fuzzylogician

Is it a problem? No. Was it effective? Most likely, no. It's new year's eve and a weekend. Even professors deserve some time off. There's still time before the deadline and since this won't be a time-consuming task, they may well do it at the last minute (stressful as it may be for you).

@orange turtle that's excellent, I'm glad you've decided to reach out and get help, and I am very happy to hear that everyone has responded very kindly. It sounds like everyone wants to help and there will be a way to figure things out. Good luck!

Grading policies vary by department so I don't think anyone here can help you. It's true that in many programs, anything below an A is cause for alarm, but that's not true universally. In particular, it seems that in STEM programs, things may be different. You could try asking other students in your program if they know, but other than that, I'm afraid you may have to wait for that conversation with your advisor.

OP, I relate to this in more ways than I care to describe right now, especially the vicious circle you talk about in your post, but not just. Here is what I've learned over the years: you can't do it alone. You need to have a support circle around you (including of course your friends and family), and you need to trust your advisors. If you ever wish to have a career in academia -- but even if you just want to make it through a PhD and then do something else -- these people will need to be your supporters for many years to come, including long after you graduate. You have to trust them to act in your best interest and to want you to succeed, otherwise none of this is going to work. So with that assumption in mind, you need to start thinking about how you approach someone at your school about this. A decent advisor will want to help you with this, but they can't do it if they don't know that there is a problem. Or even if they see that there is a problem, unless they know what it is, many will wait for you to approach them instead of making assumptions that may turn out be wrong. This doesn't mean you need to tell everyone, but there may be ways to make strategic decisions about who to talk to and what information to share. Depending on how comfortable you feel about talking to someone in your department, you may want to get help from the office of students with disabilities or from the ombudsperson at your school, who will either know how to approach this, or will have the resources to find out. If you do feel comfortable just doing this yourself, I can think of three options for who you would talk to: your advisor, the DGS, or the department chair. You would share some details of your situation as you are comfortable doing -- they don't need and may not want to know too many details. You concentrate in particular on how it's affecting your work, including falling behind, having a hard time catching up, how it's making your feel, and your concerns about how it's affecting your instructors' opinions of you. Once you get someone on your side, you can ask them to talk to your other instructors confidentially to share just enough to explain that there is an issue that requires some consideration. You should come prepared with some ideas of how your department can help you. Will having more time for assignments help? Do you need some one-on-one time with someone to help you catch up? Should you maybe postpone some course to a later semester to spread things out in a more manageable way? Would it make sense to take an incomplete in some course to concentrate on the others? Would it help to have a particular RA/TA assignment that would be better suited for you and save you time/effort, so you can concentrate on other things? This part is very important, because if you don't know what you need, they will have a hard time helping you. If you talk to someone from the office of disabilities, something to find out is the kinds of things that they facilitate, so you can get some ideas for possible things to ask for, if you're not sure yet what you need. It's not too late to fix whatever first impression you may have made on others. It's only the first semester, and if you are able to pick things up and set a better course for the future, I think a lot of people will appreciate you for dealing with a difficulty and finding your way through it. It's really not uncommon for students to take at least a semester to adjust to grad school, so this may not be nearly as unique to you or devastating as you might be imagining. If you are able to get back on track and do well next semester, I think there is every chance that you'll be supported for fellowships in the summer and that, more generally, your professors will think highly of you. And take care of yourself. That's so important, and hard to do exactly when you need it most!

It's a good sign, yes. No one would bother reaching out to you if they weren't considering accepting you. Depending on whether the student is in your field and the setup of the program, you might ask e.g. about what happens in the first year, how you get started with research, whether this student collaborates with others and in general if there are such options, if students get to pick their own research topics or if those get suggested by professors, if it's possible to take classes in other departments or nearby schools; and on the social side where people tend to live and about the social life in the department - are there parties? Do people meet up after hour to hang out? What do people do over the summer? Does the stipend suffice or to people need to work or live far out or with lots or roommates? In general, I'd just ask the student about their research and how they're enjoying the program and their relationship with their advisor, and the rest of the stuff I mention above will follow one way or another. You don't need to ask it all, pick some questions depending on how the conversation develops. Also be prepared to say something about yourself and your interests, because you will definitely get asked about that. You might also get asked what other schools you're considering, so don't get caught off guard.

Wow, there go some things I never even considered when I was writing my SOP.* In the interest of past-me and anyone else who might freak out about this last part of the thread, it's fine if none of these things ever crossed your minds until just now. As long as your SOP flows and answers the prompt (what do you want to study? how are you prepared to study your proposed questions? why is Awesome U the right place for you?), don't worry about any other measures. *though don't get me started on 'don't use passive voice' and similar misguided advice about "proper (style guide)" English. I rant about that enough in my intro to linguistics classes. EDIT: ok fine, I can't help myself. Here is someone else's related rant from just the other day: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=30043

You're supposed to select times when you are available. If there are multiple options that would work for you, choose multiple options. That will help the professor accommodate everyone's needs. If there is a "ifneedbe" option, use it moderately. It's usually customary to select some reasonable number of options out of what's available, to allow some flexibility in scheduling, but don't feel like that has to mean that you say yes to things that really don't work for you. Good luck!

I'd probably go for something like "Between the years X-Y I attended school Z to study W, but took several breaks during the course of my studies to travel and work. I graduated with a degree in A in year B. I then [did something else for almost two decades; keep this down to one sentence if you can], and then decided to return to school to earn a graduate education in [blah]. I subsequently completed a Masters degree in X at School Y in Years Z-W". Assuming the graduate degree was completed without interruption, that should do it. You shouldn't ignore the question since it's relevant and presumably they can see from your transcripts that your undergrad education was interrupted. On the other hand, you don't need to give a long story with too many details, because none of that matters for present purposes. All they will care about is who you are now, not what you did 20 years ago.

Hi there, both this and your other question on this board are so specific that it's hard to imagine you'll find too many people who could help you. I would recommend that you ask your prospective department to put you in touch with some current students who may be able to better answer your questions, and in particular young families and parents, if those exist. You might also reach out to the university's student association to ask the same questions. Those might be much better resources for getting detailed answers to your questions than hoping that someone with the relevant knowledge just happens to read your post here.

I would opt for having all the grants/fellowship information in the same place if there is an option to do so. Being fundable is extremely important in academia, and you want to do your best to demonstrate a trajectory of obtaining funding, if you can. So I'd list past, present, and future applications as an answer to the question you quoted here. If you do that, then I don't think it's necessary to list the same fellowships in the "honors" sections. That said, as long as it's somewhere on there, I don't think it matters too much where it is, so if you did something different on other applications, I don't think you need to worry.

You might simply reply "I believe that the grades from my recent graduate degree in X from school Y are a true reflection of my academic ability" or some such. Again, not saying anything explicit about the lower undergraduate grades but concentrating on the recent and relevant ones. You'd be implying that the other grades aren't a good reflection of your abilities without providing any explanations or excuses. As others have said above, those grades from 20 years ago aren't going to be nearly as important as your recent graduate degree. On the more general point, many people might not hold medical (or other) issues against you, but you never know who is reading the application and what they are thinking. If you don't need to provide explanations, don't. If you think you do, keep them short and concentrate on the positive.

It varies by field and to some extent by department. In some fields/departments you're accepted directly into a professor's lab, and in that case you need to have their consent to take you on as a student. If you have that, you're basically set. In other cases, you are admitted and funded by the department as a whole, and admissions decisions are made on a department level. In that case, having a particular professor support your application and discuss the details of funding with you would be a very good sign and would most likely mean acceptance, but it's not yet a guarantee. Either way, it's a big step in the right direction, and I'd expect that you'll get your official acceptance soon enough (but no promises!). Good luck!

Listen, I am not one to judge. I care about the aesthetics of papers and presentations and have been known to spend much longer than advised on making page breaks look pretty. That said, I really think it makes no difference whatsoever for your admissions chances. Having a paragraph spill over to the next page and having the last line not be justified has nothing to do with being a good or a bad writer. Having pretty page breaks is nice, but not having them in one place will not cause anyone to judge you or decide you're an unfit applicant. So this is probably worth some time investment, but if you just can't make it work, then you need to move on. (Caveat: if this is causing you to go over the page limit, then you do need to fix it. I'd find a way to move the footnote further down or just get rid of it in that case. I'm actually a little surprised to see footnotes in your SOP in general.)

No. It's one typo. You'll be fine.

Sounds to me like they'll ask some more questions about your background so they can do better statistical analysis of their applicant pool once the cycle is over. I don't think this means some kind of test. However, the best thing you can do is reply to the email you got and ask if they can clarify what they mean by that sentence. (Or call them, if you would rather ask the question anonymously, though I don't think there is any reason to.)

When you said "giant space" I was definitely imagining something a lot more spectacular than your screenshot there. I think TakeruK is exactly right about why it's happening and also about not worrying about formatting until you're done with writing, because this may not be an issue at all by the time you're done. I would also venture as far as to say that even though you don't like it very much, this is really not a problem at all, and not worth the time you're spending worrying about it. It will *not* affect your admissions decisions one way or the other. So if you can't figure out how to solve it in a reasonable amount of time, I would strongly recommend moving on and investing your time in other ways.

It depends on the person, but for me, the best strategy has been to join existing projects with people who are more knowledgeable than me and get some hands-on experience in a setting that also allowed me to ask theory and technical questions as needed, and where someone else could make sure that I wasn't going off in very wrong directions. I can get lost in theory, but application is easier to make sense of, especially in a context where I can't mess anything up too badly because I'm not doing the whole thing alone. Over time I also ask the theory questions and I can make connections between the actions and particular choices I've made and the reasons behind them. That's generally worked best for me, after some initial reading to get enough background to situate whatever I'm learning in some basic theory.

I highly doubt the professor will care or that dropping his course will have any effect on your admissions decision. Course registration statistics change all the time before the semester starts. I wouldn't be surprised if he has no idea who exactly is registered for his classes right now. I would just change your registration and not email the professor or say anything about it, it really has no relevancy for your application.

If the interview ends at 1pm and you ask to stay with a student that same night -- and use that afternoon to explore and leave the next day -- that's perfectly fine.

You could stay if you want to explore the city or if there are extra meetings/activities at that school that you'd like to have after the official visit ends. That wouldn't be weird at all. Other than that, I don't think there is any particular advantage to staying. The school might just be making it possible for you to stay an extra night because some flight schedules might make it hard for people to leave the same day the interview ends. Do keep in mind that it's probably an inconvenience to the host, so if there is no need, don't stay for no reason. (But if there is, don't hesitate to take them up on their offer.) If you do stay, the only thing that you should not do is use the free time to visit another school in the same city for anything official, and continue to use the hospitality of school A. I had a prospie do that once when I hosted them, and I still remember being pissed by it. If you want to visit another school, get them to at least host you overnight.

It depends on the field and its norms. My field, for instance, is very informal, so wearing a suit would be serious overkill, even at a job interview. You have to know how to fit in.

Sounds like you have a good chance at acceptance, but I'm not sure what more you want us to tell you. If you're in some kind of hurry, you could email the prof directly to ask about the status of your application and when official admissions decisions will be made. Otherwise, you might just have to sit tight and wait.

For shoes, whenever I've done interviews in cold locations, it's been the case that walking outside was limited, and I had some place indoors (usually an unused office) where I could leave my winter gear and other stuff and relax (ha!) between meetings. I would wear my heavy duty winter boots while outside (along with my down coat that's maybe not as professional looking as a peacoat but is warm). I'd carry an extra pair of nicer shoes and I'd change indoors. It's a bit elaborate and cumbersome, but it allowed me to be warm outside and professional-looking inside, so for me it was worth the extra hassle. People have already covered the topic of coats, winter gear, and boots, so I won't repeat what's already been said on those topics except to second the suggestions above.

I know how you feel, but it might help to remember that (a) not every smart person wants/needs a graduate degree, people have different goals in life; and (b) it's not about being the smartest person in the room (thankfully!). There will always be someone smarter than you. It's about hard work and dedication and putting in the time, and a lot of luck, and some skills and abilities, but really of the kind that I think a lot of people have. It's hard but I think it's important not to compare ourselves to others, and not to make assumptions about them and their lives just like we would not want others to make assumptions about us. All any of us can do is follow our own path and go where it leads us.

And when you're feeling slightly better, this: http://www.universalrejection.org/#about