misterpat

There are probably areas of Detroit where you will be safe, but it's reputation as a shithole is warranted. I have never heard a positive review of a Detroit visit, either. I've never personally been there (because I value my life), but my brother went this year. He was optimistic, that at least downtown Detroit had to be kind of cool. He was unimpressed.

There are probably areas of Detroit where you will be safe, but it's reputation as a shithole is warranted. I have never heard a positive review of a Detroit visit, either. I've never personally been there (because I value my life), but my brother went this year. He was optimistic, that at least downtown Detroit had to be kind of cool. He was unimpressed.

Just because most of an application is online doesn't mean necessarily that all of it is. This should have been an easy one to avert, but there were a couple schools for me where most of the stuff was submitted electronically, but something (like LORs) needed to be snail mailed. I had to take one school off of my list due to this mistake.

There are probably areas of Detroit where you will be safe, but it's reputation as a shithole is warranted. I have never heard a positive review of a Detroit visit, either. I've never personally been there (because I value my life), but my brother went this year. He was optimistic, that at least downtown Detroit had to be kind of cool. He was unimpressed.

There are probably areas of Detroit where you will be safe, but it's reputation as a shithole is warranted. I have never heard a positive review of a Detroit visit, either. I've never personally been there (because I value my life), but my brother went this year. He was optimistic, that at least downtown Detroit had to be kind of cool. He was unimpressed.

There are probably areas of Detroit where you will be safe, but it's reputation as a shithole is warranted. I have never heard a positive review of a Detroit visit, either. I've never personally been there (because I value my life), but my brother went this year. He was optimistic, that at least downtown Detroit had to be kind of cool. He was unimpressed.

There are probably areas of Detroit where you will be safe, but it's reputation as a shithole is warranted. I have never heard a positive review of a Detroit visit, either. I've never personally been there (because I value my life), but my brother went this year. He was optimistic, that at least downtown Detroit had to be kind of cool. He was unimpressed.

There are probably areas of Detroit where you will be safe, but it's reputation as a shithole is warranted. I have never heard a positive review of a Detroit visit, either. I've never personally been there (because I value my life), but my brother went this year. He was optimistic, that at least downtown Detroit had to be kind of cool. He was unimpressed.

There are probably areas of Detroit where you will be safe, but it's reputation as a shithole is warranted. I have never heard a positive review of a Detroit visit, either. I've never personally been there (because I value my life), but my brother went this year. He was optimistic, that at least downtown Detroit had to be kind of cool. He was unimpressed.

While departments may downplay the importance of the Quant section, I'm pretty sure if you score a 300 they will think (correctly, IMO) that you have no business becoming an academic. At least get into the 500s if you don't want departments to cringe when they see your scores. Seriously, the percentile rank on a 300 has got to be less than 10th.

While departments may downplay the importance of the Quant section, I'm pretty sure if you score a 300 they will think (correctly, IMO) that you have no business becoming an academic. At least get into the 500s if you don't want departments to cringe when they see your scores. Seriously, the percentile rank on a 300 has got to be less than 10th.

I think for any of us who have not been on any admissions committee it's very hard to predict how much weight they give to these individual components of an application. From what I understand, the Verbal and Writing sections are fairly important, especially at those programs that receive 300-400 applications per year. I took the GRE twice, the first time scored 550 on Verbal and 5.5 on AW, the second time I scored 720 on Verbal and 4 on AW. My advisors claim that this should not be a huge problem for me, since I've demonstrated my potential to succeed on these sections at least once. I suggest that you also talk to your professors and advisors, and see what they say. I do think, though, that you are wrong about the need for historians to know advanced vocabulary, because extensive good writing inevitably uses advanced words.

There are threads in the Sociology and Applications forums that talk about what to say in a letter, so I won't rehash that here.

The consensus seems to be that it's fine to email multiple profs in the same program. Just don't be shady about it, you know? Like, don't tell each one of them that they're your first/only choice to work with, because chances are they'll compare notes at some point when discussing your app.

Definitely don't let lack of response keep you from applying. Some people just won't get back to you, but that's not necessarily a reflection on your chances of getting into the program.

I am getting ready to write my emails and I found a few very helpful links.
Different discipline, but it looks like helpful advice:
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/advice/prospective.html

And here are a couple from happy schools blog:
http://www.happyschoolsblog.com/email-template-contact-professors/

http://www.happyschoolsblog.com/how-not-to-write-an-email/

I am applying this round as well and I have had great success contacting professors. I sent them an email with a brief statement about my background, a few lines about what I am currently doing, and a few lines about my research interests. I introduced the email by saying that I am just trying to assess my fit at __ school and am interested to learn more about the program.

The only school where no one got back to me after a few emails was UCSC. I received emails (sometimes almost immediately) from everyone else I emailed (I emailed one to two people at every school to which I am applying) and spoke with all of them either in person or on the phone. The professors I contacted at Stanford all got back to me within minutes of my email! It was quite reassuring but I have found that the professors who were not as quick to respond were just as willing to speak with me and equally as helpful.

I have found these meetings and phone conversations to be incredibly useful in my personal statements. I have been able to say a lot about my fit with each program in the essay as a result of speaking with faculty. It's definitely a good idea to speak with them.

I sent between one and two emails, depending on whether there was more than one person with whom I wished to speak. Oftentimes I the faculty member whom I contacted would suggest others with whom I should speak and sometimes even set up meetings for me.

Definitely still apply if you think you're a good fit, don't worry if they don't respond. I would not recommend asking them of your possibility of getting in.

good luck!

Hi everyone-

I was wondering if people wouldn't mind posting some examples of the emails that they have sent to professors. Thanks!

People worry about this shit too much. Anything between the two poles of addressing them as "bro" and being a total sycophant will be fine.