRE scores sound fine and frankly, if you're only starting to work on your application now you're not going to have the time to retake it anyway. You didn't say which field and schools you're applying to, so it's hard to give you concrete advice about this. - Your GPA is also OK. I assume it'll go up after this semester, since that's usually the case in senior year. Having one D on your transcript is really not the end of the world, especially since you're retaking the class and will (hopefully) get a good grade this time. - It's not too late to contact professors, but you shouldn't wait any longer. This holds, of course, only if your field is one in which it's customary to contact profs before applying - not all fields are (again, it would have been useful to know what field you're applying to). - Visiting programs is not a must by any means. Not everybody has the means, and it's not going to be a deciding factor against your app. Once you've been accepted it'll be easier to get funding for a visit, and then you can decide whether you do/don't like the school. As alexis says, try applying this year and if it doesn't work out, invest the year in improving you credentials and try again next year. You have nothing to lose by trying.
  22. This is probably one of those things that change from department to department and maybe even from year to year. Junior faculty do sit on admissions committees and do have a say in choosing applicants. However, there's no telling if in your specific department a senior member can veto a choice, or who exactly will be involved in the choice in a given year. Generally, though, do you apply to the department as a whole, or are you supposed to identify a specific mentor who chooses you as their advisee? Committees are supposed to seek out students who will fit the department as a whole, not just their own specific likes/dislikes. But, of course, if you're aiming for a specific faculty member and they're on the committee and like you, that can only help. I don't know a good way to find out who's on the committee though.
  23. This. The paradox of the American application system is that you want to appear focused (=demonstrate good fit with the department's faculty) but at the same time not too focused (=demonstrate open-mindedness, willingness to grow and change as the result of taking the courses in the first 2 years). It's a delicate balance, but you should talk about your past experience and how it led you to the specific areas/questions that interest you, but you might also want to mention broader interests, resources, courses, whatever it is that makes the program a good fit, besides having that 1-2 cool professors.
  24. Yes to all of the above, I've seen them all on many CVs. Re: Dean's List - say which years (e.g. - 2001-2005). Re: 2nd language - of course you should include that as well (e.g. - Languages: English (native), Klingon (conversational)). The other stuff had better be addressed by people who understand them better. As an international I don't really know what they're all about... but I've seen them on people's CVs often enough.
  25. The people at LiveJournal's appylingtograd read SOPs and give great advice, you should try them. To answer your questions: - Personality traits are something that should shine through the wording/structure of your essay, it's not something you want to dedicate a paragraph to. You could also have a LOR writer address whatever it is you want the adcom to know. - My opinion is that unless you have a GOOD reason, usually it's not a good idea to mention 1-2 bad grades. Rather, let your record speak for itself. Why direct attention away from all the good stuff to the few blemishes you have on your transcript? Same goes for saying how you excelled in your other classes, the adcom will know that when they look at your transcript and you're not adding any new information by telling them that story (=it's a waste of space). Even if you have a good reason and decide to address the issue - do it positively, and in no more than 1-2 sentences. - I don't think it's appropriate to mention honorary societies and volunteering; the SOP is about your Research interests, your goals, your future plans. None of that other stuff is relevant unless you somehow gained research experience doing it (which I doubt).
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